Ninety-Three Dianna

Samkiel watched me until the portal closed, and all I could do was shake my head. Overprotective godly bastard. I loved him.

I crossed the street to the small bakery where I was supposed to meet Orym and Veruka, my boots tapping against the cobblestones. It had the perfect view of the docks. The door opened as I approached, and I waited for the man to exit before I stepped in. The small woman behind the counter nodded to me, but one glance told me Orym and Veruka were not there. I looked out the window toward the docks but didn’t see any ryphors either.

“Excuse me,” I asked the owner. “I’m looking for two of my friends. Have you seen them? About this tall, pointed ears, elves?”

“Oh, yes.” She beamed and put the finishing touches on a display behind the counter. “They were in here earlier. They chatted together for a moment before leaving. I saw them head that way,” she said, pointing toward the docks.

“Okay, thanks,” I said, forcing a smile. My gut was telling me something was not right.

I took one last look at the woman as she waddled, one hand on her growing stomach, toward another glass case of sweets. She didn’t smell dead. Some parts of me would never stop looking over my shoulder for Tobias. I also didn’t detect the stench of a lie coming from her. Okay, perhaps it wasn’t a trap.

The door behind me closed with a creak as I pulled my hood higher on my head. The cobblestone was rough and uneven as I pressed forward. A reflection of small eyes caught my attention, and I looked up. There, on a broken sign, a bird made of midnight sat watching me. Its beak was as dark as its feathers, and its body was as long as my forearm. I inhaled deeply, but no scent flowed to my nose. My eyes narrowed. It was not a shifter. The lack of scent proved that. I hissed, baring my fangs at the creature, and it took flight, disappearing into the night. I shook my head and continued toward the docks.

The moon hung far closer here than in other worlds, covering most of the horizon and ringed by rocks. It was quiet on the docks, with no sign of anyone, and I could only smell a hint of the ryphors. I stopped short when I saw a dagger embedded in a pier post. I ripped away the paper it was holding in place and read.

Meeting changed to Torkun. Hurry, they decided this place wasn’t good enough for a rest. Left a transporter for you under the pier.

Orym

I crumpled up the note and incinerated it with a small flash of my flames. Grabbing the edge of the pier, I slipped over the side and gripped the worn wood with one hand. I saw one of the gauntlet transporters tucked under a beam and grabbed it with my free hand. With a soft grunt, I swung my legs and propelled myself back up.

I walked back up the hill. The mud clinging to my boots caused me to slip when I hit the slick cobblestones. I flipped the latch on the gauntlet open, and runes burst into the air, surrounding a small circular map. A red dot flashed, pinpointing my destination. Orym, you beautiful elf, you already set the coordinates.

My finger paused over the button to send me. I knew I needed to tell Samkiel I was changing locations, but he would only show up, protesting he needed to go with me. Realistically, I needed to do this alone. I had to show him that we couldn’t do every mission together, and I’d be okay without him at my side. We could not save the world while connected at the hip. These realms were far too vast. I took one last look at my wedding ring and pressed the button.

THE GAUNTLET HISSED IN MY HAND, AND I SHOOK IT, THE TOP SPARKING and sizzling. I looked closer and saw a small dent and a crack. It must have gotten damaged when Orym and Veruka stole it. Luckily, I had made it to Torkun before it gave out, but I hadn’t realized how far this planet was. It was definitely a pit stop between worlds.

A ryphor’s cry rent the air, and my head shot up. The beast hovered beside a tavern. I didn’t see the box of weapons, but I figured Orym and Veruka had to be nearby. Chucking the gauntlet into the trash, I pulled the hood of my cloak up and strode toward the small building.

“Everything okay?”

I jumped, damn near squealing as I whirled, expecting to see Samkiel behind me.

“Gods, I still have to get used to that,”I responded.

His laugh floated through my head. “Are you all right?”

“Yes,”I said, stopping just outside the tavern. I didn’t know if he would be able to hear the music, but I didn’t want to take any chances. “What music?”

“Uh, there’s a band,”I said. “In town. Weird, right?”

“Yes, actually.”I hummed in my head as if I were listening to the music, hoping it would drown out my other thoughts. “Everything is fine. I need to concentrate, though. I found the ryphors. Now, I just need their weapons. I’ll check in as soon as I have them.”

Samkiel was silent, and I swore I could hear him thinking. “Five minutes.”

“What?”I mentally snapped, stepping closer to the door.

“Check in with me in five minutes, or I’m on my way.”

“Oh, my gods.”

“Tick-tock.”

My eyes rolled as I smiled and pushed him out before storming into the tavern. I’d have to hurry because I knew Samkiel meant what he said. Music, smooth and smokey, filled the room. People sat around small tables, some drinking, some just talking and laughing. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.

I stood on my tiptoes, glancing around a few taller beings, trying to spot my elf companions. I didn’t see them, and my lips twisted to the side. Fuck. Where were they? I absently side-stepped a stumbling drunk, half pushing him out of my way. My gaze restlessly roamed the tavern. My instincts were screaming at me, but there were no soldiers here that I could see, and I couldn’t locate the danger. Everything here seemed exactly what you would expect from a place like this.

“Can I help you, miss?” a voice asked over the chatter and music.

I turned to see a green, spiky-headed bartender wiping at the bar.

“Yes,” I said, sliding into an empty seat. “I’m looking for my friends. Have you seen them?” I raised my hand as I spoke. “Tall girl and guy, kinda look alike? Pointed ears and tails?”

He looked down the bar as someone yelled for him. He held his finger up before grinning at me. “One second.”

I sighed and leaned against the bar as I waited.

“Anything?”

“You know, I didn’t know gods were so protective,”I murmured, glancing around the busy tavern.

“It’s been five minutes.”

I turned on my stool and looked around the room. A bathroom sign flashed in the corner, portraying images of beings washing their hands.

“They are in the bathroom. I have not been kidnapped or maimed, and all your favorite bits are in place.”

He chuckled. “All right.”

“Talk to you in five more minutes, you worrywart.”

A deep rumble vibrated through me before the warmth of our connection faded, and I was alone in my head again.

I turned back toward the bar, looking at the array of clear and multicolored bottles on the back wall. The bartender returned and dropped a platter down in front of me. Blood dripped from the edges, the scent nearly overwhelming. Veruka and Orym’s heads lay atop it, their eyes drawn back and mouths agape as if they’d died screaming.

“Is this what you were looking for?” the bartender asked with an amiable smile.

My stool clattered as I jumped up from my seat. A chill raced across my spine. The oracle’s sick, wet laugh mocked me. I wouldn’t follow her, headless boy, or you’ll have a twin to match. And match they did. My eyes darted to the smiling bartender as I shook my head slowly. “That is not what I’m looking for.”

A deep voice a few steps down asked, “You sure you’re not looking for the two-for-one special?” He sipped at the blood in his glass, and a sound of contempt left his lips. “A liar and a traitor?”

He resembled Samkiel and Kaden so much you’d have to be ignorant not to know he was their brother. I felt so dumb for not seeing the resemblance between Kaden and Samkiel sooner. Their demeanor, arrogance, over-the-top cockiness, and the enormous egos that made them believe that nothing living or dead could touch them.

“So, what’s your superpower? Are you like Alistair? Mind control an entire city to do your bidding?”

He held up a pure emerald stone. “Witches, actually.”

He crushed the stone in his fist, and the room flashed. All the beings that had been chatting, dancing, drinking, and laughing now lay dead. Pieces of them splattered across the walls and bar as if they had exploded from the inside out. The blood he drank looked like it had come from the bartender, who was half slumped in the seat next to him.

“It’s a glamour,” he said, lifting his glass and taking another drink. He pointed with the same hand toward the platter. “Except them, of course. They’ve been dead for hours.”

My heart thudded, and I took a step back, sliding a bit on the blood-slicked floor.

He stared at me, his tongue sliding over his teeth. He watched me as a predator would prey before it went in for the kill. “So you’re her? We haven’t been properly introduced. I am Isaiah. I didn’t get a good look at you when you stormed in and caused all kinds of chaos before running away with the corpse of my little brother.”

My fists clenched at my sides, nails biting into my palms.

Isaiah was suddenly on his feet and invading my space. My head tipped back as he stared down at me. His gaze moved over me from head to toe, not in lust but in clear disappointment.

“This is what you’d risk everything for? Where is the rest of her?” he asked, his eyes dropping to my chest. “She barely has any tits.”

My skin prickled, and my breathing quickened at the familiar sound of those boots against the floor, the measured steps I had conditioned myself to listen for. One step, then another, and every cell in my body went on high alert.

“She makes up for it in other places.”

Kaden.

My body trembled, the Ig’Morruthen in me thrashing and biting. It wanted to crawl to the surface and rip him to pieces for every single thing he had done, everything he had taken from me, but the rational part of my brain, the part Samkiel had trained, told me to wait and calculate my odds first. They lured me here to this desolate planet for a reason, and the fact that both of them were here meant they had no intention of leaving without me.

I turned toward him, the very bane of my existence. I forced myself to relax, refusing to let him see that every cell in my body was on high alert. They hadn’t come alone. A handful of his generals fanned out behind him. I forced a smile. Holding my hands out to my sides, I spun, noting every window and door. “I’ve got to say it was smart to drag me so far away, Kaden. Were you worried I’d torch a place you like?” I stopped and smirked at him. “I’m flattered, really.”

I angled my body and clasped my hands behind my back, slipping my ring off and placing it into my pocket. Samkiel couldn’t know what was going on here. He wasn’t healed, and if he showed up, not only would he be in danger, but they would know he was alive. They would go straight to Nismera with that information, and she couldn’t know. Not yet.

Kaden leaned against the door frame, a small smirk on his face revealing just a hint of his dimple. How could such an evil creature like him have a dimple? It just wasn’t right. “I’ll admit, I truly underestimated you through the years, but after everything, I won’t make that mistake again. No one will.”

“Good.”

Isaiah sighed, and I felt him shift behind me. “So, how does this go? You come quietly, or we take you screaming?”

I squared my shoulders and stepped forward, my words laced with venom. “Oh, baby, you couldn’t make me scream on your best day.”

Flame engulfed my hand, and I reared back, slamming the fireball into his face. Isaiah yelped and lunged away as Kaden charged.

One thing about battle was that you learned a few things if you did it long enough. If you faced the same opponent enough times, you started to remember their tells. Kaden taught me how to survive. Samkiel taught me how to live, and now I would do everything in my power to make sure Samkiel did both. I grabbed Kaden by his arm and bent. Twisting my body, I tossed him over the bar.

Isaiah ran at me, and I squared my feet. His fist shot out, and I leaned back, dodging the punch and landing one of my own against his chin. He was quick, both of them were. The guards joined the chaos, but they were easily disposed of. Arms, throats, anything I could touch, I ripped, painting the room red.

“Hold her if you get her!” Kaden screamed. But he was such a fool if he thought anything would keep me here. I growled, sinking my fangs deep into a guard who had charged at me. I tore out his neck and then used his body as a wrecking ball, tossing it toward them. Kaden and Isaiah came at me with a melee of kicks and punches. I blocked almost as many as I took, but all of my strikes bounced off of that damned armor.

Fuck.

I wasn’t going to win this by beating on them. I would have to carve them out of that fucking armor, and I didn’t have the time. My mind cycled through my possibilities, and I scanned the room, looking for a weapon. I dodged a kick from Isaiah. Perfect. I faked a slip. He lunged, intent on grabbing me when I was unbalanced. I allowed myself to fall, and planting my foot in his gut, I let his momentum aid me in tossing him through the tavern wall. The lights flickered as he hit a support beam with a hollow thud. I scrambled to my feet and spun to face Kaden. He curled his fingers at me, beckoning me closer.

“Come on, pretty girl. It’s been a while since I had an actual romp.”

“You’re disgusting,” I sneered.

“You’d know.”

“Your obsession with me is getting a little out of hand, don’t you think?” I taunted as Kaden tossed a fist at me. I caught it and slammed the bottle I’d picked up off the floor across his face. He stumbled back but recovered quickly.

He smiled and ran his hand under his bleeding nose. “Not an obsession. Love.”

“I’m in a room with dead bodies, but that comment alone makes me want to barf.”

“Stop fucking around!” Isaiah yelled from the broken rubble. “Stab her so we can go home.”

Stab me? I stepped away from Kaden. He smiled and unsheathed a glowing dagger.

I snickered, my fear draining away. “Typical Kaden. I’ve been stuck by bigger.”

“Doubtful.” He grinned.

Isaiah crawled out of the hole his body had made in the wall. I pivoted to keep them in sight, waiting for their next move.

“This blade will fix everything, Dianna. No more blind hatred or broken heart.”

I looked closer at the dagger, and my breath hitched. It wasn’t just some glowing artifact to scratch his ego. No, that blade was drenched in magic. Magic made to . . .

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Kaden shook his head. “I can make it all go away. You won’t remember anything. I can make you love me again.”

My lip curled back, and I hissed, my fangs forming. “What we had was not love. You can’t love and treat each other the way we did. You know nothing of that word.”

“That is a lie. I know I miss you.”

My eye caught on Isaiah as he took one step to the right, just as Kaden moved to the left. I adjusted, keeping them both in my line of vision. Kaden was trying to distract me and get close enough to touch.

Kaden shifted his grip on the hilt of the blade. “I know that I still care, and no matter what I’ve tried, I cannot remove you from my fucking veins. You’re it, Dianna. You always have been.”

“You killed my sister.” I spat the words at him like acid, keeping my fists raised between us. “You killed my amata, and now you want to erase the memories of the only man I ever loved?”

“We had something,” Kaden snapped. “You and I. No one is here but us now. You cannot deny it.”

“Deny it?” I scoffed. “You are the epitome of a walking contradiction. Of course you’d beg me to come back after I finally destroyed every ounce of feelings I ever had for you. We had something? Maybe eons ago. I tried. You pushed me away. Actually, you quite literally gave up on me.”

“I had to,” Kaden practically screamed at me. Isaiah watched him, his eyes blinking rapidly at Kaden’s confession. “You know everything now. The whole truth. Why I acted the way I did, why I had to . . .”

“Say it!” I snapped. “Tell me why you had to kill her, rip her from me, or how about you explain why it was okay for you to use her to make me obey you. Huh? Say that part.”

Kaden’s jaw worked, but he didn’t explode in anger like I expected. “I can erase it. The pain you felt, the pain you have. We can go back to how it was before everything.”

“You mean when you forgot every birthday I ever had? Or when you couldn’t even remember what food I absolutely hate? What about my favorite color, huh? The places I love to visit? My most precious memories. What makes me laugh, Kaden? What makes me smile? What makes me cry? You don’t know because you weren’t there. You never were. There is no us. No happy moments or love, because I was nothing more than your puppet. A weapon you pointed and used. There was nothing. There is nothing. You. Are. Nothing. To. Me.”

The room shifted, and so did my form, my hands dropping to my sides. I was tired of this game, tired of him. By the old gods and new, I was no longer the scared girl who held back but a queen born of darkness, flame, and anger.

“And now I am going to rip you both to pieces for what you’ve done, and when you wake up on the other side, hopefully writhing in agony, you’ll finally understand that I have not an ounce of love for you.”

A ghost of a smile twisted Kaden’s lips. “No matter. You will be mine. I taught you how to fight to survive. You are not trained in war.”

“You did.” I nodded, bracing my feet. “But I’ve learned a lot since I left you.” I hoped my eyes burned with as much hate as I felt. “Only one of us is leaving this place. And it will be me.”

“You always were a dreamer.” Kaden tossed the blade before placing it back in its sheath.

I knew Kaden sensed what I was about to do and saw him look at Isaiah. I grinned and tossed a ball of flame at him. He dodged, stepping to the side, and the next one sailed for Isaiah. He ducked, and the wall behind him exploded.

Claws slid from my fingers, and I roared a challenge as my beast surged to the surface. Kaden and Isaiah changed between one breath and the next. The building erupted as we took to the skies, all teeth and wings and unbridled hatred. The sky was lit with flames and ash, the ground trembling beneath the weight of our fury.