They hadn’t been here moments ago. They’d been somewhere else, somewhere… Details bled together in his mind—the taste of Briana’s lips, the smell of wildflowers on her skin, the tightening of her arms around him.
And then he’d made her do the last thing he wanted—leave.
“Briana?”
Willing her to open her eyes, Lucan sat up. Nausea jackknifed through his midsection, nearly doubling him over.
Son of a bitch.
He sucked in a sharp breath, then another.
“Briana.” He reached for her hand, cursing at the glacial chill that snapped through him as his fingers wrapped around hers.
“Finally.”
It would have taken a hell of a lot more than nausea to stop him from rolling to his feet at the sound of the voice.
He planted himself between Briana and Nessa, his sword drawn. His vision swam at the edges and he could swear the ground felt ready to slide out from beneath him, but he remained on his feet. The left side of his jaw throbbed, but the twisting inside his chest felt worse.
Briana still hadn’t moved.
She’d been fine moments ago. Laughing and smiling and teasing him. And then she’d kissed him. Melted into him, her body fitting perfectly against his, like she’d been made for him.
She should be there now, not lying there so still she could have been…
The wraith grappled for control, fighting toward full consciousness, prepared to lunge for the huntress. Someone needed to suffer for what happened to Briana.
Nessa held up both hands. “I’m not going to hurt her.”
A ripped shirt and scorch marks that revealed bubbled pink flesh on the huntress’s thigh told him that she’d definitely been trying to hurt someone. Maybe it hadn’t been Briana this time, but he wasn’t inclined to trust her.
“How long?” He wanted to kneel next to Briana and do more than be sure she was still breathing, but didn’t take his eyes off Nessa.
“You two were frozen in some kind of weird tableau. I don’t long how long you were like that. I was starting to think you were going to be permanent candidates for a wax museum. What happened?”
He shook his head, not altogether sure of that himself. He remembered hearing someone coming down the tunnel and grabbing Briana’s hand and then they’d been somewhere else.
They’d been home.
“I tried snapping her out of it,” Nessa continued, keeping a safe distance between them, “but nothing worked.”
He glanced at Briana’s swollen mouth. “You hit her?”
“Don’t get your shadow tied up in knots, Peter Pan. I hit you too.”
Was that supposed to make him better? Jesus. “I thought we were frozen.”
She nodded and finally lowered her hands. “You were until a minute ago. Then you both dropped faster than an enchantress’s panties. You woke up before I could decide what to do next.”
Keeping an eye on the huntress, he edged closer to Briana.
Nessa took a step toward him, her fingers inching ever so slowly toward the twin blades strapped to her upper thighs. “Wait. How do I know you didn’t do something to her?”
The wraith snapped and clawed at the accusation, but he kept himself from attacking her. “I promised Tristan I would keep Briana safe.”
The huntress cocked her head. “You should know better than anyone about making promises you can’t keep.”
“Luc?”
Keeping the huntress in his peripheral vision, he dropped to the ground next to Briana.
Confusion clouded her eyes, her gaze darting around the hidden chamber. “How did we get here? I went to your tent…” She tried to sit up.
“Slowly,” he advised, slipping an arm around her back.
She settled into his embrace, the rightness of her there a cruel reminder of everything he’d lost. He’d have to let her go, but with memories of her lost in the moment, her body arching so sweetly into him, he couldn’t pull away. Not yet.
The decision was ripped from his hands as Briana frowned and her eyes snapped to his. The longest moment of his life passed, and he knew that she’d relived the same memory—the very same one that was a still a living, breathing brand on his mind.
Ours. The wraith quieted, but the instinctual claim was anything but.
She stiffened in his arms, leaning away from him. “I’m fine.”
“B?” Nessa looked primed to make a move.
If the huntress thought to separate them, he’d happily show her how easily he could separate her from her weapons. Without them there was no wounding him, no evening the odds in a competition that was nothing more than a good time for bored gods. Nessa might be just as determined to win the games, but she really needed to stop looking like she was all too happy to bury a blade in his back.
Briana pushed to her feet, and doubled over.
On instinct he reached for her, but the blue depths of her eyes turned to ice. “It’ll pass in a couple of minutes,” he offered.
Which was more than he could say about the memory continuing to replay in the back of his mind. He kept waiting to forget the smell of her hair or the contagious sound of her laughter.
She staggered upright, but when he stepped in to steady her, she avoided him.
“She needs a minute,” Nessa said quietly.
He hadn’t realized he’d moved toward Briana again until the huntress’s words stopped him. He knew he should stay away from her, but couldn’t make himself walk away from the choking waves of disappointment and anger that radiated from Briana.
She was hurting and it was his fault. God damn it, he’d warned her that night in the meadow. He knew he hadn’t deserved her, and instead of doing the right thing, he’d been selfish. And she’d paid the price.
He turned around to find Nessa had left them. He stared at the opening in the wall, willing himself to take a step toward it.
“I waited.”
A cold fist gripped his stomach. He glanced over his shoulder.
“That night, outside your tent,” Briana clarified. She took two steps toward him, her anger reminding him that she was as much a predator as he was. “I waited. I kept thinking there was no way you wanted to spend the night with her. No way you could be so amazing with me and then make me leave to be with someone else. I knew you felt what was between us.” She laughed, the sound strained. “I had myself convinced of that, so I waited. Even when it started to pour, I didn’t move.”
He hadn’t known.
“And I was right.” Her smile bordered on bitter. “She didn’t stay, but you didn’t come looking for me either. You never came for me.”
It took two tries to get the words out. “It was a long time ago.”
“Really? Because it feels like just moments ago to me. Except this time I know better than to wait for you.”
“Briana!”
“Stay away from me, Lucan.” She turned away, but he didn’t miss the glossy shine in her eyes she masked with a murderous glare.
Walking in the other direction was almost as hard as sending her from his tent, and left him fighting both his desire and the wraith the whole way.
Briana leaned against the wall of the tunnel. She’d underestimated the continued effect Lucan would have on her. One minute her body felt utterly quiet, the cat content to be alone, and the next his touch unleashed a vicious hurricane inside her.
Worse than that, though, she’d underestimated the lengths the gods would go to keep her and every other competitor off balance.
It made her even more determined to win.
She reluctantly set her sword aside, using the torch to see the stone she pulled from her pocket. She’d grabbed it and stuffed it into her pants a heartbeat before she and Lucan both stupidly reached to catch the chalice that had catapulted them down memory lane.
It shouldn’t still hurt so much, yet her heart felt bruised. Everything about that night with Lucan had been so incredible, right up until the moment she realized he had a
lready pledged himself to another.
The woman in his tent hadn’t been the type to follow Arthur’s camp of men from place to place, available to anyone willing to pay. Her expensive clothes and air of nobility told a different story, as did the open affection and trace of hurt Briana had caught on the woman’s face before she’d been sent on her way.
She hadn’t been so naïve as to think being with Lucan had changed his loyalty to Arthur or his plans. He’d been set to drink from the Grail and swear his vows, though having seen him with Arthur, she suspected the latter was just a formality. But she’d hoped she would see Lucan again soon and that maybe someday…
She’d never been able to bring herself to ask her brothers about the woman with Lucan, and they’d never said a word about him marrying. They’d never spoken of any other unions except Arthur’s, really, and even the god-king had been married barely a year before everything had changed.
“Don’t think about it,” she whispered, concentrating on the red stone that glinted in the torch light. Later she could mourn for the young woman she used to be.
She closed her fist over the gem and shoved it back in her pocket.
Okay. One down…two to go.
Pushing off from the wall, she threw herself into the search. It was impossible to know how much time passed as she navigated the endless tunnels and caverns. Occasionally she would hear a roar or yell echo through the cavern, and tightened her hand on her weapon, but she didn’t come across anyone.
The air gradually cooled, the walls darkening with shards of black crystal sharp enough to maim jutting from the walls and ceiling. Inch by inch the crystal overtook the walls until she entered a cavern that appeared coated in black ice, broken by sections of the impaling crystal.
Here the air was crisp and a trace of ash rode on the air. The dragon?
Pinning down a trail was difficult when the crystal surface didn’t absorb much scent. She continued forward, debated shifting to her cat form. She wouldn’t be as hindered by the dim lighting and would easily blend into her surroundings.
Warmth pulsed in her pocket. Resisting the urge to check that the stone was glowing, she tightened her hand on her sword. Kel had doubled back and she’d just become the prey.
The air stirred behind her, and she ducked to avoid the fist that snaked out to grab her. Spinning around, she found Kel too close. Unable to dodge his next punch, the glancing blow caught her across the chin.
She kicked out, nailing him in the abdomen. It was like hitting a utility pole.
He grunted, but managed a smile colder than the crystal she brushed up against. “Give it to me.”
“No.”
He pursued when she retreated, moving around the mounds of crystal she tried to keep between them. Though she was a bit out of practice, she kept her body loose, staying on the balls of her feet, never taking her eyes off Kel.
“The knight was right. You should have left when you had the chance.”
“Sorry I deprived you of the chance to see me torn apart.”
Pure reptilian, his grin rattled her. “The games aren’t over yet.” He lunged for her.
Twisting around, she brought her sword up, catching him across the torso. Blood nearly as dark as the crystal dripped down the blade.
Briana didn’t wait for him to retaliate. He evaded the next swing of the blade, however, but not the next kick to his leg.
He roared, but her smaller form made it easier to dodge around the mounds of jutting crystal—until he managed to catch a handful of her braid.
Yanking her toward him, he gripped her arms, his claws sinking into her skin. She bit down to hold in the cry of pain.
With a roar, he threw her away from him. She struck the wall with enough force to break a couple ribs. Blood trickled into her eye from where her temple just grazed a section of the jagged crystal.
Sucking in a breath, she felt around on the ground for her sword. Where the fuck was it?
“You don’t need to make this hard on yourself.”
“Who says this is hard?” She dragged herself to her feet, the sticky dampness in her side telling her she was bleeding heavily. Preferring not to give him a place to strike, she didn’t hold her arm to the wound like she wanted.
Her sword lay less than a foot away. Kel would be on her before she reached it.
“You’re not like your brothers.” The acid-filled insult rolled off his tongue.
“I can tell that attention to detail is a talent of yours.”
If not for the iridescent glistening of jewel-toned scales along his jaw that betrayed the dragon pushing to the surface, she thought Kel might have laughed.
“You don’t have their training or skills, cat.”
She hadn’t stopped to think how well Cian and the others would have known Kellagh the Black, preferring to remember him only as Arthur’s betrayer. “Who would have thought the Gauntlet would put you and Lucan back on the same side.”
Kel opened his mouth to respond, but came at her instead.
She pivoted to grab the back of his shirt and slam him into a tower of crystal. Satisfied at the sight of the blood that ran down his face and neck, she retreated.
A backward kick to her knee cap took her to the ground.
Eyes all fire and brimstone, he advanced on her. “Give me the stone.”
“Do you always repeat yourself?” Back on her feet and limping a little, she skidded away from him.
He snagged her wrist, and she guessed his intentions a second before he snapped it.
Crying out, she jammed her other elbow in his throat, staggering away from him.
All Briana could see was blackness, the way out of the cavern obscured by the crystal. Damn it. She couldn’t stay here, wasn’t strong enough to take him on by herself, not bleeding with a broken wrist and busted ribs.
She felt her way around another tower, the pain a white-hot pulse that fired with every step. Listening for Kel, she wiped at the blood that continued to run into her eye. Her gaze locked on a tunnel, and she bolted for it.
Halfway there, Kel caught up with her, his arms like steel bands clamping around her chest.
Her broken ribs sliced into her, stealing her breath and cutting off her scream.
The dragon squeezed.
Can’t breathe.
How long until she lost consciousness and he took the stone from her? A wave of adrenaline flooded her. She would not lose it to Kel.
Next to the dragon’s head, a chunk of crystal dangled from the wall. Sharper than it looked, the crystal cut her palms, but she yanked hard, stabbing the broken shard into his thigh.
His arms fell away from her, and she landed at his feet, her lungs starved for oxygen. Kel plucked the crystal from his leg, and she knew he was two seconds away from breaking her neck. There wouldn’t be anything stopping him from taking the stone from her then.
Her arms trembled from the effort of holding herself up.
A blur of gray knocked Kel to the ground.
Vaughn?
In wolf form, he pinned Kel to the ground, his massive jaws snapping and just missing Kel’s throat.
The dragon kicked him off, but Vaughn regrouped, and she lost sight of them behind a column of the crystal.
Cradling her broken wrist, she crawled back to her feet. Kel’s yell echoed off the walls, followed by a whimper.
She picked up her sword, moving toward the other two immortals. A shadow separated from the icy walls, but she was too focused on moving forward, throwing her sword at Kel.
A second before the blade would have pierced his chest, the icy cavern vanished.
She spun around, finding herself alone in the same bedroom as when she’d first arrived. The competition was over.
It took another minute to process that, and she dug her hand in her pocket, finding the stone gone. Maeve and Aden already had it then. Two others may have also come away with a stone, but it was still a win for her.
Leaning against the wall, she let her
battered body slide to the floor. She’d check on Vaughn in a minute. She tipped her head back against the wall and closed her eyes.
“How’s the wrist?”
Briana grinned. Her wrist, along with her ribs and other injuries had healed quickly when she’d gone to stone after the first competition. Rhiannon might have rethought her stone prison sentence if she’d realized it increased a gargoyle’s healing process. “Trying to pinpoint a weakness already?” She moved in a circle opposite Nessa.
Dark red mats covered the floor beneath them in the training room. Weapons she couldn’t identify, but reminded her of something she’d find in a medieval torture chamber lined the walls with the axes, swords and staffs, like the ones she and Nessa sparred with now.
The huntress pursued. “That implies I need to know one to smoke you in competition.” Nessa spun around, feigning a high blow and dropping at the last second to sweep low.
Briana stumbled, but managed to block the move. It had been her idea to spar. Her confrontation with Kel had proven she’d grown too lax with her own skills, her tech jobs taking up most of her time when she hadn’t been trying to find a way to free Cian from his stone prison.
She wasn’t sure that even if her skills had been up to par, she would have been able to take on Kel and come out the victor.
“But don’t worry.” Nessa went on the offense again. “If it came down to the two of us, the limbs I’d cut off would regenerate eventually.”
She didn’t doubt her friend meant every word, and spent the next hour proving to Nessa why it wouldn’t be a cake walk.
The back of her shirt stuck to her skin and her shoulder throbbed from an earlier dislocation, but she was otherwise holding her own, even though she’d gotten the impression Nessa wasn’t giving it her all.
Both the enchantress and the Fae had wandered in at some point, but Bran paid more attention to the weapons on the wall, or that’s what he wanted everyone to think.
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