8. Eight

Stars lit the night, glittering and bright as I peered through my window. The moon bathed in orange light, and the eclipse was well upon us.

It was the night everything would change.

A longing that only a child could possess called to me. I snuck out of the castle and into the courtyard in my night robes. Those stars seemed to get larger and more astonishing. The rest of the coven left the castle for the inauguration. My brother Phillipe went with them, and I was left alone. I was considered too young to partake in such things.

But I didn’t mind then.

A hum kissed my ears as I gazed at the universe beyond—delicate, lovely, and entrancing. So I followed it.

The song was so entrancing that as I neared the source, I could no longer recall how I got there or where exactly I had gone.

Then I saw her. She wore a silver gown with hair as white as the moon. Her ethereal voice sang to me, and I sat in the tall blades of grass before her. She spoke in a foreign language—something ancient and primordial—and I got the sense this song was meant for me.

My ears strained to pick apart the notes because they didn’t follow any musical theory I was learning.

“Wake up, jackass.”

What?

That couldn’t have been her voice. I knew this dream well. She never said anything. It was just that wonderful song that filled my soul and brought me to where I found my purpose fleeting.

“You have three seconds before I splash berry vomit water on your face.”

A sharp sting hit my cheek, and the lady vanished. So did the grass, the hillside, and the stars. Pitch black surrounded me, and then I woke.

Atreyis’ green eyes rolled, and he pointed.

Lids fluttering, I managed to pull myself back to the world and out of my dream state. “What?”

“It’s been dark for over an hour. We are leaving.” He tapped his fingers on his hip.

He was correct. Night had come.

Pushing myself up, I had a choice to make. I could either subdue him and flee—to where I did not know—or entertain Atreyis. A third option whispered in my mind, but I ignored it. There was a disturbance in his being—a man at the end of his rope and desperate to escape it. I recognized it because, in ways, I was the same.

We were two people on a mission to end our fates. His was a bit more dramatic, though.

“Lead the way,” I said, gesturing to the exit.

He eyed me. “All I had to do was hold your fucking hair?”

“If showing my face to this stranger will get you to leave me be, I’ll do it.”

He grinned, clapping my shoulder. “I knew you’d come around.”

“I’m not wearing that.” The outfit was outrageous.

Atreyis broke into someone’s home and returned with the worst fabric I’d ever seen: yellow paisleys. As if the shirt wasn’t horrible enough, the pants were basically spandex—skin-tight leather that would suffocate my nether regions. Absolutely not.

“We aren’t in the Under Cloud. You can’t frolic around in prison clothes.” He shoved them at me again.

“I’d rather be nude,” I muttered.

We were tucked away in a humid alley. The brick road beneath my bare feet was slick with oil and grime. Atreyis sported a new top hat. Black with a red trim. He was very proud to have spotted it.

“Hurry up!” He snapped his fingers.

I shot him a glare of death and pulled off my soiled shirt. Vomit still clung to parts of it, and he watched with an intense stare. Clearing my throat, I turned my back to him. The man was a dog. What about an extended lifespan made him insatiable regarding another’s body? That seemed to take up the majority of his thoughts. I suspected it had something to do with his self-worth. Those who threw themselves at anything with a pulse tended to think poorly of themselves.

But in the same thread of thought, he was arrogant and confident.

A mystery.

After I’d put on the outfit better suited for kindling, he snickered and cupped his mouth.

“Satisfied?” I growled and pushed my feet into the too-small black wing-tipped dress shoes.

“Very,” he squeaked. His cheeks burned and split.

We left the alley, with him still prodding at my destroyed pride, and headed toward the oddly placed manor in a row of townhomes. Mr. Darcy’s home was quite easily the largest estate on the street. The lights created a yellow ambiance over it, and the red brick seemed to be eaten away with time. It may have been the largest, but it was the least kept.

A masonry worker should have been called twenty years ago to assess the damage.

“This is it?” I asked, but Atreyis was no longer in a pleasant mood—pleasant for him anyway.

His brows furrowed, and he plucked at the brim of his hat. “Whatever happens in there, just know,” he looked at me then, “I’d have married you if you hadn’t fucked my sister.” Then blasted me with a devilish smile and darted up the four steps to the door.

If this was hell, I was in it.

He didn’t bother knocking. Instead, he opened the home as if he owned it. And upon our entry, it became abundantly clear we were interrupting. Bodies atop bodies in every nook and cranny were enacting some explicit act. Hands, tongues, and bare rears flooded my vision. The amount of pheromones permeating the air shocked my senses. It was like a den of rutting beasts.

Naturally, Atreyis was not surprised nor concerned with the antics displayed. He was looking for Mr. Darcy.

We climbed the stairs to the second floor, and his long legs moved swiftly. Despite being a tad shorter than I was, he walked like he was a foot taller. Purpose, I realized, he moved with purpose. Halting in front of mahogany double doors, he gripped a handle.

It dawned on me then that he was hesitating. This—this moment—was genuine Atreyis. The uncertainty in his eyes, his jaw working tightly, and the single neck rotation explained so much to me. Underneath the layers of him, there was something more. And it was that moment when I wanted to see just what all that entailed.

“Honey, I’m home!” he called and barged in.

I trailed close behind him as a short, shirtless, blond man startled behind a desk came into view. His glass tumbler soared through the air and shattered to my left.

“Mr. Winters!” His voice hit an unnatural octave.

“I freed your… brother. Now, hand over what you owe me.” Atreyis” palm shot out expectantly.

The man’s brown eyes shifted, and his heart raced beneath his breast. When I took in the scent of the room, I nearly gagged. Atreyis hadn’t been lying about his…odor.

“You—that was faster than I anticipated. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to secure the spell. It won’t be here for a few weeks.” The way his hand trembled as he adjusted his coat raised my suspicions. He was lying.

Atreyis’ voice dropped then. I’d never heard it go so low—so insidious. “It was all a lie, wasn’t it?” His eyes focused on the ground, and his fists clenched so tight that his knuckles went chalk white.

“No! It”s not a lie, I swear. Complications arose, and I expected some delay on your end.”

“Why are you claiming to be my relative?” I asked because I deserved this answer.

He stuttered, fiddling with something in his pocket. “Because…well…things are. You know,” he rambled, and then his fingers stopped working.

The tether. It was harmless in his possession, but once it was released? Just as I went to strike, Atreyis beat me to it. His hand gripped the man’s throat, and he threw him onto the desk, splitting it in two.

“You know what they say about those who cross me,” he spoke into the man’s ear, and he flailed.

“I… didn’t… cross—”

“Shut up!” Atreyis yanked his head forward before slamming it down again.

He did this several times and roared. Pain laced in his scream, and my gut twisted. When he landed blow after blow into Mr. Darcy’s face, footsteps approached rapidly. Blood burst into the air, and my gums began to ache.The sickening feeling of becoming trapped crept into the shadows of my mind, forcing me to prepare.

“If I can’t die, then you fucking will,” Atreyis barked and lifted the limp man, charging them both into the wall. It cratered under the impact.

Where was this strength coming from?Upon further inspection, I saw that the wall”s interior had since molded over.

Half-dressed men approached armed with pistols and grimaces on their faces. All of them were a mixture of human and fairy.

A soft clink broke through the shouting from their lips, and Atreyis landed a merciless punch. I”d have recognized that sound anywhere.

The tether was free.

On the ground, it slithered across the floor, heading straight for me. The enchanted chain would seek me out like a beacon in the harbor. It would attach itself around me and nullify my gifts. Flashes of the past blinded me momentarily before I snapped myself out of it.

No one would do it to me again.

Dashing into the hall with speed, I tackled a man to the ground and sank my fangs in. Once he’d been weakened, I bit open my wrist and thrust it into his mouth until he swallowed. I tossed his body into the doorway, and the tether latched on to him within seconds. The chain burned around his thigh, and he shrieked and clawed at it. Now that the thing had a victim, I turned my attention to the men shooting at me.

I did not know what Atreyis intended to do here but assumed it would not end until every one of them was deceased. I hadn”t planned on intervening, but now I was enraged.