by K. F. Breene
“So you had no contact with the magical world for fifteen years?” Zander asked, his confusion evident.
“None. I read the news, but that was it,” Dylan responded.
“Then how did Demigod Kieran find you?”
I held my breath, and Magnus’s eyes returned to me. I had a feeling the guy could read me even though I was trying to keep all my emotions bottled up.
They couldn’t know Harding had told me about him.
“They said they noticed the pattern.” Dylan scratched the side of his head. “I wasn’t as subtle as I’d intended to be with my magic. I tried to use it as sparingly as I could, but…”
“The weather has been increasingly strange these last years. Even the last decade. You expect me to believe Demigod Kieran’s people just…happened to notice more lightning than normal?” Zander’s gaze fell on me. “What is it you are hiding, young lady?”
How’d he know I was the one hiding something? Was my face as red as it felt?
“We heard a rumor that Dylan’s grave was empty,” I blurted, trying to play it cool, like Daisy always did when she lied. Thank God they didn’t have an Authenticator here to magically confirm that I was lying. “The plot was there, but nothing was in it, basically. Amber found it on some conspiracy theory chat room or other, I think. Some guy used one of those sonar machines or something, I don’t know. I was only half listening.” I shrugged. “She is great at her job. She and Henry did the research, and the evidence seemed to fit, so we checked it out.”
Zander leaned back in his chair, clearly getting agitated. “A conspiracy theory chat room… Have I heard of this site?”
“There are as many of those as there are souls in the beyond,” Magnus said. “I’m sure Amber could show it to you.”
“I’m still unclear on what it is that we are trying to assess,” the regal woman beside Zander said, her patience clearly thinning. “Are we trying to ascertain if he killed Gianna? The reason for his escape is pretty clear—anyone in his situation would’ve run if they’d had the chance.”
“We are trying to assess how Demigod Kieran was able to find the prized Thunderstroke and Demigod Zander was not,” Magnus said with a little smile playing across his lips.
Anger infused Zander’s expression. “As I see it, there are two issues on the table. The first is who killed Gianna. The fact that Dylan is alive and has been in hiding makes him a suspect. The second is the legitimacy of the blood oath he took with Kieran. I would hate the Thunder—Dylan to be subject to a bad situation a second time.”
“Why didn’t we question Demigod Kieran about this when he was here?” a woman at the end asked.
“Because it is easier to badger the hired help.” Magnus’s smile burned a little brighter. The guy at the end grinned, leaning on his forearms. It was clear only Zander cared about this issue.
Zander’s jaw clenched, and I wondered if maybe he and my father weren’t the best of friends. I needed to mention it to Kieran.
“Look…” Zander paused. “I’m simply trying to assess how he ended up in Demigod Kieran’s employ when he was presumed dead. It is one thing to follow up on a cloak-and-dagger story and quite another to find a living Thunderstroke hiding in a Chester territory. Something isn’t making sense here. Something is missing.”
“As I see it…” the regal woman said slowly, and suddenly all the air dried up in the room. It wasn’t magic, it was her intensity. “Someone who’s trying to escape doesn’t attempt to kill himself in the process. But if you want to open up an inquisition regarding Gianna’s death, fine. I propose you do it on your own time, however. That situation is of little importance to me.”
“Agreed,” Magnus said.
“Agreed,” two others chorused.
“Fine, fine,” Zander cut in, clearly seeing the writing on the wall. “But what about—”
“I chose Demigod Kieran,” Dylan cut in, and lifted his chin. I knew it wasn’t easy to admit that to someone of Zeus given the way Zeus people traditionally stuck together. “You can question the Chester townspeople, or simply check the timeline. There is proof to back up these claims. I went to Kieran. I accepted the oath from him. I’m satisfied where I am.”
“Yes, there. See?” The regal woman checked her watch. “Genuine. You can tell these things. I don’t think there is anything more for us to do here.”
Zander’s stare beat into Dylan, and I knew the holes in the story were still bothering him. He wasn’t about to let this go, not when it concerned a magic he clearly wanted.
“All who think his testimony is valid, say yay,” Magnus said.
“Wait a moment.” Zander held up his hand. “Wait. I am not clear on the whole story. I wish to think about this some more. Something isn’t adding up.”
“I am satisfied with the testimony and I have places to be.” Rufus braced his hands on the arms of his chair, getting ready to stand. “You lost out on a precious Thunderstroke. Magnus didn’t get to kill his kid… You guys can have drinks about it and remember the good old times before you instituted these tedious hearings. Now, if you’ll—”
“I vote we table this for now until I can get to the bottom of the discrepancy,” Zander said, his voice booming. Nervousness exploded in my belly. I’d come in here thinking I was under fire. I hadn’t known Dylan would be tossed into the flames with me.
“Fine. Yay. Whatever.” Rufus stood.
“Yay.” The regal woman stood as well.
The rest muttered their assent, eager to be gone.
My heart was beating too quickly. I could sense the concern from Kieran through the link.
Now we’d have Zander poking into our affairs, and if he found out who’d really told me about Dylan, he’d be none too pleased. We’d first summoned Harding with a pocket watch originally stolen from Zander, after all, not to mention I was being trained by someone Zander had killed. There were all sorts of skeletons in my closet, and I didn’t want Zander knowing about any of them.
“Dylan, ride with us.” Kieran pushed open the door to the Summit building and paused for me to go through. Anger and annoyance burned through the soul link.
“Yes, sir,” Dylan said, walking out after me, the others following.
The limos waited where we’d left them, each of the drivers standing beside an opened door. I got into the lead limo and scooted over so Kieran and Dylan could follow me in. As soon as we got moving, Kieran let out a big sigh.
“Tell me what happened. Start from the beginning,” Kieran said.
Working together, Dylan and I recounted what had been said, pausing for more precise questions and left turning occasionally to explain what the other Demigods had said and done. When we were finished, Kieran stared out the window for a moment in silence.
“That is…surprising,” he said softly as we neared the lodge. “I hadn’t picked up on his concerns. I had no idea he would try to pull Dylan in. Damn it, some of these old-timers are wily.”
“He’s not happy with the story,” I said, bracing my hand to my stomach as nervous butterflies exploded through my ribcage. “He sees the obvious holes.”
Kieran nodded slowly, still staring out the window. “The holes in Dylan’s half of the story have nothing to do with us. He can look into that all he wants—maybe he’ll even uncover the killer, who knows. It won’t have anything to do with us. Or Dylan. Your story…”
Another wave of butterflies fluttered in my stomach.
“Still has nothing to do with me,” Dylan said softly.
Kieran leaned back and slung his arm across the seatback. “Exactly. Alexis working with Harding has nothing to do with you. There are absolutely no grounds to take you from this team. Zander can scratch and sniff all he wants; he won’t come up with anything, especially since the other Demigods will surely cock-block him if he tries to get sneaky.”
“But the thing with Harding will not look good for me,” I said, now feeling a little sick. “It’ll make him question me all over again.
Your mark won’t mean a thing if they think I am too dangerous to live.”
Kieran brushed my hair away from my face. “It’ll be okay. We’ll handle this. He’ll never find out. Tell me about the spirit that peered in during the proceedings. You only mentioned that in passing. It wasn’t Harding?”
I shook my head as we pulled up in front of the lodge, a smear of red catching my eye. Dylan leaned closer to the window and his mouth dropped open. “Oh crap.”
“What is it?” I asked as he pushed open the door.
The second the limo stopped, he was out, jogging toward the lodge. Kieran got out next, and a flurry of emotion rolled through the link.
“What is it?” I asked again, taking his hand and letting him help me out.
Shouts made me glance right, and I caught Thane and Zorn running for the lodge. The rest of the guys and gals hurried out of their rides, their faces grim and movements urgent. In a moment, it all came together.
The walkway was awash with blood. It dripped off the concrete and into the dirt. Drops of red had splattered across white and yellow flower petals. A dark smear ran down the wall near the gaping door. The guys had charged in too quickly to bother closing it.
Just beyond the puddle of blood, Chester had been written in a red, shaky scrawl.
My chest constricted as I noticed a lump of flesh off to the side of the path, so mutilated it was unidentifiable.
“Oh God,” I said, tears prickling my eyes and panic clawing at my mind. “Oh God, Da—”
“She’s good.” Thane appeared in the doorway and gave us a thumbs-up. “She’s good. They’re both good. They didn’t even know this had happened. They’ve been inside the whole time.”
“We got a pig, people,” Bria said, kneeling by the lump of flesh. “This poor porker lost his life for a hate crime. Ain’t that some bullshit.”
“I’ll check the cameras.” Henry jogged toward the house, stomping on a couple of flowers to avoid the walkway. Amber followed, taking more care to leave the plant life intact.
Red looked down on the dead thing. “Is it fresh? We have a barbecue out back. Might as well cook it.”
“Yeah, good call.” Bria stood and looked over the blood-scrawled word. “Think this is a threat, or a prank?”
Kieran took my hand as I veered around the mess toward the house, wanting to check on Daisy. “We’d have to have some sick friends for this to be a prank,” he said. “Thane, call headquarters and get someone to clean this up.”
Jerry pointed at Bria. “Maybe her kind did it. They have a thing for corpses.”
“Nah.” Bria followed us into the house. “My kind would carve ‘Chester’ into the side of the animal, stuff a spirit in its carcass, and make it dance on the front porch. Which is exactly what I’d do to the assholes who did this if that pig was in anyway useable. It’s too chewed up, though.”
“Sorry I mentioned it,” Jerry grumbled.
“I figured you would be.”
Inside, the house was as we’d left it, calm and quiet.
“They got as far as the door, but didn’t cross the threshold,” Red said.
“Crossing the threshold would have been a territory violation, and I could have dealt with them myself,” Kieran growled. “Which they would’ve known.”
“We need to keep that little gremlin with us at all times,” Red said. “This was a threat, and if they get a chance, they’ll follow it up with steel.”
16
Daisy
Daisy sat in the wood chair overlooking the crystalline ocean, the white sands of the public beach not three feet from her chair. Mordecai waited beside her, not wanting to leave her by herself. Who knew what could sneak along the beach and snatch her from the edges of Kieran’s territory?
Daisy was only out here because she was curious.
“We shouldn’t be out here without one of the crew,” Mordecai mumbled, only the third time he’d said it since she’d snuck out of the house.
“The lodge is just a hop, step, and skip away, Mordecai, we’ll be fine. No one is going to get us.”
“Except maybe whoever left the dead pig for you earlier.”
“Oh my God, are you serious? Did you hit your head and lose a few brain cells?” She scowled at him. “Those people came by when Kieran and Lexi were away. They very clearly did not want to get caught sneaking around a Demigod’s territory. No way are they going to come by when the whole crew is here, are you mad? Think!”
He huffed and looked away down the beach. He knew she was right; he was just worried. That was his problem—he worried too much. It would make him gray before his time.
The people that had left her the unimaginative pig’s blood love note had been smart enough to hide their identities from the cameras mounted on the front porch by wearing nondescript hooded brown robes. But they hadn’t been smart enough to hide their shoes or take off their jewelry. One had a distinctive silver ring, another wore runners, and the rest of the group had on boots in various colors and styles. Any of those characteristics wouldn’t stand out much on its own, but she’d be looking for a group of people.
Lexi better not keep Daisy from going after them. She knew Zorn would be down to help her.
“You’re not going like that, right?” Mordecai pointed at her hoody. He was trying to light a fire under her butt.
They were going to Magnus’s house in a bit, the invite delivered soon after Lexi and Kieran had returned from the hearing for the mark.
“No, I am not going like this. I have to change into a dress that cost over two grand.” She couldn’t help laughing at that. “Did you ever think, in a million years, we’d have the money to buy such pricey clothes?”
“It’s a waste. Fabric doesn’t cost that much. Neither does honest labor.”
“True. But it does have a label, and the people here notice those kinds of things.”
“They’re idiots for not noticing what a waste it is. Think of how many people you could feed with that money.”
Mordecai might play nice, but so many parts of this world disgusted him. He wasn’t overly enthused about hobnobbing with important people.
Honestly, neither was Daisy. The crew Kieran had assembled was awesome, but a lot of the other magical people in this place were self-important snobs. She couldn’t stand their voices.
Daisy sighed and squinted up at the falling sun. She did need to get dressed and ready to go.
“Today was boring,” she said, and stretched for no reason.
It took her a moment to realize Mordecai had gone rigid. She followed his gaze down the beach, where two stocky characters glided along, their movements fluid and graceful despite the sand.
“Have you seen any shifters yet?” she murmured, keeping her voice down so their superior hearing wouldn’t pick up her words. They were too far away now, but moving quickly. They weren’t just out for a stroll.
“No, not in the teams we’ve battled.”
“But those are shifters, right?”
He didn’t answer for a moment before looking out at the ocean. “Yup. They must’ve heard about the shifter kid that got kicked out of his pack. Jack warned me when he was alive that shifters act funny about someone that was exiled. Some get aggressive toward outcasts, some view them as easy pickings and want to bully, others are curious why they were cast out, which often turns into a challenge… If they’re out here looking for me, they have an agenda.”
“But you were a kid. A sick kid, at that. Holding you responsible for being cast out by a shit alpha is crap.”
“The type of people that would pick on an outcast aren’t the type known for their thinking ability,” Mordecai said dryly.
A thrill arrested her. Such a good idea to sneak out.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, leaning back and taking on an unaffected pose.
“We are underage, alone, and it would be stupid to engage. We let them go by.”
A good idea to sneak out, a bad idea to bring him.
“They aren’t our enemies.”
“I can make them our enemies in, like, two seconds flat. I got a way with words, Mordie, don’t you worry. You want a fight, I’ll get you that fight.”
He gave her a flat look. “We both know which of us wants to fight.” Looking at the ocean again, he added, “You’re reckless.”
“Tell me you aren’t curious. Tell me, I dare you. No, don’t even bother, you’d be lying. You want to know how you stack up against your own kind. It’s only natural.”
“And I suppose you wonder how you’d stack up against your own kind.”
“Give me a break— I’d rock any Chester’s world.”
His sigh was slight, but it spoke volumes. Oh yeah, he was curious. He hadn’t gotten much action yesterday. Neither of them had. The taste they’d been given hadn’t been enough to satisfy the craving their training had developed. It hadn’t been enough to really show where they stood.
“Can you smell them?” she whispered excitedly. A shifter could glean plenty of information from watching and smelling an opponent. Powerful shifters smelled powerful, and they held themselves a certain way. Daisy was still learning the nuances, and obviously smell would forever be a blind spot to her dulled senses, but she had a pretty good handle on how these things worked.
“Yes. I’m downwind.”
“Aaaand?” She watched his body language. Excitement bubbled through him, she could see it. Anticipation. “You’re more dominant, aren’t you?”
“I won’t know unless I fight.”
“Estimate, jackass.”
“I remember when I saw Will Green’s man in that strip mall a year or so ago. He scared the crap out of me. He was by far more dominant. Everything in me wanted to turn and run. It was Lexi that handled things.”
