The Lily Harper 8 Book Boxed Set

by HP Mallory

  I turned to face Tallis, hoping he would come to his senses and realize what was happening to me… me, Persephone, the woman he once loved. I pleaded with him using only my eyes, as everything else was in the process of being consumed by the rapidly expanding greenery.

  “Persephone, Ah am truly sorry it had tae come tae this,” he said softly. “An’ Ah hope mah apology keeps ye warm for the eternity ye are goin’ tae spend in this place.”

  Eternity… no… NO!

  But the vines had already overtaken my entire body, leaving only my eyes to bear witness to my fate. The gaping hole beneath me opened up wide enough to finally swallow me up. As I sank into the dirt, I watched the hole gradually collapse around me.

  My last thought was not of Alaire, who would not know this had even happened and thus, could not defend himself from Tallis’ further machinations. Neither did I think of Saxon, my loyal dead soldier whom I should have valued far more highly than I did. It was not even a violent anger toward the woman, Lily, who had been the cause of all my sorrows in the first place.

  No, my last thought was of Tallis and the memory of the first time we met before our tragic love had sadly developed into such a bitter hatred.

  The earth piled in around me and my existence was once again smothered in utter darkness. One that neither Tallis’s apology nor the numbing cold could assuage.

  ***

  Lily

  As the green earth finally swallowed Persephone, I involuntarily let out a deep sigh of relief. I was back in action. Lily Harper was well and truly back. However, I was still in shock over how this dream had finally managed to come true.

  Then I turned and faced Tallis, and an indescribable warmth filled my chest that I couldn’t compare to anything. I jumped at him, embracing him in a hug that I wished would never end as I planted kiss after kiss on his face, neck and chest.

  “Oh, God (kiss). Thank you (kiss), Tallis (kiss, kiss). I can’t ever repay you for this (kiss). But damn if (kiss) I’m not going to (kiss) try to do my best.”

  Tallis pushed me off him, gently but firmly. His face held its usual sullen expression.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, failing to understand his mood.

  “We moost go back soon, Besom,” he said sadly. “An’ ye moost be willin’ tae keep oop the illusion that ye’re still Persephone.”

  The ominous weight of his words bore down on me as the world around us began to fade. Why couldn’t things be more simple? I thought, which prompted a less-than-inspirational quote from H.L. Menken, although it seemed right on: “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong.”

  “Ah may nae remember this, Besom,” Tallis began but I lost my focus on him because I was suddenly swimming in vast pools of nothingness. “Ah had to use mooch o’ my blood an’ natural magic tae orchestrate yer return. As such, ye moost convince meh that ye are indeed mah Lily.”

  “What does that even mean?” I inquired while I shook my head. “Why wouldn’t you know me? Didn’t you just set me free?!”

  All at once, I lost sight of Tallis. And then, I lost sight of everything else.

  ***

  When I came to, I was lying on the floor in front of the Druid, who appeared to be passed out. The candles had long since burnt out and I reached around to feel the still-aching flesh on my back. My fingers examined the smooth skin, which meant that Tallis had somehow healed the lengthy cut he made before blacking out.

  Ye moost be willin’ tae keep oop the illusion that ye are Persephone…

  Those words repeated themselves in my overwhelmed mind as I took a deep breath. A quick inspection of my hair revealed Persephone’s black tresses in place of my usual auburn strands.

  But going back to Tallis’s words of warning, I wondered if I were even capable of continuing this guise. Would Alaire believe that I was Persephone?

  Regardless, that was exactly what I had to do; I had to manage to convince everyone that I was still Persephone. Well, everyone except Tallis. He’d have enough post-dream amnesia to forget what he pulled off. So I’d have to tell him everything that happened, along with everything else we’d been through to convince him that I really was myself again. Maybe I could do the same with Bill? On one hand, I felt sure my closest friend would be more than relieved to know that I had returned to myself again. On the other hand, he was also the biggest gabber I’d ever met. Expecting Bill to keep a secret was like relying on Persephone to be anything but selfish.

  I sighed deeply as I contemplated all of this. So many obstacles still lay ahead of me, so many places where I could trip and fall, and so much that could go wrong…

  It was enough to make my head spin.

  In that moment though, my brain cherished one memory from my time near the castle and the lake: Tallis called me his.

  “… who go mourning their endless doom…”

  - Dante’s Inferno

  SEVEN

  Lily

  So, to briefly recap, I was now back in control of my own body while Persephone was trapped in what Tallis called the “place between worlds.” I too had been dwelling in that place, and I’d come to know my own darkness from the moment Persephone first took control of my body.

  The darkness made me feel completely hopeless. As hard as I fought against Persephone, I hadn’t had enough strength to defeat her. Her soul was too old, too powerful, and too filled with unbridled rage. All that made her strength nigh insurmountable. If it hadn’t been for Tallis’s blood and quick thinking, I would have been doomed to play the role of her prisoner for all eternity.

  Remembering my servitude, I could only focus on the moments of respite when Tallis managed to reach me in his dreams. And even then I was a victim: trapped in the earth, the sticky mud rooting me in place, and doing my best Sleeping Beauty impersonation. Other times, I could only lie there and watch my body’s slow corruption. Even worse, I could only see what was happening to me in brief clips and disjointed snippets, like an array of illogical videos that made little sense to me.

  I saw myself having sex with Alaire, then I was raking a cat o’ nine-tails across Bill’s chubby back while he screamed vulgarities at anyone who would listen, and tormenting Tallis with the promise of sex or pain. At those moments, I wished I could have shut my sight off completely, wished I didn’t have to witness what Persephone was doing to them and me. At other times, I was forced to stare into the skies above the lake. That, or I’d see nothing at all.

  At those times, I truly felt Lily Harper slipping away.

  Other memories crossed my mind. Memories of my old life, and my mother and my friend grieving for me. A car accident that turned my world not only upside down but inside out. The memories of a life I’d already lost, and even those began to fade while I was rooted in the emptiness that had become my destiny.

  Then there was the moment that changed it all. I’d felt a rush of adrenaline inside me. Not within the body I was still desperate to take back but inside me, my essence, that which I called me, no matter what body I was occupying.

  Tallis.

  At first, it was just another name. The shadow of a memory that remained vague and buoyant; every time I tried to grasp its meaning, it simply bobbed away again. Still, I knew there was something important about that word, and that name.

  That’s when my Bladesmith finally found me.

  At first, he couldn’t remember me anymore than I could recall who he was. Unable to speak to him, I could only hope the innate connection between us would be enough. And luckily for me, it was. But our minds didn’t bring us back to the precipice of understanding. No, it was our bodies… Even though neither of us knew the other, something existed there, something that drove Tallis to touch me.

  His touch brought me back to life. His desire strengthened me; and I began to push against the encroaching darkness of my prison.

  It was the fourth time our dreams crossed paths when I was finally able to speak again, and the mud was cleared away from
my mouth.

  “You are Tallis,” were my first words.

  Tallis kissed me and claimed me right there, in our special place—the only safe place that existed for us, far away from the dungeon walls and vacuum of my own spiritual imprisonment.

  For a time, this was my existence… okay, my half-existence. My days and nights were filled with the terror of seeing Persephone living inside my body, followed by a period of dreams that could have only been described as heaven…

  When I first found myself there, the mud that held me fast in place was thick and confining. Like wearing a full body cast most of the time. But once Tallis came to me, the mud became less constricting. I couldn’t explain how but I felt stronger even though I was still very much stuck in the ground, buried up to my neck like a fencepost.

  Once, when Tallis and I finished our lovemaking and before the darkness settled and he had to leave, he turned to me and said: “Ah’m almost ready tae free ye, lass. Have a wee bit o’ patience.”

  And then he was gone.

  Time passed ever so slowly in my prison. Painstakingly slowly.

  But finally, happily, the day arrived when Tallis came to me only to talk.

  “We moost trick Persephone intae thinkin’ Donnchadh is livin’ inside ‘er, Besom,” he explained. “If Ah can git her tae join meh in this place, Ah can trap ‘er fohevah.”

  Still stuck in the mud as I was, I had very few options so I agreed with his plan. Just the same, I was scared to death that it wouldn’t go as he intended. After all, wasn’t that how we both landed in this steaming pile of a mess in the first place? The last thing I wanted to do was endanger Tallis more than he already was.

  But, as I said before, I had little choice in the matter. Once I agreed, Tallis leaked a few more details. “’Twill take mah entire essence tae accomplish this, lass. Ah may even forget that Ah’ve done it. Ye moost make meh remember when ye are whole again.”

  And thus, the plan began.

  Reaching out from my prison by the lake, I began goading and calling Persephone in those moments when I could see what she was doing. Watching her fear at hearing my disembodied voice only egged me further as I realized this was the chink in her armor. For a woman who liked to call herself Queen of the Underground City, Persephone lacked basic self-confidence.

  But even though Tallis and I were victorious against Persephone and we interred her in the same hideous place in which she buried me, I was now faced with new obstacles.

  I took stock of my situation as I looked around the tower cell. I was surrounded by puddles of drying candle wax and a deathly still Tallis.

  Okay, Lily, I thought when I picked myself up off the floor, you’re now behind enemy lines. In the heart of enemy territory. You’ve got no friends left to rely on. Tallis is mortal and Bill? Well, when was Bill ever helpful before? And your trusty sword is lost in parts unknown… well, other than to Alaire, that is.

  At the thought of Alaire, my brain did an excellent impersonation of a skipping CD. Alaire.

  Alaire.

  Ugh. Alaire.

  I barely managed to get to my knees when the memories of what my body witnessed in my absence started to explode in my head. My hands dropped back to the floor as the events of the past rushed through my thoughts: Alaire’s treachery, the extraction of Donnchadh, the blood!

  “Oh, God, I drank your blood!” I said at the still-unconscious Tallis. I fought to keep down the small amount of food in my stomach as I remembered the warm, coppery taste of Tallis’s blood when it oozed down my throat and sat in my gut like a lump of warm coal.

  Then it dawned on me.

  Tallis’s blood was the vehicle that allowed him to reach me. It was also the reason I suddenly realized the increased strength I had against Persephone and how I managed to return to myself. It provided me with something I didn’t have at the caretaker’s quarters: a fighting chance.

  A fighting chance against Alaire.

  A ghastly scream ripped through my subconscious as my thoughts of Alaire led back to Saxon. Suddenly, I could see Saxon’s death all over again, Alaire’s thumbs were pressing into his skull through his eyes. My own eyes teared up and I had to physically shake myself to banish the horrible images away. At this point, I could only hope Saxon did enough in his second life to save himself the misery of Shade or, worse yet, any other level of the Underground City.

  Guilt washed over me as I recalled how easily Saxon surrendered to Persephone—he’d basically been no more than an eager lapdog to her. Even with all of that, I still wasn’t sure why he remained so willing to do her bidding. Was it possible that Persephone had her own magical way of influencing people? If Tallis had the Druid touch, maybe Persephone possessed her own version of the Siren song?

  A new feeling, that of nausea, crept up my throat as I remembered more. Night after night, I had sex with none other than the sleazeball of the millennium: Alaire. I had to swallow hard in order to keep the bile from rising in my throat.

  Regardless of my feelings, whatever memories Persephone created were now all mine too. I could recall things as clearly as if I’d experienced them myself. When this was finally over, I’d have to learn how to live with them.

  I stood up and straightened the gaudy dress Persephone chose for us… me… prior to her fateful meeting with Tallis.

  Alaire tricked me into going for the crown. He tricked me into becoming possessed by Persephone.

  At this realization, anger and shock raged through me. It was the first time I’d been able to finally ponder the preamble of events leading to the moment when I no longer manned the helm of my body.

  At the time, I didn’t know I had a choice. Alaire clearly threatened to go to Afterlife Enterprises over my killing some of his employees if I didn’t take him up on his request. Now, with that perfect but too-late-to-help-me visual aid known as twenty/twenty hindsight, I realized I should have taken my chances with AE and told Alaire to stick it where the sun don’t shine. That would have been Bill’s advice, I was sure.

  “Bill!” I searched my… Persephone’s… memories. What had she done with my guardian angel? My answer came almost immediately. He was being held in another cell next door to this one.

  Yes, Bill was obnoxious, cowardly, chauvinistic, lazy, gluttonous, cheap, foul, dirty and utterly useless at his day job. But he was also my useless guardian angel and best friend.

  I looked down at the burnt candles surrounding Tallis and me. As much as I would have liked to keep the candle circle intact to serve as a reminder to Tallis of what we just accomplished, I couldn’t risk the chance of Alaire coming across them.

  One by one, I scraped the candles off the floor as I decided today would be a good day to light a fire in the fireplace of my bedroom. Yes, a nice, big blaze would ensure that any and all evidence of what happened earlier would be stomped out.

  That’s when I noticed one other glaring problem: Tallis’s unchained arm. I had to remind myself of Tallis’s warning that he wouldn’t remember our ritual or that I’d reclaimed my rightful body. I realized he was a danger I couldn’t face at the moment. I painstakingly snapped the manacle back over his wrist, already rubbed raw from who knew how many days of captivity?

  Yes, I saw the blood all over the floor of his prison, but I wasn’t as concerned with that. I mopped up what I could with the skirts of my skanky dress and figured the rest of the blood stains wouldn’t alert too many suspicion. This was a dungeon, after all.

  “I’ll be back for you soon,” I whispered to Tallis, unsure if he could hear me. Deciding I’d already dawdled long enough in this cell, I split.

  ***

  Reluctantly leaving Tallis behind, I made my way through the stone halls of the main castle. I wanted to find Bill but the cleanup I’d done in Tallis’s cell made it necessary to at least wash off my hands. And the only private washing basin I knew of was in my room.

  Along the way, I passed several of Alaire’s business suited, spaghetti-haired Watchers. It wasn’t
difficult to get past them as they lurked in corners or paced the halls, steering clear of me. But their eyes were always fastened on me—and they continued reporting my comings and goings to their master. That was why I had to convince everyone that I was Persephone and still firmly at the helm of this ship. I couldn’t just rely on my hair, which stayed black, for some reason… And quite likely, one I didn’t want to think about.

  Once my hands were as clean as I could get them, I walked back to the dungeon. The closer I got to Bill’s cell, the more I wondered what to do or say when I got there. I had the key—it was an old brass number, worn and discolored with age. Getting in wasn’t an issue. But how would he react to me?

  Much as I wanted to tell him the truth, I had to make sure Bill believed I was still Persephone. He had the biggest mouth in the universe and the moment he discovered I had actually been restored to myself, the rest of the castle would be well aware of it less than three seconds later. Maybe less than two. So yeah, for now, I had to keep up the charade. But just for now.

  Just a quick check, a fleeting glimpse to ensure that Bill was okay before I move on, I affirmed to myself. I also prayed to anyone who was listening that I’d have the conviction to stick to my plan.

  Finally, I reached his cell. The antechamber was dark and it reeked of feces, making me wonder what other guests Alaire or Persephone might have left down here. With a clank, I unlocked the door and swung it open. I reached around and flicked on the light switch, which crackled and flickered like the set of a mad scientist movie.