Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,55

the fey king is dead.”

“I see.” Everything about Etherian’s tone said he most certainly did not see—or care. “So, you’ve changed the terms of our agreement.”

“That was never the intention—”

“But that was indeed the outcome,” he said, cutting me off.

I took a deep breath. “Yes.”

Silence.

“Apparently,” he began, his voice too calm for my liking, “I didn’t effectively communicate the importance of you following through on our deal the first time.” He paused. “You were preoccupied when you arrived here—I suppose that, in a way, you’re not to blame for this outcome. You’re young and naïve and new to this world and its rules. I’m even willing to bet that you weren’t behind this treachery.” I could feel his energy shift away from me to focus elsewhere, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “But now we’re at an impasse of sorts, Piper, thanks to this breach of trust, and I’m left wondering how best to deal with it.”

“As soon as the king is dead, we’ll get you your body!”

That pulsating power snapped its attention back to me and slammed me against the wall.

“And I am to believe you?” he hissed in my ear. “You who have proven yourself unreliable at best, and a traitor at worst? Whether or not you are indeed behind this betrayal doesn’t matter in the end, Piper.”

“I made this to bind your essence to the body,” Sherry said, stepping forward and raising a crimson stone high in the air. “She is not lying. She came to me, begging me to make a talisman that would indeed make you corporeal again.” Her composure under the circumstances was commendable, and for a moment, I thought she had sold the change of plans—that he believed her words.

Then her body flew backward and crashed into the stone wall, just as mine had. But unlike me, she fell in a heap on the ground—red crystal still in hand—and didn’t move. The coven queen and Bea ran to her side while the others in the cave steeled themselves for a battle with a body-less being.

“You can’t kill the king and queen on your own,” I argued as I struggled to breathe under the weight of his attack.

“And you cannot kill them without your army,” he replied, and my blood ran cold. I felt the energy of the portal waver, then snap shut, cutting off the conduit between our worlds—and cutting one of Knox’s Alaskan wolves in half as he entered the Ether. His lower half hit the floor in the center of our crew, splitting the silence. “I wonder how many of them are jumping to their deaths right now, Piper? How many of your friends and allies will die because of this betrayal?”

“I just need the fey king’s body!” I shouted, my anger breaking through my stupor. My magic tried to permeate the thick stone of the Ether, but it was even harder to reach than before. In my periphery, I saw Knox and Merc moving to help me, but their movement didn’t go unnoticed. In a blink, the two of them found themselves pinned against the stone walls to my left and right, respectively.

And all the while, our reinforcements were leaping into the black abyss to meet their ends because of us. Because of me.

“And you can’t kill him—or the queen—without my help,” Etherian hissed in my ear, “which you seem to be taking for granted.” As he spoke, I realized that there would be no reasoning with Etherian. I was playing chicken with a madman, and that was a losing game for certain.

Merc and Knox slid higher up the wall, suspended by an invisible appendage that appeared to be choking the latter and messing with the former’s head. Merc clutched his skull, breathing like a wild animal, while Knox struggled against Etherian’s vise-like grip. “So now I must find a way to properly motivate you while making the ramifications of another betrayal painfully clear. I don’t wish to revisit this again.”

“Let them go!” I screamed as I pressed against my invisible captor. When he didn’t budge, I closed my eyes and began chanting, calling up whatever power I could in the bowels of Faerie. Etherian laughed at my meager efforts and threw me across the cave like a ragdoll. Grizz snatched me out of the air (again) and staggered back a step or two with the force. Reinhardt, Kat, and Kingston surrounded me, as though they could battle the unstable fairy entity, while Foust,