16. Baelfire

Holy fuck.

Maven is enjoying the hell out of this.

I"m a seasoned hunter who deals with blood and gore daily, but I still grimace as my mate twists her knife under the skin at the back of the changeling"s mutilated hand. Its scream is piercing, so it"s a good thing Silas did some caster shit to soundproof this room. Maven also did something to this monster to keep it from thrashing around. It can only move its head and face.

I don"t know shit about magic, but I do know that the smirk twisting up Maven"s lips is both cute as fuck and terrifying.

My sexy little raincloud has been enjoying the screaming for the last twenty minutes. But since the changeling currently looks like her, I"m just…silently panicking.

Logically, I know that freak isn"t Maven, but it looks just like her as it wails and shrieks. If it"s bothering Silas, he"s hiding it well, but it"s making my inner dragon even more of a pest to deal with. My veins pump with fire and fury at the thought of anything like this happening to our mate, ever—it doesn"t matter that this isn"t her because the visual really isn"t fucking helping.

"Let"s try that again," my mate taunts smoothly when it stops shrieking. "Where is Kenzie?"

The changeling tries to spit at Maven but misses. Its head lolls to the right to pout at Silas and me. "You"re really going to just watch as she tortures me like this? I"m an innocent who"s just trying to hide from those awful bounty hunters! My situation is no different from hers—we"re both from the Nether, after all."

It says it as if it"s dropping a bomb. When neither Silas nor I react, it scowls, annoyed to learn that we already figured that out.

Maven tuts in disappointment and uses the tip of her dagger to languidly pry another vein out of the back of the monster"s hand. Its squealing starts again, growing more frantic the longer she toys with it.

And yes, I know that thing isn"t Maven.

But fucking gods above, it sounds exactly like her.

Finally, even though my mate seems satisfied to be getting back at the creature that took her friend, I can"t take it anymore and snap, "Just answer the fucking question already!"

The changeling whimpers. "K—Kenzie is dead."

"No, she"s not," Maven sighs, grabbing the creature"s other mauled hand and lifting it to study the wrist. "You"re taking too long to answer my questions on purpose. You"re probably hoping we"ll get caught and punished for missing curfew. But if you want to waste time, two can play that game. Have you ever seen an amputation with a dull knife? It takes forever, but it"s beautifully unbearable."

Damn, she"s brutal. I like that.

But when she pulls another weapon from out of her boot—this one a blunt blade—I start to feel queasy. Not because gore bothers me, but because I don"t think I can watch even a fake Maven lose her arm.

The changeling appears to be panicking, but then it sees me and sneers. "Of course, you don"t care how they feel about this. You never cared how Gideon felt about things, either. No wonder he decided it was better to strangle you and be done with it after he popped your cherry."

Back up.

What?

Heat sears through my body, and my very bones shiver under the wrath of my dragon, who is losing his shit over this just like I"m about to.

"What the fuck is it talking about?" I snarl, my voice barely understandable through my dragon"s rage.

When Silas speaks, I catch a glimpse of fangs. He never loses control enough to sprout fangs unless he"s royally pissed off. "Is that the bastard who manipulated you into bed? Explain. Now."

I almost black out as my vision bows under my dragon"s attempts to get free. It wants to burn everything to the ground, and when I smell smoke, I know I"m close to combusting.

I can"t let that happen, though, or I"ll hurt Maven.

Her jaw clenches in annoyance, and she doesn"t look away from the changeling. "I told you it might share things it has no business sharing. Ignore it or get out."

"I am not fucking ignoring this, and we"re not leaving you here alone," I snap. "You promised answers, so tell me all about this Gideon motherfucker."

"Now is not the fucking time for this," Maven warns.

That"s the wrong thing for her to say because Silas loses his patience and scoops up the changeling"s sword. Pressing the edge of it against the monster"s neck until it draws blood, he glares at Maven.

"Enough games. Talk, or its head will roll before you get your answers."

Is he seriously going to keep Maven from finding out where her friend is? I scowl at him. "Don"t fucking threaten her. Put down the sword right now, or I"ll?—"

"It"s fine," she cuts me off, surprising me. "I would do the same thing if our roles were reversed. It"s only practical."

Sighing like we"re ruining all her fun, Maven stabs the blunt knife into the thigh of Fake Maven as she turns to face us. The changeling wails and shrieks about the pain, but Maven ignores it as she blows a strand of dark hair out of her face, as perfectly composed as ever.

"Fine. If you must know, I was taken to the Nether when I was little. But I wasn"t the only one. Thirteen human children were brought there to be raised to…compete."

"Compete for what?" I ask.

"The chance to become the telum. Amadeus"s chosen weapon."

Silas frowns, setting the sword aside. "Amadeus?"

Maven looks away. "You know him as the Entity. Although he made me address him as Father."

I stare at her.

And stare.

But it doesn"t sink in, so I continue to gawk. The Entity. As in…the living world"s literal worst enemy.

"Holy fucking shit. So when you told me you were adopted, you meant by the literal king of the Undead? The same asshole that the original monsters rebelled against over a thousand years ago when they escaped the Nether? That"s the guy who raised you?"

"More or less. Still want me as your keeper?"

Silas is in an equally useless level of stupefaction, so it"s up to me to cough out, "And…what about this Gideon?"

"He was another one of the kids there. We were each kept separate and isolated as we were trained for years. Necromancers ran tests and experiments on each of us to determine the strongest. I was ten years old the first time they finally allowed us to mingle. I stupidly thought it was so we could finally socialize and make friends, but I realized the real goal when one of the other kids tried to drown me."

I wince. What the hell? She was fucking ten.

Maven"s expression turns equally wistful and bitter. "Gideon saved me. He was the oldest kid taken from the mortal realm and decided to take me under his wing, so to speak. We all knew we were rivals since Amadeus made it clear that only one of us would survive to be his weapon. But he also started to make it clear that he favored me. As you can imagine, the other children didn"t like that."

"Gideon didn"t like that, either," Silas surmises, his face dark with anger.

She hesitates as if she doesn"t want to share this next part. I"m tempted to pull her into my arms, soothe her, and tell her she doesn"t need to talk about this. Even though she"s trying to keep her face neutral, she clearly hates talking about all of this.

But I need to know.

"I cared for Gideon and had no idea he harbored resentment for me. Years later, when he claimed he was in love with me and began imploring me for affection in secret, I let my guard down. It wasn"t love of any kind, and by that point, they"d already been conditioning me against physical touch for years. But everything Gideon told me about intimacy made me…curious. I just wanted to know what it was like."

Maven clears her throat and looks away, trying to hide the moisture in her eyes. "I didn"t even feel human anymore. I needed to feel something. Anything. Gideon finally wore me down, and I gave in."

"And then he wrung your pathetic neck," the changeling taunts.

I ball up my fists, trying to steady my breathing. I want to kill that bitch for mocking my mate"s horrifying tale—but any sudden movement right now, and I might lose it and shift.

Maven rubs her arm, still not meeting our eyes. "Yes. I woke up when he was trying to strangle me. I could have killed him right there if I"d tried, but I just…didn"t try. I was too shocked. And then Amadeus broke down the door and dragged us both out to his throne room. He rarely exhibits emotion, but he was outraged. His chief necromancer had strict rules that I wasn"t to be touched by anyone under any circumstances. So to find me in that state…"

She grimaces. "In defense of himself, Gideon accused me of being too soft-hearted to ever be the telum. He said only one of us could make it, and he was giving me a merciful death instead of letting them break me like they broke the others. He must have thought Amadeus would be impressed by his ruthlessness. Instead, it gave Father the bright idea to rip out my "soft" heart and replace it with something more befitting of his chosen weapon. But first, he made me watch the Undead tear Gideon apart. We were the last two survivors of the kids taken from the mortal world, so I became the telum."

She quickly swipes away a tear before it can roll over her cheek.

Oh, gods.

I don"t even know what to say. I knew Maven"s past was dark, but…that? My stomach churns as I realize that my tight-lipped mate is probably leaving out plenty of other horrors I don"t want to even imagine.

"Sangfluir,"Silas whispers hoarsely.

I watch as Maven forces her poker face back on. It"s like she can"t stand shedding a tear in front of us. But then, with a hellish background like that, there"s no way she ever felt safe enough to be vulnerable about her feelings.

"There, you got some answers. Don"t bring that part of my past up again. And you." She turns back to the changeling, which has been slowly working on getting its fingers to move to its command. "I"ll only ask one more time. Where. Is. Kenzie?"

"Wouldn"t you like to—" it begins in a whiny voice.

Maven moves far faster than I expect, ripping the knife out of the changeling"s thigh and plunging it into one of its shoulders. It screams, but she does it again and again until?—

"Halfton! The lion shifter is in Halfton!" the changeling chokes out. "Room 17 of the Black Wing Inn! I—I left her suspended in a stasis spell so I can go back and finish off the rest of her memories?—"

Maven uses the flat side of the dripping knife to turn the changeling"s face toward her. "Next question. Who sent you?"

It hisses instead of answering.

I brace myself for hearing more of the monster"s screams in Maven"s heartrending voice. But instead of losing her temper, Maven straightens and looks around the private dorm. It"s a mess in here with a horde of stolen items, trash, clothing of all shapes and sizes strewn about, and a bizarre number of sex toys.

"Keep an eye on it," she mutters before rummaging through the filth.

Silas and I obediently glower down at the blood-drenched changeling. It pouts its lower lip at us in an expression Maven has probably never made.

I flip it off.

There"s a soft swear behind us, and then I hear Maven digging through the dorm"s small kitchenette. She"s far enough away that she won"t overhear, so I look at Silas and whisper, "What are we going to do?"

"To this monster, for poisoning our keeper? I"m still weighing the options."

"I mean about Maven. You heard it all, too. She went through hell to be turned into the fucking Entity"s weapon, and she tried to kill the headmaster."

His crimson stare locks onto me. "Baelfire Finbar Decimus, if the doing something you"re suggesting involves harming Maven in any way, I will shred you to pieces, turn you into jerky, and feed you piece by piece to Everett"s pet dogs."

Seriously, why did my quintet have to be made up almost exclusively of violently unhinged psychopaths?

I rub my face. "For being a brilliant prodigy, you really are a fucking dumbass. Why on earth would I suggest hurting my mate? I meant, what are we going to do to help her—should we tell the others all the horrible shit we just learned? How are we going to convince her to let us help her? Do we need to find a therapist she can talk to?"

Before Silas can respond, Maven returns and victoriously holds up a tiny bottle of bright reddish-pink powder, the outside of it streaked in dried blood. To me, it looks like any other random caster ingredient, but Silas is shocked.

"More nightshade root powder? How did it get that?"

"It must have talked to the same dealer I did," Maven muses, glaring down at the changeling. "Or at least, your master did. You used this on your sword to kill Hearst, but who gave it to you?"

The changeling clacks its teeth together in a show of inhuman annoyance. "You won"t get more answers out of me. I know you"ll just kill me anyway, so why drag this on?"

Maven"s smile is chilling. "Because aside from sharing time, this has been the most fun I"ve had in weeks. So, what will it be? More fun for me, or a merciful end for you? You"ll never see a single payment from whoever hired you, so why feign loyalty?"

The monster scowls viciously. But when Maven picks up the blunt knife again and trails it up Fake Maven"s chest, settling over the creature"s heart with a ghastly smile of excitement, the changeling flinches.

"Fine! I was hired by the Remitters."

Maven looks over her shoulder at us curiously.

"The anti-legacy movement," Silas offers.

"That"s just one faction of it," I add. "I"ve heard about them. My mom"s dealt with a lot of Remitters trying to raid the Divide in huge groups to demand that legacies return to the Nether. They"re the idiots who think that if we monster spawn return to that plane of existence, it"ll stop trying to spread into this world."

"Idiots," Maven agrees before addressing the changeling again. "Why did you take Kenzie"s appearance? You could have mimicked anyone you came across. There had to be a reason you picked her."

"I was told to."

"By?"

"Carter," it spits impatiently, angry to be answering so many questions.

"Harlow Carter?" I guess. I don"t know her well, but I met her last semester because my wolf-shifter friend Cody had a huge-ass crush on her.

Maven frowns as if she also recognizes the name, and then she picks up the sharp dagger and presses it against the side of the changeling"s neck. "Final question before I send you to the Beyond. Answer without a fight, and I"ll make it fast. Where is the petite blonde asscaster you were mimicking?"

The changeling snorts. "I took her appearance and clothes and left her passed out in a courtyard. She wasn"t worth killing—she"s so weak, she"s practically a human. Her memories would have been too bland to enjoy. Someone probably found her unconscious and finished the job, or maybe they decided to use her naked body while she was?—"

Maven"s eyes flash with revulsion, and that"s the only warning before she expertly slits the monster"s throat so that it dies in a matter of seconds. As soon as it stops gurgling and convulsing, its appearance ripples once again like thousands of minuscule scales flipping over, until suddenly we"re staring down at a hideous creature with ghastly white skin protruding with dozens of spikes, no eyes or nose, holes for ears, and a gaping mouth full of dozens of tiny, pointed teeth.

"No wonder it wanted to look like anyone but itself," I huff. Then I glance at Maven, and the lingering horror and nausea from the emotional roller coaster starts to calm inside of me. "You know, Mayflower…you"re kind of a softie."

"I suppose you"re right. Slitting its throat was far too kind."

"No, I mean because you"re worried sick over Kenzie, and you asked about that other girl. You care a lot more about others than you"re willing to show. But I see what you"re really like, baby. You"re so fucking adorable."

She looks appalled. "I am not. Take it back."

Damn, I want to kiss her. Is that allowed with this exposure therapy thing? Cautiously, I lean down and press my lips against her temple instead. She ducks her head and clears her throat, and I can"t help melting a little bit on the inside because my mate is obviously flustered.

So. Fucking. Adorable.

Silas studies the dead changeling. "I should harvest its spikes before we go."

So. Fucking. Weird.

"You"re messed up," I inform him.

To my surprise, that makes Maven fight back a laugh, her dark eyes sparkling with humor as she glances up at me. "Actually, changeling spikes make a great spell ingredient. I"ll help."

Why did I have to end up with two casters in my quintet? Or at least one caster and…whatever Maven is now. She implied that she"s no longer human, but I don"t know what that means.

I also know that I don"t care.

Whatever she is, she"s mine. Getting used to knowing about her gods-awful past will take time, and I"m not sure I can handle learning what she swore to do with a blood oath. But whatever it is, she"s going to have to get over the idea of being a temporary keeper to us.

There"s nothing temporary about this, and I"m going to prove it to her.