by Maya Daniels
“Let’s hear it, Claude. There’s no time like the present,” Raphael said, not turning around to look at his king.
“Maybe I should leave…” Iris’s words trailed off when Raphael looked at her sharply. “Or I’ll just sit right here. It’s not like I have anything else to do,” she finished lamely, plopping down on a chair close to Artemis.
“I’m not sure how smart it is to open old wounds.” Claude looked at Raphael warily. “Some things are left unspoken so they can be forgotten. When you start poking, you might wish you had left it alone.”
“Little late for that now, isn’t it?” Lifting an eyebrow, Raphael sat on the edge of the sofa as if he couldn’t bring himself to be away from Artemis. “When people start dying, I think it’s time we start poking.”
“I don’t know anything for a fact, I must warn you,” Claude started, and Raphael narrowed his eyes at the same second. “Don’t look at me like that! This was long before our time, and I only know about it because unlike you, I never resisted our maker,” he finished angrily.
Without interrupting him, Raphael waved his hand for Claude to continue. Noticing how Artemis tensed at Claude’s words, he reached for her hand and laced their fingers together, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. Claude watched the whole thing with a shocked expression on his face.
“This is bad.” Claude shook his head. “Very bad!”
“You’re not here to give relationship advice. Keep talking!” Raphael growled, as his eyes flashed amber, making Claude swallow thickly.
“As I said. From what I remember, the Fae were present in this world as much as we were. Anissa used to talk about them all the time. The story she told was that they had a queen who ruled both the dark and the light Fae and was well loved by her people.” Claude’s eyes flicked to Artemis, who was watching him intently. “I remember hearing a lot about how mesmerizing her violet eyes were.”
Artemis’s breathing grew heavy, and she was almost panting while she focused on Claude with laser precision. Raphael, not wanting to interrupt Claude since he wanted to finally understand what was going on and what he was dealing with, pulled Artemis into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and startling her. Tucking her under his chin like it was the most natural thing in the world, he kissed the top of her head, confusing the hell out of her, and he looked expectantly at Claude.
“Not many details were shared about what happened, exactly, but, Anissa liked to brag how the Queen’s consort had a weakness for her and was visiting her often. Behind the Queen’s back, he professed his love for our maker and convinced Anissa to help him take over the throne.”
“What was his name?” Raphael asked out of nowhere, as if reading Artemis’s mind.
“The consort?” Claude frowned “Lazarus, I believe.”
“How?” The question came from Artemis as she straightened in Raphael’s lap, glaring at Claude. “Help him take the throne how?”
Claude set ramrod straight, only his eyes moving from Artemis to Raphael and back. The tension grew by the second and soon became so thick it could almost be cut with a knife.
“By helping him kill the queen.” Claude’s voice was utterly emotionless, as if he was simply stating a fact.
“You lie!!” Artemis screamed, jumping at him so fast and away from Raphael that he almost missed grabbing her to hold her back.
“I’m only telling you what I know!” Claude roared, jumping up himself to get out of her reach. “Isn’t that what you wanted?” He stared accusingly at Raphael.
“Let him tell his story, please.” Raphael looked at Artemis. “It’ll be more than what we have to go on now. I can’t help you if I don’t know anything.”
“He’s lying!” Artemis still glared at Claude even when she swayed, and only Raphael’s hold on her arm stopped her from collapsing on the floor. “He’s trying to stay alive by placing the blame on others for what the vampires and humans did!”
“He’s a vampire, too!” Claude snapped at her, stabbing a finger at Raphael.
“Let him finish talking, Artemis. Let’s hear it out. It can’t hurt to hear the same story from both sides.” Raphael tried to calm her down. Artemis nodded jerkily but refused to sit back down, still glaring at Claude.
“I don’t know any details of how they did whatever it was that they did to kill her. I just know that before she died, she cursed the portal.” With a sigh, Claude rubbed his face with his hands. “It closed and trapped the Fae on the other side. Anissa tried anything and everything to get it to open, but no luck. She took it out on all of us when another attempt failed. Many lost their lives at her hand for failing to open that damn portal.”
“Cursed it how?” Artemis asked barely above a whisper while dread pooled in her stomach. She knew her mother’s greatest power as well as weapon had been manifesting anything she wanted with the sound of her voice and spoken words.
“No one but her blood can be called from one realm to the other. Nothing but ancient magic can find the first secret. No one but a warrior with a bleeding heart can take the Obsidian throne. Until then, the realms will never merge.” Everything came out in a rush, all in one breath as if Claude had been rehearsing it.
With a gasp, Artemis’s body jerked as if he’d slapped her. Wide-eyed, she looked from Claude to Raphael and back. Her breathing sped up and her pupils dilated, almost hiding the color of her eyes. Raphael reached for her, but she batted his arms away.
“You’re lying,” she whispered.
“I have nothing to gain or lose at this point, bug. I have no reason to lie to you.” Claude glared at her.
“Next time you call her a bug, I will rip your tongue out, Claude,” Raphael snapped, taking a step towards him, releasing Artemis. “At least I won’t have to listen to you speak until it grows back!”
“Raphael…” Artemis called his name weakly, but before he could react, she dropped to the floor in a heap.
Scooping her up, Raphael called to Iris, “Get water, witch!”
Iris was frozen in her seat from what she heard when Raphael’s words snapped her out of her shock. Jumping up from her chair, she ran toward the little kitchen to grab water and towels. Her mind spinning, she worked methodically on autopilot. Only ancient magic can find the first secret. Claude’s words were circling in her head.
“Now, witch!” Raphael’s bellow spurred her on, and she ran back.
Falling on her knees next to the sofa, Iris started squeezing the water from the towel and pressing it to Artemis’s face and neck. Her hands trembled while she pushed energy from her body into Artemis and she was acutely aware of the two vampires looming over her.
“What’s happening to her?” If Iris hadn’t been scared of being ripped to pieces if something happened to Artemis, she would’ve laughed at the panic in Raphael’s voice. “Why is her body flicking like that?!”
“I think someone is trying to pull her back through the portal…” Iris mumbled with a frown. “It feels like she’s fighting it; trying to stay here.”
“Maybe it’s for the better…”
“If I hear one more word from you, Claude, until she opens her eyes, you will regret the day we met.” Raphael cut him off through clenched teeth. “Witch, I know you can do something, so do it now. I don’t give a fuck about your secrets, and I’ll be in your debt if you help me.”
Looking over her shoulder at him, Iris weighed her options. She’d been hiding from the world all her life in fear of this exact thing. It was too late now to hide, after helping to pull Artemis here. She could help and hope that she picked the right side for good, or she could pretend she can’t and end up dead. Raphael was getting crazier by the second; his eyes glowing amber and his fangs gleaming in the light, closer to her neck than she would’ve liked. Sending a quick prayer to her ancestors, Iris hoped she was making the right decision.
“Place your hand over her heart. Your bond started forming, so I’ll use you as an anchor.” She waved at Raphael, who had his hand in position before she f
inished talking while Claude gasped at the revelation. “I just hope she doesn’t kill me for doing this,” Iris finished under her breath.
Covering Raphael’s hand over Artemis’s chest and ignoring Claude’s mutterings, Iris started humming. Barely audible at first but getting louder by the moment. Raphael kept flicking his eyes from Artemis’s face to the witch’s fingers on her free hand. She was doing that finger to finger touching again, and if he hadn’t been out of his mind about possibly losing Artemis, his curiosity would’ve pushed him to grill her for answers.
Something was cooling inside Raphael’s chest. He couldn’t quite name the feeling, but it was like a door had been opened in his chest and a blizzard was pushing in full force. In all his years, he’d never felt anything like it. He wasn’t worried that something was happening to him; the panic he felt was because he was sure that was how Artemis felt inside at the moment. His lungs shrunk from it and he couldn’t take a full breath. As the humming grew in volume, the chill started gradually fading, being replaced with a warm breeze slowly filling the center of his chest. His hand pressing on Artemis’s chest was getting uncomfortably warm.
“You better not hurt her!” he growled at Iris, but the witch ignored him like he was a harmless human.
For the umpteenth time since he met her, Raphael wandered if Iris was so powerful that she didn’t fear him, no matter how inconspicuous she was trying to be. Or else she was stupid. There was no other explanation. If he had to bet, he would bet on the first. No one is that stupid when they have inch-long fangs a hairsbreadth from their neck. Aware that his mind was thinking ridiculous thoughts just to keep him from going berserk, Raphael kept looking intently at Artemis.
“You know this can’t happen, right?” Claude brought him out of his head and Raphael gave him a death glare. “You can glare at me as much as you want, but this,” Claude waved a hand between Raphael and Artemis. “Whatever this is, it’s a disaster waiting to happen, and it’ll get us all killed. Anissa’s messing with the Fae is biting us in the ass now, centuries later. You want to follow her lead?” He lifted an eyebrow, daring Raphael to argue.
“I didn’t ask you for an opinion or advice.” Raphael dismissed him, turning his head towards Artemis as her eyes fluttered open, making him take his first full breath since she collapsed on the floor.
“It’s what they do, Raphael! They fuck with our minds, getting us obsessed with them so they can use us as pawns and manipulate us. Are you fucking blind?!”
Raphael didn’t take his eyes off Artemis as she opened her eyes and finally focused on him. When her lips quirked at the corners, he gave her a sheepish smile and cupped her face, rubbing his thumb over her bottom lip. Not even Iris snorting at him could lessen the relief he felt to see Artemis here with him completely. He searched her eyes and saw when they softened at his worry.
“I’m well now. I don’t feel pulled anymore.” Artemis’s husky voice gave Raphael goosebumps all over.
“Are you sure? Can it happen again without us being aware?” He didn’t care that everyone in that room could hear that this woman had become his biggest weakness. Let them try to take her away from him.
“No. I felt the pull too late, earlier. The way they pulled me from the other side felt like my body was being pried open from the inside out in the middle of winter. Now that I know what to look for, I’ll stay aware,” she told him somberly.
As soon as she finished talking, Raphael smiled at her. Her smile stayed frozen in place, because as soon as she blinked, Raphael was gone and he had Claude pinned to the wall by his neck, his feet a foot off the floor. Plaster was raining down on them both and there was a Claude-sized hole in the wall. Iris was groaning painfully next to Artemis, hiding her face in her hands and looking pitiful. Artemis didn’t know when things had changed and she had started caring about people, but it bothered her that Raphael was upset and that Iris was unhappy. The mate bond explained why she felt that way about Raphael, and feeling Iris’s energy helping her fight the pull that she had no doubt Lazarus was doing made her look at the witch with new eyes. She didn’t want to overthink it or contemplate how stupid and dangerous that was. At the moment she had way too many questions, and Raphael was trying to kill the only source she had for answers.
“Raphael, let him go.” She had no strength to speak out loud, but he heard her and his head turned in her direction that same second. “Please. He has information we need if what he says is true.”
“I’ll say it again. I have nothing to gain by lying,” Claude rasped while trying to claw at Raphael's hand that was wrapped like a noose around his neck.
Ignoring Claude like he wasn’t even there, Artemis didn’t look away from Raphael. “Please,” she repeated, reaching out her hand towards him.
Raphael was by her side before she blinked while Claude dropped to the floor coughing, with more plaster raining down on him as Iris giggled before slapping a hand over her mouth.
“This is insane!” Still coughing, Claude lifted himself off the floor, dusting off his clothing and making clouds of dust around him.
“You’re absolutely sure that the name was Lazarus?” Artemis ignored his mutterings and got right to the point.” And he killed the queen?”
“If Anissa lied to me, I’m lying to you. I said it’s what I was told, not that it was a fact.” Affronted, Claude glared at her.
“That’s your maker?” Tilting her head, she studied his reaction while feeling Raphael stiffen next to her.
Iris was trying to become invisible, staying silent and still holding a hand over her mouth. Artemis turned her attention to Raphael, searching his face while he was looking at Claude.
“That was our maker, yes.” Clearing his throat, Claude found the hole in the wall very fascinating. “She found eternal peace a while ago.”
“I killed her.” Raphael’s words brought heavy silence where it felt like everyone was holding their breath.
“It was deserved,” Claude looked at Raphael.” I never blamed you for that.”
“I couldn’t care less who blames me for what, Claude. I never regretted it to this day.” Staring intently, Raphael dared Claude to say otherwise. “But that’s beside the point. We’re talking about the portal and the Fae.”
“I told you what I know. Until a week ago, I thought it was all some bullshit story Anissa told to make herself sound more important. You know she loved feeling like she was on top of the world.” Claude’s eyes kept flicking to Artemis like he was expecting a reaction from her.
She watched him without any expression on her pretty face, making him feel uncomfortable. When Claude realized Raphael was looking at him through narrowed eyes, he straightened his shoulders and stopped looking at her. At least for now, he could pretend that the damn Fae was not holding his attention, even though he felt drawn to her, like a moth to a flame. No matter how hard he tried, his eyes kept going to her. What was it about Raphael that got her to turn to him and what did he do to change her mind? Instead of hunting us down, she’s sitting here chatting like we are old friends, his mind kept nagging at him.
“Possibly.” Reluctantly, Raphael agreed with him.
“Or it’s the truth.” At her words, they all turned to look at Artemis. Shrugging a shoulder, she dropped her head on the back of the sofa and closed her eyes. “The king's name is Lazarus, and he has been ruling since the death of the queen.”
“Your mother?” Raphael gently moved stray hairs away from her face.
“Yes,” Artemis whispered, not opening her eyes. Iris gasped and Claude groaned.
“Ah, fuck! I knew those eyes were the ones I’ve heard about!” Claude fumed. “It’s all true, isn’t it?”
“Possibly.” Artemis repeated Raphael’s words from earlier.
“Are you sure?” Iris spoke for the first time, and the look on her face said she was ready to beg for anyone to say this whole thing was a joke. “I mean, how sure are you? Like, sure? Or SURE, sure?”
“You’r
e rambling,” Claude pointed out as if she didn’t know what she was doing, and she glared at him.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious!” Turning around to squarely face Artemis and Raphael from her seat, Iris ignored Claude. She looked at them with pleading eyes.
Artemis studied her face, tilting her head this way and that. Both vampires stayed silent as the two women remained in a silent conversation for what felt like hours but was probably a minute. The air around them was charged with magic that was prickling their skin like ants crawling on them. Raphael drew lazy circles with his thumb on the back of Artemis’s hand as if trying to calm her down. Her fingers tightened in a reassuring gesture on his, making him relax his stiff shoulders.
Raphael was marveling at the change he was experiencing. With each second, he felt more protective and more in tune with her feelings, like some invisible thread was linking them from one to the other. With the good came the bad, too. Like wanting to gouge Claude’s eyes out because they kept flicking to Artemis, irritating him to no end.
“A changeling.” The corners of Artemis’s lips started curling up slowly as Iris’s eyes widened comically. “Isn’t that a fun development in this mess.”
“A what?” Claude replied with a frown.
“A Fae child switched with a human at birth,” Raphael mumbled, looking at Iris with calculating eyes.
“How do you even know this?” Claude looked at him incredulously, but Raphael ignored him.
“Oh, no!” Iris jumped up from her seat, pointing a finger accusingly at him. “You can wipe that stupid look off your face, vampire! Whatever it is that you think I’m going to do, I’ll tell you my answer now. It’s loud and clear. Read my lips, too! NO!”
“That’s why she was able to open that portal,” Raphael told Artemis conversationally, and she nodded, still smiling, not looking away from Iris.
“Does anyone even listen to me? Hello!” Iris was looking around frantically, even at Claude, for help, but he only shrugged his shoulders as to tell her she was on her own. “I’m not doing it!” Pursing her lips, she crossed her arms, acting like a petulant child.
