Charming Marjani Read online

  She loped north toward the ice fae court, using her quartz as a compass so that she could run through the tundra, avoiding the road. The sun rose, a weak, pale thing, and the sense of being watched eased.

  By noon, she’d covered twenty miles, passing like a shadow by tiny fishing villages and farms with shaggy Icelandic sheep and the smallest horses she’d ever seen. She swerved west, coming out on a deserted cliff above the North Atlantic, and made her way down to the beach, where she shifted back to human. Shedding her backpack, she found her fishing knife and strode naked into the icy surf. Within minutes, she had two fish, which she filleted and roasted on a tiny camp stove.

  The taste was fresh and wild. Perfect.

  She was licking her fingers when a movement on the cliff above made her bolt to her feet.

  It was Fane, looking like a freaking model for Iceland Magazine in a silver shirt and worn jeans, long legs braced apart and his golden hair secured with a leather tie. His gaze traveled down her naked body, and his sexy mouth curved.

  She ignored the smile to zero in on his ears. A diamond stud glittered in one earlobe, but what made her growl were the pointed tops, obvious now his hair was pulled back. He had more fae in him than she’d guessed.

  Without taking her gaze from him, she picked up the fishing knife, flipping it from hand to hand with the ease of long practice. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  “Easy.” He raised a hand, palm out, in a placating gesture she didn’t trust for a second. “I can explain.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  She closed the still-warm camp stove and shoved it into her backpack along with the knife. She strapped the pack on, aware of him watching the entire time. Let him look his fill. One false move and she’d slit his throat.

  But he remained on the cliff.

  She shifted to cougar and bounded up the cliff, where she snarled right in his pretty face, making sure to show plenty of teeth.

  The man was either stupid—or brave. He stood his ground, hands loose at his sides. Not aggressive, but not giving an inch.

  She stalked around him, growling lowly.

  “I mean you no harm,” he said, which earned him another snarl.

  She reached his front and paused, tail twitching in confusion. Her cougar didn’t know what to make of him, but it didn’t scent a threat. In fact, to her cat, Fane smelled somehow right, just as he had last night to the human Marjani.

  A smile curled over his lips. “By the gods,” he said in his smoky voice, “you’re beautiful. And you’d rip out my throat in a heartbeat, wouldn’t you?”

  Her response was a snarl, but inside, the cougar preened itself at the compliment.

  He lifted a brow. “Are you ready to listen?”

  She gave one last growl and sat on her haunches.

  “Good.” He expelled a breath. “I don’t have much time—I’m supposed to be somewhere else right now.”

  She stared back unblinkingly.

  “Right,” he muttered. “You know, I’m risking my bloody neck to help you. And you couldn’t give a fuck, could you?”

  Another twitch of her tail. Because he was right, she didn’t give a fuck.

  His hands curled into fists, a crack in his calm façade.

  “I can’t tell you much, or they’ll—” He set his jaw. “It’s not important. But the ice fae king knows you’re here. Get out of Iceland, Jani. Today. While you still can.”

  4

  Fane stared into Marjani-the-cougar’s turquoise eyes. It hadn’t been easy to follow her, but it didn’t take a genius to deduce she’d head north toward Strandir and the ice fae court.

  He’d shadowed her in Reykjavik as she searched the city. Hovered nearby as she ate lunch alone on a bench, an island of solitude in a sea of tourists. She’d stared out at the water, face bleak, dark eyes haunted.

  And damn if he hadn’t wanted to sit beside her and try to tease her into a better mood.

  He knew a little about what had put that bleak expression on her face. Something bad had happened involving the local river fada. According to his source, the men concerned were all dead. So whatever had happened—and you didn’t have to be a genius to guess what a group of men might do to a woman—the SOBs had gotten what was coming to them.

  She’s an animal, Fane. A mixed bag of genes breathed into life by Dionysus and his wild fae followers.

  But she fascinated him, and he had time to burn. He had a day, maybe two, before King Sindre would expect a report.

  That night, instead of returning to his own room at a fae-owned inn, he’d waited outside the hostel where she’d taken a room. His patience had been rewarded when she slipped out early the next morning. He’d followed in his SUV, using his Gift to conceal the vehicle, as the bus took her to the edge of town. When she’d taken off as her cougar, he’d driven north, taking his time so he wouldn’t pass her.

  But he’d lost her when she headed away from the road and into the tundra, only to catch sight of her again on the cliff. He’d parked and slipped closer—and damn near lost all the air in his lungs at seeing her lithe, honey-smooth body.

  Now he squeezed his nape, wondering why he was sticking his neck out for a woman he’d never met. An earth fada, at that.

  The cougar twitched her black-tipped tail. She had small, rounded ears and a white patch above each of those startling blue-green eyes. A plume of dark fur started at the inside corner of each eye and continued up her forehead as if drawn by a sooty finger.

  In this form, she probably outweighed him, but he’d meant what he said. She was magnificent, all long bones and sleek muscles.

  And trouble with a capital T.

  “Do you understand?” He placed a hand on her shoulder, and for some reason she allowed it. Her fur was soft, like plush velvet. “You have to leave—today. The king has spies everywhere. You can’t trust anyone.”

  She cocked her head in question, and he gave a mirthless chuckle. “That’s right. Me included.”

  She rubbed her head over his chest—a quick thanks-but-no-thanks—and then gathered those lean muscles and loped off. North.

  Bloody-minded female.

  Well, he’d done what he could. If she wanted to run straight into a trap, that was her funeral.

  He scowled and returned to his SUV. After taking his place behind the wheel, his hand went to his chest. Had Marjani been thanking him—or marking him?

  He gripped the wheel and watched as her graceful body grew smaller until it was a dot on the horizon. The thought of that stunning, independent creature caged and at the mercy of the fae court’s whims made his stomach turn.

  With a low growl, he started the engine and continued north. He’d return to the court a day early. As a mixed-blood, he wasn’t privy to the pureblood fae’s plans, but maybe he could learn something.

  He’d become very good at keeping his head down, doing his job as Sindre’s envoy and ignoring everything else. It was the only way to survive as a mixed-blood at the heart of a fae court.

  But he had a bad feeling that this time, he might not be able to.

  5

  “Well?” Adric Savonett placed his hands on the war room’s round granite table and looked around at his three remaining lieutenants—Zuri, Jace and Luc.

  Zuri fingered his soul patch. A wolf shifter, he was the clan pretty-boy, his good looks the genetic inheritance of Mediterranean and African globe-trotters who’d met and mixed in the Caribbean. Tall and brown-skinned, he had a shaved head and narrow black mustache to go with the soul patch. Zuri was so good looking, people tended to underestimate him…until he pinned them with his hard black eyes.

  “She took a red-eye out of BWI,” the lieutenant reported. “She lands in Iceland at 10:50 a.m., their time. That’s 6:50 a.m., our time—which would be right about now.”

  Adric muttered a curse. Marjani had left a note saying she was on her way to Iceland, but he’d wanted to confirm it. Because he couldn’t believe she’d take off like that.
r />   She’d known damn well he didn’t want her to leave.

  He was the fucking alpha—what he said should count. His claws sprouted against the granite table. Like being alpha mattered when it was your sister.

  “You want us to go after her?” That was Jace, a jaguar shifter and one of Adric’s oldest friends. “We can grab her, bring her back.”

  Adric’s jaw clenched. Gods, he wanted to say yes. He literally shook with the need to follow her.

  But Marjani was right. The clan needed him here.

  The clan was still reeling from the events earlier this summer when his cousin Corban had brought night fae assassins to Baltimore. By the time the dust had settled, Tyrus, the night fae prince’s son and heir, was dead.

  Worse, Adric had killed Corban’s middle brother Kane. It had been a fair fight. Nash, the youngest brother, had sworn to it, saying Adric had only been defending himself.

  But everyone knew Adric had killed his uncle Leron before taking over as alpha. Now they whispered that he intended to take out his three cousins as well.

  The clan was seething, afraid Adric was out of control.

  Too many unexplained deaths had happened under his watch. Just like when Leron was alpha. Mistrust. Fear. Anger. Everything Adric had worked so hard to put behind him.

  All because of his thrice-damned older cousin.

  Pushing away from the table, he got up to pace the length of the small underground room. They were beneath the Factory, the combination test lab and manufacturing plant for the clan’s quartz smartphones. Adric had carved the space himself out of the bedrock, along with a couple of trusted stoneworkers.

  “She’s on the edge,” Jace added bluntly. “If you’re not careful, you’re going to lose her.”

  Jace was one of the few clan members who’d dare say it aloud. But then, he’d been with Adric and Marjani since the beginning, when they’d first plotted to overthrow their bastard of an uncle.

  Adric closed his eyes. The other man was being polite. They both knew Marjani was the next thing to feral. Most days, she spent more time as a cat than as a human. A good portion of the clan thought Adric should do something about her.

  “Ric?” Jace’s hazel eyes were sympathetic. He’d lost his own sister in the Darktime. “You can’t let the fact that she’s your sister—”

  “She’s not feral,” he gritted. “Not yet.”

  Because the clan was wrong. Marjani was still rational.

  “You haven’t seen her like I do,” he said. “She made breakfast for me yesterday, and we discussed what to do about Corban. And she was fine at Jace and Evie’s mating ritual. You all saw her as her human.”

  “True,” Jace said. “Doesn’t mean she should be in Iceland on her own. It’s not just that she could go feral—it’s that Corban wants her dead. And she might be a hard-ass, but he outweighs her by fifty or sixty pounds. Plus, the motherfucker has nothing to lose.”

  Luc moved in his seat. The wolves in the clan tended to be taller than the cats, and Luc was no exception. A wild, fierce fighter, he was over six feet of solid muscle, with dark skin and wiry black hair.

  “Why the fuck didn’t you stop her? You must have known she’d go after the prick.” His gold eyes accused Adric.

  Adric slapped his hands on the hand-worked granite. He didn’t normally explain his decisions, but Luc was in love with Marjani. Had been for years.

  “You try and stop her when she’s got an idea in her head.”

  “Don’t give me that. You could’ve done something.”

  “What? Lock her in her fucking room?”

  “At least then she’d be alive!” Luc snarled back.

  They glared at each other. Adric’s claws pricked out.

  “Are you questioning how I handle my own sister?”

  Luc’s jaw worked. Then he dropped his gaze. “No,” he muttered.

  Jace spoke into the taut silence. “The question is, what do we do now?”

  Adric retracted his claws and retook his seat. “Ideas?”

  “We send a man to watch over her,” Jace said. “But only one. More than that, and we’ll just piss off the ice fae.”

  Zuri shook his head. “I say we risk sending four or five men. She’s not just Adric’s sister, she’s the clan second, and a damn good one. We can’t afford to lose her. And if and when she finds Corban, she’ll need help.”

  Luc growled. “Corban can go fuck himself. I vote we send five men to bring her home, ASAP.”

  Adric blew out a breath. “Dragging her home isn’t an option.” She was on edge as it was. When she did spend time in her human form, she’d become a one-woman arsenal, with two or three knives on her at all times. “She needs to do this. Otherwise, we’re going to lose her.”

  Luc set his teeth but nodded curtly.

  Adric touched the quartz around his neck, pinging her one last time. But she didn’t answer. His claws pricked out again. The cougar was about to explode out of his skin, insistent on going after Marjani. But the cougar also knew that the clan came first.

  He made up his mind. “We’ll send one man to serve as backup.”

  Luc rose to his feet. “I’ll go.”

  Adric considered him. The wolf fada looked back, big hands fisted. If Adric refused, he’d have another AWOL lieutenant, because Luc was determined to go, alpha or no alpha. At least if he had Adric’s permission, he’d report in regularly.

  “All right.” Adric jerked his chin in assent. “But you’re only there as backup. Unless things go south, you’re not to interfere—and that’s an order. I don’t even want her to know you’re there. Pretend you’re a fucking ghost.”

  “Understood.” The lieutenant’s shoulders released. “I’ll catch the next flight.”

  “The next flight isn’t until seven o’clock tonight,” Zuri told him. “You won’t get there until five a.m. tomorrow, their time.”

  Adric grimaced. That meant Marjani would be in Iceland for almost a day without back up. But it couldn’t be helped.

  “Contact me when you’re on the ground,” he told Luc. “I can use my link to her quartz to give you her general direction.”

  “Will do.” The wolf disappeared up the ladder to the Factory’s main floor.

  Adric turned to Zuri, his chief of security. “While I have you here, any word about the night fae prince?”

  In the past six weeks Prince Langdon of the night fae had been seen twice in Baltimore, when he normally only visited the city once every few years. They all knew why—he was searching for his son, Lord Tyrus.

  Baltimore was located between two powerful fae clans—the Rising Sun Fae in northern Maryland, and Langdon’s clan, the New Moon Night Fae in Virginia. Adric had kept his dealings with the local fae to a minimum until Corban had teamed up with Tyrus to try and pick off Adric’s lieutenants.

  Which was why Lord Tyrus was buried deep underground in Druid Hill Park.

  “Nothing,” Zuri replied. “I have my people on high alert, but the prince hasn’t been seen in the city in over a week. Word is he’s searching cities up and down the East Coast, not just Baltimore.”

  Relief washed over Adric. “Then he’s not sure where his son died.”

  “No.”

  “Good. For now, keep your people on high alert. If the prince shows his face anywhere in the city, I want to know, stat. That goes for any night fae.”

  “Of course,” Zuri replied.

  The meeting over, the three of them headed up the ladder.

  Up in the Factory, the techies were hard at work on the latest smartphone design. Right now, the Factory was just a small test lab in a former grocery in West Baltimore, but someday, it would be a cash cow for the clan. He hoped.

  Jace was the engineer in charge of the quartz smartphone project. Adric listened as the lieutenant brought him up to date, and then told everyone to keep up the good work before leaving with Zuri.

  Outside, the two of them squinted against the morning sun. Zuri settled a pair of da
rk sunglasses on his broad nose.

  “Luc will find her. You know he’s one of the clan’s best trackers. And it’s Jani, so…”

  Adric nodded. They both knew the wolf would die for Marjani in a heartbeat. “But will she let him catch her?”

  Zuri moved a big shoulder. “It’s in the gods’ hands now.”

  Adric put on his own sunglasses and they set off, Zuri to meet with his security team, Adric to crisscross Baltimore, checking in with the dens scattered across the city to try and calm the gossip.

  All he wanted was for the clan to put the Darktime behind them. For the cubs to be safe and well-fed, and the adults able to afford a treat now and then. A stretch of forest for everyone—young and old—to run and play in.

  And his sister back to how she’d been before those river fada bastards had gotten hold of her.

  Was that too fucking much to ask?

  6

  The journey north took Marjani a week. She remained in her cougar form, traveling mainly at night. At first she followed the Ring Road, staying out of sight of the spotty traffic. The terrain changed from flat plains to arctic highlands, the days slipping by almost unnoticed as they did when she was her cat.

  An earth fada alpha was connected to his clan through their quartzes—a magical bond like a mate bond, but weaker. An alpha like Adric could track a clan member through his or her quartz. If Corban were still a member of the Baltimore clan, Adric could’ve used his quartz to find him, but Corban had smashed his quartz and found another, renouncing Adric as his alpha.

  Marjani wasn’t alpha, but her quartz hummed a quiet song whenever she turned north, and fell silent if she tried a different direction. That was good enough for her. When the Ring Road veered west, she continued due north.

  A steady drizzle alternated with periods of heavy rain. By the third night, she was chilled to the bone, her stomach hollow with hunger. When dawn came, she found a cave and slept huddled near a thermal pool for warmth.

  When she awoke, she washed her face and paws in the steaming water. A meal of a few mice barely took the edge off, but she ignored the hunger pangs to set off again.