Page 1 of Wicked Enemy
Chapter1
One day was all it took. One day for my entire world to change. My Court of Metal used to be the most powerful House in Malgrave. I had loads of dark mages working for me. Skilled men and women who protected my territories and struck fear into the hearts of others. And I had Eve.
Now, all of that was gone.
Eve was back on the north side with those fucking constables. And almost all of my dark mages, practically my entire fighting force, was gone. Captured. Dragged to the north side and locked up in their damn prison while I ran back to my Court like a fucking coward.
Raking my hands through my hair, I forced out a long breath in order to calm the storm of emotions in my chest. It didn’t work. I tilted my head back down and swept my gaze over the people gathered in my throne room.
Dread flooded my chest like ice water.
This was all that was left.
Since I had considered stealing those wood-infused weapons and armor to be a mission of the highest priority, I had brought almost all of my top people. I had left Shinji and a bunch of low-level fighters to protect my Court while the rest of us handled the shipment. And now, they were the only ones left.
I let my eyes linger on the dark-haired fire mage at the front. After Callan betrayed me, Shinji, Tyler, and Chris rose to become the three highest-ranking people in my Court. That was the reason why I had left Shinji in charge of protecting the building. He was skilled, there was no doubt about it, but I would never be able to defend my territory with just him and a small group of low-level fighters.
Fuck. How could I have been so stupid? I had been completely blindsided by that fucking ambush, and now, everything was ruined.
“What would you like us to do, sir?” Shinji asked.
“Word about what happened will spread like wildfire, which means that the other Houses will use this opportunity to attack,” I said, trying to force a measure of calm composure into my voice. “So right now, we need to do two things. We need to shore up our defensesfastand we need to figure out how to get the others out of—”
The doors to my throne room were yanked open. I whirled around and slapped my palms together, only to be met by one of my own runners. Anna slammed the doors shut behind her again and threw the massive bolt down across them before whipping around and sprinting towards me.
Alarm pulsed through me at the panic flickering in her green eyes.
“What is it?” I demanded before she had even crossed half of the room.
“Aaron Reyes and the House of Onyx are coming!”
“Fuck.” The word tore out of my throat with enough force to send a ripple of worry through my people. Spinning around, I leveled hard eyes on them. “Everyone who’s part of the domestic or administrative staff, get upstairs and stay there.”
No one moved.
Sophie, who handled my money, looked between me and Shinji as if she was ready to stand and fight even though she had no magical powers whatsoever.
“Now!” I barked.
They lurched into motion. Shoes thudded against the metal floor as all of my cooks and cleaners and runners and other civilians with no actual fighting capabilities ran towards the side doors. Sophie’s worried brown eyes lingered on Shinji for an extra second before she also disappeared into another corridor.
“We need to hit them hard and fast,” I declared as I turned back to the small group of mages left inside the cavernous throne room. “If we can kill a lot of them fast enough, Aaron will pull his people back. It will also send a message to the other Houses that they will lose if they try to attack this building directly. And we need them to think that, at least until we can get the rest of our people out of prison. So kill as many as you can, as fast as you can. Your life, and the lives of everyone in this Court, depends on it. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” they answered in unison.
“Good. Now, form up.”
Tension rippled through the room as we positioned ourselves halfway between my throne and the doors.
A second later, a smug voice cut through the crackling silence.
“Oh Levi, this truly is pathetic,” Aaron Reyes called from the other side of my blood-red front doors. “Not a single guard outside to protect your precious Court. It really must be true then. You were outmaneuvered by the white boots and got all of your people caught.” A vicious laugh tore from his throat. “Oh how the mighty have fallen.”
Instead of taking the bait, I just brushed my palms together while continuing to watch the doors. I knew that the House of Onyx had a couple of really skilled fire mages, which meant that they would be able to melt my metal doors relatively quickly.
As if my thoughts alone had summoned them, the red-painted metal began to heat from the other side.
“Get ready,” I told my people.