The Rebel Queen (Outlaw 1)

Courtney was leaning against Lee, trying to hide her tears.

Everyone was focused on the family drama playing out. Everyone except Dean. He was looking around as though he could see something the rest of us couldn’t. His fingers splayed as though he was testing some invisible water.

“Do you see what you’re doing to your daughter?” Lisa asked.

“I’m trying to get her ready.” Zack sat up, his back against the headboard. “We can’t go on this way. She needs to be prepared for this.”

“Maybe I should take Courtney back to Uncle Neil’s,” Lee said tentatively.

She shook her head. “I want to be here with my dad.”

Dean was frowning.

I could feel the heavy weight of emotion. Sometimes a situation is so grim that you can feel the weight of the moment, the despair blanketing you and making you feel like you can’t breathe.

And sometimes it was an asshole’s magic that made everyone crazy. “This is part of the curse, isn’t it?”

“Zack’s health? Yes.” Lily moved in, setting her basket on the nightstand. “He’ll feel a bit better because of the king’s blood, but he got worse today. Worse than he’s been in a long time.”

Zack put a hand on his chest. “I’m going to get weaker. I’ll feel better for less and less time and get sicker. This is the last time I take the king’s blood. It’s better to go out on my own will.”

“I can’t believe you’re saying that.” Lisa had gone pale. “You have to stay with us. You can’t give up.”

I was paying more attention to Dean. “It’s fighting, isn’t it? It knows Daniel might be able to save him.”

Dean shook his head, and his eyes seemed to sparkle in the low light. “It’s not the king’s blood it’s afraid of.”

“What are you talking about?” Lisa asked, wiping her eyes.

“The curse.” It was odd because now that I was thinking about it, I could tell the difference. It wasn’t even really subtle. It had been the night before, but now it was like a surge against my skin.

Lily gasped. “I can feel it now. I’m sorry, Zack. I’ve never noticed it before. I knew it was some kind of a curse, but this is a living thing. I’ve never felt a curse like this before. Something’s changed. I would have felt this.”

“It changed. It’s scared, and that is what you feel,” Dean said.

“I would bet Myrddin learned this on the Hell plane.” I watched as Dean went perfectly still though I spoke to Lily. “I know your father had a demonic background, but you haven’t actively used it.” Sarah had from time to time. It was why she’d been so strong at some defensive spells.

Lily shook her head. “Not in magic. When I was on the Hell plane, they used me like a battery. I certainly wasn’t taught in this fashion. It’s like it’s alive. Why now? I’ve been around Zack for years and I’ve never felt anything like this from him.”

“Please, Lisa. I don’t want it to end like this. I know you don’t want to face it, but I’m dying.” If Zack was listening to us, I couldn’t tell. He seemed intent on convincing his wife he wasn’t long for this plane.

Probably because the curse was working on his brain the same way it was his body.

Lisa had moved to her daughter, wrapping her in her arms as though she could protect her from what was happening. Lee stepped in front of them. My son was always putting his body between danger and others. He had since he was small.

“Dean, maybe you should go. I don’t like how it feels in here,” Lee said.

Dean’s eyes shifted slightly, glancing to where Lee was. “But if I leave it won’t be afraid anymore. It will sink back deep inside and hide like the coward it is. That curse will feed on his misery if I walk away. It’s not scared the king’s blood will save Zack. It knows I’m going to kill it. Stand back.”

Dean shoved his hand against Zack’s chest, and I struggled to stay on my feet when a blast of heat went through the room. Danny moved toward Zack like he was going to force Dean off of him.

“Don’t,” I yelled over the shouts coming from Zack. “Let him try.”

Lisa was covering her daughter, and Lee suddenly had a knife in his hand.

Lily seemed to shake off her initial shock. “I can help him.”

She closed her eyes and started to murmur a spell I knew well. It was an incantation of strength, to help power what Dean was doing.

And what it looked like Dean was doing was nothing short of sucking the evil out of Zack’s soul. Where his hand touched Zack’s chest, lines of black crept up Dean’s arm, the skin going from healthy to pale and sick in a second.