Temperance (6 page)

“I think someone’s following us.”

Knowing he needed to move quickly, Bastian faded and reemerged at the head of the group, directly in front of the redhead. She stopped and frowned at him, and that’s when he heard very clearly a thought that was practically shouting through his head.

Siobhan!

He let his eyes shift past the redhead and lock onto the blonde standing behind her.

Ahh, yes.
It had definitely been her thought, as she looked at him with fear. But before she could let free the scream that was bubbling up inside her, Bastian raised his arm and flattened his hand towards them.
 

A blinding, white light pulsated from the center of his palm and encapsulated the four in a glamour shield. As they each fell to the ground at his feet, his mouth crooked at the side and he thought,
Gotcha.
 

“Where is he?” Ry’Ker shoved his way past Marcus, his brother’s number one henchman, and stormed inside the massive, wooden doors of Claremont.
 

“He doesn’t wish to be disturbed,” the stocky man pointed out until Ry’Ker halted, turned his head, and pinned him with an unrelenting look. That’s when Marcus seemed to remember whom he was addressing. “Sire.”

Ry’Ker placed his iron bascinet helmet under his arm and walked over towards the man he’d known since he was a boy. “Where. Is. He?” he asked again, his patience wearing thin.

Marcus’s face pulled into a tight grimace, appearing as though he detested the fact that he felt compelled to answer. “He’s where he always is. The armory.”

“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

He watched the other man’s jaw clench and knew that he was holding himself back from saying anything more.
 

“I’ll show myself in, shall I?”

“Do what you wish. This is your home,
Sire
.”

This time, the formal title, when delivered, was dripping with disdain and had Ry’Ker narrowing his eyes.

“Yes, it is, isn’t it?” He turned, about to head out, but at the last minute added, “You’d do well to remember it, Marcus.”

Then he exited the front entryway to track down his traitorous brother.

* * *

Naeve’s head was throbbing.
Jesus.
Even her hangover from last night hadn’t felt like this. She raised a hand to grip her forehead as she opened her eyes and peered into…darkness. Absolute pitch-black darkness. For a minute, she wasn’t even sure she’d opened her eyes.

She squinted, wishing for just a sliver of—

Light.
 

The instant she thought the word, everything came flooding back to her.
 

The tarot shop. The creepy forest. And the…man?
 

She bent her legs and dug the heels of her boots into the ground as she scrambled backwards. She went as far as she could go until she hit a solid surface.
 

The only sound in the cavernous space was her own breathing as she strained to see even an inch in front of her. But when nothing came into view, she felt the thudding in her head increase.

“You have awoken.”

Naeve felt her entire body become rigid at the low voice that spoke from the shadows. Not wanting to alert whomever it was of her whereabouts, she clamped her teeth into her bottom lip and willed herself to remain silent.

“It’s no use trying to hide, Naeve Brannigan. I can see you.”

Oh, God. He knows my name. How does he know my name?

“I’ll answer all of your questions. But for now, you need to listen.”

Her eyes darted from side to side, trying to locate the source of that voice as her breathing accelerated.
 

“You also need to calm yourself.”

Easy for you to say
, she thought as she started to feel lightheaded.
You can see me.
 

Just as the thought entered her mind, a luminous ball of light appeared, hovering over a large, masculine hand.

“There. Better?”

No
, she thought as she stared through the impossible. When she spotted the man from earlier, muted by the dim light, she felt herself grow slightly hysterical. She had known it was him. The one who—

What? Blasted a lightning bolt from his palm? Come on… Wake up now, Naeve.
 

“You’re already awake. This I told you.”

She blinked several times, trying to clear him from her head, her mind—
hell,
whatever part of her brain had conjured him up. But when she refocused her gaze across the shimmering light, he remained.

“You see? I’m telling you the truth. You are, indeed, awake.”

After deciding that she needed to open her mouth whether this was some kind of hallucination or not, she finally asked the most important question.
 

“Where are my sisters?”

“They are here with us. Safe,” he told her and lowered his hand to cast a soft glow on all three of her sisters, who were lying at his feet. “You were the first to surface.”

Her heart sped up as she stared down at them, panic-stricken. Then she shook her head, thinking,
Surface?
That’s an odd choice of words.
She couldn’t help but ask
,
“Surface from what?”

The stranger seemed to ponder her question, but then he deflected with, “That’s a discussion for another time.”

Not understanding anything that was going on, she figured the best thing to do was to keep him talking.
Isn’t that what the authorities always say if you are attacked?
 

Trying to channel some of Siobhan’s inner bravado, she demanded, “Where are we? Why’d you bring us here?”

Without answering, he pushed his face farther into the light, and Naeve was shocked by just how attractive he was.
 

He had short, black hair that matched dark eyes with thick lashes. His Roman nose was perfectly straight, his cheekbones impossibly high. As if those traits weren’t disconcerting enough, his lips were just this side of full, and she hated that she noticed.

What is wrong with me? This man could be a psychopath for all I know, and I’m sitting here thinking how hot he is.
 

He chuckled, and the sound was provocative as it left his throat. “Don’t be too distressed. I have that effect on everyone who looks upon me. It’s both a blessing and a curse of my kind. But to answer your question—”

Naeve had forgotten she’d even asked one.

“—I was not the one who brought you here.”

She tried to shake herself out of the seductive stupor she was being wrapped in as he talked, and then the man gave her a full smile and flashed his white teeth.

“Best not to think of me that way, Naeve—although it is flattering. You see, you and I? We’re of the Imperial Family here in Arcania, and they’re trying to keep the bloodlines…pure.”
 

Caught somewhere between embarrassed and terrified, she felt her eyes widen as they dropped down and she noticed for the first time that he wasn’t wearing a shirt of any kind. Luckily, he was in pants. From what she could see, they were some kind of lightweight material.

Then, almost as if she couldn’t help it, her eyes were drawn back to his incredibly handsome face, which was highlighted by the flickering brightness still radiating from his palm.

Huh. When did
that
become the least alarming thing in this whacked-out scenario?

Maybe when she’d seen him for the first time or when he’d started…
What? Reading my mind?
No, it was something else entirely, and she still wasn’t certain she hadn’t dreamt this all up.

“The Imperial Family? Ar…cania?” she repeated, her voice uncertain as it wavered over that final word.

 
“Yes. You asked me why you’re here and where
here
is. The answers are simple enough. This is Arcania, and you are here because the Empress brought you here.”

Naeve felt herself frown, and then she finally gave in to the hysteria that’d been building inside her and started to laugh. She realized that her hilarity was completely misplaced, but was unable to stop now that she’d started.

I’ve totally lost my mind.
 

She couldn’t remember the last time a dream had been so vivid, and she’d never had one in an imaginary world. She must have had way more to drink than she’d first suspected.

Choosing to just play along—
hell, why not?
—she forced herself to calm down and stop laughing as she leaned in closer to this good-looking…
relative
of hers.
 

“Okay. Suppose I believe you. Why don’t you tell me about this place? This…Arcania.”

He raised his hand that remained illuminated and gestured her forward. “Come closer, and I will show you.”

Naeve stared into the light and found herself mesmerized as it started to pulsate like a heartbeat. It continued to hover over his palm as he held his hand steady and remained silent.

“How are you doing that?”
 

Colors started to appear within the brightness and swirl together as she watched, spellbound by the display before her.

“Wait for it…”
 

She couldn’t have moved to save her life or her sleeping sisters’. “Wait for what? What are you doing?”

“I’m going to show you who, and what, you need to see. It just takes a little longer now.”

She brought her eyes up to focus on the man who was fixated on the light. “Why?”

When his dark eyes found hers, she noticed that they were black as night.

“Because it is a time that’s long passed.”

Curious about his riddles and tales now, she asked, “I don’t understand. What’s in the past?”

That was when he gave a half smile and nodded towards his palm. “Your parents as they once were, Naeve, and the world they left behind.”

* * *

“Kai!” Ry’Ker shouted as he stormed into the old armory.
 

The doors created a loud bang as they slammed shut behind him, and he spotted his brother immediately. It wasn’t hard considering he was in the process of beating the hell out of a piece of brightly glowing iron. On the upside, at least it wasn’t a person. That was something that Ry’Ker had heard his brother was apt to do on occasion.

“Kai
,
” he repeated with much more force this time.

His brother’s arm halted where it was raised in the air, gripping a hammer. He spared him a quick glance before he turned the narrow piece of steel resting on the solid anvil and brought the hammer down, starting up the same unforgiving rhythm.

Ry’Ker put his helmet on the large wooden table in the center of the room and made his way over to where his brother was working. He remembered when they were young boys of six and seven, spending many hours in there with their father, learning how to craft the perfect sword, knife, and arrow—some of which still remained hanging on the wall behind Kai. Now, here he stood in front of a stranger, a man he hadn’t seen in years—his own brother.

He knew that coming here was a risk. One he wasn’t sure would pay off. They needed as many men as they could get, and no one knew the Taise Forest better, or despised the Empress more, than Kai.
 

When he’d mentioned his thoughts to Li’Am, he’d been wary at first. But the night Seraphine had come to her brother and told him that she’d succeeded in bringing the women back to their land, Li’Am had made a choice.

“Go to your brother, Ry’Ker. I don’t care what it takes. Get him on board.”

“I know, Kai. He won’t make this easy. He will expect…compensation.”

“Whatever he wants. I’m sure we can come to some kind of arrangement. If we are to succeed, we have to have him on our side.”

That was the only reason he was now standing in a place he’d sworn he would never come back to.
 

When it was clear he could be there for hours, he reached for the handle of his sword, drew it from its sheath, and placed it across the piece of metal being pummeled.
That
got a reaction.
 

Kai dropped the hammer with a resounding clang on the stone floor and finally spoke. “Want to remove your sword?”

Being the younger of the two, he’d always looked up to Kai. Not only because he was one of the tallest men he’d ever met, but at the time, Ry’Ker had always believed him to be one of the greatest. That was until he’d betrayed him in the most monumental way of all.

Eyes the same color as his own stared him down, but he wasn’t about to let his own brother intimidate him.

“And if I don’t?”

Kai narrowed his eyes and they turned to slits. “Do not test me.”

“Or what? Are you going to kill me?”

Kai’s mouth twisted into a cruel line, and before he could even blink, the piece of burning-hot metal was wielded to disarm him in one precise move. Somehow, Kai had gained the upper hand and was now holding the tip of the iron to his throat.

“Do you doubt that I could, little brother?”

Ry’Ker schooled his features to remain unaffected in the face of such detachment. “Never.”