Crown of the Queen (The Wardbreaker Book 3) Read online

  Scowling, folding her arms, and shaking her head, Danvers turned around. I waited, counting to five in my head before finally deciding to leave. I had told her I would respect her decision, and she had decided to kill the conversation. All I had to do now was find another way of getting Aetherglass. Easy.

  I headed for the door.

  “If I go back to Devil Falls, I’m dead,” she said.

  Stopping at the door, I turned my head. “Dead? What are you talking about?”

  “Someone put a bounty on me a long time ago. I don’t know who, but I got told a couple of years ago by someone who risked their lives to tell me.”

  “Wait… so, you’re saying if you go back, someone could try and kill you?”

  “Not someone. Anyone. You do know how bounties work, right?”

  “Jesus, of course, I do. But a bounty? Why haven’t you told me before?”

  “I’ve never told anyone.”

  “I get why you wouldn’t want this to be common knowledge, but we’ve been through enough now that I like to think we can share stuff like this with each other.”

  “Yeah? Well, you thought wrong. There are some things I want to keep to myself. Don’t try to convince me you’re not keeping secrets of your own?”

  “I won’t. But Cassidy… this is big.”

  “Only if I go back, and I won’t, so it’s no biggie.”

  I walked over to her. “Do you have any idea who could’ve done this?”

  She shrugged. “I’ve thought about it before, but I’ve come up short. It’s not like there’s anyone I can ask about it, either. Anyone who might know is down in Devil Falls. My best guess is this has something to do with my parents. Some kind of revenge thing, maybe, for all the shitty things they’ve done to people over the years. It could literally be anyone, and that’s the worst part.”

  Spanner, meet the works.

  This wasn’t just a concrete reason not to go to Devil Falls, it was the only reason. Up to now, stories of how dangerous that part of New York was were exactly that; stories, myths, urban legends. This, on the other hand, was concrete. Solid intel, and not what I wanted to hear. If there really was someone—or people—out there who wanted to kill Danvers, I couldn’t risk it.

  She couldn’t risk it.

  “Look…” I said, “I can’t force you to come to Devil Falls. But maybe you don’t have to.”

  Danvers cocked her head to the side and frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, maybe you can guide us from afar. Maybe Axel can keep us linked so we can talk to each other while we dive into Devil Falls.”

  She shook her head. “You mean you want me to sit on my ass back here and be your freaking Sat-Nav while you muddle your way through one of the most dangerous places in New York City? Nah. That will never work.”

  I sighed. “We need that Mage.”

  She shut her eyes and exhaled deeply. “God-dammit. I’m gonna have to go back to Devil fucking Falls, aren’t I?”

  “You don’t have to. We can find another way.”

  “You and I both know that’s a whole load of bullshit. If there was another way, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

  “Probably not…”

  “We’re probably gonna end up dead… but I guess, what difference does it make if it’s a hitman in the city or some ancient monster in a city underwater that takes me out?”

  “That’s the spirit?” I asked, my voice faltering a little at the end there. “We’ve already risked our lives for each other a bunch of times. The last time you were in Devil Falls you were a lone wolf, but right now, you’ve got your pack with you; we’re ready to protect you.”

  “Fine, let’s fucking do it. When are we going on this suicide mission?”

  “I don’t know. I need to talk to Axel and make sure he knows what we’re planning. He may have some way of improving our chances of coming out of this on top and alive. But soon.”

  “Well, if this is going to work, then I’m going to be in charge of this one. Understood?”

  “Is that so?”

  Danvers nodded. “It is. I’m the most experienced person on the team right now, so you go and find out when you want to get this done. Meanwhile, I’ll start figuring out how we’re going to do this without getting killed. Oh, and this is just a suggestion, but you should definitely sleep with Axel. Tonight.”

  A flush of warmth rushed into my cheeks. “I—what? Why?”

  “Because you might die tomorrow, and you’re clearly both hot for each other.”

  I laughed, nervously. “You’re being ridiculous.”

  “No, I’m being serious. I know we’ve been through some shit since we started this whole thing, but what we’re about to do is next level dangerous, and I really don’t know what’s gonna happen. I’m not trying to oversell this place; it just is what it is.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “Okay… thanks. I’ll keep that under advisement.”

  “Good. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m gonna see Becket about his liquor cabinet and drink until I pass out.”

  Danvers started walking toward the door. “Please don’t get too drunk?”

  “Relax, RJ can fix me in the morning. Meanwhile, you go and see that man about his penis—I mean, the plan.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Danvers may have been a little crude in her delivery, but she had a point. Things between Axel and I were a little… weird. I mean, to begin with, there was no Axel and I. There was no us. But we’d had a few moments already, and things seemed to be headed toward an almost inevitable place.

  Maybe Danvers was right. Maybe what I had to do was march over to Axel’s room, throw him onto his bed, and finally work through some of the tension I was sure we were both feeling. A little voice in the back of my head, however, warned me that was a reckless thing to do. Correction; not the voice in my head, the one on my shoulder.

  “Do you really want to risk straining your relationship now?” Ifrit asked, “Think about this very carefully.”

  “I didn’t ask for your opinion,” I said.

  “And yet, you have it. I think this is something you’ll have to learn to get used to.”

  “I’m used to talking to myself about stuff like this. I’m not sure how I feel about having an external opinion.”

  “You probably feel a little weird, I’ll grant you that. You probably also feel like you’ve lost control. When you control the voice in your head, you can make it say whatever you want, but you don’t control me. You don’t get to decide whether I agree with you or not.”

  “You’re assuming I need your advice on everything that comes my way.”

  “Not everything, but most things, sure. I thought I would keep out of your conversation with Danvers, for example. You had that fairly well handled. But this? I feel like an intervention is in order.”

  I turned the corner. Axel’s room was at the end of the hall. I knew he was there, we were all at Becket’s place, waiting to make the next move. Already I could feel my heartbeat thrumming against my chest, blood pumping through my veins. It was enough to set my skin on fire, but it also put one hell of a stomp into my step.

  I was about to walk into Axel’s room and claim him for myself. I had to admit, I felt powerful. It was the same thing I’d felt most nights on the stage of the Glittered Goddess, when my name was Kandi, and my trade was getting men of all stripes to throw money at me.

  “Think carefully about what you’re about to do,” Ifrit said. “The last thing you want is to cause a problem between the two of you.”

  “I’m done thinking,” I said, “I’ve been an overthinker my whole life. We’re going into Devil Falls, and I don’t know if I’m gonna make it out of there alive. What I do know is that I’m alive right now, and right now I want to spend the night with that man.”

  Ifrit fell silent until I reached Axel’s door. “I guess you’ve had worse ideas,” he said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

 
; Axel’s door opened before Ifrit could respond. Christ, he looked good. He was wearing a white, form-fitting shirt under black suspenders, the top few buttons of his collar opened, his sleeves rolled up. I stared at him, my eyes trawling the landscape of his body. All the while, Axel stared at me, his eyes cautiously narrowed.

  “I… heard you coming,” he said, “Is everything okay?”

  Now wasn’t the time for conversation. I pounced on him, grabbed hold of his collar, and tightly pressed my lips against his. A smaller man would’ve been sent back by the suddenness of it, the force I’d pushed into him, but Axel wasn’t a small man. He stood his ground, took hold of my waist with his hands, and shut the door with his foot.

  A moment later, he pinned me against it.

  “You’re quick on your feet,” I said, reaching for his lips and kissing him again. “I’m impressed.”

  “Not as impressed as you’re going to be,” he said.

  I flipped him around and pinned him to the door, then I buried my face into his neck, letting my lips taste his skin. Axel wrapped his strong arms around me and lifted me off my feet. Effortlessly, he carried me over to his bed and dropped me, letting himself fall on top of me. I brushed the side of his face with my fingertips and stared at him.

  “You’re holding back,” I said.

  “Am I?” he asked.

  “Why haven’t you made a move yet?”

  “I’ve made moves.”

  “A real one.”

  Axel pressed his lips together. “The truth?”

  “Always.”

  “I can’t remember the last time I felt about someone the way I feel about you. I don’t know if I ever have.”

  Butterflies filled my stomach, but I kept my composure. “Bullshit.”

  He shook his head. “You asked me to tell you the truth. That’s the truth.”

  “There are a hundred girls out there who are better for you than me.”

  “Oh yeah? Name them.”

  I frowned. “Okay, I can’t. But they’re out there.”

  Axel brought his lips to my neck. He didn’t touch me, though, only breathed on me, and that made my skin tingle. I sighed, shutting my eyes and letting the feeling wash over me. “If you can name them, I’ll stop.”

  “Who says I want you to stop?”

  His warm breath on my skin was doing all kinds of wonderful things to my body. I leaned into the feeling with my fingertips lightly pressed against the back of his neck when, suddenly, he stopped.

  Axel pulled his head up and looked down at me. “You know…” he said.

  I cocked my head to the side. “Yes?”

  “I’m still owed a dance.”

  “This again?”

  “Seems like the perfect time for it, don’t you think?”

  I stared at him, a playful grin on my face. “You should know, I’ve made unworthy men weep. Do you think you’re ready for me?”

  “Oh, I’m ready.”

  With one quick hip thrust, I rolled him onto his back and pinned him down by his shoulders. I licked my lips. Then I slid my fingertips up and down his suspenders, snapped them against his chest, and tossed my hair from one shoulder to another. “Alright,” I said. “Give me some music.”

  Axel narrowed his eyes, took a deep breath, and breathed magic into the world. A couple of seconds later, a phantom beat started playing. One only Axel and I could hear. It was a song I knew well, one called Tainted Love. It was perfect, exactly the kind of thing Kandi was used to dancing to. The only thing I didn’t have was a pole, but since I’d be dancing on him, I figured I’d make do without it.

  I stood, stepped away from him, letting the music move my hips, then I turned around to find him sitting up. Dropping to my knees with a quickness he hadn’t expected, I crawled toward him, planted my hands on his thighs, and spread his legs apart. Axel stared at me, his eyes wide, his cheeks already flushing red with hot blood. I pulled my chest toward him, sliding across the length of his body until my mouth was an inch away from his.

  I snapped my teeth at him, spun around, and pressed my back against his chest. Axel’s entire body stiffened as I started grinding against him, my body flowing with the rhythm of the music only he and I could hear. One of his hands tried to encroach upon my stomach, but I slapped it back and pulled away from him and walked across the room.

  With my head craned over my shoulder—and my heart thundering against my temples—I slipped my fingertips into the hem of my shirt and tugged it slowly over my head. I tossed my shirt at him, and he caught it against his chest. Smiling widely, he bunched it in his hands and took a deep whiff of it.

  He was playing along, and that made me decide to finally commit to what I was about to do.

  With my back still to him, I reached for the button on my jeans and undid it, glancing across my shoulder at him again as I did so. I wanted to let the moment drag on a little, to tease him with it. This was what I was good at. In the arena of making men feel all kinds of hot, I was a Queen.

  “Wait,” he said, the music around me falling to a lower volume.

  I turned around to look at him, hands on my hips. “Not doing it for ya?” I asked. “Because that would be a first.”

  Axel stood and walked over to me. “No, that’s not it. Trust me.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “What is it?”

  Gently, Axel wrapped his hands around my bare waist. His hands were warm and soft, but I could tell they were strong just by the way he was holding me. “I don’t want you to do that.”

  “You do know a lap dance doesn’t work if I’m wearing jeans, right?”

  “I know. But I don’t want you to take them off.”

  “Why not?”

  His fingers slid slowly toward my waist, making my breath catch in my throat. He wanted to take them off himself. Ballsy move, Axel. Ballsy move, but one I wasn’t unhappy about. I swallowed as, slowly—almost painfully so—he guided his fingertips down beneath my waistline, the warmth of his hands sending ripples of warm excitement all through my body.

  At the point where he was ready to start undressing me, he brought the full weight of his blue-eyed gaze to bear on me. I stared up at him, my breath held, my heart pounding, my entire body on red alert. In an instant, his eyes went from blue, to amber, to white. Axel’s eyes widened, he sucked in a hard gasp, grabbed me, and spun around, shielding me from the fireball that struck the window at our backs.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The explosion was powerful enough to knock the wind out of my lungs and send us both flying toward the other side of the room. I hit the wall hard, and before I could even register any pain from the impact, shards of glass and bits of broken wood and masonry were raining on me. I shielded my face with my arms, tucking myself into a ball to protect myself, but I felt every single cut, every slice, every tear of flesh.

  When the rain stopped, I turned my head up and looked at the space where the wall had once been. It was gone, now; the edges frayed and on fire. The whole room was on fire. Smoke was quickly rising from the burning bed, the end table, the floor. I was already coughing and barely able to move from the pain, but Axel looked unconscious, and he’d landed a few feet away from me.

  I had to get to him. I had to get him out of here, and then I had to check on the others. We were under attack.

  Another explosion rocked the house as I tried to stand, forcing me back to the ground. I wasn’t sure where the fireball had hit, but the walls were shaking, so it couldn’t have been far. Danvers. RJ. Karim. Danvers was only a few doors down, but I didn’t know where Karim and RJ were. Don’t be hurt. Please, don’t be hurt.

  I tried to call for Axel, but I could barely croak through all the smoke swirling through the air. Shutting my eyes and concentrating, I drew the power of the Tempest toward me and put my Elemancy to work. There were fires that needed smothering, air that needed circulating, and I could do all of that literally with my eyes closed.

  Magic rushed through me causing my body
to hum and to vibrate. I slammed my fist against the ground, and an instant later, a phantom wind pushed through the bedroom with enough force to drive the smoke and the fire right out of it, through the broken wall. Embers remained after the wind died down, but at least the smoke was mostly gone.

  Crawling, I made my way over to where Axel lay on his side. I could see his back, his once white shirt charred black and ripped in places. He was bleeding, and I wasn’t sure if he was breathing. The house shook again, this time from an explosion so close to the room we were in I could feel the heat moving up and through the floor.

  “What the fuck is happening?” I asked Ifrit.

  “It was a Mage,” he said, “You saw it the instant before the fireball exploded against the wall. An Elemancer, but one you don’t know.”

  “One of Asmodius’ men?”

  “I can’t possibly know that. Hurry, you’re bleeding from your right leg and you have a shard of glass embedded in your arm.”

  I looked, and instantly regretted making that life choice. It wasn’t just a shard of glass sticking out of my arm—it was easily bigger than my hand, and that was only the part sticking out of the wound. It was a wonder I’d been able to move my arm at all before now, but now that I’d seen it, the entire arm instantly stiffened up as my instinct to protect the injury from getting worse kicked into gear.

  “God dammit,” I groaned, using my real voice.

  My voice must’ve woken Axel up, because he started stirring.

  “Axel!” I yelled as I reached him. I grabbed hold of his shoulder just as he tried to roll onto his back. That was probably going to be a huge mistake for him, given the state he was in. That would’ve been me, I thought, remembering the way he’d spun me around to put his own body between me and the blast he’d seen coming an instant before it had hit.

  He’d probably saved my life.

  “Keep still,” I said, “You’re hurt.”

  “Izz… Izzy…” Just hearing him struggle to say my name hurt more than the shard of glass wedged in my arm.

  I was about to lean over him when the house rumbled again. This time I heard the glass shattering, the wood creaking. The ceiling above me cracked, clouds of dust falling over us. Whoever was hitting Becket’s house clearly had no intention of letting up, and if they carried on, it was only a matter of time before another fireball found its way into this room; or the entire house collapsed altogether.