Forbidden Union: A Paranormal Romance (Harem of The Mindslayer Book 3)

by Willa Hart

  “Vlissimal knows of your arrival,” Kaxon says. “He won’t wait long to make his attempt to get to you and Sarkany.”

  Heat pulses through my chest. Kaxon must have a multitude of spies to make such a statement. “No, he won’t,” I say.

  I don’t mention to Kaxon the mind that presses into mine. The voice that I haven’t heard in what feels like forever of the brother I haven’t seen. The one who remains with Vlissimal, and now wishes both Sarkany and I to meet him in the Dark Forest.

  No, if this is the greeting that Sarkany and I have gotten from Kaxon as Eliterrati who have defected and escaped Vlissimal, I hardly believe that Kaxon could find it in his heart to understand that what Leo does, right now, in the Palace, is for the greater good of all Dregs.

  “And the third of your Tripsett,” Kaxon says as though reading my mind.

  I press a block around my thoughts. I do not know all the technology that Kaxon and his Dreg scientists have managed to perfect. They may be able to listen to my thoughts, much like Eliterrati have listened to theirs for a millennia.

  I shiver. To have others invade my mind without my consent? It is…disempowering. I am unfamiliar and uncomfortable with this feeling.

  “Should Prince Leo arrive in Ninaku, be aware that he shall not get such a kind greeting as you and your brother Sarkany. No, he shall be hanged.”

  I swallow. How can I save Leo and our Tripsett so that we can rule together and unify all Eliterrati and Dreg? There may be only one solution to this quandary, and right now I can’t find her through my mind. Meela… I must find a way to reach her. To get her a message. To inform her that we need her. That she must come to Ninaku if she wishes to save our Tripsett.

  For if she does not return to Ninaku and soon, I am unsure that any of us— me, Sarkany, and perhaps even Jix—will survive.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jix

  I know that Meela is alive. I also know that she is angry, confused, and scared. I can’t mind-link with her, not the way that Sarkany and Taraz and even King Rex can, but I’ve known Meela most of my life and I’ve always been able to feel her emotions. Even the ones I don’t really want to feel…like desire and lust…because, well, those have never been directed at me. No, I’ve always caused a warm sort of feeling within Meela. The kind of feeling that a girl has toward a brother or a cousin. That’s how Meela feels about me, which is not at all how I feel about her.

  Kaxon’s house is now a compound. He’s taken over the three buildings that surrounded his home including the entire Engineers Guild building. There are a multitude of Dregs in this compound. Many thinking that they know how to protect Kaxon, when really they don’t. Which makes me all the more worried that they’re going to get themselves and Kaxon killed.

  I pass a fellow in the hallway holding a blade as though he’s carrying a steak knife. If they’d let Sarkany out of his cell, they might actually be able to protect themselves and all of Ninaku.

  I stop in front of Kaxon’s office. There’s a guard on either side of the door, but I’m fairly certain both are from the Engineers guild and neither have been trained as warriors; you can tell the difference between a warrior and an engineer by simply looking at Sarkany and Taraz.

  “Kaxon requested my presence,” I say.

  The red-headed guy to my right who looks to be at least five years younger than me nods and looks at me with…what? A bit of fear? I’ve been told that the tales of me surviving the Wolveskins and the Eliterrati have been making the rounds of Ninaku. My father even came to Kaxon’s just yesterday, acting as though he’d sired some sort of a wonderkind.

  You know what this wonderkind really wants? This wonderkind wants a peaceful place to make my inventions, raise some children, and have a wife.

  Only one woman fills that bill for me.

  Unfortunately, she’s been spoken for by not one but three men. Two of whom are Eliterrati and the other a massive beast that changes into a Wolveskin. Making it highly unlikely that Meela will be my Dreg wife any time soon.

  The door opens to Kaxon’s office. I walk in. He sits behind his desk. Beside him is Markix, his second, and to his right is…wait I know this man. I know him from the Wolveskin lair.

  “Jix, you know Prince Eregos,” Kaxon says. “King Rex’s brother.”

  “I do, sir.” I nod to them both. “You spend most your time here with humans.”

  Eregos bristles with my words. Though I meant nothing by them but to present facts. Kaxon nods and glances from me to Eregos. “He…Prince Eregos comes bearing news. News that I thought you should hear from him.”

  My heart beats hard in my chest. Kaxon’s face is somber and Eregos…Eregos’s brows pull tight.

  “There has been—” He closes his eyes and shakes his head. He opens his eyes and looks at me. “There has been a massacre.”

  The word is like an anvil to my skull.

  “An attack on the Wolveskin lair,” he continues.

  I swallow. An oily feeling slides through my gut.

  “There were no survivors,” he says. He closes his eyes and shakes his head. “I…I saw both my brother, King Rex, and Meela die before my very eyes.”

  I can’t catch my breath. I can barely breathe. I do not speak. I say nothing. I look at Kaxon.

  “We…we understand the loss to you,” Kaxon says. “And to us as well,” he glances at Eregos and then back to me. “But we’re still at war. We must free our people from the Eliterrati. Our mission remains.”

  Meela?

  “Yes, sir,” I say. I press down my pain and nod. I swallow. Hot tears build behind my eyes, but they won’t drop from my eyes now. “I’m at your service, sir,” I say. I keep my gaze locked to Kaxon, but the look of knowing, of borderline contempt—not of sorrow or sadness—on Eregos’s face does not escape my vision.

  “I need you to go North with Eregos. You understand the Eliterrati, you also have spent time with Wolveskin and seem to feel comfortable with them. Eregos believes you will be an asset to him and the surviving Wolveskin as they train a force of Dregs in the North,” Kaxon says.

  “Of course, sir,” I say. I glance at Eregos. He doesn’t know what I know and well…right now…I don’t feel like telling him.

  “You’ll leave tomorrow,” Kaxon says.

  “Sir?”

  Kaxon looks up at me as though surprised that I have more to say.

  “What of Prince Taraz and Prince Sarkany? Will they be allowed to train the Dreg army here? Soon? Sarkany’s skills as a warrior are unparalleled and—”

  “Jix, you’re an asset to me and to Eregos. We intend to utilize every skill you have. As for the Roya Princes, they may come in handy in the future in negotiations with Vlissimal, but we don’t feel that it would be wise to have Sarkany train our Dregs nor to give Taraz access to our emerging technology. Certainly not while they’re still linked with the third member of their Tripsett.”

  “But sir, I think—”

  Kaxon’s gaze narrows and sharpens. “That will be all, Jix,” he says. “Prepare to leave on the morrow. Lorelai has information for you for the journey. Please go and see her now.”

  I step back and turn. I reach for the door handle. Goddess. They have Sarkany and Taraz and they intend to keep them imprisoned together? And possibly give them to Vlissimal? And Eregos claims a massacre that killed Meela?

  Meela?

  The lump in my throat grows. My Meela, what the frack am I going to do?

  Excerpt from Forbidden Love

  Jix

  “Where are the prisoners?”

  I glance around me as I ask because the walls have ears. After only a week inside this place, I can’t wait to leave. When I lived in Ninaku, I’d come here to escape my father, but now, after being with Taraz and Sarkany and Meela and the Wolveskin, this place feels more like a prison. I want to get away. To rescue my two friends—which shocks even me, that they are two Roya Princes. I want to rescue them and get them as far away from the Dreg slum of Nin
aku, the temporary government in Ninaku, their Uncle—Lord Regent Vlissimal, and their brother—the third in their aristocratic Roya Tripsett—and perhaps the biggest traitor in the realm (second only to Lord Vlissimal) Leo.

  Lorelai stands before me and there is no shock or surprise on her face from the question I’ve asked. In fact there is a sad resignation, as though she’s expected my question to come and perhaps, thought I might make my request sooner. She leans her head closer to mine, glances up and down the hallway and says, “You’re asking me to betray my father and commit treason.” Her voice is low and smooth, and without fear. Her long black hair is sleek and pulled back from her face.

  Since we arrived in Ninaku, after our long trip from the Wolveskin Lair and through the Dark Forest, Lorelai looks like a princess, though she be only by birth a Ninaku Dreg like me. She looks much different than she did when we were both with the Wolveskin traveling through the darkness and cold. She wore her Ninaku Dreg clothes then and heavy pelts to stay warm. She spoke with a street-urchin tongue; was it all a ruse? A way to make herself seem someone she wasn’t?

  Now, back in Ninaku, in her father Kaxon’s house, she wears a skirt made of silk—she claims a request by her father, Kaxon, who is head of the Engineers Guild, she speaks with a refined air and holds her head as though Eliterrati born and bred. As does her father Kaxon, who since the Ninaku Uprising, seems to fancy himself nearly an Eliterrati.

  I duck my head and lower my voice, “Well when you say it like that, what I’m asking doesn’t sound very good.”

  “What other way would you have me say it?” Lorelai whispers. She glances toward the doorway to the chamber that contains her father and a host of other Dregs who are trying to run Ninaku since the uprising. They threw me out after I requested yet again that they release Sarkany and Taraz. It was my futile attempt at diplomacy. Tomorrow I’m to be booted to the North, to help Eregos train the Northern Dregs, and it would seem Taraz and Sarkany are to be used as bargaining chips with Vlissimal.

  “Look, you and I both know that the assassins that attacked us had help and that help was most likely either Vlissimal or Eregos. Eregos is in that room right now, and he isn’t our friend or your Dad’s friend, but your father doesn’t want to hear it or believe it. Either way, while I greatly respect your father, he’s listening to Eregos who is advocating for the death of Sarkany and Taraz.”

  Lorelai’s dark gaze stares at me. Her face gives no notice of her thoughts, but the tiniest movement of her eyebrow alerts me she’s considering all I’ve said.

  “He’s in there telling your dad that Meela is dead and the Wolveskins are all slaughtered and it simply isn’t true.”

  “You can mindlink with the Unifier?” Lorelai’s face lights up as though she can hardly believe what I’ve just told her.

  “No, I can not mindlink,” I shake my head. “I…I” before when there were Eliterrati ruling us; no Dreg would ever admit to any mind powers; to do so was to not only facilitate your own death but to kill your entire family as well. “I…I can feel her emotions. I’ve had this gift since I was a child.”

  Lorelai nods but says nothing. Her lips thin into a line and I can not tell what she is thinking.

  “You were in the Wolveskin lair,” I continue, hoping that my words can persuade Lorelai to help me. “You came back with us. Sarkany saved your life. Do you truly think that turning Taraz and Sarkany over to Vlissimal helps our cause?”

  “Our cause?” Lorelai says. “If we do this thing you’re asking there will no longer be any ‘our’ cause. You’ll flee from Ninaku with a bounty on your head.”

  “Better a bounty and a worthy mission than a stain on my soul when I face the Goddess for having remained silent in the face of the wrong that the group of idiots in that room want to commit.”

  Lorelai’s eyes flash with my words. “I’m uncertain that us breaking the Roya Princes out of the dungeon helps us any.”

  “Well it helps them, it saves their lives,” I say.

  She looks past me and down the halls. She gathers the long skirt that her father demands that she wear into her hand, “Come with me,”

  She turns and rushes down the hallway. Her hand reaches behind her and she fumbles with a string. She yanks off her skirt and doesn’t miss any of her long strides. She walking now in her Warrior leathers that were hidden beneath the poof of silk. She wads up the frothy conccotion and drops it behind a side table in the hallway.

  “Ridiculous he wants me to wear that skirt, like I’m some sort of princess.” She shakes her head. “Next he’ll be trying to marry me off to the highest bidder.”

  “Indeed,” I say. I follow behind Lorelai and realize that if my heart wasn’t already filled with love for Meela, I’d be quite swept away by Lorelei.

  We wind through the enormous building that until recently was five different buildings next to each other. Now with hammers and saws the five buildings, that take up an entire block in the Ninaku slum, have been made into one citiadel. A primary hub for government and troops—or what passes for troops in Ninaku.

  The effect is a labrynith of uneven floors, winding corridors, and stairs that lead to what seems to be nowhere.

  Lorailai stops in front of a giant metal door to stairs that lead to the basements below. Beneath us is the area that’s been turned into a dungeon of sorts, for only prisoners with a political value to the temporary Ninaku council which means—Sarkany and Taraz.

  Which again makes me questions the entire state of Ninaku security because instead of any soldier with any sense of responsibility guarding the two people that Lorelai’s father believes to be the biggest security threat to Ninaku, there are two Ninaku dregs guarding the entrance—and by guarding I mean ‘napping in front of’ the door that leads to the cells where Taraz and Sarkany are imprisoned.

  One dreg is long and lean. His eyes are closed and he sits upon a cask of wine with his back pressed against the wall. His chin nearly touches his chest and a bit of spittle drips from his mouth. The other dreg-guard is round and doughy and lies on the floor, next to the cask, and uses a sack of flour as a pillow.

  “Well this won’t be too tough,” Lorelai whispers. She raises her hands as though she holds an invisible ball before her. She moves her hands round and round in front of her face as though caressing the invisible ball.

  “What’re you doing?” I ask. I’ve never seen such a thing before from a Dreg or an Eliterrati.

  “You aren’t the only Dreg with secrets,” she says and raises an eyebrow. I shift my gaze from her face to the open space between her hands. What was once clear and held nothing but empty space is now filled with a purple light, brighter than any jewel I’ve seen. The light glows and pulses almost as though a living thing

  “You should see your face,” Lorelai says and a tiny smile passes over her lips.

  “Rrrgh.”

  The tall fellow on top of the cask snorts and blinks and looks as though he’s about to open his eyes. I take one step back and reach for the dagger that Meela gave me before we left the Wolveskin lair, but there’s no need, before my hand can touch my waistband, Lorelai’s purple circle has expanded and she gently tosses it and it encircles not only the snorting sleeping guard but the one using the floor as a mattress.

  “What’s that do?” Not only have their snores stopped, but it seems as though their breathing has too. “Did you kill them?” I ask. Only half concerned, because at this point, after my attempted diplomacy I’m pretty certain I’d trade these two Dreg lives to get Sarkany and Taraz out of the root cellar prison beneath the fort.

  “No,” Lorelai shakes her had. “They’re frozen in time for a brief while.”

  “That’s a pretty fancy trick,” I say. I step forward and take a closer look at the energy Lorelai has corralled and utilized for our benefit. “How long have you had this power?”

  “My father says since I was little, maybe two or three was the first time I did it to my older brothers,” Lorelai says. “Got be
aten for it too,” She grimaces as though the memory is still painful. “He was trying to save my life, by beating the power out of me. We all know what the Eliterrati would’ve done to me and the family if they’d seen this little trick I can do.”

  “Dead for sure,” I say. “Mind turned to jelly. Your family too.”

  Lorelai nods. “Feel like there’s a lot of things that Dregs can do. Things we’ve hidden away so that our families weren’t killed by the fracking Mindslayers. Magic and powers, whatever you want to call them. Things we’ve kept secret because if we’d shown them, we’d’ve been killed and all our family too.”

  I nod. Lorelai is right. I kept my power secret for just this exact reason. So did Meela.

  Lorelai walks past the guards and pulls open the heavy wooden door that used to lead to a root cellar, but now leads to a dungeon.

  “Come on then,” she says.

  Darkness greats us. I grasp the handle of my knife.

  “Be quick,” Lorelai whispers. She pulls shut the door behind us. She turns the palm of her hand upward and a tiny bright flame burns and dances without harming her skin.

  “Didn’t think of using any of this magic on the road from the Wolveskin Lair?”

  “Wasn’t sure yet who my enemies and my friends were,” Lorelai says. “We were traveling with Eliterrati who are two of the Roya Tripsett.”

  “And now?” I ask.

  “Oh, I’m damn certain I know who is good and who is bad. Why do you think I’ve got you down in the root cellar that my father is using as a dungeon?”

  We jog down the hallway and stop when we reach a ring of keys that hang from a peg in the wall.

  “Pretty crack security we’ve got down here,” Lorelai says. She lifts the keys, “Jailor is upstairs in the kitchen for lunch. Smelled him earlier.” She wrinkles her nose.

  “We should hurry because doesn’t the jailor have a dog that he usual—”

  “Grrrrrrrr.”