Chapter 14
Fourteen
Castle Dacia
“Uh-uh, Leo. Not on your friggin’ life,” Ellie told Lothaire, her thick Appalachian accent pronounced. “When you breezily informed me that you want to vacay in a hellplane filled with the undead, did you think I wasn’t gonna push back?”
Kristoff wasn’t sure why Lothaire had brought him here to Ellie’s sitting room to witness this conversation. Across the space, Balery, the court oracle, gazed on as well, her fey ears giving a twitch with each inflection in the conversation.
Lothaire took a seat beside Ellie, clearly unused to explaining his actions. “Before N?x lightning-portaled away, she confirmed our suspicions that the Gaolers took Mina to Nightside. And she gave us this.” He handed Ellie the journal.
She skimmed through, then set it aside with a shudder. “Feels as creepy as a two-headed snake.”
“Yes. An evil wizard penned it.” Lothaire had rapidly read it, the pages speeding under his fingers as if the journal were a flipbook cartoon. “Apparently his victims’ blood had stained the pages, requiring witchcraft to clean. I suspect N?x stole it from a coven. Finders, keepers, et cetera. What’s important is that it contains directions to Nightside’s portal. I’ve garnered enough information for me and Kristoff to try to breach that realm.”
“And why would I go with you?” Kristoff asked, even as he knew he would have to.
“Don’t play coy. You must keep me alive so my secrets don’t die with me.”
Keep alive the one I hate most.
Lothaire turned back to Ellie. “You did say you wanted our niece found.”
“Of course I want Mina found!” she cried. “But you’re talking about waltzing straight into danger. Again. And I’ve heard you yappin’ about how to get into that plane—but not how to get out.”
Good point.
“If an entrance exists, an exit surely must as well.” Lothaire uttered this unreasonable statement in a reasonable tone. “And consider this: N?x wants me there. She’s set all these moves into motion. She would not lead me into disaster.”
Ellie raised her brows. “Uh, are you serious? She’s done it to you, like, ten times now. She got you sent to that human pokey, and she knew you were buried in the Bloodroot Forest for six centuries.”
Lothaire’s eyes deepened in color with that memory.
Kristoff had recently learned that Demestriu had planted Lothaire deep within the Horde’s forest, for carnivorous bloodroot trees to feed on his ever-regenerating body. Part of the reason Lothaire wanted to control the Horde castle of Helvita was to raze the trees he’d grown with his blood.
His torment had probably been as hellish as Furie’s, which made sense as they were devised by the same vampire. Known for his tortures, Demestriu had also burned alive the werewolf king for centuries.
Kristoff would almost prefer that over roots boring under his skin. Sometimes he experienced a flare of pity for his half brother. Then he pictured Furie at the bottom of the ocean, her fire wings extinguished, her mind possibly lost.
All pity morphed into rage.
Lothaire shrugged away Ellie’s points. “If N?x has undercut my aims on occasion, it’s only because I veered off course. Each of those setbacks was for my ultimate benefit, leading me to you. And you know I would withstand them repeatedly to find you.” Lothaire couldn’t lie. He would go back to his bloodroot nightmare in order to share a life with his Bride.
Will I ever feel the same about Furie?
Ellie’s expression softened. “Do you really believe N?x wants you in Nightside?”
“She might as well have decreed it. And she knew I’d take my brother with me, so he’s been marked by fate as well.”
Debatable. And half brother.
“N?x’s foresight is exquisite, is it not?” Lothaire mused with excitement. “We are all leaves carried in a stream, and a mad Valkyrie directs the currents.”
“Emphasis on mad , Leo. I care for N?x, but she is fritzing in the head.” And Ellie didn’t even know that the Valkyrie carted around organs of unknown origin. “What if she got this wrong, and I lose you forever? If you have to do this, then take Mirceo, Caspion, and the entire Dacian army with you.”
“No. Only Kristoff and I will go. The others would just get in the way of The Incursion.”
Kristoff scoffed. “The incursion?”
Lothaire turned to him. “Any incursion that I lead is The .”
Ellie gazed at Kristoff with sympathy. She had been trying to influence Lothaire on his behalf. Her king seemed to give her everything she could ever desire, spoiling her human family with riches and protection, but he held firm on the secret of Furie’s location.
Kristoff pointed out, “Mirceo will be furious that you are leaving him behind.”
Ellie crossed her arms over her chest and nodded. “Madder than a rooster with its tailfeathers on fire.”
“Exactly. He’s too emotional,” Lothaire said. “He attacked me, remember? Just because I lost his sister one measly time.”
And Mirceo had paid utterly for that attack.
Balery finally spoke: “The other houses of Dacia suffer without the heart of the kingdom in the castle. Viktor is more warmongering than usual. Stelian is imploding. Trehan and Bettina are ready to level all the worlds to get Mina back. They each need to help.”
“If Kristoff and I fail, then the others can try to salvage. Divulge this information to them only if you think we have no shot.”
Ellie was wavering. “At least let Balery roll the bones to see if this is a good idea.” Though the fey oracle and potions master could foretell much, she possessed only a fraction of N?x’s vision.
Lothaire said, “We stopped in Hag’s laboratory before we came here. The becroned one rolled them there.”
Balery had once been cursed to resemble a crone, dubbed the Hag in the Basement by the Sorceri who’d enslaved her. Lothaire refused to call her anything else.
He added, “Yes. I’m surprised you didn’t smell the boiled eye of newt and sautéed spider web clinging to me. Not to mention the pungent scent of a fey’s dreams gone to die.”
Balery and Ellie glared at Lothaire’s casual callousness.
Kristoff frowned. “Why do you stay in his service, fey? You were trapped by Sorceri before, but you’re free to leave now.” As I long to do.
She raised her palms, her hands glittering from some potion or another. “My lab here is state-of-the-dark-arts. And I like most of the castle’s inhabitants. Besides, Lothaire is old enough to know the root of hag is hagios . Holy. And crone comes from corona , or crown —as in, crowned with knowledge. He’s aware of this. He delights in trolling others. Not to be mistaken for troll-ing , because that involves a troll’s brute force and club accessories. Not to be mistaken for dance-club accessories?—”
“We get it, we get it.” Lothaire’s lips curled as if a light prank had been revealed.
Kristoff was yet again struck that he didn’t know his half brother at all.
“Back to the subject at hand,” Lothaire said. “ Hag rolled her bones and advised us never to cross N?x.”
Balery canted her head. That hadn’t been her exact wording. She’d gazed at the bones and murmured, “N?x is not just an agent of fate; she’s an agent of chaos. For whom does the Valkyrie act now? If you thwart the former, you invite the latter.”
Ellie asked, “Did N?x say anything about Mina’s health? I can’t see her getting nabbed because she broke the law. She must have the plague.”
Balery said, “I can detect it in blood, but there’s no guarantee I’ll ever have a working cure.”
Lothaire rose. “N?x didn’t mention much about Mina, was too busy wondering how we’d come by a giant heart—one that she had just brought with her to Dacia. But we’ll cross the Mina-might-have-plague bridge when we come to it.”
Ellie sighed in resignation. To Kristoff’s surprise, she was going to allow this insanity. “When do you leave?”
“Now, Lizvetta.” Lothaire patted his sword. “We go to meet our destinies.”
No wonder he’d made sure Kristoff was armed tonight.
Ellie reached for Lothaire. “You come back from that place, okay?”
He leaned down and gazed into her eyes. “Coax me, hellbilly.”
She cupped his face gently, but her words were steel. “You fuckin’ return to me, Leo, or I’ll be comin’ to get your ass.”
“My fierce queen, you delight me.” He kissed her lustily. Then tenderly. Then he brushed his pale fingers over her face.
She looked awestruck.
“I’ll return anon.” He straightened. Giving a nod to Balery, he intoned, “Hag,” then disappeared.
Before Kristoff could blink, Lothaire had traced across the sitting room, snared him, and teleported them to a forest cloaked in night.
Kristoff surveyed his new surroundings. Lichen draped towering trees, and ferns dotted the rich forest floor. Scents enveloped them. Brooks. Stone. Bear? “Where are we?”
“Canada.”
“And how do we get to Nightside?”
Kristoff’s hackles rose when Lothaire only smiled.