CHAPTER NINE
“How dare you run off that way?” Sorin’s hot breath wafted across my forehead as he hovered over me, seething, jaw twitching and vein bulging.
“Excuse me?” I perched on the settee, pretending not to notice that everyone, including Magda, had gathered in my bedchamber, awaiting my return.
I needed a fucking receiving room.
Jadzeera and Raksha stood at one end of the chamber, the men of my horde at the other with me in the middle. We’d shimmered into this mess together but now they were content to let me deal with it myself.
Sorin stammered, frustration at my nonchalance tying his tongue. “Damn it, woman!”
“What Sorin means is that we were all worried,” Verrill offered with a bowed head. At least one of them knew their place.
“You scared us this morning, and again when Sorin came back with news you’d disappeared. We only want to keep you safe, Zurie.” Callum, my protector from the start.
“Even now you sit before us but we can’t detect your presence, we can’t feel your awareness within our own.” Verrill met my gaze, his star-flecked eyes pleading with me.
While Raksha had made her preparations, I’d decided not to tell any additional realm leaders about my energy predicament. Though I doubted Sorin had kept the information to himself, not when he came back without me, I still clung to that last shred of hope, that last piece of my dignity.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Magda said with a quiet voice. “The cook just alerted me to a large shipment of Shifter Realm provisions taking up valuable space in our kitchen.”
I nodded. “They’re for me. They suit my needs better.”
Magda nodded stiffly and clamped her lips down on her objection.
“Zurie, please. Let us in.” Callum’s sweet baritone worked its charm, as it was wont to do.
I sighed and relayed the bones of the morning. “After our training, the Arcane Realm hold commandeered my shimmer and took me to the well. To the actual hold. It shoved a bunch of shit in my head and ever since, I’ve felt just how much magic is being shoved into my human body. It’s torture. So, Sorin and Jadzeera and I went to the Shifter Realm to find a fix. Turns out, there isn’t one, but Raksha here, Sorin’s sister, can keep the sensations at bay with a ward. That’s why she’s here, that’s why I ran away from you, Verrill, because I needed space, and from you, Sorin because I was terrified your hold would do the same.”
There. That was enough truth for now. Hopefully, it was enough to keep them from asking more questions.
I didn’t know how to explain away not training anymore but I’d decided I couldn’t risk using so much magic on the shimmer back. I hoped that Raksha’s ward in combination with decreasing my use of magic would allow my body to heal before we met the Blood King. A stretch? Maybe. But magic had destroyed it in just a few days, I didn’t see why it couldn’t fix it, too.
Callum stepped forward, his cobalt gaze capturing mine. “I think I speak for all of us when I say how terribly sorry I am for your pain. I’m glad you’ve found a solution.”
“So another shifter demon is staying, I presume?” Magda’s voice was tight, thin, like a stretched rubber band.
I met the handmaiden’s black eyes. “I know what I’m asking of you, Madga. Please understand, I wouldn’t do so if I didn’t need her.”
The hardness in the demon’s eyes softened, only a fraction and only for a moment before she shimmered out of the chamber.
I glanced at Raksha, still standing on the far side of the room as far from Jadzeera as the room allowed. To her credit, she showed no outward signs of embarrassment or hostility.
“Why don’t you choose a bedchamber, Raksha? Your ward should hold so long as you stay within the palace, yes?”
Raksha nodded once and she too, shimmered out.
My bones ached for sleep, my eyes stung, begging to close. And every set of eyes in the room focused on me, wanting, needing something—answers, reassurance, affection, something.
Jadzeera met my gaze, read my expression. “Perhaps we should leave her to rest. It’s been a taxing day, for all of us.” The Arcana Queen corralled my horde from the bedchamber and shut the door behind her.
I wanted to whisper a sweet thank you in her mind, but I dared not breech the ward. I wanted more to stay insulated and safe. Instead, I peeled off my leathers and crawled in bed.
I slept the rest of the day, the whole night, and into the next afternoon. I’d like to say it was recuperative, that I felt better for it, but that wasn’t the case. I woke even more drained and sore than ever. It didn’t help that the damn Blood hold exploding played on loop in my dreams over and over.
Chicken had curled herself into a ball at the small of my back, like a vibrating rock poking a single claw into my spine every time I tried to move.
Even now, as I pulled the duvet back, she tried to poke me into behaving.
“Good morning, or should I say afternoon,” Raksha’s silky voice called from the settee. “Despite being pure Arcana, that handmaiden of yours is quite loyal to you. She’s kept your glamour intact the whole night and day. She didn’t even hiss at me when she brought your tray of provisions.”
I hid my eyes, pretending to rub the sleep from them, hoping it kept her from seeing the tears rimming them. Another thank you I couldn’t whisper.
“How long have you been here?” My voice cracked on the vowel.
“Oh, a while. Ever since the leaders started smashing each other to pieces.”
“What? What happened?” I shot out of bed, not at all concerned with my nudity, and put on my leathers.
Raksha nodded toward me. “The ward, it seems, has the unforeseen side effect of dampening whatever magic of yours serves as the glue for your horde. It started after you fell asleep. I came here more as a refugee than to watch you snore.” The demon winked at me as she took a bite of a dried plum.
“Well, I’m glad you find it so amusing.” I splashed my face with water, brushed my teeth and rushed back out to the bedchamber where Raksha enjoyed yet another dried plum. I held out my hand. “Would you mind taking me to them, please?” I asked when she didn’t take it.
“After I’ve finished my snack,” she said and picked up another shriveled-up plum.
“You know, where I come from prunes are for old people who can’t poop.”
Raksha let loose a belly laugh that made Chicken throw her an evil glare. “Girl, I’m older than Mohammed.”
“Just take me to them.”
She shook her head. “First you need to put a meal in that belly.”
I choked back a snarl because despite my impatience, she was right. I scarfed down as much as I could as fast as possible. “Happy?” I asked with a mouthful of jerky.
Raksha conjured a small, pink drawstring purse from the air and thrust it toward me. “Here. Fill it up and keep it on you.”
I did as I instructed and we shimmered to my in-fighting horde.
A chair flew at my head, I ducked just in time to avoid getting knocked on my ass. “What the fuck is going on?” I boomed into the great room. Sorin had Jadzeera in a headlock. Jadz, in turn, had her jaws clamped around Sorin’s thigh, while her cousin, Verrill, tried to pull her free. Callum was on Sorin’s back like he was at the goddamn rodeo, trying to pull the large demon’s head clear off his neck.
And no one even noticed I’d entered. They didn’t respond to my presence or my voice. I stepped forward, angling to get in someone’s line of sight.
“I wouldn’t do that. They’re likely to turn it on you.” Raksha warned with a smile.
“They wouldn’t.” I marched right in front of the Shifter King. “Sorin, put Jadzeera down this instant!”
Sorin grunted as Callum redoubled his efforts at removing his head. “Keep quiet you mewling, pink baby or you’re next.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me, human.” Sorin spat the word like it tasted bad to even say. “Who do you think you are to come in here commanding us about and barking orders? We’re demons, little girl. The stuff of nightmares and Bible stories meant to keep children in their place.”
It wasn’t his words so much as the look in his beautiful golden gaze. There was no love, no respect, no deference for me. Only murderous hatred.
I fell back, standing close to Raksha. “What the fuck is going on?”
“We’ve cut them off from you, from your magic. They’ve lost all sense of the greater purpose binding them together, to you. Their only concern at the moment is settling ancient blood feuds. Well, my brother at least. The others seem to be trying to keep him from killing your Arcana Queen.”
“Thin it. Thin the ward. Let a small bit of magic through—enough to set them straight.”
Raksha shook her head. “There is no thinning this magic. It either is or it isn’t.”
Why? Why couldn’t I catch a goddamn break?
I glanced at the portrait of Lillith at the far end of the room, velvet curtains drawn, her eyes, which were usually focused on the distance, now centered on the brawl.
That is, until they met mine.
She gave me a knowing smile, bowed her head, and resumed her former pose.
“You bitch,” I said under my breath.
“I suggest acting soon or your Green King will have to answer to me. I don’t take kindly to people beheading my kin.”
“Fine. Release the ward but do it slowly.”
Pain shadowed Raksha’s features. “I’m sorry, Zurie. There is no gentle way.”
I took a breath, gritted my teeth, and gave her a nod.
“Brace yourself, brave girl.” Raksha waved her hand.
I would have screamed, but the magic pressed the air out of my lungs, it set my skin ablaze and my bones turned to lead. I fell to my knees as it funneled into the space between sub-atomic particles, filling me fuller than this body could handle. My vision darkened and the weaker parts of me hoped for death, hoped that darkness meant the end of this torture.
But it wasn’t. It was just a shimmer.
I opened my eyes, squinting at the blinding blue light enveloping everything, but relieved the pain had vanished.
When my vision adjusted, the world I’d shimmered to finally made sense.
I was back in the fucking real world.
My world.