Chapter 12 Gabe
Gabe
She stared at me, chin high, fury bright in her eyes, pretending she was not afraid. Pretending she had not already crossed too many lines with me to leave this encounter unmarked.
The air was thick with lamp oil and the sharp edge of her fear. I could smell it on her. Underneath that, something sweeter.
Something alive, that had my own blood pounding.
She wet her lips and I found myself far too distracted by the swipe of that little pink tongue.
“I give you my solemn vow, Demon. I won’t defy your orders again. I’m known far and wide for keeping my word. Ask around.”
Adorable.
She still thought this was a negotiation.
“You’ve had your chance, and I only give one.”
Her throat moved as she swallowed, her fingers twitching toward a weapon that was no longer there.
I stepped back and lifted my hand between us, palm up. At first she only stared at it, eyes full of suspicion.
“Kneel.” The word came out like a whip-crack and her gaze snapped to mine.
“N-no.”
Of course, she might think I was asking for something else, something nearly as intimate as her name.
She started to rise, but I caught the back of her neck before she got far and held her there, not hard enough to hurt, just enough to remind her how easily I could contain her.
“I vow not to abuse it if you give it willingly.” I slid my thumb along the side of her throat. “Your true name, breathed into my keeping.”
Her lips pressed together.
I felt her weighing it. The knowledge that she’d been beaten against the hunger for vengeance. The desperation to be something monsters like me could no longer control…to wound so easily…
“Why do you need it, then?”
“So that when I call, you will come to me.”
Her lashes flickered as I pressed my fingers into the soft skin of her jaw.
“Open.”
The first touch of her mouth to my skin was soft enough to feel accidental, but as her lips grazed my palm, every thought in my head went black. I tightened my fingers at the nape of her neck, not to force her closer, but to keep myself steady.
She felt that.
I saw the realization move through her. That this was not only a taking. That I was not untouched by it—or her—either.
Her breath warmed my pulse. Her mouth hovered there, parted. Waiting.
“Say it.”
She hesitated for another endless moment and then…
“Marinnia.”
The sound of it struck clean and true, like a blade sliding between my ribs. I felt the magic take the instant the last syllable left her mouth. It moved through my arm, into my chest, down into the old black hollows inside me, lighting them one by one.
The air in the room pulsed. The lamp flickered. I held her there as the magic settled into her bones as surely as it had mine. The sound she made–a breathy whimper–nearly brought me to my knees.
“W-what did you do to me?”
I curled my fingers into a fist, closing them around the echo of her name. The taste of it was still in my body, wild and sharp as thorns.
“What I had to. And now, you will come when I call to you, Marinnia.”
I let my gaze drag over her features, committing them to memory. The slightly thin mouth that had touched my skin. The mouse-brown eyes that hated me. The proud line of her square little chin, trembling just a bit.
“Then I guess you can go now.”
She tried to rise too quickly and stumbled. I caught her by the waist, steadying her against me as her palms flattened against my chest. She looked down at them as if disgusted to find them there. Then she looked up at me.
For a second, neither of us moved.
My hand was still at her waist. Her breath was still coming too fast, the magic pulsing between us, an invisible chain.
“You bastard,” she said.
I let my fingers flex once before releasing her and stepping back.
“Be that as it may, given the current state of affairs I think it best that I keep you close,” I heard myself saying before I could stop the flow of words.
“There’s still a murderer on the loose and I need you alive.
Have your things ready tomorrow morning.
You and your Doves will move into the castle where you’ll be protected as you continue your search for me. ”
I didn’t wait for her answer, didn’t trust myself a moment longer touching her, and instead launched myself out the still-open window and taking to the skies.
Climbing, I took myself as close to the ceiling of Seventhell as I could, as much to give myself a moment of peace as to keep myself from turning around and facing down the Briar Queen again. No…Marinnia.
Her name still struck a chord in my chest that I didn’t understand.
Taking her name should not have sent those shockwaves through me. “Fuck, what the hell is wrong with you, Demon?”
My words reached no ears but my own, not that it would have helped if anyone had heard me. Not when I was struggling to figure out why I was so damn attracted to her.
Because she was not wrong when she said she was plain. Next to the other Doves, she was simple, a washed-out color in a sea of flowers.
And yet the urge to trace the shape of her neck, to bury my face in that spot just below her ear…a growl slipped out of me as my cock joined in the conversation.
Her wit, was that what drew me? For certain she was sharp, intelligent and I enjoyed parrying words with her. Her bravery bordered on foolishness…her loyalty to all the Doves?
“Whatever the fuck it is, you need to purge it from your system. Because she hates you.” As if giving myself instruction would help at this point.
Because that last bit was too accurate. Marinnia despised me, and with good reason, I was the symbol of everything that was wrong with the Fallen. The king. The asshole. The one forcing people to bend and obey. And I was leaning hard into that role to do what I had to do.
Worse yet, to force her to hand over her name, that had sealed whatever hatred had been brewing in her. I carried the Prism with me, and while it was not the same as the loyalty it tied between myself and the other Fallen, it could in fact bind another to me. Which was exactly what I’d done.
A pity she hadn’t been willing.
My cock perked up at the word ‘willing’ as images of Marinnia in her hooded cloak slipped through the front of my mind, of me going on bended knee instead of her, sliding the material up over those firm legs…higher…
“Fuck!” I snapped the word which really didn’t help my current state of frustration. She would not be the first woman to hate me and likely not the last. But damn it was vexing beyond measure.
The scent of cooking meat, and the tang of hops caught at me, and I spiraled slowly around the rooftop pub on massive stilts that as far as I could see, had no stairs up. Which meant Fallen only. Perfect for the mood I was in.
I landed lightly on the one edge of the platform pub, tucking my wings in tight until they absorbed back into me.
“Your Majesty!” Luc’s voice turned me to the left where he held up a heavy pewter mug of beer.
“Lord Luc,” I made my way over to him and took the offered mug as if we’d planned to meet here. “Any news?”
I’d sent him to inquire at the morgue for any other deaths that resembled that of the Doves that had been killed. Not that I doubted what Marinnia had told me, but losing Doves was something noticeable. If the killer had been around, he might have practiced on the less fortunate.
Luc lowered his voice as we made our way to a seated area away from the few other patrons of the Stilted Pub. “Three others, Gabe,” he shook his head. “All within the last few months. Unfortunate women, all of them.”
Meaning they were prostitutes from the realms over our heads. They weren’t considered Doves unless they were beautiful. Something stuck in my throat, realizing that Marinnia would have been cast to that fate if not for her quick mind and her mentor seeing her skill sets beyond her simple looks.
“Three. Are you certain?”
“Yes. Same injuries, same removal of…their wombs. Of course no one mentioned it, because of their lack of rank.” Luc shook his head. “I am checking with the guards in Firsthell tomorrow, but I fear what I may find.”
“More of the same.” I gripped the pewter mug handle, feeling it crack under my fingers. I forced myself to loosen my hold on it.
There should not be this much concern for anyone. Not with the entire world at stake right now. Certainly not for a self-made Briar Queen, and yet I feared for some reason she could be next. If only because she seemed to make it her business to be in the know of as much as possible.
“I will be moving the Briar Queen and her Doves into the Seventhell castle on the morrow. She is hunting for the girl, but I cannot have her killed before she completes her task.”
Luc choked on his beer, gasping and slapping at his chest. “Say again?”
I glowered at him over my own beer. “You are not deaf, Luc.”
“No, but I rather wish I was. Are you a glutton for punishment? Looking for a way to lose the crown?” He leaned closer yet.
“You are to be engaged to Priscilla, and she is also living in your castle? You wish to rub her nose in the fact that you can do as you wish before you lock down the marriage?”
I realized that there was no way for Luc to understand how little I truly cared about a fake engagement, Priscilla, or the politics of the Fallen. Which meant I needed to trust him with the truth if I was to ask him to keep him helping me.
And here, in the Stilted Pub, I had the opportunity. No one close by, most respectable Fallen having gone to their homes for at least one meal. I lowered my voice and leaned a little closer to Luc.
“The truth then…if you can swear to secrecy.”
“Of course.” He gave the answer too fast and I shook my head.
“No, you must swear it, Luc.”
Luc’s eyes widened and he set his drink down, then put two fingers over his opposite wrist, as if checking for a pulse. “I swear on the forsaken that roam the nights, may they devour my soul should I ever break troth with you.”
I nodded, knowing that this trust in him was still a gamble, but I needed someone here who knew what I was dealing with, other than Myrr. As I spoke, I knew he would struggle with belief.
“There is a dark goddess stalking our world. She shattered the Veil so that she might destroy not only humanity, but the Alpha Territories. The magic needed to stop her was cast into five human women when they were but children. And if we do not find them all, we have no chance of surviving out the year. Perhaps not even the next month.”
I leaned back and lifted the mug to my lips. Luc stared at me, then burst out laughing, clapping a hand on his thigh, the hilarity producing even a few tears. “Gods, Gabe…you had me going…”
As I sat, watching him, my face no doubt grim, I saw the moment he realized I was, in fact, not joking. Saw the smile slip from his face and watched the color drain as if he’d seen a forsaken coming for his soul.
“Shit. Shit…” it was his turn to lean forward, his voice lowering, “Are you…are you fucking serious?”
I nodded. “It’s already begun. The battle between the wolves and Malach.
The changes in the weather topside. That was all at the hands of Lilis.
We’re shielded from much here, but things are getting worse and worse.
I do not care for the throne, Luc, I am here for one reason and one reason alone.
To save the world so that I can go back to my casino.
And I cannot do it alone. I need to find this woman, and I need to find her as quickly as possible. ”
Luc gripped the table as if he were hanging on after a long night of drinking. “Fuck. But how many Doves are there? Hundreds? We’re fucked, aren’t we?”
“Only if we can’t find her.” I took a drink, letting the beer wash some of the sourness of my words down. “I’d rather have just come here and brought every lord and lady in The Spire to the castle. Told them what was happening and what we needed to do to stop it.”
“Buuut,” Luc continued, shaking his head in disgust, “Our kind is not a trusting lot. Half of them already think you’re a plant for the Wolves.
We heard rumors of what happened at the battle.
Some whispered of Malach being possessed, but your instincts are right in this.
Most would not believe it because to accept that would mean there exists a woman stronger than our own Demon King.
Most of the Fallen are far too proud to make such an admission. ”
I let out a grunt of agreement. “My only choice is to go about this in secrecy or take the risk of starting a civil war. The Briar Queen is our best bet at finding this key. The Doves trust her, she’s perceptive and highly motivated.
” Even if the latter was only because she wanted to ensure her girls were safe and finish her business with me as quickly as possible.
“The Doves from her house need to be protected because if we lose her or she’s too busy worrying about those she cares about, we lose our best chance at surviving the dark goddess. ”
I told myself that was the only reason that I wanted Marinnia close.
It had nothing to do with wanting to taste her mouth, had nothing to do with wanting to spar with her again, and absolutely nothing to do with wanting to see her in front of me, her skirts parting up that smooth thigh leading me higher…
I tipped the mug back, chugging the full amount back in three gulps.
Gods help me, if Lilis didn’t kill us all, my fascination with the Briar Queen would surely kill me.