The Hidden Truth (Shadow Claw Book 7)

by Sarah J. Stone

  “Nicholas,” Cole said. “Do you know Rosa Halloway?”

  “I–” Nicholas said. This was it, they were caught. Rosa dropped her head. “Yes.”

  Rosa was dying anyway, he figured. This was their last chance.

  “We know each other quite well.”

  “Cool,” Cole said. “We have to get her to Umora.”

  “Sorry?” Nicholas said. “What?”

  “You know that Earth has more trouble supporting magic,” Cole said. “Her magic is fading. She'll have a little longer if we could get to Umora.”

  “But….” Nicholas sputtered. “Rosa is protected by witch covens who–”

  “Who I am in charge of,” Cole pointed out. “If they have a problem with it, they can answer to me. Do you want to help me?”

  Nicholas looked to Rosa, trying to stay calm. It was hard not to swoop her up in his arms and just run away. He didn't want her to feel an iota of sadness, let alone these tears. “Rosa, you know what this means.”

  “I don't know what else to do,” she cried. “I can't take this anymore.”

  “I will take care of you,” he assured her, looking her straight in the eyes. “I promise you, my love. I will take care of you no matter what.”

  Silently, she nodded, holding out her hands.

  “Please,” she whispered, meeting his eyes. “If these are my last moments, then let them be with you.”

  Nicholas reached out to her, the magic swirling already. He was prepared to take her as far away from this hell as he could. He could transport her in an instant.

  What he didn't expect was his magic to be blocked.

  “Ah,” he cried, almost in pain. His head whipped around, and his heart dropped. To his horror, there was a dark shadow in the doorway. As it advanced, he gritted his teeth. Rosa groaned, and he knew she was being drained.

  Standing in the doorway in human form stood King Richard. The limp body of a carapace, with shocking red hair that reminded him of Ariel, dropped to the ground. Killing a carapace released their magic like a flower with pollen, and Nicholas felt himself start to go weak.

  “Boy,” Richard looked to Cole. “If you know what is good for you, you'll step away from that witch and hand her over.”

  “Ha,” Cole said. “Like I'm that easily convinced. I owe you nothing.”

  “I will kill you both,” Richard said. “As a human, here and now. I have no issues with that, I'm stronger than you.”

  “You will not lay a hand on her,” Nicholas growled. The carapace’s energy was still in the room, and he couldn't transform. He didn't care, though. He would kill his father with his bare hands if he even thought about hurting Rosa.

  “Don't you want to live forever, Nicholas?” Richard said, and then he launched forward.

  Rosa screamed and dove backward as fast as she could. She put her hands over her head because she didn't know what else to do. It wasn't as if she could fight or protect either of them.

  She felt air whoosh over them, and she heard crashes and grunts. Her heart beat rose ridiculously high, and her breathing became ragged.

  “Please,” she whispered, to a god she wasn't sure she believed in. “Please, help me. Help us.”

  Suddenly, she felt magic flood her. She screamed, unsure whose it was. And then she was on a cold marble floor, trembling and bruised.

  “Rosa! Rosa!” Nicholas scrambled over to put his hand on her back. “Are you hurt, my love?”

  She rolled over, blinking.

  His face was bleeding, and his cheeks were filled with color, but he was all right. His eyes were bright, and his hands were gripping hers.

  A quick look to her right saw Cole also sitting on the floor, looking rather proud of himself. There was no trace of Richard.

  “No,” she said, shell-shocked. “What happened?”

  “As soon as the carapace magic faded enough, I got us out of there,” Cole said. “He didn't follow. Although, it wouldn't take a genius to know we would come here.”

  “Where are we?” she asked, as Nicholas helped her sit up.

  “We're in my palace, my love,” he said softly. “You're safe. At least for now.”

  “In the palace?” She looked into his eyes. “But, Nicholas–”

  “I know,” he said. “But we have no choice. We are no longer safe apart, my love. We made that choice.”

  She leaned her head into his chest, trying to calm her breathing. She felt weak, although that wasn't a surprise with a carapace suddenly spewing every bit of magic they had. What surprised her, though, was how she didn't feel completely incapacitated. She was feeling better every moment she sat here.

  “Magic works better here,” Cole said, reading her mind as he stood up. Despite looking a bit rough, he didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that his father had just threatened his life. “You should be able to stand.”

  “How did you know?”

  “I'm a witch. I know all things.” He winked at her. “Go on, try,” he said.

  She looked at Nicholas who gently helped her up. Although her legs were shaky, she found more strength than she had in days. She leaned into him.

  “Should we hide me?”

  “No, love,” he said. “You're here now. I'm going to make sure to you are taken care of.”

  “Why are you–” Suddenly, the door to the antechamber opened. Rosa felt it before she knew what was happening.

  She recognized Nicholas’ sister-in-law, Ariel, standing in the doorway. With high heels and a green dress that brought out her eyes, Rosa immediately felt inadequate at her beauty. She also realized that she felt dizzy at her very presence.

  She stumbled against Nicholas who put his arm around her.

  “Ariel, get out!” he screamed. “To the other side of the palace. OUT!”

  “What the?” She obeyed him, although she was clearly confused and annoyed by it. Rosa panted, trying to regain what she had only moments ago.

  “Oh, my God,” she gasped, as Nicholas held her tight. “That's–”

  “That's why she is their queen,” Nicholas said softly.

  “Well, she's going to be mad,” Cole put in. “I'm going to talk to her before she breaths fire.”

  “She can't,” Nicholas said, and Cole grinned.

  “Can't she? Go settle your lady love in,” Cole said. “I'll just fix the world, per usual.”

  Cole left them alone, and Nicholas looked down at Rosa, who lifted her head from his chest.

  “Are you all right now?” he asked. “I'm going to take you to my room, where you can settle in.”

  “We can share your room?” she asked hopefully.

  “Of course, my love,” he said, as they began to walk. He was cautious, on guard, in case Ariel was anywhere nearby.

  Rosa tried to smile.

  “Like a princess,” she said, and he chuckled.

  “You've always been a princess.”

  “Nicholas,” she said softly as their footsteps echoed in the hallway. “What did your father mean? About living forever?”

  “I…” he was about to say he didn't know, but then he remembered the book and the conversation he had with Cole. “I think he was trying to steal your power.”

  “My power?” she said, surprised.

  “Did you know the Halloways were just as hunted as carapaces once?” he asked. “They are the most powerful of all witches, and I think that your power can give him immortality. If not immortality, a very long life.”

  “But dragons already have a ridiculously long life,” she said. “Why does he need mine?”

  “It may be easier to take since you are the only one,” he replied. “I don't know. We still don't fully understand what is happening with the supernaturals who returned from the Other, but what we do know is that magic in this universe is changing, and possibly fading.”

  “That would make sense,” she said, as he let her into his room. She gasped at the vastness and the beauty. “Oh, my goodness, you really are a prince.”
<
br />   He laughed, helping her on the bed.

  “Did you not believe me?”

  “I didn't dare to dream,” she whispered, as he leaned in to kiss her.

  Chapter 8

  “Princess,” Cole strolled through the palace, using his magic to trace Ariel. He kept sending out pings and waiting to see where they faded. “Ariel. Come scream at me.”

  Wherever she was, she felt his magical shocks and strolled out from the library. It connected to so many rooms, and he was reminded of her power by the fact that he couldn't quite locate her. She didn't look particularly angry, but she did look annoyed.

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “You want an explanation of what just happened?” he said. “Don't be mad at me. I didn't tell you to go away.”

  “Sure,” she replied. “Everything else that goes on in this palace confuses me, so why not?”

  “That was Rosa,” he said. He expected to give her more of explanation, but she quirked an eyebrow.

  “Rosa Halloway?”

  “How did you know?” he asked, and she shrugged.

  “Alexander and I snooped in Nicholas' phone last night, accidentally, but on purpose. Is he having a love affair with her?”

  “He is, I think,” Cole replied. “But he freaked because she's only alive because of magic. You take it away, and she's done for.”

  “Isn't her magic also killing her?” Ariel asked, remembering the conversation she had with Alexander.

  “Indeed,” Cole replied. “Halloway need four, so she is carrying the magic of three other witches, and that's too much. If she could just carry her own, there would be room for an actual life force in her, and it wouldn't be such a problem.”

  “I don't get it,” Ariel said. “They need four, and yet she has the other three?”

  “Because…there is just her?” Now it was his turn to be confused.

  “But there's you,” she said.

  That stopped Cole in his tracks.

  “What?” he asked, increasingly confused. “What are you talking about?”

  “Your magic is the same as hers,” she said. “When I absorb yours and hers, it feels the same. Aren't you of the same line?”

  The words confused Cole. He realized that nothing he said would make sense. He was half-witch, yes, but he never thought of what his witch origins were. He knew how to use his magic, and it worked, so there was no reason to question it. Despite a brief straying from the palace of his royal home, he knew who his family was. At least, it was the family that mattered. He didn't have any need or want to chase after his birth parents.

  Until, that is, right now.

  “You think my magic feels like a Halloway strain?” he asked.

  “Well, I was only in the room for two seconds,” she replied. “So, I'd have to verify again. But yeah.”

  “Huh,” Cole had not expected this to come from the conversation.

  “So, is three witches instead of four in her enough to take it over?” Ariel asked.

  “Two would be enough,” Cole replied. Ariel paused, thinking.

  “Thomas.”

  “Thomas Dolcetti?” he said in surprise “Are you serious?”

  “Cole, I just said it was two seconds. Let me near her for half a minute, and I might be able to tell you for sure,” she protested. “But I think so.”

  “Somehow, I feel like convincing Nicholas of that is going to be very difficult,” he said. “You could kill her.”

  “Not in thirty seconds,” she said. “She'll just suffer for a while. But this is sort of in the name of saving her life.”

  “Right,” he paused. “God, I never even thought about mine.”

  “Sorry to burst your bubble,” she said, but he shrugged.

  “It doesn't matter,” he said. “My family is here in this palace, except if my so-called father shows up.”

  “What happened, exactly?” she asked, confused.

  “He tried to steal all of Rosa's power, probably for some sort of immortality.”

  “Cole, if the magic really is fading, does that put Peter at risk? He came back from the Other, same as your father,” Ariel said.

  “I don't know,” Cole replied. “You hoping for your place as queen back?”

  “Not really,” she answered. “And Alexander certainty couldn't be king ever again. But I'm just wondering.”

  “I have a suspicion,” Cole said, “that if the Other does reclaim those who have returned, they won't take Peter. He willingly faded away, he wasn't forced. No one has ever done that before. So, I suspect if Peter wants to, he could stay here, no matter what happens to the others.”

  “Oh, a special snowflake,” she smiled. “That's good, because with the way the show is going, I really don't have time to be queen here anyway.”

  “Poor princess,” he said. “Let me go talk to Nicholas. He's not going to take kindly to this suggestion.”

  “Didn't you have Thomas scheduled to come here?” she asked. “We could put it off until he is here, too, and do it all at once. It's been awhile since I felt Thomas' magic.”

  “I could arrange that,” Cole said. “I'll put in the call to him now. For now, just stay away from her.”

  “Thanks,” Ariel rolled her eyes. “I'll be in the library, being a loner.”

  “Thanks, love,” he said, and he skipped away.

  Once he was gone, she did sigh. It wasn't lost on her that she was hurting those whom she had come to care about the most. Ariel didn't often speak feelings of affection, but she did care about her in-laws. They were the only real family she had ever known. The fact that Alexander had been permanently damaged, and now the fact she could kill her favorite brother-in-law's love just by standing there was reasonably painful.

  She and these creatures were not made to be together. But she had spent her whole life listening to people tell her about the things she shouldn't do. She wasn't about to let this stop her from the happiest time of her life.

  She hoped she could help this situation. Detecting magical strains wasn't an exact science. However, she was the strongest carapace in the galaxy; it shouldn't be that difficult.

  If she was honest with herself, she was afraid that she was going to be wrong. It wasn't an idle task; there were lives at stake here.

  If someone had told her a few years ago that she would care so much about something that wasn't her own survival, she would have laughed in their face. Dragons had a way of changing you that was for sure.

  “Ahem,” she spun around to find Peter entering the library. She realized she had been standing stock still, staring at the bookshelf like she was in trance.

  Peter met her eyes, and she raised an eyebrow. She knew exactly what he was waiting for, and that was for her to bow to him. He may be family and the king, but they were in private, and she wasn't going to take things that far.

  “Yes, Peter, what can I do to annoy you now?” she asked. His English was strong enough now that he could understand her perfectly. But on Umora, he was strict about speaking in the dragon lore, which drove her mad.

  “Why did my brother just go tearing down the hall like demons were chasing him?”

  “Because I told him that he's got Halloway magic, and so does the other magical half-breed. Why?” she asked innocently.

  Peter choked. “I'm sorry?”

  “Why does it matter where his magic comes from?” Ariel asked. “It's not like it's a surprise that he's a magical half-breed. The origin shouldn't matter.”

  “Because Nicholas just told me that Father is looking to drain Halloway magic to live forever,” Peter replied, turning on his heel. “And Cole is the last heir.”

  “Is your palace so unsecured that you worry about your father breaking in here?” she asked him. He glared at her.

  “If your entire reign ended because you could not keep your family safe, Ariel, how would you feel?”

  “I would do everything I could,” she said. “But if I believed I was the God-granted leade
r, I would probably also accept that God ended my reign.”

  “Huh,” he said. “But not today.”

  “Not today,” she said.

  It was not an easy process. Thomas was considered an enemy of the kingdom, and they would have to be careful bringing him in. In addition, Nicholas was not happy about exposing Rosa to Ariel again. However, he couldn't deny them, given what was at stake. The fact that two Halloway heirs may be hiding behind dragon blood was fascinating, and also baffling.

  “What happened to them?” he asked Cole as they waited for Thomas in the antechamber. Peter, himself, had gone to retrieve the troublesome dragon. “Is that why they died out?”

  “I don't know, maybe,” Cole replied. “No one knows why there suddenly weren't any more. But if they started relationships with dragons….”

  “More likely, they were forced into relationships with dragons and then killed,” Nicholas said. “As much as I don't want to demonize our kind, it's more likely. Look how desperate Father was to get his hands on Halloway blood.”

  “I bet you this means I'm immortal,” Cole grinned, and Nicholas rolled his eyes.

  “Prince Cole, annoying the universe for all eternity.”

  “I should put that on a sign,” Cole replied. “Perhaps that will be the motto on my banner.”

  “In which case, I'm glad I won't be around forever,” Nicholas replied.

  They felt a sudden whoosh and stepped back as Peter and Thomas materialized.

  Peter had taken no chances and had Thomas shackled with his arms behind his back. He looked grim, and Cole could only imagine how awkward it was. After all, Peter had essentially stolen his wife, Yvette, from Thomas' clutches. There were many versions of the story, but none of them created good feelings between the two of them. It was only because of Yvette's pleas that Thomas lived at all.

  Thomas was mostly silent, not quite impressed with the whole process.

  “Stand up,” Peter pulled at him, trying to get him to not make a fuss. “You don't have to say anything.”

  “He does have to say things,” Cole said. “But to me, later. For now, into the throne room you go.”

  “You are not my king,” Thomas snarled at Peter. Peter raised an eyebrow.

  “Really?” he said, and waved his hand. It was supposed to invoke a spell called majesty, which forced them to bow. Thomas gritted his teeth, fighting it. But then, as the doors opened and Yvette turned around, his knees weakened. “And is she not your queen?”