Magick Marked (The DarqRealm Series) (30 page)

“Forgive me, Majesty,” Alexander answered quickly. “I didn’t mean to be insulting.”

Majesty? There were few people who possessed an elevated title in the DarqRealm. The magick movers ruled by democracy, and the ShiftMaster was in that room, which left the vampires, the werewolves… and the fae.

“Then choose your words more carefully,” the woman instructed. “Rather peculiar no one has been able to overthrow your family for so many generations, don’t you think? I would hate for people to start questioning your authority.”

“You wouldn’t,” Alexander challenged.

The woman barked a laugh. “Oh, I’m capable of many things. Blackmail is the least of my proficiencies.”

There was a long pause before the man answered. “I sent the note, as you requested.”

The note to Preshea. Light bulbs flared in Rho’s mind at the memory of that day. This woman had to be fae, which would explain why the fae magick was on the letters.

“Hmmm… yes. They killed two of my warriors, though, and I’m none too pleased about it. They are more skilled than I gave them credit for.”

Damn right, they were skilled. Rho rubbed a hand along the healed scar at her side. She wanted to skill that woman’s ass right into the ground for sending those fae warriors to stake her in the chest with silver. That shit hurt.

The woman sighed. “They are expensive to replace, though. So you shall owe me again.”

“You can’t be serious!” Alexander cried. “I have paid my family’s debts. I have done what you asked.”

“And you will continue to do so.”

“My family should have left you to your banishment in Etherealis,” Alexander hissed.

Costel had explained the other dimension, Etherealis, before she’d left on this mission, about how they’d sealed it off. The Council must have suspected this woman had something to do with the man he’d mentioned—Mo-something.

“You will hold your tongue,” the woman said. “Or every transaction I have kept in confidence will become public record. Remember that.”

Rho stood in shocked silence. Alexander wasn’t even her leader, and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Preshea and the entire shifter nation had followed this family blindly for years. She had to be frothing at the mouth.

The woman snickered. “You’re charming when you’re angry.”

“I will make good on my payment.” An ugly combination of bitterness and defeat coated his tone.

“Yes, you will. Or your house of cards will fall. Either way, I shall be entertained by the outcome.”

He paused before answering, “As you wish, Majesty.”

Click. Click.
The sound of locks slipping followed by the sliding of the rear glass door forced Eldon to the ground. She hadn’t realized he’d moved out of the cover of darkness until that moment.

He kneeled below the surface of the deck, out of sight. Rho’s chest tightened as footsteps rang out against the stillness, each one closer to Eldon than the last. She pressed herself even closer to the cold brick wall.

Snap.
A twig broke beneath the heel of her boot, and she closed her eyes.

“Who’s there?” Alexander’s voice boomed from the back porch.

A green light flashed before a woman’s voice joined his. “Show yourself.”

A chain rattled against the tile floor somewhere inside the house. Silence stretched for several seconds.

And then all hell broke loose.

“Eldon!” Tim’s voice boomed across the night.

Eldon swiveled around, spotting the second man’s face just before he saw the fist. Stars exploded, clouding his vision. Oh, fuck him, that hurt.

Pop.

He cracked his watering eyes open to see the shifter stumble back, clenching his thigh. Eldon lunged forward and threw a fist across the man’s face, feeling the satisfying crunch on impact. The man howled in pain, but Eldon ignored him. He needed to find Rho.

Blinking several times, he tried to stave off the wetness in his eyes, hoping his nose wasn’t broken. Blood tickled his upper lip and he wiped it off on his sleeve.

“Nice,” Rho said from behind him. “You all right?”

He gave his nose another swipe, but the blood wouldn’t stop. “I’m fine.”

“Sweet nose job.”

“Thanks.” The muffled sound of metal slipping across leather brought his head up. He watched Rho handle a dagger like a pro as she stuffed the gun back in its holster. “Switching to blades?”

“Two gold shots left. Need to save them for a special occasion,” she answered as her eyes scanned the treeline.

He glanced over at the two shifters still lying on the ground. With the gold bullets lodged deep in their flesh, they’d be stuck in human form for a while. And that was fine with him. Locking onto a flying target would present a whole new set of challenges they didn’t need.

“Take my gun,” Eldon said, holding out his Glock.

“Why?”

“You’re clearly a better shot than me. I still have three bullets.”

A pop sounded from the other side of the house. Eldon snapped his head up to find Tim working over the third shifter, shirt torn and bloody but his stamina unyielding. He hadn’t had time to shift forms like they’d planned. A man lay on the ground to the right, unmoving.

“Hold him still, Tim!” Preshea shouted, crouching behind a manicured bush with her gun drawn. Thank God. When she’d vanished again, he wasn’t sure if she’d leave for good. And Tim needed the backup.

Preshea’s finger danced on the trigger as she followed their movements, but with the way Tim and that shifter were tumbling, she wasn’t going to be able to get a clear shot.

“I’ll trade you.” Rho snatched the gun from Eldon’s hand and put her own in its place. She jerked her head toward their teammates. “They going to be okay?”

Eldon nodded. Now that they were two against one, taking that shifter down should be a piece of cake. “Where’s Alexander?” The porch was empty. Both Alexander and the woman had disappeared.

“Don’t know.” She met his stare. “Let’s go find out.”

An arc of green power smashed into the ground between them.

“Shit!” Rho shouted, dropping flat to the ground. He followed her lead and made nice with the lawn. The floodgate opened between their minds, Rho’s thoughts and his own combining in a familiar pattern. He could feel her focus, so sharp he wondered if she knew he was in her head again.

He gave her a quick once-over, relieved to see she hadn’t been hit. The firepower landed had an inch from her body with enough force to punch a small crater in the earth. The aroma of wet dirt hit his nostrils, the magickal signature of the fae dominating his senses. He’d recognize it anywhere, and he’d felt this particular pattern before—on that letter. He was absolutely certain of it.

He rolled along the ground until he reached Rho then covered her with his body.

“What are you doing?” she ground out.

Before he had a chance to answer, another ball of green fire shot from the house and slammed into the ground, this one closer to them than the last. The two wounded shifters pushed themselves to their feet, rushing forward like linebackers on a mission.

Fury burned in his brain. Rho had almost been hit. Twice.

“Stay down,” he ordered.

She protested but didn’t rise from the ground when he jumped to his feet, hovering over her small body. Silently calling the ley lines into his hands, he welcomed the tingling in his fingertips. With all the force he could muster, he hurled a ball of ley line energy toward the men, knocking them down like bowling pins. They flew across the clearing and landed hard on their backs.

This time they didn’t get up.

Another bolt of green fire blasted into the ground as Rho rolled again, this one just barely missing her ribcage. His mind screamed at the close call, the blue fire he’d summoned blazing and crawling up his arms as he inched closer to her. Rho’s focus was sharper than a knife’s edge, her gun hand solid and pointed toward the house as she stayed near his feet. She held her fire.

“You wanted to kill us,” Eldon taunted. “Come do it.” The woman was somewhere close, hiding. The fae were proud people, and arrogant. Gods among men, as they so humbly put it. But pride always came before a fall. “Or are you afraid you’ll be dominated by a lowly magick mover?”

A woman emerged from the corner of the house, stepping into the light with staggering grace. Layers of green silk hung from her tiny frame, her wings a brilliant combination of purple, green and blue, fluttering furiously behind her. Her hair was long and black, woven intricately with twigs and flowers. She was regal and terrifying all at once, her wide eyes glowing green as she called her own brand of green fire into her hands.

A yellow stone hung around her neck, flashing in the porch light. It matched the yellow mark on Eldon’s palm, the color representing the entire shifter race.

Holy shit, she did have the shifter Kamen. She hadn’t even bothered to hide it. Yet between her green robes and the green fire she commanded, he knew this was no shifter. Couldn’t be.

This had to be Rhyannon, the queen of the fae. A legend of storybooks he’d read as a child, breathed to life here in front of him. She was real.

“Rho, get behind that tree,” he instructed. “Now.”

“But—” she protested

“Now!”

She lunged for the tree, and he fell in right behind her.

Pop.
Another bullet cracked against the quiet night, but he couldn’t tell where it came from.

Preshea howled, and Eldon froze in place before peering around the tree. Tim tumbled along the grass. The enemy held Tim in a deadlock, a blade dangling from Tim’s back.

Preshea’s eyes flashed icy blue, claws extending from her human fingertips as the air around her shimmered. She howled again, lunging at the shifter and tackling him to the ground. The moment they touched, she stopped shifting, her body stuck somewhere between her human and tigress forms. Her nose was small and pink, hair extending from her petite face and arms. Yet she stood on two feet. The deformity of her human form was truly horrific.

Eldon wanted to help, but Rhyannon was a greater threat. She needed to be neutralized. Turning back toward the house, he caught the jade glow of another energy bomb.

“Rho, stay down!” Eldon barked, shoving Rho closer to the ground. Without a thought, he tossed a blue fireball in the queen’s direction.

As if she sensed his aim and identified her greatest threat, the queen turned and lobbed another ball of power at him. He ducked. Tree limbs cracked behind him, breaking under the weight of her magick.

Anticipation churned in his stomach as he sent up a quick prayer that Nick had enough sense to hang back, hopefully far enough away so no one sensed him. The last thing he wanted was a distraction. Or a dead best friend.

A rear window of the house shattered, spraying the ground with tiny glittering shards of glass. Somehow, Tim had removed the blade from his back and was crawling through the opening.

As he disappeared into the house, a small foot landed on the wrought iron railing, followed by a short mop of black and white hair as Preshea pulled herself onto the porch. She’d shifted back to her full human form, her features no longer the grotesque display they’d been before. He glanced over at where she’d been battling only moments earlier.

What’s she doing?
Rho asked.

Preshea had sliced the owl shifter into two pieces, his torso on one side of the porch and his lower half on the other. Blood dripped from her fingers, and Eldon swallowed back the bile rising in his throat. She’d split him in half with her bare hands.

“Holy hell,” Rho muttered, this time out loud. Holy hell was right. He made a mental note never to get on that shifter’s bad side.

The queen screamed and pointed at Preshea. “Handle her, Alexander!”

Preshea spun around, standing outside the broken glass entry as she locked her gaze on Alexander. He stood there, staring blankly at her from the other side of the glass. The ShiftMaster took a step back, his expression a strange combination of recognition and shock.

“Don’t you dare,” Preshea snapped, unsheathing two daggers from the leather bands crisscrossing her chest, taking one in each hand. “You
stole
my sister.”