A part of me wanted to go to him. Wanted to help him in any way I could. I took a step back. The pull I felt toward him was even stronger than what the protection pouch could defend. Was there a way to break his spell?
“Have you told him yet?” Gage asked.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I actually started at Gage’s voice.
“Does everyone know about our little secret?” he whispered.
“What are you talking about?” I could tell by the look on his face that whatever he was talking about amused him greatly.
“About our nuptials. Our wedding, darling. Did you tell everyone that we are man and wife?”
I stumbled back at the mention of the wedding. “It wasn’t a real wedding.”
He arched his eyebrow and gave me a wolfish grin. “We shared a vow. There were witnesses.”
“It was a ceremony performed by a demon!”
“Demon, priest, judge, ship’s captain—whoever does the ceremony doesn’t really matter.”
“A priest, judge, or ship’s captain makes it a legal wedding. A demon does not.”
“If it bothers you that much, we can leave tonight. After we get you all healed up, we can sneak away and go get ‘properly married’ by anyone of your choosing,” he said.
“You’re insane,” I answered.
His eyes twinkled with laughter. “And like it or not, you’re my wife.”
“Putting someone under a spell and forcing them to marry you does not mean you’re married. None of it was real. It was all pretend. You forced me to love you.”
“Force is such a harsh word.” He gave me a long look and then said, “I prefer nudged. You would have fallen for me eventually, I just helped speed along the process. We’re meant to be together.”
“I’ll never be with you.” I realized that as I’d been talking I’d gotten closer and closer to Gage until my face was only a few inches from his. The desire to press my lips against his was unbelievably strong. I flung myself back and let out a sob.
“Life would be much easier if you didn’t fight the inevitable,” he said.
“You will never have me,” I whispered.
His eyes narrowed. “Never? Neither of us believes that. You know deep down that we belong together.”
“I will never belong to you,” I said.
“The feelings you had for those boys was nothing more than a schoolgirl crush.”
“What do you know about love?” I demanded.
“I know that I love you,” he said quietly. He sounded so sincere. If I didn’t know better, I might have believed it.
I gave a harsh laugh. “You aren’t capable of love.”
He leaned back. His arms and feet were still tightly bound to the chair. He was our prisoner until someone let him go. And no matter how strongly that little voice inside my head screamed to free him, I’d die rather than give in.
“Such harsh words. You wound me,” he said.
To be wounded emotionally, you first need a heart. “Psychopaths don’t have feelings.”
He gave me a hard stare. “That word again. You used it once before, and I warned you about labeling people. Just because we view the world in a different way…”
I cut him off. “‘Different way’? You want to bring chaos to the world. You want to destroy everything that’s good.”
“Change is not such a bad thing. Think about how much this would mean to your people.” He gave me a knowing look. “You’re the one that put them in this sticky situation. If you hadn’t unleashed the demon or raised the dead, no one would be hunting the death dealers.”
That’s true, whispered a small voice in my head.
“Imagine the power you’ll gain if you free the Legion. You could lead your people into battle. Take back the world. Return the death dealers to their rightful place.” Everything about his voice and expression screamed sincerity and concern.
But Gage wasn’t capable of such emotions. To him this was all a game. “Their rightful place as your henchmen and followers, you mean?”
“Everyone needs a leader. I’m an enlighted man. I’ve told you before: I don’t mind if you are that leader. I’d happily take a place by your side.”
My energy was wavering. I was tired of playing games with Gage. He would never listen to reason. But I knew he wasn’t lying when he said he would fight on the winning side. He would help us as long as it served him, and it might just be long enough to work the spell and get the demon horn. I gave Gage one last look. He was still smiling at me. I forced myself to turn and walk out of the room.
Luke stood in the hallway waiting for me. “What did he say?” Luke asked.
I had told Luke about the spell Gage put on me, but I hadn’t found the courage to tell him about the wedding. I stood on unbalanced and trembling legs. I felt myself begin to fall again, but before I could Luke pulled me into his arms.
“He’ll help us.” My head rested against Luke’s shoulder. It felt so good to be back in Luke’s arms. With those arms around me I could almost push away the voice whispering to me to help Gage escape. Almost.
“You aren’t serious.” I heard the disbelief in Luke’s voice. “He said he wants to help us, and we’re supposed to believe that? That guy is more deranged than I thought.”
“Now, boy, don’t be too hasty.” Mildred was suddenly beside us. “Gage is a powerful mage who has worked many a dark magic spell. You know we need his help.”
Luke let go of me and looked at Mildred as though she’d lost her mind. “You can’t trust him.”
Mildred smiled. “No one said anything about trusting him.”
Wendy appeared in the arched stairwell, her hair mussed and her chest rising and falling heavily. “Where is he?” There was a spark of madness in her eyes.
Mildred’s face filled with alarm. “Where’s the baby?”
“One of the other girls is watching her,” Wendy answered. “Where is he? Where is my father?” she growled.
Her father? Back at the asylum Wendy had told me her father was a businessman who spent all his time traveling. I sighed. Jacob’s death has pushed her over the edge. “Your father isn’t here,” I answered, reaching out to her.
She flinched away from me. “He’s here. I can feel him.”
I turned and looked at Mildred, who raised a questioning eyebrow and shook her head.
“Wendy,” I said in the calmest voice I could muster, “you need to calm down.”
Before anyone could react, Wendy launched herself down the hallway. “Wendy!” We all raced after her, but she didn’t run very far—just a few hundred feet down the hallway.
She stopped in front of a heavy wooden door, flung it wide open, and threw herself inside. We all scrambled to follow.
The room wasn’t empty like I’d expected. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I recognized the old Redeemer, the one who’d taken Jacob’s life. Like Gage, he was tied to a chair.
Wendy turned in the doorway to face us, her face streaked with angry tears. “Meet my father,” she choked out. “My father, the leader of the Redeemers.”
Chapter 13
Wendy’s words echoed across the room. We all froze in shock. Wendy’s father was the leader of the Redeemers? Was it true or had she truly lost her mind? Before I could even begin to process the wild accusation Wendy had just shouted out, she flung herself at the man with hands raised as if to scratch his eyes out.
Luke, reacting quickly, got to her just before she reached him and held her tight in a bear hug.
Wendy struggled against Luke’s grip. “Let me go!”
The man in the chair spoke. “Daughter.”
At that one word, Wendy’s body went still.
“It’s been a long time,” the man said. His camouflage clothes were bloody and torn, but he still broadcasted an air of confidence. The glowing eyes of a fanatic marred his handsome face.
“Five years since I last saw you.” Her voice was but a whisper. “Five years since you came
to visit me in that hellhole you put me in.” Her eyes filled with anger. “You know they drugged me every day? You know they left me for days—no, weeks all alone? With no one to talk to and no human contact.”
“I was only trying to cure you,” he said.
“You always thought it was a curse,” she cried out. “But can’t you see? It’s not a curse. I was born this way. I was born like my mother. There are others out there like me.”
“Damned souls in need of redemption,” the Redeemer shouted.
Wendy looked at me. “I won’t hurt him. Tell him to let me go.” The madness was still there in her eyes, even though her voice was calm.
Luke’s arm pulled back and released her.
Wendy took a step toward her father. “Are you still planning to ‘save all the damned souls’?”
“Give them a chance at salvation, yes.” The man’s eyes shone with the same crazed intensity I’d seen in Gage’s.
“Like you gave my mother?” Wendy hissed.
The man gave Wendy a hard stare. “She could have given up her evil ways.”
Wendy’s body slumped, and her head bowed. “She wasn’t evil. She was mage-born.”
“Mage-born. All agents of the devil,” the man shouted.
Wendy raised her head. I expected to see anger, but instead there was a look of sadness in her eyes. “We’re not. We’re no different from you”.
“You have the seed of evil inside you.” The man’s voice became softer. “But if you let me help you, I can set you free.”
Her face filled with barely restrained emotion, and for a moment I wasn’t sure is she was going to scream or cry. Without another word, she fled the room.
I looked at the Redeemer, not sure what to think or say. I turned to the others. They had the same look of bafflement on their faces. I had known Wendy was keeping secrets from me, but I never imagined how big those secrets were. If this was true, then Wendy’s father was the head of an organization hell-bent on killing my kind and responsible for hundreds of deaths. I turned to study him.
He silently watched us with a cold expression in his eyes. It was obvious that he thought us damned aberrations. He saw us the same way I’d seen Wendy’s baby. I realized that I had to put away any preconceived ideas I had about the baby. Mildred said that half-breeds had darkness inside them, but did that make them evil? I had darkness inside me, yet I was trying to do what I could to right the mistakes I had made.
I gave Wendy’s father a hard stare. Had he come here to save his daughter? Or was the whole point of his expedition to kill more of our kind? Even if I asked him, could I believe his answer?
I went out into the hallway with the others on my heels.
“He wasn’t always like this.”
Wendy was talking to no one in particular. She was crouched down in a ball against the wall. “He didn’t know what my mom was when he married her. And when he found out, he didn’t mind…but then over the years, he changed. He hated that she could read this thoughts. He felt as though she was always spying on him. He thought her powers were evil and started preaching that to her.” She looked at me. “She was never mentally balanced to begin with, so he pushed her over the edge. He drove her insane, and after he had her committed, he turned all his hate on me.”
“Wendy…” I moved closer and crouched down beside her. I slowly reached out to take her hand.
She moved away. “How did he find us? How did he get here?”
“I have no idea,” I answered honestly. I knew Jacob told the Redeemers about Gage and his companions, but I had no idea how he found the castle. “They were on the ferry when we came across, posing as a bunch of tourists. And a few days ago, a group of them attacked us in the woods.” Remembering, I dug the protection pouch from my pocket and held it out to her. “They were carrying these.”
She reached out and took the pouch from my hands. “Protection pouches?”
“Yes, and during the fight they were wielding enchanted daggers and swords,” Luke said.
“One of those swords killed Jacob,” Wendy whispered.
I looked away, and when I looked back tears were streaming down her face.
She looked down at the ground, and a sob escaped her mouth. When she looked up again, there was such sadness in her eyes. “Mildred told me he’s dead. I want to see him.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I answered.
“Take me to him,” she begged.
“Child, it’s better if you remember him the way he used to be,” Mildred said.
“I have to see him,” Wendy cried out between sobs. “I have to say…good-bye.”
I remembered looking down at Luke’s crumpled body. It had been one of the worst moments of my life. Her sobs were getting louder. Maybe seeing Jacob would help her in some way and give her some kind of closure. I had watched Jacob die, I knew where his body lay. “I’ll take you to him.”
Wendy slowly rose to her feet.
Luke reached out and touched my arm. “You’re sure you want to do this?”
I moved closer to him and lowered my voice. “Maybe it will give her some comfort to say good-bye. Maybe it’ll give her closure.”
“You’re not going out there alone. I’m coming with you,” Luke said. “I’ll give you space, but I’ll be within hearing distance. If you see or hear anything, you shout out. Don’t take any chances.”
I nodded and went to Wendy’s side. I reached down and gently grabbed her arm. This time she didn’t flinch from my touch as I helped her to her feet.
She stood facing me, tears streaming down her face. I looked into her eyes, and I realized I had seen that look before—in the mirror staring back at me. The emotion displayed on her face was the same sadness I felt after losing my family and the heartache I felt when I thought I’d lost Luke.
It was cold outside, and the spirits of those slaughtered in the recent battle swirled restlessly all around—I felt them as soon as I stepped out the door into the night. Most of the windows in the castle were now dark, so there was no light to illuminate our path. I held a lantern in one hand and Wendy’s hand in the other as I slowly led her across the lawn.
Jacob’s body lay just ahead, out of sight. A few more steps forward and she would see him. I turned and looked at her. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I must see him,” she whispered.
We walked across the lawn until we came upon Jacob’s body. There was a long gash across his head, and a large patch of blood spread across the center of his shirt.
Wendy fell to her knees. Her fingers reached out and touched his cold skin. Her mouth opened, and she began to wail. It was a sound so full of heartache and loss… I knew it would fill my nightmares. She pulled his body closer until his head lay on her knee.
“My love, my heart,” she whispered, gently stroking his bloodied cheek.
I stood by patiently, shivering in the cold night air. My head swam, and my vision doubled. I felt a stabbing pain in my bicep and knew without looking that the venom had spread a few inches closer to my heart. My time was running out, but Wendy needed my help. She needed her friend to comfort her and help her come to terms with Jacob’s death.
After a long while, she looked up at me. “Do you feel him here? His spirit?”
There were spirits all around, whispers in my ear, fingers touching my hair. Many had died violently this night and because of those violent deaths their spirits lingered. I concentrated on the air around me.
“I don’t think so.” I looked back at her. “It’s hard to tell. There are so many spirits.”
She slowly lifted Jacob’s head from her lap and gently placed it back on the ground. When she looked at me again, her eyes blazed with anger. “Tell me how he died, Colina.”
“There was fighting. Jacob was in the middle of it.” My mind flashed back to the battle. I thought of the blade as it entered Jacob body. Of the look on Jacob’s face as he died. My mind pictured the face of the man who killed
him.
Wendy raised her hand to her head, her eyes suddenly unfocused. “My father did this?”
She had pulled that information straight from my head. “Wendy…”
She rose to her feet, her voice becoming hysterical. “My father killed Jacob.” She wavered, and her face lost all its color.
Before I could say or do anything, Wendy’s body crumpled to the ground.
I scrambled to her side. She was breathing but unconscious. “Luke!” I yelled. A few moments later he appeared out of the darkness.
Without a word he bent down, lifted Wendy effortlessly into his arms, and carried her back into the castle. We made our way up the long staircase and down the narrow halls until we reached the door to the room where I had first found her. Luke walked into the room and placed Wendy gently down on a bed.
“Mildred’s watching Lilybeth,” he said.
I gave him a questioning look.
“That’s the name Wendy gave her baby girl.”
I looked down at Wendy. “She looks so pale.”
“She’ll be all right. She’s in shock.”
I knew it was more than that. Her heart was broken. “No, Luke. You didn’t see her out there with him. She was overcome with grief.”
Luke walked over and took my hand. “Time heals all wounds.” He gave me a long look. “You should get some rest. You need to save your strength.”
“I’m all right,” I answered, though the tremble in my voice made it an obvious lie.
Luke reached out and pulled up my sleeve. His fingers glided across the black lines that had crawled up my bicep. His touch was painful, and my whole arm throbbed in time with my pulse, as if fire flowed through my veins. “Just because you say you’re all right doesn’t make it true.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I felt emotionally and physically drained. So many things had happened since we got to the island. So many awful things. Jacob lay dead. Wendy’s baby Lilybeth had the soul of a demon intertwined with hers. And soon we would have to do the unthinkable to save my life: summon another demon.
Without waiting for my answer, Luke took my hand and led me out of the room. We stood just outside, in view of Wendy’s still form.
Legion Page 27
