I looked up in surprise. Wasn’t he worried we’d be overhead? But then we were in a spot surrounded by empty tables, probably out of earshot of the other Danaan enjoying a meal. I wondered how many of them would happily make a meal of me if I wasn’t off-limits. But I was with Slade, and no one messed with Airm Marfach.
I licked sweet sauce off my bottom lip and noted how his gaze tracked the movement. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?” he asked, his attention still on my mouth.
“Live amongst them and pretend not to feel, day in, day out.”
His attention flicked up to settled on my eyes. He sat back and crossed his muscular arms across his powerful chest. “It gets easier with practice… For some of us, at least. Those that can’t pretend, die. It’s a pretty good incentive to keep your feelings hidden.”
“And you managed to get a top spot as Regency bodyguard? Why put yourself in the spotlight?”
He picked up what looked like a lamb chop and stripped it in a single motion. Fuck he knew how to eat.
He licked his lips and shrugged. “Airm Marfach is untouchable. No one looks too closely, no one dares question.”
There was something dark in his eyes. Memories. Pain. A story. But this wasn’t the place for that.
“I’m safest where I am, and it allows me to help others, to shield them.” He added more rice to my plate. “And it allowed me to get close to you and find out there’s a way out. A weapon.”
“Will you be ready in five days?”
“Yes, we’ll be ready, but what if Killion refuses to help us?”
I locked gazes with him. “He won’t. When he gets here, then we’ll make a plan.”
He nodded. “I’ll arrange an extraction point in readiness and tell the others to be prepared for the signal to congregate.”
That was all we could do.
“Finish your food,” he said. “You have an armor fitting in a half-hour.”
* * *
The armor was malleable and light, sewn into my long-sleeved tunic at the chest and into the thighs of my britches. The elbows and knees were padded, and the whole ensemble was perfect for the motions required in battle.
Just as expected, the whole outfit was in deep Winter blue, with thigh-high leather boots and a head sleeve to tuck my hair into.
Rose hung it on a hook on my wardrobe then disappeared into the bathroom to run my bath.
I wanted her gone. Her presence was like an invasion. I wanted Blossom back. My stomach rolled with unease.
What if it was too late? What if Blossom was already dead?
No. I needed to stay positive and focus.
I had a trial to win.
“Your bath is ready, mistress,” Rose said.
“Thank you. You can go now.”
“But you’ll require supper and—”
“I’ll get it myself.”
Her eyes rounded. “But Mistress, it’s my duty to serve you.”
“And you can serve me by leaving me be. I need time alone to mentally prepare for the blood trial tomorrow.”
“Of course. I understand. We’re all looking forward to it very much.”
“Looking forward to the potential of blood and gore?” The words spilled out before I could check them.
She studied me for a long beat then smiled, cold and chilling. “Of course.”
Oh god, she made me sick. “Get out.”
She glided from the room, and I slammed and locked the door behind her. Breathe. It was going to be okay.
I retrieved my sword from behind the dresser and sat with it braced on my thighs. “You awake?”
Always. He sounded sad.
“Are you okay?”
I don’t know. I have this feeling. I can’t describe it. I think… I think I feel…empty.
I ran my hand down the blade, and a tingle ran up my arm as a hollowness bloomed in my chest. Loneliness. “You’re lonely.”
Pfft, I’m a sword. I don’t get lonely. Thirsty for blood and battle but never lonely.
Except he was. I could feel it. “You’re a sword who thinks and speaks; it’s not a stretch to think you have emotions.”
Silence greeted me.
Sometimes I feel I had more once. More than this…
“But you don’t remember?”
Nothing until the first you.
“Well, you’re not going to be lonely any longer. You get to stay by my side.”
I do?
“Yeah. Tomorrow we go into battle.”
11
The bath was just what I needed to unwind. I stepped into my room, towel wrapped snugly around me, and froze as a shadow detached itself from the wall and drifted closer.
Umbra.
In my room.
And not just any Umbra, the same one that had accosted Slade and me in the biotech zone, although I had no idea how the fuck I could be sure of that.
“What do you want?”
“To see for sure.”
I hugged the towel tighter around me. “See what?”
“We were blind, but now we see. We were asleep, but now we awaken, because he awakens, and you… You have her essence.” He bowed. “We will serve you like we serve him. All you need do is call, and we will be ready.”
“Call?”
“Aleksi. My name… My name is Aleksi.”
The Umbra melted away.
What the actual fuck was going on? Who was he talking about… Killion? And what did he mean that I had her essence? Killion had called me his trigger.
I had no idea what that meant, but maybe it explained why I was attracted to him. He’d had to leave in a hurry, and he had a lot of explaining to do. Part of me wondered why he hadn’t returned to check on me, but then he’d said he needed to recharge and who knew how much energy it took to transport himself the way he did?
Did he know about the blood trials?
I turned on all the lights and stared at every corner of the room until I was sure the Umbra was gone, and only then did I drop the towel and dress.
* * *
My stomach growled as I made my way to the pod that would take me to the upper floors and the canteen where, hopefully, I’d be able to get some food.
Slade had given me a pass that allowed me access to certain areas of the Keep. According to Aspen, I was now a member of his court and was to be afforded some autonomy.
He really believed I wouldn’t run. He was confident he had me under control. Part of me wished I could see his face when I vanished into thin air in a few days.
The pod whisked me up to the domestic floors where moonlight and starlight bathed the metallic corridors in silver.
I passed a few Danaan, but nowhere near as many as usual. The cafeteria doors were locked. Fuck. No food.
My stomach growled again.
This was Slade’s fault. He’d given it a taste of food and now it wanted more. Well, it was only fair that he provide me with sustenance.
After a couple of wrong turns, I finally found myself at Slade’s quarters. He might have been on duty or out, but whatever.
I knocked and waited.
Several seconds passed. I knocked again, heart sinking because maybe he was out.
No answer.
Shit, what if he was asleep. My stomach wasn’t a good enough reason to wake him. I was about to turn away when the door opened.
Slade stood there, bare-chested, water skating down his powerful pecs, towel slung low around his hips so the V of muscle was clearly visible. My pulse kicked up, and I dragged my gaze from the lip of that towel up his abs and settled on his face.
A concerned face. “Danika? Is everything okay?”
My stomach chose that moment to grumble loudly.
His gaze dropped to the source of the sound, and the corner of his mouth turned up in half a smile. “Come in. I can fix that for you.”
He left the door open in invitation and headed back into the room. I stepped inside, closed the door, and turned to face his�
Naked ass!
Motherfucker.
He’d tugged off the towel and was drying his hair with his back to me. His powerful back tapered down to an ass, a fucking awesome ass. I turned away, neck and cheeks burning.
“Fucking hell, Slade.”
“What?”
“You’re naked.”
There was a beat of silence. “Oh, yes. I forget human sensibilities. Nakedness is natural to my kind.”
“The Tuatha?”
“No, the Danaan descended from the people of Jarka, one of the planets the Tuatha…visited.”
They’d destroyed that world too, no doubt.
“Tuatha have always been travelers of the stars.” Slade’s voice grew muffled, and I imagined he was pulling on a shirt. Please be putting on a shirt. “They actually gathered their abilities and mystical powers from the first planets they visited. Falias, Gorias, Findias, and Murias. The Tuatha de Danaan were explorers, gatherers of knowledge back then. Rumor even has it that this isn’t their first trip to Earth.”
Auntiji had told me this too. That the shining ones had been here before.
“You can turn around now,” Slade said.
I faced him to find him dressed in a vest and loose slacks. His feet were bare, and his chestnut hair was damp and towel-tousled. He was massive and probably scary as fuck when he wanted to be, but right now, to me, he looked adorable. My chest did a strange fluttery thing, and my stomach grumbled again.
“Slade, please feed me.”
He chuckled. “Come with me.”
* * *
We were headed back to the canteen.
“But it’s closed.”
“Not to me,” he said.
He swiped his pass, and the doors opened to admit us. Laughter spilled out as Slade pushed opened the doors, and it halted abruptly as we entered.
A group of Danaan was sat around a table, and all eyes were on us. Three males with strange otherworld eyes and hair in various shades of blue. One of them had ram horns. There was also a female with small tusks.
“At ease,” Slade said. “Danika is with us.”
“Winter’s Blade?” one of the male Danaan asked.
“Yes,” Slade said.
He led the way to the table and pulled out a chair for me opposite the female Danaan.
The table was laden with plates of food, and my mouth watered at the sight of what looked like fried chicken.
“Eat,” Slade said. “You’ll need your strength tomorrow.”
“The fucking trials,” the ram horned guy sneered. “Bastards.”
“Is it true you can get us out?” the tusked Danaan asked, her gaze almost challenging.
“I’m going to try.”
“Try?” She snorted and looked to Slade. “You didn’t say try.”
Slade sighed. “Yuno, please.”
“No.” I looked at each of them. “Yuno is right. She has a right to know the odds. You all do. Our escape depends on the help of my mentor, Killion.”
“Killion?” Yuno looked confused. “Who’s Killion?”
And so I told them about Killion. How he’d saved my life. How he’d been held prisoner here, how I’d set him free, and how he’d promised to come back for me and bring down the Tuatha reign. Once I was done, there was silence.
I let them stew for a moment and take in all I’d told them, and it was only once Yuno’s shoulders relaxed and she sat back in her seat that I spoke again.
“If anyone can get you out, he can. You just need to be ready.”
Yuno nodded slowly. She was like Slade. Descended from the same race, no doubt. But she was petite and delicate, whereas he was a monolith. Her gaze flicked to him now, lingering on his face. I looked up at him, expecting him to be looking back at her, but he was frowning at the ram-horned Danaan.
“Where’s Lax?” Slade asked.
Silence swelled at the table, and it was Yuno who broke it. “He was taken.”
“Fuck.” Slade exhaled, and he ran a hand over his face. “Fuck it.”
“Taken?” I looked up at Slade. “By the cold ones?”
Slade’s expression was somber as he piled rice onto my plate. “The second one of us this month.”
I didn’t get it. “But you guys were laughing when we came in.”
Slade put chicken onto my plate, and Yuno tracked his movements, her jaw tightening.
“What should we do, huh?” she demanded. “Cry? What will that achieve? Lax is gone, like so many others, and all we can do is remember them fondly and live for as long as we’re able.”
Bitterness saturated her tone, and the sorrow that hovered over this company was suddenly an acute ache in my bones. They were moving forward the only way they knew how. Hiding here together, where they could express their emotions safely. This was unfair. It was wrong. They needed to be free.
I had to free them.
Slade added some vegetables to my plate. “Eat. Tomorrow is a big day.”
Lax was taken and so was Blossom. Maybe there was a way to get them both out. If there was a chance, I had to try. I just hoped Killion was on board.
* * *
“It’s a weapon of conquest,” the Autumn King argued from the holoscreen.
I stood in the assembly room, empty of bodies now, with just the holoscreen split into four to showcase the monarchs of each court.
I’d dressed in my blood trial outfit, and my sword was strapped to my back.
The Winter King’s eyes bored into mine. “The sword chose you?” he asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Something passed across his features, a look of calculation, but it was so fleeting I may have imagined it.
He smiled slightly. “It was agreed that she could take a weapon of her choice.”
“But—”
“No restrictions were placed on that,” Aspen added, cutting off the Autumn King’s objection.
The Autumn King inclined his head, but there was a snide smile on his face. Fucker knew that no sword would help me against the dead. He was simply making the objections we’d expected. Unknown to him, I had the herbal concoction to stop my heart and put me on the same plane as the dead in my pocket, along with a pocket watch to mark my three hours. It was enchanted to start working as soon as my heart stopped.
I could do this.
“The carriage to take you to the first trial awaits,” the Summer Queen said.
It was time.
12
Slade sat opposite me in the carriage Summer had sent. I’d been permitted an escort—someone to bring my body back, no doubt. The windows were blacked out and there was no sound but the rumble of wheels. It had been just after eight in the morning when we left the Keep, with drones hovering overhead ready to track our journey, and it was coming up to eleven-thirty now.
We’d barely spoken, afraid of slipping up and saying something we shouldn’t. Who knew what recording devices Summer had planted? Hell, there could have been hidden cameras tracking my every move.
Slade’s expression was blank, disinterested, and cold. Perfect Tuatha mode. And even though I knew he had no choice but to be this way, after almost three hours of it, I was beginning to doubt my sanity. Had I dreamed up the gentle, funny Danaan who had fed and protected me?
But then I’d catch a flash of warmth in his eyes, just a quick flicker, and the memory of his honey gaze and the heat of his mouth on mine would sear me. Enough to quell my crazy doubts.
I needed out of this box. I tugged at my collar for the tenth time. “How much farther?”
Slade didn’t reply, but the carriage began to slow. My stomach clenched in fear and anticipation. I needed to get on with it, get it done, and put it behind me.
The carriage came to a standstill. I locked eyes with Slade, and something passed between us—a frisson that relayed good luck, or maybe I was fucking imagining it.
The door opened, and the buzz of drones filled the air.
It was showtime.
<br /> I stepped out of the carriage, and the door closed behind me. We were on a winding track at the foot of a hill, and there was nothing but greenery around me and clear blue skies above. The sun beat warm and welcoming against my skin, a sharp contrast to winter’s icy kiss. If I hadn’t been about to get hunted, I’d be reveling in this weather. But this was no picnic. This was a blood trial.
A drone carrying a small screen buzzed down to hover in front of me.
I didn’t recognize the face on screen, but the Tuatha was wearing Summer’s colors. This must be Summer’s answer to Minimus Lowland.
“Winter’s Blade,” she said. “Your Blood Trial awaits atop the hill in the midst of the stones. Climb the hill, step into the circle, and you will face the challenge set by Summer. The circle and the land surrounding it will be your arena.”
I looked up the hill. And another drone zoomed in so close I thought it was about to kiss me. I slapped it away with a curse.
“Let’s do this.”
My boot falls were muffled by the soft grass as I climbed the hill. The drones buzzed behind me, drones from each court, streaming my progress. I wanted to give them all the finger, but pissing Minimus off might give him an excuse to ignore Aspen’s warning and go after my family. I had to play the part that was assigned to me.
Gray and black rock rose out of the hill like stone fingers reaching for the sky.
These were the stones.
They grew wider and taller as I approached, and a strange energy seemed to saturate the air. This was a place of power. Every hair on my body attested to it. To the left of the hill was a canopy of trees, and to the right was a river and woodland beyond. I continued to climb until I was on flat land, with the ring of mammoth stones facing me.
“Into the stones Winter’s Blade,” the drone with the screen said from beside me.
I took a deep breath and strode between two of the rocks. A ripple passed over my skin as I stepped into the circle, and suddenly the whirr of the drones was muted and distant.
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