The Storm Queen snorted. “Of course you don’t want to die. Fool. I know that.”
“Not that!”
She crouched beside him and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look up. “Who are you talking to then?”
Marsum slipped forward in a way that Maks didn’t think was possible anymore. Maks fought him, but he’d been caught off guard. Marsum spoke, his voice different from Maks’s.
“He is my son.”
The Storm Queen stumbled back and stood. “Marsum?”
Fuck, shit, damn. He fought to gain control of his own damn body. How the hell did she know Marsum so well? “Yes. I am here, in his head, though he’d much rather I was not. Dani, you want him. He is stronger even than I was.”
Dani? That was her name. But by then it was too late, the damage was done in the few seconds it took Maks to gain control once more.
The Storm Queen snapped her fingers. “Take him to my bedchamber. Give him the drug so that he will desire me. I don’t care if he is awake. I’ll fuck him while he sleeps if I must.”
Maks flung himself back against the bonds that held him, but it was no use. “Damn you, Marsum!”
Your death would break Zam. This she can get over. Dani will let you live longer and may even free you if you give her a child.
“You don’t know that!” he roared. Because he knew what unfaithfulness had done to Zam’s marriage. Steve had cheated on her, lied to her, bedded other women and gotten Kiara pregnant.
This . . . Storm Queen . . . was going to put Zam through it all again. With him. Right down to the pregnancy if she could make it happen. He couldn’t let it happen.
The hands that carried him out of the room and down the halls were not rough, but he barely saw the ones they were attached to. His mind was caught up in how to set himself free, in how he was going to make it happen.
Because in one way, Marsum was right. He had to survive. Zam wouldn’t forgive him for dying either. He had to be smarter than this Dani, this Storm Queen. He let his eyes take in the space, the halls, rather than the thugs that carried him back to the bedroom he knew better than he could have wished.
As quickly as they’d been there, those same hands were just as suddenly gone. He blinked and time seemed to have passed without him registering it.
Was it the last of the other potion?
Was it something else? Because it felt as though he were not truly there. Or maybe this was just some form of shock.
Trauma, his mind whispered. He was dealing with a traumatic experience and his mind was shutting down. In all that he’d faced, in all his life nothing came close to this—this total and complete lack of control, with one exception. When he’d shared his body with the souls of the Jinn masters. But even then . . . it hadn’t felt like this.
He blinked and the old woman was there again. Her hair all fluffed up; her eyes as sharp as ever. “Fought off one potion, but she doesn’t need you to like her now. She wanted a little loving in her bed, but she’ll take you for a good old-fashioned flouncing I suppose if it gives her the beasty child she wants.”
The old woman shuffled closer, with a tiny blue tablet just visible in her palm. His hands were tied down, stretched out above his head, and he fought to bring them over his mouth. She cooed and laughed and slipped the blue pill past his lips, then pinched his nose.
He glared up at her.
She smiled. “You think you won? Foolish man. See how you like this.”
Reaching to the side table, she picked up a cup of water and poured it on his face so as he opened his mouth to breathe, he had no choice but to take in the water and the pill.
Gagging and choking, he swallowed over and over again, his instincts to live and breathe taking over anything else.
The old woman patted his cheek again. “Don’t fret, pretty boy. It’ll be over in a jiffy. Just close your eyes and enjoy the ride. Once a day for the next month should do the trick.”
He stared at her as the horror truly set in.
This was happening.
He had no choice in this and no choice in how his body responded to whatever it was she’d just given him.
Even as he thought about it, his body was reacting to the little blue pill she’d forced into him. Panic was not something he often gave into, but it crashed over him like a wave from the ocean outside as he hardened. “Fuck!” He kicked out and rolled as the sheet slipped down his bare body.
“Oh, don’t be making me tie your legs down too!” the old woman snapped, a lash coming down across his bare thighs. When had his clothes been stripped off him? Wait, they’d been taken when he’d still thought that Dani was Zam.
He blinked and the Storm Queen strode toward him, naked but for the long silk robe that hung from her shoulders and a clear bottle of liquid in one hand.
“Is he prepped?”
“Of course.” The old woman bowed and pointed at his erection as she let herself out.
The Storm Queen made her way to the bed and trailed her fingers up his leg and settled on his hip. “Pity. I was hoping you’d prefer to make this enjoyable.” She poured the bottle of liquid over him, warm and greasy.
He bared his teeth at her and let out a low snarl. “I’m going to make you work for this, Dani. I won’t go easy for you.”
She laughed. “And how is that?”
His snarl turned into a hard smile as he pulled his body through a shift so that he stood in the shackles on four legs as a caracal. Ears pinned, he snarled at her.
Rage flickered across her face. “You think you win because you are a beast? I will force you back!”
He snapped his teeth as he leapt at her, slamming his feet into her chest and throwing her backward. Her eyes went wide as she lost her balance, then hit the far wall hard enough that the wind was knocked out of her, if her gaping mouth was any indication.
She didn’t know Jinn like he did. They never expected a physical attack. They were magic, magic all the way.
There was only one option now and he prayed to the desert gods he was making the right choice.
He raced toward the open window as she drew a breath and began to screech for her guards.
How far down would the fall be?
Would he survive? No, he had to.
He pushed off the floor and leapt, his narrow body sliding through the slit, straight out into open air above a raging ocean.
There was a moment of sheer relief, of flight where his body was weightless, and he felt as though he were free.
Maks looked down between his front legs.
The ocean was there, but he was still over the jagged rocks as he began his free fall.
He couldn’t tell if he’d make the edge of the water or not, if it would be deep enough. Maybe he’d slide between the rocks.
Nope.
He missed the water.
Crashed into the rocks below, his body snapping in a hundred places at once.
The pain was an explosion inside of him, nerve endings lighting up, and the darkness rolling over him.
Dead, he was dead.
Only . . ..
“Jaysus christos on a spitting camel. Don’t tell me this is her mate?” The voice was gravelly, male, deep. Maks blinked and stared up at a dark shrouded figure, the hint of horns sticking out from under a cloak and hood as flames licked up around his legs.
He’d have scrambled back only he couldn’t move. He looked around, could hear the ocean crashing and there was even a sensation of water against his fur, but he was dead. Or at least he was pretty sure he was dead.
“Quite the pair, aren’t they?” a softer, feminine voice said. “I mean, in some ways they are rather amusing, bumbling about trying to save the world from Asag. That they even continue to try is worth something, don’t you think?”
Maks managed to blink and pull the woman into view. Soft curves. Long hair that floated like a halo around her body and the brightest blue eyes he’d ever seen.
“What do we do about it? You know th
at if he dies then she will lose her fucking marbles. She’ll kill the Storm Queen, and we still need her. There are only so many who can take on Asag.”
“Zam?” He whispered her name.
They both looked at him. If he’d have been able to move, he’d have squirmed under the energy that flowed around them and into him.
“How many times are we to save them?” the male asked, obviously irritated if the wrinkle in his lips was any indication. “I want Asag dead as badly as you, but we are running out of chances here.”
“This is the last time . . .” the female said softly. “I have nothing else to give, and neither do you. And yet, despite all this, they are still our best bet. Zamira is still the one that must go on.”
“No,” Maks whispered. “No, if . . . if you have only one last chance to save one of us.” He didn’t fully understand the why or wherefore of this place, or the rules, but he did know one thing. “Save her. Save Zam.”
The woman crouched next to him and brushed a hand over his face, stroking his ears back to his head. “We are. By saving you, we are saving her. But there are no more chances, and I see all too much ahead of you to believe that you both will survive. A realm of demons is no small task, it is no small place to find yourself. And that is if you both survive the Kingdom of Storms, young Jinn.”
He struggled to breathe, his body shutting down so much that even like this, in a corporeal form he knew he didn’t have long. He wanted to argue with them, to tell them to let him go and save whatever strange power they had over death to keep Zam alive.
Their hands gripped him at the same time, power rushing through his body like a heat wave off the desert sands, tearing into him. He gasped, choked on a lungful of seawater and then was scrambling up, wobbling on four legs.
A scream of rage ripped through the air above him and he knew his time was limited before Dani saw him and finished what his leap of faith had started.
Forcing his body forward, he dove for a rock, and then another and another until he was under the lip of an overhang. The water was only a few feet below him, the waves splashing up onto his toes where he sat.
He was free of the Storm Queen, sort of, but he had to find a way back to the mainland and off this rock of an island.
“You will not leave here alive!”
Dani’s words boomed through the air, punctuated with a bright flash of lightning.
Huddling, he curled up around himself, tucking as far back into the overhang as he could as the ocean below him began to froth and thrash as though the Storm Queen’s temper tantrum was feeding it. And maybe it was.
The skies darkened and the wind whipped up, adding to the spray of salty water.
Maks curled tighter around his lithe body and closed his eyes. He just had to wait this out. And when the Storm Queen’s power faded, then he’d swim for it.
Through the shark- and monster-infested waters, if the fins and humping bodies through the waves were any indication. A long tentacle reached up the sides of the castle, suction cups popping loud even over the waves. What a shit show he’d been stuffed into.
If he made a swim for it, he’d be in perfect view of any rhuk that might be flying, or guards that might be looking out over the water with long-range weapons.
“Don’t go borrowing trouble,” he said softly.
He did not expect an answer.
You don’t need to, it comes your way as surely as it comes to her, Marsum said with more than a little exasperation in his voice.
Maks pinned his ears to his head and bared his teeth. Even with his eyes closed he could ‘see’ Marsum. His father sat next to him in his mind’s eye.
“Why would you tell her I was your son?”
“Because she was going to kill you, fool,” Marsum said, as calm as a summer’s day. “You need to live, to survive so you can escape whatever it is comes your way. Didn’t I teach you that? You think your body and the usage of it is the worst thing? Idiot.”
Maks tried to push his father out of his head, but whatever connection they had seemed to be getting stronger, not weaker. “Go away.”
“Can’t. Though I can’t say I’m not surprised. I thought we were at quits too. Apparently, I am still here, and you are blessed to have me.”
Maks was quiet a moment. “What do you know about a pair of demons, one female and beautiful, one male and hideous?”
Marsum sighed long and low. “You met Soleil and Nico? Well shit, you are in deeper than . . . at least they didn’t meet Zam. If they get their hooks into her, then . . .”
Maks groaned and slowly told Marsum what he’d learned when Soleil and Nico had saved his life, healed his broken bones and brought him back to life.
By the end, he was wishing that they had let him die.
8
Zam
The rock monsters—or pillars as we’d learned they were called—were massive, made of rock, and as far as I could tell were pretty much indestructible. Even when I’d used Lilith on them the first time I’d run into them, it had been an effort to harm them. They weren’t really alive, so how did you kill them?
Short answer, you didn’t. You could slow them down if you were lucky and that was about it.
Vahab peered out into the desert. “What kind of a monster is named a pillar? That’s not very awe-inspiring. Are we really running away from it?”
Beside me the massive rhuk pulled itself around so that it was crouched like nothing more than an enormous chicken if I ignored the teeth hanging out over the beak. Dark eyes swept over us. I couldn’t help it; I took a step back.
“Look, we’ve got enough trouble, so you just get out of here.” I waved the unicorn horn at the bird before I thought better of it.
The rhuk tipped its head sideways and shuffled into my line of sight. “I can get you to safety. I owe you my life and my freedom. It is the least I can do.”
I held a hand up, stopping the big bird. “Listen—”
“Cassandra,” she said.
“Cassandra, listen, don’t think it’s because I don’t trust you, because let’s be brutally honest, I don’t. But letting you wrap your talons around us and fly away to wherever the fuck you want is not a great idea, even on a good day.” I pointed at the bodies of the rock monsters rapidly approaching. “Today? Today is not a good day. Get out of here!”
I stuffed the unicorn horn away, leapt on Balder and spun him to blitz into a run as the rhuk launched herself up into the air, wings beating hard and turning up an immediate dust storm. Her body cut the light off from the sun and we stood in her shadow for a second too long.
Behind us Dancer whinnied and as I turned to look, she reared up, but the rhuk already reached for her.
“Damn it, no!” I yelped as I spun Balder around the other way. Reyhan cried out, a hand reaching for her horse.
Dancer fought and wiggled, Vahab did nothing. Fen also did nothing as he wrapped himself tighter around Vahab’s neck.
“Fight, damn it!” I yelled at them as I urged Balder to get moving.
“No, this is fine!” Vahab said. “Really, a flight with a rhuk is a wonderful experience! I mean, as long as she doesn’t want to eat us.”
“Goddess damn it!” We were going to lose Dancer, but we’d also get rid of Vahab and Fen. “I’m sorry, Reyhan.”
She cried in my arms as I gave Balder my heels, and I urged him forward. I didn’t want to lose Dancer, but there was nothing I could do.
My horse didn’t move. He didn’t budge as I kissed at him, as I bumped him with my heels. I resorted to flapping my reins, a move that every beginner rider tries once. And like everything else, it did nothing.
“Balder? Come on, friend, let’s go!”
He gave a snort and pawed at the ground, but otherwise stood still. Resignation flowed over me as Cassandra’s talons wrapped around us. I closed my eyes. It would be just like the dragons carrying us around.
Right?
Not so much. The wingbeats were longer, as if she did
n’t have as much lift as a dragon, which was strange considering she was all feathers and dragons were giant, heavily muscled lizards. There was a moment I thought she wouldn’t be able to get us far enough above the rock monsters.
I clutched Reyhan tight, and Lila clutched me, her claws digging into my scalp and ear.
One beat of the wings, two, three. The pillars were fifty feet away now. I’d have almost preferred if Fen had been carrying us. Despite his attitude, I didn’t hate him.
I held my breath as we slowly rose into the air as the first of the pillars swarmed over the last small hill where we’d landed after the cliffside disaster.
One of them was close enough that I could see the orange reflection in its eyes. So, I flipped it off, full well knowing it was Asag staring at me.
The rhuk turned us and flew hard to the northeast. I smacked the piece of bird leg closest to me. “No, we have to go south!”
“It is not safe. I will take you to my true master. He will help.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. “No! We have to get to the Storm Queen!”
“Yes, Pazuzu will know what to do next.” Her wings didn’t falter as we flew away from Maks, away from the Storm Queen. She ignored me completely.
My heart faltered and I fought the tears, gave up and let them fall. Each second that we were apart I could feel our bond breaking a little more. Or maybe it was just my deep-down fear that he would fall into her bed willingly, like Steve had. That I would lose Maks to another woman.
We might be safe from Asag’s beasts, but whatever strides we’d taken toward Maks . . . they were gone. What if he wasn’t safe? What would the Storm Queen do to him if he fought her attentions? Because despite my fears, the reality was, I knew him heart and soul. He would fight her, and he would try to keep himself away from her with all he had. Even if it cost him his life. He was no Steve.
He was no pretend alpha. He was the real deal, knowing when to fight, and when to run.
The fear of him cheating faded and the fear of him dying spiked.
“Why are you crying?” Vahab shouted across at me. “This is wonderful! I haven’t seen Pazuzu in years! What a reunion it will be! Ah, he will be so surprised!”
Kingdom of Storms (The Desert Cursed Series Book 8) Page 6
