Fire Brand: Fated & Forbidden Series

by Kristen Strassel

  Asher stood in the middle of the stage, looking so sad. No, heartstrings, do not let this man tug on you. “It’s part of the plan.” He was serious. “You’ll understand, soon.”

  “Your Queen deserves you.” I kicked wildly at anything I could connect with, wanting nothing more than to nail Asher directly in the balls. I didn’t care who saw what anymore. I’d prove in many ways tonight that I was no lady. I wriggled in the guard’s grip so I could call out to the crowd again. “Chronopolis will fall. Your King is weak, and The League are the ones acting in treason.”

  “Shut up. You’re making everything worse.” Penelope grunted as we got hauled away from the stage. I couldn’t see her, but she had to be close, or else I’d never be able to hear her over the cacophony that had broken out as we left the stage. “Now they have legit charges against us. This isn’t a game anymore.”

  “I don’t give a shit. I’m as good as dead, anyway.” The guard’s rough treatment and the fading light as he continued his journey guaranteed I’d spend the next two moonrises in shackles. And then the rest of them mortal.

  “I can’t believe I have to spend the rest of my days as a human prisoner because of your big mouth.” Penelope was still with me. Good.

  My guard stopped dead in his tracks. “These two are human? I thought they were the sirens.” He’d misunderstood us.

  “Doesn’t matter who they are. The King said take them.”

  The guard chuckled behind me, his erection poking my naked ass. So gross. “I’ve never been with a human before.”

  “And you never will.” I took advantage of his stillness and stupidity to deliver a back kick into his thigh. I wished I hit his junk, but my stiletto did enough damage where it landed.

  He dropped me. I skidded across the rough floor, my blood branding the stone. Penelope and I were surrounded by guards, and more vulnerable than we’d ever been.

  I brought my wrist to my mouth to ease the burn. My tattoo hadn’t made it through the fall unscathed. A fresh swath of blood glistened in the middle of the flames. The light caught on it, the blood dancing in time with my quickened pulse. Like it belonged there.

  Everything around me moved in slow motion. Penelope’s dress had slipped off her breasts. She fought the guard who held her and the crowd she drew, doing everything she could to keep them away from their intended target. Thankfully, Penelope had amazing tits. Every eye in the room was glued to them, fantasizing about them. I was familiar with the effect her body had on a group of men. She could hypnotize them with a flick of her hips or a hint of nipple.

  It gave me a chance to drag my skirt over my ass. Penelope may have had a smokin’ body, but I didn’t need to have my bullseye exposed to every heat seeking rocket in the room.

  Her kicking feet dangled, finally making contact with the ground. It gave her a chance to adjust her dress while kicking and clawing away anyone who thought that was a bad idea. It also left her guard exposed, and he, as well as everyone in the room, was completely unaware of what I was doing.

  I was already on my feet. His little soldier was an easy target, at full attention. Anymore and he’d bust right through his uniform. I grabbed it and turned it like a crank.

  “You bitch!” he cried as he crumpled.

  I took Penelope’s arm. “Run!”

  The castle was older than all of us, and it was not built with quick escapes in mind. The stone floors were uneven. Running was nearly impossible in stilettos anyway. We rounded the first corner, into darkness.

  “Did they see us?” I whispered as I kicked off my shoes. We plastered ourselves against the wall, taking a second to catch our breath.

  “Of course they did. They’re setting up a trap.” She pushed me into the stone as the guards lumbered through the hall, passed us. Score. “Keep going. You’d think His Majesty would put exit signs up in this place.”

  “Maybe the Queen can take care of that,” I said. She would have a to do list a mile long. I could barely see Penelope, only the click of her heels guaranteed she was close. We were screwed, that was for sure, but as long as we stayed together, we had a chance.

  A clinking of a different kind started behind us.

  Penelope groaned. “Oh, what fresh hell is this?”

  Gates rose from the ground, meeting the ones that fell from the ceiling. We were trapped in the damp, pitch dark.

  But at least we were together.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I hated this castle more every time I got captured. Although as far as forced occupancy went, this one actually ranked pretty high. I wasn’t chained to the wall, not to mention the honor of spending an immeasurable about of time in the dark with my pissed-off partner in crime. But it was the reason for my stay that bothered me.

  “It’s really hard not to say I told you so.” Penelope paced in front of the gate, stopping every so often to rattle the bars, like it would do anything but attract the wrong kind of attention.

  Although I could go for a little of that right now. My stomach rumbled, the lack of light had separated me from the concept of time. All I knew was that it was running out and we hadn’t been fed since the gates closed on us.

  “Get it out of your system. No need to hold a grudge.” I sat on the stone floor with my arms crossed against myself, like it would shield me from anything.

  The clicking and rattling stopped. “Have you gotten it out of your head yet that Asher will be your knight in shining armor? Do you finally understand that he means what he says, and the rest of the world has not been shitting you? He’s not swooping in to save the day. He orchestrated this. You had a chance to be Queen again, Avila, if you took your own path. But you relied on someone else to give you permission to what you should’ve been all along, and now you don’t have a chance in Hell.”

  I’d asked for it, but it hurt worse than I expected. “I don’t need a chance in Hell, I only need a chance in The Bay.”

  “You blew it. Asher’s made a bigger fool out of you than the pirates ever did. He can capture you at will because all he has to do is crook his finger and you come running. It’s a game for him. He managed to turn Teal to stone. No one has ever denied Teal. She’s been alive for three hundred years. Or she was.”

  “That wasn’t his fault.” Directly, anyway. It made me sick that I actually still defended him. Don’t give up, he’d said in his last letter. Or as I could so affectionately recall it, the last time he lied to me. One thing was for sure, I’d never give up. The promise of sweet revenge kept me going.

  Penelope sniffled. If she started crying, it would set off a chain reaction. Someday we’d have the chance to property mourn Teal. At least I hoped. In the meantime, we had to kick ass in her honor. As much as we could from our current lockup.

  “Will it hurt to turn mortal?” Penelope asked softly.

  I’d thought about it a lot this month, as I struggled and failed to come up with a Plan B. “I expect to feel numb.” Less everything, dull senses, and the worst part… “and afraid.”

  Penelope sighed. “I don’t know why humans are afraid of everything. It’s guaranteed they’re going to die. I’d want to do everything I possibly could because one day, bam, it could all be over.”

  She actually managed to get me to laugh. “How’s that different than immortal you?”

  “Not even a little bit.” She gave the bars a hearty shake. “I’ll do everything I can to take down The League. It’s my new mission to fight for everyone who’s too afraid to do so.”

  “You should’ve been Queen.” I’d never understood why I’d been the one who was chosen. At least Asher didn’t make that mistake for a second time.

  Penelope sunk down next to me and put her head on my shoulder. “No. We were chosen perfectly for our roles. Teal and I were the enforcers, and you were the kind one with the heart. The one who gave a shit about the consequences of our actions. Without you…” She chuckled. “We would’ve been as ruthless as The League, only difference would be we’d actually get
the shit we set out to do done.”

  “That’s what I love most about both of you.” I played with her hair in the dark. Both of us were in need of whatever comfort we could get. “I never worried about anything with you guys.”

  She picked her head up. “Are you worried now?”

  “Yeah.”

  I’d failed in a way I couldn’t fix. I had one more moonrise as a siren, and it would be wasted in the dark. Knowing I was going to die, even though it wasn’t immediate, changed everything. I was breakable now. Fragile. I’d lose so much, and only Penelope would understand why I mourned, because she’d be without the same things.

  I’d never had regrets before. Everything that happened since Asher spent his last night with me fell in that category. I should’ve never thought I could’ve have swayed him with my body. I should’ve let him burn, always wanting more.

  Just like he did to me.

  I wondered if I’d turn human or to stone first.

  Exhaustion got the best of both of us. The rhythm of Penelope’s soft snoring pulled me under. It wasn’t a good sleep. I kept having nightmares about Teal, trying desperately to break through the surface of the ocean. The image waned, obscured by the full moon rising, dripping blood, high in the sky for the whole world to see. My immortality fell away, crumbling in the same way Asher incinerated after he climaxed. It was so real I could smell him.

  My stomach rumbled again, wanting, needing. I turned into Penelope, thankful that even though she thought I was a complete idiot, she’d stuck by me. I’d said I’d never experienced love, but this was it. It wasn’t the same as what I hoped to share with Asher, but it was sacred in its own right. I fell into deeper sleep, knowing I’d never be alone.

  Rattling bars startled me awake.

  “What the fuck?” Penelope moaned. “Can’t they use alarm clocks in this god forsaken place?”

  “Avila.” Asher’s silky voice made my eyes snap open faster than any alarm. “Penelope. Wake up.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. You lock us up and think you’re going to tell us what to do, Your Majesty?” Penelope was not a morning person. “What a fucking shithead.”

  Those damn bright eyes. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have seen the smirk. “The two of you walked into your own trap,” he reminded us.

  “After you told the guards that we committed treason.” Certainly still immortal, I was up and against the bars in a less than a heartbeat. Asher didn’t flinch. “If we hadn’t gotten away from them, they would’ve raped us. After you invited us to this little party of yours. You really know how to show a girl a good time. Where’s your Queen?”

  Our gazes locked, his fire flowed through my veins. I wonder if this was how our victims felt, the men who laid it all on the line just to brush their lips against ours, and a chance experience life inside us. I couldn’t move. Not even if I wanted to.

  It wasn’t a smirk anymore. It was a full blown grin, and if I was stupid and naïve, I’d believe it was genuine. “I’m looking at her.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “You’ve got to be shitting me.” Penelope attempted to pry me away from the bars. Nope, wasn’t happening. “You ordered those bastards to attack us. Repeatedly.”

  The light faded from Asher’s eyes. “My methods could use a little work.” He turned around, looking for something that wasn’t there, because the smirk was back when he turned around. “I had to throw them off the trail.”

  “Your methods need a lot of work.” I could barely see, everything was a red hot anger like Asher had imploded. “Don’t you tell The League what to do? No wonder they don’t take your fuckery seriously. Be a man, Asher, and say what you mean. Teal is dead because you’re a coward.”

  He sighed, and his body slumped forward toward the bars. “When I told The League what I wanted, they said they’d take my crown. I refused to let them do that. Now I know who’s working for me, and who’s working against me. I had to bide my time before I was able to strike, because any false move would have grave consequences.”

  “Like Teal being dead, but please, Your Majesty, continue.” Penelope would’ve gone at Asher through the bars if she could have.

  “I couldn’t let the wrong people get their hands on Chronopolis, or in turn, The Bay. The League is responsible for bringing in their own new recruits. I have say on the ones I work closely with, but it’s impossible for me to vet every single one of them. I trusted that the people who brought new recruits on board held the same values that I did. When I found out that the same pirates who’d infiltrated The Bay were working for me, I was bullshit. But The League refused to fire them, because technically they’d done nothing wrong. I knew then I had no allies working for me, and traitors in my own city.”

  “Did you lock them up, too?” I asked.

  The glow in Asher’s eyes changed to defiance. “For any offense I could.”

  I licked my dry lips, aware of Asher’s gaze. The castle could’ve blown up and he would’ve seen nothing. “Explain to me what I’ve done that could be considered treason.”

  “It was part of the plan,” he repeated. “You’ve done nothing wrong. Now I know which of The League will stand up for the right things. Many of them came to me in protest of your sentence. They will stay. Anyone who was willing attack you must go.”

  “Then free us.” I understood what he was getting at, but I didn’t trust him. “And announce me as your Queen in front of the entire city. Then I’ll be ready to entertain the rest of your plan.”

  **

  I shook my hand away from Asher’s grip as he led us down the maze of hallways. I was easy, but I wasn’t that easy. He had a lot of work to do to regain my trust. His explanation had more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese. But I was no longer a prisoner, and that was a definite improvement.

  The castle came to life the higher we climbed on the spiral staircase. I was dizzy by the time Asher led Penelope and me into what may have been his living quarters. We stopped in a brightly lit room with plush, jewel-toned furniture and a rug my feet sunk into. Art that cost more than our boat adorned the walls, which were the only part of the room that showed the age of the building. They had crumbled in certain places, carved in others with ancient writing I’d only seen in books.

  There was something cozy about it. Even though I’d never been here, it felt like home.

  “What did you bring us here for, Asher, a sleepover?” Penelope ran her fingers over the arm of the nearest chair, scowling at everyone and no one. I hadn’t noticed her face had been bruised in the struggle with the guards. “If that’s the case, I’ll pass,” she added.

  “Avila will be announced as my Queen and you as her court. You need to look the part.”

  I scoffed. “All about appearances.”

  “You’ve been in a filthy cell for a day and a half. I thought you’d want a shower and a clean dress.” Asher’s demeanor had changed, from someone who had no control of his situation to someone who called all the shots. “Every woman in that room will wish she were you, and every man will wish he had you—“

  “How’s that any different than usual?” I asked.

  Penelope snickered in approval.

  “Now you represent Chronopolis as well as The Bay. That means you’re powerful and prosperous.” He eyed my ruined dress. “And completely unavailable.”

  “I haven’t agreed to this arrangement yet.” I’d lost all track of time, I had no idea if it was day or night. I didn’t feel any different than I usually did, besides hungry and in desperate need of a shower. There was only a small chance I’d missed the deadline and become human. I felt like shit, but I still held on to my immortality by a thread. But if I dragged this out, I could pass the point of no return.

  A weight had lifted from my shoulders. Deadline or not, after everything that had happened the last few weeks, I was going to make Asher get down on his hands and knees and beg for my hand. And more so, my heart. I couldn’t trust him with it yet, just b
ecause he decided I’d be his Queen.

  “Finish your story.” I needed to hear him out before I did anything stupid.

  Asher wrung his hands and sat on one of the couches. I hesitated to do the same, the kind of filth that crawled on my body after this experience didn’t wipe away easily.

  “The League had been infiltrated by pirates, and they were pushing me to take a Queen. They’d handpicked several candidates for me, all from places that I didn’t consider our allies. I didn’t know much about their families, and I had my suspicions about their actual intentions were. If they wanted to overthrow me or simply make a fool out of me. The attacks on you were never sanctioned by me, but The League had been convinced by the pirates that you mean Chronopolis harm, and that you planned to retaliate against the city if you weren’t chosen as Queen.”

  “So why’d you go along with it?” I asked. He was making sense, but I still didn’t like it.

  “I didn’t at first. I’ve been incorporating The Bay into our defensive strategy since I took the crown.” So my hard work did pay off. Okay, sleeping with Asher wasn’t exactly hard work. But someone had to do it. “But I couldn’t get support for that. I knew I had to throw them off. Distract the good members of The League while I could take care of the dissidents, and stack the cards back in my favor. If we had the leaders of The Bay in custody, I could control what happened to you.”

  “Teal’s dead.” Penelope reminded him.

  He closed his eyes for a long moment. “Teal is—”

  I didn’t want to hear it. “Where’s the dressing room?”

  Asher didn’t have a chance to say anything before we took matters in our own hands, storming past him and opening all the doors.

  “We’re just going along with this?” Penelope glowered at me. I elbowed her in the ribs. She was so much better with actions than words.

  It didn’t take us long to find the dressing room. I almost passed out when I saw who waited for us inside.