52. Kingpin
CHAPTER 52
Kingpin
ALIA
I pulled the blow gun from my bracer as Ran gathered the puppy gently in her paws to protect him.
Shen had foam flaking his muzzle. His lips were pulled back in a deathly smile. His eyes glowed golden and his claws curled into the ground. He lifted his mouth and a long, low howl echoed from his soul. I felt threads extend from him and track about, hitting other bonds within his entire pack. The thing that surprised me the most was the way those threads also came back to me.
Lycus turned his eyes to me. We are one, Star of my Skies. What is mine is yours, and yours is mine.
I couldn’t melt in a puddle on the battlefield. Thankfully, before I gave into the urge to throw my arms around the powerful black werewolf, howls sounded from just outside the wood line.
Yips came from the woods and werewolves streamed from the trees in both werewolf and human forms. I smiled, petting Shen’s head as Fen and Doc flanked us.
“Archers!” I yelled. I raised my hand. I waited until I could meet the eyes of the rogues before I dropped my hand. Arrows streamed past us.
An arrow thunked into my back hard enough to bruise. The cloak Shen gave me worked; it stopped the arrow from penetrating, but it sure as heck hurt and bruised my back right above my heart. Without Shen’s cloak, that arrow would have killed me.
I turned my head. Elder Timone stood there, his fingers still upraised from releasing the arrow… at me.
My heart stopped. I’d trusted him. He’d been on my side the whole time. I shook off my thoughts.
Ten men and women stabbed the other Reds beside them. I threw a blade, barely stopping another death even as my Reds realized what was happening and rallied around each other, taking down two of the betrayers.
A third traitor Red came for me. I shot him with my blowgun and he fell at my feet, foaming at the mouth.
His face… Hatred burned in his eyes even as he breathed his last.
Verand.
Ran's murderer was dead.
Blue eyes met mine. Graham. He turned, paving a pathway through other Reds we had fought and bled alongside. What was wrong with him?
As betrayal carved a burning path through my soul, Shen and Ran remained by my side. But my Reds were hard-pressed to deal with the six remaining enemy Reds and the rogues coming ever closer. Shen’s werewolves were rushing to meet the mages and rogues, but there were only about thirty or forty to their hundreds that streamed from the woods.
"Go!" I yelled.
Shen stared at me, his dark eyes narrow and glowing red beneath his hood. When did he shift forms?
Ack. Right now, don’t know and don’t care.
"Go. Save my people and keep them off us," I said, sending it along to both my bonds. A plea to protect my people, to help me.
Ran drew her head up as if appalled.
Shen bowed his head to express his trust in me. I nearly cried. He turned, taking down a rogue who was about to decapitate one of my Reds. Ran released a roar of displeasure, but went to meet the rogues behind me and unleashed her ire on them.
Elder Timone fingered another arrow. I blew a dart at him, but he ducked. It hit an enemy Red who was attacking Enforcer Markus.
“Why did you not just give her the Source-forsaken puppy? We could have lived peaceably, just as you wanted!” Elder Timone screamed over the howls and whimpers and roars behind us.
“Because I don’t betray my so-called friends ,” I snapped back.
His face darkened. “She was right. You are too far gone. We had hoped perhaps your children would carry your legacy, but I realize now you would never allow that.”
“Why do you want my bloodline so badly? Why do you want the puppy?”
His eyes grew darker, and I felt I was staring at a demon instead of an ordinary man. “Do you not realize? Your Gift is the epitome of perfection for rule. You know the needs of your people and how best to meet them. You can create a civilization that reaches beyond the stars and catches the very sun! We have searched for a bloodline that contains your very Gift for ages, and now you, the culmination of all our hopes, must die. Although, your bloodline lives on; your siblings and their children may just bring forth a better ruler for our needs.”
“But why my Gift?”
“Did you not feel the power you got from the people? Have you not seen how creatures, big and small, are drawn to you? You could have ruled everything—become the first matriarch to rule the seven kingdoms, possibly the seven worlds. It would be a society founded on peace and linked to your Gift. All creatures would be cared for, all needs met.” His eyes glowed with pride as his vision swelled before him. “The blasted hellhound was a means for you to connect to Source—directly. From there, you would no longer merely feel needs, but you could manipulate them. You could make people happy, give them what you want to give them, and the world would find peace .”
I blinked at him, even as I sidestepped a rogue who nearly impaled me with his claws. Ran snapped the rogue up with her tail and sent his twitching body into a tree as she ate a rogue that had attacked Shen.
Shen pounced on a mage about to release a vine into my archers, who were continuously fielding shots. My Reds attacked in groups of three to take down mages or rogues. I kept half an ear on the battle, even as I circled Elder Timone. I wanted to join my people, but understanding what was happening and why was more important. “What would’ve happened to the puppy?”
He shrugged. “The black mages would have disposed of the body, I am certain. And not only that, with him, we could transfer your Gift?—”
A dart hit the side of his neck. He gurgled, his mouth filling with foam as he choked on his own saliva. He fell, twitching and staring at me in wide-eyed panic.
“You always spoke too much, old man,” Grandmother said in disappointment.
“And you never spoke enough, Grandmother ,” I said, drawing two blades from my side. “All along, you only wanted me for my Gift?” Hurt colored my voice.
“Of course not, child. Should I have done as you had done in the trial, your blood would have spilt upon the sand that day."
As the meaning of her words raced through my brain, I froze. I was her most cherished—no. It couldn't be. I couldn't be the thing she wanted most. She never loved me.
She nodded as if whatever she saw on my face echoed what was on her mind. "You were to be my successor, dear child. My very legacy. You were to know all this upon taking my place. But you inherited your father’s blasted altruism. We could have saved the world with you; now we will just have to save it without you.”
I shook my head, and it broke me from my frozen stupor. “Don’t you realize how wrong this is? Manipulating people, killing innocent creatures—all for what? A chance to rule the world?”
She clicked her tongue as I drove a blade under the chin of a rogue. She watched the blood with the detached expression of one used to such carnage. “Have you not listened? We were going to create a world of peace. A world where everyone is content. Seventh on this planet. We could still create it. The peace you so desire—it can be yours.”
“Why try to kill magic? You have been using it all along!” I shouted, my face twisting in disgust.
Shaking her head, she ran a sword through the heart of an enforcer who had gotten too close. She moved away, and I darted forward, catching him as he fell, but his need cut off right as I reached him. I ground my teeth, watching my people fall and feeling helpless to stop them.
I threw a blade at my grandmother, but she dodged it. If I could keep her attention on myself, the others could fight. Maybe the scales would be tipped if I took her out.
“You are looking at a piece, not the whole. Magical creatures were only a means to an end. We needed to find your bloodline and get a hellhound. We could not have a tribe of protectors going around and thwarting us, now could we?”
It clicked. “You were never only the matriarch. You turned this entire tribe against magic so it wouldn’t look deep enough to find the real you .”
She grinned, her teeth white against the stark blood painting her face. “So you know, do you? Who am I, child?”
“You’re Kingpin, leader of the black mages.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “What a smart child you are.” Her visage changed completely. Wrinkles disappeared to be replaced with smooth, porcelain skin. Her hair rippled, and beneath it was hair dark as a midnight sky and just as silky. She blinked and her eyes turned from pale gray to a striking blue.
She tossed her hair over her shoulder, baring her teeth in a sweet smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Finally. Do you know how hard it was to marry your grandfather? He had the bloodline, but as soon as my daughter was born, I realized it was much too diluted. She didn’t even have a Gift, even though I was a strong mage born from generations of first-tier magic. Luckily, I found your father to marry your mother. I used a spell to ensure all your parent’s children would be born with magic—at the cost of my original abilities, sadly. And your little puppy Alpha over there took care of your grandfather before I could?—”
I darted forward, slicing. She dodged, but I kept coming. I nearly nicked her throat, but she blasted me back with a fireball. I patted my cloak out.
“Don’t speak of him,” I hissed, locking blades with her as she casually brought a blade from beneath her white cloak to protect her throat.
She raised a brow. “Oh? Why shouldn’t I? He was a passive man with zero drive.”
“He was a gentle man with a heart of gold who craved a simple life but married a power-hungry vagrant who needed to be put down .” I twisted my body and drove my blade handle-deep into her thigh.
She laughed maniacally. “You’re dealing with the matriarch who trained you and Kingpin who has magic. If you surrender now, I may leave your mate alive as a pet for my offspring.”
“You’re mad.”
She shrugged, kicking me back. “Madness to some looks like wisdom to others.”
While she was speaking, I drove a blade through her hand and when she was distracted by the knife sticking out of her, I sliced her throat. I stepped back, waiting for her to drop and bleed out on the soil where I’d grown up, where she’d trained me.
Long seconds I waited with guilt marring my soul, and she stood strong with a gaping throat like a third mouth. Her grin never wavered, and her skin knit itself back together. Horror threaded my soul.
“You can’t kill Kingpin. Kingpin is immortal. I would’ve passed this immortality to you, darling child, to pay for my sins. But now? I’m going to take what’s needed to ensure no one ever again experiences the pain of my childhood.”
"Why... Why turn on your entire tribe now ? Why wait? You... you were my prisoner for weeks?—"
I took another step back. I looked on in terror as everything I thought I knew collided with the truth. Everything fell to pieces before me. A part of me had still hoped that the grandmother I had loved could be in there somewhere. The one who’d smiled when I brought back a werewolf pelt. The one who’d given me my cloak at graduation. The one I’d wanted to make proud.
But it was clear, despite knowing her my entire life, I never knew grandmother.
Little things started to pop up. How she and Grandpa had always argued over how to treat us kids. How he’d stood up for us and told her not to talk about us like we didn’t know what she was saying. How he’d said that a six-year-old was too young to train. He’d tried to protect us.
But he’d never known what he was up against.
"Dear child, one must always take the time to properly plan the destruction of your children's children," she said, sneering. "There were keys to set into place. And I had yet hoped the people themselves would turn back to their senses if I just gave them time to see what an inept leader you were. But you ." The smile fell from her face as her blazing eyes locked on me. "You turned the people. It shouldn’t have been possible. You were everything I waited generations for, and yet I never suspected the benevolence you would hold and how it would destroy centuries of work."
Fear. Cold, hard fear rushed over the bond between me and Shen. Panic.
Something cold slid between the chain-link and angled up beneath my cloak toward my heart. A massive black wave knocked me and the assassin behind me over.
I rolled, trying to gather my breath. I put my hand to my side that felt oddly numb. My hand came away red. Black spots danced before my eyes, but I saw Shen, his jaws poised over the black-haired woman who had been there when his mother died. She bared her teeth, staring him in the eyes.
“If it was not for her , mother would have never chosen you. She did not have to die !” she said.
Shen's sister just tried to kill me. Whelp, some things run in the family, I suppose.
Shen’s mouth began to close, fangs penetrating the soft skin of his sister’s throat.
“Shen,” I whispered. “Don’t. Your power is your freedom. Don’t return to bondage.”
Shen’s eyes darted to mine. I felt him. His need for vengeance, for pain, for a way to numb the guilt growing like a seething mass in his chest. His fear that now, finally, I would see him for what he was.
A tiny smile tugged at my lips. I do not fear you, I whispered to that cold, detached mind that was trying not to feel.
His cold wall burst.
Emotions I couldn’t read flickered across his eyes. Guilt flared, then he stepped back, grabbed his sister by the shoulder, and threw her into a tree hard enough to knock a normal person silly. She grunted and kicked his nose.
“You can’t stop caring long enough to see the grand image. And you’ll die for it. Bring me the hellhound,” Kingpin said.
Blood seeped from the wound between my ribs. I stuffed it with cotton strips soaked in yarrow powder from a packet within my cloak. Mages circled me, and a black mage brought Fenbutt by the scruff. Fenbutt was snarling and trying to bite at the man, but the mage slapped him. Though I tried to get up, my legs were too weak to hold me.
I felt Shen’s rage as his sister fought, preventing him from getting to me and Fenbutt. Other werewolves yelped as they were stopped by the mages, all trying to get to me. And failing.
I struggled to get at the mage holding the pup. “Don’t you dare hurt him.”
Kingpin tsked. “This all would’ve been different had you chosen another route, Aurelia.”
That’s when Fenbutt glanced up and saw me. His tail wagged and then it went rigid as his nose twitched. His lips lifted, showing hints of his tiny puppy teeth.
Then his eyes turned red. His body twisted and twitched. It morphed from a tiny puppy to a furry little goblin creature with a bowed spine near his neck and metal spikes all along his back. His fur turned a metallic gray and became as coarse as a metal brush.
The man holding him dropped him with a yell as a spike rose from Fenbutt’s back and pierced the mage’s hand.
Fenbutt bounded to me, licking my ear. He got on my chest and released a sound I had no words to describe. It was the scream of promised death. It was the sound of a hundred werewolves in one voice. It echoed and reached beyond the veil of this world and into something else entirely. I’d heard of these creatures.
I didn’t learn of them as hellhounds, though.
We called them Timber Wolves, wolves that shake the earth with their howls and cause the trees to fall.
Fenbutt was a Timber Wolf ?!?
“Fen, hon, can’t breathe ,” I gasped.
He whimpered, jumped down beside me and licked my chin. He growled again at those around us, turning and snapping sharp teeth, trying to keep them all in his sight.
The mages stared at the little wolf.
“Is he supposed to transform so soon?” a mage asked.
Another mage answered, “No. It should be another year before he is able. But this only makes the spell more powerful. Get him?—”
A white snout snapped over the mage and swallowed him in two gulps.
Doesn ’ t the leather armor give you indigestion? I said to my dragon with a tiny, forced smile as she pulled back her lips to reveal red-flecked teeth and a leather bracer stuck between them.
For you, it ’ s worth it. Now get up.
“Can’t,” I said.
A ball of lightning made my eyes water as it exploded into Ran, shoving her backward. Her shriek of rage made the leaves tremble, but a vine mage was already sending living, slithering vines around her legs too quickly for her to snap them.
Fenbutt latched onto an arm that came too close, clawing and shaking it rabidly. The man raised a blade.
“Don’t kill it!” Kingpin screamed.
I tried to get up. I rolled until I was on my stomach, but someone pressed their foot against my back. A hoarse scream escaped my lips. It wasn’t in pain but rage. “Going somewhere, little sacrifice?” said a voice that made my skin crawl.
A gasp and a splatter of something warm hit the back of my head. Then he was there.
Shen crouched in front of me, his eyes wide and wild. “Mate hurt,” Lycus growled, his eyes dilated and so focused it was unnerving.
I knew he wouldn’t hurt me, but Lycus was a boiling mass of dark emotion. I needed Shen. Shen was struggling to push his wolf back to get to me so he could assess the damage. But Lycus held to their body through sheer will, his shock making them freeze.
“Hi, baby. It’s good to see you, but let Shen out now, ok?”
Lycus nodded, those eyes never leaving me. It was a promise that he would be there through it all, even if Shen held the reins. Then his face changed. His eyes flipped, and it was as if the wildness was slightly pushed back. I knew, however, that it was ever present, ever watching, ever waiting.
“Where?” Shen asked. I moved my hand. He followed the movement and shifted my cloak so he could see. He hissed through clenched teeth and his chest rumbled with a constant growl.
“Stay with me, Little Red.”
He pressed his hand against the wound and suddenly the numbness twisted from absent pain to a raging, white-hot fire that tore a whimper from my throat. I wanted to scream, but didn’t have the energy.
Sorrow, piercing, draining sorrow echoed across the bond.
“I am sorry, little one. I am so sorry. Come on, let us get you somewhere safe. Do you still have the mage stone?”
I pressed my hand against my chest. “Have to save… for others,” I whispered.
“You idiotic, little… We are using it for you this time, understand? You will die without it.”
“What about everyone… else?”
“We will do what we can for them. But I would sacrifice every person on this field for you. I would burn the world to see you live. Do not dare leave me here alone after I just found you.”
I felt the darkness snapping up from its tethers. The horrors it would unleash to ensure my survival.
“Fine,” I sighed, knowing what he said was true. Would hate for that to happen, so might as well let him save me so I can save the world.
Twisted logic. Sound, but twisted.
Says the one who just ate a mage.
I said it was sound, didn't I? she hissed, eating another mage and burping fire.
Shen found the mage stone and pressed against the teardrop on its smooth surface, making it release a light that blinded me for a few moments. The stone sent a warmth to the wound, slowly closing it and restoring most of my health.
But blackness was pulling at me, pushing me under. The last thing I saw was panic on Shen’s face—pure, molten panic. Darkness drowned me.