Shattered Wards Read online

  The person on the other side hammered the door again just as I was opening it. Kane’s mother, the coven crone of his coven, glared at me with her fist held up in the air where she had been banging on the door just a moment prior. Where Kane was quick to smile with dirty blond hair that refused to be entirely tamed, his mother was all hard edges with short hair roughly spiked up. It only highlighted the angular nature of her jaw and the white blonde colour deepened the coldness in her deep blue eyes. There was nothing warm or fuzzy about that woman.

  Kane’s mother, Moira, looked down at me with an expression full of disdain and revulsion. She had never liked me. The fact I came from hunters meant I’d never be good enough to be in her presence. Hunters kept the supernals in line by whatever means necessary. They were an unpaid police force. Things got complicated a couple of decades ago. After the big Prague incident, the enforcers became a thing. They became the official police force, with strict laws and guidelines. They worked under the Council, and most hunters converted to enforcers. Some, however, remained hunters. When I was growing up, I didn’t know any of that. It wasn’t until my late teens that I learnt that most of those who had kept the hunter name were brutal, supernal-hating bastards. They hunted down made beings because they felt they were abominations that had no right to exist, and they terrorised any supernal they could.

  I had never done any of that. My parents raised me to understand that while made were certainly dangerous, they were still people. Same for supernals. Moira never cared about any of that, though, all she saw was a vicious little mutt working under the title hunter. When Kane and I had grown closer, that only deepened her hatred of me. Kane was her only son. As such, he was supposed to be married off to a strong witch in an allied coven. That definitely wasn’t going to happen now.

  “Move aside and let me speak to those in charge,” Moira said, looking down her nose at me.

  Gideon bared his teeth at her, which were sharpening at a rapid rate. I made no move to stop him.

  “Ms. Galbraith, how nice to see you again,” I said in the sweetest tone I could muster.

  Her hatred pulled her lips back from her white teeth and tightened the skin around her eyes.

  “Child, get out of my way and let me handle the business I came here to discuss with my son and Mr. Caspari,” she spat.

  Gideon took a step forward. The fire was extending up his lower arms.

  “Put a leash on your hound,” the house mistress snapped.

  I closed the door in their faces. Petty? Absolutely. Worth it to hear the scream of fury? Undoubtedly.

  “Your mother has graced us with her presence,” I called through to Kane, who was coming down the hallway towards me.

  He’d made no attempt to put on clothing. A deep scowl filled his face.

  Moira began banging on the door again. I opened it and gave her a sickly-sweet smile.

  “Are you ready to treat with me respect?” I asked.

  Moira ignored me and glared at her son.

  “It was bad enough that you betrayed the coven by setting up home with this mud-blooded whore, it’s quite another that you allow her to treat me this way. Lead me to Mr. Caspari. We have business to discuss,” Moira growled.

  “That is no way to speak to your blood,” Dante said coldly.

  Moira’s eyes went wide. I could feel the furious pounding of Dante’s bloodsong washing over me.

  Moira and her second in command, Kirsty, bowed their head and muttered something before they gave Dante their most polite and dignified smile. Moira smoothed her shirt out and ran her hands over her hips, which were clad in a black pencil skirt.

  “Mr. Caspari, we’re here to discuss the actions surrounding the ward stone,” Moira said.

  “How convenient. We were just discussing whether you had any useful information for us. I had argued that you were quite without merit. Kane, however, said that you had something to offer,” Dante said.

  Moira blanched.

  “We’ll make tea,” Kane ground out.

  I stepped aside and allowed the two older women inside. Gideon extinguished his fire but glared daggers at their backs.

  “They are rude unpleasant women. I do not like them being in my home,” he growled.

  “Neither do I,” I said.

  We didn’t bother to lower our voices. I had made no bones about what I thought of Moira and her coven. They had treated Kane like shit based purely on the fact he was a male. In their mind, that made him nothing more than a servant until he came into his full magic, and then he was a piece of meat to be sold to another coven to help forge an alliance. Kane had cut as many ties with that coven as he could afford to.

  We all went into the kitchen where Moira and Kirsty hovered nervously wringing their hands as Dante set about making them tea.

  “Tell us everything you know about the stone, the history of it, and who would have wished to destroy it,” Dante said.

  Moira and Kirsty shared a look. Their backs straightened.

  “You are in our territory, Mr. Caspari,” Kirsty said.

  “No, you are in ours. This castle is positioned at the heart of a small territory that I laid claim to a decade ago,” Dante said without even turning to look at them; they were beneath him.

  The witches looked at each other, their hands stilled and their chins lifted.

  “The stone was-” Moira started.

  “No, Mother. The stone was neither in your territory nor under your control. We have been assigned control over this situation, so either you give us the information Dante asked for, or you get the fuck out,” Kane said, ending with a polite smile.

  Moira’s face turned beet red with rage.

  “How dare you speak to your coven crone like that!” Kirsty shouted.

  Kane took a step forward, his face filled with cold fury.

  “You are in my home. You are impeding my investigation, which was given by the Council. Now, either give us the information or leave. And do not dare step foot in this territory again without a prior invitation,” Kane said coldly.

  “You bring shame on my coven, and to me. You are not worthy of your blood,” Moira spat before she turned on her emerald green stilettos and stormed out of the house.

  “No tea for me,” Gideon said with a smile.

  Everyone laughed, the tension bursting around us like a bubble. I walked to Kane and put my arms around his neck.

  “How long have you wanted to say that?” I asked.

  He grinned at me.

  “Since I was five. Fuck, that felt good,” he said with a laugh.

  Dante smiled, his eyes full of sadness. I wondered how long he had waited to do something similar with his own awful coven.

  SEVENTEEN

  Gideon had gone to Dante and had a quiet moment which left Dante smiling and looking more himself. I was glad to see the hound healing and Dante smiling again. Kane kept laughing to himself as he came to terms with what he’d said and done. He had finally told his awful mother to piss off. His eyes danced, and he looked more relaxed than he had done since he moved into the castle.

  “You should speak to Rowan,” Dante said.

  Kane frowned for a moment before he said, “Yes, the elf prince. I’ll dig out his number.”

  With that, he frowned as he slowly turned around, looking for some sign of his phone.

  “Small couch, living room,” Dante said with a smirk.

  “I knew that,” Kane said with a frown.

  “The fae, especially the pixies, think hellhounds are a delicacy,” Gideon said quietly with a deep furrow between his brows.

  Dante looked at him quizzically.

  “Where did you hear that?”

  “In the infernal realm.”

  Dante and I looked at each other. I tried hard not to laugh. The poor hound looked so earnest.

  “They’re not going to eat you,” I said before I walked to him and rested my head on his upper arm.

  He put his arm around my waist and Dante came over and squeezed Gideon’s other shoulder.

  “If they do eat hellhounds, which I’m quite sure they don’t, we don’t let them take you from us,” Dante said firmly.

  Gideon relaxed and took a deep breath of relief.

  “Who eats hellhounds?” Kane asked as he came back into the kitchen.

  “Gideon was worried that pixies do,” I said.

  Kane looked between Gideon and me with a look of absolute confusion on his face.

  “Ok, well, Rowan’s in the area, so he’s joining us for dinner at seven. He said he’ll bring us Chinese takeaway if we want, but we have to get our orders in before six,” Kane said.

  I can’t say I pictured an elf prince taking orders for Chinese takeaway, but Kane did have a way with people.

  Kane and Dante did get fully dressed before Prince Rowan arrived. Gideon went quiet and hunched his shoulders when Rowan knocked on the door.

  “He’s a wood elf,” Dante said with a smile.

  Gideon curled his lip. “All fae hate my kind.”

  “Give him a chance,” I said as I squeezed his hand.

  Kane usually had good taste in people. I trusted he wouldn’t bring someone who’d harm Gideon into our home.

  I’d been expecting a pretty man, as all elves had the fine bone structure and lean body type, but Rowan was on par with Dante. That’s to say, he was breathtaking. His bronze skin had a soft glow in the evening sunlight and his golden eyes shone with humour and intelligence as he laughed at something Kane said. Long inky-black hair fell loose down his back, and a beige linen suit with a white shirt (collar undone) fitted his tall lean figure beautifully. He was the same height as Kane, but he had a great deal of presence, which made him seem bigger.

  “Rowan, this is my girlfriend Wren, our hellhound Gideon, and Dante Caspari,” Kane said smiling.

  Gideon positively preened at being called our hellhound. Rowan placed his bag of takeaway food on the table in front of the windows and came over to extend a pianist’s hand to me with a genuine smile.

  “A pleasure to meet you. Kane speaks very highly of you,” he said as he shook my hand.

  He greeted Gideon and Dante in a similar fashion before we settled at the table. Rowan was given the seat at the end of the table opposite Dante. I’d expected him to be a snobby asshole; he was a prince, after all. Instead, he dug into his shredded chili beef with relish and discussed the weather.

  “You are all in a relationship together?” Rowan asked as he pushed his empty carton away.

  “Yes,” Kane said with a broad smile.

  Rowan matched his smile. “I’m glad to see that witches are finally coming to understand the benefits of the elf ways.”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “I assumed you knew? Elves do not believe in monogamy. There was a spate of it after the elf Kadrix married his human lover, but it isn’t our natural way,” Rowan said before he took a sip of ice water.

  “It is… unusual. Witches are still very attached to their bloodlines and careful breeding,” Dante said.

  “Ah, so you’re planning on having children?” Rowan said, delighted.

  I choked on the last of my sweet and sour chicken. We hadn’t discussed children at all. It hadn’t even crossed my mind.

  “We haven’t quite got that far yet,” Kane said.

  “My apologies,” Rowan said with a wry smile.

  Once the takeaway cartons had been cleared away and we had all moved into the living room, we began the discussion Rowan had come there for. He sat in the armchair with its back to the window overlooking the drive, one leg crossed over the other with his ankle resting against his knee.

  “We are friends, Kane, but I am still an elf,” Rowan said a small smirk on his face.

  Kane wrinkled his nose and rubbed a small circle with his thumb over the inside of my knee. I had my legs curled up next to me and sat between Dante and Kane, with Gideon in his hound form next to Kane.

  “Elves only deal in trades,” Dante explained.

  “Can we not agree that it is mutually beneficial to repair the veil?” Dante asked.

  Rowan smiled. “You propose an equal trade of time, energy, and knowledge?”

  We didn’t have the knowledge he did, which is why we’d asked him to join us. I didn’t like the way that sounded. Elves were notoriously good negotiators and business people.

  “I propose that if you help us with this matter, then we will owe you one favour of equal weight and effort to the effort you put into helping us,” Dante said.

  Rowan was a prince, money was of no consequence to him. That meant we had to offer something he couldn’t elsewhere.

  “One favour from each of you…” Rowan pushed.

  “One favour from one of us, or the group as a whole. One favour total,” Dante said.

  Rowan smiled and nodded.

  “We have an agreement. Now, things on the other side of the veil, in the fae planes, are not looking very good. A number of factions have been pushing to pull down the veil, and they view this as an opportunity. Guards have been put in place on our side of the veil to stop the beings we agreed to keep away from the Earth plane. Still, things are in turmoil and some of the… weaker leaders are struggling to keep their territory under control. You need to focus on forging a new stone and worry about who broke the original one later.”

  Well, that sounded positively cheery.

  “Any idea how we go about making a new stone?” I asked.

  “Find the old stone makers,” Rowan said.

  “Do you have an address?” I asked with a smile.

  He laughed, a delighted laugh that filled his face with joy.

  “I do not. You will have to find them for yourself. If I had an address, I wouldn’t be here. I would have done this myself and taken the power such a move would have brought.”

  He had a point.

  EIGHTEEN

  Rowan had left not long after that, apparently satisfied that he had given us enough information to get going. Gideon had unfurled and returned to his human form when he left.

  “So, how do we find these stone makers?” Kane asked.

  “I thought your coven had all the information for around here? Surely, it’ll be in their library or archives,” Dante said with a smirk.

  Kane glared at him.

  “I will go to the coven house tomorrow and get entry for all of us into the library, and what do you have to offer?” Kane asked.

  “I will make some phone calls and see if any of my contacts have anything of use on the matter,” Dante said.

  Once again, the tension could be cut with a knife, and I was in no mood to hang around and deal with it. I left the men to butt heads and instead opted to pull on my boots and head into Inverness. Maybe the Council had something of use. Surely, they could recommend an archivist or something. It was nine pm, but the sun wouldn’t set for another couple of hours. I just hoped the Council kept someone working there in the evenings. Surely, they would, given they were in control of the entire supernal population of Scotland.

  The drive to Inverness was quick and easy. I even managed to find a parking space. Admittedly, it was a good ten-minute walk from the Council building, but it was a bright balmy night and the air was full of laughter and merriment. The walk would do me some good.

  I’d made my way past a sleek modern building that offered an all you can eat Chinese buffet. It was packed with happy diners and wonderful-smelling food. The mango pudding they had there wasn’t even slightly Chinese, but it was heavenly. Kane had tried to convince the waiter to give us the recipe, but even his charms weren’t enough.

  I was pulled from my memories when I caught sight of someone that looked strikingly like my mother. I frowned and took a few steps closer to the bench. The hair was longer than I remembered, but that kind face with soft brown eyes was exactly the same.

  “Mom?” I whispered.

  The woman got up and walked away deeper into the city. I had to follow her. I had to know. It was ridiculous, I was probably stalking a complete stranger, but if she was my mom, there were answers I needed. Like, ‘why had they vanished that fateful night.’

  The woman wove her way between the streets, leading me deeper into the city and down increasingly narrow and twisting roads until we were at a dead end, and three people were behind me.

  “Hello, Wren,” the woman said.

  I stopped dead in my tracks. Her voice was perfect.

  “Why?” I asked in barely a whisper as my heart threatened to stop dead in my chest.

  I’d dreamt of this moment for years. Why did it feel so wrong now?

  The woman, my mother, took a step towards me. Her face split into a feral grin.

  “Poor little dear,” she cooed as the two people moved in closer behind me.

  Then it hit me. My shock faded, and I felt her bloodsong. It wasn’t the delicate lullaby of my mother, it was a sharp pulsating song that was echoed by the two people behind me.

  “Who the fuck are you, and how do you know my mother’s face?” I growled as my magic rose within me.

  “You’re so easy. My comrades haven’t even gotten into your house to get to your men, but you? All I had to do was put on a little glamour and you followed me like a lost little lamb,” the woman sneered.

  She dropped the glamour to reveal the sharp angles and thin mouth of a fae mutt. The heavily pointed ears spoke to some elf blood, but the body was short and heavy like a redcap, and the bone structure was something I didn’t know. Her mouth was full of small, sharp needle-like teeth, and short pointed claws tipped her fingers.

  A glance over my shoulder showed her two friends had a similar appearance, brothers perhaps. I unsheathed my blades and allowed my magic to rise. They would pay for daring to use my mother’s face.

  “What did you do to her?” I growled as I rushed the fae bitch.

  You need a piece of someone to be able to do a full glamour of them, which meant she’d met my mother.