Nica's Legacy (Hearts of ICARUS Book 1)

by Laura Jo Phillips

  She heard a low moaning sound and clapped one hand over her mouth to silence herself. She turned around and walked back to the wall of the house, keeping her eyes averted from the bodies while she struggled to compose herself. She reminded herself over and over again that she had to find Bree. Bree needed her. Those poor people were already gone. She could do nothing for them. But she still might be able to save Bree if she didn’t let herself fall apart. But that wasn’t working.

  So she deliberately forced herself to look at the people lying in a careless pile in the yard, tossed aside like so much trash. And for what? So that Quill could get his revenge against Ian? These people had nothing to do with any of it. They were employees, doing their jobs, harming no one.

  She made herself look at their faces, each and every one, and with each pair of sightless, empty eyes, her anger grew hotter and hotter until it was a white hot ember resting next to her heart. Then she bowed with fist to heart in the Jasani way, honoring them, and thanking them.

  “The feet of your spirits now carry you to the beyond,” she said solemnly. “May your journeys be quick, your destinations filled with the peace and joy you have earned.”

  When Nica straightened again her head was clear, her mind calm, her heart steady. She walked toward what she suspected was the kitchen door and opened it to find a mudroom. The door from the mudroom into the kitchen proper was ajar, so she crept forward on silent feet and peeked around it. The kitchen appeared to be empty too, so she opened the door wider and stepped inside.

  There were three doorways leading out of the kitchen and she quickly and silently checked each one. One led to a set of stairs going up, one to another set of stairs leading down, and a third opened onto an enormous pantry. Nica paused for a moment, thinking.

  She’d only been below stairs in Fadden House a couple of times during her stay there, but she suspected this house wouldn’t be too much different. If she was right, then the down staircase probably led to storerooms and the laundry in the basement. Since Quill had killed the servants, she doubted he would see any reason to hide himself in the lower reaches of the house. Therefore, he was probably upstairs. Somewhere.

  She moved toward the stairs that led upward and began to climb them, noting that they were nearly twice as wide as ordinary stairs, and that the wooden risers were worn in the center. Servants stairs, obviously. She set her feet silently on each step, moving slowly, wary of any sound. At the top of the stairs she paused. To her right was another set of stairs leading to the next floor. To her left was a large dumb-waiter, and straight in front of her was a swinging door that opened into an enormous dining room.

  She paused again, thinking. The floor she was on would likely hold public rooms such as the library, study, parlors and sitting rooms and, of course, the dining room in front of her. The upper floor undoubtedly held bedrooms. From the little she’d learned about Quill from Ian, the man’s main purpose was to hurt and humiliate Ian as much as possible. So, would he choose to defile Ian’s only sister in Ian’s bedroom, or would he do it in Ian’s study?

  The study, Nica decided. Ian could easily move bedrooms in a house of this size. The study was the heart of the estate. She pushed the swinging door open slowly and looked around at the empty dining room before going through it, careful to close the door rather than let it swing. She crossed the room to the table and slipped her jacket off, hanging it over the back of a chair. Then she slipped two of the sai out of her belt and twirled them across her fingers several times, warming her hands up a little before gripping the handles firmly. She moved to the opposite end of the room and stopped in the doorless entryway. She paused, looking around the dim interior, letting her eyes adjust, then entered the wide hallway.

  To her left was a huge foyer and a set of tall double doors. The main entrance to the house, obviously. To her right was a magnificent staircase. The hall she was standing in split on either side of the staircase, leading deeper into the interior of the house. Something warned her that she was very close now. Following her instincts, she crossed to the hall on the far side of the staircase and began making her way along it, her ears straining for any sound. When the sound did come it startled her so much that she nearly gasped aloud.

  It was Bree’s voice, she was certain of it, though she’d never heard such a sound come from her friend before. Nor did she ever want to hear such a sound again. It was a muffled scream of deep, soul wrenching pain.

  “The money’s been transferred into your account, Thomas,” Ian said in a tight, strained voice. “Keep your end of the deal and leave her the hell alone.” Nica had to clap one hand to her mouth to hold back a shout of shock and despair. How in the nine hells had Ian gotten here ahead of her?

  “You’re right, Ian, Thomas got what he wanted,” Flora said, surprising Nica once more. “Now it’s my turn.”

  The voices were coming from the next door up the hall from Nica, which appeared to be partially open. She moved toward it quickly and quietly.

  “And what is it that you want, Flora?” Ian asked.

  “I want you to sign this little document, that’s all.”

  Nica heard footsteps, then the rustling of paper. “If I sign this, you can empty my accounts.”

  “Exactly,” Flora said. “You won’t be needing it so you might as well sign.”

  “Why won’t I be needing it?”

  “Because if you don’t sign, Bree dies. If you do sign, we’ll let her live. Simple.”

  “And me?”

  “Oh, you die either way,” Thomas said.

  Nica didn’t know if the sudden sting of tears in her eyes was caused by fear, fury, or sorrow, but she did know that she couldn’t let her emotions rule her. For Bree’s sake, and Ian’s, she couldn’t afford to be anything but cold and calculating right now. So she blinked the tears away and set her jaw.

  “There’s just one little problem with your plan,” Ian said. “I just transferred every cent I have into Thomas’s account to pay him off, including the money I just borrowed from the bank in exchange for the deeds to Fadden Fields and Fadden House. He asked for a lot more than I had.”

  Bree smiled. “Good thinking, Ian,” she thought to herself as she looked through the inch wide gap into the room beyond. She had to stifle the urge to curse when all she saw were leather covered chairs, a sofa, and a few low tables. Ian’s desk must be on the other side of the room, along with Ian, Bree, Quill and Flora. She’d have to open the door and step into view in order to see them.

  She bit her lip, thinking, then carefully slid the sai back into the loops on her belt. She had no idea how big the room was, but if the door was set in the middle of its length, then there would be a fair distance between herself and the others when she stepped into view. While the sai were good as throwing weapons, their true purpose was for use in hand to hand combat. With two opponents instead of one, and both of them an unknown distance away from her, the throwing knives were by far the smarter option. She slid four of the razor sharp, custom balanced knives from the belt, holding two in each hand just as Aunt Aisling had taught her. Then she took a slow deep breath and relaxed her body while she waited for the right moment to make her move.

  “You’re lying,” Flora accused sharply.

  “Am I?” Ian asked. “Your family went bankrupt with the drop in crop yields, Flora, and don’t act so surprised. It’s no secret. Everyone just lets you pretend it is. What makes you think my crops did so much better?”

  “You know all the Sylvans,” Flora said. “Everyone knows you take care of each other first.”

  “Well, I hate to break it to you, but everyone is wrong,” Ian said with disgust in his voice. “I’ll sign this paper if that’s what you want, but the accounts are empty. You want a share of the money, talk to your partner.”

  “Forget it,” Quill said, and Nica smiled again. Soon, she thought, then closed her eyes and pictured Quill in her mind. His height, and width and weight. Then she pictured Flora, mentally marking each
of them, planning where to put her blades. Ordinarily she’d try to disable rather than kill, but although Ian sounded relatively unharmed, the only sound she’d heard from Bree was that one moan that chilled her blood. She didn’t think Bree could afford for her to be anything less than ruthless.

  “What do you mean forget it?” Flora demanded. “We’re in this together, remember? You get Bree’s money, I get Ian’s, that was our plan.”

  Ian laughed, a humorless bark of sound. “You’re partner there asked specifically for ten times Bree’s inheritance, Flora.”

  “If you plan on living long enough to leave this house Thomas, you will be sharing that money with me,” Flora warned in a dangerous voice.

  Quill laughed, and Nica’s eyes flew open. This was the moment. Quill and Flora would be watching each other now, both secure in the knowledge that they were alone in the house with the only two remaining Faddens.

  She shoved the door open with her shoulder, following through with a fast roll to confuse whoever might be watching. She shot to her feet with her hands up and ready to throw just after the door slammed into the wall, startling Quill and Flora into spinning around to face her. Their brains were still trying to decipher what they were seeing when she released two knives, one with each hand, then the next two a split second later. She had four more in her hands before the second set reached their targets.

  The knives she’d thrown with her left hand hit Quill, the first in the center of his forehead, cutting through his skull with ease, the second straight into his heart. He was already dead when his finger contracted on the trigger of the projectile weapon he was holding, sending a large caliber bullet at Nica.

  The bullet hit Nica in the chest with such force that it picked her small body up and sent her flying backward, saving her life when the knife Flora had caught in one hand before it reached her forehead flew back at Nica with so much power behind it that it was later found blade deep in the stone of the fireplace. In the brief moments that she was airborne Nica registered Ian rising from a chair beside a desk covered with what appeared to be bloody rags, and Flora racing for the door. She had a fraction of a second to decide to throw the second set of knives she was still holding at Flora as she ran for the door. Before she could do it, she hit the floor, her head slamming into the slate hearth with an audible crack.

  ***

  “Run!” Luagh ordered, already moving to take over his human’s body a split second after Nica shoved the door open.

  “Why?” Flora demanded, but Luagh was already in control and flinging up barriers when the knife nearly struck her forehead. He caught it and threw it back, knowing immediately that it would miss. The second knife struck the barrier he’d thrown up around his human’s chest and fell harmlessly to the floor as he stood for a moment, struggling to decide between abandoning his human so he could escape through the window, or leave on foot. As much as he wanted to fly away from the unexpected danger of the small human female, he wasn’t ready to give up his human just yet. She was annoying as hell, but extremely helpful. He reluctantly raced for the door instead.

  “Go back and kill her!” Flora demanded.

  “Be silent!” Luagh snapped as he used precious power to push the human’s body into a blurring run as soon as he was outside of the house. Three miles later he stopped where Flora had hidden her ground car, then turned and sent his senses out, searching his back trail. Relieved that he wasn’t being followed, he opened the door of the ground car and climbed in.

  “You must come forth and operate this machine,” he commanded.

  “Not until you tell me why we ran away,” Flora replied.

  Luagh growled. “Do you wish to be dead, human?”

  “Oh please,” Flora scoffed. “You stopped those knives without half trying.”

  “Humans see only with their eyes,” Luagh said. “That little human glows with power. She could have easily trapped and held us.”

  “You’ve seen her before and never noticed she had power before, so why now?”

  “She is unguarded. Stop asking questions and start this machine,” Luagh said. “I must think.”

  Flora reluctantly did as Luagh ordered, moving forward as he released control to her. She started the ground car and started driving, fuming the entire time over the failure of her carefully planned trap. She’d spent over a week convincing that idiot Thomas to let her in on his plan to destroy the Faddens, and nearly another week convincing him to change his flimsy plans to include a few of her ideas. Then the slimy bastard goes behind her back and gets all of the money for himself. All she got out of the deal was the pleasure of helping him slice up Bree’s ugly face. She should have killed him when he refused to let her do more than that.

  Not that it would have mattered since by then Ian had already paid him. What a fool Ian was, to give up everything for his worthless idiot of a sister. And it was all for nothing. Thomas was dead, all the money was in his account, and both Bree and Ian were still alive, not to mention that little bitch, Nica.

  She slammed her fist against the steering wheel. “No! No! No!” she shouted. It wasn’t over. Not yet. She was still alive and more powerful than Ian could imagine. She just had to figure out how to get back into the game.

  Luagh spent the time it took for his human to drive them back to Cidade thinking hard. The small human female with the knives had surprised him, and Luagh did not like surprises. He’d seen her before and had enjoyed the confrontations between his human and the one called Nica, but not once had he thought her to be anything but another weak human. Even after he’d discovered how to absorb power from the humans’ blood, he’d sensed nothing from her. But today she’d been very different. She’d radiated power of a sort he’d never felt before, and didn’t want to feel again. Raw, unshielded power that, even with all that he’d collected, was more than enough to hold him fast if she caught him. He shuddered at the thought.

  “Are you going to tell me why we ran away like frightened children?” Flora demanded, interrupting his thoughts.

  “Because that female has more power than I do, and could have trapped us, or killed you, forcing me to seek out another human which I’m not in the mood to do right now.”

  “Why don’t we just drink a few more Druids then?” Flora asked. “Then we’ll have more power than her.”

  Irritated, Luagh answered truthfully before he could stop himself. “Because if we are careless and draw attention to ourselves, Eibhleann will find us and return us to the Unseelie realm.”

  “Eibhleann?” Flora scoffed. “Is that what you’re afraid of?”

  “I am not afraid,” Luagh roared. “I am cautious.”

  “Well, you’re being cautious for no reason,” Flora replied. “The Tuatha De abandoned Apedra a long time ago.”

  “What?” Luagh demanded. “You are certain of this?”

  “Of course,” Flora replied. “Apedra is dying, didn’t you know that?”

  “Dying?”

  “Yep,” Flora said. “All the Druids know that. Not the ordinary people of course. The worthless non-sidhe don’t know anything.”

  Luagh’s mind raced. For weeks he’d been killing Druids and consuming their power, all the while watching over his shoulder, expecting Eibhleann to appear at any moment. He’d begun to wonder why she hadn’t shown up to protect her precious humans already, but it had never occurred to him that she might not even be on Apedra any more. This changed everything.

  “We must find the most powerful Druids you know of,” Luagh said.

  “Really?” Flora asked in surprise.

  “Yes, the most powerful,” Luagh repeated. “We need to gather as much power as possible, as quickly as possible.”

  “I’m not gonna argue with that,” Flora said with a smile. “But what’s the rush?”

  “We must go to the far side of Apedra, and for that we must fly.”

  “Fly?” Flora asked, startled. “Maybe you didn’t notice this, but I don’t have wings.”


  “Maybe you didn’t notice, but I do,” Luagh growled. “We must meld.”

  “Meld?” Flora asked suspiciously. “What’s that?”

  “I cannot consume blood without your body, and you cannot fly without mine,” Luagh said. “We are too weak as we are now, so we will meld into one body. It will take much power and time to complete fully, but we’ll be far stronger when it is finished.”

  “How much time?”

  “We need only one day and one strong Druid to manifest my wings. The rest can wait. Three more Druids after that should be enough to reach the Shining Isle if they are strong.”

  “What if I don’t want to meld?” Flora asked pettishly. “This is my body, after all. You should be asking me, not telling me.”