Drake of Tanith (Chosen Soul)

  She was trespassing.

  But Raven possessed a stubborn streak and, upon that thought, she quickened her steps, ignoring the ill-omened impressions around her. As she drew nearer to the looming black doors, she began to make out the sound of voices. She stilled, cocking her head to one side, listening intently. After a few moments, she continued to creep ever closer on the balls of her feet.

  The voices were instantly recognizable. One was Lord Astriel’s, and the other belonged his indomitable father, King Oberon. Raven approached the door, placed her ear against it, and caught part of what they were saying.

  “This soon after Cruor’s downfall… it’s too soon. The mortals can’t take so much all at once,” said Astriel.

  “You concern yourself too much with their welfare,” Oberon replied coolly. “The Hunt has proceeded every year for thousands of years. Do you think I care that the mortals may not be in the mood for it at the moment?” He chuckled and it was a deep, dark sound. “Their petty concerns will not stand in the way of a tradition such as this one, Astriel. And you should –”

  “Wait.”

  There was a brief pause and Raven’s stomach did an uncomfortable turn. She backed away from the door, her courage suddenly sucked dry. At once she felt vulnerable. Guilty.

  They heard me, she thought. They know I’m here.

  She continued to back away, still on her tiptoes, not wanting to draw any further attention to herself. But the silence beyond the doors stretched; the prince and king were no longer conversing. The quiet was pregnant with unspoken accusation.

  When she’d managed to put several feet between herself and the dark doors, Raven spun on her heel and prepared to run back down the hall.

  “Good evening, Raven.”

  Raven froze in mid-step. Astriel stood before her in the hall, still dressed in his dark, princely garb, from his black boots to the black and silver tunic of his office. His hands were at his sides, his expression was calm, and his sapphire blue cat-like eyes appeared a shade darker than normal.

  Raven felt dizzy, her heart was beating so hard. She met his gaze, though it was difficult, and wondered whether he could hear the rush of her blood through her ears as loudly as she could.

  “You’re up late again, princess,” he said as he took a step toward her. Somewhere overhead, thunder rumbled across the night sky. It struck Raven as strange – as wrong. It never stormed in Trimontium. Summer had told her as much when she and Loki had first arrived all those weeks ago.

  Astriel’s dark eyes glittered in the eerie light shed by the indigo torches. He took another step toward her and she found herself retreating. The movement did not go unnoticed by the elf prince, who glanced once at her bare feet before catching her gaze once more.

  Raven lifted a foot, placed it behind her, and was shocked when it met something solid. She glanced over her shoulder to find that she’d backed herself into a wall that should not have been there.

  When she turned back around, Astriel had closed the distance between them. He raised his arms and pressed his hands against the wall on either side of her head. Raven stopped breathing. She was trapped there, in the cage of his arms.

  He then leaned in.

  She waited, held rapt in the sway of his power, as his exotic pupils expanded hungrily and he drew so near that his next words whispered across her lips. “What haunts you this night, love?” He smiled a knowing smile. “Bad dreams?”

  Chapter Two

  He smelled good. There was something about the elves that made them always smell nice. The women smelled like flowers or chocolate or fruits. The men always reminded Raven of red-draped chambers filled with leather furniture and massive, four-poster beds. They made her think of long nights, candle light, fire places crackling, and satin sheets. Wine. Power. Wealth.

  Blood.

  Lord Astriel smelled like dark promises, if such a thing had a scent. And beneath the black leather and royalty elixir that he wore around him was a promise that only someone like Raven could appreciate. The blood that ran through Astriel’s veins was old. She was a devil who needed blood to use her powers. Blood such as Astriel’s was tempting, indeed.

  As if he could read her thoughts, the prince’s smile grew broader. His eyes flashed with something secret. “Well, Raven? Was it a nightmare that roused you from sleep this night?” he whispered. His nearness was making her feel strange. She felt weightless and tipsy, as if she’d downed half a mug of ale and was now experiencing the effects.

  She swallowed hard, finding her throat rather dry. “Bad dreams?” Raven whispered. She’d meant to simply speak, but her voice seemed to be temporarily missing. She cleared her throat and tried again. “No. Not really bad. Just….” She trailed off, getting lost in the pull of his darkening gaze. What could she say? Something told her she didn’t really want to reveal the fact that she’d been dreaming about Drake of Tanith.

  Astriel studied her carefully in what became a rather pregnant silence. She knew full well that he was aware she had been listening in on him and his father. A part of her just wished he would call her on it. If he didn’t, she couldn’t ask him what he had been talking about. She couldn’t ask about The Hunt.

  Unexpectedly, Astriel straightened, lowering his arms to take a single step back. He offered her his hand. “Walk with me, princess.”

  Raven swallowed hard and dropped her gaze to stare at his offered hand. He had long, graceful fingers. All of the elves did. Suddenly Raven couldn’t help but wonder what those fingers would feel like running through her hair or brushing aside her clothes.

  Raven blinked. Her cheeks flushed and her mouth went dry. The image had come without warning.

  “You’re doing this to me, aren’t you?” she suddenly asked. She’d had no idea she was going to say it. It just came out.

  Astriel seemed to pause even though he hadn’t been moving.

  “You’re the reason behind the lag in my powers. It’s you.” Raven’s heart hammered and blood roared in her ears. But she couldn’t stop. “You’ve cast some sort of spell on me. You’re keeping me here… weakening me.” She swallowed hard, nearly coughing as her throat suddenly tried to work past a dry lump. “Aren’t you.”

  It wasn’t a question. They both knew that.

  Very slowly, Astriel lowered his hand. The black in his eyes swallowed the blue entirely, and Raven released a ragged breath. The air in the corridor grew thick with the threat of magic.

  But Raven’s mind was crackling; images were shoving themselves through the fog that had inhabited her brain for the last month. She saw Drake, as always. But she saw others as well. Summer… Lord Malphas. Adonides.

  Her brother.

  “By Abaddon,” she whispered suddenly, realizing that she hadn’t spoken with Loki in more than thirty moons. She hadn’t even wanted to. To say nothing of her parents.

  Her gaze narrowed on the prince now and her jaw clenched, her teeth grinding together. “You bastard,” she hissed, terrified of what the prince would do to her if she lashed out at him, but so angry that she was unable to rationalize her actions. “What have you done?”

  “You needed rest,” Astriel told her. There was no inflection to his tone, no indication of emotion on his handsome face. He simply watched her, a cat in the darkness watching its prey.

  Raven’s body was shaking. “Like hell!” she cried, moving forward and raising both arms to shove the prince hard in the chest.

  *****

  Astriel saw the attack coming but did nothing to stop it. He’d known this would happen eventually. It was only a matter of time before Raven’s brother found a way past Astriel’s wards and the magic of the castle.

  The Champion of Haledon had tried to reach his sister countless times over the past month. He’d performed scries that Astriel had simply flicked away with no more than a thought. He’d rallied at the castle’s gates and Astriel’s guard had turned him away on threat of death… and worse.

  But Haledon was a popular god an
d Loki had the backing of all of his priests. Astriel had known that eventually the Champion would manage to amass enough power behind his spell to reach his sister.

  That was what was happening right now. Astriel could feel Haledon’s presence in the hall. He could feel the magic of the sun god’s acolytes surrounding Raven, clearing her mind of the shroud of confusion Astriel had so painstakingly settled over it.

  He’d only hoped he would have more time. He’d hoped he would be able to keep her at the castle long enough to obtain her hand in marriage.

  Astriel’s incredibly long existence had always been tainted by the golden hand of ease. Nothing had ever been difficult for him before Raven Grey. She was turning him inside out.

  When he’d first set eyes on her, he’d been intrigued. He had to admit to himself now that at the time, his thoughts had been purely selfish. He’d wanted to obtain something he didn’t have and he’d wanted it before anyone else could claim it.

  But in the weeks since she’d been at the castle with him and his people, she’d taught him more about himself than he’d ever cared to learn. The soul that inhabited her body was so old and multi-faceted, it was like a diamond with countless faces. Each reflected something beautiful, and each was imperatively fragile.

  She’d taught him depth in the different aspects of her spirit. She’d taught him patience in the way she continued to tell him no. She’d even taught him the strangely rewarding sensation of keeping a promise. After bringing her to the castle a month ago, Astriel had taken it upon himself to tend to the issue of her parents, as he’d sworn he would do. He transported to Aster Hollow under the cover of night to make certain that Alastair and Sarah Grey were alive and not suffering due to Loki and Raven’s escape weeks before.

  It turned out that they were alive, but had indeed been rather shunned since Raven’s break from the town jail. One of the boys who had died in their altercation with Raven weeks earlier had been the son of a prominent businessman in Aster Hollow and because of Raven’s escape, the man had been squeezing the town. The townsfolk automatically took out their frustrations on Alastair and Sarah, citizens that had until then been very popular among the locals.

  This was easy enough for Astriel to deal with. A simple spell developing new trade routes and another spell to ensure political and financial interest and the townspeople of Aster Hollow began making so much money, they forgot about their anger.

  Raven wasn’t even aware of it yet. He had not told her. He hadn’t wanted to remind her of her parents… of her family, in general. But tending to the issue had given Astriel a strange sense of fulfillment which he wisely kept to himself. It wouldn’t be smart to let on to his father that he’d suddenly become sympathetic to humans in any way, shape or form.

  Raven was turning his world upside down. She’d begun to touch upon something inside of himself that was… decidedly uncomfortable. He wanted to know more, and yet he didn’t. It hurt.

  But whatever the consequences, he wasn’t willing to let her go. The thought of living at the castle, of handling its endless political tasks and responsibilities without Raven, was a thought he’d become increasingly unable to bear. He wasn’t accustomed to not getting what he wanted. In Raven, he saw the symbol of everything he wanted. She was strength and innocence and immense, untapped power. Keeping her here against her will, in fact, had been one of the most difficult feats he had ever accomplished. She was draining him as surely as he was her.

  He had never had to try so hard for anything in his life. Yet, she eluded him. She fought him. She defied him and… she hated him.

  And now, once again, she was slipping through his fingers.

  Raven shoved him in the chest and Astriel took a single step back, absorbing the impact. She was so much smaller than he was, but she was no weakling. She was an Abaddonian and she was furious.

  “You lied to me. I thought that at the very least, you would be a man of your word, but I was so very wrong,” she hissed, her dark eyes shooting sparks.

  Astriel couldn’t help the surge of anger that rushed through him at her words. But he kept his face blank and his tone calm, desperately not wanting to make the situation worse than it had already become. “I never lied to you, Raven. I swore that you would be safe here. I promised to look after your parents. Has anything untoward happened to any of you?” he asked.

  Raven seemed to pause. She blinked and drew back. He knew she was wondering now; remembering her parents, her family. She had no idea what had come of them, but he wasn’t going to give her time to get up to speed or retaliate.

  “Your parents are well and if you would like, I can show you as much.” A scry spell would be easy, and it would keep her with him in the castle for that much longer. “And you are safe, Raven,” he went on. “Not a single entity has been able to pass through these walls to harm you.” He shook his head, allowing some of the steel in his blood to reach the blue of his eyes. He felt his gaze harden. “I never lied to you.”

  Raven looked up at him in silence for several long moments. He could hear her heart beating rapidly. Elves had very good hearing.

  Her heart rate sped up further and he knew that she wasn’t finished.

  “Answer me prince,” she spat. “Did you cast a spell on me?”

  “No,” he told her. There had been no spell involved. No incantation, no boiling cauldron of smelly liquid, no material components to light on fire or cast into the wind. He’d simply wanted to overwhelm her with his magic. And so he had.

  “Lies!” she accused a mere half a second before she was reaching out for her own magic. She could feel it there now, he knew. Whatever her brother had cast outside of Eidolon’s walls was allowing Raven the clarity of mind that she needed to find her power. All of it.

  Raven Grey was also Winter, daughter of Malphas – princess of Caina. A month ago, Lord Malphas had gifted his daughter a magical ring, the Ring of Halcyon, which possessed the power to aid Raven in using and channeling the magic inside of her. However, Astriel had taken the ring from her in sleep many moons ago, and his power over her insured that she not remember it.

  Yet, now, it was clear that the Ring of Halcyon was obsolete. It was no longer needed – not by Raven Grey. Somewhere, somehow in the last month, the princess of Caina had come full circle, as her father had hoped she one day would. Raven was having no trouble finding her potentially immense and frightening magic all on her own, a fact she now proved as she raised her hand and a swirling mass of frigid energy spun and pooled in her upturned palm.

  She was undeniably dangerous.

  But Astriel was the prince of the elves, and the elves were the leaders of the Fae realm and people. He was the second most powerful being in countless worlds.

  The princess was unquestionably livid, and things had not gone at all as he’d hoped, but there was no way in Abaddon he was going to stand there and allow his future bride to attempt to destroy him, possibly harming herself in the process.

  Raven released the energy she’d amassed and Astriel braced himself, forming his own magic into an invisible shield before and around him. Raven’s cold blast slammed into the shield with the sound of a thunder clap. The walls shook and a tapestry several feet down slipped and fell from its hooks. The floor and walls iced over with thick inches of crackling rime. The air in the hall had turned to winter.

  Raven’s eyes went eerily black. Her teeth were clenched, and her gaze was furious. Astriel dropped the shield and strode forward. But as he’d suspected she would, Raven pulled back, ready to hit him with another spell.

  Astriel’s breath crystallized before him. He needed to subdue her but desperately did not want to harm her. The problem was…. Fae magic could be very nasty. If a victim resisted an elf’s charm, sleep spell, or weakening spell, then there wasn’t much left for an elf to do but get violent.

  “Raven, I’ll warn you once,” he told her, thoroughly meaning it. He wasn’t going to allow her to destroy him. That was a given. And he wasn’t going t
o allow her to escape. If she didn’t calm down…. “And once only,” he continued. “Calm down and we’ll discuss this.”

  “I’m through discussing things with you, Astriel,” she told him. He could feel her power building again, stronger than the first time. If she hit him with another blast, he would be fine. But she would take out half of the hall. “You’ve kept me here for… I don’t even know how long!”

  She was furious. What he’d done was unforgivable in her eyes.

  The second blast came with inhuman speed. She hadn’t raised her hand and no swirling ball of energy had pooled in her palm – she’d simply looked at him, her gaze had narrowed slightly, and the corridor was suddenly filled with the winds of Caina.

  Astriel had a split second to react, no more. He spoke a single, arcane word and the cold blast trailed safely around him like fingers of lightning. He was untouched, but everything around him was about to enter into a deep freeze.

  In the next split instant, a second voice rang out through the corridor, filling it with ancient Fae magic. The destructive magical cold dissipated, ebbing at once into nothingness before it could destroy half of the castle.

  Astriel turned to see his father standing at the end of the hall. When he looked back, it was to find that during her attack, Raven Grey had become Winter, the devil princess. She was taller in this form, her skin was the blue-violet of deep twilight, and her once blue-black eyes now glowed three different, vivid colors. Her hair had gone from raven black to angel white, and massive raven-like wings spread magnificently from her back.

  She was stunning. And even now, despite the calm interference of King Oberon, Winter was gathering her magic to her again.

  Astriel steeled his spirit and spoke the short, archaic words of another spell.

  Winter’s head snapped back and she stumbled into the wall behind her. Her wings fluttered and then began to fold.

  The sound of booted footfalls filled the hall as Oberon came nearer. Astriel watched Winter carefully. She fell to one knee and then shook her head as if to clear it. She fought to stand. It was amazing what she as doing. No mortal could withstand a Fae sleep spell, especially not when cast by the elf prince.