Taste My Wrath (The Iron Fae Book 1)

by Debbie Cassidy

  Karl fell into step beside me and Vala, and Timothy dropped back to chat with the other guards. Karl was a couple years my senior and one of Rav’s best friends before…Well, before. He’d practically spent every day at our house. He’d been like an older brother to me, and then Rav had been chosen, and everything had changed.

  Karl was engaged now. He’d moved his fiancée’s family from the outer districts to the fringe of mid-district to live with him. His parents were dead, and they’d left a largish house to him. He was a good man.

  “Any trouble?” he asked.

  “Nah. Quiet.”

  “Good.”

  “How’s Elsi?”

  Her name brought a fond smile to his lips. “She’s well. Excited about the wedding.”

  “Not long now.”

  “A month.” He chuckled as if he couldn’t quite believe it. “I’ll have a wife in a month.”

  “I’m so happy for you.”

  We walked in silence. Someone laughed behind us, and then Vala’s wry tone cut through the mirth.

  “How’s Rav?” Karl asked tentatively.

  “Still the same.”

  “Nina being chosen must be hard on you all, but on Rav…”

  “Yeah.”

  I wanted to say more. To tell him what had happened during a Hunt, what I’d seen. But the words were stuck in my throat, bound by the antlered shining one. Only Rav understood. We’d sat together in his room, holding hands, unable to articulate our experiences but united in the knowledge.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.” I squeezed his hand.

  The lamp cast shadows across his face, leaving his damaged eye in darkness, making him look almost whole. “I know you didn’t. I wished so many times I could tell you.”

  My skin prickled. “I think she’s in danger.”

  “So do I.”

  “If you guys need anything…” Karl said. “If there’s anything I can do…”

  It was a sweet gesture, one that we’d never take him up on. Still, I nudged him with my shoulder. “Thanks.”

  The thunder of hooves filled the air. Karl grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side of the road. The others cried out and rushed out of the way just in time to avoid being trampled by the two huge wulvhounds that pounded past us. They were followed by black-leathered riders on wheels, arms and legs covered in metal braces.

  Humans.

  A huge moss-green carriage pulled by two more obsidian wulvhounds went by next, its wheels crushing snow and ice as it whizzed past. Two more human riders made up the rear. They were gone so fast it was impossible to take in any more detail.

  “Fucking hell.” Val brushed ice and slush off her leather chest guard.

  “That’s a royal carriage,” Timothy said. “What’s Spring doing here?”

  Our radios crackled at the same time, and then Magnus’s voice drifted out. “All units back to base. All units back to base, immediately.”

  I started off behind the entourage. “Let’s find out what the hell is going on.”

  There was no sign of the carriage by the time we got back to the guardhouse, but Magnus gathered us all into the common room and flicked on the holoscreen. The holoscreens were limited—one in every district square and guardhouse. Central Middale probably had one in each home. I’d heard they used the screens for entertainment. For us, they were a news delivery portal.

  The screen flashed white, and then a face appeared. Oval with a pointed chin, slanted gray eyes, and thin lips and nose, Minimus Lowland was the mouth of the council and the Regency.

  “Citizens of Middale. Today is an exciting day for us all. A day that marks the beginning of change. A day when some of you will be lifted from the confines of obscurity and raised up onto the pedestal of heroes.”

  What the fuck was he talking about?

  “Middale has been ruled by Winter for as long as we remember, and it is time to offer the other courts the opportunity to take Regency. But a Regency must be earned. And so, I present to you the Regency games. A test of skill and prowess. Each court will enter three shining champions to compete in the games as well as five human champions. The shining champions will compete against each other to fell the human champions.”

  Fell? Like, kill?

  The room broke out in murmurs.

  “Hush!” Magnus ordered.

  “The court with the most human kills will win the Regency.”

  Wait…What the fuck?

  “Human champions will be chosen via a lottery taken from our elite—the guard pool. But first, we will allow a volunteer phase. You may be wondering why you would volunteer to be hunted. The answer is simple. You owe us your very existence. However, we are not without consideration. Volunteers’ families will be allocated to housing in mid-districts and financially compensated for your sacrifice. Lottery picks will not be given the same benefits.” He blinked once slowly, and it hit me that he hadn’t blinked at all throughout his speech, a reminder that he was one of them, an alien creature. “Human survivors will be rewarded with admittance to the Keep for the Regency ceremony, as well as residence for the duration of the celebrations.”

  The Keep…They’d be allowing survivors into the Keep. Nina would be there. She’d have to be…

  “Volunteers, submit your names to your commander by midday tomorrow. Lottery will take place tomorrow evening.”

  The screen went black, and the room erupted into a cacophony of exclamations. Gone was the calm that usually accompanied the shining ones’ announcement of their little games. Fear and anger thrummed in the air, and for the first time in forever, it felt like people were waking up.

  It didn’t last.

  Half an hour later, everyone was making excuses for the shining ones. Saying how this was the fairest way to decide who ruled. Saying how generous of them it was to offer compensation to those of us who volunteered. I didn’t care what the fuck they thought. There was only one option for me, because my conviction that Nina was in danger was raging through me like an inferno.

  My baby sister needed me.

  I had to volunteer.

  16

  “No. Absolutely not!” Ma said from her seat at the kitchen table.

  Joti was in her room reading, and Rav was locked away in his room at the top of the house as usual. Auntiji was snoring loudly in the lounge in her favorite seat by the fire.

  She stuck out her chin mulishly. “Tell her, Anu,” she said to my baba.

  I looked at Baba. “You know I have to do this.”

  “Why?” Ma cut in before he could speak. “So you can see Nina? You’d risk your life to see your sister?”

  “I have to know she’s all right.” Even though I knew she wasn’t, even though I felt it with every fiber of my being.

  “And what if she isn’t?” Baba said softly.

  Ma gasped and stared at Baba in shock. “How can you say that? Of course she’s fine. She’ll have a noble family now.”

  Baba ignored her and focused on me. “What will you do if she isn’t?”

  “I’ll get her out.”

  Ma made a strangled sound and swayed on her feet. “Stop, you can’t say such things. You can’t…” Her hand fluttered at her throat, and her eyes rolled in her head.

  Baba was on his feet in an instant. He gripped her elbow, led her to the sink, and then poured her a glass of water.

  “Drink it all, sweetheart.”

  She gulped it down and then leaned against him, her body relaxing on a sigh.

  “Better?” Baba asked.

  “I’m fine.” Ma waved him off. “Actually, I have some darning to do.” She left the room without giving me a second glance.

  Baba leaned back against the sink, and our gazes locked. He was watching me warily.

  “Baba, what just happened?”

  “You noticed, huh?”

  “Erm…yeah, I did. She was all anxious, and then she just…”

  “Didn’t care any longer?”

  “Yes.”


  He sighed. “It’s in the water. Whatever it is. It never affected you, though, and me, not so much, but your ma and sisters…It keeps them calm.”

  In the water? “What are you talking about?”

  He reclaimed his seat. “I’m talking about them and how they keep us compliant. How they stop us from fighting back. There’s something in the water. In the air…Something that makes everything feel safe and normal when it isn’t, but some of us, like you and me, we aren’t affected. We see, even if the others don’t.”

  It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off my chest. All this time, I’d thought I was different, warped, broken. But I was none of those things. I was immune to their tricks, and I wasn’t alone.

  “Why didn’t you say something to me before?”

  He shook his head. “Too dangerous. I didn’t want you to do something reckless if you knew.”

  “And now?”

  “I don’t want to lose you. I’ve told you what I’ve learned, so you can understand their power and the grip they have on our world and people. Nina is gone. She belongs to them now, and there is nothing you can do to save her. There is nowhere you can run. Please, don’t volunteer. If you do, you will die. They’ll kill you, and I… I don’t want to lose another child.”

  He gripped my hand and squeezed. “Promise me.”

  Nina’s face filled my mind, her sweet innocent smile, her infectious laughter. She’d saved my life. She could have left me and gone home, but she’d come back and saved my life, and they’d taken her because of it. But if I found her…If I got her out, what then? Where would we go that was safe? My eyes burned with hot impotent tears.

  “We need you here,” Baba said. “Your Ma and I and Joti and even Rav… We need you. Promise me!”

  I tucked in my chin and closed my eyes, releasing tears to skate down my cheeks. “I promise.”

  Icy air buffeted my body as I stood looking out through the broken pane of the telecom tower. The thing they were building far beyond the wall was obscured by a silver dome. A shield of some kind.

  What was it?

  Six hours until volunteers had to place their names in the hat. I’d promised Baba I wouldn’t volunteer, but what if I was picked by lottery anyway? What then? My nape pricked with awareness of Killion’s presence.

  “I thought I might find you here,” he said.

  I didn’t bother to turn to look at him; my heart was too heavy with sorrow. “You’re okay?”

  “You’re not.”

  “They took Nina.”

  “I know.”

  “How do you know?”

  He stepped up beside me, and his warmth skimmed over my chilled skin. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to stay and help. I’m sorry they chose her.”

  “Do you know what will happen to her? Do you know if she’s safe?” I had no idea why I thought he’d have the answers, he just always seemed to be a step ahead.

  “They lie when they say the children go to families. They don’t. They’re taken to a part of the Keep I can’t enter.”

  He’d been in the Keep?

  My mouth was too dry. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

  “There seemed no point worrying you when you had no control over what would happen to your sister. I hoped she would make it to dawn and be rejected by the Hunt.”

  “She was…But then she came back to save me, and they took her.”

  “Then take her back.” He said it simply, as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

  “This isn’t a supermarket raid, Killion, this is the fucking Keep we’re talking about.”

  “And they announced the reward for surviving their latest game. Volunteer, survive, get into the Keep, and get her out.”

  Anger flooded me. Anger at how coolly he made the suggestion, anger because it’s exactly what I’d been planning before Baba pointed out a few key facts I’d failed to think about.

  “Yeah? Then what? Where the fuck will I take her? There is nowhere safe for us if I do that.”

  My anger rushed out of me as suddenly as it had flooded me, leaving me breathless and dizzy.

  Killion was silent, sturdy, and real, and just fucking there for me. I wanted to lean my head against his shoulder and close my eyes. I wanted him to put his arm around me, hold me, and tell me everything would be all right. But that wasn’t who we were. That wasn’t how our relationship worked.

  I blew out a breath and crossed my arms under my breasts. “Auntiji told me about them, you know?” I looked across at him. “That they’d been here before.”

  His blue eyes gleamed brighter. “She did? What else did she tell you?”

  I reiterated what Auntiji had told me about the shining ones and the names humans had known them by. About their games and about them taking humans.

  He watched me speak with anticipation, as if he was waiting for something more, and when I finished, his eyes dimmed. “The shining ones come in two breeds. The Tuatha are the oldest, they look human, and the Danaan are the ones who look less human, and the ones you call the night denizens.” He studied me for a long beat. “Is that all your Auntiji told you?”

  “Yes…Is there more?”

  “Much more.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “I can’t.”

  The way he said it reminded me of the way Rav had said he couldn’t speak of the Hunt.

  “You can’t. As in physically can’t say the words?”

  He nodded. “But I can tell you there’s a…weapon in the Keep. One that could help you keep your sister safe.”

  My head whipped round to look at him. “What kind of weapon?”

  “Ancient. Powerful. All you’d need to do is retrieve it.”

  I studied his shadow profile, noting the tension in his jaw, as if he was holding his breath.

  “You want it…” I narrowed my eyes. “You want the weapon.”

  “Maybe.”

  “But you can’t get to it, just like you can’t get into the room where Nina is.”

  He looked down at me. “They’ve taken from you for decades. They’ve used you and enslaved you. You see it, don’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “This weapon can stop them. It has the power to change everything, and you have the opportunity to get into the Keep. To get it, and with it, you can save your sister. With it, you could save everyone. What will you do?”

  His bright blue neon eyes burned into me, lighting a fever of resolution and conviction. I’d made a promise to Baba. I’d given him my word. But some promises were made to be broken.

  17

  The sky was gray with predawn light when I stepped into the guard room. The place was deserted and silent. It looked like I was the only one from this sector who’d decided to volunteer.

  Taking a deep breath, I knocked on Magnus’s office door. There was a beat of silence and then his gruff voice calling for me to enter.

  He didn’t look surprised to see me, but his mouth turned down slightly. “Danika…” There was so much pent-up emotion in the way he said my name. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “I want to. I have to.”

  His gaze heated, and for a moment, I thought he’d bridge the distance between us and kiss me. I half-hoped he would. My knees were wobbly with terror at what I was about to do despite the conviction heating my chest.

  But kisses were off the table.

  Instead, he leveled his gaze on me. “The shining ones won’t be taking any prisoners,” he warned.

  “Neither will I.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You would kill them?”

  There was no hesitation in my mind. “Yes.”

  He stepped around his desk and then leaned back against it with his arms crossed over his chest. “All this to see your sister?”

  There was more to the question. He was probing like he knew there was more and needed me to confirm it. My pulse sped up. Was he like me and Baba? Did he know what the shining ones were doing to us? Only one way
to find out.

  “No. All this to get her out.”

  I blurted the words and waited for the reprimand even though my gut told me it wouldn’t come. His chest rose and fell faster with shallow breaths as our gazes remained locked. Something passed between us, an understanding, a camaraderie, and my suspicions were confirmed.

  We were the same, and it was time to cut the crap.

  He nodded slowly, as if agreeing with my unvoiced thoughts. “There is nowhere to go, Danika.”

  I took a step toward him. “How long have you seen them for the monsters they are?”

  “Forever. As long as I can recall. Some of us aren’t affected by their power, or whatever it is they’re doing to make the population compliant.”

  He didn’t know? “It’s the water. There’s something in the water that makes people compliant.”

  He pressed his lips together. “Of course there is.”

  “But it doesn’t affect us.”

  “No. We’re just forced to fake it.” He pushed away from the desk and cupped my shoulders. “I understand how you feel, the rage, the need to act, but this won’t save your sister. Once you’re inside the Keep, there is no way out. And even if by some miracle you make it out, there is nowhere to run. No way to fight them.”

  But he didn’t know the whole truth. “What if there was? What if there was something in the Keep that could be used against them. A weapon.”

  He went very still. “A weapon? What kind of weapon?”

  “One that could turn the tide against them. One we could use to protect ourselves.”

  “How do you know this?”

  I pulled away from him and handed him the slip with my name on it. “Enter my name into the games, and maybe I can show you.”

  His throat bobbed, and his fingers grazed mine as he took the slip from me. “You do realize volunteering doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be picked. There could be too many volunteers, and they might be forced to choose between them.”

  “You don’t really believe that, do you? Even with the complacency, humanity has an inbuilt desire for self-preservation. Someone would have to be pretty desperate to put their name in the hat for this.”