CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Myra
The soft purr of Yael’s sports car was the only soundtrack to our impending doom as we raced to the bar.
By the time we parked across the street from The Riff Raff, every worst-case scenario had already played through my mind at least twice; scenarios with unimaginable blood and gore that I prayed we didn’t walk into.
I threw open the passenger door before he’d even put it park, prepared to barge through the front door and lay waste to Argo with my pent-up rage.
Reality rained down on me when Yael caught my arm yet again and yanked me to a stop.
That evergreen stare was filled with more emotions than I could count, but cunning and anger seemed to edge out the others as he spoke.
“I need you to hear me when I say this, little mermaid. Argo is smart and powerful, and he has the upper hand already, which means you need to keep a level head for us to have any shot at defusing this situation and minimizing the collateral damage.”
“And if we can’t?” I asked, not wholly sure I wanted the answer.
His deadly serious glare pinned me in place. “Then get behind me and hope I can take him out before he amasses a body count.”
Officially pulled from my protective rage, I swallowed hard and gave a shaky nod in response.
Once he was satisfied, Yael released my arm, and together, we walked toward the quiet building.
The interior lights were dimmed, as they always were after hours, which meant he had likely shown up when only the closing staff was there.
I racked my brain to remember who was on the schedule and felt the blood rush from my cheeks as I realized that Sasha and Curtis were in there with Laney and Ravi—and their two fates were already in question after my call with Argo.
Fear stiffened my spine as I stepped up to the front door behind Yael.
“Remember, love,” he whispered to me, “this is a chess match, not a bar fight. Your friends need you to stay calm—no matter what happens.”
I curled my hands into fists and let my nails bite into the flesh of my palms. The pain helped clear my head enough to see the wisdom in his words. “Stay calm. Got it.”
A wry smile tugged at his mouth. “I think I enjoy you when you’re compliant.” As quickly as it had come, his smile fell away, and he pulled the unlocked doors open.
We stepped into a scene I hadn’t even imagined.
The center of the dining room had been cleared of tables, as though someone had just yanked the rug and sent them flying into a heap against the wall to the kitchen.
Splayed out on top of them lay an unconscious and bleeding—or possibly dead—Curtis.
Sasha sat in front of the bar, shaking as she clutched a bloody Laney in her arms. Though her fear was nearly palpable, I could see the rage brewing in her warm chestnut eyes; it was aimed at the man standing in the center of the vast space, smiling like a wicked ringmaster about to announce his next act, while Ravi stood stock-still next to him.
“So good of you to come quickly," Argo said in a warm tone that contradicted his menacing stare.
“You didn’t leave me much of a choice,” I said with as much nonchalance as I could muster. “How about you let everyone else go so we can have that little chat you demanded?”
“Oh, I think they’ll be staying. As I pointed out on the phone, you’re in no position to make demands, and I want them to watch you die. It’ll serve as a warning to anyone in this half of the Playground dumb enough to think about fucking with what’s mine.”
“Except she won’t be dying,” Yael said as he edged closer to me, “and neither will any of them.”
Argo’s gaze drifted to where Curtis lay unmoving. “It might be too late for that one already,” he said, evoking a whimper from the girls. “He’s surprisingly fragile for a shifter.”
“You bas—”
“On another note,” he said, cutting me off as his line of sight landed on me yet again, “I don’t believe I told you to bring a friend along for this meeting.”
“I go where she goes,” Yael replied as he clasped his hands in front of him. “I don’t need an invitation.”
Only then did Argo’s gaze drift to the male at my side, as though he weren’t a threat at all.
“She must really be something for you to insert yourself into this matter. I’d planned to let whatever involvement you possibly had in Damian’s death slide, given your position with the king, but then you showed up here tonight throwing around thinly veiled threats, and now I find myself having a change of heart.
” Argo took a step closer as he looked me up and down.
“I have to know something first, though, Yael: is her pussy really magical enough to die for?”
“Sadly, I wouldn’t know,” he replied as he, too, took a step forward, shoulders back and head high, looking every bit the fae king’s second that he was. “But the more important question you should be asking yourself is: is Damian worth starting a war with the fae?”
Argo merely smiled at Yael’s casual threat.
“No. He isn’t. But you see, I have a reputation to maintain in the Playground, and thankfully for me, I won’t be starting a war with the fae if you die here.
This is lawless territory, with no expectation of safety or allegiance.
Even your precious fae king knows that. I could kill you both right now without fear of repercussions from anyone.
” He glanced to his left at the man who’d been like a father to me. “Isn’t that right, Ravi?”
Ravi’s body tensed as his eyes narrowed with hate, but he said nothing at all.
“What have you done to him?” I asked, fire burning in my veins.
Argo had the nerve to look offended. “I haven’t done anything at all.
In fact, I could argue that your beloved boss is the architect of his own dilemma.
It’s a delicious irony I try to savor whenever the opportunity presents itself—an irony I can see he never told you about.
How unsurprising.” I opened my mouth to ask him what he was talking about, but he stopped me with a raised palm.
“The very short of it is, as I said on the phone, Ravi cannot interfere with me or in matters regarding my territory in the Playground, and I cannot interfere with him or his. However, you killed one of my men in my house. So now I’m going to kill you in his, and there’s not a damn thing he can do about it. ”
“Maybe he won’t have to,” I countered as that calm I’d promised Yael began to evaporate.
“Myra—”
“Maybe you should walk your ass out the door instead before you find yourself in the same unfortunate circumstances Damian did.”
Argo’s smug amusement fell away in an instant.
“And how exactly did Damian end up in those unfortunate circumstances, I wonder? From what meager intel I’ve been able to gather about you, you’re all bark with little bite, which so far tracks.
There’s no way you have that kind of power.
I’d have heard of you before if you did—and Damian would have, too, since he shared the same incendiary ability that you used to kill him. ”
Shared the same ability…
My mind reeled with the possibilities of what he’d said.
Maybe the glitching wasn’t completely random after all; maybe it was somehow turning the recipients’ powers against them to some degree or other.
And if that was the case, I wondered how I could turn Argo’s on himself—or if doing so would only escalate the situation and endanger everyone there even more.
“So why don’t you tell me how you pulled it off,” Argo continued, pulling me from my frantic thoughts, “and maybe I’ll let one of your friends go before I kill you.
” My gaze drifted to where Sasha and Laney sat huddled together, then to where Curtis lay lifeless on top of the wall of chairs.
I didn’t have the answer he wanted that could spare one of them, and that truth only stoked my anger further.
“You want the truth?” I snapped. “The truth is that I don’t have a fucking clue how I killed him.”
“Liar.” He spat that word out like poison before turning toward the girls by the bar. “You want to lie to me?” he continued as stormed over to pry Laney out of Sasha’s panicked grip. “Maybe you need more motivation to be truthful.”
“No!” I lunged for him, but I was cut off by massive roots that shot through the floor of the bar and entrapped Argo’s arm as he wrestled for Laney.
“They are not a part of this,” Yael said in a booming voice that startled me.
Argo looked back over his shoulder with a malicious smile that didn’t bode well for anyone in that room. “I thought you were smarter than this, Yael. I had such high hopes to build a working relationship with you and the fae. I’m disappointed that you’ve chosen these throwaways over that.”
“It was an easy decision,” Yael replied in a haughty tone that would have done the king proud, “especially after how you allowed Jemma to be treated in your presence.”
The roots restraining Argo slowly began to burn from within like twining embers, sending smoke through the room. “Jemma liked how we treated her just fine,” he said as his restraints turned to ash and fell away with a flick of his wrists. “That’s why she constantly came back for more.”
For the first time since we arrived, Yael’s controlled demeanor began to crack. “You preyed on her ability—leveraged her weakness against her to get what you wanted.”
Argo shrugged at the accusation. “Maybe, but she knew what she was doing—”
“Because she was too far gone to stop herself,” Yael bit out as he stepped closer. “Are you the reason she’s missing? Are you the one she was indebted to?”
Argo’s laughter rang out through the dining area. “Oh, she was indebted to me—you could definitely say that—but I wasn’t the only one. And I’m not the one who called it in. That was someone else entirely. Someone far worse.”
Roots as thick as trees shot through the wood floor, impaling Argo’s feet and arms, cutting off his laughter in an instant. “Tell me what happened to her,” Yael seethed in his face.
“Your sister made her own bed,” Argo replied as fire blossomed in his palms. “Don’t try to blame me for her fate.
” The flames grew higher, climbing up his wrists to the stakes jutting through his forearms. They spread down his legs until all his appendages were free.
A swath of fire engulfed him as he smiled at Yael.
And then all hell broke loose.
Argo dove at Yael, who cast more roots at him, but he moved too quickly to be caught a second time, and I wondered how long we’d all last before one of us was accidentally speared by his attack. “Get them out of here!” Yael yelled at me as he battled the arrogant mob boss from Demon’s Horn.
Not needing to be told twice, I dove out from behind him and ran to Sasha and Laney, who were struggling to get to their feet, while Ravi darted for Curtis, who’d begun to stir.
“Come on,” I said, hauling Sasha to her feet as she supported Laney’s weight.
The sprite’s leg was charred, and she screamed the moment she tried to walk, then crumbled to the floor.
I bent over to pick her up, but I never made it.
Instead, a searing pain shot through my waist before I flew backward through the front door into the street outside.
I crashed to the ground and rolled across the pavement to the far sidewalk, putting out the flames engulfing my midsection in the process.
As I pushed myself up, Yael burst out of the building, a wall of roots behind him forming a barricade.
He ran to my side, eyes wide at the sight of my scorched clothes and skin.
His fingers grazed my flesh and the burning relented a little, making it easier to stand up straight.
“You need to get out of here, Myra,” he told me as he glanced over his shoulder at the smoking wall of tubers behind him.
“Get to fae territory. If anyone stops you, give them this.” He pulled a silver ring off his pinky and shoved it in my hand. “You’ll be safe until I come for you.”
“Yael—”
“You think you can escape me?” Argo shouted, the roar of fire echoing in his voice.
I looked up just in time to see Yael’s fortress of roots disintegrate, revealing a fiery silhouette storming out of The Riff Raff. Argo’s whole body was ablaze, flames licking out from his skin like snakes looking to strike as he headed right for us.
And Ravi was at his side.
“There is nowhere you can hide from my retribution, Myra.”
“Go,” Yael hissed at me as he shielded me from sight with his body.
But I couldn’t make myself leave him and the others. Instead, I peeked around his side to find Argo’s maniacal grin looking back at me. “Last chance to give yourself up,” he said as he took another step toward us.
Yael’s arms went wide, and the street beneath us rumbled with whatever he was calling to his aid. “You cannot have her,” he said, the promise of violence thick in his tone.
“Oh, I will—but first, I will have them.” He threw his arm backward in a violent motion, and the doors to the bar slammed shut. He turned his soulless stare back to me, and the sharp sickle of death raked down my spine. “Remember, Myra, this was your doing.”
Without further pretense, white-hot flames shot from his palm, sealing the metal doors in fire. Within seconds, the entire building was a fiery inferno of death.
With my friends magically sealed inside.