Wicked Games Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Wicked Games: The Arcane Court Book 1

  Copyright© 2020 Dagmar Avery and K. Margaret

  Cover Artist: Stella Price

  Interior text design: Stacee Sierra

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Wicked Games (The Arcane Court, #1)

  1

  “Princess Alyx?”

  Alyx looked up from her stretching to see Puziel standing in the doorway of the yoga studio. An unofficial guard, as in he and her were not screwing but she felt he was part of her household, the man was fine with a capital F. It was a dirty shame they played for the same team.

  After being rescued by her brother and the other guards at High Court, Puziel had spent the better part of three months at Lotus, getting healthy, and kicking the addiction to Axim they had forced on him. Now, he was hale, hearty, and bonded to her, through blood only, and had taken up the mantel of her court council, as he was far older than he appeared, much like Ariton.

  “Lord Puziel,” she said as she stood up. She hated when any of her household called her princess and had taken to using their titles as well, which was something most cringed at. She liked things informal and tried to keep them that way. She wasn’t above fighting fire with fire. “Is there something I can get you?”

  Puziel frowned. “That lord shit has got to go,” he said as he walked up and handed her a dossier. “Courier from Dank. Seems Nihar has nailed down another horde.”

  Oh, well that was very good news. “Well I suppose we should find Scur and Khalid, yes?” She opened the dossier and scanned the papers, everything from written notes, to satellite images, to comments from Cetus himself. Everything they needed to go forward. “And if you want that lord shit to go, that princess shit has to go, too.”

  “You do realize you are extremely difficult for a royal, right?”

  “New royal. I do things my way. You wanna call me princess, you can join me in bed.” Since only her guard called her that.

  “No, thank you,” he said. “Fetching as you are, you just don’t do it for me.”

  “And therein lies the shame.” She grabbed her water, took a healthy drink and smiled. “So, any news from Faeblin territory?”

  Puziel shook his head. “Abaxley is still recovering and fighting this thing between the two of you.”

  “Don’t I know it.” She huffed. “Well, let’s go find my maniacs and then we can make a plan.”

  They walked down the hallway of her new Sithen, the former Stone Court Sithen. The changeover had been easy, less of an issue than Senara was having, as the rot of the most recent Sahkr generations had been kept out of it largely.

  When she had entered the Sithen after High Court, the majordomo, an entity called Azrael, had informed her that he, having felt the wrongness of the Sahkr family, had closed much of himself off to them, correcting a mistake the High Court Sithen had made. The purge of the rot and evil had been quick, and the estate and Sithen had calmed, and fallen into a decent routine with her and her household.

  She had picked up several of the recovering fae from Lotus, them choosing to join her court because they, like her, had been wronged by the Starlight family, and many were sole survivors of their own houses, like Puziel. Her court was being populated by those looking for a fresh start, second chances, and opportunity.

  Four of the unaligned warrior families had joined her as well. Mantra, her father’s best friend’s house, Daka, the house of fae assassins who had come to her and told her that the head of a warrior court would need them and represent them best, Bleak, the house of Carnage, and Aghast, the family that had straddled the line of Sleeping and Starlight but wanted to make amends for Rune’s misgivings, joined her.

  She had welcomed them and they had started to make the court a home.

  Alyx found Scur in the living room watching something that vaguely sounded like porn, eating popcorn. Thank god they didn’t have kids about. “What are you watching, and where the hell is Khalid? Puziel’s got news.”

  The berserker tossed some popcorn in his mouth and hit the pause button on the remote, stilling the two animated characters on the screen, one whose breasts would have given her massive back problems had they been real. “No idea what I’m watching,” he said with a grin. “Has a fantastic plot, though. At least I’m assuming it does, but I haven’t bothered reading the subtitles. As far as Khalid, he and Pristina were checking out one of the rooms on the far end of the Sithen.”

  “It seems tentacled monsters are not just for the Sluagh anymore. And while I agree some Hentai has some amazing plots, this seems gratuitous and well...” She cocked her head to the side, unsure of what she was seeing past a massive pair of mams. “It seems painful. Get your twisted ass up, lover, we have some tomb raiding to do.”

  “Two of my favorite words,” he said, pushing himself off the couch and placing the popcorn on the table. “Although, ‘get naked’ would be preferable. I do like it when you get all demanding.” He walked over to her, bending over to nibble on her neck. “So what’s old leaky boy found?”

  “I hope he hears you calling him that and poisons your ass,” she heard Khalid say from behind her. “I sensed you needed to see me.”

  She palmed Scur and then turned to smile at Khalid. “Ooh, that’s kinda cool,” she said and pulled her captain into an embrace. He was all sweaty, smelling like dried leaves and sunshine, which was quickly becoming her favorite scent. “I always need to see you. How’s the reno going?”

  “Better than expected. Since the rot didn’t fester as it could have, the Sithen is very accommodating,” Khalid said, tipping her head back to kiss her. “Pristina is going to oversee what’s left. Now...” Khalid trailed off as his gaze landed on the television, then he shook his head. “I seriously don’t want to know.” Scur opened his mouth. “Don’t tell me. Much rather hear about what Puziel discovered.”

  “I didn’t learn anything, Nihar sent it over,” Puziel said.

  “Shall we retire to the war room?” she said and extricated herself from her guard and sauntered to the far room. She gained the large table and pulled out all the pieces of the dossier, setting them out.

  “Don’t worry, Scur, we’ll pull out a dictionary for you,” Khalid said, walking over to stand next to her.

  “You jest,” Scur said, “but that fucking druid has been known to use words in dead languages that no one can understand. Pretty sure he’s cussing us all out but no one can prove it.”

  “Nihar is special,” she agreed, looking at the pictures. She pointed to a satellite photo. “So, another hidden temple. This one in Cambodia.”

  “Southeast Asia,” Scur said and Khalid nodded. “What kind of intel was the druid able to dig up?”

  “I’m trying to read the chicken scratch someone wrote on this.” Khalid leaned closer and squinted his eyes. “Does that say land mines or lame mimes?”

  “That’s Hendrix’s script. If he didn’t have wings he would have been a goddamn doctor with this fucking script.” She pulled another sat photo out, this one in a different color. “Yes, mines. Here, here, and here. I think we will need to airdrop in,” she said and grinned. “Helo.”

  “Only with you a short time and you already want to push me ou
t of a helicopter.” Khalid shook is his head at her and sighed. “Been awhile since I’ve been flying, but sound plan.”

  “We’ll need to make sure where we land doesn’t have mines. Trust me when I say, they aren’t always visible by satellite. Had one hell of a close call in the Battle of Bergen,” Scur said with a shudder.

  She pointed to a flat section of the exposed temple. “Land here. Tight fit but if we keep it quick, we can repel down.” She clapped her hands. “Ooh, this is going to be so much fun. Helo drop, repelling, watching out for mines...” She grinned. “What else is in the notes?”

  Puziel started rifling through the papers. “Seems this one was not on a map, and Cetus didn’t know about it, but Nihar had a download and it appeared.” He looked up. “Said it’s called the Temple of the Mists?”

  “Blood Court move their Sithen to Cambodia?” Scur said with a smirk.

  “That’s the Temple of Insanity,” Khalid countered. “Okay, so Cetus doesn’t remember this place, which probably means they either created the place after he was imprisoned, or it was one of the Light Court’s, before they even became the Light Court. Definitely worth a look see. I mean, it would be smart of them to use a place that wouldn’t ring any bells for Cetus. Lucky for us the druid knows everything.”

  “But not the Light Court,” Scur said. “Since he does know, I’m betting it’s pre-Faerie and the old fuck just doesn’t remember. When do we leave?”

  “There is a third option,” Puziel said.

  “Which is?” she asked as she looked at the notes.

  “Cetus doesn’t know because the gods weren’t aware of it. You forget, I’m old as dirt, and there were things that were hidden, even from the gods, by the old priests.”

  “Doesn’t Nihar’s knowledge of the Sluagh come from Cetus’s blood, though?” Scur asked. “I mean, I’m not really sure how it all works, but he only knows the Nightmare and Sluagh history.”

  “Unless the old priests were part of the Sluagh before Faerie came to be,” Khalid said. “There is a shitload about the world pre-Faerie that none of us know. Hell, only three beings that I know of were alive back then, Cetus, Lucifer, and Canibores. Lucifer barely ever leaves his realm and Canibores barely remembers the name of the chick he banged the night before.”

  Alyx nodded. “He’s got a point.”

  “Well the other thing is Faerie is waking, and the more that comes back the more that poor man has been accumulating,” Puziel offered. “We won’t know what the place is ‘til you three kick its ass.” He pulled out a tablet. “I can have you in the air in three hours.”

  She grinned. “Well, I guess I should get a shower in. I wanna be fresh as a daisy before we get out there.” She looked to Puziel. “Do me a favor? Hardcopy all the notes, I wanna bring them just in case.”

  “You got it, toots.” He winked.

  “Pack light and arm up,” Khalid said. “Not that I need to tell either of you that.” He looked down at his watch then back up at her. “I’m going to go over these notes and the terrain. I want to make sure we have multiple exits in case we need to get out of there fast.”

  Scur stretched his arms over his head. “Good, you do that. I’ll go wash Alyx’s back.”

  “Shower, too,” she said to her captain and winked, then looked at Scur. “You think you can tear yourself away from your big tittie tentacle porn to help me out?”

  “Already forgot I was watching it,” he said as his grin grew bigger.

  “I seriously don’t want to know,” Khalid said with a sigh.

  “Scur likes anime girls apparently,” Puziel said.

  She went to Khalid and kissed him. “You know you’re welcome, too,” she offered and then slipped her arm around Scur’s waist. “Three hours?”

  Puziel nodded. “Helo will pick you guys up here. “

  “While the offer is more than tempting, and trust me, it is incredibly tempting, I need to make sure we know as much as we can before we go in. Damn commander in me won’t rest easy until I do. I’ll be up before the three-hour window has closed, though.” He shot her a grin.

  “Your loss.” She shrugged and sauntered out with Scur. “Now, let’s get all soapy, love.”

  2

  Alyx whooped into her mic as she raced toward their target, blood pumping, heart racing. They were all three on target and she turned herself in the air, the wind rushing past her. “Mark!” she said as she pulled her string, the low-altitude parachute deploying just before she hit the tree line.

  It was dusk, and they were going in as quickly as possible, the Cambodian government being a bit sketchy about their airspace since landmasses had been seen in the skies all over Asia. She knew it was Faerie, but they didn’t and the humans were getting really freaked out. The plan was to get in, get what they came for, and get out.

  They landed, Alyx ejecting her parachute as she touched down on the small section of temple outcropping, which looked like the main tower of the temple, and shot a bolt into a large baobab tree that was growing from it, securing her chord.

  Scur and Khalid followed, the latter frowning as he did.

  “Look, I know you wanted to hit first but...” She grinned. “I was just faster and this section is big enough for the three of us. Shall we descend?”

  “You’re far more aerodynamic than I am,” Khalid said, shrugging out of the parachute vest and securing the fasteners to his harness. “More trying to figure out if I just saw a mammoth tree growing through the middle of one of the buildings on my way down.”

  “He’s lying,” Scur said as he checked the line to make sure it was secure. “He’s pissed he came in last.”

  “Coming last is usually a damn good quality.” She winked and secured her cable to her belt. “Ready?”

  Not waiting for them to say anything, she leaned back and then jumped, frogging her way down, twenty feet at a bounce. She went slow, and ten minutes later they were on the top stone step of the inner temple.

  Overgrown with vegetation and trees, it barely resembled anything that was a temple, which was probably why it was so overlooked for so long. “These roots... These trees are old as fuck, like old as the world kinda old. This place feels...”

  “Ancient?” Scur said as he unhooked himself. “I know what you’re saying, though. It’s like stepping into a place not only forgotten by people, but forgotten by time.”

  “Makes you wonder if anyone remembers it’s still here,” Khalid said. “I think we should start in the main area then work our way outward to one side, then the other. Slowly. I spoke with Cetus when you two were showering and he reminded me that the Femorians liked their hidden traps. Not like I would forget something like that.”

  “On the ride in I looked once more at the notes. Nihar said the room we are looking for is white with moonlight and diamonds.” She unraveled her cable and clipped her belt back on, readying her ammo. “Scur, do you have the sat phone? Nihar said if we need a quick exit to type six-four-five-four in and one of the on-call portal makers will grab us.”

  He patted one of the pockets in his cargo pants. “Got it.”

  “Question is, will he remember the number?” Khalid asked and grinned at the berserker, who flipped him off. “At least we know he can count to one.”

  “I’m going to kick your ass, just so you’re aware,” Scur said before turning to her. “Did you say white with moonlight and diamonds? What the hell was Nihar sniffing before writing those notes?”

  “Book glue,” Khalid said.

  “And day-old coffee,” she added. “Okay, cappy baby. Where should we start?”

  Snagging the satellite map from the side pocket of his pack, Khalid looked it over, then pointed to the section of the temple that was on the other side of the courtyard they stood in. “I say we start here. There are a few sections that seem to branch off the main building and this one,” he pointed to another section of the map, “seems to have part of its roof missing. I originally thought it was due to age where it cave
d in, but Nihar mentioning moonlight... Well, it might be more than just a caved in roof.”

  “Good enough a place to start as any. Also...” She reached up and clicked the button on her glasses. “Turn the recorders on. Hendy said they will be able to check out all the footage we shoot for any other info.” She grinned.

  “And here I thought you were making a very interesting fashion statement,” Scur said. “Let’s do this thing.” Her berserker cracked his knuckles.

  Khalid grabbed a large stone from the ground and she watched as he used his powers to shape it into a club. Man never packed weapons, just made do with the elements around him. Walking ahead of them, Scur moved in behind her, keeping her between them.

  Her own talents would be wasted here, unless of course they found some people to kill, but then again, Scur would probably beat her to it. Still, she was a risk-taker, and she was confident in her prowess, that was why she was so suited for the job. A warrior, like those that came before her. Regardless of her lack of a Hand of Power.

  She had her moths, though, she thought as she reached up and pet Willy, the one that was living in her skin. He moved slowly under her skin, both a comfort and a creepy feeling.

  Khalid entered the main room of the temple and their lights clicked on. These sensor-focused gadgets were amazing. She looked around them, training the light and her camera on the walls. They were smooth, no symbols, hieroglyphics or pictograms. “Hmm. Seems oddly void of fanfare...”

  “Or that we just can’t see it,” Scur added. “I mean, those old fucks had some mythical ways we can’t even process. Although, we have the cool tech. Anders get you these?”

  “Probably, since he’s been avoiding doing what he should be doing and is using any excuse to keep himself busy,” Khalid said as he stepped closer to the wall, running the tips of his fingers over it.

  “Leave Anders alone. He’s got his reasons, same as you did,” she said as she approached him. “I’ll send some of these to Hendy, see if he can spectral analyze it.” She took several stills and then hit the button, a tone sounding in her ear as they uploaded. “Let’s keep moving.”