by Reid, Stacy
It occurred to her he desired to seem harmless, the notion ridiculous. Her instincts screamed he was a killer.
“You deliberately let me find you here. What is it I possess that you seek?”
His golden gaze moved over her predatorily curious. “Information.”
“Why would I aid a man who has forced his way into my chambers and intrudes on my privacy?”
The soft hiss of a blade clearing its sheath sounded like a drum in the chamber. He looked distinctly—menacing. Shilah flared out her psychic eye, preparing for an attack even as she trembled. She gasped in raw shock when he gently clasped her from behind, his soft touch belying the cold press of steel against her throat. She swallowed. She had not seen him move at all. Not even the slightest indication of it. How was it possible for him to be so much faster than her eyes had been able to track?
“You will aid me, princess. I do not desire to hurt you, but if I must? I most assuredly will.”
Fear slashed through her. “The emperor will have your head if you bring me harm,” she said with false calm. She punched hard against his mind, trying to break past his psychic barriers and met an impenetrable shield wall. She had never encountered such resistance. Who was he?
The soft laughter against her ear rasped against her skin like the sweetest caress. She was filled with an undeniable awareness, and she resented it, the feeling was unwelcomed from someone who threatened her life.
“The dungeons of Mevia, Princess. Tell me all you know about them.”
19
Nuria – Kingdom of eternal fire
Castle Shelah
Ajali lay in a deep unconsciousness, bound by the psychic link he had somehow formed with the thing. No, with Tehdra. He tried to untangle his thoughts. The dark cruelty of her mind held him, refusing to let go. Amongst the cruelty and bloodthirstiness, pain bled from her at his betrayal. She raged, wallowing in a place he doubted anyone could reach. Another level of psychic barrier shattered, releasing more malignity.
Deep in the recess of his mind, he shuddered at the feelings raking him. They did more than that, they devoured him. Pain and agony seemed alive. These emotions poured from the betrayal she perceived he’d inflicted upon her, not her wounds. He also sensed possessiveness…and love?
His throat tightened.
Why have you betrayed me?
He tried to unravel the pathway that she spoke to him through. His mind seemed trapped in an absolute void. How have I betrayed you? You threatened my kingdom with death and despair. You had to be contained, Tehdra. He rasped along the link, shocked when he felt the stirring in his mind.
How was this possible?
A frightful surge of darkness penetrated his consciousness. The abyss stretched. His mind tunneled in, and he saw Tehdra as if she stood in front of him. She stood naked in a sea of murkiness with the blackest of chakra swirling around her, binding her in shadow-like chains. The chakra seemed to burn her skin, creating stripes of red which disappeared to reappear.
Tehdra?
A harsh pulse of joy before an answering rasp in his mind.
Mate.
The hiss only held the smoky softness of Tehdra’s voice, yet what rasped “mate” was her voice, but overlaid with menace. The depiction of her was so clear he tried to reach out a phantom hand to touch her. There was no hand to raise, just his mind connected to her on a level that seemed unbreakable.
Her eyes flickered red, the chakra that swiped at his mind pummeling him with viciousness.
Ajali!
His name was a roar of betrayal, but the love that rushed from Tehdra had his heart stuttering.
Tehdra. His call was met with silence. She lived in the darkness. He felt her. Obsidian eyes opened, flashing red. Fangs elongated, and a smile of cruelty curved her lips. But instead of repulsing him, her macabre appearance made something powerful inside of him surge to life.
Mate…. free me.
The voice spoke to him as if it were separate from Tehdra, yet being connected to her mind, feeling the malevolent chakra, all he sensed was Tehdra. And something more. But he could not separate Tehdra’s essence.
A surge of determination burst from Tehdra, more potent than the twisted rage. Pure and clean like a breath of fresh air. She fought. Bound by the chakra, she somehow fought. He did not understand, but Ajali distantly felt Tehdra struggling through the rage. The emotions battled, trying to ensnare him in the war. Resolve, and cold logic mingled with anger and bloodthirstiness.
A flash of red, and Ajali’s mind froze as an image draped itself over Tehdra, caressing her. Its malevolence was a remarkable sight. Massive and serrated edge wings covered her entire body as its chakra shape seemed perched on her.
What was it?
Power reverberated through his mind, seeking a connection.
Ajali…
His consciousness sunk deeper into the pathway. The voice was Tehdra's alone. The path seemed different from the link he had opened. He ferreted into her mind, tunneling through the darkness, and the mire of rage and cruelty. He saw Tehdra’s mental battle against what permeated her being, the crack in her shield. Her essence and darkness intertwined as one, yet the emotions from the darkness seemed as if they fought to devour Tehdra’s.
The purity of her conviction rasped against his mind and reached out to the darkness. Hard, cold determination reeked in her voice along with fury. He felt her burying the wrath, not allowing its growth in her mind. Separating her rage from her beast.
We are one being. Soul, mind, essence. We share one body, never to be separated. I have accepted, will you accept?
Tehdra’s mind pierced through him with power. It was not directed at him. She spoke to her beast. The connection held Ajali, and he stared, mesmerized, as Tehdra fought with a presence that he could only see in flashes of brutal depictions. Massive wings, clawed feet, glowing red eyes, vicious fangs, and black chakra contracted.
Her mental fight for dominion appeared like a physical fight in his mind. In a blur, Tehdra slammed into wings, claws, swirls of blackness. She was held down, and claws ripped her to shreds. Then, in a blink, she appeared naked once more with chakra roiling around her, the beast draped over her.
We will never be separated. My body will always be yours. Your chakra is mine to call upon. You cannot be freed from my body. If you let me, I will use your powers as mine. I will summon a part of you to corporeal form. I will feed you. I will not bury you behind the walls of my mind. Give me access to all your powers. Will you accept?
The scream of madness slammed into Ajali’s mind, and he flinched away from the pathway. He sensed the brutal fight that Tehdra waged as the essence of darkness surged in unfettered bloodthirstiness. Tehdra’s voice still rasped on. Cold, determined, logical, free from anger and pain.
You cannot be in control of me. There is no way out of my body onto this plane. It is impossible. Bond with me. Willingly share your powers with me. We are one. We will always be united.
The insidious scrape against his mind had him waiting for its punch with bated breath. When it came, it drove him to his phantom knees. Never had he felt such bloodthirstiness from a being. Tehdra’s cry of pain echoed through his mental walls, and he heard another psychic crack as more of the vileness dominated her mind. An eye opened in his mind to peer at Ajali. A new kind of darkness permeated his soul. One filled with the most violent of emotions.
Mate…
Our mate.
The rasp of Tehdra’s throbbed with torment and resolve.
I will be free! Thundered with such power, the icy rage in Ajali stirred, lifting its head.
You fight in vain. Can you rend my body with the power of your chakra? Yes. Can you feel lies in my words, beast? You know all things negative. Can you feel deception in me? You are trapped in me for all time. I am bounded by your essence in me for all time. We are one. You want free reign to kill and destroy. To feed. Never can I allow you that control. It will mean sure death. Hunters will come for us, and
we will not triumph. Bond with me!
Ajali understood her fight.
The furor that trembled inside of him had to be harnessed by his willpower. Even now it stirred, feeling the rage from her darkness, and was attracted to it. It was not an essence that spoke to him, it was a rage without reason or thought, one of power that once tapped into, could slaughter hundreds. He had not mastered all the ability of the Phoenyx yet either, but he had learned enough of them to use its chakra to be unrivaled in war. His stomach clenched in hard knots as he realized Tehdra did the same. He and the Phoenyx were one. Even if he hated its destructive powers, he could never be separated from it. It was his bloodline inheritance. Trapped in Tehdra’s mind, Ajali felt a strange sort of kinship. She was not much different from him. They both had power buried inside that if they did not hone it, control it, they could cause destruction could never be recovered from.
* * *
The Darkage – Kingdom of darkness and shadows
Saieke gasped as Drac swung her into his arms, holding her so that she straddled him with her legs wrapped around his waist. She clung to his neck, and she whispered furiously along their link.
Drac I can keep pace. What…?
Speech became impossible for Saieke as his darkness shifted, power surged under his skin as he lowered his psychic leash separating his mind from his beast and moved with a speed that had her pressing her face into his neck to breathe. Saieke brushed her mind against Drac searching, seeking an opening. He closed it against her probe, not allowing her in. Her heart thumped as he ran with the power of his beast towards Nuria, faster than she could comprehend.
He carried her even though she was fast. Since consuming his blood, her senses were heightened in every way, her bones denser, stronger. She could sense his anger despite closing her out of his mind, and it was chilling. She hated that it was directed at her.
“Drac” she snapped into his neck, his speed made talking difficult.
He turned his head and obsidian gaze ensnared her.
Do not close our pathway. Why do you shut me out?
His jaw was a harsh line. You defied my orders to return to the Keep. You split my attention with your willful ways
She pressed an open mouth kiss to his pulse. It was my willful ways that had me mated to you and bedded in a few days, she said softly against his mind. I can be of aid, my love. I am powerful.
Princess, if you are harmed because of your folly, you will not sit for weeks as I will beat you. You are powerful, yet I carry you because you cannot match my speed.
She chuckled. What are we referring to here? A light spanking? Because I would like that, she teased, secure he would never harm her.
The hiss that stirred in her mind was a dark wave of heat.
Do not shut me out Drac, even when you rage. Her mind brushed against the coldness of his and her stomach clenched in hard knots of fear at the resolve of death that she felt. The snarl of anger that echoed in her mind had her jerking her gaze towards him.
“This is the very reason I did not want you with me, Princess. I travel into unchartered lands, dangerous lands. My only focus should be Tehdra, but now your safety is of paramount importance to me. The fear that you feel is abhorrent to me.”
“I fear because of what I felt from you. Your rage is too cold. We must observe protocols upon entering the Kingdom of Nuria, my love. To enter with the shadows is too damning for the Darkage. We cannot slip in and out.”
Explain.
She inhaled at the soft command, gathering her thoughts.
We cannot slip into Nuria to spirit Tehdra away and be discovered with weapons in a kingdom such as Nuria without an invitation. Our status and the reason for entry would not be declared at a sentry entrance. War or our death would be a certainty. As Princess of Boreas, I will be admitted, but we must follow protocol.
“I will not allow Tehdra to suffer while we waste time observing protocols, princess.”
And this was the reason she knew her presence was necessary. Her mate did not understand the subtleties of court life. He was a primal force she still did not understand fully. Dangerous, he was so very dangerous. But he was hers. And she would do all to protect him and the dream he had for his kingdom. “And if we are discovered?”
His mien shuttered, and savagery slithered against her senses. You cannot kill them all, Drac.
Chilling silence. Then he spoke, “We cannot observe protocols. If we offend, then it must be so. We must reach Tehdra before the hunters.”
“Hunters?!” Saieke bit into her lips as her memory stirred of a conversation between them a few weeks past when she was falling into everything that he was. “At the great lake, you mentioned hunters. Darkans lost to the evilness of their beast are known as Senjis, and you have hunters that…hunt and kill these Senjis.”
Yes, princess.
She swallowed as the import of it sank into her being. The Darkage had people that hunted their kind when the beast took control. She now understood why as she entered the great hall with her weapons he had grabbed her and moved with such speed. Guilt lashed at her. Saieke did not want to hinder Drac. She only wanted to lend her status and powers to rescue Tehdra. “Can you stop a hunter?”
“If the hunter reaches her before us, Tehdra will die,” he said with such resolve Saieke did not doubt it.
Her throat tightened. “Can we stop the hunters if we reach her before they arrive? Is it one or many, how will the hunters know that Tehdra is lost to madness?”
They will feel Tehdra’s loss to her demon and will be drawn to the hunt. Can I stop them? We will see.
“Surely they will understand that Gidon sent you.”
“Hunters carry the seal of the King. They have absolute authority from the King to execute any of our kind that is deemed too dangerous. I assure you a hunter is already on the way.”
“One?”
The coldest of gaze clashed with hers. “One.”
The power implied shook her. Saieke swiftly cataloged their options. To enter a kingdom such as Nuria without permission was such a breach, she could hardly fathom how they would extricate themselves from it if they were ever found. Could they enter undetected and reach Tehdra and administer the elixir before the hunter? To follow protocol might take hours that they did not have. “Can we enter Nuria undetected?”
“You doubt me, Princess?”
She lifted her head and stared into his eyes for seconds that turned into minutes as she recalled his foray into Boreas for her. Drac had entered their council chambers, where the most influential body of her kingdom met, undetected. A feat that should have been impossible but he breached several levels of her nation to reach without their sounding the gongs of alarm. A soft smile curved her lips. I do not doubt you, my mate. Can you feel her?
Her link to me has severed. I seek her mind and cannot find it.
“We are at Nuria,” she said as her enhanced eyesight picked up the warriors that manned their borders. There are hundreds of warriors at the sentry gate, Drac.
Brace yourself, Princess.
Her heart lurched as darkness closed over them, and everything became a blur of shadow space. The speed Drac moved with was unfathomable as he cloaked them in shadows, moving past hundreds of warriors going deeper into Nuria. Nothing sensed them as he leashed his beast’s power and shiktred moving with the shadows, undetected, into their lands.
20
Bound in several valnetium chains, Tehdra raged. Massive wings unfurled from a broken back. Scales rippled, coating and uncoating Tehdra’s form as if they could not decide if they wanted to stay or disappear. Vicious fangs protruded from her mouth, and chakra bled from its eyes and mouth. When the scales retracted, what appeared to be a painting covered her entire back. Stripes of black lashed on her exposed stomach, and when he peered closer, he realized they were claws. The ink on her body seemed to depict the thing trying to break free from the shackles of Tehdra’s body.
“Leave,” he commanded the ot
hers in the room, uncomfortable with anyone else seeing her naked form.
“We will not leave you with this thing!” his sister snapped.
“That ‘thing’ is Tehdra. She is manacled in over one hundred chains of the strongest metal known to us and surrounded by a ring of fire. She will not break free," Ajali said flatly.
Ajali?
Tehdra’s voice was thin and hesitant. Even when she’d lied, she had done so with boldness. Was it that she expected him to shun her in the hour of her need? I am here, Tehdra.
He ignored the puzzled look Acheron threw his way. His blade must have sensed the ripple of power as they spoke through the link they had formed.
The darkness wins…and I’m tired.
Defeat lay heavy in her voice.
A surge of anger burned through Ajali as he looked at her broken form. The thing inside of her could not exist on this plane. It had to be housed within a body, yet it fought Tehdra’s will, smashing her bones. Her back was twisted at the oddest angle, but her restrained wings, seemingly crippled by the hundreds of chains holding her down, had him battling his rage.
Fight, Tehdra! Ajali snapped along their connection—a connection he still clung onto even though Tehdra had tried to force him out. Trapped within her consciousness, the enmity of her darkness had been calling forth his Phoenyx. Somehow, she had slammed down the mental connection between them as she sensed what was happening, closing him off from the brutal battle she fought.
He had surged to awareness in the arena with Ruxia, Uriah, his sister and his King blades surrounding him, still connected but not the depth they’d shared. He had wasted no time, flashing to where they detained her. In the dungeon pit—deep and cavernous, made from harsh, gray stone marbles with several rings embedded into the ground that could hold the strongest of men. The ground itself was forged with valnetium iron making it an impossible feat to rip the rings from the earth. Red eyes with a flicker of yellow met his gaze over the wall of fire that surrounded her. The black chakra poured from her mouth, and the scream that reverberated in the pit as her left hip cracked was unholy. Pain and rage mingled in the shriek, creating a mesh of sounds that grated his ears. He could not see Tehdra in the gaze that ensnared his, yet she softly stirred in his mind.
