A Veil of Secrets Read online

  The temptation hung there only as long as it took my gaze to slide back onto Edan.

  Such betrayal would destroy Asher’s faith in me. He would hate me for eternity.

  “No.” I snarled, “He deserves better than to end up as one of your drones.”

  “Drones have their place.” She patted Edan’s cheek. “You will understand that in time.”

  My agitation transferred into my sigil. Its sharp feet dug into my nap, its low buzz a warning.

  Disgusted by the fresh link Idra had managed to forge between us, I willed the angry wasp to release itself into my hand. I offered it to her, pausing when her eyes narrowed and she stepped backward.

  “Take it.” I held my palm flat and willed the thing to return to its maker. “I don’t want it.”

  The sigil spread its wings, bent its knees then went still. As sure as if she had been inside my head, I felt her will caress the tiny creature, soothing it, urging it to stay in place and resume its rest.

  “Don’t be stubborn,” she hissed at me. “It’s yours. You need it if you want to live.”

  I frowned at the sigil’s hesitation to obey me. “I’ve lived this long without one.”

  “If that’s what you call living,” she spat. “Daily injections just to avoid accepting who you are.”

  “Return to her.” My command failed to launch the sigil skyward. “Go. Fly home.”

  “The sigil is yours.” Her voice cracked. “It won’t return to me.”

  Another wave of persuasion rolled over me, causing the sigil to sit flush on my palm. It hit me as another burst of her energy sizzled through our joined minds. She was afraid.

  Why, I had no idea. The sigil was hers. She was the one who’d created it. I had no power over her or it. Of the four souls in this room, she commanded all of us. Still, I had to test the limits of her fear.

  “Are you sure about that?” I took a step closer before the press of Edan’s blade stopped me.

  A tic developed under her left eye. Her gaze darted toward the door Edan had used.

  “This is your last chance.” Idra slinked toward the back wall. “Leave now, and I won’t follow.”

  I kept an eye on her, watching Edan from my periphery. “What about my brother?”

  “He’s mine,” she snapped.

  “Do you want to leave with me?” I asked him.

  “It’s not for me to say,” he gritted between his teeth, but the pressure from the blade lessened.

  “He can’t leave.” Idra reached the other door and grasped the knob. “He’s mine. He stays.”

  While her anger made her reckless, I gave my sigil its command. “Go to her.”

  The wasp twitched its wings. Its abdomen lifted, its stinger dripping reddish fluid.

  “It’s time to go, Edan.” She held out her hand to him. “Our guest has overstayed her welcome.”

  “You don’t have to obey her.” I put a hand on his arm. “Stay with me. Leave this place.”

  The blade in my side vanished.

  Idra’s startled cry brought our attention back to her.

  My sigil darted in the air above her head. She lifted her arms to fend it off while she focused her will. The wasp staggered under the blow, and it turned once to glance at me.

  I nudged it. “Do as I commanded.”

  It did, plunging its stinger into the side of her throat where her neck met her shoulder. Her sickly yellow blood seeped from the wounds made by its feet stabbing into the tender skin of her neck. She screamed when its mandibles dug deep as it rooted itself into her. Tucking its wings flush to its back, the sigil made itself comfortable. Through my connection to it, I sensed its satisfaction as my own.

  “What have you done?” She clawed at her throat. “Remove it. Now.”

  The strangest sensation spread through my chest until my vocal cords thrummed with the rising of a song. It started slow and softly, almost a lullaby, while I learned the cadence. The higher I lifted my voice, the quieter Idra became. Glazed eyes fixed on me, Idra let her hands fall limply to her sides.

  As quickly as the urge had come upon me, it faded, carrying its alien words and rhythms with it.

  “Idra?” My voice rasped.

  “This…is wrong.” Her head lolled. “I am…the mother.”

  “You are mine now.” As sure as it was my sigil on her throat, I knew she belonged to me.

  No wonder she had feared the sigil in the hands of someone not beguiled by her. It had been an ill-chosen gift, and one I was grateful to return to her.

  “Release me.” She slid bonelessly to the floor.

  I approached her, towering over her. “Release my brother first.”

  “He is mine.” She bared her teeth. “I won’t…let you have him.”

  “Then we have nothing further to discuss.” I spun on my heel, eager to leave while I could.

  “Wait.” She banged the back of her skull against the wall. “If you leave me here…like this…”

  In a flash, I understood. Her fledglings would overthrow her. She was weak now. Not fit to rule.

  “You would receive no more than you deserve.” I had no pity in my heart for her.

  “Take him.” She stuck out her hand. “He’s yours.”

  At her summons, the sigil in Edan’s throat detached, flew across the room and lit on her palm.

  Yellow-brown blood poured from his wound, but he paid it no mind. He hesitated, sparing her one last glance before he looked at me. “I will wait for you out front.”

  He exited through the nursery, giving me a moment alone with Idra.

  “Thank you.” I turned my back on her.

  “Wait,” she screeched. “I freed him. You said—”

  “I told you to release my brother first.” I shrugged. “I never said what happened next.”

  “He will die without a sigil,” she yelled. “You’ve killed him by taking him from me.”

  All I could say was the truth. “The Edan I knew would rather die than live here, with you.”

  I walked out humming the unfamiliar tune, skin prickling as she hurled threats at my back.

  Wild, hissing screams rose behind me, urging me to bolt through the door, but fleeing a predator never ended well. I kept my steps measured and calm. When I crossed the threshold into the nursery, I found myself the center of attention again. All those faces peered at me from their bedside. As Idra wailed louder and louder, their eyes turned more and more golden. A few licked their sallow lips. Their jagged teeth peeked from their smiles. They were filed sharp, not born with sharp grins.

  Instead of shutting the door behind me as I had intended, I pushed it wide open.

  Overhead, wind kicked up as wings beat harder.

  “Sisters,” I called up to them. “I leave you to it.”

  Not a soul moved as I crossed the room. When I reached the opposite threshold, a young female with tangled brown hair and wild golden eyes alighted behind me. We studied one another for a moment.

  She touched the scar on my neck. “You are not like us.”

  “No,” I agreed. “I’m not.”

  She pushed my shoulder. “You should go.”

  “If you ever want to leave…” I let my offer hang between us. “There are better ways to live.”

  “No there aren’t.” Her grin bared pointed teeth. “You just don’t know any better.”

  Turning my back on her made the hairs on my nape stand on end. She shut the door on my heels with a soft snick. While I was unobserved, I dashed through the last room and out the front door.

  The bright kernel of awareness that had been Idra’s constant presence in my mind…vanished.

  The months of gnawing hunger and feverish cravings dulled to a low pulse then stuttered to a halt.

  Those vicious desires, I realized, had been
hers all along. She had fed them to me, used them to stoke my hunger in an attempt to bind me to her again.

  I found Edan leaning against the building’s exterior. His shoulders quivered, his wings flattened to his spine. The wall behind him was the only thing keeping him upright.

  I circled him slowly, making sure he saw me before I approached him.

  He stared at the knife in his hand, its tip still discolored with my blood, then up at me. “Marne.”

  My throat tightened. Idra hadn’t used my name. That he used it now meant, “You remember.”

  His fingers opened, and the blade thumped onto the ground. “I’m so sorry.”

  “This isn’t your fault.” I touched his cheek. “None of it is.”

  “I don’t remember…” His voice faded.

  “It doesn’t matter now.” I stepped into his side, wrapping his arm across my shoulders and mine around his waist. “Right now we have to leave before the others think to follow us.”

  His weight staggered me, but I bit my lip and led him out the way Asher and I had come.

  The walk into town was grueling. By the time our feet hit the cobbled street, Edan was groaning with each step. When Edan removed my sigil, I had been delirious. Though Idra had removed his, he would still suffer withdrawal from the venom until I either began injecting him with my medicine or put to the test Idra’s belief we could survive with sigils attached. But would he want to wear mine?

  No. He would despise the idea as much as I did.

  I shoved those thoughts aside. First we must reach the city and find our way back into the veil.

  If Idra had been telling the truth, Beltania was under siege, and we had to help them if we could.

  The festive atmosphere in town remained unchanged from when Asher and I passed through earlier.

  When the females caught sight of Edan, their jaws dropped and their wings twitched. The female who had warned me against bringing my pet into town waved to me.

  “Hello there.” Her gaze raked over him before she turned to me. “You are a very lucky female.”

  “I— Thank you.” I grunted as I shifted Edan’s weight. “We have a slight problem.”

  “Your pet?” She twisted a length of her hair around her finger.

  “Yes, about him.” Dread washed through me as her cheeks grew flush. “Wait—what is it?”

  Her chin dropped to her chest. “I told them he was spoken for.”

  “He left.” He should have been to Beltania by now. “I saw him vanish with my own eyes.”

  “If you say he left, you would know.” She shrugged. “A male who resembles him greatly is held in the butcher’s pen in Red Alley.” She smiled shyly at Edan. “I wondered if you had replaced him.”

  “No.”

  The girl lowered her gaze. “I meant no disrespect. Perhaps if you hurry?”

  Grinding my teeth, I asked, “Where is Red Alley?”

  She pointed the way, and I lurched forward with Edan. Gods above. It would have been so much easier to leave him seated at a table while I went in search of Asher, but the females were eyeing him like a freshly carved varanus roast. I feared what they might do if I left him alone with them for long.

  The smell of Red Alley told me we had arrived. It was a narrow path cut between two buildings, paved on a slant with a pool at the bottom. The alley ran red with blood that swirled around the drain.

  “What’s that smell?” Edan wet his lips.

  “Nothing good.”

  His groan made me think he disagreed.

  “We need to find Asher.” I led him through the alley, trying to keep to the sides so our bare feet were kept dry. “He’s the only way we have of leaving here without drawing attention to ourselves.”

  More attention. Edan turned heads before, even with his scars. Now he was half naked, and from the reactions he had garnered so far, his new wings were setting harbinger hearts aflutter—literally.

  He brought me up short, easing his weight from me onto the nearest wall. “Asher’s here?”

  “He helped me find you.” I propped him up as best I could. “He left earlier, but he knows how to return.” Stubborn male that he was, I wagered he had wasted no time finding his own route back.

  Edan’s brow puckered. “Why would he do that?”

  “He wanted to prevent what happened to him from happening to you.” It wasn’t exactly a lie.

  “That was kind of him.” Edan’s stare bored straight through me. “Is that the only reason?”

  Cursing under my breath, I admitted the truth. “He and I are… We sort of…”

  Red slashed his cheeks. “I will kill him for touching you.”

  “No, you won’t.” I gripped his arms. “I didn’t mean that. We haven’t done anything.”

  Yet.

  “Good.” He relaxed, his head falling back to rest against the wall.

  “Can you stay here while I scout ahead?” The alley was empty, and I could see the pens the girl had mentioned. The breeze shifted, bringing the stench of urine and feces with it. My eyes watered. I choked, tucking my face against my bare arm to mask the smell. There was nothing for it. I put down my arm and checked to make sure no one was coming. “Don’t move. I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

  “I’ll be here.” His eyes closed, wings drooping.

  I darted through the alley toward the pens. Behind the buildings were a series of smaller shops, a large pen with a roof covering it and a deep trough filled with water. Voices carried across the yard. I glanced left to right but spotted no one. As quietly as I could, I crept toward the pens. The stink here was overwhelming, but movement drew me to the fence. Five Araneaeans huddled at one end of the enclosure. Their hair was matted, and they were covered in their own filth. A sixth stood by himself.

  The sight of Asher sent relief surging through my tired limbs.

  “Asher.” I called his name softly.

  My heart sank when he failed to respond, but on the third attempt, he lifted his head.

  “Marne?” He shoved his grimy hair away from his face, cast a sharp look to his right and joined me at the fence. “Did you find Edan?” He peered behind me. “How did you escape from Idra?”

  “We can talk later.” I took his hand. “How did you get here?”

  His jaw flexed. “You mean after you sent me back?”

  “I wanted you safe.” I squeezed his fingers. “Can you blame me for that?”

  The anger in his expression broke. “I find I am too happy seeing you to hold a proper grudge.”

  He rolled up his sleeve and exposed a sigil strapped to his upper arm. Its legs were bound and its face and stinger covered by thick fabric. Its thorax contacted his skin. That was all that touched him.

  “You are a very clever male,” I praised him.

  “I try.” He rolled his sleeve down over the bound-and-gagged creature.

  “Good.” I studied the layout of the pen. “How do I get you out?”

  “You don’t,” a voice said from behind me. “He’s my property.”

  I faced a female who must be the butcher and glared. “He’s mine. I brought him here with me.”

  “Who says?” The slender female balled her fists at her hips. “I found him wandering the streets alone. You know the law. Any who wander here must be silenced before they share our secrets.”

  “We got separated.” I pointed toward the buildings. “I have witnesses he came with me.”

  She smirked. “If you wanted him, you should have kept a tighter leash on him.”

  I stepped forward, claws bared. “Oh, I want him.”

  “Marne,” Asher warned.

  The butcher stretched her wings to their full height and width. I was not intimidated.

  “Take him if you—” She gasped, placed a hand over her chest and withdrew bloody
fingers.

  Her wings fell limp and her knees gave. She collapsed, revealing Edan behind her with a cleaver in one hand and a butcher’s knife sticking from her back. He kicked aside her corpse and grimaced.

  I blinked at his casual violence. To know he was a warrior and to see him kill without flinching were two separate things.

  “There’s a disturbance in town.” He reclaimed the knife from her body. “We have to leave.”

  I glanced from him to the body and then back to Asher.

  “All right.” I spun toward the pen and worked my way toward the gate. A pressure latch had me asking Edan for help to spring the lock. Combining our strength, we popped the gate open, and Asher met me with an embrace that left my stomach trembling. His quick, chaste kiss made my lips tingle.

  A fevered growl rose behind us. Asher cursed and shoved me from him. I fell onto the ground.

  Edan ran past me at Asher with his blades lifted and murder in his eyes.

  I barely had time to scream before it was over.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Edan glared at me through his good eye. I ignored him and gripped Asher’s hand tighter. Two of his knuckles broke during the scuffle, but thanks to his quick thinking he had survived. Edan’s eye was fine. The skin around it was swelling, obscuring his vision and hampering his ability to glare at us properly. I couldn’t decide if he was more enraged by seeing proof of my fondness for Asher or by the fact Asher had survived by flinging a handful of gods only knew what in Edan’s eyes to blind him long enough for us to disarm him. Those knives now clanked on Asher’s belt while he walked.

  I was wedged between them in an attempt to keep the two separated.

  “Stop it,” I fussed at Edan. “You’re behaving like a child.”

  His arm was around my shoulder again, and my arm was helping to hold him steady. He moved better now than he had before. The fight must have invigorated him, even considering the outcome.

  “Let him be.” Asher stared ahead. “He’s earned the right to be ornery.”

  “I have earned the right,” Edan snapped. “The problem is you seem to think you’ve earned some rights while I was away. Tell me. Did you run to her the second you thought I was dead? Did you?”