Out of Tune Read online

  “Slate,” I whispered and laid my hand on his cheek. “You don't have to do this. We can contact Darc and he'll be here in seconds.”

  “We can't risk even that.” He visibly swallowed and tossed the bag with the remote on the bed nearby. “Don't release me, El. Not unless you're sure that I'm completely me.”

  “Okay.”

  Slate lifted the open collar to his throat. His body jerked. His eyes shivered. A moan escaped his lips as he met my worried gaze. Then a terrible comprehension filled his eyes.

  “It's not Gargo's blood,” Slate whispered in horror. “El, it's—” Slate flailed and his arms moved up swiftly.

  It happened so fast. I barely registered it. Slate was on me before I could blink. An ominous click echoed. My eyes widened and Slate's narrowed.

  With a gasp, my hands went to the cold, steel band around my throat.

  “There,” Slate said with satisfaction, his voice sounding strange. “Now, you're completely mine, Spellsinger. And I have such wonderful plans for you.”

  “Who are you?” I demanded.

  Slate smiled, but it looked odd. Twisted. More teeth than lips. I'd never seen him smile like that before. He slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me forward against himself. He had an erection.

  “I'm vengeance; here to see justice served,” he declared.

  His mouth covered mine, and I struggled wildly. One powerful hand lifted to grab my face, fingers pressing into the joints of my jaw and forcing my mouth open. His tongue shoved inside my mouth, filling me to choking, and I fought harder, going as far as kneeing him in the groin. But he simply shifted out of the way and laughed into the kiss. If you could even call that a kiss.

  Kyanite and RS were lost to me, but I could practically hear them urging me to use my charm to escape. I knew what they'd say, how they'd argue with each other; one telling the other that I couldn't travel now, not while this stranger held me. I'd only take him with me and I didn't want whoever this was in Kyanite. No, I had to bide my time and wait until he let me go to make my move. And I had to grab that bag with the collar's key in it when I did.

  As the interloper forced his kiss upon me, my mind raced. If this wasn't Gargo, who was it? Who would call themselves vengeance? Who could inhabit another person's body? Who could overcome a man as powerful as Slate?

  I trembled when the answer arrived.

  It was so obvious that I wanted to kick myself for not thinking of him sooner. Your first conclusion will be wrong, Daha had written. Of course, it was; we'd been so focused on Gargo because of his blood affecting the Zone. It never occurred to us that there could be two, completely separate forces at work. We hadn't even considered the other threat made against us. Against Darc, Lucifer, and me.

  Daha's words—the things he'd said in that strange voice after our reading—came back to me then. Whoever had spoken through him had vowed to have vengeance against the Gods who had wronged him. The Gods! Those weren't the words of a God; it was the vow of a man. Someone who could jump into the body of a seer and use him as a messenger for his malice. Someone who could get past Daha's defenses because even though he could take spiritual form, he wasn't actually a spirit. He wasn't dead.

  He was a Jinn.

  The Jinn can shift into a spiritual form. While in this form, they're immune to physical injury and they can possess humans. There were no records of Jinn possessing Beneathers. It was assumed that they couldn't—that the magic inside a Beneather would prevent a Jinn from taking control—but assumptions are often wrong, especially when it comes to magic. And if this was the man I believed it to be, he had a good reason to attempt it. A reason to seek vengeance.

  Lucifer, Darcraxis, and I had killed the woman he loved.

  The stranger finally withdrew his attack but kept a hold on me while he stared down into my eyes. His lips stretched into a wicked smile then he pushed me away from him.

  “Take off your clothes. I want to see what's mine now that I can fully enjoy it.”

  I swallowed past the dryness in my throat and gauged the distance between myself and the bed. I didn't dare glance at that bag or move a hand toward my charms; I only had one shot of this. I leapt for the bed, and he went with me, grabbing the charms on my necklace a second before I could. We landed on the bed and rolled; he came out on top. Slate's face twisted into a triumphant grin, and I went cold with shivers.

  His stare focused on mine. The edges of his eyes trembled. His body tensed. Then his expression twisted in another way; a painful rictus. He cried out as his hand jerked open, releasing my charms. With stilted movements, he pushed himself away from me.

  Slate—my Slate—shouted, “Go, Elaria! Go now!”

  I wrapped one hand around my traveling stone and grabbed the leather bag with the other. The last thing I saw was Slate's silver gaze filling with fury and emptying of all trace of him.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I reformed within my tower at Kyanite Castle and the first thing I did was snatch the key out of the bag and open the collar. I gasped as RS and Kyanite came rushing back along with my magic.

  My love!

  El!

  “I'm all right,” I assured them out loud. “But RS, I need you to contact Torin and Declan. Tell them to ward their castles so no one can travel in via charm. Then have one of them go to Banning and ward the Crouching Lion for him. Warn them about Slate. Tell them he's possessed by Petra's Jinn lover.”

  That's who that was? RS screeched. Fuck me! He's in Slate? How?

  “Just go!”

  All right! I'm going!

  I ran to the castle's contact charm that hung by the door. It only worked within the castle; a sort of magical intercom. I used it to call for my steward, William.

  “Yes, Your Majesty?” His voice came through the large chunk of barite as if it were a speaker.

  “William, I need you to ward the castle so that no one can get in with a traveling charm. Can you do that?”

  “Yes, of course, Your Majesty. But why—”

  “I don't have time to explain. I need you to do it now! Right this fucking second! And close the gates. If Slate Devon shows up, do not let him in.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty!”

  Even as I feared for him, I hoped that Slate would buy us some time; that he'd restrain the Jinni long enough for us to protect ourselves. I dropped the castle charm and picked up the contact charm on my necklace. I slipped it in my ear and called out, “Darcraxis.”

  “My fire?” Darc's voice came through after a few seconds. “What's wrong?”

  “Where are you?”

  “El?” Gage came walking in from the balcony.

  “Hold on, baby,” I said to Gage.

  “I'm in the courtyard,” Darc answered at the same time.

  “Get up to the tower,” I said to Darc. “We have a problem.”

  “On my way.”

  I turned to Gage. “Call Banning, please. Tell him to travel to Kyanite after his club is warded, but warn him that he'll have to aim for just outside the curtain wall; we just cast a ward.”

  “What the fuck?” Gage gaped at me.

  “Just do it. I have to call the others.”

  My contact charm chimed. Since it was still in my ear, it gave me a start. “Hello?”

  “Elaria, I've done as you asked. Declan went to help Banning. RS told us about Slate. Are you all right?” It was Torin.

  “I barely escaped him. I need you to meet me in Kyanite, but you'll have to—”

  “Travel to the gates,” he finished for me. “Yes, I assumed you warded Kyanite as well.”

  “Yes.” I sent Gage a grateful look when I heard him relaying the same travel instructions to Banning. I ended my conversation with Torin with, “See you soon.”

  “Declan's with Banning,” Gage reported. “They're both on their way.”

  “Good,” I whispered in relief.

  I needed them with me. It would take all of us to come up with a plan to free Slate and likely all
of our power united to free him. It may take even more than that. I looked down at the neckline of my dress where a corner of paper peeked out.

  It may take a blue Dragon.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  After explaining everything I'd learned, I showed my men the letter.

  “Him again,” Banning grumbled.

  We all knew who the Blue Dragon was and my guys looked as hesitant to contact him as I was. Not that any of us hated King Verin; quite the opposite. He had saved my life and fought to defend Slate's zone. We owed him our friendship at the very least. But I had a strange attraction to Verin and the thought of bringing him into my life, right when the RS was acting up and I had just—temporarily—lost a lover, unsettled me. We all knew it was a bad idea, even though I hadn't confessed my attraction to my lovers. They'd guessed at Verin's attraction to me and that was enough to make them wary.

  “Look, we know who's possessing Slate,” I said. “Maybe we don't need Verin.”

  “One of the last acts of that seer was to write you this letter, my fire,” Darc said gently. “He specifically said it was the one thing he wanted you to heed above all others. I think we'd be fools to ignore his advice.”

  “Not ignore it, just... wait awhile,” I offered lamely.

  “King Verin has proven himself to be a loyal ally; one who's strong both physically and magically,” Darc went on. “And he saved your life. It's not so difficult to conceive that he could save it again.”

  I looked away and sighed.

  “Hold on.” Declan raised one elegant hand and narrowed his eyes at me. “I know why that Dragon worries us, but why are you worried, El?”

  “Before I left the Zone, RS had an issue,” I began.

  “An issue?” Gage growled and leaned forward.

  We were all seated in the living room area on the first floor of my three-story suite. It had a comfy arrangement of couches near the open balcony, placed perfectly to savor the fresh air of Kyanite and luxuriate in the afternoon sunshine. Despite those warming rays, I felt a chill creeping through my bones, one not even my fire magic could dispel. Probably because my Fire was partially responsible for my unease. The worst kind of fear is fear of yourself. You can't escape it; running won't help. Wherever you go, it's right there with you. I had to face it head-on.

  “What we've feared is happening. RS has tried to contain herself—stunt her growth—but it isn't working. I had an episode; a painful one. Slate and I were able to satisfy her magic by... well...”

  I twisted myself to feed on lust, RS took over for me, speaking into all of our minds. But it was difficult and taxing, using a good portion of the fuel I gained. I don't know how many times I can do it. Not without reverting fully to my old self.

  “Would that be such a bad thing?” Torin countered. “If you revert to feeding on lust, we wouldn't have to worry about Elaria needing another lover.”

  No, you'd just have to worry about her having one of you with her constantly so she could take sex-breaks during the day to feed me, RS huffed. And probably during the night as well.

  “How often would she need to feed?” Declan asked eagerly.

  Too often for even you to enjoy, my pretty perv, RS chided with a fair amount of affection. Elaria would become a raving nympho and probably go as crazy as my creator.

  We all went silent. I had never considered that Thomas Frost hadn't begun as insane as he ended, that perhaps the magic had driven him to madness.

  Yeah, you get it now, RS grumbled. It's not easy being a super-powerful, sexy spell. You guys don't know how I struggle daily to eat enough to survive but not grow. Like snacking on stale crackers while juicy steaks are paraded before me.

  “Lovely,” I muttered.

  When Elaria changed me to require love, she did us both a favor, RS ignored me to continue. Love, unlike lust, is constant; it seeps from all of you every second of every day. You don't have to work at it or even think about it. Love is far easier to feed upon it than lust and that helps. But it doesn't change who I am or what I was created to do. At my very core, I'm a gatherer. I was made to collect people; to draw them close and bind them together. A collector doesn't stop collecting. Not until the day they die. But I'm trying because when I started to feed on love, I also opened myself to its contagion.

  “It's contagion?” I asked, vaguely offended.

  It's like an infection. Love infiltrated me just as surely as Gargo's blood did the Zone. And now, I have feelings, she said the last word as if it were disgraceful. I love you. All of you. I want to do what will make you happy. I want to help, but—her voice thickened with emotion—I'm so very hungry.

  “How bad is it, RS?” Torin asked. “Do we need to focus on finding a solution for you before we free Slate?”

  My chest constricted. “You want to leave Slate a prisoner to that Jinni?”

  “I don't want to, little bird,” Torin said gently. “But we'll be of no use to him if you're in danger.”

  “What if we can do both at once?” Darc mused.

  We all looked at him expectantly.

  “I think we should visit Elaria's kin,” Darc explained. “The Witch Leaders might provide a solution to both issues.”

  “Actually, Daha suggested that I go to them for help with the RS,” I said. “I hadn't thought of asking them about the Jinni too but you're right; if anyone would know how to stop a Jinn, it would be the Witches.”

  “Or the Jinn,” Banning said dryly. “And the Jinn happen to owe us a favor.”

  I blinked. “Y, they do.”

  I had sung the Jinn Goddess to sleep and saved their planet. The Jinn most definitely owed me one.

  “Let's go to Coven Cay first,” Darc suggested. “I think we should warn them about this vengeful Jinni anyway. He might decide to show up there, impersonating Slate. Is there anyone else we need to warn?”

  “Cerberus should be good, right?” Gage asked.

  “My parents! I forgot about my parents!” I exclaimed as I fumbled for my contact charm. I slipped it in my ear and called out, “Kalliope Scorcher.” I could have contacted my father, but my mother tended to be calmer about this sort of thing.

  “Hello?” My mother's hesitant voice answered. “Elaria, is that you?”

  “Hey, Mom,” I said in relief. My parents had been put through hell when Gargo possessed my grandfather, Poseidon. The last thing they needed was an angry Jinn posing as my boyfriend to mess with them. “I'm having a problem with Slate.”

  “Oh, no, he's such a lovely man.”

  “Yes.” I cleared my throat. Lovely was not a word commonly used to describe Slate. “He's been possessed by a Jinn who is after revenge.”

  “Ummm...” she drew out the word. “What?”

  “I need you to have Dad ward the island against Slate. He might try to come after you to get to me.”

  “But, El,” her voice dropped to a whisper, “he's already here.”

  “What?!”

  “He's here,” Mom repeated. “Slate's in the living room with your father.”

  “Is he alone? Did he bring anyone with him?”

  “No, it's just him.”

  “Mom, do you have the traveling stone I gave you?”

  “Yes, it's right here.”

  “I want you to use it to travel to Kyanite but aim for the gates because the castle is warded. Do it now.”

  “But your father—”

  “I'm on my way, Mom. I'll get Dad. You need to get out of there!”

  “Okay. I'm coming.”

  I yanked the charm out of my ear and looked up at my men. They took out their traveling stones without another word. All of my lovers have been to my parents' island before; they all knew how to get to Pyrosvesti and were always welcome.

  And one of them had just used that welcome against me.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  How do you fight someone you don't want to hurt?

  That question dominated my thoughts as I traveled to Pyrosvesti, my parents'
private island, with the lovers I had left. We went straight into the living room of the sprawling home my parents had built within the branches of an enormous banyan tree.

  Slate—I mean, the Jinni—was waiting for us.

  He had an arm around my father's waist and a clawed hand at his throat. The Jinni was in Slate's Gargoyle form, using it to his best advantage. My father is a powerful Fire Witch but Gargoyles are immune to fire; their thick skin protects them from a lot. The look on my dad's face told me that he'd tried everything in his repertoire before the Jinni had overpowered him. If Dad's expression hadn't confirmed it, the blood seeping from the corner of his lips would have.