The Siren (Laments of Angels & Dark Chemistry Book 1) (16 page)

“She broke it!” said Violet, turning to Lucienne with loathing. “I told you not to take it. Just because you’re the queen doesn’t mean you can take whatever you want.”

“Violet, do you always have to be so rude?” Clement said. “My husband and I wanted Queen Lucienne to have that toy.”

“Learn some manners, peasant girl!” Kian warned. “I can throw you out this moment.”

“No one throws her out. This is my house,” said Ashburn coldly. “And she isn’t just some peasant girl.”

“Ash!” Clement reproached.

Violet grinned. Before she could open her mouth to gloat, Ashburn put his hand on her shoulder, stopping her. “It’s just a game inside,” he said. “If it’s broken, then it’s broken. No big deal. Queen Lucienne’s team took it to try to find me.”

Very smooth,
Lucienne thought.
 

“But Ash—” Violet protested.

“I’m sorry we can’t fix your Picture Box,” Lucienne said. “My team couldn’t access it, but—”

Ashburn moved his fingers across the middle piece of the crystal, and it burst back to life. The diamond and gold city, guarded by a race of half-beast, half-god creatures shimmered on the interface. “It’s fine,” he said. “Your team didn’t break it.”

Lucienne stared at the virtual city with widened eyes. “What is the game about?”

Sending her a cautious glance, Ashburn clicked off the screen. The interface faded to black. “A lost city I found but can’t enter yet.”  

He was baiting her. Lucienne felt dust in her mouth. Everything she wanted to find out was at her fingertips, and yet out of her reach. If Ashburn wanted to play games, she needed to be sure to checkmate him first. She pushed a second button on the handle of the suitcase, and another platform slid open, exposing a glass interface. “I have a similar toy for you.” She turned on the interface, opened the World Wide Web, and showed Ashburn a war video game Vladimir liked to play. As his eyes turned dark silver—she’d learned how the color of his eyes shifted according to his mood—she knew the boy was intrigued.

Lucienne decided to tease him just a little more. Just as Ashburn eagerly engaged himself in the game, she manipulated the screen to switch for a split second to a nude Playboy cover girl. She watched Ashburn’s vampire-pale face go red with embarrassment. The natives didn’t have outsiders’ vice. They didn’t even know what porn was. Fighting a smile, Lucienne then selected a movie channel and let an epic battle scene play on.

Ashburn was unable to pull his eyes away from the screen. For a moment, he seemed to be in a trance, as if his mind were inside the firewalls. More than anything, Lucienne wanted to pry into his mind one more time, despite the horrendous prospect of being assaulted by an army of massive voices. Just then, the redhead cut in between them, incredibly fast for a girl without any training. Ashburn was trembling, his entranced eyes paling to the color of ice.   

“Are you all right, Ash?” Violet called. “Is the witch — is the queen’s machine hurting you?”

“Violet!” Clement reprimanded.

“My son’s probably hungry,” Peder said. “Have you eaten since you came home, Ash?”

“Let’s go to the kitchen, Ash.” Violet tried to pull Ashburn away. “I’ll fix you something to eat.”

“I’ll make lamb stew,” Clement said. “Ash will rest here.” She headed to the kitchen.

“Malicious code, Trojan horse,” Ashburn said.   

Can he really see through the firewall of the computer?
Lucienne watched Ashburn with an amazed look.

“What’s that?” Peder blinked.

“A virus inside the machine,” Ashburn said.

Peder paled.

“It only hurts machines,” Ashburn added.

“Oh, that’s good then,” Peder said as color returned to his face. 

Kian’s Eidolon vibrated loudly. He took a look. “The king’s coming.”

“And the whole town,” Ashburn added. 

Clement stopped in her tracks. Her lips started shivering. Peder’s teeth clattered.

“Mr. and Mrs. Fury, I’ll handle the king. Don’t worry about a thing,” Lucienne said and then turned to Violet. “You might want to stay in Ashburn’s basement.”

“I’ll not do your bidding,” Violet said. “I’m not your maid.”

“You’re not qualified to be my maid,” Lucienne said. “But the last thing the Fury family wants right now is you adding more drama. You’re not even wearing your own clothes. The prince, who has proved he has a vivid imagination, will surely create another situation for Ashburn. Would you like to add unnecessary complications?”

“I know what you’re after,” Violet said. “I’m not that easy to get rid of!”

She thinks I’m after Ashburn.
Lucienne looked amused before a hopeless pang perched on her heart.
If she knew I can’t have intimacy with any man, and I might never be able to, she wouldn’t be so nervous and defensive.

Ashburn watched Lucienne. He’d caught a flicker of pain in her eyes. Lucienne looked away.  

“Violet, you must leave before stirring more trouble for us,” said Clement. 

“I’m not the one who stirs trouble,” Violet said. “Besides, Ash needs me.”

“I hate to ask you to go, Violet,” Ashburn said, “but it’s the best for now. I’ll tell you everything later. Have some cake in the basement.”

Violet stormed off after tossing Lucienne a dirty look.

Lucienne turned back to the group. “My machine bird found Ashburn on the other side of the mountains. He was half buried under the snow. When we found him, he was unconscious. My medical team used the gods’ holy water to bring him back, and in the process healed his legs. That’s the story we’re going to stick to.”

Clement and Peder nodded gratefully. 

Lucienne focused on Ashburn.

“I have no objections.” Ashburn gave a small shrug.  

“All set then,” Lucienne said.

As Kian spoke into the radio to his men, shouts from the natives carried into the house. Torches cast shadows that chased each other across the windows. It looked as if the whole town was about to set siege to the Fury house.

Lucienne shared a quick look with Kian, and he gave her a nod. “We have seven men outside, four on the rooftops. We’ll shoot if the natives attempt to burn down the house.” 

“No one burns down my house!” Ashburn’s eyes narrowed to slits, cold as the never-melting ice.

The front door exploded. Two of the king’s guards charged in, followed by King Henry, Queen Isis, and Prince Felix. Six guards brought up the rear, armed with hunting daggers.  

Clement and Peder bowed to their king. Ashburn bowed slightly with a blank expression. The king’s eyes bulged at the standing Ashburn, who towered over all of them. The queen gasped, and Prince Felix fumed. 

With a grim look, King Henry removed his glare from Ashburn to Lucienne and nodded an acknowledgement. “Queen Lucienne, what brought you here at this hour?”

“King Henry,” Lucienne said with a nod, “I was wondering the same about you. My men found Ashburn Fury and brought him back.”

The King touched his mustache in irritation. “You should have reported this to me immediately!”

“You’re out of line! Queen Lucienne reports to no one, and definitely not to your lot,” Kian said coldly. “She’s still your benefactor. The coats you and your guards are wearing are from the queen’s pockets. Don’t provoke her or she will dethrone you.”

The king’s lips thinned. He avoided looking at Kian. “I meant that my subjects—the Furys should have reported to me immediately.”

Clement and Peder told the king in trembling voices that Queen Lucienne’s men found their son half buried in the snow at the feet of the mountains.

“Ashburn the Extra, where is the gods’ magic box you stole?” Prince Felix demanded.

Lucienne watched how Ashburn responded. She knew if he was convicted of stealing the box, the entire Fury family would be executed.

Ashburn answered with his hands shoved into his pocket, “Your Royal Highness has mistaken me as a thief and a criminal, but I’m neither. I’ve never taken anything that’s not mine.”

“If you didn’t steal the magic box, then where did the gods’ light go?” the prince asked.

“Good question, Your Highness,” Ashburn said, his dark brows creasing. “But I do not have the answer you’re seeking. By the way, what does the gods’ magic box look like?”

“You tell me!” the prince said.  

“Sorry, Your Highness,” Ashburn said. “I’ve never seen one. How can I tell you? It is said only the royal family has seen it.”

“He’s tricking us, Father.” Prince Felix gritted his teeth. “This peasant is playing us!”

“I have no love for games, Your Highness,” Ashburn said.

“You’re the biggest liar I’ve ever known!” Prince Felix pulled out a long leather whip from his belt.

The prince’s whip is as inferior as its owner,
Lucienne thought. She sent Kian a look telling him not to interfere. She wouldn’t miss an opportunity to keep testing Ashburn. She needed to know his limits.

Ashburn looked coolly at the whip.

Clement threw herself before Ashburn, crying. “Don’t punish my son, Your Highness. Whip me, please. It’s all my fault.”

Peder knelt. “Don’t hurt my wife and my son, Your Majesty, Your Highness. Please whip
my
back. I deserve it.”

Ashburn herded his parents behind him. “Let me handle this. If they dare lay a finger on you—” The veins on his temples jumped. Lucienne noticed black flames forming at Ashburn’s fingertips, the same black lightning emitted by the Eye of Time when it burned her lab during a test. 

“The more the merrier.” With a sneer, Prince Felix raised his whip.              

Before Ashburn could act, Lucienne cut between the Furys and the prince. In a heartbeat, her steel whip was out. It slashed in an arc, slitting the prince’s whip and leaving only the handle in his hand.

Prince Felix opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. “My whip!”

“Manners, prince,” Lucienne said. Her anger was fueled even more, seeing the image in the malicious brat’s mind. Ashburn’s back was
crisscrossed
with whipping scars from previous encounters with the prince.

Her whip pitched in the air with a hiss, yanking a dagger from a guard standing behind the king. Lucienne shook the whip loose and the dagger flapped in midair. Flailing wildly, it could drop on and stab just about anyone in the room. 

The king and queen ducked under the table and screamed for their son to follow suit. The guards staggered back toward the door. Lucienne’s warriors remained unmoved.

Prince Felix darted toward the table, but Lucienne tripped him with a leg. Falling backwards on the floor, the prince’s green eyes stared at the dagger plummeting toward his face in absolute terror. He screamed.

The queen joined the screaming.

The king shouted, “My son!” and darted out from under the table. He pushed a guard toward the falling dagger as a human shield, but the guard was too heavy to be thrown on top of the prince.

Peder and Clement looked petrified. Ashburn watched Lucienne with an unreadable expression. When the blade was a mere two feet from the prince’s face, the whip caught it and lifted it sharply. The whip flung the dagger toward a side wall. Its tip pierced the wood frame of a window, its blade shuddering. 

Pride and admiration displayed on the face of each and every one of Lucienne’s warriors.

“You’re getting better every day,” Kian said in an Irish dialect. “Soon, you’ll catch up with me.”

“You think?” Lucienne smiled at him, then turned to King Henry with an icy expression. “If anyone interferes with the gods’ affairs again, the gods won’t be this merciful. Finding the magic box is my mission, and Ashburn Fury is assigned by the gods to assist me. Anyone who touches him or his folks will have to answer to me. Do you understand?” She scanned the royal family and their guards, still in shock.

The prince had wet his pants. A guard escorted him to the bathroom. The queen stared at her son’s figure with concern before shooting Lucienne a venomous look.

Lucienne glanced at Ashburn. The black flame had vanished from his fingertips, his eyes now mercury silver. Lucienne let out an audible sigh of relief. She had managed to contain the lightning inside the bottle. She couldn’t afford to let the world know about Ashburn Fury’s power. His gifts needed to remain classified.

“If the boy didn’t steal the gods’ magic box, how does the Furys house have the gods’ light while no one else does?” Queen Isis asked, loud enough to let the words carry to the islanders gathered outside the door. “The people of Nirvana must know!”

The queen was tightening a noose around Ashburn’s neck.

“The Priestess speaks well!” shouted King Henry. “Ashburn Fury must have stolen the gods’ magic box and fooled Queen Lucienne!”

He was returning the favor by calling her a fool.

Curses and yelling rumbled from the crowd outside, echoing in the Fury house and rattling the windows. Torches moved up and down, casting menacing shadows onto the group through the windows.  

If Lucienne couldn’t dissolve this crisis quickly, a riot would break out. Her men would have to open fire on the natives. Blood would be shed, and all her efforts at keeping peace would fall by the wayside. Lucienne rubbed two of her fingers against her temple. “King Henry and Queen Isis,” she addressed, “there’s a scientific explanation. This is the gods’ will—”