Stone Cold Seduction

Chapter Fifteen

How I managed to get MacLean and Jax back to our room without an all-out brawl, I’ll never know. Teryl seemed to have sensed my distress, because he met us in the hall outside our rooms.

“Hey, what…” He trailed off when he got a look at the other two. “Shit, okay.” He opened the door to his room and gestured. “In. Now.”

I led the way and stood in the corner, as far from the intensity as I could get. Teryl and MacLean sat on what I assumed were their respective beds, while Jax stood next to the door and glared. Maybe keeping this indoors was a bad idea.

“She is taken,” Jax pronounced.

“Yeah, you’ve said that,” MacLean snapped back. “You seem to forget she was taken long before she ever knew you.” He stood suddenly and took his shirt off in short, jerky movements.

Oh…now I remembered why I fell for him at sixteen. He was tall and lean and muscular and golden and…no… not golden. On fire.

Crap.

And…those wings attached to his large shoulders. Feathers in brilliant shades of orange, red and gold, also on fire. Paint them white, and I’d say he looked like an angel. A royally pissed off angel. Covered in flames.

Rooted to the floor, I could only stare.

Jax took a step forward and removed his shirt in one quick jerk, as his skin shifted wildly from stone to flesh.

Teryl hopped up and stepped between them. Brave, dumb man. “Guys, can we settle down for a minute?”

Two sets of equally furious eyes turned on him. I felt, more than saw, Teryl flinch. I appreciated his effort. I really did. But it wasn’t getting us anywhere.

“Please, stop,” I said.

They ignored me, so I waved my hands in big circles. “Hey! This isn’t a pissing contest.”

Okay, maybe it was, to a certain extent, but I hoped to avoid a fight.

“Let’s talk about plan B. And please put your shirts back on.” Their bare chests were distracting. Gorgeous, muscular, and oh, so distracting.

Teryl jumped on the opening I’d provided. “Good idea. Plan B. We gotta get Elle into the Library of Shadows.”

I watched Jax flex those damn, sexy wings. He uttered a guttural, “No.”

“Where else can she get her fate?” Teryl challenged.

I held my breath. Jax looked scary, with his wings tucked behind him and his fists clenched. I felt obligated to step in once again.

“Can I steal it from Jedren instead?” I could handle that. Stealing from that man didn’t cause me to lose sleep at night. Ever. Especially now that he’d added another victim to his roster.

Bastard.

“No,” MacLean said. “If he killed Carys to prevent you from getting it, it’s unlikely he’ll still have a copy. He probably destroyed his copy and the one he took from Carys. No trail, no evidence. Jedren is anything but stupid.” MacLean sounded frustrated, and I couldn’t blame him. My father knew how to stay one step ahead of everyone.

“So someone besides MacLean explain to me why I can’t walk into the Library of Shadows and ask for a copy of my fate.”

Alarm flashed across Teryl’s face. Jax frowned at me.

MacLean just shook his head, the flames subsiding. “I told you the truth.”

“A girl can hold out hope for a different answer. Any sane person would understand my position.”

“The oracles guard it,” Teryl said.

“And?”

“And, nothing. You can’t just waltz in and ask for your fate.”

“Why not? Has anyone ever tried?”

When they all shook their heads, I rolled my eyes. “Then how do you know it won’t work? Maybe it’s never happened because no one has bothered to try.”

“You can’t. They will kill you.” This from Jax, who, I was relieved to note, had shifted back to normal. Minus the shirt, still. My fingers itched to smooth over his chest, and…

Irritated at my reaction, I snapped at him. “Jax, put a shirt on. Besides, the hunters will try to kill me if I don’t go to the library.”

I waited for any of them to refute my statement. No such luck.

“Okay, so what do I have to lose?”

“The oracles will alert the hunters. You’ll lose if you walk in and announce yourself,” MacLean said, his words muffled for a moment as he pulled his shirt on over his head. Relief and regret warred inside me for a moment.

I deliberately studied my fingernails as I considered MacLean’s last words. I hadn’t thought about the oracles alerting the hunters. Well, damn. “If I broke in, as opposed to just knocking and asking nicely, wouldn’t the oracles have a premonition or something? Wouldn’t the hunters know I was coming, anyway? They might even know I’m here now, and…”

“They’re oracles, not invincible. The Council uses the hunters to track their ‘problems,’ and the oracles stick to reading fates. And number crunching.” Teryl smiled at the self-mockery.

I didn’t think it was funny. “So when you guys say it’s guarded, what does that mean, exactly? And the more specific you are, the better.”

“I believe we mentioned there are keepers for the souls?” MacLean asked me.

I nodded. I vaguely remembered one of them saying it back in Seattle. Days ago. Might as well have been a lifetime ago. “Just as the souls have keepers, the fates have guardians. They perform similar functions. They protect. And use whatever means necessary to do so. The Library of Shadows is also heavily warded.”

“Warded?”

“Yeah,” Teryl said. “It’s like a magical lock, gate, or trap. The fae set it up. Depending on the ward, it can lock you out, render you powerless, or even hurt you.”

Which told me next to nothing about how it related to me. “For example? I’m tired of these crappy, half-assed answers.”

“Right. Think about the souls for a second. They’re typically heavily warded. The fae would have put these wards in place as a trap and a lock to keep them safe. Jedren would have had to get through the wards to steal them in the first place. I don’t know how he managed it, but he did.

“There are wards that will kill you. Death wards, as they’re called. Centuries ago, the oracles used to draw the wards, but the ability died out. So now the fae create them. It’s a complex series of symbols that require magical ability to set them in place. Some wards might render you unconscious, or make you forget you were there. Other wards are set up to sound proof a room, or can lock or unlock a space. Does that make more sense?”

Unfortunately, it did. “Wards are used as a type of magical security system, basically.”

“Pretty much.”

This was getting better and better. It would be a miracle if I made it to my birthday. “How do you know if there’s a ward or not?”

Teryl had pulled out a piece of paper and pen. He tapped the pen on his thigh as he thought about it. “You don’t. You won’t know until you hit one. Or it hits you.”

I put my head in my hands. “You actually think I’m going to make it through if I break in to this library?” I mumbled through my fingers to no one in particular.

“That’s why I said it’s a bad idea,” MacLean answered.

“What about shadowing? Couldn’t I shadow in and out? I could get through the wards that way.” I lifted my head. Maybe one of my abilities would actually come in handy.

“No,” Jax’s deep voice echoed in the room. “The wards would still sense you. Shadow or not, you leave a magic trail. And we don’t know your time limit, so you might shadow in, but not out. We can’t risk it. We need to find another plan.”

And another one bites the dust. I was out of ideas.

“Maybe not.” Teryl set the paper and pen on the small night stand and rummaged through his suitcase. He pulled out a book and tried to hand it to me. “Take this.”

“Why?” I stared at it. I didn’t want to touch the book.

“I want to check something. It won’t bite. It’s a book.” He shoved it into my hands.

Three inches thick and bound in brown leather, it was a heavy one. Gilded letters in a different language scrolled down the binding. I was about to tell him to take it back, when I felt it. A slight tingle in my hands, where they touched the book. In seconds, my entire arms and torso were vibrating. Words whispered through my mind, in a melodic chant. My mouth opened and the chant rolled off my tongue of its own volition.

The book popped open with an audible snap. I jerked back in the chair. “What the…?”

Teryl whooped and pumped a fist in the air. “I knew it. That’s amazing. Elle, you’re a ward thief.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. I’m pretty sure that meant “Elle just got more freaky, creepy, and messed up.”

He grabbed his pen and scribbled on the paper. I bet he was taking notes on me.

Jax and MacLean looked like they weren’t sure what Teryl meant, either.

Teryl finished writing, then grabbed the book from me and studied it, his grin growing wider. “This is freaking amazing. You have no idea what this means.”

“No, I don’t. So why don’t you tell me?” I couldn’t keep the bite of sarcasm from my tone.

“Check your wrist.”

I pulled my left sleeve back. Nothing.

“Your other one.”

I slowly slid my right sleeve back. “See? Nothing.”

He smirked. MacLean made a noise between a growl and a groan. Jax was silent.

I barely repressed a groan. On the inside of my wrist was a small tattoo, no bigger than a pencil eraser. It looked like a medallion or insignia. I didn’t want to look too closely.

Of all the things that had happened in my lifetime, that little tattoo scared me the most. It felt like a brand.

“You shamed your father today,” Luke sneered. “You are a disgrace to the shadow elves.”

I stared straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge him. The more I reacted, the more he enjoyed it. Sick, perverted ass. I was almost seventeen. When would this end?

I sat in a chair in the middle of the room. Luke’s torture chamber, as I thought of it. He loomed over me. He liked to do that. I ignored him with all the disdain I could hold onto. Luke seemed to sense it, and he smiled.

I gritted my teeth, but kept my face impassive. Or tried to.

“Princess, shall we play?”

I heard the soft hiss of his dagger as he pulled it from its sheath. I curled my hands into fists, hoping to quell the shaking. This would be the last time, I promised myself. Never, ever again.

Next time, I would turn that dagger on him. Princess. He’d named it that in my honor, or so he’d told me. One day, I dreamed of killing him with it. I would be doing the world a favor.

And he’d never use it on me again.

Luke circled and stood behind me. He leaned in close, to whisper in my ear. “I want you to carry my mark. Forever. To remind you of your place. And our good times.” He leaned back and laughed at his joke.

I shuddered and closed my eyes. Oh God, oh God, oh God.

He cut the back of my shirt, from my neck to mid-back. I bit my lip to hold in the shriek that was forming. Once I started, I doubted I could stop. So far, he hadn’t touched my skin. Maybe, this one time…

“I think you father would appreciate it.”

I tried to think of happy things. My mother. MacLean. Never seeing my father or Luke again. Shopping. Puppies.

Nothing worked. I could hear Luke’s breathing become heavy. Bile rose in my throat. I could feel him close to my back. Foul heat rolled off him in sickening waves. Inside, the icy cold grew until it enveloped me. It would be over soon. That was the lie I told myself. I refused to think about my secret fear. The fear that one day, he wouldn’t stop. And I died without ever having a chance to say goodbye to my mother, and I love you to MacLean.

“Oh, Princess. It’s been too long,” Luke breathed on my neck.

I gagged. Tears leaked, slow and hot, from behind my eye lids.

“Six months since you’ve been to see us. Six long months. Princess and I were lonely.”

I knew the length of time that had passed. I’d counted the days until my visit. With dread and growing horror.

Luke pressed the blade between my shoulders. Not hard enough to draw blood, but I could feel the prick of the tip against my flesh. I flinched. He laughed, and I silently cursed myself. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He loved it when I showed fear.

“You need to learn your place. Your behavior tonight was not befitting your station.”

I shook with fear, but my mind rebelled. I hadn’t done anything wrong! Cian was our dinner guest. He and my father were discussing business. Imports and other boring things. I had asked Cian about MacLean. That’s it. My awful “transgression,” as my father called it.

The instant after I’d asked, I’d known it was the wrong thing to do. My father’s eyes had flicked to me, icy and full of disgust. Cian had smiled and answered with a pat on my hand. I could sense my father’s growing fury. I was to be seen, not heard. And now, I’d pay the price.

“Behind your heart,” Luke murmured, lost in thought, but drawing me back to the present. “I’ll put it behind your heart.”

Inside, I screamed. Before I felt the prick of the blade. Before he began to whisper in a high, excited tone. I screamed inside the dark recesses of my mind. I didn’t hear Luke’s words. I didn’t want to. His heavy breath burned the back of my neck. His blade dug into the skin above my left shoulder blade.

And pretty soon, I screamed out loud. Blood trickled down my back, hot and sticky as he carved.

When Luke stopped to admire his handiwork, I choked back sobs. I didn’t bother to strain against the rope he’d tied me with. I couldn’t escape. We both knew it.

“Ah, Princess. It’s beautiful.” Luke’s voice came out as a low, breathy whisper.

Freak. He was a goddamned freak of nature. Rage, loathing, and fear made my tears flow faster, but I stopped screaming.

“Now you carry my family symbol.” He laughed, like it was a joke.

I couldn’t speak. The words burning in my throat would only cause me more agony. I bit them back and stared at the floor. I would burn the damn thing off first chance I got.

“We’re forever linked. Just you and me.”

My mind cracked, and I tried to speak. “No, I…”

He hit me so hard, the chair rocked to one side and fell over. I crashed down, hitting my head against the stone floor. His laughter chased me into oblivion.

I dropped back into reality with a jarring thud. I blinked and stared at Teryl, who knelt before me.

“Elle? Oh, thank God, you’re back. What in the hell happened?”

“Memory,” I spit out, between my chattering teeth. When did it get so cold in here? I brought a hand to my face and felt tears. I quickly wiped them away. I wanted no reminder of that memory.

MacLean picked up his jacket from the back of a chair and draped it around my shoulders. I clutched it tightly, because I was so damned cold.

“Teryl,” I managed to mumble. “What is a ward thief?”

“It means when you encounter a ward, not only can you get through, you can also absorb them.”

“Like e. coli?” My skin crawled, which was a wholly unpleasant sensation, considering how freaked out I already was.

“Gross. No. You absorb the magic. The ward becomes a part of you, so you can use it later.”

I looked down at the small mark on my wrist, trying to decipher the tiny pattern. “What is it?”

“That one is a simple cloaking spell. If anyone but my family tried to read that book, the words would be missing. Cloaked.” He pointed at the mark. “You can now use that. If you need to hide yourself, use the ward. If you need to hide something, like words in a book, a room, a car, you can use the ward. Think of it like an invisibility cloak for whatever you need.”

“How is that different than shadowing?”

Teryl thought about it for a second. “It is and it isn’t. It’s more difficult for you to shadow in the daytime. So the cloaking ward would come in handy. Also, if we find out you can only shadow for five minutes, the ward would work when your shadowing magic ran out. The nice thing about wards is they have their own magic, so it won’t drain yours. This particular ward is just a bonus to the shadowing. Think of it as a backup.”

I shivered and pulled MacLean’s coat tight around me. His scent wrapped around me, too. It combated the chill, which surprised me.

“What’s the catch? Why wouldn’t I want to use the ward?”

A hint of a smile played at the corners of Teryl’s mouth. “No catch. It’s perfect, because now you can shadow and cloak yourself.”

“But, how does that help me with the Library of Shadows?”

Teryl pursed his lips, as if searching for patience.

MacLean snapped his fingers. “I see where he’s going with it. If you use a ward to cloak, you should be able to get through the wards at the Library of Shadows. The magic of the ward will hide you, whereas shadowing won’t, not completely.”

My brain was too fuzzy. The mark looked fairly unremarkable, considering what it was supposed to do. “How do I know it will work?”

“You can try it. Later. Right now, you need a little more rest.”

I wasn’t going to argue. My stomach had food, now my body craved sleep. That memory had left a nasty taste in my mouth, and I wanted to curl up and sleep.

I stood. “Okay, wake me in four hours.”

Jax followed me into our room. “When you wake, we’ll talk.”

I nodded. The conversation about his past and our future was long overdue.