The Brotherhood of the Snake (Return of the Ancients Book 2) by Carmen Caine & Madison Adler

Author:Carmen Caine & Madison Adler [Caine, Carmen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: fairies, Contemporary, Romance, fantasy, young adult, fae, adventure, scifi
Publisher: Bento Box Books
Published: 2013-12-25T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten - Marquis

No one moved.

Marquis swung the tethers in slow, lazy circles and gave a sinister laugh. “Well, well, Sydney, you’ve opened yet another door that should have remained closed.”

I held my breath.

Stepping protectively in front of me, Rafael asked in a quiet voice, “Who are you?”

Marquis’ eyes flashed a startling bright yellow as his pupils narrowed into razor-thin vertical slits. With his voice vibrating into an even lower bass, he asked, “What’s this? Can’t recognize your own father?” At that, his mouth broke into a wide grin, and he gave his own knee a humorous slap, clearly amused at his own wit.

“What have you done to my father?” Rafael’s voice was still quiet but took on a menacing tone.

“Nothing,” Marquis replied, giving the tethers a playful swing as he began walking towards us. “Your father’s here. He invited us to inhabit him years ago, shortly after your birth.” His amused gaze swept Rafael from head-to-toe. “In fact, we are all you’ve ever known, Rafael. Nothing’s changed. You may still call us ‘father’.”

Rafael looked like he was going to be sick.

But Marquis didn’t seem to care. His attention shifted to Jareth, and his lizard-looking eyes lit with intense interest. “But tell us, Jareth, why haven’t we heard your voice before?”

“You’ve heard my voice for years, Marquis,” Jareth replied with a rough laugh. “And you’ve never liked what it’s said.”

Marquis’ head snapped back as his lips curled in the semblance of a smile. “Ah, you don’t want them to know, but it’s too late for secrets now.”

“I have no secrets,” Jareth retorted with a dark scowl.

At that Marquis laughed, and dropping the fake smile, his voice rumbled lower, impossibly low. It was so low that I felt it vibrate through my bones rather than heard it with my ears.

“You think to mislead us?” he growled. “The Brotherhood do not give birth, neither do they die. Yet there you stand as one of us. You hear our voices. We hear yours. Our minds connect as only the members of the Brotherhood of the Snake can.”

Jareth’s face became expressionless all at once.

Marquis had almost reached us now, his reptilian gaze still locked on Jareth. “Yet you have never existed in our world, Jareth. You are not with us on the cliffs, linking through the tree. You stand as one of the Brotherhood, yet in the world of the Fae only. How?”

“Since this is your hallucination and not mine, you tell me!” Jareth gave a grating laugh.

All at once, Marquis’ thin veneer of civility was gone. “Dare you play games with us?” he hissed viciously. “We can easily crush you, Fae trickster!”

He must have shifted, because he was suddenly at Jareth’s side, seizing his arm in a death-grip.

Jareth grimaced in pain as an expression of revulsion crossed his face, and he began clawing desperately at Marquis’ hand.

It was then that I saw it.

Under Marquis’ fingers, Jareth’s skin had transformed. Scales rippled up his arm, black gleaming scales, spreading out and creeping up towards his neck.

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