Read Online Hels's Gauntlet [Forbidden Legacy 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Heather Long - Free Book Online Page B

in place.
    “Have care, nephew. She already tried to blast us out of existence. Female or not, she is not our friend.” He spoke to Vanagan as though he were a child, but the seven-hundred-year-old Wizard should know better than to press forward into the unknown.
    “She’s a Wizard .” Vanagan emphasized the word as if Helcyon hadn’t already grasped the import. Unfortunately, he was already ahead of his nephew. Kyrian called in these assassins. They’d attacked Helcyon, not his brother. They’d been hell-bent on killing him, not his brother.
    That the others included members of the Fae from Elves to the lesser species as well as Wizards did not bode well. New alliances forged in the shadow of the greater powers’ shift could lead to deeper problems for the world.
    “You don’t get it. It isn’t just the pretty Elves coming back into the world, Cassie. The Fae are many, and so many are dark, twisted and ugly…” Jacob’s argument echoed in his ears. He rarely spoke it anymore, not since it was fait accompli . The Fae were public knowledge.
    “We’re aware, Vanagan, but if you want to say it a third time just for the hell of it, consider what happens when you say Beetlejuice.” Jacob’s dry observation sailed over Helcyon’s head. It must reference something in the popular culture, but unlike his brethren, the only thing in humanity that fascinated him was Cassandra.
    “I’m not a Wizard.” Low and thick, the woman’s voice scratched across the words, scrabbling for purchase. Her chin came up, and the scrawling script on her body fought to come together but melted away each time a word nearly solidified. Energy sputtered in the feeble attack she lobbed. A pebble at a tank.
    “Then, what are you?” Jacob inserted himself into the conversation. His professional voice—the same cool and measured tone he used when questioning Cassandra in the hospital. The irony that it had only been a few months since the explosion in the park brought Jacob to her side wasn’t lost on Helcyon. Irony that the hostile, but armed ceasefire between Wizard and Fae exploded overnight into factional warfare, plotting, assignations, and love.
    Helcyon jerked Vanagan back as he started forward again. Pain flared through his arm, oozing more blood from his wounds, but he didn’t release the Wizard. “Let Jacob question her.”
    “Yes, let me question her. You tend to his wounds.”
    The female laughed, and a chest-rattling cough seized her. The back of Helcyon’s neck tingled. “Her injuries are deep. She is buying enough time to die.”
    “Yeah, I got that, too. What do you want to do?”
    “We can stabilize her and ask the Brownies to treat her, but that may be what she is seeking. Her body scrolls magic, she cannot piece the spells together yet, but even in her weakened state she is trying to.” Admiration slid along the underside of his words. The female was young, younger than him—definitely younger than Vanagan—but maybe not quite as young as Jacob.
    That made her old enough to be very, very dangerous.
    “Or we could kill her.” Despite the bravado in the words, Jacob didn’t want to execute the purple-haired female. They’d questioned whether other female Wizards existed. Cassandra seemed to be breaking down all the doors.
    It remained to be seen what monsters came screaming out of the closets as she did.
    “No. We can’t let her die.” Vanagan finally stopped pulling at Helcyon’s arm, relaxing back onto his heels. But he didn’t seem quite able to pull his attention from the woman.
    “The Brotherhood has healers in it. We can take her there. It will reduce the risk to Underhill.”
    “And increase her exposure to the order. This isn’t a power fight, Wizard Marcus.” Jacob’s stern words served as a reminder. Their alliance was fragile, tentative, and subject to any number of flaws.
    “That’s not the point. You can’t take her Underhill. If she’s a Changeling, it could destroy sections of