Revealed in Fire by K.F. Breene

Seventeen

“This is making me uncomfortable.I want to leave, except there’s a castle full of elves out there who want to capture you and kill Emery, so now my stomach is in knots and there is nothing I can do about it.” Penny wrung her hands beside Reagan, pressed against the wall and trying not to crush the flowers.

“What is the difference between doing this and rummaging around in people’s yards for pet rocks?” Reagan asked as she stood in someone’s window, watching the occupants eat a late breakfast.

“I was inconspicuous. You are not.”

“You were not. You mutter to yourself constantly. If they didn’t see you, they certainly heard you.”

“What are you girls up to?” Steve asked from the edge of the garden. He had clothes on, thank goodness.

“Just trying to make people uncomfortable,” Reagan said, finally peeling away and allowing Penny a sigh of relief. “It’s working, I think, but damn, they’re really good at ignoring things. Which you know, obviously. Why you guys are bent out of shape about it, I don’t know. Look what fun I’m having.”

Steve laughed. “I don’t think normal people get a kick out of being ignored.”

“It’s not being ignored so much as the effort behind it. Like…” She tromped through the flowers. A glance back saw no reaction from the people whose garden she was ruining. “They are conveying the message that we don’t belong in the most passive-aggressive way possible. Doesn’t that tickle your funny bone? Why didn’t you guys just randomly trip people or something when you were here last time? Or barge into their houses and just take a bed if you didn’t like your setup?”

“We were trying to play nice for Charity’s sake. Still are, actually, though Romulus is trying to pave the way for Roger to gain more status. They are defrosting to us a little. Given your…lineage, I would expect they’d do the same for you.”

“Meh.” Batting a hand through the air, she stepped away from the crushed flowers and started down the little pathway further into town. Steve walked with her, and Penny followed, resisting the urge to apologize. “I couldn’t be bothered. I’ve never fit in before. Why should I try now? It’s much more fun trying to pick fights. They will crack first, believe me. Someone will punch me by the end of the day.”

“It’ll be me,” Penny said, lagging behind just a little, hunching for all she was worth. She was so annoyed that Emery was the political one between them. While he got to be invisible and attend the hearing of the First—the warrior fae called it something different, but she couldn’t remember the term—she was stuck following Reagan around, a party to crazy antics that were so against the social norms of this place. “I’ll be the one punching her in the face.”

Reagan nodded with her lips turned down in a duck bill. “Quite possibly.”

“You gave ol’ Cole a good wallop yesterday,” Steve said, falling back just a little so he could talk to Penny.

She shrugged. She’d tried to explain that she hadn’t actually meant the ball-to-his-head situation as an insult, merely as a way to show Reagan up. She’d figured he might understand that. But he’d persisted until it got dangerous, and then she’d had to react. Everyone knew she went overboard when she was reacting. She didn’t know what he was expecting.

“And then you rang the Second’s bell. I don’t think he expected that. He had you on the run.” Steve smiled with a twinkle in his deep blue eyes.

She shrugged again.

“Never get Penny on the run,” Reagan said as she waved at someone coming from the opposite direction. “Your fly is down.” The man didn’t glance over. “Hey, bro, your dick is hanging out.” He looked straight ahead, realizing, of course, that his robe thing lacked a fly (if he even knew what that was) and his dangly bits wouldn’t hang out if he tried. Which Steve probably had at some point. “Here, I’ll get it.”

Reagan darted toward the fae, bent, and reached between his legs.

That did it.

He jumped back, looked her way with wide eyes, and covered his junk all in one harried movement.

“Ha!” She pointed at him, her finger inches from his face. He blinked under her crazy stare. “Got you. Try harder, bub. Your countrymen are better at this than you.”

He let out a wavering breath and stepped away gingerly, working around her.

“Low,” Steve said with a smile. “Going for a guy’s junk is low.”

“I kicked Roger in the nuts. You think I really care about the rules of polite warfare?”

“This is true.” They kept sauntering along the path as though it were a pleasant stroll and Reagan wasn’t trying to cause havoc and turn the place upside down. The terrifying part was that she hadn’t really gotten going yet. She was supposed to take it easy for a while, then turn up the pressure, then pop into the proceedings and learn what she could from people’s thoughts.

Penny missed the days when they could just go home after Reagan caused a scene. She’d never complain about those instances again.

“Ah, there’s Callie and Dizzy.” Reagan pointed up ahead.

The dual-mages stood in the center of one of four gardens that made up the corners of a small square. In the middle was large shrubbery fashioned after a fountain. It was cool but weird, and it fit this place perfectly.

“Roger was fuming after that fight,” Steve said as Reagan veered toward them, cutting across the path of two people who stopped and looked straight ahead.

She touched one of their noses. “Boop.”

The woman’s eyebrows sank low, and fire lit in her eyes.

Reagan smiled at her. “Oh. Where are you headed? You’ll break, I can see it.”

“Reagan, stop pestering the townsfolk and come here.” Callie pointed down at a grouping of flowers. “Look how lovely this is. Do you think these exist in the Brink?”

“He would’ve come for blood,” Reagan said, responding to Steve as she walked toward the older dual-mages. “Romulus got in the way, though.”

“It worked out to everyone’s benefit,” Steve replied. “The fae got to see what they’d be protecting—or fighting beside, at least. Romulus got to show his might with the hellfire, Charity got to show off her prestige in battle, and, after you left, Roger got to pour his anger and pain into crushing the fae. We did a mock battle, and we stomped all over them. Too bad you weren’t there. Speaking of…”

Steve paused long enough for Callie to show Reagan the flowers.

“I must ask Romulus if we can plant these in my garden,” she said, moving on to look at another grouping.

“Where was your vampire when all that was going on?” Steve gave Reagan a sly smile. “And”—he looked around dramatically—“he seems to be missing again. Along with a very powerful mage. Hmm.” He tapped his chin.

“Messing around in a vampire’s affairs is not a wise pastime, young man,” Callie said, turning to the back corner. The word “moneymaker” was scrawled across the butt of her bright pink velvet sweatpants in silver cursive.

“Yes, ma’am,” Steve replied, pretending to be chastised.

“Reagan, what are your plans for causing mischief?” Dizzy asked, sidling closer. His left boot crunched down on a tuft of violet flowers with spears of yellow inside them. He didn’t seem to notice. “How about if I set my T-Rex running through the center of the village?” He patted the satchel hanging at his hip. “That would be good, right? It shocks whenever it bites down on someone.”

“Yeah, definitely set that one loose.” Reagan squinted and looked upward. “Maybe even a few things. They don’t really have specific guards in this place, but more people have been lingering around now that we’re here. We’ll need to pull them away so I don’t have to actually get violent.”

“Okay.” Callie walked back over, apparently having had her fill of the flowers. “Let’s get to it. We have a couple of hours, right?”

Penny sagged. It would be a long couple of hours.

* * *

I followed closelybehind a woman with a bedazzled robe, my feet catching her heels again and again. Penny skulked behind me. It was nearly time for the hearing to start, and this woman was heading over to watch. The dual-mages were in the village center, readying their magic. I’d opened my mind to others’ thoughts, and given these people didn’t know to guard their gourds, I was bombarded with unsolicited feedback on my actions, mannerisms, and appearance. These people definitely knew I was in their vicinity, and they were curious, but they seemed compelled to ignore me at all costs. Except it didn’t seem totally natural, like they were under some kind of compulsion. It severely reduced my joy in how far out of their way they were going to pretend I wasn’t annoying the crap out of them.

I leaned forward so my mouth was closer to her ear. “Did you hear the one about the walrus?” I yelled.

What does she want with me? the woman thought, her robe swishing around her feet.

“Are you trying to look like a wizard?” I asked, and then sent some air buffers to hassle two people walking on either side of the road, giving me plenty of room in the middle. I pushed them into the hedge.

She is so powerful. She will bring great status to whoever is in her inner circle, the one on the right, a woman with a slight frame and short brown hair, thought. The man on the left had his mind in the gutter.

“Turn around,” I sang to the woman I was following. “Every now and then I get a little bit sad that you won’t just turn around. Turn around…”

“Those aren’t the words,” Penny said.

Not a great singing voice.

“Killjoys.” I stepped out from behind her, right into the path of a tall man with a slight frame and lean muscle tone. He stopped suddenly, and I heard a mental sigh of relief from the woman I’d been following.

Maybe if I just looked now… But the woman’s thoughts trailed away, and her bearing tensed as if she were fighting the urge.

The man’s gaze skittered off me and to the side. He stepped to the right to get by me. I did the same to keep even with him.

So powerful, so fierce, so beautiful. What would it be like to… The man’s thoughts trailed off. He took another step to the right to get around me. Desperate for my attention. Taboo… One night…

I had a feeling he was imagining things. I was a forbidden attraction, like the shifters at first, only now Romulus was trying to assimilate the shifters and normalize their presence. But he hadn’t interfered with my fun. I might just like the guy more because of it.

After listening to everyone’s thoughts, though, that joy was bleeding away slowly.

“I would rock your world so hard,” I told the man, and that brought his peepers to mine in a hurry.

Thoughts crowded in too fast for me to process them. Levitating and gyrating and, wow, this guy wanted a messier life. He was cooped up here, I could tell. Normal people didn’t pine after the exotic this hard.

“You know what?” I turned around and faced Penny, done with that guy.

What just happened…Why did she… His thoughts about me kept drifting away now that they weren’t solely fueled by lust.

“You said the First is in trouble for manipulating people, right?” I asked her.

“Yeah.” She watched the man I’d been harassing pass on by, his gaze focused straight ahead again. “She magically affects her people’s moods and desires, I think. Makes them happy to stay here, want to return if they leave, stuff like that.”

“So she could definitely keep them from wanting strangers in her midst, right?” I was walking before the words stopped falling.

“Yes,” she said. “Which…makes all kinds of sense, actually. She’s been hiding people away, trying to protect them, so she wouldn’t want strangers coming in. And if they did, she wouldn’t want them staying, because that might entice some of her people to leave. Or…more of her people to leave, I guess. I heard that some did get out.”

“Yeah.” A roar blasted out over the village. The T-Rex had been let loose. “Do you think they know that?”

She thought for a second, catching up. “Probably not,” she said. I took a left and cut through someone’s yard. “But would it really matter? They know she’s doing something she shouldn’t be.”

“It might make a difference in how they feel about the shifters. Romulus is trying to bridge the gap between them, but people are still weirded out. They need to be tight with each other if they’re going to work together against the elves, and the memories they create here will stick with them. Any tension between them will be easier for them to overcome if both sides know the warrior fae were duped. See what I mean?”

“You’re really smart when you want to be.”

“Nah. Everyone gets lucky some of the time.”

I hopped a fence and emerged on a little lane surrounded by flowers—this whole freaking place was flowers and gardens, it seemed like, and because they were all real and natural, instead of elf creations, it made the area incredibly cute and picturesque and a huge nuisance. I much preferred the Underworld, which had plenty that was weird and unsavory to balance out the lovely and beautiful. It was a startling realization.

Across a carefully tended plot of grass surrounded by more plants and flowers stood a wooden gate painted white, a man and woman to either side of it, swords on their backs and eyes hard. A chest-high fence stretched away, a tended hedge rising to head height behind it, blocking the view in a beautiful way. A voice rose from within the space, and it seemed that I was a bit late for the proceedings, or they had started early.

Not to worry. I had a plan. One I’d created a split second before.

“What’s up, dickweeds?” I strutted up to the guards, and their gazes landed on me without hesitation. They had been excused from the emotional sabotage the others were plagued with. Unless I was wrong and this was a huge mistake…

I pressed on. Might as well.

“Miss Somerset, please forgive our rudeness, but we—”

I sped up so they couldn’t step in front of me, reached the gate at a blinding speed, and kicked it, right in the middle. The satisfying crack made me smile, followed by the bang of the doors flying open and hitting whatever was on the inside.

“Reinforced steel,” I said as they lunged for me. I shoved them away with my magic. “Reinforced steel makes it harder to kick in doors. Or gates. And now you know.”

“Sorry,” Penny said as she trailed behind, using my magic to create a sort of barrier.

“Good idea.” I nodded. She might resist it, but she was made for a life of mayhem.

Stones dotted the grass walkway, flanked on both sides by the tall hedge. The space opened up near the end. People in those bedazzled white robes sat in rows upon rows of white wooden chairs facing a stage. Charity and Romulus sat on one side of the stage with flat expressions, and a regal woman with graying hair and very few laugh lines sat on the other side, her hands in her lap and her hard scowl on me. A woman stood at a little podium, no longer speaking, her face turned my way in confusion.

Magic thrummed to my right, a concealment spell. Obviously no one was the wiser to the vampire and natural mage listening intently within their midst.

You’re late, Darius thought, and it was a wonder I could even hear him amidst all the thoughts suddenly crowding me.

Heir.

…what a strange dress code…

I can’t believe Lucifer sired another child.

What is that sack around her hips?

She can levitate—only demons can levitate. Does she change into—

“Hey,” I said, cutting out the thoughts for a moment. I’d wait until I dropped my news before listening in again. “So sorry to interrupt, but your gate was basically inviting the whole neighborhood to kick it in. I couldn’t resist. Anyway, while I’m here—”

“Reagan Somerset, yes.” Romulus stood, his hands clasped in front of him.

He is incredibly annoyed, Darius thought, and it occurred to me that I always had our channels open, even when I was blocking everyone else out. I’m sure you have a point, and you had better make it quickly.

“If you don’t mind me saying—” Romulus went on.

I held up my hand. “This concerns this meeting. Darius will kill me for giving this away, but I have Lucifer’s magic.”

“Yes, we know. We all saw that rousing display of your powers—”

“Yes, yes, yesterday. I meant all of his magic. Including the ability to read minds.”

I opened back up really quickly, getting slammed with surprise, outrage, fear, and an attempt to think nothing at all. People didn’t realize that usually backfired, leading to an out-of-control thought spiral.

“I very rarely use it,” I said over the din, except it was actually quiet, and I was just yelling over the noise in my head. “I was taught to tune it out. People mostly think irrelevant garbage, and I have enough garbage in my own head—I don’t need anyone else’s. But…” I held up a finger. “But something was deeply troubling to me about this place. About the way you all ignore strangers.”

“Yes, that is something I meant to—”

“Romulus, please, if I may,” I said, as polite as I was capable of being. “You were hoodwinked by your mother for…how many years? You are clearly blind to the very obvious. I am not so blind. What I have to say is relevant to these proceedings. Let me—very quickly—throw it into the ring, and I’ll leave you to discuss everything.”

He stilled for a moment, and I heard, She should’ve been barred from the Realm. She does not belong here.

I pointed at the regal lady, whose pinched expression and hostile thoughts marked her as the First Arcana.

“I am magical, from both parents. I belong in the magical world just as much as you do,” I responded, and she couldn’t stop her eyes from widening. “Thought I was lying about the mind reading, huh?”

Insufferable dirty demon…

“Sticks and stones, lady. Anyway, I was mostly delighted by your people ignoring me. I am not as fragile as the shifters. I don’t need to be liked.” This was where I had to hedge a little. “After a few…experiments on how far people would go to ignore me…”

“Yes, you really did push the limits,” Romulus mentioned.

He apparently finds your colorful personality humorous, Darius thought, and I knew he was reading some subtle changes in the Second’s body language, because I hadn’t gotten that at all.

“Yes, I did. Because it was crazy to me that a”—I did bunny ears with my fingers—“‘warrior race’ didn’t get pissed that I was throwing them around. Or standing in their way. Or just being an ass for no reason. So I used my magic and peeked into their craniums to at least see if I was having an effect.”

“That is a violation of privacy,” the First said, outraged.

“Yeah, you should talk. Why do you think you’re up there? I’m about to add to your list of crimes, too.”

“Mother, please. I would like to hear what Reagan Somerset has to say.” And now Romulus’s gaze was keen. “If she has new insights to offer, we need to hear them.”

“How can we possibly trust a creature that listens in—”

“I agree with the Second.” An older man stood up from the audience, his long white beard ridiculous and his robe quite plain.

“As do I.”

“Yes.”

I took advantage of the opening. “I discovered some interesting things. For one, your people are extremely interested in the exotic. You think of it as sexually taboo, which is…off-putting, but also just crazy. The Realm is host to a multitude of creatures. Even the most isolated groups, like the vampires, mingle. To be so closed off that you think someone different is taboo is just fucking crazy. What’s wrong with you people? The other thing I noticed is that people couldn’t think about me for long. Their thoughts would drift away, as though they’d lost the thread of consciousness. They weren’t keeping themselves from noticing me; they were unraveled from noticing me. It seemed like manipulation of some kind, and honestly, it just took the fun out of the whole thing. Given the First’s magic, my guess is that she’s not just keeping you put—she is injecting the desire to ignore strangers. To ostracize them. To keep them apart. So that ain’t good.

“But here’s the real issue. The only one among you that can really fight—really fight—is Charity. Why? Because she knows how to survive. My fighting prowess isn’t magical, by the way. It was learned out of necessity. When I fought Romulus, it was clear he had spent most of his life on that practice yard. Charity saw it, and that’s why she intervened. If you go up against a bunch of vampires, you’re going to get a rude awakening. A force of stronger demons would ring your bell. Those buggers fight dirty. Hell, you went up against the shifters yesterday, right? They didn’t beat you because they were better, but because they have more real-life battle experience. A lot more. The longer you stay in this God-awful natural hideaway, the weaker you will inevitably become, until someone comes in and gets you. I was expecting to find a bunch of people like Charity here, but instead I found a bunch of softies that are going to need my protection, not the other way around. So you all better get your shit together, or you’ll lose the battle that is coming, and it’ll be your death sentence.”

Silence descended, everyone staring at me. Waiting for more. It occurred to me that I probably should’ve stormed out after that last bit to end on a dramatic note. Now I just looked like the doofus who didn’t know when to leave the party.

Take the concealing spell away, Darius thought.

“What?” I asked, barely stopping myself from turning and looking in his direction.

“You were just saying—”

I held my hand up to Romulus. “Sorry, I was just listening to Penny communicate with me. I can read thoughts, but I can’t inject them in others, sadly.”

“I didn’t—” Penny started. I threw a kick to shut her up, and she dodged the blow. “Stop trying to kick me.”

Our teamwork was impressive.

Take the magic away with a flourish and expose us. We have what we need. Your new information will be the nail in the coffin. Outing us will show them just how sheltered they really are.

“Oh, and one more thing,” I said, a little louder than was strictly necessary.

I ignited fire over the spell, realizing belatedly that the spell was a whole lot more powerful than I’d expected, and then quickly slapped up an air shield before the whole thing exploded outward. Fire and ice ballooned against my air shield. The back row of the audience jumped out of their seats, turning to look or struggling over each other to get out of the way.

“We’ve been experimenting with inverting the power so spells don’t read as powerful to other mages,” Penny murmured. “And you, I guess.”

“Yeah. Might’ve been nice to mention that before I blew everyone up,” I groused, tearing down the air wall.

Darius stood as though he’d expected that shitshow, and Emery slowly uncurled his hands from over his head.

“The explosion happens outward like we planned,” Penny said. “That’s good news. We didn’t have time to test it.”

I shook my head, turning back to Romulus. Definitely impressive teamwork.

“I don’t think I have to point out how naïve you all are when it comes to the magical world, right?” I hooked a thumb at Emery coming out of his crouch. “It’s pretty obvious?”

“I would say that you have made your point,” Romulus said, pressing his lips tightly together.

I pointed at Darius, who came to stand beside me. “He’s not even sorry. He was caught, and he’s not sorry. So…take a hint.”

He got that hint, loud and clear.Darius rested his hand on my hip. Let’s head back to our…very cozy hovel and keep our heads down for the rest of today. We’ll be leaving soon, and then we must part.

“Wait, what?” I let him nudge me toward the battered gates. He gave an apology he didn’t mean to Romulus, which I was sure Romulus didn’t accept, and then we were walking back to our bungalow.

“We have to part, mon ange,”Darius said. “I am not meant to go with you to the elf castle. They do not like my kind.”

“Which is a problem, since you should have equal representation there, just like everyone else.”

“A chat for a later day, perhaps.”

“And two, that can’t be right. We’re a team. We do dangerous things together. And paying a visit to the elves is very dangerous. This crowd isn’t going to provide me with much backup. I’m starting to really think we shouldn’t go at all.”

“The Seers bothagreed.”

“And you tell me this now? No way they’re right about this. The Red Prophet takes hallucinogens and terrorizes neighborhoods. She likes that better than she likes it here. She’s probably just pretending so she can stay in the Brink.”

“Karen saw it, too, and we both know how effective she is.”

For the first time, worry lodged in my gut. Darius and I had been through the absolute worst together. We’d overcome incredible odds and combated incredibly dangerous situations…as a team. I didn’t know how this was going to go without him. I hadn’t been entirely honest a moment ago—the fae were excellent fighters from what I’d seen, but they definitely lacked battle experience. They lacked the ability to improvise on the fly. They’d be outgunned if we faced a large force of vicious fighters, and both the elves and Lucifer had numbers. They hadn’t thrown them at us yet, but they had them. It was only a matter of time.

“This is right, mon coeur.” He opened the door and let me into our bungalow. “I must head to the lair and drum up support. The Seers’direction to come here first has proven fruitful. We need to trust in them. They are our best advantage.”

I blew out a breath, planning on stopping and falling onto the couch, and was instead ushered into our bedroom.

“Let’s give Penny a reason to bust in,” he whispered before dropping his lips to mine. His tongue urged my lips to open and then swept through as he lowered his fingers to the clasp of my pouch. It fell away and then he was moving at inhuman speed, removing my weapons and my leather pants.

I pushed his jacket off his muscular shoulders and then undid his shirt buttons.

You excel when you’re out of your element, he thought as he stripped off my shirt and fastened a hot mouth to my nipple. I moaned, stilling as he ran his fingers over my panties before dipping in. Yesterday, you captivated. Today, you took control of a people. Tomorrow, you will help lead them. You are a wonder, and I cannot believe I have been so lucky as to have secured your good affection.

He dropped to his knees and peeled my panties away before pushing my knee onto his shoulder and leaning in, running his mouth along my sex. I fluttered my eyes closed, delighting in his fingers entering me, then his mouth and digits working together, winding me tighter.

“I can’t wait.” He rose in a rush and pushed me back onto the smallish bed, perfect for cuddling. Or one person on top. He was out of his pants in a flash, his tip pressed against my opening. “You are incredible, my love. As surprising as you are powerful. I love that there is never a dull moment.”

He thrust, pushing all the breath out of my lungs. I pulled his neck, lowering his lips to mine, and savored his taste. The feel of him.

“I don’t want you to go,” I murmured, tightening my hold, wrapping my legs around his hips.

“It’ll only be for a short time. I have eyes near the castle. I will get constant reports on what is happening. Have no worries—even if they capture you, they will not kill you. Not right away. If the worst should happen, just hang on until I get there.”

Feeling my heart swell, I kissed him harder, so grateful that my journey had led me to him. Not just because I did trust that he would come for me if something happened, but because this feeling for him was so powerful that it felt like it might crack me in half. It almost couldn’t be contained within me, stretching my skin and filling me to bursting.

“I love you,” I murmured against his lips, holding on for dear life, scared to death that something would happen to one of us, and we wouldn’t be able to live out forever. “Will you marry me?”

He chuckled. “No. I am old-fashioned. When I propose, it will be an event.”

I smiled, because of course he’d say something like that. But at least he knew where I stood. I’d resisted the idea, but now, on the cusp of more danger than I’d ever faced before, it seemed like a good time to embrace the things that made me the happiest. He was one of them.

His rhythm sped up, and I lost myself to it, letting everything else go. The sensation wound me so tight that it was almost unbearable. I dug my fingers into his back, squeezing my eyes shut, and then I exploded, pleasure blistering through my body.

I called his name. Or maybe a profanity. The bliss was so overpowering that I couldn’t be sure. He shuddered above me, moaning against my lips.

In the aftermath, as we came down, he asked softly, “Do you want children?” I could hear the vulnerability in his voice, the slight hesitation.

“If I wasn’t being hunted, and we knew we could keep them safe…”

He pulled back a little, his beautiful hazel eyes opening all the way down to his soul. “We’d wondered, but what Cahal said…” He swallowed. “I’ve always wanted children. I’d thought that option was denied to me. After we visited the Underworld, I started hoping. And now…”

I pulled him down and kissed him. “And now, if we can survive all this, we’ll figure out a future and have a really weird family.”

He started moving again, and I knew it would be a long, pleasant night of painful goodbyes.