Chapter 28 - Gable
CHAPTER 28 - GABLE
I knew something was wrong when my door flung open and Talon, Cole, and Blaze stormed inside, locking it behind them. Nothing good was going to come of their visit when my naga senses tingled with danger.
Mary yelped and raced out back to hide. Sudden movement or loud sounds startled her. Fuck. Calming her and coaxing her back would take up to thirty minutes. We were having a good day until this lot arrived with shitty portents.
“Careful with my door and sister, chaps,” I warned. “Else you might be paying for a replacement.”
“Sorry to frighten her,” Blaze said, rucking his golden hair. “Do you need a minute to speak with her?”
“We don’t have a fucking minute.” Cole’s desperate growl signaled trouble.
Half of me urged me to go after my sister and console her until she felt again. The other said leave her be, let her come back on her own. Toughen her up, so to speak.
I didn’t have the luxury of comfort when I first escaped. It took me a solid six months to become accustomed to the strange sounds of the world outside of the Brotherhood. And I was one of the lucky few who ventured beyond the walls to perform missions, so I had some semblance of how things operated beyond my cage.
My sister had zero clue, a newborn to this world, exploring everything for the first time with a lens of trepidation and wonder. She required patience to get her used to an unfamiliar setting.
Once I got to the bottom of this surprise visit, I’d go to her and comfort her.
I raised two palms to bring the panic down, both for my peace of mind and my sister’s. “Calm down.” Nothing good was solved in a panic, and I needed to remain chill for whatever this was.
Cole pinned me with a death glare.
I rubbed my eyebrow with my thumb. “I hate to ask it, but what’s happened? Is our princess okay?”
“No, she’s not.” Cole placed his hands behind his head, pressing them to the back of his neck, stretching his triceps.
My stomach filled with a dark, oily substance like octopus ink. “Tell me everything.”
“She’s been taken by the serpents.” Talon dropped the words that filled our nights with dread.
His tone darkened as he filled me in on the entire story, starting with Blaze’s slave labor, leaving the musical festival to retrieve Luna’s mind map, his lack of memory of the event, suggesting Camus commandeered his body. Talon moved onto Luna’s friend’s imprisonment with a sister organization for doing the dirty deed for Blaze and ending on our princess vanishing from the Academy in a black cloud.
Nothing got past Camus. He was always two steps ahead. And now we dealt with his wife too.
Talon palmed the spear resting in his belt holster. “Can you do your tracker thing to find her?
My thing. Dark forces. Much as I wanted to escape it, I came to the conclusion that it was a part of me, etched into my soul, and at some point, I had to make peace with that. Trifling with those powers didn’t make me inherently bad. It made me knowledgeable. Resourceful like Castor. All these years, I feared they would consume me and turn me into a monster. Yet the enforcer wielded dark magick without it with no deleterious side effects, showing me that I could do the same.
“Flip the sign on my door to Closed, would you?” I said, coming out from behind my counter, going to the back wall, grabbing the ingredients for a spell—candles, mixing bowl, calendula oil, herbs—and putting them on my counter.
I tried not to let my fear of losing Luna get in the way of my job. The serpents taught me to overcome my fears and be the most dangerous, fast, stealthy, and poisonous predator in the room. I called on those lessons to keep my wayward emotions in check. Because the alternative was to lose my fucking shit like Cole at my nemesis harming my mate.
“Back in a second.” I disappeared out to my loft, finding Mary curled up on the sofa. “It’s safe, Little Bug. They’re my friends and won’t hurt you.”
She warily eyed me, then the door to the shop. “What are they doing?”
“I’m performing a locator spell,” I replied. “Luna’s gone missing. Come and help me find her.”
Learning gave her purpose and teaching her gave me meaning in my life beyond revenge on the Brotherhood.
“We must get her back. She freed me.” All signs of apprehension faded at her determination.
Mary climbed off the cushions and crept to me, taking my hand, bravely walking back to the storage shelves.
“You’re so brave, Little Bug.” I gave her a quick hug and grabbed a map that didn’t stain from the candle wax.
She smiled. “You’re the brave one, brother. Running away and making a life for yourself without fear. You’re my hero.”
Fuck. I didn’t know about that. I had plenty of sleepless nights.
“I’ve never been anyone’s hero,” I admitted.
“A first for us both.” She squeezed my hand and gently reminded me, “Luna’s waiting.” Luna, not the princess. The first time Mary didn’t correct herself. A day of many firsts.
Right. I got caught up in the emotion of my sister’s admiration when I only ever received scorn. The change was profound and freeing.
From a secret compartment beneath the floor, I removed a rosewood tether stick I’d made, shoving it in my pocket. The spell bound my crew of runaway serpents, myself, and Mary to Camus. Months back, I added a piece of Luna’s hair from my pillow to the spell for a safeguard.
Mary and I took the equipment into the shop.
“Sorry, Mary. We didn’t mean to startle you,” Blaze said, and the other two murmured their apologies, making me grateful.
Mary nodded and unraveled the map on my counter.
“Right, gents. Watch and learn.” I placed a black candle in the top left corner, a white in the opposite, repeating this on the bottom side. Light and dark. It also stopped the edges of the map to stop it from rolling up.
The three of them leaned on the reverse side of the counter.
“We use black candles to represent the dark forces and white for the light,” I explained to Mary. “Gold to find Luna. Purple for our princess.”
What I did and why formed her magick lessons, even though she leaned away from it. I wanted her to be able to defend herself if she ever needed it.
Mary twirled hair over her finger. “She has beautiful purple curls.”
“Yeah, she does, Little Bug.” I stroked the back of her head and got back to work, snipped off a bit of Luna’s hair from the tether into the bowl. “Adding Luna’s hair will connect to her and help us find her.”
Mary nodded to her tuition.
I began to recite the spell. “Oh, magick of the light, reveal to me the location of my beloved Luna.”
I poured the bowl’s contents onto the map, and the liquid trailed south to the edge of the map.
“Fuck!” Cole pinched his mouth with his shaking fingers.
I glared a warning at him to cool it in front of my sister. She didn’t need aggression when it set her on edge. “Little Bug, can you grab me the map of the state? It’s on the second shelf in the corner.”
“Certainly, brother.” She hurried into the backroom, items scraping as she moved them, searching for them.
I picked up a dagger from beneath my counter, which I kept as a weapon and pointed it at him. “No aggression in front of my sister, ever.”
The last time he did that, he killed my brother, and I wasn’t taking the chance with my sister.
“I’m sorry.” Cole stabbed a hand through his wayward hair. “I’m stressed.”
I appreciated the apology.
“How about we take it out back?” Blaze grabbed Cole by the shoulders and guided him into my apartment, leaving Talon and me to get this done.
For the best. I didn’t do well with others breathing down my neck. And I didn’t want to risk Mary’s nerves weaving havoc into the spell.
Mary’s padded steps signaled her return. “Here, brother.”
Talon cleared the products from my counter to allow her to lay the map down. “Thank you, warrior.” She smiled up at him unsurely.
He pressed a fist to his chest. “You honor me by saving my beloved.”
“She’s special to me too,” Mary whispered, and I stroked her head again.
I repeated the same spell on the state map, and it trailed southeast to the Illawarra region where the Brotherhood called home.
“She’s at Camus’ castle.” Coldness formed in my gut and spread out in a fan. The last place I wanted to return because it held too many awful memories.
Mary clapped her hands together and lifted them to her mouth.
My muscles popped and eased back into place. “Thank you, magick of the light. Begone whence you came, into the sunlight.”
“You’re brilliant!” Talon came behind the counter, grabbed my neck and kissed my head, doing the same to Mary, who squeaked. He jogged out back to grab his friends.
I squeezed the back of my sister’s neck. “You did well, Little Bug. We’ll make a witch out of you one day, if that’s the path you chose to pursue.”
“Are you going to rescue Luna?” Mary tapped her pressed hands to her chin over and over.
“I don’t want to leave you.” If I left Mary unguarded, Camus’ specters or Sanctuary might come for her.
“You love her and must go.” She reached out to wrap her thin fingers around my forearm. “The shop is protected, I’ll be safe.”
Words I repeated to ease her mind.
“What if I take you to Castor’s?” She felt safe with him, and I was comforted with her being surrounded by four avatars. “Would you like that?”
She told me he taught her ancient history, encouraging her inner history nerd, and she enjoyed his company.
“Yes. I’ll go.” She nodded. “Please bring her back safely.”
Her answer soothed the roiling in my stomach. “Good.”
The others reappeared in the shop, looking ready to go to war to get their princess back.
“You coming with us?” Talon cracked his knuckles.
“I assume we’re working outside the bounds of the Academy again?” I queried, establishing the rules of combat.
Talon patted the counter’s edge. “You guessed correctly.”
I leaned on the frame. “Do you really want to risk this? How about I go after her? That way you don’t lose your jobs.”
Talon huffed. “That’s brave of you, but we don’t leave a brother to fight alone, and we sure as shit don’t leave him behind.”
I grinned, finally feeling like I belonged and found my true calling. Fighting to protect the innocent against malevolent forces with a tight-knit family of brothers and my sexy little dark princess.
“In that case,” I said, feeling energized to take on old Camus once more, “Give me thirty to take Mary someplace safe. Meet you back here?”
Talon moved to the door, unlocking it. “We’ll grab weapons and rendezvous back here in thirty.”
“Roger that.” I saw them out and locked up my shop.
I went out back, making my sister pack a bag because I didn’t know how long I’d be gone. I grabbed some spell items of my own. This was ending today. I’d put Camus in the grave for what he did to me, my family, and my princess, and we’d never have a sleepless night ever a-fucking-gain.
I dropped my sister off at the Jackals. Castor didn’t need much convincing for a second round of babysitting when I dropped word about saving the world from the ultimate power he mentioned. His mate, Aaliyah, took Mary in, showing her around the club, and I knew she was in perfect hands.
Right on time, my three brothers returned, weapon belts stocked with grenades, daggers, and prototype guns Cole developed. From there, we portalled to the forest on the outskirts of the Dark Lord’s castle.
“There are few soldiers manning the battlements,” Talon advised, squinting, his gargoyle powers giving him advanced sight from a distance.
“My sources tell me that most were destroyed in the battle with the djinni,” I relayed. “Camus has less than fifty Sanctuary and specters left.”
It paid to collect intel on your enemy. Know their strengths and weaknesses to devise a battle plan.
Talon clapped me on the shoulder, then told his brothers where to aim, and he and Cole took the guards out with their weapons, several bodies tumbling from the castle’s curtain wall to the ground.
Meanwhile, I stripped out of my clothes, passing them to Blaze. My body rearranged as I shifted into my naga. At my hiss signal, he readied himself on my back, joined by Talon and Cole when they finished. Stone scraped my underside as I carried them up the battlements, sliding over the top, where they leaped off, waiting for me to change back. While I got back into my gear, Talon eyed the area for clues.
“This place is worse for wear,” Talon commented on the stone and wood scorched from our previous battle. “Move out.”
Spells throbbed on the doorway to the tower’s stairwell. I broke them easily with a light charm.
“Camus’ protective wards are weak,” I observed, feeling them out with my hands and naga senses. “His magick is failing him.”
“Or the Ghul curse is killing him,” Blaze reminded, handing me one of Cole’s prototype weapons.
Unlikely. The Dark Lord stole Blaze’s djinn powers and most likely used them to heal himself. Much as I wanted to clarify, I kept my piehole shut and didn’t rub salt in the wound after Blaze’s low moods.
“Stay alert,” Talon warned, prying the door open slowly and quietly. “It could be a trick, and I’m not taking any chances.”
He took the lead inside the blackened stairway, steps swift and light for such a big guy. Weapons raised, we trailed behind him, reaching the bottom, and sidestepping a fallen beam torched to high hell. We hadn’t made it more than a few steps into the castle’s inner skin when the air chilled and shadows buzzed over the walls, preceding the arrival of eight Sanctuary carrying serpent-headed staffs.
I smirked. “A welcoming committee? For us? Camus, you shouldn’t have.”
Talon and Blaze popped off shots, taking two down. I wasn’t as good with a gun and my shots went astray. Cole picked up my slack, releasing his boomerang gadget, and it whirled through the air and slashed into the chests of two guards, who collapsed to the floor.
“And then there were four.” I did what I did best and blocked bolts of power from two soldiers.
Talon’s spear stabbed one guard through the chest, hoisting him from the floor and throwing him across the hall, where he crashed on stone and didn’t rise. Cole and Blaze dealt with the rest, and I wiped my hands, grinning.
“Move before more come,” Talon ordered, pure soldier.
We charged down the hall where our attackers came from, searching from chamber to chamber.
“Something’s not right,” I whispered to my brothers-in-arms. “There should be more guards than this.” I fisted the tether stick in my pocket and recited an enchantment. Darkness sparked and puffed black mist near my pocket. “I don’t think Camus is present in the castle.”
“If that’s the case,” Talon replied, “he might have taken a contingency of soldiers with him.”
“Guess we’ll find out.” Cole clutched his boomerang to his chest and moved deeper.
We came to a chamber guarded by two Sanctuary, who turned their weapons on us, firing dark bolts of power our way, hindering any chance of us getting close.
While my brothers went to town with their weapons, I let my fangs descend and spat venom their way, hitting them in the face. An opaque fog clouded the soldier’s eyes, a process that happened when a snake shed its skin. Blinded, their blasts went wide, allowing my brothers to pick them off.
Cole stared at me, dumbfounded. “Where did that come from?”
I smiled with wicked satisfaction. “I’m more than just a pretty face.”
Talon thumped me on the back of the head. “Two of you check inside the chamber.”
Blaze blasted the lock on the door and threw it open, swinging his gun from side to side like a cop clearing a room. Sidestepping our enemies, he and Cole entered the chamber, while Talon and I played sentry duty. Edgy and listening for motion or gunfire, I patted the butt of my weapon. After a painstaking minute or five, Cole carried Luna from the room in his arms.
“Put me down,” she protested. “I can walk.”
That was our princess. Right now, she needed our love and strength to remind her of the good inside her, so we didn’t lose her to the darkness. This was the last time Camus got his filthy fingers on her. I’d make sure of it.