3. Finnian

THREE

FINNIAN

I can’t believe, after all this time, it’s really her . Taryn Emory, Fire Fae Princess of the Summer Court and estranged daughter of Aine Emory, the One True Queen of Faerie.

She doesn’t look anything like the vibrant female from her press photos before she was taken prisoner. She’s practically skin and bones in the white tank top and baggy linen pants she’s wearing. Her hair is pulled into a haphazard ponytail, the curls dull and frizzed. There are dark circles under her eyes, hollows beneath her cheekbones, and her light brown skin appears almost sallow.

If I had time, I’d rage a war against everyone in this godsforsaken facility who had a hand in her mistreatment. I can’t imagine living in a room lined with iron for a year as she has. Even standing only a few feet inside the door, I can feel the draining effect it has on me.

Doing a quick scan of the room, I’m surprised to see drawings of landscapes taped up all over the walls. Art supplies are scattered on the bed and more on a desk, both of which are in the center of the room where the effects of the iron would be the least painful.

It doesn’t appear that they were overly concerned about providing her with certain things, probably because she didn’t have much of a fighting chance to use anything to her advantage between the iron keeping her weak and the gas making her unconscious anytime they wanted to get close to her. Again, my blood boils.

“Get the fuck out of there, Verran.” Garvey’s pissed off command squawks in my ear through the comms unit. “They gassed the room, and two guards are on their way to collect her.”

I pull my balaclava down from my nose and smell the slightly sweet odor of nitrous oxide. Shit. That explains why she’s passed out in my arms. “You said they weren’t coming for her today,” I growl, fixing the mask in place again.

“It wasn’t scheduled. You know I can’t sabotage you on purpose. But if you get caught due to your own stupidity, I don’t have to lift a finger to help you. That’s not part of our deal.”

Dmitri cuts in. “Do not worry, comrade . I promise he will lift several fingers, or he will lose them all.”

I grin, picturing the vampire lord hovering over the Light Warrior in the security room with his bogatyr sword ready to follow through on that promise. “Thanks for the assist, D. Moving out.”

Scooping Taryn into my arms, I cradle her against my chest and turn to leave the room but stop short. This wall also has dozens of sketches taped to it, but they’re not of landscapes. It’s a pair of eyes. My eyes. “What the hell?” Dozens of pages, all sketched in various styles. Some are black and white, but most of them highlight the golden color denoting my Dark bloodline.

Suddenly I remember the soft words she uttered before falling unconscious. It’s you…

“Three seconds, Verran,” Garvey grinds out. He’s probably fighting against helping me, but the debt is to help me rescue her, so he doesn’t have a choice. The contract will keep him honest. Not wasting any more time, I dart out into the hall and go left.

The route I’m taking should be clear. Garvey supplied me with blueprints, guard schedules, and access codes. His voice comes through again. “I’ve closed the door remotely and manually overrode the lock, so the guards’ passkeys won’t work. It’ll buy you guys a little more time to get clear, but not much.”

“Copy that.”

It’s a damn good thing we used a Debt Fight to draw Garvey out because we never would have found this place on our own. When the Day Court settled in the area that eventually became Phoenix, they built a secret hideout inside the Superstition Mountains just east of the city.

That’s where Talek’s been operating from since waging a war on the Night Court when he tried killing our king, and then when that didn’t work, brainwashed a group of humans into slaughtering Dark Fae in the streets of Vegas. We chose tonight for the rescue mission because Talek is somewhere else. Where, exactly, we don’t know, but all that matters is he isn’t here .

I turn the last corner without running into any guards. Another few seconds and I reach the end of the hall where the security room is located. “I’m here.”

The mechanical door slides open, and I quickly step inside. The guard on duty is still slumped on the floor from the tranq dart we shot him with when we arrived.

Dmitri, who’s also in all black, is wearing an entire weapons cache on his body. His armored vest is lined with throwing knives, his belt holds daggers, his broadsword is sheathed at his hip, and he has a total of six handguns—two in the shoulder holster, two at his lower back, and one strapped to each thigh. I showed up with two guns and felt like a severely underdressed prom date.

He allows himself a brief glance at Taryn lying unconscious in my arms. A host of emotions flicker across his face—relief, love, sadness, and rage—before he refocuses on our mission. “Set her down here.” He indicates a place on the floor tucked behind the command console next to an oxygen tank and mask. “This will help rid her of the gas in her system.”

I ease her down, then he places the mask over her nose and mouth and turns the valve on the tank. There’s a low hissing sound as the oxygen flows through the hose. We stay crouched in front of her and stare, anxious for her to wake up. “How long will it take, you think?”

Dmitri doesn’t take his eyes off her, probably for fear she’ll vanish if he does. “Not very. She did not get much of the gas, and the pure oxygen will help her fae blood to process the poison much faster.”

A beep sounds in the room before a disembodied voice comes through the intercom system. “Command, we’re at the prisoner’s quarters, but none of our passkeys are working.”

We look up and meet Garvey’s gaze, an expression on his face that can only be described as mental constipation. I arch a brow in warning. If I choose to utter the words that he’s broken our deal, he’ll be in excruciating pain until he complies again. Turning back to the console, Garvey pushes a button and says, “This is command. Must be a technical glitch. Give me a second to check it out.”

When he releases the button, I give him a feral grin. “Good boy.”

“Fuck you,” he snarls.

“Pass. You’re not my type.”

“Finnian,” Dmitri says earnestly.

I turn my attention to Taryn to see her lavender eyes flutter open and lock onto mine. My next breath is arrested, and an eternity seems to pass in the span of a single heartbeat as a sense of recognition I don’t understand sparks inside me. From the look she’s giving me, I’m not alone, either.

“ Moy sever , thank the gods,” Dmitri rasps, his deep voice thick with emotion. The moment is broken as she notices her brother a second before he envelopes her in his embrace.

The intercom beep sounds again. “Command, what the hell’s going on? Any slower and she’ll wake up before we get in there.”

Garvey curses, then responds. “I have to reboot the system. It’ll take a few minutes, so sit tight.”

“For Light’s sake,” the guard grumbles, then sighs. “Whatever, man. Just let us know when it’s up again.”

“Come, sestra ,” Dmitri says. “It is time to leave. Are you strong enough to stand?”

“I think so.” Taryn pushes herself to her feet with Dmitri’s help. Once she’s steady, she gives him a reassured nod. “I already feel better just being outside that room. I’m good to go.”

I point one of my guns at Garvey and gesture to the surveillance equipment. “Erase the security footage.”

The captain narrows his green eyes in protest but turns to the console and pushes a single button. “There,” he says. “It’s erased.”

“Good. Now get us out of here.” I keep my eye on him as he moves to the back wall and places his hand on an access panel. It lights up green and a hidden door opens into a tunnel. “After you,” I tell him.

We head into the tunnel, first Garvey, then me, Taryn, and D bringing up the rear. He slams the door shut behind us so we can’t be followed, then we walk briskly down the passageway drilled through the mountain. Our path is lit by dim strip lighting along the rock walls. About a hundred yards out on a slight incline, we finally reach the end. A metal ladder will take us to the surface where we parked my Range Rover.

Dmitri nods at me. “You go first. Let us know when it is clear to follow.”

We discussed this as part of the plan to ensure our reluctant helper doesn’t sabotage us as soon as we get free of the facility. Technically, once Taryn is out, she’s been rescued, and Garvey will be free from the compulsion of the debt contract.

I push past Garvey then climb up the ladder and shove open the trap door you’d have to be right on top of to even notice. Thankfully, it’s only a couple days past the full moon, so there’s plenty of light to see by. Once I’m out, I jog over to my truck and duck into the front seat to retrieve another tranq gun I stashed in the glove box.

I pull my balaclava off and toss it in the back before walking back to the hole. I call out that it’s clear. As Taryn emerges, I reach down to give her a hand up. Seeing my face for the first time, her lavender eyes flare with what appears to be apprehension. She yanks her hand back and takes several steps away like I’m a rattlesnake poised to strike. I want to reassure her, but there’s no time.

Garvey’s head appears above the hole. I pull one of my Berettas loaded with iron-tipped bullets from the back of my waistband and hold that and the tranq gun on him as he gets to his feet. Dmitri follows a second later, then closes the hatch.

“Sorry, but you know we can’t leave you conscious,” I tell him, lowering the Beretta. “We appreciate the help, though, even if you didn’t have much of a choice.”

He narrows his eyes suspiciously. “You’re not going to kill me?”

My upper lip curls. “Unlike you and your king, I don’t kill indiscriminately. But this is your only warning.” Stepping in close, I jam the barrel of my Beretta beneath his chin. “You or your bag-of-dicks boss ever come for her again, and the hell I rain down will make the kind of torture the Dark King was known for feel like a day at the fucking spa. Got it ?”

Garvey sneers but holds his hands up in supplication. “Got it.”

“Good.” I take several steps back and point the tranq gun at him again. “I’d say it was a pleasure, but you know how it is with us and lying.” Then I pull the trigger, hitting him in the neck with the dart, and he crumples to the ground in a heap.

Dmitri gives me a wry look of disapproval—he voted for decapitating the general—but nods in acknowledgment that we did what we came here to do. We did it. She’s safe. It’s over. He gathers his sister into his arms and hugs her fiercely before resting his forehead on hers. “It has been so long,” Dmitri says, his voice thick. “ Mne ochen’ zhal’, sestra. ”

“You don’t need to be sorry. None of this was your fault, and I knew you’d find me.” Turning her head, she sends a sharp glare in my direction. “Though I didn’t expect you to do so while keeping company with the enemy.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “Sorry, the what now? Could’ve sworn I just helped save you from the enemy.”

“You’re both my enemies. Dmitri knows I’ve steered clear of both Celestial Courts because neither can be trusted when it’s my mother who issued the worst punishments imaginable for your people. I’m an easy revenge scheme waiting to happen, as evidenced by the last year of my life.”

“I have no intentions on exacting revenge on Queen Aine, no matter how much I wish she hadn’t exiled us.”

She doesn’t seem moved by my statement, but Dmitri throws his support behind me. “I would have aligned with the devil himself if it meant getting you back, sestra , but I trust him. I never would have found you without his help.” He releases her and faces me solemnly. “Thank you, comrade . I will be eternally grateful for all you did to bring Taryn home. I owe you the greatest of debts.”

Dmitri unsheathes one of his daggers and scores a horizontal line across his right wrist, drawing blood, then offers the knife to me. Taryn’s lips part on a gasp. She says his name in clear protest, but Dmitri stops her with a look. I know about the Blood Oath. I also know how rare it is given. It isn’t something that’s offered lightly among their kind, and, to my knowledge, it’s never been offered to anyone outside their kind.

To refuse would be the worst kind of insult, so I take the blade and mimic the cut on my own wrist. He sheathes the dagger and places my left hand over his unbeating heart before placing his in the same spot on my chest. Then we clasp each other’s forearms, lining up wrist to wrist, blood to blood.

“I will help you raze the earth, if you wish it so. This is my Blood Oath to you, Prince Finnian Verran of the Dark Fae,” Dmitri vows. “ Kogda ugodno, gde ugodno, chto ugodno .”

Whenever, wherever, whatever.

I grip his arm tightly and nod my understanding, accepting the honor he’s given me. But the faint sounds of echoing shouts from the other side of the mountain tell me our short reprieve is up. They’ve discovered her disappearance. “Time to go, come on.”

As I head to the truck, I can hear Taryn whispering to her brother despite knowing I’d be able to hear their conversation even from a hundred feet away. “Prince Finnian? Fucking hell, Dmitri. It’s not bad enough you involved a Dark, you had to choose one of the godsdamned Kings of Vegas ?”

“Do not worry,” he replies. “He is harmless. Kak malen’kiy rebyonok .”

I open the driver’s side door and stop, eyeing him over the roof as he and Taryn round the hood. “Watch who you’re calling a little baby, Romanov. I like you, but my right hook can still knock you into next week.”

He chuckles and opens the passenger door for Taryn. “See? All bark, no bite.”

The sounds of the guards searching for us are getting louder. “Shut up and let’s go.”

I get behind the wheel and start it up, ready to get the hell out of these mountains and put distance between us and the Light Fae.

Dmitri closes Taryn in, then leans down in the open window.

“D, get in the fucking truck, man, we gotta go.”

“You both will go on ahead. I will meet you at the safe house in Vegas.”

“That’s not the plan,” I argue.

“It has been my plan,” he says, his tone menacing. “I will spare the general as agreed and free any innocents. But the rest will not live to see the sunrise.”

“Then I’m staying, too.” Taryn starts to unbuckle her seatbelt. “I’m not letting you fight them alone.”

Dmitri stays her hand. “You are not at full-strength, moy sever , and I just got you back. I cannot let you risk your life in this condition. Do not ask this of me.”

I can tell she wants to argue, but something silent passes between them, and she gives him a reluctant nod. “Hurry up, then. Soak the desert with their blood, then get your pasty ass back in one piece. Ponyal’ ?”

“Understood.” Then he presses a tender kiss to the top of his sister’s head and levels a deadly look at me. “Keep her safe, comrade .”

“You know I will.”

He’s gone in the next second, using his preternatural speed to virtually vanish in the blink of an eye. I put the vehicle in gear and peel out onto the dirt road to head down the mountain.

Taryn keeps her gaze glued to the side mirror. “I hate leaving him to fight that entire horde of Light Fae all by himself.”

“You know as well as I do that your brother can handle himself.”

“I know that,” she says. Reclining the seat, she settles back with clasped hands over her middle and closes her eyes as though relaxing in a spa. “I’m just pissed I won’t get the chance to gut any of those fuckers myself.”