by Stacy Reid
“I am meeting with King Gidon, Drac, and Talon at the Western Quadrant. I shall be home within a few hours. There is a great library on the second floor. I believe you will find great pleasure there, mate.”
Home. How oddly comforting those words were? And it wasn’t Serange she thought of. But here, in his arms, at this castle. She pressed one hand to her midsection hard, desperate to stop the quaking flutters, fighting to stick to her decision. “Until I see you again, Lachlan Ravenswood.”
The presence in her mind stilled, and she felt its predatory intent as he assessed her words, the sorrow in her voice. Tension wound Shilah tight, coiling her stomach tighter and tighter. Moving from the bed with her newfound speed, she hurriedly dressed in a black caftan that molded her petite frame. Her hair was quickly caught in a tight plait, and she slipped her feet into delicate slippers. They were not fashioned for fight or flight, but they were all she had access to. After a brief hesitation, she took up the golden armband that was fashioned from snakes. She could sense no energy within them, but they had come alive when she had been threatened. Taking a deep breath, she slipped them on, and then opened her psychic eyes.
“Kala.”
Her sister answered instantly. “I am ready.”
“I am coming for you now. We will need to move with stealth. Can you see if our escape will be hindered?”
“No vision comes to me. I am no longer at the King’s castle, but I dine with Princess Saieke at her home in the Northern fort.”
Shilah slipped deeper into her sister’s mind, assessing the friendship and care she felt for the flamed hair princess, and looking at the picture of the Northern castle. “Be ready, trust no one.”
Kala’s fierce determination echoed, and Shilah slipped her mind from hers. She sank deep inside, closing off the mental pathway that led to Lachlan Ravenswood with a ruthless will. Then she flared her telepathy, sensing that his castle currently housed eighty-nine souls. Only ten of those were warriors, and she could detect them in the shadows, the brief touch of their aura, red and malevolent. Their goal was to protect her until Lachlan returned.
There was a stillness at her center, and she reached for it, drawing on white energy as she pushed her power before her. Using her telekinesis, she opened the door and exited the chamber with stealth then she hurried through the castle. She passed servants, and visitors but none saw her, for she built the illusion in their minds that she was not there. Shilah made her way to the highest tower on the highest landing of the castle. There she lifted her head to the shadowed sky and sent her mind hurtling through the air with sharp precision. She felt all the animals on the ground and all the creatures in the air. Something large rolled through the sky at a distance. Dipping into its mind she waded through its memories, assessing his strength and speed.
She called it to her, pushing the compulsion deep, one the massive creature could not resist. The winged creature zipped through the air, hurtling itself toward her with shocking speed. It landed on the large balcony, standing over six feet on four clawed legs, its feline body covered in grey feathers, its head birdlike with a beaked mouth.
She went deeper into its mind, building its loyalty to her, overriding his primeval nature, binding it to her command, feeding it the urgency to escape to the Northern Keep for Kala. It crouched in a bestial grace, and she hopped onto its back, the powerful muscles beneath her thighs twisting with sinuous power. It hurtled through the air, a wild cry echoing from its breast. She held on with all her strength, lowering her face against the wind, breathing easily. The journey felt as if it took forever, and her tension mounted with each dip and roll of the massive body beneath her.
Shilah flared her psychic ability, sensing the intent of all animals and Darkans far and wide. She caught the mind of several people below assessing if they sent any alert. Their minds were filled with peace, lust, love, and war. She felt the surprise of a warrior who thought he scented Lachlan but did not see him. Her heart lurched when that warrior glanced up, but the idea flitted away from his thoughts as he went back to seducing the laughing Darkan female by his side, carrying a basket of fruits.
Though the creature’s speed was great, it took almost two hours of flight before it reached the courtyard of the Northern keep. It landed, and Shilah hopped from its back, grateful for her enhanced stamina. Her sister waited, and the Princess Saieke was by her side.
“Kala?”
“It would be impossible to disappear from beneath her nose,” her sister said with wry amusement. “Her curiosity cannot be deterred.”
The princess smiled and stepped forward, her eyes flicking to the beast. Shilah found it curious she was alone, but then she felt the auras of the warriors in the dark, and Shilah blinked, for more than twenty lingered, their aura cold and calculating, and she sensed they had one directive, protect the mate of Drac El Kyn at all cost.
“Does she know that we escape?”
There was a hitch in Kala’s breathing. “She only knows you come for me, but she is very quick and witty.”
If Princess Saieke had a similar bond with her mate like Shilah had with Lachlan was it possible she had told her mate of Shilah’s visit?
Shilah stared at the princess, and in the depth of her sapphire eyes knowledge gleamed. Shilah dipped into her thoughts, some of the tension easing when she saw that the princess did not mean to betray their actions tonight.
“You will need to see for yourself that he is the other half to your soul.”
The princess’s uncensored thought burned through Shilah’s mind, and she made no reply as Kala mounted the animal after her. Shilah ordered it toward the forest leading to the portal, commanding it to soar through the air with speedy stealth.
A ripple of awareness roiled through her. Her nerves stretched taut as Shilah sensed a dark, silent force behind her. She glanced over her shoulder expecting to see a winged creature following. There was none. Yet she knew with every fiber of her being Lachlan was close by. She could feel his rage swarming the air, the brutal resolve trembling through the sky. And she increased her pace, a sob tearing from her chest for she ran away in vain.
She glanced below, able to see the houses, the forest, and even the people on the ground. They flew over a vast lake the wind touching the surface of the silver so that ripples danced over the water. She glanced at the towering trees, some tall enough they brushed the underbelly of the animal. Leaves fluttered wildly as if something passed between them, and the taste of something dark and too primal coated her senses.
Behind her Kala stiffened, her hand tightening around Shilah’s waist, a wave of energy pouring from her. “It worsens. I see our city burning and blowing away like ashes in the wind. No one will be spared.”
Her sister spasmed, and Shilah gripped onto her as the vision held Kala in its ruthless grip. When it released her, she sobbed softly, her tears wetting Shilah. She wanted to open her mind and plead with him to let her go, but she was petrified to a depth she could not explain. It was then she acknowledged a deep part of her still feared the monster within him.
Tears burned behind her eyes and clamped down hard on her emotions. She couldn’t afford feelings. The winged creature soared through the sky with dizzying speed, her mind directing it toward the pulse of raw energy deep into the open lands connecting the borders of the seven kingdoms. They escaped the tree line of the Darkage, moving from the pitch black of night to dawn. She could see the sun far off in the distance. But she felt no relief that she was no longer in the realm of shadow and demons.
Below her she saw no movement, she detected no aura, but a wave of dread filled her as the stark wasteland spread before her. It resembled death itself, with sharper jagged edges its main décor. Lifeless plants, twigs, and barks indicated a once thriving forest full of animals all erased by a force beyond their comprehension. The creature dipped in a rolling swoop, his enormous wingspan flaring wide as it glided low, and then landed. They hurriedly slid from its back. “Thank you,” Shilah mur
mured, releasing it from her mind control, and it took to the sky once more.
“Hurry Shilah, I can feel the portal through the woods, just there.”
She didn’t have the heart to tell her sister she could feel Lachlan in the shadows. Shilah ran with her sister toward an opening in the barren forest of the wasteland. The trees were bared leaves, and the earth cragged and without grass. They scrambled over several small boulders, climbing to what looked like the mouth of a cave.
A wave of dark energy made her stumble, and Kala cried out in fear.
“Keep going,” Shilah said, turning around and searching for him. Opening her mind, their thread vibrated with a resonance she’d never felt before. She could not see him, but she felt him deep in her soul where it mattered. “You are a man I never imagined experiencing,” she whispered. “I thank you for our time together, for I will cherish the memories forever, and I will crave you always. Your world is on the brink of Anarchy, and your king needs you. Mine is on the edge of a revolution and I am needed. Please, Lachlan Ravenswood, let me go.” Her knees weakened, her heart beating sluggishly within her breast. “You are the harbinger of death and destruction for my city…and I would have no choice but to declare us enemies if you do not relinquish your claim, Darkan.” Her heart cracked, and she trembled violently.
A cold, menacing snarl rumbled in his chest. The ground shook, and the acrid flavor of betrayal coated her senses. A low, mocking laugh, cunning and cruel filled her mind. And at its center she felt the bloodletter reveling in the challenge, the need beating in him to force her submission. And he still did not step from the shadows, yet she could feel him beneath her skin.
Inside there was a terrible wrenching as if something was tearing her body apart. It was a pain as she’d never felt before, and she did not understand the depth and breadth of it. Their thread jerked, the pull from her chest burning with live agony, and she could not separate his feelings from the ones swirling through her veins.
The control on her fear was a thin gossamer thread, for if he took her with him into the darkness, she doubted she could fight him. Doubted she would want to fight, for everything in her would cry to submit, and he had the power to make her surrender should she try to resist his dominance. Then everything would be lost.
Warily she stepped toward the shimmering energy that would take her back to her realm. Shilah moved deep into the darkened cave, dipping low to avoid the sharp edges of the crystals hanging from its ceiling. She breathed through the sheer raw power emanating from the portal. The tree glowed pink and silver in the distance, and Kala stood at a sparkling branch waiting for her.
Her sister glanced back at her but made no sound, only touching the tip of the branch that would lead back to their realm. A bright light pulse and her sister vanished. Shilah stepped forward, reaching the tip of her finger toward the branch.
A harsh sob tore from her, and with a sense of shock, she realized she cried.
Phantom kisses ghosted over her forehead, and down to her lips. She touched the tip of the branch, and she was sucked through a vacuum of whirling stars and blinding energy.
“Goodbye,” she whispered, her throat tight and aching.
Then her world went dark.
20
His mate had left. And he had let her. Lachlan had not expected the terrible wrenching, dagger-like pain piercing through his soul where only darkness should reside. She had been a brief light that had filled him, and the echoing emptiness that had been his life for over four hundred years had abated. She’d stilled his mind. Made him sentient, made him feel.
His eyes were damp. Darkans didn’t cry. They didn’t feel sorrow. Their brutal souls were damned, so why did he feel as if a part of him had broken and would never be whole? Why did he feel this peculiar weakness in his heart, this tearing agony because their thread no longer hummed with a soothing resonance?
His heart stuttered, and he stretched, reached, unable to let go of her. There was only a void. The ravaging hunger to slaughter and drink the darkest of essence burned in his veins. And this part of him had made her flee, the most natural, instinctive part of him. The bloodletter, the monster, but she didn’t flee in fear of it, she fled because of how protective it was of her. He knew if any harm befell her, he would repay her pain with blood.
If his mate were to die before him as her sister’s vision implied, he would indeed annihilate her kingdom, that was just his way, and there was no changing that. And understanding her love of her people and loyalty to them, he respected her choice and loved her even more for it, so he would not follow her and endanger her world against her wishes. Their mating had been complete, they had exchanged blood, and their lei had formed so he could force her to stay. The monster wanted to, but he wanted her to love him and come to him of her own will. If that would ever happen, he did not know.
Turning away from the portal, his hands clasped behind his back, he prowled on foot over the vastness of the wastelands. He could feel the crouching creatures of Taryllion, their hackles stirring as they smelled the predator walking through their lands. He could feel the darkness rising, that hollow emptiness yawning like a tremendous endless hole threatening to swallow him whole. A poisonous rage flooded through his veins, a dark red stain that spread rapidly, encompassing all the light that had tethered his soul. The sheer intensity of his rage threatened to rip him to pieces, but he set his jaw and kept walking, his mind filling with cold purpose.
He was going hunting.
Hundreds of assassins across the seven kingdoms had answered the call for her recapture. It did not matter that she had left and might never return, they would all be made to understand the depth of their error. And all the pain and rage he felt now would have an outlet. Darkness roared, the bloodletter rose in him and he embraced it, for the monster was familiar, the beast was a comfort, and the absence of his mate was an unrelenting pain he only knew to assuage in blood and death.
Serange
The Kingdom of Dxyriah.
Raw, pounding energy tore Shilah apart as she spun with nauseating speed across the stars. The color in the nexus constantly changed, swirling with a deep purple through dark red then with blue and green. The humming at the center grew louder, and then the multi-colored whirling force spewed Shilah and Kala out with such power they slammed into the floor of the cave. Kala cried out her pain, but with Darkan blood coursing through Shilah’s veins, she barely felt the jarring impact.
“Princess Shilah?” a familiar voice whispered, emotions roughing the tone.
Glancing up, she watched as the gatekeeper, Herron, use his telekinesis to weave back the barrier in place, shutting away the shimmering effect of the portal. He stared at her as if he’d conjured her, before scrubbing a hand over his face, and quickly bending his knee to the stone ground.
“Please stand, Herron,” she said, unfamiliar emotions tearing through her.
He rose, his mahogany brown eyes shimmering with so many emotions. “I’ve long hoped you would return to us, Princess Shilah, Princess Kala. The statues have been raised for you both. I…we…I am delighted you are both here.”
The honorary statues were only erected after a prince or princess has been declared dead. She carefully brushed against the psychic network of her people. Shilah wanted to weep at the aura surrounding the wall of their connection. It was a deep purple, which hinted at the unrelenting pain. They mourned her, and they mourned Kala. Shilah did not want to risk going deeper if traitors lingered within the network seeking the pathway to her and Kala.
“Do I have your loyalty, Herron?” Shilah asked softly, her gaze darting around the underground cave. They were deep within the mountain trails, leading to the network of the caves. Few knew of the location, but surely Prince Quan would set spies in the mountains and at the portal. She flared her telepathy and sensed no other aura for miles.
“Always, Princess Shilah,” he hurriedly assured her.
And from his thoughts, she gleaned his honesty. Even t
hough she had known of his love and fidelity to her family, she had to check. His family had pledged fealty to her house when her father had granted a group of Arcadians refuge from political unrest which had broken out in their kingdom. To please the purists in Dxyriah, all the refugees and their descendants who chose to remain within the territory had to be registered and were required to bear a mark on their foreheads. It had been Herron who had helped them escape to Amagarie after swearing an oath to not reveal where they had fled to. But much could have changed within the last few months.
“Rah Blevinstoke has been relentlessly searching for you, Princess Shilah. He bid me to direct you to his location should you resurface. I did not inform him of where you escaped with Princess Kala, but he seemed to be aware of it, and of your imminent return.”
Her stomach tightened. Rah had no doubt used a foreseer to try and find her, and she sensed he’d used Megladine, his great love whom he could not marry for she too was impure. Rah had been a friend of her father, a mentor to her and she trusted him. Yet she hesitated, hating that sense of mistrust she had for her people which had taken root and flowered since the betrayal at her coronation. “And what directive were you given?”
“To safeguard the portal till your return. And the Baron showed me a map, but I did not understand it, nor can I remember it.”
She walked over to him. “With your permission, Heron.”
“Most certainly, my princess.”
She delved deep into his mind, moving past his barriers sifting through his memories, she saw that the prince was persecuting Heron’s people as traitors and all who remained were in hiding. She pushed past his pain and anger and finally came to the map as he’d seen it. Shilah studied it, locating the marked networks of a cave deep underground her castle which led toward the Senate and was perilously close to her home. Unease filled her that he would choose to meet so close to the enemy, for undoubtedly Prince Quan lived at castle Ashmir.
