The Lost Runes (A Demon's Fall Series), page 15
“Mortals can be enchanting, can they not?” Queen Annalee Husk softly whispers right behind me. Appearing out of the shadows, she walks to my side. Seb and Daesyn are too busy drinking and laughing to notice us, and we are too far away for them to hear our conversation.
The queen touches my arm, and I resist the urge to flinch away from her touch. I don’t have to look down at her to see how she looks at me, the desire building in her eyes. If I wanted to, I could have her in my bed in two seconds flat.
But I’d rather chop my own dick off with an axe.
“Some are, yes,” I counter, keeping my expression neutral. No one can suspect how I feel for Daesyn, it would ruin many of the plans my mother and I have put together so I can stay here and not in Olympus.
“I am surprised to see affection in your eyes for this reaper girl,” Annalee comments, watching Dae with me. Daesyn’s laugh is as enchanting as she is, but that is not the main reason I like her. It’s her bravery, it’s how fearless she is in the face of everything. It’s the shadows I see in the corner of her eyes that she never lets win.
It’s how she reminds me of myself, and yet I feel myself losing control when I am around her. The memory of showing her my past comes to mind. That was a stupid fucking move. Since when do I ever show anyone my real past or even think of it myself?
I felt pity for her past, the flashback she showed me of herself, a little girl lost in the mortal world.
Annalee keeps on talking when I don’t reply. “Affection is not something I ever thought I’d see from you. Ever since you were sent here, you’ve been cold and distant from the mortal world. You longed for the gods.”
“Perhaps,” I reply. She isn’t wrong. When I was here as a teenager, all I wanted was to turn eighteen and find out who my parents really were and go home. Only adults can enter Olympus, a cold rule of the gods, and now that I’ve been up there, I never want to go back.
“She has no god blood in her soul, it would be apparent if she did, like my bloodline. Therefore she cannot be a mate to you,” Annalee dryly comments, a vindictive snip to her voice.
I turn and look at her for the first time since she came in here. Annalee might be beautiful by some people’s standards, but to me, she will always be a cruel monster who treats her son like shit under her shoe. “Some people are more beautiful and enchanting than the gods could ever be. Why do you think demi-gods exist?”
Her face tightens, and I turn away as she replies, “It still stands that you will bring that girl nothing but heartbreak, and it seems my son is already quite closer to her than you are.”
She is right, he is.
And it’s for the best. I tighten my hands into fists as I walk away, hearing Daesyn’s laugh following me and begging me to come back. To tell her I’m here, to fight for her.
But for the sake of her and myself, I keep walking.
Falling for a mortal would be a sin against the gods…and they have other plans for me nevertheless.
CHAPTER 22
My breath catches as I stand on top of a cliff, looking over an impressive ocean in front of me. The ocean is calm, and the sun is setting in the distance, bursting bright oranges and dark reds across the sky. The colours are reflected in the sea, and I suck in a deep breath, loving the millions of little waves and the smell of the saltwater in the air. I feel free for a brief second, until I realise I cannot move, and the panic sets in.
I’ve never been the one to be scared, but right at this moment, I’m nothing short of terrified.
Fear cripples me as I hear his voice and feel him standing right behind me.
“Such pretty black hair,
To fall through the air.
Will you die, little faeling?
Or will you survive, to be my forever living bride?”
I grit my teeth as I start walking to the edge of the cliff, my feet once again moving of their own accord.
“When I find you in the real world, whoever you are, I’m going to have fun stabbing you a million times!” I manage to scream, even though the words feel like an empty promise. How can I find the person doing this if I can’t see him to know who he is?
My feet eventually find the end of the cliff, and small pebbles fall over the edge, yet I’m powerless to do anything but watch as they fall into the sea below.
“This, my dear, is naught but a warning.
Figure out the cursed rune, or you will be wanting.”
I scream as I step off the cliff, the rushing air whistling past my ears blocks out all the sound, and I gasp, sucking in the salty air like this dream is real. My leg slams hard into the sea first, and I cry out from pain only to suck in a deep gulp of freezing cold water.
Then the world turns to darkness, and I thank it.
I wake with a cry, reaching straight for my leg and pulling back the sheets. My leg hurts like a bitch, and as I push my pyjamas down, I see the long red mark all down my leg, and my knee is really swollen.
“How did that happen?” Mossy asks me, his voice all groggy. I pull my pyjamas up and slide to the edge of the bed.
“Training this morning. It’s nothing, Mossy,” I gently tell him. He doesn’t believe me, I can see it in his eyes, and I’m so freaked out by these dreams that I know I’m being a shitty liar.
“Tell me the truth, and I will go and get Sword to make you a big cup of coffee,” Mossy demands, watching me with those big intelligent eyes.
“I’m having bad dreams, and in the dreams, there is a guy, and he hurts me. I think he gets off on seeing me in pain,” I start off. “But when I wake up, the things he did to me are real. Like this on my leg, it was when he forced me to walk off a cliff and fall into the sea.”
“Forced you?” Mossy asks. “The fucker needs his balls chopped off.”
I smile and pick Mossy up. He wraps his little arms around my neck. “Someone is fucking with me in my dreams, and he will mess up. I can’t see who he is, but I will find him. I know how he sounds, and that’s a start.”
“And I will chop off his balls,” Mossy firmly states, and I try not to chuckle at that image. “You get dressed, and I will get coffee.”
“Doesn’t Sword sleep at all?” I question as Mossy jumps off my shoulder and onto the door handle. The door swings open, and he holds it with his back to stop it shutting.
“No. The anal weirdo is always awake,” Mossy tells me before leaving the room. I take my time getting into my clothes and seeing that it’s five in the morning, way too early for a weekend. Knowing Poppy will be sleeping in until at least nine, I quietly make my way out of the room. Mossy yawns as I sit down in front of the steaming cup of coffee, Sword nowhere in sight.
“Thanks, Sword,” I say quietly, hoping he can hear me. Mossy yawns one more time, and I sigh.
“Go and sleep. I’m going to head outside and have a walk around. I need some fresh air,” I tell him. Mossy looks unsure for a moment before giving in.
“I didn’t have time to nap yesterday as I was busy with getting revenge,” he claims, standing proudly.
“Revenge?” I nervously question.
“Let’s just say Seth should not drink anything in his room. There may or may not be poo in the drinks,” he suggests, and my eyes widen.
“One day, you’re going to get caught,” I point out.
“But that’s not today,” he replies.
“Smartass,” I reply as he jumps off the counter and makes his way to our room, snickering along the way. After finishing my ah-mazing cup of coffee, I use the lift and go outside. Snow has littered the ground overnight, making the forest look like a winter wonderland. It’s pretty but damn cold as I start walking, having no clue where I’m actually heading. After five minutes, I pause, hearing someone nearby. I spin around as Finn comes into view in the distance, walking straight towards me. Wearing a dark navy, fitted suit, he looks way too sexy and perfect for my liking. I pick up a ball of snow, and when he is close, I throw it. It hits him square in the chest, melting against his white shirt, and Finn stops, a look of pure shock on his pretty face.
“Are you a child?”
I laugh, leaning down and rolling up another ball. As I stand to throw it, a snowball hits me in my shoulder, and I glance at Finn in surprise. He shrugs but with the biggest smile on his face, and then there is chaos. I lose track of how many snowballs we throw at each other before giving up and sitting down on a fallen log.
“This suit is drenched and cost a fortune,” Finn tells me, not to brag or because he cares about the suit, just putting it out there.
“If it helps, it looks better wet,” I murmur, my eyes tracing his defined chest through the wet and nearly see-through shirt. I clear my throat and look away.
“Your leg is injured, I saw you limping before I came over,” he says into the silence. “When were you hurt?”
“I fell down the stairs,” I lie.
“There are no stairs in your apartment tree,” he replies, his eyes searching my face. “But if someone has hurt you, you only need to tell me their name. They will be dealt with.”
“This whole test is here to hurt me, and I do not need anyone’s protection,” I reply. “Though, thank you for the offer. Aren’t I lucky to have a demi-god want to protect me?”
“I will protect everyone in my class,” he counters, but I don’t believe him. He doesn’t even look like he believed himself.
“Are we friends enough that I can ask a personal question?”
“Yes,” he answers, and I’m a little surprised. I expected him to say hell no and walk away. Maybe not hell no, but that’s how I pictured him saying it in my head.
“Who were your parents then? Who was the woman I saw in that memory?”
He leans back, crossing his arms and watching the treetops as he tells me. “The woman you saw in the memory was my aunt, and she brought me up from the ages of two to fourteen. My aunt didn’t want me, or any kids for that matter, but my father left her me in his will, and only if she looked after me did she get the mansion and money that he also left. So she dragged me up, making sure I knew daily how much she didn’t want me there. When I was fourteen, I noticed I was different from other humans, and the first time I used my powers, I accidentally killed my aunt in a fit of anger. She blew up into gold dust.”
“Shit,” I whisper, hearing the pain in his voice and in the story of his past. “That must have been so difficult for you.”
He humourlessly laughs. “After all that time, you would have thought I hated her, but she was the only mother I knew, and I thought I was a monster for what I did. That night, my real mother came to me, and I met her. Finding out your mother is the goddess Artemis shocked me silent.”
“I bet,” I whisper. Tentatively I place my hand on his, and he stares down at it.
“My mother brought me here after a year with her in Olympus. She was allowed that time with me in exchange for something she never told me. My mother then made a deal with the queen. I could not leave for a few years to be with the gods,” he explains. “So this place became my home.”
“I can see why you would like being the son of the goddess of wisdom and moonlight,” I reply.
“So you know your Greek gods?” he questions.
“My uncle was obsessed with them. I remember his stories and paintings in his study,” I reply with a small smile. “My mother loved music and songs, and my uncle was a Greek god history nut. Together they mostly brought me up, well, until I was eight.”
“Then what happened?” he questions.
I meet his gaze. “Earth happened. You saw me as an eight-year-old and how lost I was. No one would help me, and eventually I found help in the form of a powerful demon. He taught me to fight, to steal, to kill. He turned me from a poor, helpless little girl into an assassin.”
“I’m sorry you were alone, Daesyn. That is not a fate I would wish on anyone as a child. I know it too well,” he gently tells me.
“For the record, Catherine is a shithead, and you couldn’t have worse taste in women,” I blurt out, needing to end the tense moment.
Finn laughs, a deep laugh that makes me shiver. Gods, I could hear him laugh all day. “Catherine and I are not an item. When you saw her in my rooms, I had just come back and found her naked on my bed. I asked her to leave and kindly suggested she was not my type. She then asked for private lessons, and I promised to find time, publicly, to help her train.”
I smile and look down. “I’m glad she isn’t your type.”
“No, I seem to have a thing for sassy and dangerous assassins,” he softly mutters under his breath. My head shoots up, and I lock my eyes with his. I’m speechless, and I don’t know what to say as he stands up, his expression going cold and all of his body looking tense. I don’t think he meant to say that out loud. “I must leave. See you in class, Daesyn.”
He walks away, and I stand up, my leg hurting a little, but my healing is kicking in. “I was jealous of Catherine, by the way. I’ve never been jealous of anyone because they had someone I want before. You’re a shock to me too, Finn.”
He pauses, just briefly, his hands in tight fists at his side. “Déesse.”
Again he walks away, and I haven’t a clue what word he just used. This time, no woman whispers it in my ear because there, in the snow on the ground, a word writes itself.
Goddess.
CHAPTER 23
“Poppy, I believe in you,” I tell her. She finishes pulling her hair up into a high ponytail and surprises me when she quickly wraps her arms around me in a tight hug.
“I’m going to kick her ass,” Poppy claims.
“You’ve got a fighter’s spirit, Pops,” I tell her as she lets go. Catherine is walking into the middle of the clearing, and Poppy walks over. I watch her as Ryker comes to my side.
“Wanna make a bet on who will win?” Ryker asks, his shoulder brushing mine. Over the last few months, Poppy, Ryker, Seb and I have been always around each other, and slowly it’s become natural to have them around. Seb never speaks to me in public, the asshat that he is, but behind closed doors, he is funny and charming. Not to mention good looking. Ryker is always at my side, eating lunch with us, training, and overall being the sexy flirt he always is. I don’t think he means it seriously though. Seb moves to Ryker’s side.
“Are we making a bet then?”
“I’m not betting on my sister,” I add in. It still feels weird to call Poppy my sister.
“Two bottles of royal fae wine says she loses,” Seb says as I watch Poppy. Catherine is saying something to her, likely trying to rile her up so she isn’t thinking straight.
“I bet she wins. If I win, I want the wine, and if I lose, I’ll cook for you for a week,” Ryker replies.
“Done deal,” Seb answers.
“Are you a good cook?” I ask Ryker just as Finn blows the whistle.
“The best. Let me come over and show you,” he quietly whispers to me, his voice full of sexual promises. It’s not just his cooking he wants to show me, that’s for sure. I shake my head, not giving him an answer to that as I watch my friend. Poppy moves quicker than she ever has before, dodging Catherine’s moves like she was born to do so. Taking my advice, all she does is avoid and dodge, slowly wearing Catherine out. I grin when I see Catherine is getting out of breath and a layer of sweat covers her skin. Her movements become a little slower, and Poppy goes in for the kill. Dodging Catherine’s punch, she swoops under her arm and punches Catherine hard in the stomach. Swinging around, she throws herself onto Catherine, knocking her face forward onto the ground, and a crackling smack of her face hitting the ground fills the air. I hold my breath as Poppy stands up, and Catherine rolls over and sits up, blood pouring down from her nose. Finn blows the whistle, and Poppy jumps in the air before running back to me.
“Fuck,” Seb mutters out while Ryker looks happy as fuck. Poppy jumps at me, hugging me so tightly as she jumps with joy.
“I can’t believe it!” she squeals.
“Well done, Poppy,” Ryker says next to us.
“I’m so proud!” I say, feeling so happy for her as she lets me go.
“Sebastian, Daesyn, you’re up next!” Finn calls out.
“Don’t break him, will you, babe?” Ryker jokes, and Seb punches him hard on his arm as he walks past. I chuckle and walk behind Seb to the middle of the clearing.
“I’m not going easy on you this time, vixen,” he states.
“I don’t expect it, Sebby,” I reply, and his eyes burn with the joy of the competition. Finn walks closer to us, his arms crossed tightly.
“As everyone here is now quite well trained in combat, I want us to move onto the next part of our training. Shadow magic,” he shouts so everyone can hear. “There are no limits to what you can do, and the first one to be knocked out, loses.”
“About time,” Seb mutters with a grin.
I wink at him. “This will be fun.”
Finn shakes his head at us, walking back to the edge of the clearing and blowing the whistle. I immediately call all the shadows to me, creating a bubble-like barrier around my body, just in time for Seb to throw a bunch of shadow magic my way. I stumble a little from the sheer force, but my magic holds, though my control on it slips a little bit.
Do not lose control right this moment, Dae. Not in front of them all.
I stretch my hands out to my sides and slam them forward, making a shockwave of shadow magic blast out of me. Seb isn’t quick enough to block it, and it sends him flying backwards, crashing into a tree. I don’t give him a second as I stretch my hands out, wrapping shadows around two trees nearby. I lift my hands, the shadows ripping the trees from the roots, and I throw them at him. Seb tries to escape, but the trees crash down on him, boxing him in, and I grin when nothing happens for a second.
Then the ground starts to shake. I struggle to stand as the trees blast away from Seb in a swirl of purple and black magic. Surrounding Seb is a shield of shadow and Seelie magic, and Seb is lost in the power. Purple and black veins of magic cover his arms and face, and his eyes glow a bright purple colour just like mine do when I use fae magic.
