Onyx Eclipse (The Raven Queen's Harem 5)

I raise an eyebrow. “Oh, sorry, I shouldn’t have presumed.”

“It’s okay. We did originally meet over my jealousy of your relationship with the Raven Guard.” She smiles wider. “I’m not picky with the gender of my lovers, just that they are worthy of sharing my bed.”

You learn something new every day, I think to myself, leaving Hildi and walking down the narrow hallway. I keep clear of Anita’s reach. I’m not sure what her actual powers entail, but I do know she has been in and out of the portals, traveling between realms. I need to know how to open a gate that will take me to the Morrigan’s castle in the Otherside. As much as I’d like to see Anita dead, keeping her alive seems like our best chance.

“Good morning.” I approach her cell. Anita is a beautiful woman, one used to extreme wealth and luxury. Or rather, she was. I can see a glimmer of her beauty beneath the stringy, dirty hair and her blank, soulless eyes. Her nails are chipped. Her skin is ashy and dry. Her treatment may be uncivilized, but what is owed to a woman whose intent is to help destroy the world?

She doesn’t reply, so I bang on the bars of her cell. “Hey, girl, wake up.”

I’d been born as a human vessel for the Morrigan’s earthly rise. Anita and her brother had the misfortune to be born as sacrifices to the Morrigan’s dark plans. Xavier was already dead—the first victim of the new plague. Anita became a carrier, spreading the virus throughout the city. Dylan is sure there is only one way to stop the virus from becoming the apocalypse: opening the gate and killing the Morrigan. But there have been other plagues brought on by the Morrigan in the past, other cures. I’m not willing to give up on any option.

The main problem is we do not have the abilities or skills to get the gate open, much less find one. The Raven Guard spent their lives keeping the gate shut, and although Dylan had crossed back and forth, it was in his shifter form, an ability he lost when we mated.

My patience has run thin and I drop down to a squatting position to make eye contact. Her gaze never changes but I start talking anyway, like I have every other day for the past two weeks. “Tell me why Bunny betrayed me.”

Blank stare.

“Tell me what she did with my Guardians.”

Nothing.

“Tell me your role in all of this.”

Zero.

Rage consumes me. I know it’s irrational. She’s never going to tell me what I want, but I have no one else to ask. Nowhere to turn. I pull the key to the lock out of my pocket and shove it in the keyhole.

“Morgan,” Hildi warns.

I fling open the door and step inside, yanking Anita’s frail, limp body off the floor. I may not be at my strongest but I’m far more powerful than she is at the moment. When she’s on her feet I raise my hand and slap her across the face. Nothing changes. Not even in the depths of her eyes.

“I know you’re in there, fool, and you will help me. You’ll stop this insanity and you will help me bring my guardians home, dead or alive.”

The last sentence sparks something and her eyes narrow. There’s a red mark on her cheek and her mouth splits into a deranged grin.

“What?” I ask, desperate for anything.

“You think she killed them?”

Grief wracks through me but I pull on it and use it to feed my rage. “I’m not afraid of the truth.”

Again, she cackles, and I tighten my hands around her throat. She tugs at my wrists. “The Morrigan is the goddess of war—not death like your little friend over there.” She nods at Hildi. “She loves the destruction. The pain. She wants a fight. She wants the biggest fallout this realm has ever seen, and then she’ll preside over it for eternity.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” I mutter, refusing to listen to her nonsense. “If she wants a fight, she’ll get one. But she’ll have to show herself to make it happen.”

I release her throat and push her back on the thin mattress of her cot. I leave and lock the door back with a loud, echoing click. Anita stares at me with the same maniacal expression as before.

“What?” I ask again.

“Ignore her,” Hildi says. “She’s gone mad.”

Anita begins to laugh. First softly and then gaining in momentum. I walk away, unwilling to be an audience to her show. I need leverage to get Anita to talk to me. I need to find what she cares about. What she wants from all of this.

Hildi and I leave her alone in the dungeon, slamming the outer door and locking it with the enchanted keys. Hildi sets wards by drawing runes across the door.

“What do you think that was all about?” I ask as we walk up the stairs.

“I think she’s crazy and probably always has been. That’s what the Darkness does to people.” She pauses at the top of the stairs. “What will you do with her?”