Cast in Faefire: An Urban Fantasy Romance (The Mage Craft Series Book 3) (15 page)

“Not by blood,” Marion muttered. She shot a look at Konig to encourage him to back her up. The Knights had retrieved him from the party after apprehending Dana, and he still had a full goblet of wine. His eyes were a little glazed from excessive drink.

“I don’t do much mercenary work. Call me a spellsword,” Dana said.

“At the moment we’re calling you a potential assassin,” Konig snarled. “You don’t want to be a potential assassin. The sidhe don’t like those types of people. Right, Heather?”

The archer responded by passing her belt knife from her left hand to her right. She smiled faintly.

“You’re stupid and I don’t like you,” Dana said.

Konig’s face darkened. “You—”

“She didn’t go for the party because she wasn’t trying to kill anyone,” Marion said. “I have to wonder how you got in, though. You’re not on the guest list—although you could have been if you’d asked nicely.”

“Then I’d have had to go dance. I don’t dance.” Dana shrugged. “Your wards are going bad. I got in the same way I get in anywhere.”

“You’re not a planeswalker,” Marion said.

Dana shrugged again. She wasn’t offering information she didn’t need to.

It was easy to imagine what Dana did, though. Even though she didn’t use magic herself, she had dozens of enchanted weapons. It stood to reason that not all her artifacts were offensive.

“If you weren’t planning to assassinate anyone, then what are these for?” asked the Onyx Queen, gesturing to the Raven Knights.

One of them stepped forward. He was cradling grenade-sized spheres in his hands, which sparked with crimson energy. They didn’t just resemble grenades—they
were
grenades, meant to explode with magic rather than gunpowder.

“We found those placed around the ballroom,” Konig explained at Marion’s expression of surprise.

She turned on her sister. “Oh, Dana.
Why
?”

Dana snorted. “Arawn’s gathering energy by killing people and burning their spirits in balefire. He needs a few hundred souls more in order to ascend to Earth. Where do you think he wants to get those from?”

“Our wedding,” Konig said. “He wants to harvest his dead from our wedding.”

“Exactly,” Dana said. “I thought I’d blow a few charges to scare you guys into canceling it. And I figured I’d find the darknet servers while you were distracted.”

Konig flung his free hand into the air. “Those stupid servers again. Everyone’s on about those servers!”

“Why do
you
want them?” Marion asked. “Is it about the weapon?”

Dana paled. Her thoughts fizzed across the surface of her mind, more transparent than Marion had ever seen before. She hadn’t thought Marion knew about that.

“What is the weapon?” Seth asked. “Do you know?”

“Doesn’t matter.” Dana folded her arms obstinately. “Arawn wants it. Leliel wants it. Everyone wants it. I’m doing y’all a favor by trying to get there first.”

And Dana had thought that setting off a few bombs would fix everything. It was spectacularly bad planning, yet it seemed so very…Dana. She was a punch to the face in human form.

Marion certainly felt as though she’d been punched. She had one hell of a headache developing. “You could have just told me about this when I was in Las Vegas.”

“I wanted to beat Arawn without having to deal with you,” Dana said.

“I don’t see why Arawn’s plans are your problem anyway.”

“Because if he ascends, he’ll probably destroy the Pit of Souls on his way up. And then what happens? I dunno. It won’t be good.” Dana sat up straighter. “Cancel the wedding. You’ve got to shut down Niflheimr completely.”

Konig laughed and drained his goblet of wine. “The wedding goes on as planned. We won’t be cowed by petty threats.” Clearly he meant Dana, not Arawn.

“Why don’t we move the wedding to Myrkheimr?” Violet suggested.

Marion would have rather swallowed needles than have the wedding in the home of her overbearing mother-in-law. “I can’t leave Niflheimr. The wards could fail completely if I leave again.”

“But there’s sun in the Autumn Court,” Seth said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Arawn can’t go in the sun, and neither can people that he possesses with his demons. Then there won’t be wedding guests in Niflheimr, either.”

Dana glared black hatred at him. “Yeah, that’s the obvious solution to this, isn’t it? Move the wedding’s location. That will fix everything.”

“It’s less vulnerable than the Winter Court on multiple levels,” Violet said, as if the decision had been made. She waved to Heather Cobweb. “See to it that everything begins relocating immediately.”

The archer bowed and exited.

Through the swinging door, Marion glimpsed Jibril watching. He would surely be hearing everything.

“There’s another option to protect Niflheimr,” Dana said. “Marion could just ask the gods to take care of it.”

She was looking at Seth when she said that.

Marion tried to catch her eye, shaking her head.

No, Dana. Please don’t
.

“The gods haven’t shown any sign of being directly involved in affairs to this point,” Violet said. “I don’t see why that would change now.”

Dana looked directly at Marion, saw that she was shaking her head, and grinned. Dana’s teeth were uneven. The canines were yellow. “It’ll change now,” Dana said, “because the third god of the triad is standing among us right now. Seth Wilder is a god.”

U
ntil the moment
that Dana spoke, Seth had been ignored by everyone in the room—the Raven Knights, the royalty, even Marion.

Seth Wilder is a god
.

And he was suddenly the most interesting person there.

Marion turned to him with an apology on her lips, but he didn’t hear it.

Grief, anger, and disbelief were etched on the faces of every sidhe in the room. Seth didn’t need them to share their stories of Genesis to imagine what they were all so upset about. He’d heard enough stories while working at Mercy Hospital: families lost under collapsing buildings, husbands eaten by demons, children who never came back after the void consumed them.

As soon as Dana named him as a god, all of that grief was turned toward him.

Marion reached for Seth.

He left before they could touch.

When Seth snapped his fingers, he didn’t have a location in mind. He just wanted to be
away
, and he was.

He appeared in a bedroom elsewhere in the Winter Court. He was standing beside an unremarkable bed with about a thousand pillows piled against the headboard, and adjacent to an open closet with skirt suits hanging from the hook inside.

It wasn’t Marion’s bedroom or the one where the Hardwicks had lived, so it took him a moment to realize what had drawn him there, of all the places in the universe he could have gone.

Those nude-colored skirt suits were the kind of thing Rylie was wearing these days.

Once he recognized her clothes, he heard the murmur of her voice on the other side of the wall and felt the call of life and death that he associated with the werewolf Alpha.

He nudged the bedroom door open with a knuckle but hung back where he wouldn’t be seen.

In the sitting room, a dozen people sat around a long table, all of them still dressed for the gala in fancy dresses and tuxedoes. Rylie was at the nearest end, sharing tea and appetizers in the form of dainty meat cubes. Raw meat meant shifters. Seth was shocked to see that one of those shifters was Deirdre Tombs.

Seth momentarily contemplated taking Deirdre down right at that instant before anyone could react.

Rylie was facing away from him, but her head lifted, tipped to the side. Her nostrils flared.

She smelled him.

“Excuse me,” Rylie said to the others at the table. “I forgot that I’m meant to have another meeting in my rooms in a few minutes. Would you mind…?”

“Not at all.” Deirdre Tombs stood up, and half the table stood with her. All of them must have come with the American Gaean Commission. It was arrogant—maybe even naïve—for Rylie to have allowed so many members of an opposing faction into her private rooms.

His memory of Deirdre standing over Rylie, gun still smoking from the shot that had killed her, was far too vivid.

Deirdre’s people left, and then Rylie murmured a few words to her personal guard, and they were gone too.

Only then did she turn to smile at the corner in which he lurked.

“Hey,” Rylie said softly. Seth emerged from the bedroom. He was wearing the glamour, but her gaze shifted down to his shirt, as though expecting to see the gaping maw of his ribcage again. “This is a pleasant surprise. I hope it’s a social call.”

“It’s not,” Seth said.

She unbuttoned her suit jacket, slid it down her shoulders, and folded it over the back of a chair. “Then what do you need?”

“I don’t really know,” he admitted. “I had to get away and didn’t think too much about where I was going. Dana McIntyre told everyone what I am. They
know
.”

“Dana’s here?” Rylie asked. “Color me shocked. I didn’t realize Marion and Dana were still on speaking terms.”

“They’re not. Dana tried to blow up the engagement party.”

Rylie’s hands flew to cover her mouth. “Oh no. And then she told everyone?”

“The Autumn Queen and half a dozen Raven Knights,” Seth said. “It’ll get out fast. Everyone’s going to know soon.” Each word made him feel heavier as the reality of it sank in.

His identity had been revealed in Niflheimr at a time when word could spread the fastest. The most powerful preternaturals were in attendance with all their aides.

Seth dropped onto Rylie’s couch, cradling his head in his hands.

“What am I going to do?” he asked. “I don’t want to be a god.”

“We don’t get to choose leadership, Seth. It chooses us.” Rylie would know best. She had never asked to be Alpha, but she had risen in power until she became capable of controlling other werewolves. He had seen how it changed her over the years that had followed.

“It’s not leadership that chose me. It was Elise. This is her fault.”

“Does it matter where blame belongs?”

“Yes,” Seth said. “Because all this bullshit—the whole world dying and changing, and the war between gods—that was Elise’s fault. She put me in front of it. And when Dana told people what I was, they looked at me like Genesis was
my
fault.”

Rylie sat next to him, carrying a cup of tea and a saucer. “Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. I don’t have experience being a god, but the shifters see me like a queen, and…well, I can tell you that leadership sucks. You have to be a face for everyone to direct adulation and anger toward. Elise would be terrible at it. You’re not. You’re made for this, Seth.”

“I’m not,” Seth said. “I’m really not. I can handle rounds at an emergency room, but that’s worlds different from being responsible for
everything
.”

“You also ran my pack for ages.” She smiled weakly. “I struggled after Genesis without you.”

He frowned. “When I visited, you said everything was fine.”

“Yeah, I told you everything was fine,” Rylie said. “But it wasn’t. God, it wasn’t fine, Seth,
nothing
was fine.”

She might as well have punched him, it hurt so much. “Why didn’t you tell me that? I’d have stayed to help.”

“You had always wanted to become a doctor, and you were doing it. You were finally living the life you always wanted before I ruined it.” She took a long, slow drink of her tea, shoulders trembling as though she was trying to hold back tears. “I wasn’t going to ruin it for you again.”

“Elise took care of the ruining for us this time,” Seth said.

“She knows what she’s doing. As a god, you’ll be able to save countless people, just like you always wanted.”

It wasn’t just like he wanted. Not even a little bit. “I’m supposed to be the god who kills everyone. Even you.” Seth glanced at her, and he couldn’t shut out the vision of her death. Not this time. “When you die, Rylie—”

She lifted her hands to stop him. “Please don’t.”

“Deirdre Tombs kills you. Arrest her, have Abel murder her, whatever. You’ve got to stop her before she can do it.”

Rylie heaved a sigh. “Oh, Seth. I told you I don’t want to know.”

“But now you do,” he said, a little too fiercely. “You have to do something about it.”

“Deirdre Tombs is a good woman.” She set her teacup down. “A good woman, but I’m not at all surprised she kills me. If it’s going to be anyone…well, at least it’s her.”

He stared at her in shock. “You’re happy about that?”

“Deirdre does nothing without good reason. If she kills me, I trust that it needs to happen.” She took Seth’s hands, her fingers still as soft as he remembered them, her eyes as gentle. “You need to trust it, too.”

“You’re not at all shaken by this.”

“I’ll need time to think about it.” She raked her bottom lip between her teeth. “God, I wish you hadn’t told me.”

Rylie stood up and paced away from him.

Seth felt numb inside.

He shouldn’t have told her.

But he had, because he selfishly wanted her to do something about it. He thought she’d fix it.

Instead, she was going to let it haunt her.

“I’m sorry,” Seth said.

“Leadership sucks,” Rylie whispered, so quiet that he was compelled to cross the icy room to stand beside her. “We make sacrifices. We change.”

“You haven’t changed that much. You’re still as beautiful to me as the day we met at summer camp.”

A flicker of a smile crossed her lips. “You haven’t changed much, either. You’re still sweet. When we were at the sanctuary together…” Rylie swallowed hard and reached up to cup Seth’s cheek. “Even before you left, I hadn’t seen you look happy like that in years.”

He put his hand over hers. “I’ve missed you.”

“It’s not me you’re looking at when you’re happy,” Rylie said.

“I don’t…” His mouth was too dry to finish the sentence. He swallowed hard. “She’s getting married to someone else.”

Rylie sagged. “Okay. Wow.”

“I’m just saying that nothing’s happening there,” Seth said. “I like her a lot, but…nothing’s happening.”

“Maybe it should. You have to let me go, Seth. You should have let me go years ago.”

“Yeah, like how you let me go and married Abel.”

She grimaced. “That’s different.”

“And this isn’t about you,” Seth said with more conviction. “Marion’s getting married and she’s Elise’s sister. And…”

And he had promised he’d love Rylie forever.

Failing that, he’d promised to be alone.

He walked away from Rylie, seeking somewhere he could breathe a little more easily. There was no air left in the room. His heart was laboring to beat.

Rylie touched his elbow. “It’s okay, Seth. If you have feelings for Marion, it’s not your fault. It might not even be a coincidence. After all…God works in mysterious ways.”

* * *

I
t didn’t take
long to move the wedding. With all of the Raven Knights employing the full force of sidhe magic, they transplanted decorations, guests, and their belongings while it was still nighttime in the Autumn Court.

Marion didn’t feel safer in Myrkheimr than Niflheimr, even though the wards in the Autumn Court were much stronger, and the grounds were teeming with more security than merely the Raven Knights. Every one of the council invitees to Marion’s wedding had moved to the Middle Worlds, taking their entourages with them. So much security patrolled the gardens that it was safer than magical Fort Knox.

If they’d had the engagement party in the Autumn Court, then yes, those protections would have stood up against Dana. Marion just wasn’t confident they’d have the same effect against Arawn.

At least she’d started to turn her Niflheimr bedroom into something that felt homey. Her room in Myrkheimr still felt uncomfortably alien to her, even if the breeze was much warmer and the closet was filled with clothing in her size.

“It’s almost over,” she murmured, gazing out at the gardens as sidhe swept through, draping cloths from tree branches and shooting pixie lights among the leaves.

They’d be having the reception among the fountains of honey after the wedding. The wedding that was now only sixteen hours away.

Marion had nothing left to do that night, but she felt too sick to sleep.

She turned to go to bed anyway. A figure stood in the doorway.

Her heart leaped into her throat at the sight of the tall, willowy figure. She’d had an assassin enter her bedroom through the balcony before, and his silhouette had looked very much like that one, framed by the fluttering curtains.

This time, when he stepped forward, it was not a nameless killer, but Konig.

“Hey,” she started to say, but the other words vanished from her mind when she saw his expression.

Konig looked angry.

“My mother saw you,” he said.

Even at that distance, she could smell the wine on him.

“Excuse me?”

“You and Seth,” he said. “My mother saw you sneaking off with him at our engagement party. Heather found you in a closet with him.”

“We were searching the Hardwicks’ room for secret passages. That’s all.”

“So it’s true. Violet told me that she saw you running around with someone, but I thought she was lying until I saw you in the dungeon with…him.” He looked so
angry
. An empty wine goblet hung from one hand.

She edged around him into her bedroom. “You were busy or else I would have told you.”

“Sure you would have. Sure.” He took a step for each of hers, sliding along the opposite wall. He didn’t just smell like alcohol. He looked like a man who’d been beaten down and crushed under heel. “My mother’s always been overbearing, but she loves me. That might be the problem, I think. She wants the best for me.” He stopped in front of her cabinet, opening it to find a bottle of wine Marion hadn’t known she had. He surveyed the label. “Good year. Want a glass?”

“I don’t think this is the time to drink,” Marion said.

He slammed the point of the bottle opener into the cork so hard that she couldn’t help jumping.

Konig filled his cup, drained it, and filled it again.

“You’re not overbearing,” he said. “You’re independent. That’s what I’ve always admired about you. You don’t
need
me. A free agent! How fucking
nice
that is, after so many years choking under my royal parents’ fists.”

Another long drink.

“This is quite the mood,” Marion said lightly. “Did you have trouble with your business at the engagement party?”