The Reluctant King (The Star-Crossed Series) (18 page)

              Jericho slowed the car to the stop in front of the overly large cottage that screamed pretentious douchebag. Latvia was not a wealthy country and the estate of Terletov seeped with old money. It was like he had to assert his dominance everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if inside the house there were giant statues dedicated to the size of his manhood and the whole place smelled like piss from where he felt the need to mark his territory.

Grade-A douche.

We climbed out of the tiny Fiat we picked up in Italy. Titus pulled in next to us, Xander and Xavier practically fell out of their identical compact car. I felt kind of bad for Xavier watching him shake out his feet that had no doubt fallen asleep in the cramped, miniscule back seat. I mean, not bad enough to trade places with him, but bad enough for a sympathetic glance. Titus was the shortest in their group and I wondered how he convinced them to let him drive.

The Titans we were meeting were already here and gathered in a small clump of testosterone near the barn. When Eden was trying to escape, she caused a little bit of structural damage here and there, but the property showed depressing signs of neglect that went beyond Eden’s escape. I walked slowly over to the Titans that were inspecting the dilapidated barn as if making sure it was safe to go in, leaving my team to follow behind me. At the sound of my approach, they turned and greeted me.

I had met them all before, but never spent much time with them since all but one of them chose to give up their Titan service. All Titans were given the opportunity to walk away after I took over. I knew they weren’t magically going to be loyal to me or happy with how things ended for Lucan, so I diplomatically gave them the choice to leave everything behind and make a new life for themselves. If they stayed they had to pledge a new alliance to me; not a blood oath, but I trusted their word as an identical promise.

Mitica, Anton and Andre had bailed immediately. To be fair, they were older in years and had served with Lucan and with his father. They knew nothing but the Kendrick line and I was some young punk that had messed up their carefully controlled world. Christi Ludu was one of the only ones of his generation to stay, and for the most part I had come to the conclusion he was a good man. I had just assigned him to Brazil, so I didn’t interact with him very often.

And that was part of this whole problem. I knew there were disgruntled Lucan supporters throughout the Kingdom. I wasn’t naïve. But with Kiran’s support and his active role in our new leadership, I hoped it was enough to pacify them. And if it wasn’t, I had kept a close enough eye on those I knew were unhappy to know that they didn’t hold the means or enough like-minded friends to organize much of a threat.

Until Terletov….

Which unleashed all kinds of questions for me. How many were a part of this? How long have they been organizing this? Are my people being subjected to their sick, twisted and tortuous ways right now…. while I wander around the world lost and losing…. not helping them…. not fighting for them….. not saving them?

“Thank you for coming, gentlemen,” I greeted them, swallowing down the bile that thought train had produced. “Have you had a chance to look around?”

“We have,” Christi answered politely in his thick Romanian accent. He tried to offer a bow but I waved him off. “There are several interesting pieces of evidence that would suggest Dmitri Terletov was planning something for a long time, but they don’t seem to have been touched since our original investigation.”

“You know about the basement room, of course,” Mitica spoke up and I was a little bit surprised by his genial attitude. Last time we spoke, he was less than respectful. “I’m afraid we are no help down there, our magic does not work. Yours however….” He paused while his colleagues shot him nervous glances. They were still afraid of the King, whether or not my behavior had justified his trepidation or not. It was still Lucan he was afraid of, if only he could see that. “What I mean to say, is that in our reports your sister was able to use her magic down there.”    

              “Is there anything else that you can remember from your time here?” Jericho asked, breaking up the tension the four of them created.

              “I thought of something on the way over here,” Andre announced, his light purple eyes flashing with steely resolve making them look like iridescent and gunmetal. Most of the Kingdom was very ethnically diverse, and scattered all across the globe, but when our races were divided after Derrick, the Titans were forced to stay within their Roman roots. In the last few hundred years they have all been born and raised in Romania, with the exception of when training was moved to Siberia. They all look similar though; muscled olive skin, dark curly hair and most are born with deep chocolate eyes. There is always the exception though and Andre’s violet eyes made him stand out amongst his friends. He continued, “Eden reported that Terletov begged for death after she took his magic, but that she left that for us to deal with. However, Eden wasn’t debriefed until much later, after Terletov had been moved to the prison and this farm cleaned up. I was one of the Guards that physically handled Terletov on our way back to the Citadel and never once did he seem like a man who had given up on life. He was tired, his head would droop and his eyes were sunken in after she drained him of magic, but he never asked us for death or even seemed like a man that would prefer to be dead. In fact, he fought weakly against his restraints, he bit Anton on the shoulder when we tried to get him into the van, and when we attempted to move him from the van to the prison he head-butted me after pretending to be passed out.”

              “Is that how he got away?” Jericho asked quickly. I could feel the hope in his magic, but I refused to let myself have any of it.

              The Titans mocked him with a derisive laugh.

              “He didn’t get away from us,” Mitica spat defensively. “So what? He put up a fight, but nothing else. He was a weak human by then, we were the Titan Guard. He didn’t stand a chance.”

              “But he did get away,” I reminded them, although I understood their pride. “I agree with you about him being weak though. I’ve seen Eden’s memories, so I know he wasn’t capable of it on his own. He must have had help.” Everyone nodded along with him and I swore to myself that if they were just humoring me because I was King I would take away all of their retirement funds. “While he was down in the prisons, did any of you notice that he was particularly close to anyone in the Guard? Or how about when he escaped?”

              Now they shook their heads like they had no information to offer for my questions.

              Which was frustrating.

              I could feel their cocky confidence, hell I was practically choking on the chauvinistic arrogance these four guys were radiating and yet losing a guy like Terletov couldn’t possibly be their fault! He had to have been a human when he broke out of the Citadel….
had
to have been. We’re still not sure if he has magic or not and if he does how he got it. So who dropped the ball? Had he even made it to the Citadel in the first place?

              Ugh… too many unanswered questions.

              “Alright, I want the four of you to split up and partner with one of my guys. Take them through exactly what happened that day and what your role was. I’m going to check out this basement holding room,” I waited for everyone to acknowledge me before announcing, “We’re not leaving here without some kind of answers. You can go. Jericho, you’re with me.”

              Xander, Xavier, Titus and Roxie had to be the ones to make the first move. I was glad to see that Roxie had chosen Christi to work with. I had no doubt the girl could hold her own, but I wanted this to go smoothly and I had a bad feeling any of the other Titans were going to give her a hard time.

              Jericho and I walked forward into the barn and started looking around. The old stone barn smelled like dirt and musty hay. Birds flapped unhappily up in the rafters, angry that we disturbed them. The barn was typical and unimpressive. Old farm equipment hung on rusted hooks protruding from the walls and short, stools and benches littered the hay covered earthen ground. The door that Eden blew off the handles still stood propped against the open hole it had ripped through. Nothing and nobody had been here in years.

              Jericho stood next to me yawning and when I gave him a questioning look he nodded at the open doorway that led down into the room Eden had woken up in after being shot in the chest.

              “I can feel it,” Jericho explained his yawn while tipping his head in the direction of the basement room. “It makes me feel tired, but also like I can’t move my magic…. like it’s slow and useless.”

              “You don’t need to be in here then,” I definitely did not like Jericho feeling anything but perfect form. “Send in Christi, I want to know if he can feel my magic when I’m down there.”

              Jericho nodded and walked off. I stared at the open doorway for six more seconds before deciding there was no use just standing there. I needed to get down. I needed to find something.

              I stomped down the wooden staircase, my body and weight shaking the weak structure. The room was dark and even mustier than upstairs and quite a bit cooler, but it was completely empty. I stood on the last stair assessing the room; it wasn’t large, but big enough that several people could have been held down here. A slithering feeling of warning prickled my skin and I felt my heartbeat accelerate before I could question why.

              Feeling anxious, I stepped off the stair and turned a slow circle in the room. A glint of metal caught my eye from the shadows underneath the staircase. I stepped forward, thinking it was possibly the bullet that had come out of Eden’s chest and realized two things at once.

              The first was that my magic was slower down here, I could still use it, but I felt sluggish and out of it. The second thing I realized was that there was a man standing in the corner pointing a gun directly at my chest.

              The glint of metal.

              Held by a man that had no access to his magic down here, but didn’t need it since he had a gun instead.

Chapter Seventeen

              Even with the handicap of incapacitated magic I knew I needed to move and move fast. Not thinking about anything other than dodging the bullet I knew would be coming my way; I dove out of the bullet’s path just as I heard the click of the trigger. The bullet exploded from the gun aimed for my chest and like in slow motion, as if I were in my own horror film, it ripped through my t-shirt digging into my side and slicing through soft flesh. I hadn’t Time-Slowed the moment, but I still felt every second of pain as the bullet continued all the way through the hole it was digging and stayed lodged, buried in my side.

              I landed in an uncoordinated clump on the hard dirt floor, gripping at my side where blood spilled out over my clothes and hand. I felt the stinging residue of the magic that was in the bullet and my vision blurred in and out of blackness as I tried to hold on to consciousness. The man in the corner walked forward wearing a twisted smirk. He was blonde, with a blonde beard and even in my pathetic state on the floor I wanted to advise him to shave his flesh colored beard, it looked way unnatural.

              “I don’t think this is coincidence, your Highness,” the man muttered, his eyes glinting with excitement. A wave of darkness washed over me and my eyelids fluttered closed. I forced them open, digging my fingers further into the wound, trying desperately to get to the bullet and rip it out of me.

             
Eden!
I shouted into her head, jarring her from whatever it was she was doing, but she was already there, already sending her magic into me.
I need you!

             
I couldn’t hear anything from outside the room and I had no idea if anyone else had heard the gunshot. Had it been loud? On a silencer? I couldn’t remember and now I couldn’t focus through my blurry vision to tell if there was a silencer on the weapon or not. My wound burned hot like lava, spreading the torturous feeling through my body like a sickness. Most Immortals would be unconscious by now, most wouldn’t have to feel the pain as it moved through every inch of my body, paralyzing my magic and sucking away my breath.

             
Avalon!
Eden screamed, sending as much magic into me as she could, but to no avail, the pain consumed her magic as quickly as it had mine.
Don’t close your eyes! Don’t let him win, Avalon!
She cried desperately.

              Through shadowy vision I watched my attacker lift his gun to my heart, and then seeming to think better of it, to my head, right in between my eyes. Eden’s idea came to her as soon as she could calm her panic and forced herself to breathe evenly. I felt the blue smoke move into me, immediately taking away the sharp edge of pain. The smoke had traveled between us before, and Eden had used it to heal countless Immortals by now, but this was the first time she had pressed it into me while we were this far apart. I could feel how the smoke was still anchored to Eden, even as it cleansed out my veins and organs of the evil magic threatening to cover me in darkness.

              The blue smoke pushed against the invasive bullet. I felt a bit of it as the bullet moved out of my body, through the tunnel it had burrowed and clinked onto the dirt floor next to me.             

              Relief.

              This all happened in short, breathless seconds and in the last possible moment the smoke finished with my open wound making me capable of moving again. Before my vision cleared completely I rolled out of the way as the gun went off again, echoing thunderously in the small basement room. The bullet hit the dirt floor and ricocheted off while I kicked my legs out with as much force as I could into the knees of my attacker. He grunted and stumbled, his gun swinging wildly in the air.