by Amy Cissell
The rush of magic was slowing to a trickle, and I could feel myself drifting downwards. I didn’t know if the rune magic had already been activated and Petrina had done her thing, or if I needed to step on the hidden runes to make it happen. Although I’d jumped up into the magic, avoiding the flat, marked stone, I wasn’t sure how to avoid it on the way down. I braced myself, increased my personal shields, and landed lightly, sinking into a crouch for balance. I glanced at Petrina, but her eyes were closed, and she was expressionless.
I slowly straightened up. It was hard going from the vessel of all magic to cautious and defensive, but I was giving it my best. I shook a couple of knives into my hands and turned a slow circle, trying to locate my allies. Florence was about fifty yards away, right where I’d left her, and Raj was standing behind her. I saw a flash of light on the edge of the rock field and when I turned that way, realized it was Emma. There were other wolves at the perimeter.
“No fights?” I asked Raj.
“It was remarkably uneventful.”
“That’s odd,” I said.
“Indeed.”
I braced myself and took a step towards Petrina. The magic of the runes flared up and over my body. It fought for supremacy with the wild Fae magic that was still flowing through me, but the runic magic won, and I was instantly trapped by an invisible wall. I tried not to panic. This was all part of the plan.
I felt the magic trying to shut off my mind the way it had shut off my body, but I resisted that. I was going to need my brains in a second, but couldn’t stop replaying the argument I’d had with Florence more than once in the past few days.
“Tell me again why Petrina can’t just break the rune spell immediately? Why do I need to let it catch me? Wouldn’t it be great if we just walked off as if nothing had happened and Finn went around thinking his stolen magic didn’t work?” I demanded.
“We don’t want him seeking out new and more powerful magics for next time,” Florence said—for about the fifteenth time. “We want him to think that he almost had you with something that we know how to break, and we don’t want him to know how you did it.”
I sighed dramatically. “Fine, but you’d better be right about this.”
Finn appeared at the edge of the rocks, and his smugness radiated almost visibly. I couldn’t believe I’d ever trusted him, much less let him into my bed. How did I not see him for who he was?
“Ellie,” he said. Ugh. How I detested that nickname, even more than I had before.
“What have you done to me?” I yelled.
“I want to offer you a choice,” he said, smirking. I wanted to punch that smirk right off his stupid face. His grin widened as if he could tell what I was thinking. He probably could. I didn’t think he could read my mind anymore, but I was never very good at hiding my feelings.
“Is the choice whether I kill you now or later?” I asked. “Because now is looking like a better and better option. I don’t know why you keep showing up where you’re unwanted and outnumbered.”
“If anyone touches me, you will die,” he said. “I’m sure you’ve noticed you can’t move. I caught you, and only I can release you. My death will not release you.” He glared around at everyone, just in case they hadn’t caught his meaning.
“Just tell me,” I sighed. “I’m cold and tired.”
He was back to looking smug again. “You can either die slowly and painfully, or you can agree to come with me as my lover. We’ll get married. I’ll find us a place where we can live undisturbed by the Fae or the supernaturals of this world. You’ll be safe.”
“You know I’d try to kill you the first time you relaxed your guard around me,” I said. I wanted to hear him say it.
He laughed, “Oh, I’ve taken precautions. If you agree to come with me, you will have a geas placed on you that will make it impossible for you to do anything but love me.”
“And if I don’t agree to come with you?”
“I’ll activate the other part of the spell, and you will be slowly dismembered where you stand while your friends watch, unable to help. After they watch you die, I’ll kill them, one by one, and then, I’ll do the same to your wolf.”
“Ahhh, found out he was only mostly dead, did you?”
Finn bounded forward three long steps and slapped me across the face.
“Gosh,” I said through a mouthful of blood. “I can’t think of a single reason why a few dozen lifetimes as your passive sex slave wouldn’t be the most fun ever.” He’d hit me hard. I spat the blood onto the ground in front of me. I glanced sideways at Petrina, but she didn’t even twitch. Impressive. Raj, on the other hand, was not so still. Finn’s back was to Raj and Florence, an idiot move if I’d ever seen one, and he didn’t see Florence put a stilling hand on Raj’s arm.
“Make your choice,” he snarled.
I drew a deep breath, closed my eyes, and fainted. Finn stepped forward to catch me, and when his foot crossed the magical barrier surrounding me, I heard Petrina whisper something softly and felt the runic magic drain back into the earth. I opened my eyes a crack, and the runes were once again visible on the rock beneath me. I let Finn catch me, then resisted punching him in the balls. Petrina stepped forward, snatched me out of his arms and out of the circle, and kicked him in the balls with all her vampire strength. Raj must have prompted her. I hid a grin. I was supposed to be unconscious.
Finn collapsed, cradling his midsection. “What the hell?” he gasped. He looked down and realized he had broken the circle. “Give her to me,” he said.
She looked at him. “No.” She handed me to Raj. He shot up into the air, and we disappeared. I hoped the others would be able to take care of Finn without killing him. If Emma saw him in a vulnerable state, his ass would be grass.
“Raj,” I thought at him as he was landing in front of our motel room.
“Yes, my sweet.”
“I’m not going to be faking unconsciousness in a minute or so,” I said.
“I know.”
“You need to go, don’t you?”
“Soon, but I can wait for Florence and Emma to return.”
“Thank you.”
He opened the door, crossed the threshold, and stopped abruptly. “What are you doing here?” he asked. I passed out.
Interlude - Isaac
EVERYTHING WAS RED. Red anger washed his vision, the sunset stained the sky a deep and delicate rose, the holly leaves that framed the snow-sprinkled window were scarlet, and his body was a rich and rank vermilion from the layers of dried and fresh blood.
Every movement was agony. Silver burned his wrists and ankles where the manacles dug in too tight, and a silver, mesh net was draped over his body. Smoke rose from his skin and everywhere the silver filaments touched caused fresh blood to overlay the old.
“You’re nothing but an animal,” Michelle crooned. “Like all of your kind. No self-control. You are worth less than the deer that graces my table. How you ever fooled anyone into thinking you were a rational creature is beyond my ken.”
Isaac wanted to offer a clever retort, but words and thoughts failed him. All there was was blood and pain and the pull of a moon he couldn’t answer. And Eleanor.
He wasn’t sure if thinking of her was what brought her to the forefront of his mind, but suddenly she was there. She was trapped. Helpless. The fucking elf stood in front of her laughing. Isaac stilled his mind and tried to ignore the pain so he could travel along his bond to Eleanor. She needed help. She needed him. A slap across the face. He’d slapped her.
Isaac roared his rage and strained against his shackles. A chain snapped, and then another, and both arms were free.
The room erupted in activity around him, but he ignored the shouts and threats and terror. He had to find her. He had to save her. He had to kill that fucking elf who dared to lay hands on her.
“Subdue him!” Michelle yelled.
“We are trying,” someone replied with uncharacteristic harshness. No one dared raise their voice t
o the mad vampire who was the honored guest of the queen.
“Kill him,” Michelle said.
Movement stopped, and everyone looked at her.
“Kill the wolf?” someone asked deferentially.
“No, you idiot. Kill the insolent one.”
The breath went out of the group. The one who’d spoken without thinking bowed his horned head, brought his cloven goat heels together, and waited. Another satyr sliced off his head in one smooth motion, and then all eyes were back on Isaac.
Isaac had barely registered the disturbance. He was yanking his legs as hard as he could to try to break the ankle shackles, and fresh blood was dripping over his feet and onto the floor. He roared again when he sensed Eleanor’s collapse, and one ankle broke free.
“Stop him, now!” Michelle shrieked. She was more coherent than Isaac, but the jury was out on who was more sane.
Ping, ping, ping.
Three pricks hit Isaac. Two in the neck and the third in the hollow of his throat. The drowsiness overtook him almost immediately. He tried to fight it, but the room spun, greyed out, and tipped over.
“Bind him,” were the last words he heard.
Chapter Thirteen
I WOKE FROM dreams of being bound to Finn for eternity, forced to do his will while my own consciousness was shunted off to a tiny but aware corner of my mind, screaming soundlessly. I struggled and gasped, still bound and unable to move even now that I was awake. The covers were lifted off me, and Emma’s face appeared in my field of vision.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I can’t move!”
“You have a huge pile of blankets on you,” she said. “Hold still; you’re getting even more tangled.”
I squelched my panic and held as still as possible while she extricated me, breathing a sigh of relief when I was free. I sat up slowly, knowing from experience that it was a terrible idea to do that quickly, and when the dizziness had receded, swung my legs out of bed and hobbled to the bathroom. Once showered, I walked back out to the motel bedroom where Emma was reading.
“Where’s everyone?” I asked as I dug through a bag looking for clothes. I began to dress in something that didn’t smell of sweat and blood and ozone.
“Raj and Petrina are wherever they go during the day. Florence is out with Arduinna.”
“What day is it?”
“February fourth, it’s mid-afternoon. You were out for just over two days.”
“That’s par for the course,” I said as I finished putting on my clothes. “Is there food?”
Emma pointed at the table. There was a tray covered by a silver dome. I lifted it, and my mouth started watering. There were two giant, jaw-stretching sandwiches. I grabbed one and shoved it in my mouth. Then my eyes fell on the steaming cup of coffee. I held it in my hands, warming them as much as I could, and took a swig of it to wash down the giant mouthful of roast beef and Swiss that I’d bitten off.
“Your table manners leave a lot to be desired,” Emma said.
“I know.”
“You’ll need to do better than that if you’re going to preside over the Fae court.”
“When I’m crowned, I’ll hire you to be my etiquette coach,” I said.
I finished the sandwiches and the coffee and settled in to wait. I was anxious for news. I didn’t have long. Florence walked through the door about an hour later, and Raj and Petrina were on her heels.
“Hi!” I waved. “What’s going on in the big, wide world?”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Raj asked.
“You opened the door, and Arduinna was waiting for us.”
“I wasn’t sure if you even remembered that.”
“So, Arduinna,” I prompted. “Emma said you were hanging out with her, Florence?”
“Yes, we were talking about the Finn problem.”
“Ugh,” I said. “I have decided to believe that since we can’t kill him, he must have redeemable qualities. We just need to find those, and he can be a valuable member of society again.”
“Do you actually believe that?” Emma asked; her voice barely audible. I glanced at her, and she was very carefully not meeting anyone’s eyes.
“I don’t know,” I said. “It’s hard for me to process that someone I considered to be my best friend with benefits could be so irredeemably bad. But he kidnapped me and tried to bind my dragon side with iron bars. He recently gave me a choice between dying painfully or becoming his unwilling sex slave. I saw him watch as children were killed by something he’d released into the world, and he liked it. He’s planted traps for us and betrayed Isaac. I don’t know his true motivations, but the more I learn, the less I believe he can be fixed. Something happened to him, and he is broken. I don’t know if he was always broken, and I was too naïve to see it, or if something happened in the last few months that pushed him over the edge. If I’d loved him the way he wanted me to love him, would he be here now, cracking jokes with Isaac and Florence?”
Emma looked at me then, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “I’m sorry he was your friend, but I do not believe that even your love could’ve saved him. He was a frequent visitor to the Dark Queen’s court while I was there.” Fuck. My half-intelligible whining made me lose sight of the fact that he’d been torturing Emma for years. She didn’t know I knew, but still. Open mouth, insert foot.
“You were in court?” I asked. This was a part of the story I didn’t know.
She flushed, but I thought it was more from anger than embarrassment. “Michelle would put a silver collar and a leash on me and parade me around like her pet. She would invite people to come back to her quarters to play. Finn took advantage of that as often as he was able.”
A surge of rage coursed through me, and I had a hard time not setting things on fire. I might not like Emma very much, but no one deserved to be used like that. I tamped it down and found that as I did so, I was warming up. I could feel wings unfurling from my back, and even though I wasn’t in my dragon form, I knew that if I jumped up, I could use my invisible wings to stay up. Raj was looking at me with interest and a little bit of hunger. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to bite me or fuck me, but it warmed me up in a different way than the anger had.
“Both,” he whispered in my mind. “Preferably at the same time while you scream my name to the gods.”
I rolled my eyes. “Your ego has no limits, does it?”
“None.”
I turned back towards Florence. “Okay, back to the topic at hand. You and Arduinna were talking about the irredeemable elf? Anything I should know?”
“Not really. He’s not the most popular person in the Light Court right now, and there’s a price on his head. I asked her to please not kill him because we were going to need him later. She seemed doubtful that she could convince your father to lift the death sentence, but said she’d try.”
“Anything else she wants to share? How’s her political career?”
“The government is remarkably organized for one so young. I suppose having people who remember ruling before technology made radio and television broadcasts common is helpful when it comes to this sort of thing. Communications are starting up again in the continental United States. President Murphy has appointed six regional officials to serve as liaisons between the states and the federal government until everything works out. No one mentioned Alaska and Hawaii, so I assume they’re on their own.”
“If we need more information, I can always go see Mircea,” Raj said.
Petrina shuddered dramatically. “Must we? He always insists on calling me Auntie, and I have a really hard time not disemboweling him when he does that.”
I laughed. “Family reunions with you guys must be a hoot.”
“They’re small,” Petrina said, “but very, very dramatic.”
“Do you have any children?” I asked.
“Yes. I have three. They’re all fairly ordinary.”
“As far as hundred-year-old vampires go,” Raj added
.
“And Mircea? Does he have children?”
“Just one. He oversees the old principality in Wallachia for the family. And before you ask, I don’t know if Radu had any and as for Vlad, well…that’s a good question. Some suspected that Vlad was responsible for Rasputin, but he never confirmed that.”
“He never denied it, either,” Petrina said.
“Vlad has always been a bit mad,” Raj said. “It’s hard to say what he has and has not done. He knows the way I was turned and the way I turned my two daughters, so he may have experimented on Rasputin.”
“I forgot you said you had a third child. Where is she?”
“Out of reach for the time being,” Raj said. Petrina looked at him sharply. Raj continued with a warning glance back at her. “She is quite mad and completely out of control. I should have killed her when I realized how far gone she was, but I was too sentimental. I failed to do my duty. My failing will continue to haunt me until it is rectified, but until then, it is best to not dwell on her too much.”
A niggling suspicion began to develop in my mind. I tried not to dwell on it too much, as I wasn’t sure I was ready for that answer yet. Was this going to be part of Raj’s betrayal? I tried to think of something else before Raj could pick up on my suspicions and doubts, but from the way he was looking at me, I hadn’t been successful.
“Okay,” I said, clearing my throat. “Vampire family relationships aside, anything else I should be aware of?”
“One other thing,” Florence said. “The old ways are opening up all over the world. This will make travel significantly easier once they are all open, but right now they aren’t reliable enough to be used. You could step into the lines thinking you’ll be taken down to the next node and end up in the Mariana Trench.”
“Did that happen to someone?” Petrina asked.
“Yes, a Fae volunteer. Fortunately, he was someone who was nearly impossible to kill, but he did not enjoy the experience and flatly refused to try again until all the gates were open.”
