The Goblin King (27 page)

Imani
gently placed a hand over Dannai’s on the table. “You were adopted as a baby, though.”

“I know. It makes no sense. But those dreams feel so real.”

A loud meowing sound drew both women’s attention to the window.

Dannai turned in her chair. The large ginger cat stared back at her. For a moment, something reflected in its gold, sun-like eyes. Then it leapt down from the sill – and was gone.

*****

Diana lay in the canopy of Damon’s arms and gazed up at the domed ceiling of the great room. Damon had waved a hand at it, his incredible power shifting the carefully
strewn stone into glass so they could relax beneath the stars.

“You make the rain
go away,” he told her before he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. “I haven’t seen the stars over my kingdom… well,
ever
. Until now.”

Diana thought about that as she watched the stars twinkle. The sky was filled with them – pink and purple nebulas, red stars, blue stars, billions and billions of white…. “I never minded rain,” she said. “I like the way it smells.”

“Well then you’re lucky,” her husband told her. “And so am I.”

Diana chuckled.
“So did you and the other fae kings decide what to do about the threat of the
ka
doppelgangers coming into the kingdoms like yours did?”

“For the most part. We have reinforced each other’s walls, figuring that the added strength would help keep any one
ka
out.” He paused, and his voice lowered. “I no longer have my own double to worry about.”

This was true. It had almost come at the most terrible price, but it was true.

“It looks like your feline guardian is back and here to stay,” he said, suddenly changing the subject.

Diana pulled her attention away from the domed ceiling, turning her head against his chest to look in the direction he nodded.

The gray cat she’d rescued earlier sat curled up on the window seat in a sunbeam. As if she could sense that Diana was watching her, she raised her head and blinked her blue, blue eyes.

“So she is. She’s pregnant, you know. Probably another two weeks or so.”

“She tell you her name yet?”

“Yes,” said Diana. “She’s the same color as that moon on your banner and when I saw the two in close proximity, it just hit me. Her name is Artemis.”

Damon laughed. “Perfect.”

Artemis was the Greek version of the same goddess, Diana. Both were goddesses of the moon, among other things.

“I can’t figure out how she got here though,” added Diana. The cat had just appeared that morning, curling around her feet as she’
d risen from their bed in search of coffee or tea. Her first instinct had been happiness at seeing the feline, and she’d at once bent to give it a scritch behind the ear. But as the morning wore on, she’d realized that she was not in the mortal realm. She was in the Goblin Kingdom.

How had Artemis made it to this realm?

She shrugged now, honestly not caring all that much. She was glad to have the cat here. Everything suddenly seemed right with her world. Her hair had even stopped falling out.

“What does that sym
bol mean, anyway?” she asked, pointing to the crest on the flag that hung above the tapestries on the great room wall.

“
It is the Fae Kingdoms crest. The moon is universal for us. It exists on all of our banners. What is underneath is the part specific to each different kingdom.” He stopped and smiled. “It’s oddly fitting that your name should somehow invoke the moon, being that it’s the ultimate fae symbol.”

“Why a moon?”

“It’s long been said that the times of the in-between are the times when the borders between the here and there are at their weakest. Long ago, parents warned their children not to be out at twilight. Twilight was an in-between time. That was when the fae would appear, and not all fae are good. As you’ve seen for yourself.”

He paused, and pulled Diana closer, shifting where he lay partially under her on the settee. “
In general, you’re most likely to catch sight of the moon in the early hours of evening, and the early hours of dawn. Since this is also when our two worlds are closest together, the moon, which guides the in-between times in and out again, is our token emblem. It’s been this way for thousands of years.”

Diana sighed. “You’
re right, my name
is
fitting.” Then she brightened further as she realized something. “You know, Selene’s name refers to the moon too. And so does her twin sister’s. Her name is Minerva.”

Damon went still beneath her. She could tell he’d stopped breathing; his chest no longer rose nor fell beneath her head. She straightened
, pushing herself up, and looked down at him. But he was staring straight up through the domed glass as if searching the sky for something that wasn’t there… or his memories for something very important.

“By the gods,” he whispered as he, too straightened. She moved aside and
he rose from the settee, coming to his feet. He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly agitated. His expression had very quickly become one of stark worry.

Diana got to her feet as well. “What is it? What’s wrong?” Had she said something?

Damon turned his fiercely concerned eyes on her and grabbed her hands. “Where does Selene live?”

“Not
too far from my house. Why?” Her own concern was now ratcheting up at an alarming pace. “Damon,
why?
Damn it, you said she was safe!”

“
I’m sorry,” he muttered. “She’s not nearly safe enough. We have to get the others and return there right away. We especially need Avery and Caliban.
Damn it
, I can’t believe I didn’t consider this before.”

“Consider wha-”

But he cast a transport spell before she could finish her words, and king and queen where whisked briskly through time and space.

Epilogue

Roman suddenly pulled away from Evelynne, breaking his kiss. He could sense someone coming, and if the signature hadn’t been instantly recognizable as belonging to one of the 13 Kings, he would have sent a nasty spell through the transportation portal then and there.

He hated being interrupted while kissing his wife. Few things tried his patience
as badly.

But he spared the spell, knowing it would do little good against a king anyway, and turned from Evie, pulling her safely behind him. Then he waited as the transport portal opened up, a spinning, crackling crevice in the center of his study that spread wide to emit Damon Chroi and his new bride.

Damon rushed out of the portal, practically dragging Diana after him.

“Roman,
I’ve sent a call to Avery and Caliban. You need to bring as many men as you can and come with me to Diana’s neighborhood,” he commanded immediately. “I’ve just realized something.”

Evie stepped around Roman. “What is it?” Her lovely fac
e reflected the worry in Damon’s.

“It’s Selene
Trystaine,” he said. “The men and monsters who attacked Diana’s house – they weren’t there for her. They were there for Selene all along.”

Roman’s mind spun as he recalled tha
t night, the Offspring and Bookas and spell spiders, the way Selene’s mind had been so difficult to penetrate, the image of her sister….

“Oh my god,” said Evie
, echoing Roman’s thoughts. The world held still as she gave voice to what they’d all just come to recognize. “She’s one of the queens.”

“Yes,” said Damon. “She is. And I’m betting
her sister is too.”

Other books in the Big Bad Wolf spinoff series, The Kings:

Book One, The Vampire King (available now)

Book two, The Phantom King (available now)

Book three, The Warlock King (available now)

Next up in the Big Bad Wolf spinoff series, The Kings:

The Seelie King (release date TBA)

For a thrilling journey into the
Big Bad Wolf
series that spurred the creation of
The Kings
, check out the
Big Bad Wolf Romance Compilation
, Books One through Four by Heather Killough-Walden, available as eBooks via Amazon and Barnes and Noble:

Enjoy Heather Killough-Walden's critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling Big Bad Wolf series, now combined in one tome of sexual tension, romantic suspense and dark paranormal bliss....

1.
The Heat
, Book One:

Lily St. Claire is a simple Southern girl who has no idea what she is in for when she decides to move back to her home town in Louisiana after a decade of being away. But between the two very different alpha werewolves who instantly begin fighting to claim her as their mate and the serial killer who has her in his sites, she's about to find out.

2.
The Strip
, Book Two: (warning, contains graphic violence)

Green-eyed Malcolm Cole is a cursed werewolf, an alpha in the most powerful sense who has given up hope for any kind of happiness or peace in his life.

Until he catches wind of Claire.

Claire
St. James, Charlie among friends, is an amazing young woman with an incredibly special gift. Cole recognizes this at once and swears on the spot to claim Charlie as his mate.

Of course, he isn't the only one with such plans. Charlie is too precious to let go without a fight, and one of the most powerful alphas in the world has already staked a claim, whether Charlie - or Cole - like it or not.

3.
The Spell
,
New York Times bestselling
Book Three:

Dannai, aka the Healer, has begun dreaming of werewolves. She'd always been able to hide the fact that she was a dormant, using her magic to shield her promising scent from the alphas she's been forced to work with. But now that they've invaded her dreams, her world has been turned upside down. For, though every dormant dreams of her intended mate - Dannai is dreaming of two wolves, not one. And neither one of them is good news. One is a notorious killer. The other is Lucas Caige.

Lucas Caige is a man with a haunting past. A warlock took his brother from him fifty years ago and he's spent his life outrunning that dark magic. But fate has a way of throwing sand in your gears, and just when Caige thought he could forever leave behind the magic that brought pain to his life, his path crosses that of the Healer. Dannai unwittingly casts her spell over him the moment he lays eyes on her. She's stunning, she's kind, and everything about her wreaks havoc on his senses. She's also magic incarnate.

But if Dannai thinks that's going to stop him from doing everything in his power to make her his mate, the little witch has another thing coming.

4.
The Hunt
, Book Four:

Byron Caige has been a prisoner for the last fifty years of his supernaturally long life. Just when he gives up hope of ever knowing freedom again, he is unwittingly rescued by the very same woman who only wants to see him dead. Katherine Dare – Kat – is smart, fast, strong and beautiful – but unfortunately she’s a Hunter, and she’s convinced that Byron murdered her father twenty years ago.

She’s also Byron’s dormant.

As war breaks out amongst the otherworldly of Earth and threatens the existence of entire races, Kat is faced with a terrible decision. Should she give up her cause and believe Caige when he professes his innocence? Or should she fight him and possibly avenge her father’s taken life – even while she forfeits her own?

Coming November 29, 2013, a brand new vampire romance series by New York Times bestselling paranormal romance author, Heather Killough-Walden….

An ancient Roma foretelling speaks of vampire kings one day dreaming of the women who could bear them children. These children would be powerful vampire warriors and treasures to their kingdoms. Their mothers would become queens. However, a thousand years have passed and not a single vampire has dreamt of anything at all, much less of salvation through companionship.

And then, in a massive master bedroom in a mansion upon sprawling estate grounds in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the French vampire king awakens from a slumber ripe with visions of a young American beauty. Julian Adalard, the ruthless ruler of his people, has dreamt of his queen. At once, he sends his bounty hunter to retrieve her.

However, the bounty hunter is not only a skilled hunter and an unwilling servant to the king – he is also Julian’s brother, Dorian Adalard, and the prince of his people.

And he, too, has dreamt of the young woman.

Emma Rose Nekoda doesn't know she's been ear-marked as America's French vampire queen. She's a free-lance phot
ographer, traveling from the Southwest to the Deep South for a long-awaited photo shoot.