Cast in Hellfire: An Urban Fantasy Romance (The Mage Craft Series Book 2) (16 page)

“I don’t think I can do that to anyone who’s healthy, and Marion’s not usually near death.”

“
Usually
.” The prince laughed again. “Oh man. I can’t wait to see her face when I tell her about this.”

Anger swelled in Seth. He advanced on Konig. “You’re not going to tell her anything I just told you.”

“Why not?”

Seth just stared at him. He let the anger show—the pain that he usually cloaked under a thousand layers of carefully maintained calm.

He let himself show the hunger for death.

Something must have visibly changed in his face, because Konig took a step back, alarmed.

It took him a moment to recover, but not before he started sweating.

“I see the pickup,” Konig said. He was right. It had finally appeared from the fog between the Bronze Gates, exactly where they had left it. The bodies of the Hounds had gone missing.

Seth let out a long, slow breath, reassuming his mask of calm. “Yeah. Let’s get in and find Marion.”

And then she could go somewhere better than Sheol—and far safer than being trapped with a man who couldn’t stop thinking about killing her.

M
arion waited
in the open gate for Konig and Seth to return. It felt like she was alone in Duat, but she didn’t drop her guard; she kept her bow and arrow at ready.

For the first time since landing on the banks of the river Mnemosyne, she felt calm. She was no longer afraid.

She was exactly where she was meant to be—just a few minutes away from finding the Canope, once Konig and Seth located her.

The fact that her fear had disappeared was its own kind of terrifying.

But she was numb to it.

The power of the gods weighed heavily on her mind, like a sedative holding her in place.

She wasn’t certain how much time passed before the merchant’s pickup appeared on the other side of the open gate. She only knew that time did pass, and that the pickup came, and she was no longer alone. Seth had arrived. He was meant to be there, just as she was.

The bumper stopped a few inches away from her shins. The men leaped out.

“Marion!” Konig reached her first, sweeping her into his arms with a grip so tight that it was painful. She didn’t like when he grabbed her like that—especially not now, when she felt sickly all over. The power of the gods could only buoy her so much in that environment.

She pushed him away gently. “Are you guys okay?”

“Of course we are. What about you?” Konig asked. “How did you get the gate open?”

Marion arched an eyebrow. “I knocked.”

Emotion skittered over Konig’s mind. With all of the doors that had been opening in Marion’s mind, she found herself easily reading his thoughts: his annoyance, his anger, even his insecurity. It bothered him that he hadn’t needed to rescue Marion from Duat. He’d wanted to ride in on his white horse to impress her.

“The guards?” Konig asked, his expression immutable.

“I told them to leave me alone.” She spread her hands before her like she had when she’d cast magic in the past. There was no light now. She didn’t need spells with the power awakening inside of her. “Nothing can stand between me and what I’ve lost.” She pointed to the temple. “My Canope is there.”

Konig turned to Seth. “Did you hear that?”

“Yeah,” Seth said. It seemed to take physical effort for him to look down at his feet. Whatever was going on in his head was much more subtle than Konig’s, but Marion could feel around the edge of it.

He felt disgusted. And worried.

Marion’s display of power didn’t threaten him the way that it did Konig, but Seth didn’t seem to be much of a fan.

“Let’s go.” Konig startled Marion by grabbing her elbow so hard that she couldn’t pull free.

“What are you doing?” she asked when he began walking her toward the pickup—away from the temple, toward the exit to Duat.

“I’m taking you home,” he said. “To the Winter Court.”

“What?
No
. I’m so close!” He dragged her through the gates that she’d had opened by sheer force of will, and Marion reached for Seth. He was the one who was supposed to be there with her. Both of them were fated, dropped into Sheol by the gods, and Konig was trying to ruin destiny. “Don’t let him take me!”

Seth didn’t move to help her. He didn’t even look up.

Magic appeared at Marion’s fingertips, glowing with white lightning.

Konig’s hand touched her skull before she could cast.

“Sleep,” he said. “We’ll be home soon.”

Sidhe magic breathed through her skull.

The last thing she saw before passing out was Seth turning away from her to walk toward the temple alone.

M
arion woke
up because she plowed into six-foot-deep snow. She was instantly buried, instantly freezing, and instantly furious.

Konig had used his magic to knock her unconscious.

He had taken her from the Canope.

The fury that surged within her was stronger than the smell of brimstone in Sheol. She clawed her way to the top of the snow bank, and she emerged screaming, punching her fists in the air.

Konig was already melting the snow a few feet away. He’d fallen nearby, standing underneath the shimmering black disc that suggested a ley line juncture.

“What did you do?” Marion roared, staggering toward him. The snow weighed heavily on her clothes. She had dressed for the warmth of the Nether Worlds, not for the Winter Court. The wind sucked her breath away.

Konig grabbed her. His hands felt warm for once. “I’m saving you, dummy. Stay close. I can jump us right to Niflheimr.” The castle of ice was on the horizon, suspended in the middle of a frozen ocean with no path to reach it aside from a narrow bridge.

Marion didn’t want Konig to touch her. She shoved him away. “
What did you do
?”

“Did leaving Sheol screw up your hearing?”

“I heard you say that you’re rescuing me, but that’s not what it seems like!” Marion was barely coherent with her teeth chattering so hard. “I was almost to the Canope!”

“Seth’s going to get it,” Konig said dismissively.

Seth
. Seth had seen Konig taking her, and he hadn’t tried to fight. He’d just watched.

The goodbye had been obvious without needing to speak a single word.

“You—you colluded against me! Since when are you and Seth friends?” Marion asked, backing away quickly when Konig tried to take her hand again. She stumbled and fell into the snow.

“Stop being stupid and let me take you to Niflheimr,” Konig said.

Anger sent magic shooting down her arms. Electricity lifted her hair around her shoulders. “Stupid?
Stupid
?”

“You were dying in Sheol. You should be thanking me.”

“Thanking you for taking me further away from my memories?” Her skin glowed white with ethereal power as she crawled out of the snow again. “
Why
?”

“Come on, princess,” Konig said. “Can we at least talk about this somewhere warm?”

“No! You
will
take me back to Duat, and you’ll do it right now!”

“If I take you back to Sheol, Seth is going to kill you.”

Marion’s magic sputtered. “What?”

“Oh, princess. I hadn’t wanted to tell you, but…” He shrugged. The glow was returning to his skin as well, now that they were back in the Middle Worlds. “Seth confessed to me that Genesis gave him a killing urge, which is manifesting in the desire to kill you. He asked that I remove you from Sheol before he acted on it. Your safety is always my highest priority. That’s why I dragged you back to the ley lines.”

Her magic flickered one more time and then went out. The cold struck Marion anew, like knives buried in her flesh. “You’re lying.”

“When have I ever lied to you?” Konig asked.

“Oh, let’s see. Like in the last two weeks, when you told me that Seth wanted a reward for saving my life?”

“He told you that was a lie? And you
believed
him?” He took Marion by the elbows, cradling her gently. She didn’t pull away again. “Princess, Seth has lied to you about
so
many things. He wants you dead, but he can’t risk killing you before you talk to the gods for him.”

Marion couldn’t bring herself to argue with Konig.

Seth had been acting strangely toward her for days. Ever since he’d returned to her for help after the summit, he’d been acting as though he couldn’t bear to look at her most of the time.

He wanted Marion dead.

She was so distracted by the realization dawning that she didn’t even notice when Konig gripped her arms.

“To Niflheimr,” he said.

The world bent around them. The black trees swayed.

With a
pop
, they vanished from the hilltop.

N
ori Harper had grown accustomed
to being uncomfortable in the service of the sidhe. The Autumn Court’s temperatures ranged from “standing in front of an air conditioner on full” to “taking an ice bath while eating a snow cone,” and she’d learned to compensate for that in order to disguise herself as an unseelie servant, one of the gentry. A glamour here, fashionable fur coat there, fine.

The Winter Court was ice-bath cold at its best moments, and few of its moments were good without its steward within the dimension.

“The spells have failed again,” reported Cyprian, standing from the altar he’d been examining. He stuffed his hands into fleece-lined gloves again. When even the unseelie were bundling up against the cold, it was bad.

“What can I do about it?” Nori asked, tensing her jaw so that her teeth would stop chattering.

“You? Nothing. These are tied by soul links to whoever rules the Winter Court.”

“So I need Marion,” she said.

“The sidhe ruler,” Cyprian said. “These spells are sidhe. Advanced stuff.”

Which meant that even Marion’s return to Niflheimr would only do so much…until Marion and Konig married.

“Thanks, Cyprian,” Nori said.

“Anything.”

They began trudging up the bridge into Niflheimr again, where at least the walls would shield them from the wind. “How are the girls adjusting to life in the palace?” she asked.

“They love it,” Cyprian said. “I haven’t seen them smile this much in years. It’s not just the stable environment, either. They’re getting along fantastically with Ymir.”

“That’s wonderful to hear,” Nori said. And it was a wonderful reminder of why she was suffering in this cold—for real people, with real problems.

She left Cyprian in the thinning refugee camp. They’d been relocating families as quickly as they could identify rooms that were structurally sound. A good third of them had already been moved. Cyprian had been offered one of the first rooms since he had children, but he’d declined in order to remain with Ymir.

The frost giant brightened to see Cyprian approaching. Nori lingered long enough to watch them meet, smiling through her shivers.

Then she retreated to the throne room—now the warmest, safest room in the palace, though that wasn’t saying much. It was the difference between temperatures at freezing and so far below freezing that eyelids froze shut. She still couldn’t shed any of her furs.

More of the Onyx Queen’s personal touch had appeared in the throne room. It looked like the icier version of the Autumn Court’s throne room now, from the hand-carved vases to the plush furniture. No number of tapestries depicting frolicking wood nymphs could conceal the room’s chill, though.

Nori was on her way to her quarters when she realized that the looking glass in the back was glowing.

She had never seen the mirror as anything but a dull, flat sheet that barely reflected the throne room from its dusty corner. Now she could see her face in it clearly, picked out in sharp relief. It poured silvery light across the floor.

She touched the frame gently. Magic buzzed against her fingertips.

Another face appeared in the mirror. This one belonged to a woman with round features and short, spiky hair that was a washed-out shade of blue. “Hey,” said the new woman. “Where’s Marion?”

Nori startled, stepping back. “Who are you?”

“The name’s Dana McIntyre. Marion’s expecting a call from me.”

“Through the looking glass?”

“That’s how you call someone in the Winter Court.” Dana rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. “Look, I’m Marion’s sister. She’ll want to hear from me.”

Dana McIntyre looked less like Marion than literally anyone else on the planet. Marion was long and lean with olive skin. Dana was stocky, muscled, almost spherical in form, with ruddy cheeks.

But who’d lie about information so easily checked?

“She’s not here,” Nori said.

Dana looked relieved. “Then you tell her what I found.” Her hand thrust through the looking glass, appearing in the Winter Court clutching a fistful of paper. Wisps of steam drifted from her warm flesh. “She’ll want these.”

Nori took the papers and the hand retreated. She was surprised to find that two of them were drawings she’d given to Seth—pictures of people who had tried to assassinate Marion. The backs of each page were covered in messy, square handwriting that surely must have belonged to Dana.

“Only one of the men was a triadist,” Dana said. “His name was Oliver Machado. He was found dead outside Ransom Falls, California a few days ago. The other two men are well-known mercenaries named Geoff Samuelson and Vasicek—just Vasicek. Werewolf and megaira. Vasicek is dead. Geoff was never found. I wrote down more details on the pages.”

Dana was right. This was all information Marion was going to want—she’d want it quite a lot. “Thank you,” Nori said.

Dana didn’t stick around. She vanished before the second word had come from Nori’s lips.

An instant later, the doors banged open.

“Don’t follow me!” Marion blew into the throne room with a gust of snow. Nori had to clutch the papers to her chest to keep them from getting ripped out of her hands.

Relief flooded Nori. “Oh, Marion, thank the gods!” She hurried away from the looking glass. “Did you find everything? Are your memories back?”

“Don’t talk to me right now,” Marion snapped before whirling on Konig, who was only a few feet behind her. She crackled with magic. Nori hadn’t seen Marion glow with power like that in weeks. “You have no right to drag me around! I’m not an object!”

“I have every right to protect my future bride,” Konig said.

Nori backpedaled, eyes widening. She shouldn’t have been privy to the argument. The magic lashing between them was making the whole throne room tremble.

Marion jabbed a finger into his chest. “See, that’s the problem. You’re so damn
presumptive
. First you think you can drag me back to the Winter Court from Sheol—”

“Seth told me to take you!”

“And you listened to him, rather than asking my opinion!” Marion shoved Konig. “You made up your mind about how to resolve the problems with the angels. You followed me to Sheol, even though I’ve made it perfectly clear I know what I’m doing. You talked to Seth and then dragged me to the Winter Court. Now you demand that I marry you without the slightest consideration for what I might want! What about
me
, Konig?”

“I thought you’d want to marry me.” Konig’s tone was frostier than the towers of Niflheimr.

“You haven’t
asked
.”

“I did. In Sheol.”

“For the love of the gods, Konig! This isn’t the time. I couldn’t possibly consider marriage until I get my memories back, which you’ve endangered by ripping me out of Duat!”

“Seth will take care of it,” Konig said.

The mention of his name made Marion waver, but only for an instant. “Will he? Or will he be hurt—killed—because he has no help left in Duat? I’m meant to be there with him. He’s only one man.”

“A demon.”

“We don’t know that,” Marion hissed. “He
needs
me!”

Konig stalked away from her, and then paced back, as though searching for an outlet for his frenetic energy. “This isn’t about the Canope. This isn’t about your memories. This about the fact that you don’t want to marry me, after all I’ve done for you!”

“You’re right about that,” Marion snapped. “There’s no chance in the Middle Worlds, the Nether Worlds, or
anywhere else
that I will marry someone who treats me like this!”

A frightening calm settled over Konig’s face. “You’re rejecting me.”

“You earned it,” she snapped. And then, more frighteningly, Marion rounded on Nori. “Take me back! I need to get back to Sheol right this moment!”

Nori hesitated. She glanced at Konig.

That glance was enough to make Marion completely lose it. She gave a frustrated scream and the icy roof of the throne room cracked.

Marion stalked toward the hallway leading toward the bedrooms. “Stay the hell away from me!” she screamed over her shoulder.

When she slammed the door, frost showered around Nori.

Oh my gods
.

It wasn’t the first time Nori had seen Konig and Marion fight like that, but it was the first time since Marion had woken up without her memories—and the first time they’d had such a fight in a palace made completely of ice.

“Yes, go ahead and leave!” Konig shouted at the door that Marion had slammed. He ripped a giant sword off of his back and jabbed it into the air, as though piercing the heart of an imaginary Marion. “Leave! I don’t need the likes of
you
!”

He hurled the sword into the wall. The point embedded into the ice so deep that a foot of its blade vanished.

Nori flinched. She couldn’t help but squeal a little, too.

The tiny sound made Konig whip around to glare at her. “What are you doing here?”

“I was inspecting the wards on the towers. It’s been so cold…and…and…” He wouldn’t care about that. She thought about telling him of Dana McIntyre’s call, but she doubted that Konig would be interested in that, either. “I’m sorry. I’ll check in on the refugees.”

She made it halfway to the doors before Konig said, “No.”

He stalked toward her. It took all of Nori’s strength not to move or meet his eyes. It was dangerous to meet the prince’s eyes when he was in a mood like that. He’d had his servants tossed into the dungeons for less.

“I saved her life, and this is what she does to me,” Konig said. “It’s insane. It’s irrational!”

“I agree,” Nori said.

“Marion doesn’t care about saving the Winter Court from war. All those refugees—she would see them dead before she’d let her memories slip from her fingers! And why? Because she wants to remember, or because the pursuit of that moronic Canope gives her the opportunity to be with Seth?”

Nori was holding Dana’s papers so hard that they crumpled.

She didn’t know what to say.

“I’m looking for answers, Nori,” Konig said savagely. “Speak to me!”

After a deep breath, Nori managed to speak. “Marion has always been selfish. I don’t know what she wants this time, but…it’s all about her needs, not the needs of the court.” Her stomach flipped. “She doesn’t deserve you.”