by Raven Steele
I swallowed through the fullness in my throat. Could they know about the Abydos’ location?
Eddie answered for me, almost as if he could detect my fear. “And that’s why she continues to stay in Rouen. She senses it’s here like many other supernaturals, us included, but she can’t pin-point its exact location. Just like we can’t pin point hers, only traces of her magic.”
Wanting to steer the conversation away from the Abydos, I said, “That night at Fire Ridge, we believe Briar killed the fog creature, or really I should say Ivona .”
Folas laughed a grating sound, making my muscles tense. “You think she can be killed so easily? Have you not been listening? Last time it took twelve of the world’s most powerful witches to put her down and still, in the end, that did not work. All Briar did was make the fae witch stronger.”
My heart skipped a beat. “How is that possible?”
“On that same night, a powerful wave of energy rushed through the city. We think this is when Briar killed the third Alpha within a three-moon cycle. Such a thing should not have been possible. This power surge made the fae witch stronger, giving her abilities to change into multiple physical forms, and not just her one human body.” He paused, his expression grim. “We believe she can now be several different people within the same day.”
I inhaled a hitched breath and repressed a shiver. “How can we stop her?”
“That’s what we are working on, but, like I said before, it took a powerful coven of witches to trap her before. We don’t have access to that power anymore, but that’s not the real issue right now.”
I searched his eyes, understanding dawning on me. “You don’t know who she is.”
“How can we when she can be anyone?”
A weighted silence filled the room. I darted my gaze to Eddie, then to Folas, dread filling my gut. I thought of Briar and the prophecy. Maybe I should’ve told Briar about it. Maybe it would’ve stopped her from killing at least one of the Alphas, maybe. But I doubted it. She was too impulsive.
Folas continued. “Our last intelligence indicated that she may be appearing as a male human and is going by the name Phoenix, but again, that could change at a moment’s notice.”
“Is there a way to track him?”
“Not that we’ve uncovered, but … we might if we had access to the Abydos. Do you know where it is?”
“No.”
He studied me carefully. I glanced at Eddie who looked to the floor.
“I don’t know where it is,” I repeated, the lie easily slipping from my tongue.
“Are you sure? There’s only one reason the Phoenix would remain in Rouen and that’s because the blood is here. We need to find it first and use it against her.”
“No one should use the Abydos. It’s too powerful for anyone to wield.”
“It’s been used before.” He stared at me pointedly, challenging me.
“It’s too dangerous.”
“In most hands, yes. But the fae only seek to use it to protect the world.”
From the corner of my eye, I spotted Eddie’s hands curling into fists.
“Do you have any more information for me?” I asked, realizing it was time to go.
He was silent for a long moment, then, “We have heard of you, Samira, bearer of the Kiss of Eternal Night. We know your blood is also valuable.”
I came to my feet, letting a slip of my power fill the great room. “We’re leaving.”
He rose to meet me, standing a good head taller than me. “Not without a price. We gave you valuable information, now you must give us something in return.”
“That wasn’t the deal, Folas,” Eddie said, pushing his chair away from the table.
Folas’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “Give us a drop of your blood. Do this as a sign of good faith, and we will continue to work with you. Share our information.”
“I can’t do that.”
The doors behind us snapped close on their own accord and a powerful breeze whipped through the room, lifting papers and blowing dust into the air.
Folas stood before us, wind lifting his long blond hair. It twisted around his face and shoulders. “We do not give valuable information without a cost. It is our way.”
“Why my blood?” I demanded.
“For research. We believe it may be able to stop the Phoenix. We already have the Komira’s. Now we need yours.”
My head snapped in Eddie’s direction. Did Eddie steal her blood somehow?
As if reading my mind, Eddie gave me a pleading look, “I didn’t have anything to do with it, I swear.”
I looked back at Folas, wondering if it would be worth the risk trying to kill him deep within their well-fortified castle. “How did you know about Briar being the Komira?”
“Because we pay attention. The streets of Rouen are full of secrets, many of them made by blood and bones. We follow their paths, put the pieces together. It is one of the reasons why our kind has managed to stay affluent still. Without our knowledge, your kind and others would’ve killed us.”
“That’s not true.” But even as I said it, I remember hearing talks of enslaving fae folk for the sole purpose of using their blood. It was rumored their blood held magical properties that made one stronger if ingested. I’d never tested the theory. But I hadn’t heard that kind of talk, enslaving fae, for over five hundred years.
“We have long memories,” he said. “And we will protect our kind at any cost. So please, give us just a couple of drops.”
I considered my options. The wind in the room had died down, but the doors still remained closed. I could fight my way out, but if I got into an altercation in the middle of their secret city, Eddie would probably be punished for bringing me here and letting me in on their secret.
I also wanted to keep the communication open between us. I might need them later on. But … “How do I know you won’t just hand my blood over to the Phoenix?”
His lips curled up at the corners. “So you know she also wants your blood.”
“Yes.”
“That is why we want it, too. We believe it will help us uncover her motives. Besides, I believe she already has it.”
“How?”
He scoffed. “How many scuffles have you been in? You don’t think she didn’t have one of her men cut you while you were fighting another? It probably happened so fast, you didn’t notice.”
“I would’ve.”
He stared at me as if I was a naive child, which made me doubt myself. I would’ve noticed, wouldn’t I? Now I wasn’t so sure.
“Will you give us your blood willingly? A sign of good faith? If you do, you would be considered a friend of the fae.” He looked ready to fight me for it and that worried me.
I glanced at Eddie.
“It’s okay,” he said, but I caught the hesitation in his voice.
I turned back to Folas, deciding I had more to gain than lose by giving him my blood. “Where?”
Folas couldn’t grab a small vial from his pocket fast enough. I bit into my wrist and held it over the opening. After several drops fell, the wound healed.
“Thank you,” he said and sealed the bottle. “Consider us friends and allies.”
“Time will tell, but I promise you,” I leaned over the table and let power surge within me. “If you betray me, I will kill you.”
He didn’t seem fazed by the threat. “Noted. You may go now.”
The doors opened behind us.
“Let’s go,” Eddie said quickly.
I cast Folas one last look and followed after Eddie, a sick feeling burning my gut. Had I just made a huge mistake? But I had learned something—the Phoenix could be anyone. I glanced sideways at Eddie, realizing one terrifying thing.
I didn’t know who to trust anymore.
Chapter 11
We left Black Glen, both of us silent and thoughtful. I worried I’d made the wrong choice, and I was certain Eddie was questioning whether bringing me there had been a good idea. However, I
was grateful he had. I would happily live with the repercussions of giving Folas my blood because he’d given me vital information.
When we reached the sidewalk, Eddie stopped me. “Be careful, Samira. We fae have long traditions and long memories. Vampires have betrayed us many times over the centuries.”
“What are you trying to tell me?”
He flexed his jaw, his gaze shifting to the darkness over my shoulder. “Just watch your back. That’s all.”
He turned and walked away, leaving me to stare after him.
I decided to walk home, despite my vehicle still sitting near Sinsual. I needed time to think through everything Folas had said. They knew far more about my situation than I would’ve ever guessed. Could they know about the prophecy, too? Even though Sersi had been living at the Blutel Estate for the last several decades, she was still fae. Maybe her loyalties lay with her own kind and not with me. Maybe she wasn’t the Sersi I knew at all. Maybe she was something darker, something far more powerful.
I groaned, hating I was doubting her, because that meant I would doubt everyone in my life. Who was I sure about? I knew Briar was Briar. She was a Komira and that couldn’t be faked. I also felt fairly certain that Lynx was who she said she was. I’d seen the way she used magic, and it wasn’t in the way a fae pulled magic from within themselves. And yet, I couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, and that bothered me. Lynx held a special place in my heart, and after seeing Faithe again after so long, I knew why. Lynx reminded me of Faithe in so many ways. Though Lynx had not been physically abandoned, she had been emotionally and mentally abandoned by her family. It was the sole reason she craved love, yet that didn’t stop her from giving it freely.
No, Lynx had to be herself. I couldn’t let myself think she was anything different.
Thinking of Faithe brought the familiar pain to my heart, the one that had been opened wide when I first saw her again. She wasn’t the Faithe I remembered. The old one was kind and compassionate. Where hate and prejudice had shaped her beginnings, after I had turned her, she’d been determined to only be kind to others. I had to find out what Korin had done to her to cause such a dramatic change in her behavior. It must’ve been bad to make her forget the woman she used to be—strong, confident, and most importantly, a woman with love and compassion, just like Lynx.
Somehow I would free her from Korin’s grasp. My only offspring would not suffer under his control any longer. I fisted my hands, digging my nails into my palms. I would make good on my promise to her, made under a moonlit night with stars as my witness.
I was three streets away from home, in a well-maintained subdivision, when the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I reached up and rubbed at them, thinking the growing feeling of dread icing my body had to do with Faithe, but then the hairs on my arm followed suit.
I stopped moving and focused. The feeling was all too familiar. I’d had it on and off again too many times these past few weeks. The knowledge that someone was indeed watching me, filled my veins with such certainty, I knew it to be true.
The moon, full and bright, hung in the sky like a giant clock pendulum ticking slowly. I heard its tick as I breathed in and out, concentrating on the sounds and smells around me. A dog barking from within a home, the scurrying of claws inside a garbage can—probably raccoons—and the faint whispering of the wind through the tops of the trees, telling me something was wrong. Hidden within that slight breeze was the smell of sulfur.
I began walking, keeping my movements even, despite how tense I was. Tick, tick, tick. Adrenaline flooded my body. I casually glanced over my shoulder. A tall shadow moved out from behind a tree. Tick, tick, tick. Ancient power as old and dark as night slid up my backside coating me with dread. Whatever it was, it was getting closer.
In one fluid motion, I spun around and slid a dagger from my jacket. A man, exceptionally tall and bald-headed, stood beneath the burned out light of a street lamp. My left eye twitched as I realized it was the same man who had been watching me at the club; the dark pits of his eyes bore into me just as they had that night, making a chill run up my back. Was he fae? Maybe one of Folas’s men spying on me, and yet, why reveal himself now when they had gone undetected all this time? Could it be the Phoenix?
Tick, tick, tick.
Its darkness and power began to press against me, an invisible barrier meant to scare and intimidate.
It didn’t know me very well.
I raced toward him so fast, the homes on each side of me blurred into streaks of grays and blacks. Just as I reached the lamppost I blinked, and the tall man was gone. There wasn’t even a hint of his power left behind. I spent several minutes searching for him, but found no trace.
Frowning, I turned back, pondering over this turn of events. It was almost midnight when I returned home. Briar lounged on the couch, her legs draped over Luke’s lap while he massaged her feet. A fire burned bright in the fireplace, casting dancing shadows across the room.
“Where have you been?” Briar asked. “I texted you.”
I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at the screen. “Yes, you did.”
“I know. I just said that. You’re supposed to respond.”
I stared down at the simple message: What’s up?
It was a dumb question that literally didn’t make sense. I should probably ignore it, like I did most things that came out of her mouth, but something had changed ever since seeing Faithe and Mateo and confronting my past. That wound had bled open and with it had come memories of how I used to be. I knew Briar thought I was boring, but I didn’t used to be. In fact, I used to be a lot like her until the consequences of my reckless behavior caught up with me.
But just this once, maybe I’d shock her.
Before I could second-guess myself, I typed back, By the looks of it, Luke’s cock.
A second later her phone buzzed. She glanced at the message then at Luke’s lap. She burst out laughing, holding the phone to her chest.
“What?” Luke asked. He followed her line of sight, his face reddening. He growled and pulled her into a kiss.
I walked past them both, smiling to myself as I pushed up my glasses, but when I walked in the kitchen and saw Lynx, it disappeared. Her hair might’ve been in a bun earlier, but most of it had fallen out and parts of it stuck to sweat on her forehead. She was leaning over the kitchen table that was crowded with all sorts of objects: plants, flowers, glass jars full of sand and different colored liquids. In the center of the table sat a large bowl, smoke spiraling out its top. Parts of the metal edges had been burned.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
She puffed a long breath past her lips, lifting strands of red hair in front of her face. “Don’t ask.”
From the living room, Briar called, “She’s been working on that all day! I can’t get her to stop.”
“What?” I asked again.
She slumped into a chair. “I’m trying to make something to break the compulsion. I think I’m super close, but I’m missing one ingredient that’s impossible to get so I’m trying other spelled objects, but nothing’s working.”
“What are you missing?”
She shook her head. “A petal from a rare flower grown in only a few places in the world, none of them close. Have you heard of a Corpse flower?”
“The rafflesia arnoldii, found in the rainforests of Indonesia.”
“Exactly. But I was pronouncing it so much worse.”
“Does it have to be a live sample or will a dead one do?”
She lowered onto a chair. “Dead will work, but what does it matter? It’s not like one of us has the time to go traipsing through the forest to find one.”
I smiled, knowing the one person who could probably help us. “No, but I know someone who could get one.”
Her green eyes lit up, life returning to them. “You do?”
“I’ll go call him now.”
“That would be amazing! You are the best!”
I stepped outside, feeli
ng good. I’d made Briar laugh, and I was solving a problem for Lynx. This is what my life the last hundred years had been about—helping others. My way of redeeming myself from past actions. But helping those I cared about? Somehow it felt so much more rewarding. Plus, I was anxious to speak to my old friend. He’d been there for me at a time when I was lost and still trying to determine how to live my life.
He’d accepted me as I was, grounding me to my new life. He’d also been the first man I’d grown to love, truly love, as a father figure. Not the twisted love I’d once had for Korin, but a true bond of friendship.
It had been decades since we’d last spoken to each other. Last I heard, Detrand was in Croatia; his poor wife, Adelaide, was dragging him there to help with the local fae’s decrease in population, something I was certain he detested. Detrand only liked helping those he truly loved.
For them, he would tear the world apart. Otherwise, you’d better get out of his way.
I texted our code to the service that helped immortal creatures stay in touch with each other. Within five minutes, I had his new cell number. I called it. He didn’t answer. I called again, then again three more times. He finally answered.
“What is it? You’d better have something important or I’ll rip your throat out,” a familiar deep voice growled.
A stuttered a breath as a wave of warmth washed over me, a smile splitting my face. Typical Detrand. It felt strange to smile like this after so long. “It’s Samira.”
Silence answered me, then a more softened but still gruff tone. “Are you smiling?”
My grin grew bigger. “How did you know?”
“I can count on one hand the times I’ve seen you smile. I’ll never forget the way you sound when your lips turn upward.”
I was quiet, pondering this.
“Are you getting married or something?” he asked.
