Iron Crowned (11 page)

He could have attempted propriety by turning over so his back faced me, but that would have put his face to the wind. He didn’t deserve that. I wiggled myself closer, curling myself against his body, and resting my head against his chest. He was big enough that he did almost completely shield me. His whole body stood still as I made myself comfortable, either from his astonishment or for my ease. Once I was settled, he relaxed slightly and tried to put his arms around me. He suddenly fumbled and pulled them away, grazing my breast as he did. I don’t know if he noticed. I certainly did.

“Wait. Where are you hurt?”

“Back. Left shoulder.”

Tentatively, he reached out again and wrapped his arms around my waist. “This okay?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

Holding me, he shifted closer so that our bodies pressed together, holding in the warmth. “This?”

“Fine.”

He relaxed again and exhaled. Tucked against him, I couldn’t see his face but had the sneaking suspicion that I wouldn’t be getting much sleep tonight. Survival-wise, this plan was sound. I was warm(ish) now, protected and heated by him. But I was also pressed up against a body that I knew intimately, one that used to move in mine with a possessive fierceness. Dorian claimed me with mind games and exquisite acts of dominance. Kiyo had always done it through strength and ferocity, an animal taking his mate.

I bit my lip and closed my eyes, hoping I’d fall asleep if I mentally enumerated the reasons we’d broken up. But mostly, I kept remembering how his hand had lightly rubbed my breast. Sleep finally took me, but it was a long time in coming. As I drifted off, I wondered how he was coping. This probably didn’t affect him at all. If he really wasn’t sleeping with Maiwenn again, then he was probably out picking up women all the time. Kitsunes had kind of a supernatural allure, and God knew he’d been pretty persuasive the night we’d met.

I awoke a couple hours before dawn—and not by choice. Volusian’s warning came only seconds before the surface below us began to tremble. I was up in a flash, but unsurprisingly, Kiyo had already beaten me. I’d gone to sleep with weapons, uncomfortable though it was. I hadn’t known what I’d need out here, except that I wouldn’t need the iron athame since this was a gentry-free zone. I had my gun (safety on) and the silver
athame. Both were out as Kiyo and I stood back to back, staring around us.

The tremors shook the ground, forcing some fancy footwork, and creating more of the cracks that already covered the ground. A few more seconds passed, and then all went still.

“An earthquake?” I asked uncertainly.

“No,” said Volusian. He was in his solid, two-legged form, staring around with narrowed eyes. It was a little disconcerting that he didn’t seem to know precisely what the problem was.

“Then what are we—”

The ground below us suddenly split open. With only the light of the fire, my vision was bad, but I thought I saw what looked kind of like a serpentine shape emerge from the earth. No, it was
exactly
like a serpentine shape because a moment later, a giant fucking snake shot up and landed neatly in a perfect coil, its head towered over Kiyo and me as it regarded us with glowing green eyes. The light from them illuminated a flicking, forked tongue, and the loud hissing that followed was kind of a given.

“Volusian!” I yelled. My minion sprang into action. The deadly touch of his hands made the snake jerk in surprise. Beside me, Kiyo was shifting into fox form, and I decided a gun was probably going to get me farther here than the athame’s small blade. A drop of venom fell from the snake’s mouth, and it sizzled when it hit the ground in front of me. Lovely. Still, I felt confident the three of us could take this thing.

At least until the ground shook again, and
another snake popped up. It was soon followed by a third.

“Son of a bitch.” I deliberated, wondering if mass force on one snake at a time was the way to go. No. I’d leave Kiyo and Volusian to the first. I yelled a warning to Kiyo that the snake was poisonous, but it was hard to say if he understood.

I turned on the two new snakes. Even with part of their bodies coiled, their heads stood a good ten feet above mine. More venom dropped before me. Deciding not to play favorites, I aimed the gun and quickly fired off a couple of rounds into each. I’d had the foresight to load up silver bullets, but it didn’t look like the gun was going to kill the snakes anytime soon—at least not without fifty more shots. Mostly, the bullets seemed to piss them off more.

Still, I kept firing since that seemed to make the snakes keep their distance. It proved to be a short-term solution, seeing as my bullets soon ran out. I reached for another clip. I could reload a gun quickly, but that pause gave one of the snakes an opening. Its head—no pun intended—snaked toward me, giving me a close-up view of large fangs. I’d been on guard for such an attack and jumped out of its way, only to be struck by the other’s tail. It knocked me several feet away, causing me to lose my grip on the new cartridge. The cartridge disappeared into the night, and I landed hard on the ground. My back and shoulder screamed in agony, but I had no time to baby them. There were two other clips in my belt, but
as one of the snakes came for me again, my hand went to the athame after all.

The snake that had hit me leaned down, its face and dripping jaw inches from me. Rather than run again, I leaped forward and plunged the blade into its eye. It cried out in pain, suffering from the silver, just as any Otherworldy creature would. Well, actually, any creature with a knife in its eye would probably suffer, magical or not.

I had the sense to jerk my athame out, having no desire either to lose the blade or get pulled along as the snake reared back up. The suffering of its pal made the other hold off. In those moments, I shoved the athame back into my belt, yelping in surprise. Apparently, the snake’s eye was poisonous too, and whatever liquid had come away with the blade ate through my jeans and burned my skin. Nonetheless, I managed to get another cartridge loaded. Without hesitation, I turned and emptied the entire gun into the snake’s head. I wasn’t precise enough to hit the eye, but all those bullets took their toll. The snake wavered in the air, blood mixing with venom on its skin, and with a last hiss of pain, it fell over and slammed into the ground.

Wondering why the other snake hadn’t come for me, I spun around and saw Volusian and Kiyo attacking it. I took it on faith that the first one was dead and loaded the gun with my last cartridge. Volusian’s touch was searing the snake’s skin, and Kiyo was simply ripping into it with his teeth. Opting for what seemed tried and true, I fired
into the snake’s head again. Between the three of us, we soon literally took the snake down.

I stood there tense and ready, empty gun in one hand and athame in the other. The world was silent except for the wind and the occasional twitching of the third snake as it died. Moments later, Kiyo morphed out of the fox shape, giving me a better view of any injuries now that he wasn’t covered in fur. He grimaced and spit on the ground a few times, but biting the snake apparently hadn’t destroyed his mouth or face. A couple red spots on his arms made me think he too had been splattered with the venom. Otherwise, he looked unharmed.

He sighed and raked a hand through his black hair, which was curling slightly from sweat.

“You know,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to bring myself to watch
Dune
again.”

“Cute,” I said.

Kiyo turned to me, giving me the same assessment I’d just given him. “You okay?”

“A little venom and probably some bruising tomorrow.”

He nodded, relieved, and then did a double take. “You’re bleeding.”

“Am I?” I asked, almost as surprised as he was.

He hurried over to me. “Your shoulder.”

“Oh, shit,” I said, craning my neck to look back. “That’s the table injury.”

“Take off your shirt. And don’t even start with some ridiculous modesty spiel,” he added, seeing me start to protest. I knew he was right and gingerly lifted off the Mötley Crüe shirt. He helped me part of the way, saving me from raising my arms too far. Examining the shirt, I saw blood soaked in it.

“Bad?” I asked.

“I’ll know once I take the bandages off. Please
tell me you have more and that we don’t have to reuse these.”

“I’ve got more. I told you I brought supplies.”

Carefully, he peeled off the gash’s cloth coverings and tossed them to the ground. In the firelight and dim glow of sunrise, I could see the fabric was completely red with blood.

“You broke some stitches,” he said wearily. “I don’t have the tools to fix it.” I’d once been kind of freaked out that he used his veterinarian skills to patch battle wounds, but now I kind of took it in stride.

“Pain aside, is that going to matter?” I asked.

“You’ll bleed more, though I’ll wrap it as much as I can. You’ll risk a scar too if you don’t get it stitched again. Once we finish this craziness up, I can do it for you back in Tucson if you don’t want to explain it to your doctor.”

“My regular one’s kind of used to this,” I said.

He snorted. “I imagine so.”

I fetched my pack, and we both sat on the ground. The light was increasing, making it easier for him to work as he tidied up my back. The old bandages were tossed away, and I winced as he swabbed everything with antiseptic wipes.

“I thought the danger didn’t start until we were in the crown’s cave,” I muttered.

“As often happens, mistress, you’ve made an incorrect assumption,” said Volusian. “The legends say the path to the crown is perilous. We are on the path. Your testing has begun.”

“Fantastic. Ow!”

“I’m saving you from infection,” chastised Kiyo.
That seemed to be the last of the sanitizing, thankfully, and from there he began layering gauze and tape. What he did was far from erotic, but it amazed me how gentle and steady his hands could be after seeing him savagely fight and rip things apart.

I glanced over at Deanna, who had simply observed the fight. She’d said nothing, but I thought I caught a glimpse of relief on her face. My death would have put a serious hitch in our bargain.

“How long until the entrance? When we lose you guys?” I asked. Annoying or not, Volusian would be missed—especially if these snakes were just the warm-up act.

“A few hours,” said Deanna.

I frowned, unsure if I should dread it or not. We’d lose our backup but be that much closer to finishing this anti-vacation.

“I suppose it’d be too much to hope you’ve brought any painkillers?” asked Kiyo, still layering me up. I felt like I had a quilt on my back.

“Vicodin probably isn’t the best asset for impending battle.”

“I was thinking more like aspirin.”

“Nope.” But it did remind me I was due for another antibiotic dose. I’d arrogantly thought I didn’t need them but now was glad for my mom’s vigilance. Not that I wanted to admit any of this to Kiyo. The thing about dating a doctor was that he’d always been on me about taking better care of myself. I didn’t want to hear any I-told-you-so’s now. And unsurprisingly, there was more advice to come.

He finished the last of the tape and helped me put on the clean shirt I’d packed. “Eugenie, wrapping this is a nuisance, but any gentry healer could have fixed this up in their sleep. Dorian’s got great healers. Why didn’t he have one of them take care of this? He should know better.”

I shifted around so I faced him. “How on earth did this suddenly become Dorian’s fault? Why is he responsible for everything evil? Of course he offered to get a healer. I refused because I figured other people needed it more.” I’d also totally forgotten to ask Shaya.

Kiyo’s expression relaxed and actually grew apologetic. He looked away. “Of course you did. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for accusing Dorian or for forgetting I’d be foolishly altruistic?”

Kiyo turned back, a small smile on his lips. “What do you think? There’s very little I feel apologetic for when it comes to Dorian, especially when I’m still convinced he wants to father Storm King’s heir.”

I smiled back. “I’m sure he does too. But it’s a moot point. I’ve still got birth control pills. I still don’t want any kids. My life’s stressful enough.” Belatedly, I recalled his adoration of Luisa. “No offense.”

“None taken,” he said, still smiling. “Really … I should be better about trusting you. I just keep thinking …” The smile dimmed a little.

“Thinking what?”

“I don’t know. That one day this will all get to you. And I don’t mean about Storm King. I mean
just … everything. You’ll totally give yourself over to this world. I’ll lose the Eugenie I know.”

I grabbed his hand without thinking and squeezed it. “Hey, stop that. You said it yourself: trust me. I’m the same Eugenie. Still split between identities … but nothing can change that.”

“I know.” He continued holding my hand. The touch of his fingers, which had been so objectively medical minutes ago, now took on another feel … something warmer. Something that made my body feel strange, as those dark eyes stayed fixed on me. I found myself falling into them like I used to, into those sexy, smoky depths….

I abruptly stood up, breaking that dangerous touch. “Well,” I said awkwardly, “seeing as it’s already light out and we’re up, we might as well get going. Breakfast in the saddle?”

Kiyo rose too, looking troubled. “Sure. The sooner we’re moving, the sooner we’re past any snake threats.”

As we packed up and got back on the horses, I wondered if we were riding toward something much worse than snakes. Don’t get me wrong: they’d been bad. But I fought supernatural creatures all the time. There’d been so much hype about the crown. Was it simply going to involve a monster buffet?

I kept those thoughts to myself as we traveled, having plenty of other things to preoccupy me. My meager breakfast. Kiyo’s presence. The pain in my back. The meaning behind the scattered holes in the terrain.

On the road went, just as it would through any
part of the Otherworld. I wondered how far it went. To infinity? Or would a traveler simply fall off the edge, like on those maps made back when people believed the world was flat?

“This is it.”

Deanna’s voice, though soft, seemed harsh in the emptiness around us. We came to a halt, and I glanced around, searching for what she’d found. At last, I spotted a small, dark opening tucked in one of the iron mountains.

“That’s it? It seems so … small.”

“Out here it does,” said Kiyo. “We don’t know what’s inside … except that it’s going to completely enclose us in iron. Remember—that’d kill most gentry. It’s a test you’re lucky enough to skip. Hopefully.”

“True,” I murmured. I still felt no ostensible effects from this land, but what would happen inside the mountain?

“I can’t go inside,” said Deanna. “I’ll just wait here for you to come out.”

“I too shall wait,” said Volusian, “in the hopes that you meet your death and that it is your spirit that emerges, so that I may torment it for all eternity.”

I pushed away the desire to order him away. Even if he couldn’t follow us, I’d feel better having him right here for defense when we came out. And we would come out, I decided fiercely. There was no
if
here.

I left my bag and gun outside, seeing as I had no ammunition left. Fucking snakes. Surveying the rest of my arsenal, I left the iron athame in my
belt, putting the silver athame in my right hand and the wand in my left. I glanced at Kiyo.

“Ready?”

He nodded. “I’ll go first.”

It was a very manly thing to do. I let him lead and faintly heard Deanna wishing us luck. The cave we entered was pitch black and cramped. I could just barely get through without ducking and knew Kiyo had to walk slightly hunched. We followed the twists and turns, scraping against the close, rough walls. We spoke occasionally to check location, and I’d sometimes touch his back as well. The deeper we went, the more I could feel the iron around us. Again, I had no indications of weakness … just an awareness.

“Light,” said Kiyo suddenly.

I blinked. He was right. I saw no light source, but something farther ahead was casting light down the tunnel. It started as only faint illumination, just giving me a glimpse of his silhouette. Soon, the light increased … as did the heat. A roaring sound came to my ears.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” I said.

We rounded a corner, and my jaw nearly dropped. The path ahead was blocked by fire. To be precise, it was blocked by sheets of very neatly contained fire, giving the impression of giant blades—particularly since they swung from the ceiling. Magically flattened into sheets or not, the flames burned intensely, and the heat radiating through the corridor left no doubt that these bastards would incinerate us.

“I think I saw this in a video game,” I muttered.

Kiyo’s gaze was fixed unwaveringly on the fire blades. There were five of them. His face was blank, but the concentration in his eyes told me what he was doing. He was timing them, studying their patterns.

“They’re staggered in a way that would let us get through,” he said. “We just have to watch the timing.”

“You
can get through. I don’t know about me.” I wasn’t being defeatist; I was just stating the truth. Kiyo possessed reflexes I didn’t have. I could sit here for hours and probably not learn their patterns like he could.

He frowned. “Maybe I can just hold your hand. Or put you on my back.”

“What? No. That’s ridiculous. It’d affect your speed—throw you off.” I studied the flames, hypnotized by the swinging patterns. There were spaces between each sheet. “Maybe I can wing it, take them one at a time.”

“Now
that’s
a ridiculous idea.” Frustration lined his brow.

“And to think, I would have given anything for heat last night. We should have camped in here….” My joke trailed off as an idea came to me. “I’ll just walk through.”

The look he gave me required no words to convey his opinion.

“Seriously,” I said. I put my weapons away and drew on the magic within me. The iron wasn’t affecting me. I toyed with the elements of air and water, testing and weaving them like a scarf. Kiyo could feel the shift in temperature near us.

“What are you thinking?”

“I can protect myself,” I said. “The cave’s damp enough—aside from here—for me to draw water. I’ll make a shield for me and use air to blow out against the fire.”

“The air could feed the flames.”

“Not if I do it right.”

Our eyes met. He didn’t like this idea, not at all. “This’ll work,” I told him. “I know for a fact it will.”

“For a fact, huh? I still think I should carry you.”

“And I still think that’s idiotic. You’ve gotta trust me, Kiyo. I can do this. I can
feel
it.”

He didn’t answer immediately, but I knew I had him. “If I watch you get burned alive, I’m not going to be happy.”

“Volusian’ll be happy,” I said. “At least someone comes out on top.”

“Eugenie!”

“Sorry.” I gave Kiyo what I hoped was a reassuring smile. “This’ll work. You go first.”

He hesitated a few moments more and then transformed into a fox. For fighting, he often chose a powerful, larger than life one. Now, he was small and quick like any ordinary red fox. He turned toward the flames, the human part—and probably animal too—again gauging timing. Then—he sprang forward.

I’d piled assurances on him, but it was my own breath that caught while watching him. He ran without stopping, stride smooth and consistent as he flawlessly ran through empty space caused by the flames’ swinging to the opposite side of the
cave. In seconds, he reached the end, on the other side of the fifth sheet. I exhaled. He transformed back to Kiyo and peered at me through the sporadic gaps, worry all over him.

I gave him another confident smile, hoping my earlier argument would hold true. I stared at the flames, not to time them but simply to muster my own courage. Magic welled up within me as I pulled moisture around my body, creating a spinning, almost cyclone-like cocoon—that instantly soaked me. That was the least of my worries. Then, I called on the air, drawing it to me and forcing it to blast away from my body.

As I stepped forward, my mind suddenly ran through a hundred other scenarios. Maybe I could have just sucked out the oxygen here and killed the fire. Of course, that’d likely render me unconscious. And would ordinary physics even work against magic fire? That question came to me too late, along with the realization that magic fire might similarly be immune to air and water.

Woosh!

I lacked Kiyo’s timing. The first fiery sheet flew at me—and went around me. My fan-effect blew it away and the scalding heat that would have still reached me was mitigated by the water. I picked up my pace, walking through the second one in a similar way. Lucky timing made me miss the third altogether. The fourth nailed me—or would have—and then I just barely sidestepped the fifth.

I reached Kiyo’s side and dropped the magic. “Three out of five ain’t bad,” I said cheerfully. To
my surprise he hugged me, in spite of my dripping clothes and hair.

“Jesus Christ that was scary, Eug. When I saw you walk through that first wall …”

“… you thought it was pretty cool?”

He pulled back and shook his head, watching as I wrung water from my shirt. “You sure are making an awful lot of jokes about some pretty serious stuff.”

“Hey, you’re the one who made the
Dune
reference.” I sighed and let my hands fall to my sides. “Besides, if I wasn’t making jokes, I’d probably come to my senses and be running straight back to the Thorn Land.” I drew air to me, taking along some of the heat, to sort of blow-dry me off. I stopped when I was semi-dry, not wanting to use up the magic.