City of Everdark (Chronicles of Arcana Book 3)

by Debbie Cassidy

  Of course he knew about Tay and me, only a fool could miss that we had a thing. My neck heated.

  Noir left quickly, taking his heady cologne with him.

  I yawned. “We best get some sleep too.” I gave Tay a pointed look. “In our own rooms.” I bit back a smile, trying not to focus on his bare, muscled torso, trying not to reach out to touch him.

  He stepped closer, tilted my chin, and pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “I’ll see you in the morning, Wila.”

  He headed out of the room.

  Well, that had been easy. Was it contradictory that I was a smidge disappointed? But it was late, and we had a big day tomorrow. Best to be rested.

  My room welcomed me, the pink wrapping around me and soothing me. A few seconds later, still dressed in Tay’s tee and snug under the duvet, sleep washed over me, and then a weight settled on the bed. The scent of raspberries tickled my nostrils and a wet nose nudged my hand.

  Hound ...

  Slipping my hand into his fur, I drifted off.

  A lick of fire, a twist of the blade. Nothing new, nothing to flinch at. Over soon. Must ride the waves of ... she’s here in my mind. Here with me. No. Too dangerous. Must take her somewhere safe.

  Light blooms and the scent of freshly cut grass fills my head. Rolling planes stretch out before me. And there’s a figure watching me, silhouetted by the sun. I know that form. I crave him.

  “Azren?”

  He walks toward me, his face coming into focus, jaw clenched tight, jade eyes flashing in warning. His fingers bite into my shoulders as he hauls me close, and then his lips are on mine, bruising in their demand of me. I open for him, allowing him in, and the kiss softens, melts, slanting across my mouth and twisting my heart.

  He breaks the kiss and looks into my face. “You can’t keep coming here.”

  “Where is here?”

  “Safe for now. But I won’t always be able to bring you here. I may not always be ... capable.”

  “Azren, this is real, isn’t it? I’m really here, wherever this is, talking to you.”

  “I wish it wasn’t. But yes. But you need to stop.”

  “I can’t. I don’t even know how I’m doing this.”

  He makes an exasperated sound. “It’s the kindred bond. If you keep coming here, Elora will find out, and then she will come for you.”

  “She already has.”

  His body goes tense and then vibrates with rage. “No.”

  “Azren, I need to get you out. Where are you? Tell me where she has you.”

  He closes his eyes as if in pain. “The pit. And there is no escaping the pit.”

  “That’s not true. I’m going to find you. I’m going to get you out.”

  His hands are rough as he pulls me to him. He strokes my hair, almost as if he is angry, furious. And then he pushes me away. “Stay away, Wila. Stay away, because if you come, you will die, and if you die, then she’ll have won.” His chest heaved. “She can’t win. We can’t let her win.”

  His hands shoot out and he shoves me, sending me tumbling away from the light into darkness.

  I woke up to the scent of Tay and coffee.

  “Breakfast in bed?” I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, and then my dream slammed into my chest. “I dreamt about Azren again.”

  Tay crouched by the bed. “How is he?”

  I shook my head. “We have to get to him fast. She’s playing with him, hurting him. I can’t let her continue.”

  He reached up and tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “We’re going to get him back, Wila. I promise.”

  I reached up and held his hand to my cheek. “You’re really okay with this? With ... sharing me like this?”

  His jaw flexed and darkness flitted across his face, but he held my gaze and nodded. “I want to be with you, Wila. I need it, so I have to be.”

  This had to be hard for him. It went against everything he was, and a small part of me wanted to tell him to go, to just walk away. It would be the right thing to do, but the bigger part of me didn’t care. I wanted him. Besides, I reminded myself, remember what happened last time we tried the not-being-together? But still, he needed to know it wasn’t too late to back out.

  “Tay ... We don’t have to do this. If it’s too painful for you.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “We can go back to being friends. I’m sure you can win Tonya back.”

  He made a sound that was part growl, part groan. “I don’t want anyone else. I want you, and not as a fucking friend. We are way past that, and you know it. The only time I feel completely whole is when I’m buried hilt-deep inside you.”

  My insides clenched with need in response to his words. “Yes.”

  His tawny gaze flared, and he climbed up onto the bed beside me, his bare chest delectably close. His bottom half was covered in sweatpants, but the outline of his powerful thighs was clearly visible.

  Desire surged up like a wave inside me. “What time is it?” My voice was suddenly husky.

  “Half seven.” His eyes darkened, and he leaned in to nuzzle my neck.

  Oh, yes. This was what I needed. “You want to take off those pants?”

  “I was thinking you’d never ask.”

  He stripped and pulled back the duvet. His large, calloused hands skimmed up my calves and thighs, pushing the tee up over my hips and then tugging it off completely. I was naked save for my knickers.

  He hooked a finger into those and tugged, snapping them off like cheap elastic. I needed new ones anyway.

  His breath was coming faster, his eyes like dark honey as they trailed over every inch of me. “You ready to work up an appetite?”

  Oh, God. I loved it when he was like this—on the precipice, about to lose control, the troll barely concealed beneath his velvet skin. He flipped me onto my front, slipped an arm under me, and raised my hips.

  “Like that, is it?”

  His response was a growl and then his tongue found my intimate place, and all thought was lost. He lapped at me, sucking on the tight nub of desire, which right at that moment was the center of my world—the switch that controlled my pulse, my heart, my lungs, and every synapse in my brain, which was getting ready for the fireworks display of its fucking life. My body wasn’t my own, the groans and whimpers and animal sounds spilling from my lips weren’t my own, and just as I approached the edge, Tay pulled back, wrapped my hair around his wrist, pressed a huge hand to the small of my back, and entered me from behind with one hard thrust of his hips. He filled me, stretching me, tearing a cry of satisfaction from my throat. He remained still for a long second, flexing inside me, and then he began to slide in and out, slow at first, easing me into the rhythm, his huge hands holding me captive as he controlled the tempo, leaving me no choice but to succumb to the beat. Faster and faster, harder and harder, until pain mingled with pleasure, leaving me gasping and sobbing his name. His primal grunts joined mine as we spiraled into the abyss together.

  I slumped onto my face, with his weight partially on top of me, his erratic breath hot on my neck.

  “Mine.” His tone was guttural, possessive.

  A shiver ran up my spine, but this time it was unease. I shimmied out from under him and rolled onto my side, ignoring the quiver in my thighs and the heaviness in my belly. “Tay.” I touched his shoulder, but when he opened his eyes, they were swirling with flecks of gold and green, the pupils dilated.

  This was the troll.

  He rolled on top of me, pinning me to the mattress, his leg between my thighs, pressing against my wetness.

  “Mine.”

  “Tay. Babe, come back to me.” I kissed his forehead, his cheek, the tip of his nose.

  His pupils slowly contracted, and his gaze softened. “Wila. Oh, God.” He buried his head into the crook of my neck. “I need to go.” He tore himself away from me and pulled on his sweats.

  Panic gripped me. “Tay?”

  He wouldn’t look at me. “I can’t control it, Wila. I can’t control the mating i
nstinct, and I know that isn’t what you want. I know I can’t have you all to myself, but the troll doesn’t understand that. I can’t be around you right now. Not until I figure this out.” He walked to the door, and my heart tore in two.

  “I love you, Tay.”

  “I fucking love you too, Wila.”

  And then he was gone.

  Trevor greeted me as I entered the kitchen. “Gilbert made some tea. He thought you might need it.”

  I poured a cup and sat down.

  “Talk to me, Bastion.”

  What I really wanted to do, what every fiber of me ached to do, was go downstairs and speak to the voice. But I’d made a promise and I needed to stick to it.

  “I’m in love with Tay.”

  Trevor rolled his eyes. “I could have told you that. So, why the long face? I’m pretty certain he feels the same way, especially in light of the racket coming from your room earlier.”

  “Yeah, he does. We do, but”—I sipped my tea—“I’m also Azren’s kindred, and there’s something between us, a complex attraction that ... I think could turn to more, much more, and there’s Valance too.”

  Trevor sighed. “Gilbert and I were worried about you. About all these connections you’ve formed. When you came back from the Keep, when you were hurt, the guys were like madmen. They all care about you, Wila. I know I told you to be wary, especially around Azren, but everything has changed now. These physical changes you’re experiencing are probably directly related to the emotional connections you’re making ...”

  “You’ve been spending way too much time with Gilbert, you know that?”

  He chuffed. “Gilbert’s worried about you. We both are. But whatever is happening to you is out of our control. Fighting nature never ends well. Just go with it, Wila. Listen to your gut instinct, and hopefully the transition, whatever it is, will be painless. I get it now, we get it. You need these connections.”

  “And that’s why loving Tay might not work. His troll doesn’t share. He’ll want me mind, body, and soul, and I can’t give him that. It’s not how I’m wired.”

  It was a certainty now, and it broke my heart, because losing Tay would hurt like a bitch, especially now we’d declared our feelings and slipped into a relationship. I ran a hand over my face, suddenly tired of it all.

  “We’ll be able to figure it out better once we have everyone back.”

  Trevor nodded sagely. “It’ll be okay, Wila.”

  I smiled, but it felt like a perfunctory action. “Thanks, Trev.”

  The door opened and footsteps headed toward the kitchen.

  I sat up straighter and drained my tea. Noir was here. He entered the kitchen, bringing the sunshine with his smile.

  “Adam.” Trevor greeted him with a raised paw.

  “Hey, Trev. We need to have a game soon.”

  “You bet.”

  “Where’s Tay?” Noir asked.

  I pushed back my chair and stood. “He had some important stuff to take care of. We can catch him up later. Let me grab my dustkicker and K.” I headed into the office and suited up. Recently, there’d been no point storing K away. I needed him on my person every time I headed out.

  Noir was waiting in the foyer. He held out his hand. “You ready to go?”

  I slipped my hand into his. “Let’s do this.”

  He squeezed my fingers gently. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Damn you and your empathic perception, but no. Not right now.”

  He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “One day at a time, Bastion.”

  The world fractured as we made our trip.

  6

  We materialized in a large office drenched in sunlight. Dark wood set against cream with a minimalistic decor. There was barely any furniture. Just a leather sofa seating area to one side and a desk that took up the width of the floor-to-ceiling window in front of us.

  “We have doors for a reason, Mr. Noir,” Lex said smoothly from his position behind the panoramic desk. He was dressed casually in a cream V-neck T-shirt, and inky black tattoo lines peeked up to caress his neck from the collar. His getup was at odds with the formal office decor.

  Noir ignored him, released me, and indicated I take a seat on the opposite side of the desk from Lex.

  Lex watched me, his expression giving nothing away. “Well, Miss Bastion, our paths cross again. Mr. Noir tells me that you have a problem you need help with.”

  I met his gaze. “Yes. I need help getting into the Everdark.”

  He smirked. “Yes, yes, the Everdark. A nasty place filled with creatures beyond comprehension, beyond redemption, and home to the shades.”

  I’d heard that name before. Azren had mentioned them in one of our getting-to-know-each-other-by-arguing conversations. “Shades? The creatures responsible for locking the Shedim and the Draconi in the prison realm?”

  He sat up slightly, his brows flicking up in surprise. “You’ve done your homework.”

  I smiled thinly. “I do like to be prepared, which is why I’m here. Noir seems to think you can help me. I need to know everything there is to know about the Everdark, and I need to know how to get there without going through Draconi territory.”

  He watched me, tongue in cheek. “I can do that, I can do all of that, but you’ll need to do something for me first.”

  I resisted the urge to glance at Noir for confirmation, because when had this been part of the deal? But heck, I knew better than anything—if you didn’t give, you didn’t get.

  “What do you need, Mr. Hunter?”

  “Others have been going missing, taken by the OIO, never to be seen again.” He made starfish with his hands in the air and widened his eyes for emphasis. The action was at odds with the tension that bracketed his goateed mouth.

  Our last discussion about the OIO hadn’t ended well. “You know where I stand on immigration laws. The Other Immigration Office is simply doing its job. They’re trying to keep Arcana City safe. Your Others will be released once they’ve been cleared.”

  Lex and Noir shared a look that immediately had me on edge.

  I twisted in my seat to look up at Noir. “What the heck is going on here? Do you agree with him that the OIO are some kind of shady setup?”

  Noir sighed. “Can you hand-on-heart say you trust the Arcana Institute? You said yourself that this Honour Chance from Gateway warned you to be wary.”

  I gnawed on my bottom lip. Dammit, he had a point, and with all the other crap that had come to light recently, including the boy the elite team had kidnapped from under Tay’s and my noses ... Shit, turning a blind eye had never been my forte.

  I met Lex’s level gaze with an equally level one of my own. “What do you need me to do?”

  “I need you to find the quarantine center, and I need you to set the Others free.”

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. “You have to be kidding me? Aside from the fact that the location of the quarantine center is top secret, it’s called a quarantine center for a reason.”

  His lip curled. “I can assure you, Miss Bastion, the Others carry no disease; they merely pose an imbalance to Arcana City, and so The Institute wants them locked away.” His lips curled slightly. “But I know your type. You think you’re onto the big man, that you’re giving him the finger, when deep down, you’re just as ready to drop and spread your legs for a pretty piece of propaganda as the rest of them.”

  There was real vitriol in his tone, and rage rolled through me like an inferno. “Fuck you, Hunter. You don’t know me. You have no idea what I believe. So don’t you dare sit there and try to analyze me. I’ll do your fucking job, not because I believe you, but because if there is the slightest chance that you’re right, then I can’t allow innocents to be persecuted. If you are right, and I don’t for one second believe you are, then I’ll free them. If not, they’ll stay exactly where they are. Either way, you give me the information I need. Got it?”

  He inclined his head and the sunlight set off the diamonds in h
is ears. “I know you to be a woman of your word. I know you’ll do the right thing.” He grinned. “Especially since the man who has the information you seek is being held by the OIO.”

  Shit.

  He leaned forward. “But if I’m wrong, then he doesn’t deserve to be free, does he, Miss Bastion?”

  The fucker was twisting my words. “If he’s sick, if he’s carrying illness that could put us in jeopardy, then no. He’ll stay where he is.” I raised my chin. “I’ll just have to find another way.”

  His eyes gleamed in triumph. Weird, because what did he have to be triumphant about? All I needed now was the name of the Other that had the information I needed.

  “And before you ask,” he said smoothly, “no, I won’t tell you his name. You’re just going to have to free them all.”

  Sneaky. “I don’t suppose you have any clues as to where the quarantine center is?”

  He sat back and made a steeple of his fingers under his goateed chin. “Nope. But you’re the investigator. I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

  The smug bastard gave me a smug-bastard smile, but there was no way he was getting the last word. “Breaking into a secure government facility isn’t going to be a walk in the park, and freeing goodness knows how many Others won’t be easy and hardly worth a tiny bit of information.”

  “Oh?”

  “So, I’m thinking two thousand should cover it, and if I don’t make it out you send a check to Taylem Stephenson at the Hunter and Prey in Eastside.”

  He pouted as he considered. “Very well, that seems fair.”

  “Oh, and I’m going to need several transponders coordinated to a secure location where we can ship the Others.”

  “I’ll have them for you by this evening.”

  I pushed back my chair. “In that case, I’ll see you later.”

  Noir wrapped his arms around me and then we were fragmenting the fuck out of there.

  My stomach rumbled as we entered the small cafe on the corner of Garter Street. It was one of the many winding streets that branched off the market square in Southside. Delicious aromas tantalized my senses: bacon, and fragrant sweet vegetables, chicken, and beef. One thing about Southside—it may be scruffy, but they make the best stews and soups in the whole of Arcana City.