Wicked Enchantment (23 page)

She’d feel even better once she got some food in her mouth. She could no longer avoid the ache in her stomach and needed to eat, even if it meant having to face the man in the kitchen. Touching walls and furniture to keep herself steady on her feet, she made her way to him.

He was standing at the stove, pushing something around in a pan with a wooden spoon. It smelled of perfectly roasted chicken and it made her mouth water. He’d taken a shower, too, and was dressed in a pair of loose black pants, no shoes and no shirt. His dark hair hung in damp tangled skeins down his back. For a wild moment her fingers curled to touch it, to take a comb and carefully untwist and untangle every last one.

She fisted her hands at her sides.

He turned at the sound of her feet on the tile and motioned at the round kitchen table that sat in a nearby alcove. A bay window looked out upon more trees. “Sit down. I’ll give you a real meal. If they treated you like they treated me, you want one pretty bad. I’ve only had moldy bread and tepid water for the last week.”

Yes, they’d only given her enough to make sure she didn’t die before they could figure out a way to shred her soul.

She went to the table and sat, staring out the window at the edge of the Boundary Lands. She’d never seen them before. She’d never been very far from Piefferburg Square, truth be told. “How do you know they won’t find us here?” she asked without looking at him.

He walked over and set a plate heaped with steaming chicken on a bed of rice and doused in some sort of sauce, roasted vegetables on the side. “I’m betting a lot on Ronan Quinn.” He got his own plate and sat down next to her. He said a couple more things that she couldn’t hear because her mouth was full of food and everything in her world was now focused on that event alone.

The flavors exploded against her taste buds. Never in her life had she tasted anything so fine. It was hot and filled with satisfying, nutritious goodness and her body absorbed it all like a drop of water in the desert. After five mouthfuls she could function again. She took a long drink of cold, pure water, closing her eyes and stifling a moan of pleasure.

“Ronan Quinn?” she finally asked.

“He gave me a spell that will prevent tracking. Said that he’d perfected one, a spell that is nearly impossible for any other mage to find a countermeasure for. I don’t think they’ll look for us here, in this house, since as the Lord of the Hunt I’m one of the few who even knows the former tenant has passed on. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t think it was safe. You can rest easy for now. You and I both have to recuperate from the iron sickness.”

Yes, she could still feel the toll it had taken on her. She lacked energy and her muscles ached all of the time.

He took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. “Before we have to do what we have to do.”

She pushed a bite of chicken around on her plate. “And what’s that, do you think?” But of course she already knew.

“We live in a bubble here in Piefferburg. It’s not like we can run off to Singapore. If we want to live, we have to confront that which doesn’t want us to live.”

“The Shadow King and the armies he commands.”

He nodded and took another bite. Gesturing with his fork, he spoke around his mouthful. “So eat up. You’re going to need your strength.”

She slowly released the breath she’d been holding. “You really think we have any kind of a shot at defeating him?”

He grinned at her and winked. “I think we have no choice but to try.”

“Try and die.”

“Maybe. Probably.”

“You’re not cheering me up.”

He stood and took his empty plate to the sink. She finished up her food in silence while he leaned against a counter and watched her. Crossing his arms over his chest, he said, “I’m a realist.”

Yes, he was also a liar.

When she was done eating, she pushed her plate away and savored the feel of a full belly and a warm, clean body. The shower and food had done wonders.

Wiggling her toes in her soft socks, she sighed. “Why did you do it?” She stared out the bay window at the trees. “Why did you take such a huge risk for me? You were out of the prison, you could have disappeared. Walked away. You could have saved yourself. Instead, you chose to risk entering the dungeon, defeating the mages . . . for me.” She looked at him. “Why?”

He walked to her and pulled her chair out to face him. Then he leaned down, bracing his hands on the armrests on either side, and bracketed her there. The clean soap scent of him teased her nose and a tendril of his still-damp hair brushed her cheek. “I did it because I felt responsible for you, Aislinn. I did you wrong, even if I didn’t know the extent of my sins. I was ultimately the reason you came to the Black Tower, since without my intervention you never would’ve defected. I didn’t want that karma on my soul.”

He’d done it because he felt guilty. It had nothing to do with her at all and everything to do with him. Perhaps somewhere in her most secret self, Aislinn had been hoping for something else. What? Something romantic? Had she wanted him to declare his undying love for her? Maybe tell her he’d done it because he couldn’t imagine living without her? She rolled her eyes. Danu, she was an idiot. Their entire relationship up until now had been based on lies.

How had she ever expected anything else from him? He’d probably never sustained a relationship with a woman in his life. Gabriel wasn’t built for that. Love just wasn’t in his nature.

And he was so beautiful. Almost too beautiful to bear. She could see how any woman would quickly come under his spell. Even without his magick, the man was lethal to any female within twenty feet of him. It didn’t matter that he was arrogant and self-serving. None of that registered in the face of his perfectly shadowed jaw, the sculpt of his lips, and the ever-present dark erotic promise in his eyes.

She couldn’t allow herself to fall victim to it. She had to remain strong if she was going to be forced to stay so close to him through this ordeal.

“Okay.” Her breath shuddered out of her. “Again, thank you.”

“And again . . .” He leaned in closer to her, making her breath catch. His lips just barely brushed hers and her heart thudded in her chest. Then he bared his teeth. “Don’t thank the man who put you there just because he got you out.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Gabriel. I didn’t go to the Black Tower for you.” He hadn’t been the only reason, at least. “I went because I wanted to train my magick, to become useful, to have a goal in life other than shopping and attending balls. That’s all. I went to better my life.” She gave a harsh laugh. “To find out who I really am. How ironic.”

He stared at her for a long moment before pushing up and away from her. “Well, you’re going to get your chance.”

“What do you mean?”

“You need to learn how to come into your own as a necromancer. Luckily, I’m just the man to help you do that.”

“I’m glad you’re so confident, but there’s one problem with your plan.”

“And that would be?”

“I left all my possessions back at the Black Tower and that means the Shadow King now has the book.”

“Book? What book?”

 

 

 

 

“THE
book.”

The words were spoken softly, in a male voice. Magick oozed in through the cell phone and entered Carina’s ear like an airborne virus. Black and viscous, the druid’s spell made her jerk and go still, forced her to hold the phone to her ear and not throw it across the room despite the fact every ounce of her will to live screamed at her to do just that.

“The book,” she answered breathlessly, fear draining the blood from her fingers where she gripped the cell phone. “You gave me more time to find it. Thank you for that.” Carina closed her eyes and plunged ahead. “I’ve searched everywhere for it. I even broke into Aislinn’s safe. I’ve asked everyone and . . .”

“And?”

Oh, sweet Danu, have mercy
. She opened her eyes, focusing on a framed picture of herself and Drem that sat on a nearby end table. “If she ever had it, it’s gone. I believe she took it with her and she has it over there. In the Black Tower. Only . . .” She chewed her lip.

“What?”

“There’s been a lot of activity in the Black lately. The Shadow Guard and the goblins have been swarming the square and the city, even coming close to the Rose. It started right after Aislinn went over there. I don’t know for sure, but I think she may have been captured or killed. At the very least, I suspect some kind of trouble for her. If that’s true, then it’s possible the Shadow King has the book now.”

If the Shadow King truly did have it, the Phaendir had no hope of recovering it. Either way, her job was done. Now she only waited for their judgment. She was so tired.

She jerked as an invisible worm entered her ear, making her fingers go numb around the cell phone. The earpiece glued itself to her, preventing her from throwing the phone across the room.

Silence.

The silence was colder and blacker than the thick spell weaving its way through her brain, sucking the fire from her synapses one by one. It even stole her panic. She knew she should be frightened. She’d failed. So she knew she should say something. Otherwise he might decide he didn’t need her anymore.

“No. I can still help you,” she whispered. “I can still—Spare Drem.
Please
.”

The cell phone dropped from her hand and broke into spinning, fragmented pieces. Blood trickled from her ear as she collapsed sightlessly to her polished marble floor, her mind just as shattered.

 

 

“THAT
book you’re talking about, you said it has a dark red leather cover and vellum pages. It has a section in the back that can only be unlocked by fitting some object into a grooved area, sort of like a key.”

She nodded at Gabriel.

He walked to the window and pushed a hand through his hair. His voice was flat, almost stunned. “You said you found it in your father’s things after he died.”

Aislinn stood from the couch, feeling shaky and weak, and walked over to stand next to him. “Yes.” She chewed her thumbnail while she stared out the living room window at the Boundary Lands. Apparently the book was more than just a guide for necromancers.

“
Danu
. It must be the Book of Bindings. It’s been lost for thousands of years. That book was written when the Phaendir and the fae were allied. It’s the most complete book of spells known, a mixture of both fae and druid.” He paused and drew a breath. “Aislinn, that book contains the spell that can break the warding around Piefferburg.”

“I’ve heard of it. I just didn’t know that’s what I had.” She supposed she should feel something, shocked and awed, maybe. She didn’t. Maybe she was shocked and awed out right now. She was so tired. It was a miracle she could even remain on her feet.

“Who the hell was your father?”

She turned and looked at him solemnly.

“I mean your father, the man who raised you. Who was he?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t think he was anyone special aside from having very pure Seelie Tuatha Dé blood. He had nearly no magick at all that I know of, capable of only a few weak illusions. He had little power, but was placed very highly in the Rose Tower because of his pedigree, which I now know I don’t share.”

“How did he die?”

She turned back to the window and said nothing for a moment. It was a horrible memory. She’d always been so close to him. Since her mother didn’t really feel like a mother, when her father had died she’d felt orphaned. It was rather ironic, really.

“He was killed in Piefferburg Square one night while coming home from a late dinner with friends. Random act of violence.”

“Maybe not so random.”

She squeezed her eyes shut because the thought had occurred to her, too. Had the book been why her father had been killed? “I don’t know. If someone killed him over the book, they never got it. There were no break-ins, no telltale signs someone was looking for it.”

“If it was the Shadow King everything would be on the lowdown. He doesn’t want trouble with the Summer Queen. If it was the Phaendir—”

She turned at that.

“—they have no interest in calling attention to themselves when dealing with any of the fae races. It’s not in their best interests to stomp into Piefferburg. They’d come in on little cat paws. Secretly. Using threats and promises from the outside.”

She blinked. “The Phaendir? Do you really think it’s possible they killed my father?”

“More than possible.”

“Tell me everything you know about this book.” She took a seat on one of the soft armchairs because—wow—this revelation was full of shock and awe that couldn’t be denied. She needed to sit down.

“The Book of Bindings contains the strongest spells ever created. Some say the very pages of the book are doused in magick. The Phaendir possessed it, but lost it a long time ago in their conflicts with the Tuatha Dé. The spot in the back is where a puzzle box fits, the
bosca fadbh
. Have you heard of it?”

“Of course. The
bosca fadbh
. It’s the only object that might have the power to break the warding around Piefferburg. The only problem is that all three pieces of the
bosca fadbh
are in the human world.”

“Not anymore. Your friend Ronan Quinn was hired to obtain one of the pieces, but he double-crossed the Phaendir and returned to Piefferburg with it, even though he knew he’d be killed by the Summer Queen.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “
That’s
the artifact he stole?”

Gabriel nodded. “He gave it to the Summer Queen to save Bella’s life, knowing the Summer Queen could do nothing with it since the other two pieces are unobtainable. No one knew the Phaendir’s book was in Piefferburg. Everyone thought it was in the human world somewhere, lost like the pieces to the
bosca fadbh
. The book and the puzzle box are very old, Aislinn; they predate the trouble between the fae and the Phaendir. Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, we collaborated. That collaboration is the Phaendir’s weakness if we get our hands on the book and the box.” He stopped and smiled slowly. “And if it’s true that the Shadow King has the book and if it’s true that the Summer Queen has a piece of the box then we’re halfway to defeating them.”