The Phantom King (The Kings) (41 page)

She closed her eyes and put out her arms, ready to brace herself for the worst of it. But the ground didn’t come, and the wind stopped moving through her hair, and her body felt suspended.

She opened her eyes to find herself moving in slow motion just before she touched down upon the hard, damp cement. Because she’d been slowed down, the impact was nothing like what she’d expected. A gentle bump, a single roll, and she had come to a stop.

For a few seconds, she stared up at the rotting roof of the condemned pier.
There were skylights set into the metal and wood, and pieces of the plastic were so thin, clouds could be seen in the sky beyond them. Bird droppings
polka dotted
the make-shift windows from the other side, darkening them in spots. She
smelled fish and sea vegetation
, both living and dead. She heard
traffic moving along the Embarcadero, heard the
water
of the bay
splashing against the cement of the pier outside
,
and caugh
t
the cry of a
lone
seagull.

And then the sound of boots
on pavement
beside her made her turn her head.

A man stood over her
. She’d never seen him in person before, but she recognized the general features of his handsome visage
. It was roughly similar to
the large wavering image
he had
projected into
Thane’s portal in order to threaten her.

This was Marius. The Akyri King.

“
I’m pleased to see
that an introduction is unnecessary,” said Marius, who smiled down at her in the most charming manner. His blue eyes shimmered with
unnatural charisma and
intelligence
.
“It means I’ve made an impression.” He reached down and offered her his hand.

Siobhan looked at the offered hand. Calling up the portal to leave Purgatory had been a use of power that was not hers. She’d borrowed it and she could tell.

Because now
she was as exhausted as ever.

She took the offered hand. The Akyri King smiled what looked like a genuinely pleased smile, all white teeth and charm, and easily lifted Siobhan to her feet. Once she was up, he even steadied her with a gentle hand at her back. Then he let her go and cocked his head to one side.

“So tell me,” he said, “was it Thanatos’ idea or yours that you drain yourself of all your magic?”

Siobhan looked from him to th
e others in the room. Three men, all in black.
Siobhan recognized them as Akyri. They had that hungry, barely-fed look about them.
They looked at her as if she were a Smorgasbord. She swallowed hard.

Two other men were with them
, but they were mortal
. One
of the men
was very young,
a teenager most likely. T
he othe
r sported gray at his temples, was dressed in khaki pants and a white button-up shirt, and wore a
scared-shitless look on his face.
He stood behind the teenage boy who
was trying very h
ard not to look scared, but
who
was
bound hand and foot to
a wooden chair that was covered in blood. It must not have been his blood; his clothes were relatively clean.

It’s his mother’s blood
, she realized. His mother was the one who had been murdered first and sent to Purgatory. Thi
s was the family she’d told Siobhan about
.
There was no sign of the dead woman…. But there was a tarp in one corner of the buildin
g. The body could be under it
.

Siobhan turned back to face the Akyri King, who yet waited patiently for her reply. No point in not being honest. It wouldn’t gain her anything.

“It was his,” she said. “We had
a game of chase. He
won.”

The Akyri King threw back his head and laughed. The jovial sound was real and came from somewhere deep inside. He was truly amused. His laughter echoed in the dank, empty space of the pier. The man and his son
were utterly motionless, their gazes locked on Siobhan
and the man she spoke with. It was plain by the look in their eyes that they
were in shock
already, but still had enough to lose that fear yet held them in its merciless grip.

The Akyri King –

“
Please call me
Marius,” said the king, interrupting her train of tho
ught as if he ha
d
actually
been in her mind
.

“I was,” he told her. “I
n your mind, that is. I
t’s one of the many things I can do now that I wasn’t able to do before
.
” He spoke as if they wer
e having a casual conversation,
one friend to another. “
It’s surprisingly
delightful. I can’t imagine why Roman doesn’t do it all the time.” He shook his head. “I know I will
be.”

He ignored her shocked expression
and paced a bit around her. “I like you, Miss Ashdown. You’re honest and you’ve got
one hell of a soul on you. I can
feel it, you know. Akyri can always sense the soul of a warlock. We can see them, feel them, and even smell them.
” He stopped right in front of her and turned to fully face her, smiling until she could see his fangs. “
Yours smells like midnight.”

Siobhan swallowed, and it stuck in her throat, caught on a dry spot. She almost coughed, but managed to close her eyes and turn away from the Akyri King instead.

“I have to hand it to Thanatos,” Marius said. “Using up your magic like that,” he shook
his head and made a low whistling
sound. “That was wise.” But then he laughed and it was a dark laugh. “But
wedding
you, now that wasn’
t so smart
. I can’t blame hi
m of course.” His blue eyes raked over her form, and Siobhan felt as if she weren’t wearing any clothes. A hard chill rushed up her spine. She wrapped her arms around herself
and squeezed tight
.

The motion seemed to amuse him. Something glinted in the ice of his gaze. “But he must have realized
you’
d be able to open a portal once you were linked to him.” He shrugged. “Oh well. I’m sure he knows now.” H
is delighted expression sent more chills scraping along her nerve endings
. “His loss.”

“I’m here,” said Siobhan, surprised at how steady her voice was. “
So you don’t need
the man and his
son
any more. You can let them
go.” She was probably about to die, and after everything that had happened, it was so
rt of just the icing on the chaos
cak
e her life had become. Yet despite all this,
she felt
calm
. Calm enough to make demands, even.

It’s Thane
, her thoughts told her. She was tied to him now. And in that bond came a strength she hadn’t possessed alone.

“How romantic,” Marius said. His tone had gone cold, as had his expression.
He eyed her with some unknown mal-intent, and then turned away from her to face the three
Akyri
and the man and his son waiting on the other side of the pier.

“She’s right,” he told them all, once more speaking casually. Then he addressed the man and the teenage boy directly as he came to stand before them. Siobhan’s gut clenched. “We don’t need you any longer. Thank you for your assistance.”

He looked over at
the nearest Akyri
. He nodded.

The magic-sucking demon extracted
a gun from
the inside pocket of his leather jacket
.
He pointed it at the
wide-eyed, silent
teenager
.

Fingers of ice crackled into place over Siobhan’s heart

And the
Akyri
pulled the trigger.
Twice.

Chapter Twenty-
Eight

“
He’s done something to erase her
trail,” said
Steven
Lazarus, who was standing in the center of the garage in which he’d first appeared to Thane what felt like an eternity ago. The Akyri former detective’s head was bent, his blue eyes shut tight, his expression one of stark concentration. “I can feel her, but it’s like I can feel her everywhere. There’s no focus.”

Thane wanted to break something. Not just because of what Lazarus was telling him, but because
he knew exactly what Lazarus meant. He felt
the sa
me thing. Marius had covered Siobhan’s
tracks, and he’d done so with
a level of
power he shouldn’t have possessed
.

“You have to find her, Lazarus,” Thane told him.

The Akyri opened his eyes and looked up.

“You’re the only one who can.”

Lazarus tore his gaze
from Thane’s and ran a stiff hand through his blonde curls.

“Maybe he
isn’t
strong enough,” suggested Roman.

Thane turned to look at the Vampire King. He stood on one side of the garage – beside the other eleven kings and the werewolf council Overseer.
The Overseer wore a small, tight medallion around his neck, given to him by his girlfriend, the coven leader Imani Zareb. Apparently, it allowed him to transport at will.

The twelve of them
together against that wall
made a powerful sight. A mortal looking upon them would never have been able to erase the image from their mind.

Thane had
used up a lot of strength reaching through the dimensional barriers to bring
them all
here, and it had only been possible because they’d agreed to come
. He wasn’t sure how much longer he was going to be able to sustain the environment to le
t them stay
, while at the same time slowing time in Purgatory
to give them as much leverage as possible. He was feeling more exhausted by the second
and was incredibly grateful that he’d chosen to absorb Siobhan’s spent magic
.