Hels's Gauntlet [Forbidden Legacy 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (15 page)

He cut his teeth on the Fae by taking more than his fair share of pot shots at all of them. But Cassie allowed none of her opinion to color her expression or her words. She gave him a sad smile. “Well, Henry, it’s definitely terrorism. Buildings don’t blow themselves up. But as the victims include human, Wizard, and Fae, I would say this is a crime against our nation and the freedom of assembly, more than a direct hit at the Fae.”

“But this conference was about fostering relationships with the Fae.” Henry dared closer until Jude loomed up at her side. Helcyon had her back, allowing no reporters to skirt around her despite the thickness of the crowd. His devastating stare persuaded them that staying in front of her was the best move.

Jude said nothing, not interrupting, but he was hardly a small man and the shock of blue hair snagged its fair share of attention, as did the easy smile. Henry gave him one nervous look and shuffled back a step.

“As I was saying,” he exhaled. “This conference was about fostering relationships with the Fae. Establishing accords. The guest list included the U.S. Ambassador to the Fae as well as the newly appointed Fae Ambassador, and you, Ms. Belle. You were on the guest list as was the President. Isn’t it possible that groups opposed to these growing relations planted the bombs?”

“Henry, anything is possible.” Cassie bowed her head, gathering her thoughts and letting the sadness for the loss of life run over her. She’d dressed in a hurry and worn the coat that Helcyon thrust at her as an act of placation for the quiet rage seething beneath the surface.

He’d ordered her to stay put.

She declined and for the first time, shoved him away in fury with her magic. They’d clashed. The wreckage in her bedroom would have to be replaced. The wreckage in their relationship might take a great deal longer.

She called up the gate and walked through it, Helcyon’s hot fury breathing down her neck as he followed. Twice since they’d arrived he’d given her orders.

Twice she’d ignored him.

The link between them roiled with unspoken words and barely contained emotions. This was her job, though. These were all her people: Wizard, human, and Fae.

She needed to be here.

He needed to get the hell over it.

Bile rose in her throat, and she swallowed it. The constant burn and flutter in her stomach hadn’t abated much since her arrival. It probably wouldn’t until the three of them hammered this out. Preferably not with weapons.

Tempting as that might be.

“The simple matter is, we could speculate all day.” She lifted her gaze to include the twenty or so reporters crowding in. The cameras swung back in her direction. She swept a glance over all of them, meeting every eye and accepting their need to know. She needed to know, too. “We could speculate on who did this and why they did it. But we can’t know until the investigation is complete. Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Guard, the Secret Service, the Wizards, and the Fae…they will all investigate. Right now, we have to focus on the survivors.”

She turned, awareness flaming through her that one such survivor had just been found. Jude and Helcyon shifted imperceptibly to create a path between them for the cameras to focus through as Jacob helped a bloodied and battered woman from beneath the wreckage. Paul stood proud and focused by his side. Crews paused to give a cheer and then pressed onward as medical aide rushed in to care for the lady.

“We need to focus on those that were lost and the families they were torn away from. Yes, this is a heinous act of terrorism, and it should be investigated, the perpetrators caught and tried in a court of law. We need to have justice and mercy for those most affected.” The words flowing out of her were the right ones. The gaggle of press agents, photographers, and broadcasters hushed under the weight of it.

“We need to come together now. Donate blood, clear the roads so the emergency vehicles can get in and out. Dial back the press for immediate answers because we’re not going to have them. Will you help those who need you now?” She turned the tables on them, and one by one, the reporters began to nod. The crowd dispersed slowly and trickled away with news reports, live on the scene interruptions for the broadcast stations, and more.

All except Henry. He shook his head slowly, waiting until the last of his competitors retreated. “You’re good, Ms. Belle.”

“And you’re an ass, Kramer. Leave her alone.” Jude spoke up for the first time since his arrival.

“Jude.” Cassie swung around and stared at him. She’d just quieted the press. She didn’t need him agitating them. How the hell did she make that better?

“It’s quite all right, Ms. Belle. Mr. Donovan or should I say Wizard Donovan is correct. I am an ass. But it’s effective in an information campaign.”

“Disinformation, you mean.” Jude slid around her, forcing Henry to retreat or get stepped on by the much larger man. Most of the time, Jude acted the part of teenager, laid back and relaxed. She forgot just how impressive he was all on his own. Tall, broad-shouldered, and capable of the remote expressions of his peers, it left her damn unsettled.

“The ‘people’ have a right to know.”

“The ‘people’ do have a right to know, and you’re playing the role of human inciter way too well. The Council ordered us to back off.” Jude’s hands flexed at his sides, but it was the tone in his voice that tipped her off. He recognized something in the other man.

The Council?
Cassie frowned, obeying Helcyon’s hand on her back to retreat a few steps of her own into his side. In that momentary confusion, she forgot how angry she was at him. “Council?” She tried to ask without moving her lips.

“Apparently.” Helcyon’s gaze narrowed on the reporter and his shoulders stiffened. “Kramer.” The man didn’t quite shimmer, but it was as though the faint blur on her vision cleared.

Henry grinned, a cocky, wide-mouth smirk. “At your service, Lord Helcyon. You must be getting slow. I could touch her, and you didn’t even know what I was.”

Ice slithered through Cassie, not at the implied threat, but directly from Helcyon. The sensation of fear crawled forward, cramping her muscles. She shuddered under the weight of it. Helcyon’s shields snapped closed against the surface of her skin, effectively dividing her from the tension playing out in front of her.

“What’s going on?” Warning screamed along her nerves.

The reporter gave her a wink. “Heinrich Kramer at your service, m’lady. Or should I say Lady? What is your title these days?”

Heinrich Kramer?
The name shouted through her mind, and an almost primal recoil echoed through her. She should know that name. An awareness of Jacob surged through her, and Helcyon stepped directly in front of her.

“I see my reputation precedes me. Be at ease, Lord Helcyon. I don’t mean you or the lady any harm…” But the “yet” hung unspoken and the genial reporter’s manner descended into a void of dark intention. It was a lot like being locked in a pitch-black room where doubt and fear preyed on the mind.

What is he?
Anxiety nibbled at the edges of her confidence.
What the hell did we walk into?

“He authored the
Malleus Malificarum
, Cassie.” Jude never took his eyes off Henry. “He spread his information, his hate, and his ‘opinions’ until the Fae, and countless human women, were slaughtered.”

“Fun times, those.” Henry gave a tight smile. “And centuries ago. It’s a different world. It remains to be seen if we’ve all learned from our mistakes.”

Cassie wanted to throw up.

He’d breathed on her.

The Wizard Kramer didn’t seem to mind meeting Helcyon’s gaze. In fact, as far as he could tell, Kramer enjoyed the hostility coiling through the Elf. His palm itched to strike the Wizard down. Of all the enmity he’d experienced where the Wizards were concerned, Kramer and Sprenger topped his list of kill on sight.

The only thing staying his sword arm was Cassandra’s presence. Kramer wrote many of the spells that bound their women and plummeted them into darkness, cutting them off from Underhill and the natural magic of the world. Kramer signed their death warrants with his work.

“I would apologize for my work, but you would never believe me.” Kramer stared at him, his doughboy, overweight glamour fading revealing an angular face cursed with young features. Despite his age, he would always appear a teenager, and that too-youthful experience was a burden in the modern times. “I was young, arrogant, and filled with holy fire. The world needed change.”

“You can’t possibly mean the change it needed required murder.” Cassandra stayed behind him, but she angled herself enough to see the Wizard. Helcyon gave her a gentle, but firm magical shove until she was once again out of the Wizard’s sight. He guarded her with his own shields, the color distorting the world between them almost imperceptibly, but Helcyon knew they were there.

The shields would absorb any frontal attack and give him the time to whisk Cassandra away. Despite his earlier misgivings, Jude stood toe-to-toe with the older Wizard, unflinching.

“No, the method was incorrect, but something needed to happen. Despite what you may think, Ms. Belle. It was a very different world, and the Fae used us as cannon fodder. Humanity wasn’t that much better off in their struggles for power. But the pendulum swung, and you could say many Wizards are now equally guilty of the crimes we lay on the doorstep of the Fae.”

“So now you want to wipe out all Wizards?” Jude demanded, and despite the low voices they all used, the tension piled higher.

Kramer shook his head slowly. He held up his phone. The slender black device looked exactly like Cassandra’s. “Humanity has made great strides in the five hundred years since I wrote those spells. They are greater in number and technology than we could hope to be. As the Fae rely on faith and belief to build magic, so, too, do the Wizards. What empowers you will empower us. At best, it will become an armed truce…save for those who bind themselves.”

Helcyon’s expression remained shuttered. He revealed no nuance of what he felt. Centuries of playing games with beings far more powerful than the Wizard in front of him assured that fact. But Jacob already pledged to him, feeding him the strength of those Wizards loyal to Jacob. Cassandra added another wealth of power.

The Lords among the Fae woke, touched by the belief of the many, particularly the acolytes who turned fan. He said nothing of these thoughts, trusting Cassandra to stay quiet, but there were no certainties where Jude was concerned.

“What the hell does that mean?” Jude dared the answer, and Helcyon waited. What spin would Kramer put on the explanation? What implications would he leave hanging in the air?

“It means those who are bound will be stronger than the rest. The factionalism fracturing the Wizard Council will crumble under the weight of new allegiances. The Danae and the Inquisitor General will need to dominate those bonds or they, too, will fall.”

The cold, cynical analysis echoed with the purity of truth. Kramer transferred his gaze from Jude to Helcyon. “I know what I did. I know that you and your kind have no reason to trust me, nor do I expect it.”

“Good.” The syllable hardened brutally. Helcyon’s fingers flexed. He possessed enough raw energy to flatten the man’s shields. If he called up his sword, he could sever his head from his shoulders and slip Cassandra away before one blood drop stained the ground where she stood.

“Trading one bad leader for another doesn’t sound like a plan to me.” Jude dragged the Wizard’s attention back. “Whether it’s an inquisitor general, the council, or the Danae, they are all looking after their own wants and demands.”

Kramer sighed. “You are young Donovan, so you have no concept of what you’re talking about. Wizards who swear allegiance to a particular Fae, who bind to him—or her—are blessed with increased strength, magic, and access to their Lord’s affinities. If it is a Storm Lord, you will find affinity with the weather, an Earth Lord will give you the strength of giants, and much more. The Lords are Lords because like the fabric of our world, they create magic within them. But only when they wake from their centuries of slumber…slumber my magic sent them into.” Kramer’s gaze returned to Helcyon’s. “And for that, my lord, you have my truest apology.”

Stillness echoed in Helcyon’s soul. What was another crime among so many? The elevation of the Danae came at the cost of the Lords’ ability to check her power. Lords who stood as a council of equals, to provide reason and counterarguments to her decisions. Slaughtering their females also severed the intricate network of bonds between them all.

The Lords’ power faded, and they went to sleep. Some faded altogether. Others, like Helcyon, found purchase in new callings. But he was no longer so diminished. He was awake. He remembered.

“What do you mean by that?” Jude’s guarded tone betrayed him even as he used words to disguise the response.

Kramer pocketed his phone, blissful relief relaxing his expression. “If one Lord is waking, then others are, or will. At long last, the crippling shackle of my spell is being shattered…thank you, Ms. Belle.”

A cry went up from the rescuers, snipping through the cone of silence. As one, the three turned to look across at the debris sailing aloft under the guidance of Jacob and Paul. Debris that revealed dozens of survivors emerging, dazed and bloodied in the sun-drenched winter morning.