Authors: Amanda Bonilla
“Mine!” he snarled before running his nose roughly against the Sylph’s cheek. Rylon inhaled deeply and shuddered in ecstasy. He snatched the tray of chips clutched tight in Freya’s other arm and deposited it on the table, snagging a handful for his bet. Rylon hissed as the gambling tokens lacerated his skin and he threw them on the table without preamble, sending them scattering across the surface and down onto the floor. “Two hundred and fifty thousand,” he all but growled. “And if I land on white . . .” He jerked Freya tight against his chest. “The Sylph belongs to me as well.”
A strangled cry bubbled up from Mithandra’s throat. She stumbled toward Rylon, fumbling with her waistband at the small of her back, presumably for a weapon. My brain was slow to react, still thick and logy from the Ambrosia. So many kinks in what was supposed to be an easy job. I didn’t want to make a scene, and if Mithandra charged Rylon, she’d only serve to enrage our hostess and get herself killed. In my muddled state of mind, I reasoned there was only one thing to do. . . .
I intercepted her before she made it to Rylon, spun her toward me, and kissed her.
Whoa there, buddy
. My brain put on the brakes so fast I had whiplash.
What in the hell are you
doing
? Mithandra wrapped her arms around my neck, coming up on her tiptoes to press her body into mine. I’d been hoping to distract her without making a scene, but when the idea popped into my head, it had all played out differently. Smoother, somehow. My reasoning was all fucked up, the Ambrosia still working its way through my system. Mithandra’s too. Obviously. Her tongue flicked out against the seam of my lips. Gods, it felt good.
Slow your roll, tiger
. It wasn’t my inner voice chiding me this time, but
hers
. Darian. I looked over Mithandra’s should and a perfect image of her stood to one side of me, her smile almost mocking
. Get your shit straight. You’re not going to protect dick fucked up like you are. And I can guarantee you’re not doing that poor Sylph any favors by kissing her that way. Take it from me; you’re an outstanding kisser, Ty. She’ll be a puddle of goo at your feet in a couple minutes flat
.
Even though the illusion was a result of my inebriated state, she was so,
so
real. I wanted to reach out. Touch her. Prove to myself that she wasn’t just a figment of my imagination, but flesh and blood. The vision of Darian jerked her chin toward Mithandra.
Better disengage, champ. She’ll be stuck to you like a leach before you know it. Calm her down, get the situation back under control, and wrap this shit up. Levi needs you
.
“Mithandra.” I broke free from her embrace to whisper against her lips, my eyes still locked on the Sloc widt vision of Darian. “Kadambari knows why you’re here.
Each one
of us is desperate and in need of something. She’s playing with you. Raksasha feed off of fear. Don’t give her what she wants.”
Mithandra nodded and pulled away slowly as if sated by our kiss. I blinked to clear my vision as the illusion of Darian blurred and faded into nothing.
Shit.
Screw a cold s
hower, I needed to be plunged into arctic seawater to sober up enough to shake off the lingering effects of the drink that had been forced on us. But whether real or imagined, my vision had been right: Levi needed me.
Time to take back control of the situation.
Chapter 9
I wasn’t here to drink, or to gamble, or to make out with random Sylphs. My
only
reason for being here tonight was to determine who held the death markers and make sure that individual was stopped once and for all. In my defense, thanks to the Ambrosia, I was drunk off my ass and thinking with my dick; but even that wasn’t a good enough excuse to tarry anymore.
“So, how long does this go on?” I asked, letting irritation seep into my tone. “We continue to bet our lives away until sun up, or the owners show up to kick us out?”
Kadambari gave me a wan smile letting me know she wasn’t in the mood to answer any questions. Sam screamed from somewhere near the back of the bar and a glass shattered in its wake. Just what I needed, some crazed asshole trashing the place while he tripped out. “Fuck me, did you see the size of that goddamned rat?” he exclaimed. “Holy shit! As big as a fucking cat!”
Rylon snorted in amusement and, still clutching Freya, tossed the ball onto the wheel. Round and round it turned, the black and white slots swirling into a gray blur. The three actual players—Sam was still freaking out over the imaginary mutant rat—watched with morbid curiosity as the ball bounced around inside the golden wheel: white, black, life, death, and so on until it began to slow, skipping from one slot to another. When it finally came to rest, Mithandra let out an audible sigh of relief, while Rylon lost his shit entirely.
“It’s fixed!” he shouted, shoving Freya away as he rounded on Kadambari, finger pointed accusingly. “You treacherous bitch, this game is rigged, isn’t it? I’ll cut out your fucking heart and—”
The gambling chips vibrated on the table, dancing and jumping until they collected into a neat and tidy pile. I took in a shallow breath as the air became heavy with magic, saturated with something dark and evil. As if someone had detonated a mini bomb, the chips imploded in a pile of crimson dust, and what was left was a single onyx chip pulsing with a dull gray light—a death marker.
Rylon’s
death marker.
“Thank you for playing,” Kadambari said with serene calm. She gathered the chip from the table and it glowed golden for a single moment when it made contact with her skin. The ghoul inhaled a sharp breath, and she swayed on her feet as if blissfully drunk before composing herself. Never in a million years would I have thought it would be this simple. But it was. Kadambari ran the gambling ring. She alone held the markers. Levi was as good as saved.
I jerked my phone out of my jeans, fumbling to access my text messaging screen while Rylon continued to shout and bemoan his misfortune. Typing as fast as my fingers would work, I fired o Vloc wimes, seff a text to Kaii, praying that auto correct wouldn’t screw me over and send her a completely incoherent message. No time to check. I hit send and almost dropped the damn phone trying to get it back in my pocket.
“Tsk, tsk,” Kambari chided, stepping over Rylon who had crumpled to the floor at her feet. Funny how betting your life seems trite until the moment you’ve actually signed it away. “Tyler, I thought you understood the rules for tonight’s game. You couldn’t possibly be so bored as to resort to electronics for entertainment. Not with what I’ve offered you here.”
Kadambari could have given me a run for my money in the icy rage department. Her tone sobered me up far better than any arctic plunge could have. I hadn’t had time for anything other than a quick text to Kaii, no opportunity to delete. If the Raksasha read the message, I was as good as fucked. “Can’t a guy check his e-mail?” I asked, hoping to stall her.
“No. My house, my rules. You broke those rules, Jinn. I told you, no phones.”
“Technically, this isn’t
your
house. I mean, you are borrowing this space, aren’t you? So can you truly make rules in a place you’re simply squatting in?”
Her eyes narrowed, and I swear she was wishing she could shoot daggers from them. “Don’t think that because you’ve escaped death once means that you’ll escape it again,” she seethed. Without looking away from me, she said, “Mithandra, step up to the wheel.”
A heavy weight of dread settled in my gut. My protection was relegated to my Charge and no one else. I couldn’t intervene with magic to save Mithandra from the risk she was about to take. If I called up my power to help her, I’d be in hot water with the Synod. Instead, I had to sit by and watch as her fate was determined by a little golden ball. Maybe it was the Ambrosia, or perhaps it was the fact that her green eyes, red hair, and fierce determination reminded me so much of Darian. Either way, I wanted to help her and there wasn’t a goddamned thing I could do. Gods, I felt so helpless.
Hurry up, Kaii. Get your ass over here.
. . .
Mithandra threw her shoulders back and marched up to the table without showing an ounce of fear. Good. Kadambari would have reveled in her unease, and I was glad that she refused to give the ghoul the satisfaction of seeing her afraid. Freya handed her sister a tray of chips and the golden roulette ball, tears streaming down her cheeks. Mithandra gave her a reassuring smile. “You allowed Rylon to double down. I expect the same consideration.” She gathered all of the chips into her hands and didn’t so much as flinch as they cut her skin, drawing blood. “I’m all in. If I land on white, Freya’s life is mine.”
Kadambari dismissed Mithandra’s show of bravado with a flick of her wrist. “The odds are always in the favor of the house.” She leaned in close enough that her lips brushed Mithandra’s cheek. “I’m going to enjoy breaking you.”
Spine ramrod straight, Mithandra dropped the ball onto the spinning wheel. Freya looked like she might pass out as she watched the ball skip from one slot to another, teasing the sisters with freedom or condemning them to a fate worse than death.
I couldn’t help but be a bit awestruck by the Sylph. She was all of about five-foot, maybe ninety pounds soaking wet. And rather than bemoan her fate and rail to the gods like Rylon, she stood at the table, a grim expression on her face, and waited for her fate to be decided. Freya gasped as the whee [d a
The ball began to lose momentum and there weren’t enough white notches to catch it when it landed. Only one option presented itself: black. Death. Torture. Or worse. The smug smile curving Kadambari’s lips spurred me to action. I couldn’t use my magic to save the sisters, but by gods I’d do something to stop this. I lunged across the wheel, reached out, and batted the ball away before it slid into the black groove waiting to receive it.
For a moment, time stopped. Everyone froze, either slack-jawed in wonder or wide-eyed in disbelief. Sure, Kadambari had warned Rylon that if he crossed her she’d gut him with a rusty blade, and she’d warned that I’d pay for breaking her rules, but her threats didn’t mean shit to me. I refused to stand by while an innocent like Mithandra signed her life away out of love for her sister.
“Tyler,” Mithandra said with wonderment. “What have you done?”
“He’s signed his own death warrant, that’s what he’s done.” Kadambari stalked toward me, stepping again over Rylon who just couldn’t seem to pull his shit together. “You should know better than to fuck with me, Jinn,” she snarled. “Do you think I simply drank your blood for the fun of it? I don’t need to hold your marker to
own
you.”
Gods. Blood magic. How I fucking
hated
it. I doubted her threat was meant to simply frighten. She’d already failed to stir any true fear in me. No, we’d passed idle threats about a mile back. We were smack dab in the middle of listen-to-me-now-and-believe-me-later territory. “You’re not going to own anyone ever again, Kadambari.”
“Don’t be so sure. I know what truly frightens you, Tyler, and I’m connected enough to make sure that your fears become a waking nightmare.”
On the magic and power scale, Jinn rank pretty high up the ladder. Okay, so technically, we owned the ladder. Our only limitation had been placed on us eons ago by the Synod when they declared our power could only be used to the benefits of our Charges. I supposed it helped to keep us from becoming too arrogant. Otherwise, we would have conquered the world in its infancy. Which meant fear wasn’t an emotion that I had much experience with. Until recently. Now, it seemed my fears ate at me constantly, leaving me ragged and raw. Exposed.
“Love is quite the handicap, isn’t it?” Kadambari mused. “Do you think it was a coincidence your human friend came to possess that marker? He was quite easy to deceive. I’d have thought you would choose wiser companions, Tyler.”
This was a setup? My mind cranked into overdrive as I connected the dots from Levi, to me, to . . . Darian? Jesus Christ.
“We know all we need to know now. My queen will be pleased with what I’ve discovered. Your lover will pay for the death of my queen’s only son. As for your offence against
me
this night . . .” Kadambari smiled. “I could taste your fear above all the others. So sweet and rich. I know what plagues you, Jinn. I don’t have to run a blade against your skin to cut you deeply. All I have to do is hurt
her
, and I’ll have you on your knees, begging for mercy.”
Frost crawled along the floor, leaving intricate, sparkling trails as my anger manifested. This was bad. I had no idea who Kadambari’s [adaif">Froqueen was, or her son for that matter. It didn’t take a genius to deduce that somewhere, sometime during our working relationship, Darian and I had accepted money to kill the Raksasha Queen’s son. The risk of retaliation was always a factor in our line of work, but this was
so
not good. I should have never given the ghoul my blood. Fear made her stronger, and of course, she’d devoured mine.
Way to play it close to the vest, idiot
. I’d given her all the ammunition she needed to launch a full assault.
On Darian.
I loved her so much it was almost crippling in its intensity. My fear that someday I’d be too late to save her, that I’d fail her somehow, was a constant presence in my thoughts. So much terror churned in my gut at the thought of losing her—to Xander, to her foolish decisions, to her own fears of opening up and trusting—that I lost countless nights’ sleep worrying over it.
“You’re as good as dead.” The words tore from my throat in a growled warning and my breath fogged in the chill air.
“As is she.”
All bets were off. Technically, Kadambari had threatened my Charge, which meant I could unleash whatever hell I wanted upon her. Power stirred within me, collecting like a building storm. I could kill her with a thought. A simple flick of my wrist if I wanted. I didn’t want her death to be as easy as flipping off a switch, though. I wanted her to pay for what she’d done to us here tonight. And I wanted her to know that
no one
threatens what’s mine.
A gust of wind rose in the air, mingling with the cold of my anger. Mithandra summoned her wind and it whipped through the bar, scattering chairs and sending tables sliding across the dance floor. Sam was somewhere behind the DJ platform now, screaming as if he was being torn limb from limb. Rylon remained on the floor, curled into a tight ball, and Freya stood behind her sister whose expression echoed the ferocity of her wind.
I braced myself for an attack from Kadambari . . . for the wind to slam me into the nearest wall . . . for Sam to run screaming through the bar with a butcher knife . . . anything, really. I let my magic build to a fevered pitch, sending it in a concentrated burst toward my target. Energy funneled out of me with the force of an explosion and sent the ghoul flying through the air. She crashed into a stack of chairs, foot-long splinters of wood protruding from her arm, both thighs, and torso. Mere flesh wounds compared to what I’d deliver upon her next.
As my power built once more, I caught a dark shape from the corner of my eye. Sticking to the shadows, it crept along the walls, avoiding the heaviest impact of Mithandra’s wind. Eyes as brilliant as citrine stared out from the black hood of a balaclava, locked on the Raksasha ghoul who pushed herself to stand, laughing maniacally as the wind whipped her shining black hair around her shoulders and face.
“I own you!” she screamed over the howling wind. “I own all of you!”
I watched as Kaii wound through the bar, staying behind Kadambari in order to launch a surprise attack. Dollar signs whizzed by in my mind as I thought about what I was going to have to pay the Reaper if it managed to get to Kadambari before I did.
A war between revenge and reason raged in my mind as Kaii moved within killing distance of Kadambari. I still had so few answers. I wanted Kadambari dead. Now. The ghoul held Rylon’s marker, but could I be sure she [ bes, sealso held Levi’s? She obviously reported to someone higher up, and her queen had set her sights on Darian. In a perfect world, Kaii would have come to Kadambari once the games were concluded, interrogated her, and then killed her. I’d given the ghoul ammunition against both me and my Charge, and there were things in this world that death couldn’t even stop. If I killed her now, would revenge be taken? Could her queen somewhere, sometime find a way to Darian? If I killed her, my questions would go unanswered. But if I didn’t, Levi, Mithandra, and Freya would suffer.
I couldn’t risk innocent lives based on my own doubts and fears.
Our bond was strong. Despite our many problems, I
knew
that I could protect Darian from anything. I’d let our relationship problems muddy the water between loving her and protecting her as though they were one in the same. By the very definition of who I was, harm would never come to Darian as long as she was my Charge. “Do your worst,” I shouted over the roar of the wind, keeping her attention fixed on me as the Reaper’s face lowered to Kadambari’s ear. “Like I said, you’re not going to own anyone. Ever again.”