House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City) (83 page)

Bryce had to blink. “I’m sorry, but please back up. You summoned me into this dream to tell me about how Aidas, Prince of the Chasm, was the lover of Theia, the first Starborn Queen, even though they were enemies?”

“They were not enemies. We were her allies. She and some of her Fae forces allied with us—against the Asteri.”

Her mouth dried out. “Why didn’t he tell me this? Why are
you
telling me this?”

“Why are you not yet master of your powers? I was very clear: I told your mate you must both explore your potential.”

“Did you send those Reapers to jump me and Ruhn?”

“What Reapers?” She could have sworn his confusion was sincere.

“The ones who told me the same exact thing, to master my powers.”

“I did no such thing.”

“That’s what the Under-King said. I’m guessing one of you is lying.”

“This is not a useful debate. And I do not appreciate being called a liar.” Pure threat laced the words.

But Bryce steeled herself. “You’re right—it’s not a useful debate. So answer my question: Why the Hel are you telling me any of this stuff about Aidas and Theia?” If he spoke true, and Hel hadn’t been their enemy back then … Whatever side Theia had ruled, she’d been … against the Asteri. And Pelias had killed her—fighting
for
the Asteri.

Her mind spun. No wonder nobody knew about Theia. The Asteri had likely erased her from history. But a Fae Queen had loved a demon prince. And he had loved her enough to …

“I am telling you this because you are racing blind toward your doom. I am telling you this because tonight the veil between our worlds is thinnest and I might finally speak to you.”

“You spoke to Hunt before.”

“Orion was bred to be receptive to our kind. Why do you think he is so adept at hunting us? But that is of no matter. This night, I might appear to
you
—as more than a vision.” He reached out a hand, and Bryce flinched as it touched her. Truly
touched
her, ice so cold it ached. “Hel is nearly ready to finish this war.”

She took a step back. “I know what you’re going to ask, and my answer is
no
.”

“Use the Horn. The power Athalar gives you can activate it.” His eyes danced with storms. “Open the doors to Hel.”

“Absolutely fucking not.”

Apollion chuckled, low and lethal. “What a disappointment.” The plain that had been Parthos began to fade into nothing. “Come find me in Hel when you learn the truth.”

Ithan pivoted slowly, eyeing the shadows where the Under-King had stood—and vanished.

“Don’t move from this spot,” Hypaxia warned him, voice low.
“I can feel his power all around us. He’s turned this clearing into a labyrinth of wards.”

Ithan sniffed, as if it’d give him some sense of what the Hel she was talking about. But nothing appeared to have changed. No creatures jumped out at them. Still, he said, “I’ll follow your lead.”

Hypaxia scanned the sky. “He warded above us, too. To keep us grounded.” She crinkled her nose. “Right. On foot it is.”

Ithan swallowed. “I, ah … got your back?”

She chuckled. “Just keep up, please.”

He gave her a determined smile. “You got it.”

Ithan braced himself as Hypaxia took a step forward, hand extended. Her fingers recoiled at whatever ward she encountered, right as a low snarl sounded from the trees beyond.

The hair on his neck rose. His wolf senses told him it wasn’t an animal’s snarl. But it sounded … hungry.

Another one rippled from nearby. Then another. All around them.

“What is that?” Ithan breathed, even his Vanir eyes failing to pierce the darkness.

Hypaxia’s hands glowed white-hot with magic. She didn’t take her gaze off the trees ahead of them. “The hunting hounds of the House of Flame and Shadow,” she said grimly before slamming her hand against the ward in front of them.

63

“He was a micromanaging fucking nightmare,” Bryce ranted the next day as she stood with Hunt, Ruhn, and Declan in the Aux training center during her lunch break. Tharion lay sprawled on a bench against the wall, napping. Cormac, standing across the space, frowned.

Her brother was pale. “You really think Theia and a bunch of Fae sided with Hel during the war?”

Bryce suppressed a shiver of cold at the memory. “Who knows what’s true?”

Across the vast, empty room, Hunt rubbed his jaw. She hadn’t even mentioned what Apollion had said—that little tidbit about Hunt being
bred
. She’d tackle that later. Hunt mused, “What’s the benefit in convincing us of a lie? Or the truth, either, I suppose. All that matters is that Hel is definitely on the move.”

Declan said, “Can we pause for a moment and remark on the fact that both of you have
spoken
to the Prince of the Pit? Is no one else about to puke at the thought?”

Ruhn held up a hand, and Tharion lazily lifted one from the bench, but Bryce high-fived Hunt. “Special kids club,” she said to the angel, who winked at her. She leapt back a step, rallying her power. “Again.” They’d been in here for twenty minutes already, practicing.

Hunt’s lightning flared at his fingertips, and Bryce set her feet apart. “Ready?” he asked.

Tharion roused himself enough to turn over, propping his head on a fist. Bryce scowled at him, but the mer only waggled his brows in encouragement.

She faced Hunt again, right as the angel hurled his lightning at her like a spear. It zinged against her chest, a direct hit, and then she was glowing, power singing, soaring—

Two feet in front of the windows
.

She’d no sooner thought the command than she appeared across the space. Exactly two feet from the windows.
Back to a foot before Hunt
.

She appeared before him, so suddenly that he staggered back.

Ruhn
. She moved again, slower this time. But her brother yelped.

Declan braced himself, like he thought he’d be next, so Bryce thought,
A foot behind Hunt
.

She pinched her mate’s butt so fast he didn’t have time to whirl before she’d moved again. This time in front of Declan, who cursed when she poked him in the ribs, then teleported once more.

Cormac called from where he’d been standing in the far corner, “You’re slowing.” She was. Damn it, she was. Bryce rallied her power, Hunt’s energy. She appeared in front of Tharion’s bench, but the mer was waiting.

Fast as a striking shark, Tharion grabbed her face and planted a smacking kiss on her lips.

Hunt’s laugh boomed across the space, and Bryce joined him, batting the mer away.

“Too slow, Legs,” Tharion drawled, leaning back against the bench and crossing an ankle over a knee. He draped an arm along the back of the plastic bench. “And too predictable.”

“Again,” Cormac ordered. “Focus.”

Bryce tried, but her bones weighed her down. Tried again to no avail. “I’m out.”

“Concentrate, and you could hold on longer. You use too much at once, and don’t reserve the energy for later.”

Bryce put her hands on her hips as she panted. “Your teleporting works differently than mine. How can you know that?”

“Mine comes from a source of magic, too. Energy, just a different form. Each jump takes more out of me. It’s a muscle that you need to build up.”

She scowled, wiping her brow as she walked back over to Hunt.

“It does seem like he’s right,” Declan said to Bryce. “Your teleporting works when your power gets charged up by energy—considering what I heard about how quickly you ran out of steam with Hypaxia, Hunt’s is the best form of it.”

“Damn right it is,” Hunt growled, earning a smack on the arm from Bryce.

“Do you think the power will … stay in me if I don’t use it?” she asked Dec.

“I don’t think so,” Dec said. “Your power came from the Gate—with a shit-ton of firstlight mixed in. So your magic—beyond the light, I mean—needs to be powered up. It relies on firstlight, or any other form of energy it can get. You’re literally a Gate: you can take in power and offer it. But it seems the similarity ends there. The Gates can store power indefinitely, while yours clearly peters out after a while.” He faced Hunt. “And your power, Athalar, as pure energy, is able to draw from her, like she did from the Gate. Bryce, when you draw from a source, it’s the same way the Gates zap power from people using them to communicate.”

Bryce blinked. “So I’m like some magical leech?”

Declan laughed. “I think only of certain kinds of magic. Forms of pure energy. Throw in the Horn, which relies on a blast of power to activate it …”

“And you’re a liability,” Ruhn said darkly. Tharion grunted his agreement.

Declan rubbed his chin. “You told Ruhn after the attack that Hypaxia aimed for your scar to supercharge your powers, right? I wonder what would happen if you were struck on the Horn.”

“Let’s not find out,” Bryce said quickly.

“Agreed,” Cormac said from across the room. He pointed to the
obstacle course he’d laid out in the center of the space. “Back to work. Follow the track.”

Bryce pivoted toward the Avallen Prince, and said as casually as she could, “I’m shocked you’re even here.”

Cormac said icily, “Because you decided to end our engagement without consulting me?”

Hunt muttered to her, “Anything to avoid your exercises, huh?”

She glared at her mate, especially as Ruhn chuckled, but said to Cormac, “I had no other choice.”

Shadows rippled around Cormac. “You could have let me know while you were plotting.”

“There was no plotting. Athalar and I decided, and then just waited.”

The Avallen Prince snarled low. Hunt let out a warning growl of his own. Tharion said nothing, though she knew the mer was monitoring every breath and word. But Cormac didn’t take his eyes from her. “Do you have any idea what the phone call with my father was like?”

“I’m assuming it was similar to the Autumn King telling me I’m a little bitch?”

Cormac shook his head. “Let’s be clear: I’m only here today because I’m well aware that if I’m not, then your brother will cease contacting Agent Daybright.”

“I’m flattered you know me so well,” Ruhn drawled, his arms crossed. He’d moved into a position on Cormac’s other side—without her even noticing. Placing himself between the Avallen Prince and Bryce. Oh please.

Cormac glowered at him, but then focused upon Bryce again. “I’m willing to move beyond this, on the condition that you don’t surprise me again. We have too many enemies as it is.”

“One,” she said, “don’t give me conditions. But two …” She made a show of examining her bare arms. “Nothing up my sleeves. No other secrets to hide, I swear.”

Except for that itsy-bitsy thing about Emile. Hunt gave her a dry look, as if to say,
Liar
, but she ignored him.

Cormac, however, did not. Catching that look, the Avallen Prince said, “There’s something else.”

“Nope.”

But even Ruhn now lifted his brows at her. Hunt said casually, “Don’t be paranoid.”

“You have something planned,” Cormac pressed. “For fuck’s sake, tell me.”

“I don’t have anything planned,” Bryce said, “other than figuring out this teleporting crap.”

One moment, Cormac was glancing between her and Hunt. The next, he’d vanished.

Only to reappear at Bryce’s back with a knife to her throat.

Bryce stiffened. “Come on, Cormac. There’s no need for this.” Lightning shone in Hunt’s eyes. Ruhn had drawn his gun. Tharion remained sprawled across the bench, but—that was a knife now gleaming in his hand. His focus was fixed on the Avallen Prince.

“
Tell me
,” Cormac snarled, and cool metal bit into her throat.

Trying not to breathe too deeply, Bryce laid a finger on the blade. “I made the Drop. I’ll survive.”

Cormac hissed at her ear. “Tell me what the fuck you have planned, or you’ll lose your head. Good luck growing that back.”

“You draw blood and you lose your head, too,” Hunt growled with lethal menace.

She could blind Cormac, she supposed. But would his shadows muffle the impact? She doubted he’d truly kill her, but if he tried … Hunt would definitely attack. Ruhn would, too.

And she’d have an even bigger mess on her hands.

So Bryce said, “Fine. It’s about Emile.”

Hunt started. So did Tharion as the mer said, “Bryce.”

Cormac didn’t remove the knife. “
What
about Emile?”

“I found him. At the Viper Queen’s warehouse.” She sighed loudly. “I learned he was there, that all the reptiles and gross things in the marshes had told her where he was and she’d gone to retrieve him. She was the one who killed the people who helped him, and
intended to control him. But when I went to the warehouse two days ago, he was already gone.”

Cormac whirled her to face him with rough hands. “Gone where?”

“Somewhere safe. Apparently, the Vipe found it in herself to put him into the care of people who will look after him.”

“
Who?
” His face was white with rage. Tharion’s eyes had widened.

“I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me.”

“Then I’ll make her tell
me
.”

Ruhn laughed. “No one makes the Viper Queen do anything.”

Into her mind, her brother said,
Cormac might not know you well enough to tell when you’re lying, but I do.

It’s not a lie. Emile is safe.

He’s just not where you’re claiming.

Oh, he was with the Viper Queen. And now he’s somewhere else.

Cormac shook his head. “Why would the Viper Queen have any interest in that boy?”

“Because she likes to collect powerful beings to fight in her pits,” Hunt snarled. “Now put the fucking knife away.”

To her relief, the prince lowered the knife from her neck with an easy flip of the blade. “But why would she let go of someone so powerful, if she likes to use them in fights?”

Bryce said, “Because Emile has no powers.”

Are you shitting me?
Ruhn asked.

Nope. Kid’s totally human.

Cormac’s eyes narrowed. “Sofie said—”