Shadowborn (11 page)

“Make no mistake, Lila Gray,” Alogason said. “Before meeting you, we did not believe and forbade our sister to seek you out. Now … the potential we feel in your mind will transcend all we know about the fae. The Goddess favors you and has not finished with you yet. Though … the dangers are great. For all of us.”

I waited for more, but he sipped his drink and smiled at me. “What does that mean, exactly? Do you mean dangers other than having our souls ripped out?”

The two elves stood, blood draining from their faces. They bowed at me in unison. “We will contact you tomorrow evening to make plans for your training.” With that, they turned and disappeared into a gap in the roots.

“Training?” I flew up, Gallagher matching my speed to block my path to them. Although he waved his hands in front of my face, I talked around him. “That’s it? I need to know how to kill him now, Alogason! How am I supposed to protect my people until tomorrow? Come back here!”

A sweet song filled the air, my mind, my every cell. The euphoria I floated on consumed me. We all burst out laughing.

My vision dimmed. My stomach did a flip-flop, and I landed hard on rough ground. When the blurriness passed, I stared up from the forest floor where we’d first picked up the medallions. Cool fingers touched my neck. Moments later, my head stopped spinning.

“I really hate that ride.” I cleared the mess of hair from my face. When I looked up to find everyone else standing over me, I groaned. “Why am I always the last to recover?”

Liam offered his hand. I stared at it for a moment before I took it and let him help me up. “I need to talk to you,” he said.

“Not now. How dare she sing us into a bunch of stumbling drunks!” I brushed the leaves from my jeans and picked a stick out of my hair. How could I have been so close to answers only to be jettisoned away before they were delivered?

“I can’t leave with this hanging between us,” Liam said.

“This?” I laughed, half frantic, half pissed, because I didn’t want to cry. “By ‘this’, are you referring to your impending nuptials?”

Nix nodded to me as he and the others wandered toward the edge of the woods, their Light illuminating the way.

“I don’t want this, Lila, don’t you get that? I’m a king. This last year, I’ve been drowning in protocol, trying to make changes without a complete revolution on my hands. I’ve been challenged for the throne more than twenty times. Either I produce an heir to secure my place so I can help you reunite us, or I die.” He groaned and put his palms over his eyes. “What would you have me do?”

“Hell.” I didn’t want to understand. I wanted to hold onto my fury because it would be better than the pain chewing at my guts. “Step down. Come and be my consort in Dun Bray.”

Liam tilted his face toward the sky as a bitter laugh poured from his mouth. “Are you shitting me? I’m not allowed past the portal anymore, Lila. You think they’re going to accept me in your bed?”

“I’m the queen. They’ll do what I say.”

“Then you’ll suffer my woes soon enough.” Shaking his head, he turned and walked away.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I kept pace with him.

“We have to earn their trust, and that’s going to take time. Forcing this kind of shit on them will make them turn on us. I found that out the hard way when I shut down the dungeons in the Court castle and forbade the torture of anyone who doesn’t consent. A fae who could shift into a lion challenged me that night because he’s a fucking sadist and gets off on making others bleed. Damned near ripped my arms off.”

I stopped dead, curious. “What did you do with all of the fae who challenged you? Banish them?”

Liam hung his head. “Don’t ask the question if you don’t want the answer.”

Cold sickness crawled through my soul. “Geez, Liam! You’ve killed twenty of your own people?” I couldn’t look at him. Breath wheezing out of me, I ran past him, but he grabbed my arm.

My training with Nix kicked in. As Liam pulled me back to him, I used the motion to drop and kick him in the shin, pulling him down beside me. I jumped on his back. Grunting, I wrenched his arm behind him and twisted.

“What the fuck, Lila?”

I summoned my Light and forced my will into him. “Lie still.”

A moment of silence followed as he slowed his breathing. Laughter burst out of him, startling me. “Where did you learn how to do that? It’s kind of hot.”

“None of your damn business.” Too bad combat training wouldn’t help me with the Shadowborn.

Liam’s skin glowed dark blue as his energy surged. It didn’t take long before it traveled up my arms like a parade of ecstasy and bewildered me enough to break my concentration. He broke free of my Will and flipped me over. His soft lips sought mine as I tried to turn my head to evade him, but the throbbing need in my abdomen stole away my control. He kissed me hard and deep, moaning as he tangled his fingers into my hair and pressed his body down on mine. For the briefest moment, all was right with the world. My heart didn’t hurt. He was mine and I, his.

“We need to go.” Nix’s sharp tone broke the little world Liam and I had slipped into out of habit. Along with being wrong, our tryst was also dangerous. With a new predator on the loose, distractions would get us both killed.

“Hell’s fucking balls,” Liam said, his lips still hovering close to mine. “You need to train your dog to have better manners.”

I shoved him off me and leapt up. “He’s not a dog, and unlike you, his manners are just fine.”

The wrinkles at the corners of Nix’s eyes reflected his grin.

Liam stared at me with a haunted gaze. “No matter how close I get to you, you still seem a thousand miles away.” He gritted his teeth and slid his fingers into his hair. “This is unbearable.” As he walked toward the edge of the woods, he slammed his shoulder into Nix. My guard stumbled into a tree.

“Fuck you, half-breed.” Nix put a hand over his scraped forearm.

“This half-breed will kick your ass if you ever interfere with Lila and me again.” Liam said it without turning, increasing his energy and spreading his illumination as he stepped into the clearing beyond my sight.

After I finished picking the bark out of Nix’s wound, we walked together back to the car. My stomach twisted and hurt, but I didn’t know why at first. I opened my mouth to apologize to Nix, but closed it again. He was my guard, and I his queen. What was I sorry for? It wasn’t as though I thought of him that way … did I?
Oh, hell.
Unable to suppress the scowl on my face, I rushed ahead of him.

“You’re angry with me.” Nix hurried to match my stride.

“No, I’m not angry.”
Not with you.

“I know I’m not supposed to be jealous—it’s not a feeling I’m used to—but I can’t seem to help it where you’re concerned.”

I stopped, my heart leaping. “Please, don’t do this.”

He cleared his throat as he stepped up behind me, his breath disturbing my hair. “Do what, Li? Care for you? Want you?”

“Yes. No. Arg! I can’t deal with the two of you chewing at each other like a pair of starving bears over a pot of honey.” I dug my fingernails into my palms until it stung. Pain to relieve pain—it had always worked for me in the past. “We have to figure out this Shadowborn stuff or I won’t be around for long, and I have to live so I can do what our people expect of me.”
What my mother expected of me.
I needed to make my brother proud, so he would know he didn’t die for nothing. “Please, just … I have no more room in my soul for the hurt when you leave me, too.”

Did he want me or the fae he’d imagined me to be before I arrived? When he looked at me, his stare didn’t capture me the same way Liam’s did, as if Nix saw someone other than me.

I should have told him about my mixed heritage so I could be sure about his intentions toward me, but I needed him.

Gasping, I sprinted toward the car. Liam shifted into his giant snowy owl form and flew off without another word. The lump of hurt sitting in the middle of my chest ached even more. Would I see him again before he took his queen? Could I bear to watch Liam with another woman without losing my mind?

Stop it!
Nothing mattered until I’d fulfilled my role and reunited the Courts. I centered my thoughts on the next task on my list—the selkies. Goddess help me if they’d summoned the Shadowborn again.

Gallagher, Donovan, Nix and I climbed into the car and started for Seven Gates.

“What are they so afraid of?” I asked after a few minutes of silence. My answer came by way of wary glances.

“Gallagher, can’t you read the elves like you can read me? Didn’t you just pick everything we needed out of their heads?”

In the grips of a visible shudder, he said. “One does not invade the mind of an elf without dire consequences, my dear. You have not yet seen them truly angry—shocking, I know—and I pray you never do. All I will say is that your presence frightened them somehow.”

My nose wrinkled. “I don’t find it
that
shocking. And I never did anything to scare them.”

“Perhaps they fear helping you will bring the Shadowborn down on them, as well. I get the impression they wanted time to consider what they are, and are not, willing to risk.”

I nodded, still not convinced. “Yeah. Maybe. They still could have told me how to kill him so I could make them safe faster.”

As we climbed out of the car at Seven Gates, Donovan said “When were you planning to tell me about the remaining bond you carry with Parthalan,” his voice sharper than a razor.

A simple glance at Gallagher and Nix sent them a few yards away. I rolled my head, but the tension didn’t ease as the two fae entered the cavern. “I’m sorry. I was just …”

“Scared.”

Heat flared across my face. “I’m not—”

“I’m your father. You should come to me first, trust me to help you no matter what the problem is. I love you.”

Emotion clamped my throat shut. He was right. I should have trusted him, but I didn’t want to disappoint him. Unable to speak, I nodded.

Donovan kissed my cheek. “I’ll call when the selkies give me a time for us to meet them.”

“We’ll be ready.” I threw my arms around his neck and held tight. “We’ve been in worse piles of shit before, you and I.”

He nodded. “Yes, we have, but we didn’t come away unscathed.”

A bolt of agony played along my core. “I tried to—”

“Please.” Donovan placed his fingers against my mouth. “Garret made a choice he knew would cause him pain and most likely death. Nobody blames you.”

“I do,” I said. “I should have kept him with me that day he went back to save you from Parthalan. I was so overwhelmed—”

“None of this is your fault.”

“You’re wrong!” My darkness broke free and consumed me, tainting my soul with rage. Parthalan’s gasp came through our link, along with his terror at the surge of power making its way to him. “Everyone we loved was murdered because of me and some stupid, fucking prophecy. But it happened, and now I have to live up to it!”

I turned my back on my father’s stunned face and went through the portal to Dun Bray, shutting down the link to Parthalan again. Having him crawl into my head whenever my control slipped would drive me insane.

Guilt tangled through my lungs and wrapped my soul in a sickness I didn’t know how to cure. My father had lost everything, too, and I’d screeched at him like a grade A psycho.

Gallagher and Nix waited at the top of the castle steps. I sped past them, keeping my face pointed toward the stone, hoping they wouldn’t notice the shame in my eyes.

Neasa stood inside the door wearing a grin I didn’t like one little bit. Her hair moved with a will of its own even when she didn’t. She wore a lavender gown covered in sequins, her usual glittery self.

“What do you want, Neasa?” I droned. “I’m tired.”

“A session of Court has been demanded, and you must answer, my queen.” A smug grin split her face.

10

I dropped my head forward, gagging on the tsunami of curses about to spill out of my mouth.
Damn Gallagher and his frilly language laws.
Looking at Neasa any longer would have increased my chances of popping her in her dainty, wicked mouth. “What do you mean a session of Court has been demanded? I thought only I could do that.”

“Shit.” Nix stood taller, his hand moving to his hip as if looking for the sword he used to carry before I convinced him it looked silly. “Someone has challenged you for the throne.”

“Now? In the middle of the effing night?” I tipped my face up to the ceiling and rubbed dry eyes that begged to be shut for a few hours. “Let me guess, it’s that skinny broad. What’s her name—”

“Callandra,” Nix said in an annoyed tone.

“Yeah. It’s her, right?”

Neasa flitted around me, beaming. “The Court awaits. See for yourself.”

My Light answered my anger, flaring to life beneath my skin until it shone a navy blue.

Gallagher put a hand on my arm. “His energy swells, waiting to be set free. You must contain it. Allow Nix full access to your mind until this challenge is over.”

Not full access. Hell no. “Fine, but how do I squash the challenge?”

“Challenges for the throne are always to the death,” Nix said through a quiet cough.

I gave a humorless laugh, forcing my back straight. Liam might have gone along with that Neanderthal crap, but I wouldn’t. “Not on my watch, they aren’t.” I glared at Gallagher until he removed his hand, threw open the Court doors and strode toward the dais at the front. The room spread out and up around me like a giant bowl, daises positioned at different heights in stadium fashion, the highest one far above my head.

The chatter quieted as I hopped up on the platform. An impression of Dun Bray made of stained glass stretched out behind me; a fae who looked like my mother hovered above the city like an angel in flowing white robes.

Nix and a few other guards rushed up and stood on the floor below me.

“Let’s get this over with,” I shouted to the Court. “An assassin wants a piece of me, too.”

Callandra stood upon her dais in a fuchsia, Asian-style dress with black silk ties holding the bodice closed. “You have done nothing but order us around since you’ve returned, Lila Gray.” She spread her skinny arms and gestured around the room like a true politician. “You threaten our freedom if we don’t play peacekeeper with the humans. I, for one, am done with this.”