Oh man, Larky was a dumbass, the sort of high-level-dumbass who would probably engineer his own downfall. That’s what happened when you got so arrogant and powerful you forgot about the people around you. Tyrants often create the adversaries strong enough to fight them. Larky didn’t realize what a weapon Rose was, but I did, and I would be taking full advantage of that.
As we hoofed it along the now-familiar stone passage, I remembered what she’d said before.
“What disturbance is Larky dealing with?”
A stillness crossed her face, like she’d just shut down on me. “Nothing you have to worry about. There are intruders in the courtyard, and their timing couldn’t have been more perfect. I’m going to make sure you’re far away this time, out of his territory with all of its traps.”
Intruders!
The tugging sensation which had been rocketing across my spine since I entered that damn whirly portal increased; my pulse picked up speed. I’d felt this type of pull before. It felt like the partial mating bond. Were my boys here?
I yanked back on Rose’s grip. She was surprisingly strong, but in the end I was stronger. “Who is it? Is it my pack, the quads?”
Rose still wore that poker face, which told me so much more than her words. She was totally hiding shit from me, and there could only be one thing this important. I pushed in close to her, making sure to let the wolf bleed into my eyes. Rumbling growls rocked my chest. I was struggling to stop my body from partially shifting.
“Take me to them right now. I like you, Rose. You seem like a good person who got dealt a shit hand, but if you attempt to keep me from my pack, I will destroy you.”
I was not kidding either.
Slithers of color flashed across her eyes, like small fireworks. She swallowed audibly. “You have to understand, they’re keeping the guards occupied, and they can more than hold their own. This is your one chance to escape. I can send you on a direct path to the isle of the shining ones … the fey gods. Like I said before, this is the only place I can think of to find answers. They’ll know how to defeat Larkspur. Your pack will find you there. They sensed you the moment you were outside the castle walls.”
I huffed. I was growl-yelling at her now: “If they can find me, Larky can find me, so there’s no point running from him now. Let’s go downstairs and kick his ass.”
She didn’t shift away from me, although those sparks were really zooming across her eyes. “If you make it to the Isle of the Gods, then you will be safe from Larkspur. The king’s not welcome there. He has issues with the shining ones and he’ll not risk waking the shadows when he doesn’t have what they want.”
I was reminded of what Louis – all powerful sorcerer and big brother figure – had said to me the last time we were in Faerie. Something about lucky they did not wake. Was he talking about these shadow ones?
My heart and soul were aching to knock Rose down and take off. My pack was here and I needed to go to them.
“Please, Jessa. I promise you there’s no other path. No one can defeat the king without first breaking his ties to the marked.”
As I opened my mouth to argue again she did something odd. Her eyes slammed shut and an energy zipped across her skin. I was about to yell or shake her when my vision went fuzzy. Shit! What was this bitch doing to me?
Then the first image shuttered across my mind, like an old school projector. It was a little dull and out of focus, but there was no mistaking what it was. A battlefield.
The images continued to shoot at me, one after the other, and all of them depicting the same thing. A field of death. I was blind now to the outside world, but there was no masking my cry of anguish as the cold, unmoving faces of countless members of the supernatural races buffeted my mind. Why was Rose showing me this? What the hell was this supposed to prove?
By the time the male stepped onto the scene, I was starting to understand. Tall, and deadly, he made a slow progression through the field of death. Larky. The dragon shifter looked different, wild, dressed in battle armor, chain mail, sword and head piece. He spared no notice to the dead, kicking through them with ease. He had no issues splashing across the rivulets of blood coating the ground, not surprising since he was well spattered already. Ahead of him, a vampire, who was crushed under a pile of other supes, lifted a hand and tried to scrape himself free. The dragon king noticed the movement, and even though I knew this was many years in the past, I wanted to shout at the vampire to be still, to play dead, even if it went against his predator instincts.
Larky moved with speed, his sword slicing through the supes neck, severing the head, and leaving another victim behind. I could hear screaming, and for a moment thought it was my voice, but it was actually Rose. Old-time Rose, dressed in a shift style dress of muted tones, with multiple layers of material. She also had a silky looking scarf wrapped around her hair. She was being held on the edge of this field by a bunch of gray-haired males. The king’s mystics stood in a group, watching as the king continued to search out every single survivor. One by one he murdered helpless supernaturals, Rose’s screams the background soundtrack. I focused long enough to hear words in her bellows.
“Why? They surrendered.”
The king finally reached his advisors, and took a casual step forward before backhanding Rose, hitting her with the hilt of his sword. She collapsed into the arms of the closest gray, and only then did Larky answer.
“I gave them one chance, and they chose to fight my rule. No matter if they surrendered later, I expect total loyalty.”