Chapter 15 #3
“Done.” They set my left hand back on my leg, palm up so the blood wouldn’t get smeared, and then they quickly drew something on the handle of each of the axes before offering the weapons to me. “Here. Hold them so the glyph on the handle is pressed against your palm.”
I did as I was told. “Now what?”
“This might burn a bit.” A small smirk stretched across Roth’s mouth.
Awesome. I held still as Roth placed a hand over my heart, where they had painted the glyph, and words started spilling from them. It was too fast for me to keep up with, but I recognized it as Seelie. Something about belonging . . . hiding.
My skin started to tingle beneath their palm, and I gritted my teeth yet held still as it spread outward and became more of a burning sensation.
Roth’s words quickened until they were more like a chant. My fingers squeezed the handles as the pain increased. I had a high pain tolerance, but even I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. It felt like I’d shoved my hand directly into a burning pile of coals.
“Fuck me,” Kieran murmured.
I realized I’d closed my eyes at some point and opened them to gape at the axes. They were shimmering and almost transparent, but I could still feel the weight of them in my hand.
“írfil, írfil, írfil!” Roth demanded.
Conceal.
The axes snapped out of existence, and I let out a long breath, sagging in the chair because the burning was gone too.
I glanced at my chest and palms. The blood had also vanished.
In its place were runes. It was hard to make out the design on my chest, so I looked at my palms instead.
There was a repeating pattern of stylized axes.
The base of each handle was in the center with the axe-head towards the outer edge of my palm, and it repeated, as if the axe was rotating around the circle.
Like it’s in motion, I thought. As if it were spinning.
It’d been hard to make out what Roth had been drawing, but it definitely hadn’t been this.
“I layered together the glyphs,” Roth said smugly, clearly seeing the confusion on my face. “Normally, if we need two or more glyphs to work together, we just create a new glyph that is a combination and pour our intention into it.”
I nodded. We’d never exactly been able to get the Fae’s hot water glyph working, so instead, we’d made our own glyph.
It was a crude combination of water and fire, but what mattered was the intention we’d backed it up with.
That tactic had never worked for anything more complex, and even for simple spells, sometimes it didn’t work.
“So you, what?” I studied the glyph more. “Drew the glyph for conceal and then . . .” I trailed off.
“Harmony. Recall. Conceal,” they said. “I drew each glyph individually, pouring my intent into them—that was the tricky part. I held on to my desire for them all to work together while also pushing intention for the other two glyphs. This is why we’ve never been able to get some glyphs to work.
We were just reusing the glyph as we saw it, but really, we needed to be using multiple glyphs in the casting, which would then become the new glyph. ”
“Why the fuck didn’t I think of that?” I stared at the glyphs in wonder, even as my mind immediately started thinking about the more complex spells we’d never been able to figure out. “Have you told Drudonia yet?”
“No,” they said, “because up until this moment, it was only a theory.”
I lifted my gaze from the axes to arch a brow at Roth. “So you experimented on me. Is what you’re saying?”
Roth rolled their eyes before grabbing my tunic and tossing it back to me.
“I was reasonably sure it would work, and if it didn’t, it wouldn’t hurt you.
I only got the idea in the last few days because of some stuff in here.
” They grabbed the book from my lap. “Plus, Velesians soak up magic, so you were a good candidate.”
They weren’t wrong. Velesians might not be able to cast magic directly, but magic worked extremely well on us.
“Okay.” I tugged my tunic back on before wiggling my fingers. “How do I get the axes back?”
“Good question.” Roth frowned. “I’m not sure. Maybe just think about them?”
“Are you serious?” I stared at them.
Kieran and Draven chuckled, earning a glare from Roth.
“Again,” Roth said evenly, “you’re the first person I’ve tried this on. Just think about the damn axes!”
“I’ll think about throwing one at your hea—oh.” My fingers instinctively coiled around the wood handles of the axes as they reappeared in my hands. “Huh. That is handy.”
I concentrated on the axes disappearing, and they obediently did after a few seconds. Then I recalled them back. Every time I did it, they reacted faster until it was practically instantaneous.
“Where do we think they go?” Kieran peered at them.
“No idea.” Roth shrugged.
“You know you say that a lot, right?” Draven said.
“Keep it up and I’ll make you disappear next,” Roth replied curtly.
“Nah, you’d miss me too much, Rothie Bear.” Draven gave them a wide smile.
The corners of Roth’s mouth curved up slightly before they looked at me. “You two should get going so Rynn can return before they realize she’s missing.”
My brother would absolutely know I’d been up to something, but him I could deal with. It was Bastian I was worried about.
“Huh.” I glanced back and forth between my palms. “They’re gone.”
Roth yanked down my tunic. “That one’s still there.”
“Shit.” I jumped to my feet, knocking Roth’s hand away, and stalked over to a mirror to look at the mark on my chest. Two dual axes were tattooed just above my heart.
“If I shift in front of the Alphas, they’re going to see that, Roth!
” I spun back around to face them. “Make it disappear like the other ones!”
“I have no idea why the ones on your hand disappeared and that one didn’t.” Roth rubbed the back of their neck. “I can do some more research and see if I can figure something out . . .”
Yeah. That sounded all kinds of promising.
“I find people ask a lot less questions if they’re getting a solid fuck,” Kieran suggested. “So maybe just . . . keep their attention occupied elsewhere?”
Draven gave his mate an exasperated look. “Remember how she’s trying to leave them?”
“It’s a goodbye fuck. A long, drawn out, hate-filled goodbye fuck.”
Talis gleefully laughed in my mind.
“Not. Helpful,” I bit out before sighing. I’d just have to be careful about how I shifted around the Alphas. Put my back to them or something.
“What did you tell Bastian you were doing today?” Draven asked.
“Research.” I chewed on my bottom lip and buttoned up my shirt a little more. “Maybe I can claim I was handling a Fae artifact and it left these markings behind.”
They’d be suspicious, but as long as I made it back without Bastian knowing I’d been missing, he wouldn’t be able to prove anything, and it wasn’t entirely unheard of for weird things to happen with the relics the Fae left behind.
A few months ago, someone had partially burned down a wing at Drudonia because a stone box they’d been inspecting had erupted into flames that no amount of water had been able to put out.
So my excuse wouldn’t be that outlandish. Aside from not wanting Bastian to know I’d been here, I liked the idea of having some weapons the Alphas didn’t know about. In case I needed them one day.
My stomach soured at the thought of fighting them. Well, not Warrick. I’d happily bury my axe in his gut, but despite my differences with Cade, I did believe he wanted to make things better for all Velesians. Ryker and Bastian were . . . complicated.
I’d have a few hours to think of a convincing story to tell Bastian about the tattoos, and that was assuming he didn’t track down Trina or some other pretty bedmate after getting out of the meeting with my uncle and father.
Maybe I was worrying for nothing and Bastian wouldn’t even come looking for me until tomorrow morning when we were supposed to head back.
Feeling a little better, I walked over to grab my necklace from the table and clasped it around my neck again.
It would come in handy while sneaking back into the castle.
I’d just have to figure out where to hide it afterwards, or maybe I would bring it back with me to the Alpha stronghold.
I was more familiar with their castle and surrounding area now, so surely I could find some place to safely secure it.
Draven and Kieran got up and kissed each other. It was sweet and casual, but I wasn’t prepared for the sorrow that slammed into me. They were so fucking happy, and on top of that, they were both mated to Samara, who they loved just as much.
If I could find one person to love me like that, to look at me the way they looked at each other, moonsdamn it all, I’d never ask for anything again.
“Ready?” I rasped when Draven kissed Kieran one last time before walking over to me.
“Yes.” Draven gave me a kind smile that told me he saw everything written all over my face, but thankfully he didn’t say anything.
I nodded gratefully and looked past him to Roth and Kieran. “You’ll get Sam updated on everything?”
“Of course,” Roth answered. “And I’m overdue for a visit to Drudonia. I’m fairly certain the crest isn’t there, but I’ll take a look anyways.”
“And I’ll ask around—discreetly—about it as well,” Kieran offered. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone has seen it.”
“When are we ever that lucky, Kier?” I sighed.
He looked at Draven. “I don’t know. I may have been once or twice.”
Oh spare me.
“You’ve gotten awfully sappy.” I wrinkled my nose. “Not sure I like it.”
“I mean, you too could get lucky, at least temporarily.” A devilish light lit up Kieran’s eyes as he grinned at me. “How many nights will you be spending alone with Bastian on your way back? And how does that work? Separate rooms or . . .”
I felt the burn racing up my cheeks, and both Kieran and Roth chuckled. Argh. Why did I have to be such an easy blusher?
“Time to go.” I grabbed Draven’s arm and pulled him across the room, practically shoving him through the mirror before making a rude gesture at Kieran, which only made him laugh harder, and stepping through myself.
Draven wore an amused, close-lipped smile but didn’t comment as we both headed towards the exit.
“We need to move fast,” I told him. “I have no doubt my brother has noticed I’m missing, but he won’t be able to track me.”
“What about Bastian?” Draven tapped a glyph on the wall and the stones split, revealing the stairs cutting through the water of Lake Malov.
“What about him?” I stared at the water flowing against the invisible walls on either side of the stairs, not a single drop making it in.
Draven paused and glanced at me, the amusement in his expression gone and replaced with concern. “Are you worried he’ll notice your absence? I’m assuming you know how to handle your brother, but Bastian is a nosy bastard and doesn’t tend to let things go until he gets his way.”
I eyed the fallen Moroi Prince, because there was a genuine bitterness in voice.
“Something happen between the two of you?” Something you haven’t told Kieran about?
I didn’t ask that second question out loud, because while I’d never question Draven’s loyalty to me, we weren’t that close.
Yet. Maybe we’d have time when this was all over to hang out and get to know each other better.
“Nothing like that.” His lips twisted in disgust. “Bastian is the most observant person I’ve ever met, even more so than Kieran or Samara.
He was a fairly frequent visitor to the Sovereign House over the years, and he picked up on the fact that I was hopelessly in love with Samara . . . and later Kieran.”
That wasn’t new information. Cade might be the leader of the Alpha pack, but Bastian was the public face. “What did he do?”
For a long moment, Draven didn’t answer, then he finally let out a long breath.
“In the grand scheme of things, he did very little with that information. I mean, he could have blackmailed me, because I’m also fairly confident he knew something wasn’t quite right with my mother long before anyone else caught on.
Instead, he played these fucking games. Making comments here and there, ones crafted to inflict maximum pain.
” Draven’s eyes darkened as he looked at me.
“Bastian has a cruel streak. I know you’re being careful around all of them, but don’t be fooled by his charm. He’s a prick.”
“I won’t,” I assured him as I processed what he’d just told me.
Draven’s experience and opinion of Bastian lined up with my own.
When I’d first come to the Alpha House, Bastian had often made underhanded remarks that weren’t insults exactly but had left me feeling shitty.
After a couple of months, he’d knocked it off, but that was when he’d started throwing out casual endearments I knew he didn’t mean. Then there were the last few days . . .
Was Bastian just toying with me? Setting me up for something else just for his own amusement?
“I need to get the fuck out of that place,” I murmured to myself.
“Yes, you do.” Draven started up the stairs. “But until then, keep your guard up.”
“Always.” I grunted and followed after him, blinking when we entered the harsh afternoon sunlight. “I don’t think Bastian will be a problem anyway. After dealing with my father and uncle all day, he’ll no doubt find some warm cunt to sink his cock into.”
After Draven’s warning, I was even more sure I shouldn’t mess around with Bastian.
It was bad enough that I’d made the mistake with Ryker.
With any luck, Bastian would spend the night somewhere else and I’d have a day to shore up my defenses against him.
Avoiding Ryker when we got back to the Alpha stronghold was going to be a problem, but at least I had a few more days to figure out a plan for that.
“Follow my lead on the way back,” I told Draven. “I know where most of the patrol routes ar—”
I froze half a second after Draven did, his gaze on the tree line as he uncoiled the whip attached to his belt.
In a practiced motion, he clasped both hands over the handle, and when he pulled them apart, an identical bloodred whip was in his left hand.
It was a somewhat unique trick he was able to pull off using a blend of blood and earth magic.
My palms itched and I wanted to summon my axes, but they wouldn’t help me now. Raising my chin, I glared into the forest. I had yet to spot him, but the breeze carried his scent to us. “What the fuck are you doing here, Bastian?”