Pack of lies shadow guil.., p.1
Pack of Lies (Shadow Guild: Wolf Queen Book 3), page 1
Pack of Lies
The Wolf Queen Book 3
Linsey Hall
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Thank You!
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
About Linsey
Copyright
1
Eve
* * *
I stared at the door that had just been closed in my face, shocked.
“She didn’t know anything.” My voice sounded hollow to my own ears.
“Someone else will.” Mac, my seer friend, wrapped her arm around my shoulders and drew me away from the house. It was located in a quiet London neighborhood, and we were alone on the early morning street.
My old friend Liora hadn’t slammed the door in my face, but it sure felt like she had. We’d come to her because she was the best potion maker in London, and I’d hoped she’d have something that would help me control my wild new magic.
Against all odds, she’d had nothing.
I rubbed my arms and stared out at the residential street. Two days ago, a mysterious foe called the Maker had torn my enchanted necklace away from my neck, releasing a powerful magic within me. Ever since then, I’d felt it roiling, wanting to burst free and wreak havoc.
“I need to gain control of it,” I said. “Fast.”
Mac nodded, her short blond hair glinting in the light. “That bastard was never trying to kidnap you, was he? He just wanted to ignite the power within you.”
“Well, his plan worked.” I could feel my newfound power sparking like a live wire. Suddenly, I had the ability to move massive things with my mind, but I had no idea why I could do that. It certainly wasn’t a shifter trait…not that I was a proper shifter.
We turned the corner toward a busier part of London. Big Ben rose in the distance, the iconic clock tower spearing majestically toward the sky. The early morning was still dark, the streets quiet.
“Why does Liora live out here?” Mac asked. “There’s just so many humans.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, but—”
A figure ran out of a brick building about fifty yards in front of us, tall and familiar.
I squinted. “That’s no human.”
“Is that Lachlan?”
The flash of dark hair under a streetlamp had a slightly different shape, and I gasped. “Garreth.”
“Holy fates.” Mac turned to me, eyes wide. “Let’s get him.”
I was already running, my heart pounding in my ears as adrenaline surged through my veins.
Garreth had been missing ever since the fight down in the Clerkenwell tunnels last week. We thought we’d won him over to our side, but the Dark Moon curse had stolen him back, and he’d disappeared. We hadn’t heard from him since.
This is my chance.
If we could catch him, maybe we could cure him. But there was no known cure.
Didn’t matter. We still had to catch him. For Lachlan. For Garreth himself.
But he was so damned fast.
The bastard was still lengths ahead of me and sprinting toward a corner. He neared the edge, and I knew that by the time I reached it, he would be gone—down an alley or through an door.
Panic flared. This could be our last chance.
My new magic surged inside me, seeming to have a life of its own. It roared, rising like a beast. Even though the telekinesis didn’t seem like a shifter trait, I felt more like a wolf than ever.
I spotted a rubbish bin across the street from Garreth, right in front of a large lorry parked along the curb. I reached out, my magic surging effortlessly through my arm. An image flashed in my mind of me hurling the bin at Garreth and knocking him down. I hadn’t used my magic since the fight in the Clerkenwell tunnels, and it exploded out of me, so powerful that my vision went blurry and I fell to my knees, a tearing sensation ripping through my middle. Agony flared as I gripped my stomach, trying to keep my eyes open through the tears.
Ahead of me, the lorry shot away from the curb, lifted into the air by my magic before hurtling across the street to slam into the building on the other side. Bricks and glass shattered and flew everywhere.
“Holy fates.” Mac stopped abruptly.
I gaped.
The lorry had smashed side-first into the building, breaking away the wall so that debris lay scattered all over the pavement.
“Garreth,” I whispered, staggering to my feet. Had I killed him?
My insides felt like they had been torn to pieces, and I gasped, my head spinning.
Mac turned back to me, her face pale. “Are you all right? You look like hell.”
“Fine.” Dumbstruck, I staggered toward the lorry.
It was early, and no one was out of their houses yet, but they’d be here any second, roused by the sound of the collision.
“Garreth got away,” Mac said. “I saw him turn the corner right before the lorry hit.”
“Thank fates.” Kind of. We needed to catch him, but more importantly, I needed not to kill him.
As I staggered up to the lorry, I noticed the bin on the other side of the road. It had tumbled onto its side, but it hadn’t moved.
Damn it. My damned magic was so broken, and I hurt like hell.
Mac put an arm around my waist to help me walk. Gratefully, I leaned into her. We neared the building, and I prayed that no one had been hurt. Fear turned my insides sour, competing with feeling of being ripped apart.
Fortunately, the sign above the door indicated that it was a dentist’s office, closed until midmorning.
Thank fates. Gratitude welled within me. No one had been hurt.
“Did you mean to do this?” Mac asked.
“No.” I looked toward the bin that had tipped over. “I was going to try to hit him with that.”
“Shit.” She turned to me. “You look bad.”
“I feel bad.”
“Oy, what’s going on here?” A rough, masculine voice sounded from behind us, thick with a London accent.
We turned back to see a man in his dressing gown staring at us from his front stoop a few buildings down.
Mac and I looked at each other.
How to explain this?
The thing was…we couldn’t. Humans shouldn’t know about magic, but how else would a lorry slam side-first into a building?
“We need to get out of here,” Mac murmured. “We can find a way to help pay for the damage once we’re safe.”
I nodded, wincing at the idea of how long it would take me to pay off this debt. I’d have to, though. I couldn’t just leave this poor dentist up a creek.
Together, we turned and staggered off down the street. Every step was agony, and Mac had to put more and more strength into keeping me upright. Several blocks down, we heard the sound of police sirens and ducked into an alley. They weren’t likely to question us, but better safe than sorry.
Mac leaned me against a wall, and my chest heaved as I used all the energy I could muster to stay upright.
“What happened to you?” she demanded.
“Tore something.”
“Like a muscle?”
“Like…” I frowned, searching for the word. “My soul, maybe. Fates, I don’t know. But it hurts.”
“Your soul?”
“Yeah. Like the magic went wild and something real bad happened.” I clutched my stomach.
Mac nodded, her jaw set. “We need to fix this shit.” She gestured up and down my body. “Whatever is wrong with you, we need it sorted.”
“Yeah.” The word escaped on a gasp. “I’m just not sure how much longer I’m going to be conscious.”
“You’d better not pass out on me.” She reached for me again, wrapping an arm around my waist. “Come on, we’re almost to the Haunted Hound.”
“Sure thing,” I mumbled, but as soon as the words escaped my lips, darkness took me.
Eve
* * *
Awareness returned slowly, my vision going from black to gray to color.
A furry face stared down at me, nose twitching.
You need vodka.
“No, Ralph,” I croaked. “I’m pretty sure I don’t.”
Ralph patted my cheeks. Well, Quinn doesn’t have chocolate. Which I’m planning to take up with his supervisor.
I blinked and realized that I was lying on the bar at the Haunted Hound. No wonder Ralph had recommended vodka.
All around, my friends’ faces came into focus. Mac, Carrow, and Quinn all leaned way too close.
“The others are at the scene,” Carrow said. “Trying to sort things out.”
I groaned and sat upright, my insides still feeling like I’d been ripped apart. It was a physical pain, kind of. “How long was I out?”
“Twenty minutes since we brought you back,” Quinn said, his eyes dark with concern.
“We?”
“I couldn’t carry you on my own,” Mac explained.
“Thanks.” I looked at Quinn. “You?”
He nodded. “You were like a sack of potatoes the whole way back.”
“I’ve been called worse.” I climbed off the bar and sank onto a stool.
“You don’t feel any better, do you?” Mac asked. “Still look like warmed-up porridge.”
I grimaced. “And that’s the worst.”
Friends tell the truth.
“Thanks, Ralph.” I tried to catch my breath, but it was hard. I shouldn’t be panting. Not now. Not after resting for twenty minutes.
“I don’t have a ton of seer power,” Mac said, “but I can give it a try.”
“Do it.” I stuck my arm out toward her, hoping her magic would let her get a feel for what the hell was wrong with me.
As Mac rested her fingertips gently on my skin, I could feel the gazes of my friends. The worry radiated from them like the stink from an old gym bag, but nice. Kind of. While I appreciated that they were concerned, I wasn’t keen on them directing it at me. I’d prefer to pretend everything was normal.
My soul, however, wasn’t in the mood to pretend.
Mac rested her fingertips on my arm for the briefest second, then gasped and jerked her hand away.
I whipped toward her. “What is it?”
“Um…” She frowned. “You’re kind of…broken.”
“Broken?”
“Something inside you. Like your magic is trying to separate from your body.”
“Damn it, that’s exactly what it feels like.” I grimaced, wishing that I’d been exaggerating things in my head. “What do I do?”
“Get control of it,” Mac said. “Soon.”
Considering that I’d just thrown a ten-ton lorry across the street by accident, I could see the value in her words. And the fact that I wasn’t sure I could walk added an extra incentive.
The only problem was… “How? I don’t even know what I am.”
“We need to figure it out,” Carrow said.
I frowned, thinking of Garreth. “That’s not the only thing we need to figure out. What was he doing out in human London?”
“That’s a problem for Lachlan.”
“And me. It’s my fault we lost him.”
“Hell, no, it’s not,” Carrow said.
“It was my plan.”
“And it was a good plan. But not your fault.”
I shrugged. “Anyway, they’re connected. I know it. He works for the man who incited this change in me. He’ll have answers, or be able to lead me to them.”
Carrow frowned, then nodded. “Fine. Point taken.”
“It has to do with your past, too,” Mac said. “It must. You need to figure out what you are.”
Easier said than done.
I nodded. “I know. But first things first, I need to find a pain potion if I’m going to survive this.”
Mac swallowed hard, her eyes dark with worry. “Yeah, you need to hurry.”
I squinted at her. “What didn’t you tell me?”
She drew in an unsteady breath. “You don’t have a lot of time.”
“What do you mean?” A chill raced down my spine.
“I mean that if you don’t figure this out soon, you’re only going to get worse. Your magic will tear you apart.”
2
Lachlan
* * *
Mordaca stared at me, her sorceress eyes flashing with irritation. “You look like hell.”
“I feel like hell.” I dragged a hand through my hair, feeling my very bones ache.
She leaned against the table and folded her arms in front of her chest. Her black silk robe seemed to absorb all the light, and her ebony bouffant looked like she hadn’t just been asleep. “Hellish enough that it was worth waking me up at this godawful hour?”
“I thought you’d be awake.” It was midnight, and she was generally a night owl. I also hadn't cared. “I was desperate. Am desperate.”
“Does it have anything to do with the weird black eyes thing you’ve got going on?”
I raised a hand to the corner of my right eye. “It’s back?”
“It’s not permanent?”
“Oh, it’s permanent. But I’m doing what I can to fight it off.”
“You’re losing the fight.” She looked me up and down. “I always knew you’d fall to the curse one day. A shame.”
“Always knew?”
“Come on, Lachlan. A guy like you was eventually bound to fall for someone.”
Not someone. Her.
It had always been her, from the moment I’d seen her. It was why I’d tried to drive her off. It was why I hadn’t been with anyone since I’d met her.
Fat lot of good that restraint had done me. I’d still succumbed to the curse.
“Well? Can you make anything to hold it off?” I asked.
“Can’t Eve do that?”
“Of course. But I can’t be near her right now.”
“I suppose that makes sense.” She turned to the shelf behind her and studied the vials of ingredients. The glass bottles glittered under the light, their rainbow contents gleaming. “I can’t make anything to prevent the curse, but I can make something that buys you a bit of time. A bit of sanity.”
Thank fates. I had too much to do before I succumbed. Once the Dark Moon curse stole my loyalty and my soul, it’d be necessary for my pack to put me down. I didn’t want to curse them with that burden. Once I’d stopped the one who was after Eve, I could disappear. Put myself out of my misery.
Save them from that, at least.
I pulled the flask from my pocket and raised it. “Any chance you could increase the strength of this?”
She looked over her shoulder and raised a brow. “It’s completely stopped working?”
“How do you think I got the eyes?” My feelings for Eve had overcome the potion that repressed them, igniting the Dark Moon curse.
I was lucky to have made it as long as I had. If she hadn’t been wearing the charm that repressed her shifter side, I’d have lost control much sooner.
“Good point.” She looked me up and down. “Do you love her?”
The question hit me like a freight train.
Did I?
No. Not yet. But there was enough between us that I couldn’t fight it.
It felt inevitable that I would.
“My wolf senses its mate,” I said, knowing that was the bulk of it. “It was enough to ignite the curse.”
“Lie.”
My brow creased. “It is not.”
“Lie by omission, then. I believe that your wolf senses her. But I also think you care for her. And that is why my potion has stopped working for you.”
She was right. There was no point in fighting it. “Which means you can’t increase the strength of it.”
“Correct. I can give you something to hold off the madness from the curse. Probably the same thing Eve would make, a little extra powerful due to my blood. But you’re going to keep feeling those pesky feelings of yours.”
Pesky feelings. An understatement in the extreme. I nodded to her. “Thank you. I’ll take whatever you can give me.”
“And pay nicely for it as well.”
“Of course.” I leaned against the shelf behind me and watched her work, my mind spinning over the problem of Eve.
We’d avoided each other since the fight in the Clerkenwell tunnels, but I’d had guards on her every second of the day. Well-hidden guards, but she’d likely seen them at some point. Their reports had been both a torture and a pleasure to hear.
Though I knew it was bad for me, I was ravenous for details of her. I couldn’t help myself.
I tilted my head back against the shelf, memories of our last kiss flashing through my mind.
No matter what I did, it was imperative that I resist more of that.
But how?
I shook my head, driving away the thoughts. If there was one thing I couldn’t afford to think of, it was the sweetness of her lips.
“All done.” Mordaca held up several small vials. “Use them whenever you feel the need, but use them wisely. If you can space them out, you’ll have longer.”
