Page 22
Chapter 22
Monster of the Realm
Cassius
B ollocks!
One second the room was full of snarling undead beasts looking to gnash their teeth on our skin and bones, and the very next minute they were all on the floor again, lifeless husks with neither song nor light left in their motionless forms.
Which could only mean one thing.
I turned faster than I’d ever turned in my entire bloody life. She wasn’t there. V was gone. Bloody fucking hell. Dragging an angry hand through my hair, I sent wave after wave of tracking magic so I could find where the blonde slag had taken her.
If I was lucky, she wouldn’t have traveled far. But I wasn’t an absolute twit without two brain cells to rub together, unlike that shameless barbarian V called a mentor. I knew that snake wouldn’t stay close after she’d all but used everything to get her hands on V.
To think, I was left here with Her Evilness instead of my saucy dove. Why couldn’t these obnoxious villains take that terrifying woman instead of my darling? Why must fate be so cruel to leave this shameless sadist unharmed while my sweet bird was unfairly kidnapped? What, were mercenaries these days incapable of killing anyone else? Couldn’t slice out the devil woman’s heart or send her head flying before taking what was mine?
Fate was a cruel mistress.
Worse, it had to be a bleeding Chaos Fae of all things. I’d talked my way around telling Phillip the truth about how Ancient Fae were gone. But they weren’t, not entirely. Technically, the original kind were killed off long ago, but their kin weren’t. Mixed Fae with the ancestry of the original Chaos Fae—just as lethal as their predecessors but with diluted blood, making it harder to identify them. I’d crossed paths with several in my time. Of course, that was during the days where darkness thrived in my life. I rarely saw fit to go toe-to-toe with the ones I encountered, not unless they outright challenged me. If anything, I’d exploited them for my own selfish gain.
Serine was one such Fae I’d use from time to time. She had a similar power to mine. Humans called it necromancy. My kind referred to it more specifically as the Hands of Death. We wielded the ability to gain from the death of others, but while Serine could utilize their abilities only after they’d died, I stole power while they were still alive.
My victims were mummified through the process. Often killed when I stole everything—their magic and abilities, their memories, their very lifeforce. It was why so very few went up against me when I was at my strongest. Though, these days, many regarded me as a powerless coward. I’d take the utmost pleasure in showing them otherwise.
In the past, I enchanted items with the magic I stole to elongate their use. Magical folk like myself were rare purely on that merit, and it was the only reason Eros saw fit to use me. Though, my magic suffered greatly after so much of it was stolen, and it became harder for me to do it. But Serine couldn’t steal their magic like I could. Thus, her use of it was limited to opportunity and calculation.
Harmony had a similar ability as a witch. She stole power from every person she took a personal liking to so they couldn’t escape her. She’d weaken and keep them as slaves for her every need, but she couldn’t use their powers like I could, only lock them away. To steal their power, they needed to trust her. Because the sly slag wore too many faces to count, very few knew who she was before it was too late.
Bloody witches.
Serine hadn’t been this strong before that old hag stole my power. But now, she wasn’t someone anyone in their right mind would mess with, no matter how powerful. Better to work under her than end up one of her undead.
In my absence, she took control of the dark underbelly in the Fae realm. So, I’d avoided her at all costs without the full use of my magic. Last I heard, she was in the Fae realm, but I’d been a little out of the loop since encountering V that fateful night.
With my power returned, Serine would be hard-pressed to outwit me again because the secret to my power was thousands of years of careful cultivation and control. As one of the so-called Chaos Faes, she might be stronger and deadlier, but she wasn’t invincible—and she certainly wasn’t as clever as I was forced to be over the years.
They didn’t call me the Monster of the Realm for no reason.
From what I could tell by how quickly her undead dropped, she’d expelled too much power too quickly. Meaning, she’d be vulnerable for the next couple hours, and she’d be looking to find a safe place to recharge if she was smart. Clearly, she hadn’t expected V to be as powerful as she was, or to have the host of abilities our kind hadn’t seen in several millennia.
Controlling time was terrifying even to a Hand of Death. To break into frozen time, Serine must’ve been desperate. I’d once been told Chaos Fae and their kin weren’t as susceptible to each other’s abilities, but it likely required energy to break. As with anything, there was always a cost.
Power wasn’t limitless.
I was confident the slag was severely weakened by it and would be an easy kill when I found her. The trick was to track her magic, eliminate her, and then use her own power and memories to find my way back to V. Relatively simple for a spy and Hand of Death like myself but dangerous. She wasn’t likely to be working alone, and I’d be using my darkest powers to eliminate a weakened Chaos Fae and find my darling.
Expelling too much magic for tracking that tart down wasn’t ideal, but if I recovered a few enchanted items, I could rely on those for when I recovered V. Assuming she hadn’t found a way to escape on her own.
I couldn’t contain my evil grin. My dove would give that over-confident minger hell. I’d seen enough to know that V never sat around and waited to be rescued. She was plenty powerful to bite back. Serine would trap her, no doubt, and avoid hanging around until she recovered, but breaking through that sort of magic wouldn’t be any challenge at all.
My feisty dove would figure it out in no time.
So, perhaps, it was an overreaction for me to give chase, but I’d never let her fight alone again. If I could pave the way for V to conquer another name on her list, I’d do it with a bloody grin on my face. Most importantly, I wanted her to see what I was willing to do to stay by her side. I’d take the head of any person who dared to hurt her, and she’d see I wasn’t all chatter—I was a man of my word.
Flipping back my hair, I scanned the room. The she-devil was pacing the far corner of it, doing whatever it was barbarians did when their enemy escaped.
From what was uttered between Her Evilness and V earlier, Serine and that devil woman shared a personal history of sorts. It didn’t take a keen eye to deduce that it wasn’t a good one. The she-demon regarded Serine as an adversary, and one she worried would win. Rather odd for a woman who always seemed confident she’d conquer any enemy.
It should give me pause, but it didn’t. Not now that I had all my deadly power returned. I’d use every bit of it to get my stolen bird back. Though, I fully expected to find V free of her prison well before I found her. Most likely, I’d be chasing the ghost of her all the way back to the safe house if I took too long.
The brutes following V around often underestimated her, and they found themselves saved by her time and time again. She was as resourceful as she was sadistic. Like me. Perhaps that was the entire reason we were made for each other. No one could meet her on level ground like I could. Unlike those undeserving brutes, I knew better than to underestimate her.
I might loathe some of the pranks she’d made me front and center of, especially the ones where she tagged in that gross pervert to ruin both of our days, but even I couldn’t deny how ingenious they were. I never saw them coming—and neither did that pierced troll who thought himself the cleverest of the lot. It amused me how outright irate the man got when she tormented him using her time freezing ability. Tickled this dark heart of mine in ways I never thought possible.
I’d likely get dethroned as the Monster of the Realm by V, but of course I would. She was the girl I’d personally chosen to follow. I’d bend the knee to her before anyone else did.
Phillip and Sloan might’ve thought they were sly enough to keep her abilities a secret from me, but I’d seen it all when I unlocked her power; how devastating it could be and everything she was capable of. My darling could do far more than they realized. I’d never seen a power like it. But it came at a devastating cost. One that, for as long as I still breathed, would never happen.
If one day she were forced into a corner and employed the entire arsenal of her power, she’d lose herself to the chaos. A fate worse than death in my opinion. I could come back from being a Fae marred by my dark deeds and mistakes, but she couldn’t. Once V tapped into that chaotic darkness locked inside of her, she wouldn’t be the person she fought so hard to be. She wouldn’t be the strong and persevering woman I desperately wished to make mine. She’d be the thing of nightmares. Darkness personified.
Look at me, the poet.
Of course, now that I was here by her side, I’d never let that happen. The she-demon might be helping her learn to control her abilities, but I’d put several fail-safes in place—ones that dropped the redhead unconscious before she reached dangerous levels of dark power use. But they couldn’t be maintained if I wasn’t reinforcing them every day, so not being by her side was out of the question. I’d go wherever she went, even if it meant torturing myself with the company of all those feral lowlifes she kept around her.
Granted, none of that would matter if Serine found a way to kill V. Seeing how she’d won the bid to recover her for the Organization—or perhaps her rise to the top in the underworld was thanks to her connection with them—I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave Serine everything she’d need to destroy their weapon should my darling get out of control. To them, V was the only threat they truly saw.
Thankfully, the Hunter’s abilities made her immeasurably invaluable to Serine. The tart wouldn’t waste it on just any event. She’d keep my bird until she could utilize the Organization’s weapon in the most destructive way possible. Which could mean only one thing. Total domination. But not in this realm. She’d go after the one she was probably chased out of if she was here.
Guess it’s time to return home.
Her Evilness had already come over when my magic found the trail leading to the Fae realm portal. Confirmation my suspicion was correct. She’d crossed over.
The whip-carrying savage stepped over the dead like none of it bothered her. As unsurprising as that was. She was, after all, a psychopath. What V saw in her I’d never understand. “You won’t find her like that. Believe me, I’ve tried,” was all she said.
Of course she would underestimate my power, but perhaps that was for the best. I refused to team up with the homicidal assassin. I’d overheard enough to know that she was powerful, but I’d rather swallow a blade than bring her along. No, I’d find V without anyone else’s aid.
I sucked in a rageful breath, ready to snap back, but when my eyes slid over to the bane of my existence, she’d come undone in a way I’d never seen on the woman before. She looked…positively worried. I wasn’t even aware she possessed normal emotions. I’d never witnessed anything that wasn’t homicidal rage or apathetic arrogance. But I hadn’t the time nor the energy to invest in deciphering the reason she’d unraveled in this moment.
V was alone, and Serine was on the run.
I’d kill the evil bitch who stole my darling, then I’d show V who was truly her ally when I swooped in to save the day and return her to the realm she belonged to. She might gain her freedom on her own, but finding her way to a portal and back here would require much more than sarcastic hubris. She’d need to tap into her magic and gain access. Only I could teach her how. And when I did, she’d know I was on her side.
I was her handsome, invaluable rogue.
Grinning to myself, a perfect plan hatched, I gathered my magic all around me with a sweeping gesture of my hand. The psychotic woman nearby was confused by the eyebrow she raised at me. Probably suspected I planned to abandon them now that V was in the wind. She’d walk in circles trying to team up with the pierced brute to recover their lost prize, but I would’ve already saved the beauty. And after, perhaps V might want to kiss my lips instead of theirs.
I’m bloody brilliant…
I tossed the demon mistress a snide look and snapped my fingers. My slithering black power fled out in all directions with a crack before returning in a swarm and wrapping around me in a devilish vortex. “Ta-ta, devil woman. I’m off to do what you can’t.”