Under Twilight: an Urban Fantasy Novel (Fearless Destiny Book 3)

  UNDER TWILIGHT

  Fearless Destiny Series

  Debbie Cassidy

  COPYRIGHT

  Published by Debbie Cassidy

  Copyright © 2017 Debbie Cassidy

  All Rights Reserved

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, duplicated, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Cover by 'Covers by Julie'

  Edited by Read Head Editing

  1

  How long had I been queen? Oh yes, barely three hours and already the mantle of responsibility was beginning to sit heavy on my shoulders. I looked down at the woman kneeling at my feet—a maid I’d seen about the palace when I’d been here for the Black Moon Ball. Her body trembled with fear, and her eyes were dinner plates in her head. The chamber was empty except for two guards, Davin, and the maid. “A closed judging,” Davin had said. Why had I come back from my flight around the kingdom early? I could have been enjoying the sweet air and five more carefree minutes. But Erebus had been waiting for me—was still waiting for me. Telling him I’d withheld the location of his lost brethren was going to suck. This judging would probably be an excellent warm up to that conversation.

  Resting my elbow on the arm of my magnificent throne of iron and bone, I leaned toward Davin. “What is she accused of, again?”

  He kept his eyes on the woman. “Treason, your majesty. All employees and guests of the crown are being searched to ensure Lord Kai left no spies, and we found a cipher in her chambers.”

  “She works for Kai?”

  Davin shook his head. “No. We found assassins ink.”

  “Assassins ink?”

  “It is invisible until viewed under a twilight moon.”

  “As in the moon in Twilight? You think she works for Twilight?”

  “Yes.”

  The woman shook her head, her eyes wide. “Please, majesty. I implore thee. Please have mercy.”

  Well that would explain how Orin had known to attack Baal and me when we’d left the Black Moon ceremony. But it was hard to believe that this timid, frightened creature was a spy. She couldn’t be more than sixteen or seventeen years old.

  I leaned forward. “What’s your name?”

  “Ella, your majesty.”

  “Ella, are you a spy?”

  She pressed her lips together, her eyes brimming with tears, and then burst into loud body-shaking sobs.

  Oh great. I pulled a handkerchief from my pocket and passed it to Davin. He took it gingerly, as if unsure what I meant him to do with it. I jerked my head toward the inconsolable female. His expression cleared, and was that a glint of surprise in his bright eyes? He stepped off the podium next to me and walked over to the maid. Placing a hand on her shoulder to get her attention, he handed her the handkerchief.

  She looked up, her eyes red and raw from crying. She mopped at her face and took several shuddering breaths to compose herself. When she spoke, her voice was thick and raspy.

  “They had my parents. They had them and they threatened to kill them if I didn’t … didn’t do what they wanted.”

  “The Twilight King?”

  She nodded. “A few months ago I received a note, along with my parent’s engraved wedding rings. It said that my parents were now Orin’s guests, and if I wished them to live I must do as instructed. The package of ink arrived the next day. I was told to write my observations and place them into the maze once a week at midnight.”

  So, someone else was picking up the notes. More spies. Damn, this place was probably teaming with them—Kai’s and Orin’s and goodness knew who else’s. The throne had been open for conquest for far too long, and although Kai had unofficially claimed the kingdom, I was sure others had also had their eye on it. Hoped and plotted for the chance to slip in and stage a coup of some sort. But now I was here, the rightful heir, and they could all sod off.

  “Do you have the note you were sent?” Davin asked the girl.

  She shook her head, eyes wide. “I was instructed to burn it.”

  If I were a sceptical person, I’d wonder at the convenience of that statement, but there was something about the girl, a sincerity that tugged at my heart strings. I wanted her to be a victim, because if she wasn’t, then I’d have to execute her. The possibility brought bile to my throat.

  I swallowed the bitter fluid. “Do you have any other proof?”

  She nodded. “My parents. They escaped. Or they were helped to escape. They contacted me. I have the letter here.” She reached into her apron and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper.

  Davin took it from her and passed it to me. The paper was cheap, the writing scratchy but legible.

  Dear daughter, we are safe and we are free. Our liberation came at the hands of a human, can you believe? He and his companions aided us in our escape and now we are making our way to the palace to be reunited with you. We know not what was asked of you in exchange for our survival, but we know it cannot have been anything good. Please be safe and know that you are no longer under duress.

  You mother and father.

  May we meet soon.

  A human had saved them. Could they be talking about Brett? He’d been held prisoner. Her story rang true, my gut screamed it.

  “Your majesty?” Davin asked.

  Dammit if I didn’t believe the girl. She was no calculating spy, she was just a scared girl trying to save her parents’ lives. “Take her to her chambers and post a guard outside her door. Speak to her parents once they arrive and confirm her story. I trust your decision.”

  He inclined his head. “As you wish.”

  The girl swayed and fell to her knees. “Your majesty, you are most gracious.”

  Game-face time. Composing my features and injecting a hard edge to my stare, I pinned her to the spot with my gaze. “If your story is true then you have nothing to fear.”

  She nodded earnestly, blatantly relieved.

  The guards led her from the room and Davin closed the door. “There are more,” he said. “We have them in holding cells.”

  “How many?”

  “Nine. Mainly domestic staff.”

  It figured. Who best to keep watch than the staff that had access to every part of the castle? The maids that cleaned the rooms and turned down the beds, and the kitchen staff that prepared meals and delivered them to the dining room, hovering while the lords and ladies ate and conversed. This palace housed many noble men and women, it was a hub of activity when it came to politics, or at least it had been. Nine spies could be nine executions—a great way to begin my reign. You could call it housekeeping. Just do it and move on. But it didn’t have to be that way.

  I stood up. “Question them, and then let them go.”

  Davin’s brows shot up.

  I shrugged. “Look, they either spied under duress like the maid—afraid for their lives or the lives of people they cared about—or they needed the money. Hey, maybe they just hated Kai. It doesn’t matter. They may even be new spies sent to watch me. I don’t care. Relieve them of their duties, but let them keep their lives. I will not have t
heir blood on my hands. I’m pretty sure I’ll have plenty of that to come soon enough. For now, I’d like to minimise the deaths I’m responsible for.”

  Davin smiled. “Kai would have had them executed in a heartbeat. But he’d have tortured them first.”

  “Yeah, well Kai’s an arsehole.”

  Davin snorted. “Yes. That he is.”

  Almost at the door, I faltered. Here I was giving orders as if he was my lackey. “Are you okay to deal with this? You don’t have to.”

  “I said I wished to stay and serve you, and I meant it. It would be my honour.”

  “Thanks. But let me know if I get too bossy, ‘kay?”

  He chuckled. “Oh, you can count on that.”

  I left him to his task and headed out to the gardens. Erebus was waiting, and my stomach quivered because I was about to drop a bombshell on him.

  ***

  The dark djinn was strolling through the flowers, stopping here and there to smell what looked like roses. I bit back a smile. Erebus smelling the roses, ha, who would have thought the man had time for such simple pleasures? But then there was too much I didn’t know about him. It was strange seeing him outside of Evernight. His leather-bound body was at odds with the vibrant colours of the garden, the leather vest, more body armour than clothing. He had on his classic loose pants that allowed free movement, and sturdy boots suitable for the harsh terrain of Evernight. But he hadn’t always lived in the darkness. This had been his home once. He’d grown up here, within these walls, probably played in this very garden as a child. A child … It was impossible to imagine him as something small and fragile. Erebus was a force of nature, and even several feet away his presence had a tangible impact on my pulse and my heartbeat—excitement, and apprehension, and yes, a smidgen of fear. He paused in his appreciation of the blooms, the muscles of his bare shoulders tensing. Yep, he sensed my presence.

  “Did you enjoy your flight?” He asked. He turned slowly to face me and his gaze raked me from head to toe. “Ibris’s colours suit you.”

  I looked down at my outfit—crimson and gold—the colours of my house. “Thank you.” I glanced up at the sky. “You saw?”

  He blinked slowly. “Your ‘whoops’ of exhilaration were audible to many.”

  Ah, yeah. Of course. Brushing back tendrils of hair, I walked over to a nearby bench. “Sit, please.”

  He took me up on my offer, and I realised how relatively small the bench was in comparison to his powerful frame.

  “You wished to see me?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Oh boy, how to phrase this. Best just come out and say it. “I know where your people are.”

  He stared at me blankly for a long beat with his silver eyes.

  Had he heard me? He’d gone so still, like a predator about to pounce. I licked my lips nervously. “I know where the dark djinn are.”

  And then what I’d just said must have registered fully, because his eyes flared and narrowed. “You know where they are? How?” His chest rose and fell erratically, and he reached for me, fingers digging into my shoulders. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  A growl ripped through the air and Erebus was torn off me. Fargol planted himself between us. Where the heck had he come from?

  “No one hurt Kenna. Fargol hurt you bad.” The gargoyle flexed his huge hands as if eager to follow through on the threat.

  Erebus picked himself up off the ground, his eyes wide with shock. “Fargol,” he held up his hand. “I mean her no harm.”

  “It’s okay Fargol. I just gave Erebus some news that shocked him.”

  “Shock not mean he hurt you.”

  I placed a hand on the stone man’s back. “It’s all right. I promise.”

  He turned his massive head to look down on me. “Fargol stay.”

  “Yes, that’s fine.”

  Erebus locked gazes with me. His were a burning vortex of confusion and desperation. “Tell me what you know.”

  I sat down on the bench. “Brett, my best friend, went to Twilight as an emissary for Lindrealm and was held captive. When he escaped he came across an underground chamber where the dark djinn were being held in some kind of stasis. There were black vines twined around them.”

  His eyes narrowed to slits. “And when did you discover this information.”

  Guilt stabbed at my chest, but I sat up straight. My decision to delay telling him had been for the greater good. He of all people should understand that. “I knew about it when I came to ask you to increase patrols in Evernight.”

  He studied me for a long beat and then exhaled through his nose. “You knew I had a right to know immediately, but you wished me to patrol and keep the denizens out of Orin’s clutches.”

  “Yes.”

  “I understand why you did it. I know withholding that information must have been hard for you.”

  His white knuckled hands told me this news was hard on him too. Erebus was a man of action, and knowing that the location of his people had been known for some time and nothing had been done to retrieve them was probably killing him.

  His lips curled in a hard smile. “You will make a good queen Kenna. Being a monarch comes with its fair share of difficult decisions.”

  “So you’re not mad?”

  His top lip curled. “Oh, I’m mad all right. Just, not with you.”

  “Orin.”

  “Yes.” He stood and inclined his head. “With your permission I would like to leave to liberate my people.” His smile was brittle and laced with vengeance. “Once we have my people back we will finally have the numbers to defend both the fifth dimension and Lindrealm. And Orin will know the true wrath of the djinn.”

  Something had been bugging me for a while, ever since I’d discovered that the dark djinn were being held by Orin, but so much had been happening there’d been no time to dwell, until now. “It’s obvious that Orin took the dark djinn in order to weaken Ibris, I mean, they are uber-warriors, right?”

  He nodded slowly. “They fought in Ibris’s name on many occasions.”

  “And Orin probably used The Hunt to capture them. It explains why they were unable to fight back effectively. I get all that, but why wait till now to make his move? Why wait all this time?”

  Erebus began to pace. “The dark djinn vanished after the first alliance wars. Ibris found me, untouched and unclaimed, and took me in. And then a mere twenty-five years later we were hit with the second alliance wars. It came out of nowhere, a sequence of misunderstandings between lords. But maybe … maybe the misunderstandings were planted?”

  “By Orin?”

  “Yes. If not for Baal’s intervention and his acts of diplomacy, the war would have stretched for decades. But Baal arranged a sit down with all the lords, and the alliance wars ground to a halt before too much blood could be shed.”

  Yes, that sounded like Baal—the peacemaker. Words were his weapon of choice. “So Orin lost his chance then.”

  “Yes, and not long after that Ibris was killed.” He inhaled sharply.

  The horrific connection occurred to me too. Oh god. “You don’t think?”

  “It’s possible Orin may have orchestrated the massacre.” His eyes were ablaze with rage. “Removing Ibris from the equation left us bereft and broken. The alliances dissolved, but instead of war there was dissention.”

  “And the hoard was born.” It made sense. “The hoard stopped him. It put a spanner in the works. It was something he hadn’t anticipated, an obstacle he wasn’t sure how to scale.”

  “And so he waited and bided his time.”

  “Until I pushed back the hoard.” Oh fuck.

  Erebus ran a hand over his face. “The hoard, the largest threat to Lindrealm, was our biggest defence.”

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, don’t be. The only person who will be sorry is Orin. He will pay for what he’s done. We will stop him. I must go prepare to liberate my brethren.”

  “Who will you take with you?”

 
“I need no one.”

  “Baron, Vale, and Aiden?”

  “No, they are patrolling Evernight to protect the denizens from abduction at Orin’s hands. We cannot allow him to make more mutations to add to his army. We have, so far, captured and tortured two of Orin’s lackey’s. Neither uttered a word to deny or confirm their master’s identity, and yet they were both Twilighters.”

  He was planning to go into enemy territory alone. My chest fluttered with anxiety. I couldn’t allow him to do this solo. “I’m coming with you.”

  He blinked down at me, his mouth parting in surprise, and then his expression smoothed out. “No.”

  The flutter morphed into a stab of annoyance. I arched a brow. “I wasn’t asking for your permission. I’m your queen. The days of you telling me what to do are over.”

  He pressed his lips together, probably biting back treasonous curses.

  I stood taller. “We’ll leave tomorrow night. We won’t tell anyone where we’re going. Davin rounded up ten spies, one of which worked for Orin. There could be more. We can’t take the risk of Orin finding out about our plans or we’re fucked. But we won’t be going alone.”

  It was his turn to arch a brow. “We won’t?”

  I smiled. “You’re not the only one with a trusted posse.”

  2

  All right, so they weren’t much of a posse but still, Irina and Fargol would be assets. Fargol could act as sentry, and Irina was a bloody battle mage, her magic and fighting skills could come in useful. I’d laid it all out just like that, but Irina was less than impressed with the idea, and the tightness around Erebus’s mouth told me he was holding back a few choice words in response to her objections.

  He looked Irina over, his expression icy. Irina, to give her credit, didn’t even flinch under his frosty regard. She just glared right back, arms folded across her chest.

  Fargol sat on my balcony basking in the sunlight. I guess as an employee of the fortress in Evernight he didn’t get to see much of the sun. Bless.

  “I appreciate how important this is to you, Erebus,” Irina said. “And I see how liberating the dark djinn would err in our favour in the war against the Twilight king. But it’s a foolish idea. We will be caught. Orin has undoubtedly posted some kind of extra security measures in those tunnels since Brett’s escape.”