Crown of Blood Read online

  I gave him a tight smile. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”

  Contempt washed over his face. “You think being a Whelan makes you special, but I can see it’s made you foolish.”

  My brows shot up to my hairline. “Foolish?” Suddenly the power holding me to the wall evaporated, and I dropped to the floor, landing on my hands and knees.

  “Yes, foolish,” he spat. “You think you’re better than everyone else because you’re a Whelan.” He leaned closer. “Well, here’s a newsflash, Princess, you’re no better than me.”

  Princess? My anger flared and I held out my hand, brandishing the glowing orb. “I could take your precious magic from you.”

  Although the last thing I wanted or needed was more power, some fickle part of me was tempted by the prospect. He was standing close enough to reach, and now that he’d opened a magical conduit, I could see that he was stronger than I’d originally suspected.

  Releasing a chuckle, he shook his head. “You really think you can, Whelan? Go ahead and try.” He held his hands out from his sides and took a step back.

  I got to my feet, wondering what game he was playing. Alone, we might have been close to equals, but now that I possessed the orb… I might not know how to use it yet, but I was still more powerful than any one individual, including this egotistical asshole. “It doesn’t seem fair to hurt you.”

  He laughed. “Give it your best shot, little girl.”

  My eyes narrowed, and my hair began to sway in the waves of power releasing from my body. “I’m a grown woman. And this is your last warning.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. “I’m waiting…”

  I reached out for his power, then quickly found myself on the floor, my arms bound to my sides. My palm burned the side of my thigh.

  He walked over and looked down at me with a sneer. “You don’t know the first thing about controlling your power, which makes you reckless and dangerous. You’re not some powerful being to be feared.”

  I squirmed against the invisible restraints, unsure of how he was doing it or how to stop him. But I could sense where his magic was emanating from—his right hand—and I stored that fact away for later use. Many mages had a favored hand for casting, just like most people prefer to write with a certain hand.

  He yawned, but it was clearly a ruse for my benefit. He wanted to remind me that he was so in control of the situation that it bored him. “I’m tired and don’t have time to babysit you tonight, Princess. It’s time for you to go to bed.”

  He used the term “princess” to mock me, but he’d soon bow before me. The Book of Sindal had declared me its queen. If I decided to accept that role, I would wear a crown made from the blood of my enemies.

  Zane Chambers’s blood would most certainly be added to the others.

  But something else held my attention at the moment. Although his complete control over me was shocking—no one had ever controlled me like this—I was even more surprised by how right his magic felt against mine. His ice was the perfect counterpart to my fire.

  Did he feel it too?

  Based on the hard set of his jaw and his dark, narrowed eyes, that answer was no.

  I wanted to figure out why his magic was affecting me, but first I needed to break free of my constraints. He was making me vulnerable in a way I couldn’t endure.

  Before I could act, I was lifted onto my feet.

  Zane took a step closer, the smell of rain and musk wafting to my nose. “Will you behave if I release your restraints?” he asked.

  I struggled to break free, but it only made the invisible binds tighter.

  Zane playfully cocked an eyebrow, but it was clear this game wasn’t playful at all. “Do you need me to put you to bed?”

  His statement was full of innuendo, but something told me this was another piece of drama.

  “No,” I said, softly, all fight gone. I knew when to choose my battles, and I wasn’t winning this one. I needed to take everything I’d learned from this encounter and hopefully use it against him next time. “Just point me to my room.”

  He looked wary. I’d given up too easily.

  “I’m tired, Master Chambers,” I said coyly, using the title the Dark Set preferred witches use to address mages. “I’d like to sleep, so if you’ll just tell me how to get to my room, I’ll be on my way.”

  He released a bitter laugh. “Oh, that’s not happening. I’m escorting you to your room, but lucky for you, it’s only two doors down.” As he spoke, the doorknob turned, and the door pushed open.

  I tried to keep from staring at him in amazement, not that he’d opened the door—I could do that, although it was just as likely the door would have been ripped off its hinges. I was amazed that he had such careful control of his magic. He didn’t leak or radiate power.

  How had he achieved such control?

  How could I achieve such control?

  But as the bindings around me released, I realized that the touch of his magic—so cool against the roiling fire of my power—had cleared my troubled mind. The battle of flesh versus power had reached a momentary truce. The magic inside me had settled into a calm quiet I hadn’t felt in years.

  I gaped at him, but his eyes narrowed in suspicion, not that I blamed him.

  “Right this way, Princess,” he said, gesturing down the hall.

  Still calmed by his magic, I did as he suggested, walking down the hall into the dark room. I turned back to face him, on the verge of asking him if he felt it too.

  But he seemed unaffected. “Someone will be by to get you in the morning,” he said, then paused and added, “Goodnight, Princess.” He closed the door—with his hand this time—leaving me alone in my room.

  It was a simple room, reminding me of a single-person dorm room—cinder block walls, a cot, an empty desk, and a window, which had been magically fortified. I suspected I could break through it like a Mack truck through tissue paper, but I saw no need. It was best to let them think I was under their control—Zane’s little demonstration included.

  It would only make the surprise at the end that much sweeter.

  I lay down on the thin mattress, feeling a spring poke into my hip. I knew I should practice with the orb, but exhaustion washed over me, and the calm in my head tugged at my consciousness, dragging me down into sleep. I slept better than I had in years, but I dreamed of a raven-haired man with piercing blue eyes who soothed the monster inside me.

  Chapter Three

  I was disoriented when I awoke, partially because I wasn’t in a room I immediately recognized, but mostly because my mind was clearer than it had been in years.

  And it wasn’t because of the orb. Although I’d claimed the orb to become more powerful, part of me had hoped I might be able to use it to siphon away some of my own chaotic magic. It hadn’t worked out that way, however, and I doubted it was possible. No, this feeling was from my fleeting contact with Zane Chambers’s magic. I didn’t like that. At all.

  I sat up and looked around the room, needing to relieve myself, and found a small half bath in what I’d first mistaken for a closet.

  I needed to take advantage of my clarity of mind to formulate a plan. Last night, I’d shown up at the abandoned hospital without one. I’d only heeded the book’s call. In hindsight, I’d let the book make too many decisions for me.

  What would I do when it called again? Because I knew for certain it would.

  I was afraid to answer that question.

  Again, I was confronted with the fact that Mother hadn’t known everything. She hadn’t know about Zane’s possible involvement with the Druids…or that the book would literally speak to me. But my mission remain unchanged. She’d insisted it would be up to me to save the world from the Dark Set.

  Millennia ago, witches and mages had been equal in power. But the mages’ need to dominate and control had fed their proclivity to violence. So a great war had broken out between the two magical communities. The Samsites, a matriarchal society, had finally conquered
the invading Brexors, a patriarchal society, and used the Dagger of Hillcrest to take their power and give it to the Samsites. The Brexors had lost all magical ability and became humans.

  In the fallout from the war, the Samsite leaders realized that the men in their own society might turn on them like the Brexors had. While the witches didn’t take all of the mages’ magic, they weakened it. Ever since, witches had been more powerful than mages, with rare exceptions, and the Dark Set’s violent attempts to overthrow the existing government only proved that the Samsites had taken the right course of action.

  To disband their group forever, I would have to take the last remnants of power from the Dark Set mages and give it to the witches.

  The book had given me one of the tools I needed for my plan—the orb—weeks ago, but then it had insisted that I relinquish the orb to Donall. I’d done its bidding, even though it seemed counterintuitive to my overall plan, but now I had the orb back. The Dark Set needed it to control the witches, and they didn’t know how to take it from me. They would have to cooperate, whether they liked it or not.

  The key was to convince them that I wanted their help to get my power under control.

  Keep your focus, Celeste, I could hear my mother say. Soon you will save the world.

  But first I needed something to eat.

  I tried the doorknob, not surprised to find it locked. When I probed it with my magic, I could tell it was spelled with Druid magic. So Zane had trained with Druids.

  I was about to use my power to dissect what he’d done when I felt another magical person join the guard outside my door. The guard was a telekinetic—a useful trait for someone in his position—but the new person was a witch, a healer. When the door opened, I realized she was here to see me. She was young, probably not much older than me, and her eyes were much kinder than I’d have expected, given her association with the Dark Set.

  “Hi,” she said, giving me a tentative glance while staying close to the open doorway. “I’m Lisa and I’m a healer.”

  “I’m not ill,” I said softly.

  She gave me a hint of a smile as she took a step forward. “I know, but I wanted to come introduce myself.” She paused and took in a breath, obviously unsure if she should say more.

  Did this mean she was a possible ally?

  “Go on,” I said. “I won’t hurt you.”

  Relief washed over her face, even if her body still remained semi-alert. “I know your sister.”

  “Phoebe?” Phoebe was a librarian, and her job gave her more contact with the outside world, although mostly with humans. Rowan worked from home. I had a job at a factory, but I’d always kept my head down. Well, except for the time I’d almost killed a co-worker due to a fluctuation in my magic. He’d sexually harassed me, but he didn’t deserve to die.

  “No. Rowan.” When my brow lifted in surprise, she said, “I met her at Radcliffe. The hospital where you got the orb.”

  Ah… “Did she need medical attention?”

  She squirmed, not wanting to look me in the eye.

  “I won’t hold you responsible,” I said softly. “I presume you were the one to heal her.”

  Her gaze lifted to mine. “Are you here to help the Dark Set?”

  Was she a spy? It seemed counterintuitive for witches to join a group of men determined to take their power, but Mother had warned me that some women would follow them because they wanted men to dominate them. A concept that seemed so foreign I couldn’t begin to understand it.

  Was Lisa here because she wanted to be or had she been coerced? She had a sweet spirit, so unlike the Dark Set’s predominant attitude, but I didn’t want to make a naïve mistake. Despite what Zane Chambers thought, I was no one’s fool.

  “Was my sister hurt or not?” I asked with more force than necessary.

  “She was…” she admitted.

  “Who hurt her and how was she injured?”

  Fear filled her eyes. It was only then I realized my hair was whipping around my head.

  I took a deep breath, then forced a smile. “I’m sure you helped her, Lisa. I only want to know who to hold responsible for hurting my sister.”

  The tension eased slightly from her body. She glanced over her shoulder before turning back to me. “I can take that headache from you,” she said, moving closer.

  Obviously, I didn’t have a headache, but I sat on the bed and let her sweep my thick hair to the side and place her warm hands on my neck.

  “Donall,” she whispered as her hands began to massage my stiff muscles. “He read her mind, but he wasn’t gentle about it. She slept for two days. I repaired what I could to encourage her healing, but my magic can only do so much.” Something in her voice led me to believe she hadn’t told me the whole story.

  “There were other occasions,” I murmured.

  Her hands stopped, then started again. “Yes.” I sensed her hesitation, but she took a deep breath and said, “He hit her, then locked her in a closet for a day and night. He let me fully heal her that time.”

  “I see.” And I did. No one hurt my sister and got away with it. Of course, I planned to take Donall’s power anyway, but he’d just ensured I’d kick him in the balls as I did it.

  “She likely deserved the punishment she received,” Zane said, appearing in the doorway, his magic sneaking up on me again. I needed to find a way to read it, even when he kept it purposely hidden.

  “Punishment?” I asked in disbelief, but I kept my body loose and relaxed, as though I didn’t believe he posed a threat to me. But I reminded myself I needed to convince the Dark Set that I was on their side, which meant I couldn’t react.

  “I heard the story this morning. She possessed the power to read the book, and she refused,” he said arrogantly as he shut the door behind him.

  His presence made the room feel ten times too small.

  Lisa’s hand dropped from my neck, and she took a step toward him. “Rowan didn’t know what she could do, Zane. The book and her blood finally released her abilities.”

  Surprise overtook me when I realized Lisa planned to pick a fight over this. So she had been coerced into helping them.

  “Then you believe a lie,” he snapped.

  “I saw it with my own eyes. Rowan had no idea how to read the book. They tortured her with glamoured spiders—one of her worst fears—and she still didn’t break.” Her face paled, and she glanced back at me, as though worried about my reaction.

  As long as Lisa hadn’t harmed Rowan, she was safe.

  “Enough excuses,” Zane barked, his voice booming in the small room.

  Lisa flinched.

  I rose from the bed and placed myself between the two of them, pushing her back slightly. Here was a fight I could start. “Leave her be.”

  An amused look filled his eyes. “You’re protecting her?”

  “Pick on someone who rivals your ability,” I stated, preparing for my attack, even if I didn’t give the appearance of it.

  He laughed. “And where would I find this person? They obviously aren’t in this room.”

  Last night, his power had emanated through his right hand, so I sent a magical block toward that hand, following it up with a burst of power to lift his body into the air. However, his six-foot-something height didn’t give me much room to work with in the nine-foot-tall room, and his head banged against the ceiling.

  “What the fuck?” Zane grunted, trying to break my block, but I increased the energy flowing into it and lifted his prone body, back first, onto the ceiling. The yelp he released was likely from the sprinkler head digging into his shoulder blades.

  Lisa grabbed my arm, her eyes wide and pleading, and said, “Don’t hurt him.”

  I turned to look at her in confusion. “He was going to hurt you.”

  “No, he wasn’t,” she said in a rush. “He won’t. He’s my—”

  “Enough!” Zane shouted, sending a burst of power against my shield, the surge so powerful it flung me against the back wall, inches from
the window.

  I hit with more force than I’d expected or prepared for, my skull hitting a cinder block with a resounding crack, but I took momentary satisfaction from the fact that he’d been so focused on breaking my block he’d neglected to think about how he’d get down from the ceiling. He hit the floor stomach first.

  “Zane!” Lisa cried out, but she rushed to my side first. “Let me examine you,” she whispered to me with fear in her eyes. Was she worried that he’d be upset because she’d chosen to help me first? The Dark Set philosophy certainly put men above women, which meant her decision could get her in trouble. Her open hands hovered in front of my face, and I could feel her power probing my body, searching for injuries.

  Zane got to his hands and knees, taking a moment to recover, and I wondered if I’d knocked the air out of him.

  “She has a mild concussion,” Lisa snapped at him, glancing over her shoulder. “What were you thinking? You could have killed her!”

  He rose to a squat, eyeing me with contempt. “Yes, I could have killed her, but obviously she is very much alive.”

  “Zane!”

  He got to his feet, but it looked like it pained him to do so. “Did you see what she did to me, Lisa?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “You brought it on yourself, you fool.” Then she turned back to me, gently placing her hands on the crown of my head.

  “You’re actually going to heal her first?” he asked, incredulous.

  “Yes,” she snipped. “Just wait your turn.”

  I watched them in disbelief. How was she getting away with speaking to him like that?

  His face reddened with anger as he jerked the chair away from the desk, tugging it to the center of the room. He flopped onto the seat, watching the healer with narrowed eyes.

  “How’d you know to block my power like that?” he barked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied, keeping my gaze on the bathroom door, refusing to look at him.