Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
N ailah’s unexpected presence had Dominic, Helena, Areleus, and his guards with their weapons drawn rushing toward her. Areleus halted the guards’ approach with a slight wave of his hand, then quickly dismissed them in response to her annoyance at their presence.
“Areleus, when was the last time you’ve had an invasion attempt from the other realms? Forty, fifty years? Are the guards really still necessary?”
His narrowed eyes fixed on her, and he lifted his chin in defiant hauteur.
With noticeable effort, her tightly pressed lips formed an insincere smile. “My apologies, Lord Areleus ,” she pushed out in a stiff voice.
The mien of discontent faded, replaced by his brand of cool arrogance as he closed the distance between them. Nailah placed the small overnighter tote clutched to her chest on the floor and shrugged off the oversized jacket to reveal layers of clothing. A sweater over a button-down shirt, slim-fitted jeans, and boots. With a sigh, she pulled the hair tie from her bun and let her braids cascade over her shoulders.
“I’ve never traveled to the underworld alone and wasn’t sure I’d end up in the right place on my first attempt. So, I needed to be prepared for any destination,” she explained. “My vision saw me here, but navigating travel isn’t where my magic lies.”
Seer abilities were subject to the butterfly effect, as was everything in life. Anything could have happened during her transport to change the outcome. Her transporting to the underworld wasn’t part of her magical abilities, confirmed by the curious looks she was getting from everyone.
“I made it.” She exhaled a deep sigh, her tension disappearing.
Areleus’s smile seemed to be a genuine display of appreciation at seeing her relaxed and safe. Her genial personality swept through the room in a manner that felt mystical. I suspected the sense of comfort came from being in a room with a person who possessed the ability to warn you of potential danger.
“How did you get here?” he asked.
Opening her hand, she revealed the Trapsen. It conjured identical looks of betrayal from Areleus and Dominic.
“You said that Madeline’s grandmother had the last one,” Dominic challenged.
“No, I said you had all that you needed collected ,” she countered softly, ignoring his sharp look of disapproval.
“A lie of omission,” Dominic said.
“A necessary misdirection.” The underworld’s royalty didn’t seem satisfied with the answer.
“Shall we argue over my dishonesty or discuss what brings me here?” Nailah asked, breaking the tense silence.
The rigid expressions made it obvious her lie of omission was the topic they wanted to discuss, but the need to satisfy their curiosity took precedence. At least, it did for Helena and Dominic. Lord Areleus’s lips drew back in a sneer. Poorly suppressed anger flooded the room. Magic thickened the air and he straightened with the need to exact punishment for dissatisfaction. My dislike of him was dipping into hate territory.
Nailah’s arrival gave me hope. If she was able to get into the underworld, there was a possibility of us getting out.
Lord Areleus inhaled a long breath, keeping his eyes on Nailah. She pulled her shoulders back and, giving as much illusion of height her diminutive stature would allow, inched toward him, removing the small space that separated them. Her expression unyielding, she paid careful attention to him when he cast a glance in my direction. They exchanged a look, expressing ideas that I couldn’t figure out. The fiery menace that dwelled in Lord Areleus’s eyes couldn’t be denied.
“What you are thinking of doing, don’t,” she whispered.
His lips pulled into a thin taut line. “Are we forgetting our roles again?” he challenged.
“That is something you’d never let me forget. Do I need to remind you how important I am to you?” Despite her assertion, her tone was gentle and entreating. He considered her but his attention kept slipping in my direction. What was she pleading with him not to do to me?
Her tone was still hushed, but in the silence it was hard to keep the conversation between just them. “I was with the Conventicle when I had visions of Madeline and members of her coven dying. The lives of several shifters snuffed out and vampires destroyed. It was carnage.” She started to lean into him to whisper something in his ear, but changed course. Her eyes swiveled to find Dominic. “If Luna is killed, a lot of supernaturals will die.” She turned to me, her eyes showing confusion and concern. She was aware of the connection between me, Peter, and unspeakable violence but couldn’t determine what it was. As the tension thickened, I knew the speculations were a windfall. Helena and Anand knew the shades were drawn to me. Areleus was aware that Dominic was keeping secrets about me.
Whether or not they were choosing to ignore it, I couldn’t ignore her hands clenched at her sides, the glow over her face, and her glistening eyes. It had to be difficult to see clips of events and try to make sense of them, envision futures and potential deaths and try to coordinate the right activities to prevent them happening. To witness the world on fire and try to determine where to direct the hose to save the most lives and minimize the damage.
Feeling secondhand distress for her, I stepped in her direction to comfort her, feeling the weight of Dominic’s scrutiny as I did.
“Nailah, let’s have a drink,” Dominic suggested with a half smile. “We have a bottle of Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne Grand for you.”
A smile eased onto her face. “A glass would be nice.”
I, too, wanted to ease what troubled her, but day drinking and problem-solving with a tipsy Seer seemed like a bad idea.
Nailah grabbed the overnighter and kept a nervous hold on it as we navigated to the kitchen. Dominic went to the cellar and returned with wine and Cognac. Anand retrieved the glasses and Helena remained on the outskirts of the room, watching everyone with a cool indifference that I was sure hadn’t fooled anyone.
Dominic pointed at the bottles for me to indicate which one I would like, the wine or the Cognac. I declined both. In a room with a person who suggested killing me or at the very least cutting off my finger, and another who’d held me hostage with claws at my stomach, I wouldn’t risk having my senses dulled by liquor. The rest settled on Cognac, leaving the wine for Nailah. Dominic placed the bottle on the table where she’d taken a seat, then perched on a stool at the island, next to Areleus. It was easy for me to study the many similarities between them. The same dark aura of power that couldn’t be dampened. The stamp of ruthlessness that could be accessed at any time. The command of the room and the warring hostility that marked their mood when they were in the same room. Their palpable contention made me wary as I slid onto the chair one seat over from Nailah, from where I could keep a careful eye on everyone. I speculated that was the reason she chose her seat. She might have been part of the supernatural world, but she had to be acutely aware that she was surrounded by predators. And when you’re not the predator, you default to prey.
Helena maintained her distance, calculating and staying in her spot even after Anand offered her a snifter of Cognac and invited her to have a seat. When she declined, it didn’t slip my notice that he stayed at her side.
Nailah took a draw from the glass, appreciating the first taste of the wine with a sigh. Placing the glass on the table, her gaze drifted to the peculiar midnight-color flowers in the garden. It couldn’t have been her first time seeing them, but she looked at them with the curiosity of someone seeing them for the first time.
She took another long drink. “I don’t know what the connection is between Luna and the Dark Caster but there definitely is one. I fear that her death will cause irreparable harm,” she disclosed, giving Areleus a pointed look.
The wheels of speculation were turning, and there was a part of me that wanted to give her the answer in hopes that the information would help her come up with a solution. Fear of Areleus’s and Helena’s reactions kept me from doing so. I trusted her and made a plan to get a moment alone to tell her. I’d give her the missing piece to the puzzle.
“That may be so, but her existence has caused just as much harm, including our imprisonment. Either way, we are affected, so I prefer the option that leads to our freedom.” Areleus took a sip from his glass, savoring the amber liquid before his foreboding eyes were cast in my direction. Disgusted by how flippant he was with discussing my life and death, I wished I had taken a glass of wine for no other reason than to have a weapon if he decided to act on it.
Nailah stood up and moved closer to him. Placing her hands over his, her delicate touch showed a familiarity between them that had me questioning whether their relationship had always been professional. What had transpired between them that led to her staying in the guest house during her visits? Perhaps her gentle nature created an unintentional bond and the perception of intimacy.
“Areleus.” Tenderness laced her whisper. At that moment, he didn’t take issue with her dropping his title. “As of late, patience has not been your strength. It is essential that you find it. Make it your best asset because it is crucial that you do.” Her soft melodious voice lulling, Areleus appeared to be taking in her request. The distinct change in his coldness made me question whether there was more to her Seer magic. Did it also possess some form of compulsion? She’d brought me comfort when I first met her. The only off-putting things about her were her glowing violet eyes and the stifling magic that took away the solace that usually accompanied her presence.
“So, what do you propose we do?” he inquired.
“Wait. I’ve spoken with Madeline and she is confident that she can break the spell,” she asserted, renewing hope that had dwindled during the course of her visit.
No one in the room held that same level of confidence and they made it known with their derisive scoffs.
“Madeline?” Areleus drawled with hints of skepticism.
“It was she and her coven who discovered a way to punish Helena,” Dominic pointed out.
Helena’s cool guise dropped momentarily, revealing her disgust that an inferior had punished her. They’d performed a curse to remove Helena’s magic. It took ten years for Dominic to find a way to counter it, and along the way he found a way to keep witches from performing magic on him. It took several minutes for Helena to gain control over her anger and replace it with the mask of indifference. Dominic’s eyes held a deviant spark from her reaction. His pettiness was a little humanizing. A sibling taunt.
“Even more reason for our presence to be known and for us to make displays of ruthlessness for those who wrong us. This is our time to make a statement, and if Dominicus wasn’t so distracted playing with his human toy, he’d see it as I do,” Helena hissed. The glimmer from his taunt was snuffed away and replaced with contention and ire. Her eyes flicked from him to her father. “Break Dominic’s little toy, leave here, and find Peter. Kill him in the most violent and torturous way possible. Make it a spectacle and a statement that we are never to be wronged, captured like animals, or subjected to their petty reprisals. We must be in accord with this. Unified. No faltering nor negotiations. Brother,”—her eyes were fiery slits—“compromise is never the answer. Never .”
I glanced at Areleus, who was clearly on board with her dictum, nodding with a dark regality as if reclaiming a position he’d momentarily deserted. Violence seemed to be his primary strategy for dealing with anything.
“I suspect the few challenges you’ve encountered in your life would have benefited from you demonstrating some skills of negotiation, or at the very least some restraint. Maybe you should consider behaving as an adult sometime,” Dominic said, his tone blistering with disapproval.
“And you need to stop fucking humans!” Helena cut her eyes at him.
“I will if you do.”
“There is clearly a difference in how we view them. I see them for what they are—entertainment. To be used to satisfy a carnal need. Nothing more.” She directed her dissatisfaction in my direction. “They have, and always have been, there for our pleasure.” She frowned. “Just like their existence, our dealings with them should be fleeting. It is foolish to value their lives over even our mildest discomfort.”
I jumped to my feet. “You’re an asshole,” I snapped. “And you can go straight to hell. And I don’t mean whatever this damn place is. I would like you to be engulfed in flames and to feel the sort of pain that only a person like you deserves.” I turned to her father. “And the same goes for you.” Stealing a glance in Dominic’s direction and seeing the disdain from his sister’s comment still on his face was the only reason I wasn’t inviting him to do the same. Fuming, my emotions were difficult to sort out. “I’ve sat here, trying to be empathetic about how it must feel for powerful people to be rendered powerless, but you’re all a horribly clear example of why some people don’t deserve power or authority. I’m not an insect to be squashed under your shoe. I’m a person. With a life, friends, family, dreams, and humanity, and you keep viewing me as inconsequential.”
“But you are. For some reason you’ve been led to believe you aren’t. If it was our will, do you understand how quickly you could be squashed? So yes, you are inconsequential, as is the rest of your ilk,” Helena said.
I swallowed my fear despite her looking as if she wanted to demonstrate my inconsequentiality.
“Along with going to hell, I’m going to invite you to shut the fuck up, too. Great power means you have responsibility to not be the biggest pile of shit in existence. Something you’re demonstrably failing at. I had no choice in any of this, and if I had, believe me, meeting you would be the last thing I’d ever have wanted. You’re all such unrepenting megalomaniacs and you can’t see past your overinflated egos to fix this without resorting to violence.” I gave Areleus a censuring look in case he thought he was excluded.
“I have no idea what Peter’s endgame is, but I’m sure that if he fails, he’s given others a lot of ideas. You’re not an island. Dominic seems to be the only one who understands that. Stop being so casual and dismissive about killing me and work together to prevent this situation happening again. Get the other supernaturals to want to work with you because they see that your aligned interest makes it better for everyone. And stop underestimating humans. We’re far more resilient than you will ever know. And I’m no one’s plaything.” I shot Dominic a look, drilling in the point in case for a fraction of a second he thought otherwise.
Helena was looking smug and Areleus peered at me down his nose as if he’d just watched a child throw a tantrum.
“We’re aware that humans are resilient and that their lives have meaning, Luna,” Dominic offered. I could see the unspoken part in the slight smile he gave me. My life had meaning, a sentiment not shared by his father and sister. At this point, I’d have been happy with anything from Anand. He was definitely the person in a room of chaos whom you could never use as the barometer of how bad the situation was.
“She isn’t wrong,” Nailah provided, taking Areleus’s free hand into hers, redirecting his attention from me to her. My words were lost on him because it seemed he was more disgusted by my chastisement of him and his profoundly terrible daughter than by the criticisms lobbed at them.
I hated this world so much and knew without any doubt that I couldn’t exist in both. The human world was where I needed to be. The smidgen of desire to exist in both was gone.
“We are to place our hopes in Madeline and her coven, without even you there to work on our behalf?” Areleus asked, gearing Helena up for another argument in defense of my death for the greater good and she was just the hero to do it.
“I wouldn’t do such a thing. Glimpses of your captivity came to me, but I couldn’t make much sense of it. But Peter met with the Conventicle, informing them that he’d freed them from your rule. Thanks to him, they’re now able to move throughout the world freely and with impunity. I knew you all were in danger, somehow locked in here. Although he was coy about it, the implication was that Peter”—she rolled her eyes, leading me to believe it was a name he chose and not the name he was usually known as—“or rather, Ansel, was looking for a place in the Conventicle.”
So I was right about his name. I hoped she shared my other reservation, which was that the reason he wanted to be part of the Conventicle was to launch a takeover. Likely a hostile takeover.
“Madeline doesn’t trust him. After all, he and his kind have a history that can’t be ignored. They choose to deal with the devil they know, one they know can be reasoned with.” She gave Areleus a meaningful look to drive in the point before slipping an air of assurance in Dominic’s direction. The acknowledgment brought a sneer to the lord’s face. Contempt for his son or maybe what he represented: a minuscule amount of humanity.
“Madeline appears to be confident that she and her coven can figure out a way to lift the spell or circumvent it,” Nailah added.
“Confident and sure are two very different things,” Areleus pointed out.
Dominic’s eyes settled on his father for a moment before he snapped his focus back to Nailah. “What will be the cost of this help?” he asked.
She frowned. “Removal. They believe you are no longer of use. They remove the spell and all ties between you and the supernaturals are severed.” She returned to the table, reached down for the bag she’d placed next to her, and pulled out a roll of vellum. Opening it, the yellow glow of magic illuminated the words and below it her blood signature. Areleus took the paper, reading slowly over it, Helena easing in next to him to look at the terms. Once they were finished, they handed it to Dominic who gave it a long viewing. After he finished, he exhaled a ragged breath.
“What exactly do you expect us to do with our time?” Helena snapped.
Nailah kept a reserved demeanor, irritation flaring only momentarily in her cedar-brown eyes. “I’m sure you’ll find other ways to entertain yourselves. The question remains, what is your freedom worth?”
“Everything,” Areleus said. Despite being aware of their deadly speed and imperceptible movement, I wasn’t prepared. The sphere of magic slammed into my chest. I soared back and slammed into the wall. My breath huffed out, making it difficult to take another.
Get out of the way , I scolded myself. Unable to get to my feet in time, I rolled to keep the next sphere from hitting me in the same place. It smashed into my leg with an explosion of pain. Sure that my leg was broken, I prepared for another surge of pain and scrambled to my feet. It didn’t seem to be broken, but pain bolted through me.
With his claws exposed, Areleus lunged at me, but a burst of Dominic’s magic smashed into his upper chest. Another arrow-shaped illumination hit the middle of his forehead, snapping his head back. In his falling, a chaotic turbulence of magic: a cyclone of fire, furniture flying throughout the room. I tried to follow Nailah as she dashed out of the room, Anand blocking the furniture careening in my direction leaving me to dodge the ones he missed. Again, I was slammed to the ground. Wincing and gritting my teeth through the pain, I yanked out the large shard of glass from my leg, tossed it aside, and forced myself to stand.
Areleus was on his feet, his attention split between me and Dominic. Fire blazed in Dominic’s and Areleus’s eyes as they locked on each other. Their magic came to an unsettling halt, as if an implicit decision had been made not to use it. Claws bared, they lunged at each other. Colliding, Areleus’s claws retracted and he landed a hard punch on Dominic’s chin. And with the other hand, which remained clawed, he slashed Dominic across the shoulder. As they fought, it was apparent that Areleus had a better command of his claws than Dominic. No restraint was shown as the fight devolved into a brutal exchange of flashes of movement, dodging, blows to face and body, and blocking slashes of claws to the neck. A powerful strike to Dominic’s chest sent him soaring through the air, smashing into the stove and denting it. He recovered and plowed into his father, his claws scraping into his chest, shredding his clothing and making superficial gashes.
Helena looked perplexed. Immense calculation was in her eyes as she watched the fight.
My heart pounded hard when she directed her attention to me. Limping back, I eyed the stairs where I planned to retreat. Helena would have come for me if it wasn’t for the shades taking the limited form they could, beating against the glass in an attempt to get in. Blood. I’d spilled blood and they were after me. Areleus’s lips parted as he risked a glimpse over his shoulder at the shades’ desperate attempts. Speculation on his face was quickly replaced with understanding. Ignoring Dominic, he rushed toward me. He got within inches of me before Dominic sank his claws into his stomach. Areleus dropped to his knees, eyes widening at Dominic whispering a spell. Magic thrummed the air with force. Areleus dropped his eyes to the small portion of skin exposed by his ripped shirt, where he could now see the markings that once covered his daughter, on him.
“Get her out of here,” Dominic commanded Anand. I should have moved. Wanted to move. But found myself rooted, unable to rip my attention from witnessing Dominic murdering his father. If Areleus didn’t have magic, he couldn’t heal.
My breaths were coming too fast. I wasn’t going to get any oxygen. I had to breathe. It was justified. He would have killed me. Those things replayed in my head as Anand ushered me away. Or rather dragged me away until he noticed my limp. Against my weak protests, he scooped me up, and the last thing I heard was Dominic’s grave voice telling his father to look at him, and the shades’ urgent attempts to get into the house.