“And now I’m telling you to take me to the prince. Believe me, he won’t be pleased if he discovers you disobeyed me. I did, after all, save his life.” I smiled, keeping it cold and thin.
She swallowed and nodded. “Yes. You saved the crown prince.”
“He would be displeased if you refused me.”
God, I sounded poncy, but fuck it. It was working.
She swallowed again and nodded jerkily. “Of course.”
I didn’t bother to change into the new clothes. I wouldn’t be here long enough to need them. What I needed were my weapons, and the prince would make sure I got them.
31
The maid, or whatever her title was, led me through a network of silver-walled corridors that reminded me clearly that we were in a spaceship. The Keep, the whole structure, was their mothership. They’d come to our world in this. A whole race of people and the damn thing was huge, but it didn’t hit me how huge until we stepped through a door into a bustling chamber filled with bodies headed to and fro. There were balconies above and below connected by glass lifts that zoomed up and down. I spotted clothing stores and smelled food.
“What is this place?”
The maid glanced back at me. “The rotunda. We shop and socialize here.”
She led me across the balcony to a bridge that stretched across it. For a few moments we were above it all, so many floors above it. This was no ship. This was a fucking city unto itself. This Keep was enough to house them all. Why did they need Middale? I caught a few curious looks, but no one stopped us or said anything to us, and then we were on the opposite balcony.
The maid slipped through another door and into another network of silver corridors.
The place was a maze.
We took a short lift ride and exited onto a corridor where a silver door faced us. There was a panel beside it.
The maid pressed it. “Your Majesty, the Keeper of Winter wishes to see you.”
I was suddenly nervous. What was I doing? This place was insane. Even if I did get to Nina, even if I managed to get to this weapon that Killion wanted me to find, how would I ever get out again?
Speaking of Killion… “What time is it?”
The maid blinked at me.
“Day or night?”
Without windows, it was impossible to know.
“It will be sundown within the hour,” she said. “The celebrations will begin at eight p.m.”
Plenty of time to get the fuck out of here, and then the door slid open, and the crown prince was staring at me. It hit me that I didn’t even know his name.
“Danika…”
“Your Majesty, a word please.” I gave him a polite closed-lip smile for show.
He nodded. “Of course.” He ushered me in but didn’t invite Blossom to join us.
“I’ll be here to escort you back,” Blossom said.
“No need,” the prince said. “The Keeper of Winter is now in my charge.”
Blossom inclined her head and then walked off.
The door closed, and the prince turned to me. “Does Aspen know you’re here?”
“No. What the hell is going on?”
He rolled his lips into his mouth. “A play of some kind. I have no idea what kind, though. I woke up in my chambers to be told you’d been put into Aspen’s care by the council.”
“What?”
“He owns you now, Danika. They’ve given you to him.”
“Like a pet? I’m not a fucking thing to be given.”
He looked sad. “You know that isn’t true.”
Yeah, these Tuatha had a god complex, all right. “Well, I’m not staying. You promised to help me if I kept you alive. Well, I did. So, you need to hold your end of the bargain.”
“Your sister.”
“Yes.”
He looked away.
“What? What the fuck is it?”
“I’m sorry, I…I needed your help…”
A chill trickled down my spine. “You have no idea where she’s held, do you?”
He shook his head. “I know she’s in the Keep, just not where. The Hunt passes the humans they reap to Cronos, the head of our council and advisor to my father.”
“They’re not given new families, are they?”
His eyes were dull as he shook his head.
“How can you do this? How can you lie to us like this? What are you doing to our children?”
His expression hardened. “I don’t have control over any of this.”
“Then what is the point of you? I mean, you’re the crown fucking prince. This will be yours someday, and you have no clue?”
His expression hardened. “My father paid to have me killed. That’s how much I matter.”
Ah, yes. I’d forgotten about that. He was useless to me. “I need to go.”
“You can’t walk around the Keep without a chaperone.”
“Why not?” My lip curled. “I’m the Keeper of Winter, the prince’s protector, and slaughterer of anyone who challenges Winter’s reign.”
He sighed. “Yes. Aspen has made quite a name for you.”
And I intended to use it to my advantage. “You say you don’t know where Nina might be kept, but there must be some part of this Keep that is off-limits? An area that’s classified.”
He wouldn’t meet my gaze again, and it struck me. He knew exactly where she might be; he might not be certain, but he had a hunch. He was just too afraid to tell me.
Softly, softly, Dani. “I don’t know your name.”
He looked at me in surprise. “Palamon.”
“Palamon, I know you don’t agree with what they’re doing to the humans, and I know that my sister is in danger.”
He looked torn.
“You promised to help me. You gave me your word.”
“I can’t be seen with you. I can’t take you there without putting my life more at risk. The red zone is off limits to all but a few; any breach is punishable by death. My father won’t hesitate to uphold that punishment if I’m found there.” He turned away. “I didn’t realize I was such a burden…”
He needed comfort, but I was on a deadline, and to be honest, I didn’t care about his issues or Tuatha politics. I needed out of this metal coffin.
“Then tell me how to get there. A map, something.”
“If you’re caught—”
“I’m on my own. I get it.”
He strode away from me, farther into his room, and I registered the opulence of his chambers for the first time.
Here the metal was hidden by drapes and carpets and fancy cushioned seats and a low coffee table. There was a door to the left, leading into a connecting room. Bedroom maybe? The whole setup reminded me of one of those fancy hotels. How could he live here, day in and day out? It was so impersonal and generic. There was nothing unique about this space. Nothing that felt lived in.
But maybe that was a Tuatha curse. He fiddled with something on a side table, and then came over to me and handed me what looked like a watch.
“It’s a navigator. We use these outside the Keep, but I’ve programmed in a map of the Keep. If you’re caught, you can’t tell them where you got this.”
I nodded and strapped on the device.
“Just tap the button on the side, and it will bring up the map and track your movements. You’ll be the dot. See?” He tapped the button, and the screen lit up. A map bloomed to life and then zoomed in on one location with a green blinking dot. “The dot is you.” He used his finger to scroll across and up to a part of the map that was marked in red and blanked off. “This is where you need to go.”
It wasn’t far, at least it didn’t look far on the map.
“You need to hurry,” he said. “Aspen will come looking for you in just over an hour to take you to the hall for the celebrations. My father will want to show you off to all the dignitaries and other court officials. If you intend to leave, you need to do it before then.” He scrolled again. “There are two exits. One here, and one here.�
� He marked the spots on the map with the tip of his finger, and they lit up orange. “I’m sorry…” He looked genuinely torn, and the anger that was simmering inside me ebbed a little.
“I get it. You want to live. Who doesn’t, but there comes a point where you have to ask yourself…what is it you’re living for?”
I turned away, not waiting for an answer.
I was done with the prince.
Tuatha are self-obsessed arrogant wankers. I mean, I’d always believed that, but now my beliefs were confirmed. No one gave me more than a cursory glance as I made my way through the fucked-up maze that was the Keep. It was only when I got to the red zone on the map that it hit me: I had no way of getting past the security on the fucking doors, which were barred by a panel. This was techno-shit and way above my expertise.
Fuck.
Wait. My pack. I had the penknife.
I might be clueless when it came to electrical shit, but if I could get the panel off, I might be able to disrupt the circuit, force it to short-out, and get the damn door open. If there were alarms, then I’d be fucked, but—
Awareness skittered up my back. I froze, hands on the panel, barely breathing, and then familiarity coursed through me, and my eyes pricked with relief.
“Killion.” I turned to my shadow mentor.
“You made it.” His voice held relief.
I grinned up at him. “Did you doubt it?”
He smiled, his eyes lighting up. “Not for a second.”
We locked gazes for a long beat, and heat stained my cheeks. I dropped my gaze. “You don’t happen to know anything about tech, do you?”
“Enough to get you through this door.”
“I thought you couldn’t get into this part of the building?”
“I can get past this door, but there are a couple of rooms beyond that I cannot enter. The room that houses the weapon is one of them. You need to open this panel.”
I flipped the panel off the wall with the knife.
“The red wire needs to be cut,” Killion instructed.
I obliged, and the door hissed open. There was a long corridor beyond.
“Hurry.” Killion led the way down the corridor, past a series of silver doors, all closed.
“My sister, which room is she in?”
“The weapon first,” Killion said. “If we have that, then we can save your sister.”
My gut twinged, and I came to a standstill. “No. I came for my sister. The weapon was just a bonus.”
He turned to me and grabbed my shoulders. “Listen to me, Danika. Without the weapon, there is no escape from the Keep. There will be no way to get your sister out. We may have already tripped an alarm. Guards could be on their way. We need the weapon to fight them off.”
Dammit, he had a point. “Fine, show me where it is.”
Killion grabbed hold of me, and the world shifted, and when it righted itself, we were outside a chamber with a door made of thick wood. It looked odd against the silver ship walls. Symbols were etched into the wood, familiar symbols that teased the back of my mind.
“You’ll need to use your knife to alter them. It will disrupt the power of the symbols.”
I flicked open the knife and did as asked, then looked at Killion. His eyes glowed brighter in his head, and then he stepped through the door.
“Wait!”
There was no way for me to get in. No button or panel. Unless…I pressed my palm to the door and pushed.
It swung open, admitting me into a circular chamber that was empty except for a glass coffin in its center. Killion hovered above the coffin, but my attention was on the man beneath the glass.
Dark hair, alabaster skin, chiseled cheekbones, and a perfect pout of a mouth. I stepped closer and looked down at him. Dark lashes made fans against his cheeks, and a straight nose spoke of aristocracy and breeding. His chest was bare, hairless but muscled. Silver tattoos marked his upper arms and chest, but it was the face I kept coming back to because I knew that face, even though I’d only ever known it as shadow.
“You need to wake me up, Danika,” Killion said softly.
I looked up at Killion, hovering above the coffin, and my throat pinched. “You…” Would his eyes be as blue once open in his flesh-and-bone face? “How?”
“There is no time to explain. You have to trust me.”
But my mind was whirling with information and possibilities. “You’re the weapon?”
“Yes.”
He was powerful, strong, even as a shadow, and if the Tuatha were holding him here like this, then there was no doubt in my mind he was more powerful in the flesh.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What do I need to do?”
“Break the glass.”
And that’s when I saw the symbols woven into the glass so finely that they were almost undetectable, or maybe I’d just missed them because I’d been too busy ogling Killion’s body.
His head jerked up. “Quickly. Guards are coming.”
I smacked my fists onto the glass, but the damn thing was solid. The penknife? I used the blade to stab the glass. Not even a scratch.
Killion’s agitation was a palpable force now. “Hurry, Danika.”
“It won’t smash. Dammit. I need my daggers or my sword. Fuck, the sword would smash this thing to smithereens.”
I punched the glass again, heat lighting up my lungs because, dammit, if only I’d gotten the prince to get me my sword…
Figures spilled into the room. Guards in blue, toting weapons the likes of which I’d never seen.
“Guns,” Killion confirmed. “Don’t move. They can shoot you from a distance with them.”
Guns? I’d never seen anything like them. Small plastic-looking things that fit in their palms. A new kind of weapon or maybe one we’d been conditioned to forget.
“You can’t fight them,” Killion said. “Don’t fight, or you’ll die.”
The guards looked confused, keeping their weapons trained on me, but their gazes flitted across the room, searching for the owner of the voice. And then a shadow rushed them, knocking each off their feet. Sharp sounds ricocheted off the walls, and I crouched, covering my head.
More guards poured into the room; these had swords. Killion wouldn’t be able to fight them all. Shit. With the blade of my penknife as my only weapon, I dove into the fray, ducking and stabbing. If I could get a sword off one of them, I could use it on the glass. I took a boot to the chest and fell back onto the coffin. The guard’s hand was on my throat, his sword arm coming up to stab. Terror rushed through me, followed by anger at being so defenseless.
No!
A weight settled in my palm, the hilt of a sword. I swung, spearing the guard in the head with the blade of my sword.
“Fuck, I could kiss you.”
Please, don’t.
I shoved the guard off and brought the sword down on the glass with a crash. It splintered, disrupting the symbols.
Ah, so this is the path we’re taking.
Behind me, Killion had cleared the room of threat. He stood, staring at the cracked coffin, and then he closed his eyes and vanished.
What the fuck? “What just happened?”
I stared at the body in the coffin. “Killion?” I leaned over him, staring into his face. “Killion, are you in there?”
He opened his eyes, startling blue that speared me with heat, and then his mouth parted, and his voice spilled from perfect lips.
“Step back, Danika.”
I stumbled back and turned away. The glass exploded, and when I looked, I found Killion standing in the flesh where the glass coffin had once stood.
“Killion…” I rushed toward him, and he wrapped his arms around me, real, solid, warm arms. “I can’t believe it.”
He held me tight, crushing me to him, and then he slid his hand into my hair, urging me to tip my head back. His lips found mine in a desperate kiss that tore the breath from my lungs and seared me with wanton heat. I melted into him, winding my arms aro
und his neck and sliding my tongue against his, hungry for the taste of him, sweet like nectar.
He pulled away with a ragged moan. “Dani…you did it. You freed me. Thank you.”
My heart felt swollen, and my chest ached with the need to laugh and cry at the same time. My lips throbbed with the desire to kiss him again, and my arms begged me to hold him some more, to inhale his sweet scent. But we weren’t safe. Not yet.
I took a ragged breath of my own and composed myself. “We have to grab Nina and get out of here.”
He took my hand, and we shifted out of the room and appeared outside another chamber.
“Here,” Killion said. “I’ve seen them take humans through this door.”
There was no panel on it.
“How do we get in?” I scanned the frame, looking for a lock, anything.
Killion stepped forward. “Allow me.” He stepped toward the door and slammed into it. He stood, palms braced on the metal, a look of confusion on his face.
“What happened?”
“I can’t get inside.” He sounded perplexed.
“What?”
“I thought once I was whole again, I’d be able to shift through this.” He slapped his palm to the metal. “Why can’t I get in?”
My pulse fluttered, and my head grew light as panic took hold. “You said you were a weapon…”
He looked devastated. “It seems I need time to build my strength back up. I’ve been in that glass box for a long time.”
What to do now? There was no way into this room, none I could see. I needed help. Information. I needed…time.
The thud of boots echoed down the corridor behind us. Killion grabbed me, and we shifted once more, and I knew instinctively that he was trying to get us out of here.
“No!”
I pulled on the shadow strings that controlled this mode of transport. I felt the trajectory shift, and then we materialized in a corridor just outside the red zone. Killion pressed me into an alcove, wreathing us in shadow as more guards ran past. The length of his body was pressed to mine, my mouth level with his collarbone. He smelled like moonlight and stars and night blooms.
He tucked in his chin and brushed his lips against my temple. “Dammit, Danika. Don’t fight this. We have to get out. We can come back for Nina once I’ve built my strength.”
Taste My Wrath (The Iron Fae Book 1) Page 19
