Knight of Darkness

by Kinley MacGregor

  Merewyn sat on the edge of the bed so that she could rub Varian’s back. His skin was so hot that it literally radiated out from beneath the blanket. They had to get his fever down before it caused him damage. But how?

  There was no ice in the cottage. Nor anything else that could help.

  Getting up, she went to the kitchen for a bowl of tepid water and a cloth. She could hear Blaise in his room, trying to call out for his father and Nimue. They didn’t appear to answer him.

  As she filled the bowl, Beau flew over to her and perched on the countertop before he tucked his wings in around him. He was only three and a half feet tall, but when he perched as he was doing now, he was much smaller. “Can I help, my lady?”

  She gave Beau a tender smile. “No, sweeting. We need to free Varian’s magick.”

  “I wish I could bite through the bracelet for you, my lady. Poxes to his mother for hurting him.”

  Merewyn couldn’t agree more. She turned the water off.

  “Should I try knocking through the field again?”

  Her heart warmed at his generosity. Ever since he’d gained his wings, Beau had been doing his best to batter his way through the force field. “Thank you, but no. I don’t want you to chip something off, especially nothing vital.”

  He nodded glumly. “If you need me, call, my lady.”

  Thanking him for his kindness, she took the bowl and cloth back to Varian and set it beside the bed before she pulled the blanket back to discover he was completely nude. Heat flooded her cheeks at the sight of him. Every muscle in his body seemed to be rippling, and she couldn’t help but remember the way he’d felt in her arms. How those muscles had felt underneath her hands.

  How his body had felt deep inside hers…

  But this was no time to think such things. He was ill, and she needed to tend him before that fever caused damage to his brain. She wrung out the cloth and started bathing him while he shivered forcefully.

  He tried to push her away. “I need the blanket.”

  “No, Varian. We have to cool your body down.”

  “I’m freezing.”

  His words wrung her heart. “I know.” She pushed him back and felt awful as his teeth started chattering. Her gaze fell to the bracelet, and a wave of rage tore through her. Damn his mother for her cruelty.

  Varian hissed and growled every time she touched him. Even though the water and cloth were tepid, the instant she placed the cloth to his body, it heated to such an extent it actually steamed. Afraid for him, she tried to pour a bit of water over his chest. It literally boiled and evaporated.

  After that, she no longer bothered to wring out the cloth. And still Varian fought against her as he tried to cover himself with the blanket for warmth.

  As she trailed the cloth over his chest, his tremors worsened into all-out convulsions. An instant later, the bed lifted two inches from the floor.

  Terrified, she pulled back as things in the room started to bang and shift. The bed rattled against the floor. The shutters banged loudly before they were flung open and wrung from their hinges. Her bowl was lifted from the floor and shattered against the wall. The glass windows exploded as she was lifted from the bed. A second later, she was thrown to the floor.

  Merewyn covered her head as things flew around her. She tried to call for Beau or Blaise, but they didn’t answer. And just as she thought it could get no worse, Varian began to bleed profusely from his mouth and nose. The more things shattered and flew, the more he bled.

  She tried to reach him, but some unseen force pinned her to the floor. “Varian!”

  He didn’t appear to hear her, any more than Blaise or Beau. A loud, unearthly howl began as a whirlwind swirled through the room. She clutched at the floor as it tried to lift her. Her hair whipped painfully against her skin.

  Disembodied laughter filled the room.

  Merewyn closed her eyes and tried to cast her thoughts to Varian or Blaise.

  She wasn’t sure how long the chaos lasted before everything came to a sudden stop. It was as if nothing had ever happened. The windows returned to normal. The bed settled down, and the heaviness that was pressing against her vanished.

  The only testament to the ferocity of the attack was the broken pottery.

  Scared it would resume, she crawled back to the bed to find Varian unconscious now, his breathing labored. His skin was terrifyingly pale while he continued to bleed from his nose and mouth. “Blaise!” Merewyn shouted, as she retrieved the cloth to help staunch the blood.

  The mandrake opened the door and frowned as he saw her and Varian covered in blood. He crossed the room in two steps “What’s happened?”

  “I-I don’t know. He convulsed, and the room exploded. Now he’s unconscious.”

  Blaise tried to wake him, but it was no use. He pulled back Varian’s eyelids to see that his eyes were now as red as the blood flowing from his nose. Cursing, Blaise held his hand to Varian’s neck to check for a pulse. “He’s not simply unconscious. He’s in a coma.”

  This couldn’t be happening to him…“What do we do?”

  Blaise’s eyes were filled with sympathy. “I don’t know. I can’t get the powers that be to answer.”

  “What?” she asked incredulously.

  “Merlin and Nimue are ignoring me.”

  She looked down at Varian as her heart shattered, and grief overwhelmed her. Was he going to die?

  But what set the fire inside her was the fact that no one seemed to care. Not even his aunt. His own flesh and blood…After all he’d done to protect the Lords of Avalon and all he’d suffered, this was to be his fate?

  And as those thoughts went through her, her rage built.

  This was wrong. So wrong. How dare they turn their backs on him when he needed them.

  “Merlin!” she shouted. “Answer me now!”

  To her surprise, he did. His voice echoed through the room. “I know what you want, and there’s nothing we can do. One sorcerer can’t undo the spell of another.”

  Merewyn made a sound of absolute disgust. “He’s to die then?”

  “His life is in the hands of Damé Fortune.”

  She seethed at the mention of the ancient entity who controlled the fate of them all. Tall and handsome, he was a capricious evil beast who only seemed to find joy by tormenting others. The handful of times she’d seen him in Camelot, he’d been indifferent to the pleas of those who begged him for mercy.

  He’d been indifferent to her own pleas. However, she was willing to plead with him again for a chance to help Varian. Anything was better than seeing him suffer like this.

  “Then can I summon him?”

  Merlin laughed. “You can try, but I assure you he won’t come here. He never has and never will. There’s nothing for him in this realm.”

  Frustrated, she wanted to choke them all for this. How could they be so cold?

  She looked up at Blaise. “Varian said a sorcerer could mitigate the magick of another. Is there some way to mitigate this?”

  His expression was sad and troubled. “If there is, I don’t know it. Since it’s a power restriction spell, mitigating it could kill him.”

  His words made her ill. “So the only person who can remove this is his mother or Damé Fortune?”

  “Yes.”

  Merewyn wanted to curse at the irony and injustice of that. Her fury roiling, she brushed her hand through Varian’s damp hair. The heat from his fever radiated to such a state, she wasn’t even sure how it hadn’t killed him already.

  And as her gaze fell to the scar of his father’s symbol that had been burned into his shoulder, her resolve shattered.

  She couldn’t let him die or suffer. No matter what she had to promise or who she had to barter with, she was going to get him out of this.

  Chapter 17

  Blaise stayed with Varian while Merewyn excused herself to attend to her needs. Honestly, he felt every bit as ill about this as Merewyn did.

  Poor bastard. First Varian had be
en caught between Narishka and Lancelot, then Morgen and Aquila Penmerlin, and now this.

  Even though Varian was unconscious, Blaise knew he was in pain. Blaise had only had his powers constricted once, as a boy. Emrys Penmerlin had done it to show him why it was so important to make sure that no one put a binding spell on him.

  It was a lesson he’d never forgotten.

  Blaise’s powers were nominal compared to Varian’s, which meant Blaise’s experience had been very mild comparatively speaking. When someone as powerful as Varian was bound, it had to be excruciating. The more power that was withheld, the more pain. And with someone like Varian, it could very easily leave him permanently damaged.

  That bit of information Blaise had kept from Merewyn since there was nothing they could do. He figured Varian only had another day or two like this. After that, Varian would most likely never recover. He’d be in a vegetive state forever. Maybe that had been Narishka’s intent from the beginning. She’d probably assumed Varian would strike any bargain with her to keep from degenerating into a zombie.

  It only showed how little she knew of her own son.

  But the worst part was that, as a comatose zombie, his magick could be funneled and used by someone else. It wouldn’t be as strong as if he were directing it himself. Still, someone like his mother could use it to enhance her own powers. From where Narishka had stood either option had probably been a win for her. Either she got her son on her side or she got a portion of his magick to use for her purposes.

  And Blaise had foolishly thought his own mother was callous. Her worst crime had been abandoning him because of his albinism. She’d never actively tried to kill him. Much.

  Blaise let out a tired breath. “I know you can hear me, V. I’m sorry we didn’t break the spell in time.” The two of them had talked only yesterday about what would happen in the event of Varian’s magick revolting. Varian must have known this was coming. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep my word. No harm will come to Merewyn. I’ll protect her for you.”

  As expected, there was no response.

  Sitting there, he could feel Varian fighting this. He could sense it rippling against his own powers.

  He also knew it was hopeless. Not even Varian was that strong. How he wished he’d taken time to get to know the man better before now. Like so many others, he’d allowed Varian to push him away and hadn’t given much thought to the sorcerer who preferred solitude to company.

  What Blaise had found over the last few days was a friend he’d learned to value. Varian duFey might have been hellspawned, but he’d grown into something else. And the man didn’t deserve this kind of bullshit.

  Blaise felt someone behind him. Turning his head, he saw Beau hovering in the doorway.

  “Beau brought water for the master.”

  Blaise smiled at the small gargoyle as he moved forward with the bowl. Much of it sloshed out from his jarring gait, but nonetheless, it was a touching sight. “Thanks, Beau. I’m sure Varian appreciates it.”

  The gargoyle set the bowl down by the bed. He cast a grieving look at Varian before he turned back to Blaise. “My lady cries, and it makes Beau sad, too. Can the master not tell her not to cry?”

  How he wished it were the easy. “No, Beau, he can’t. He’s sick.”

  That seemed to make him feel better. “Then Beau will make him well.”

  “I’m afraid you can’t.”

  But he wasn’t to be deterred. “Yes Beau can. Gargoyle spit is curative.”

  “Yes, but not for this. If Varian could be cured by something like gargoyle spit, I could have cured him with my powers.”

  “Oh.” Even though he was made of stone, Beau seemed to deflate as a dark sadness settled over him. “My lady loves the master. Every night, she whispers her prayers when she goes to bed, and she always prays for him. She says he needs someone to watch over and care for him. Tell him he must get up. Otherwise, my lady will always cry.”

  “I wish I could, Beau, but it’s not that easy.”

  “Why is it not easy? Beau doesn’t understand.”

  “It just isn’t. It’s like you trying to fly before you had wings.”

  Shaking his head, Beau dipped a cloth into the water, but his hands were so large that he couldn’t pick it back up. Blaise stepped forward to get it. He wrung the cloth out, then placed it to Varian’s brow.

  That seemed to please the gargoyle. “The master will be better now. The water will repair him, and he will get up so that my lady won’t cry anymore.”

  How Blaise wished he had the gargoyle’s naivete. But he knew better. Varian would most likely die in the coming days, and there was nothing more to be done for him.

  Merewyn knelt on the floor of her room with her emotions churning. It was done. Varian would probably hate her from now on, but at least she’d saved his life.

  At what cost?

  “It doesn’t matter,” she whispered. Because she knew the truth.

  She loved him. From the moment he’d picked her up and run with her when anyone else would have left her to her own means, she’d been his.

  She only hoped that one day he could forgive her for the bargain she’d just made. Rising to her feet, she left her room solemnly and headed for where he lay unconscious while Beau and Blaise watched over him.

  “Lady,” Beau whispered as she entered the room behind them. He indicated the cloth on Varian’s brow. “Beau made the master better for you.”

  Tears welled in her eyes at the gargoyle’s kindness. “Thank you, Beau.”

  She didn’t look at Blaise as she headed for Varian’s cot. She didn’t dare for fear that she would regret her actions and try to change them.

  But this…this was for the best of all involved.

  Without a word to Blaise, she reached for Varian’s wrist.

  “What are you doing?”

  Merewyn couldn’t answer. Instead, she pulled at the bracelet as hard as she could. “Lyra daludité,” she whispered, repeating the fey words over and over. Freedom is only an illusion…

  She felt heat suffuse her body. It radiated through her like lava as it surged toward her hands. And just as she was certain her hands would explode from it, the bracelet shattered. Sparks flew into the air, and something forceful knocked her back.

  Beau ran to her as Blaise cursed. Merewyn sat up, watching Varian as his eyes slowly fluttered open.

  Joy rushed through her. She’d done it.

  Varian couldn’t move for several heartbeats as his head swam. He was completely aware of everything, but more than that, he could feel his powers again. They surged through him, radiating every molecule. It felt like lightning skipping through his body.

  He felt for the bracelet only to find it gone. How?

  Varian glanced at Blaise to see him staring at Merewyn in disbelief. He followed the line of Blaise’s vision to find Merewyn on the floor with a small smile hovering at the corner of her mouth.

  “What happened?” Varian asked.

  Blaise shook his head. “Hell if I know.”

  He waited for Merewyn to respond.

  She didn’t. Instead, she opened her mouth as if she would, but no sound came out. She patted at her throat, then mouthed the words, “I can’t speak.”

  Varian frowned at her as he pushed himself up from the cot. “What?”

  He didn’t miss the look of “oh shit” on Blaise’s face.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” he asked the mandrake.

  “Not a clue. But I have a feeling the two of you need to talk.” And before Varian could blink, Blaise was out of the room with Beau right behind him.

  A sense of dread went through him as he saw the fear that tainted the joy in Merewyn’s gaze. Ignoring the fact he was naked, he left the cot to kneel on the floor beside her.

  “What did you do?”

  Tears welled in her eyes as she reached one gentle hand up to touch his lips. She fingered them before her gaze dropped to the scar beside his ear. She trailed her fingers
to it and ran them up until her hand was buried in his hair.

  “Merewyn?”

  She answered him with a tender kiss.

  Varian groaned at the taste of her and at the unexpected heat that flooded his body. Every part of him wanted her, but he didn’t dare until he understood what was going on here.

  Reluctantly, he pulled back. He tried to use his powers to read her thoughts, but something had him blocked. She wouldn’t have that ability…

  A tremor of betrayal went through him. There was only one person she could have bargained with.

  His mother.

  “What did you promise her?”

  She shook her head in response to his question.

  “Merewyn!”

  Merewyn wanted to tell him what she’d done, but if she did, the spell would return with one more stipulation. This time it wouldn’t just restrict his powers…

  It would kill him.

  Terrified of that, she bent her head down and tucked it under his chin as she kept her hand buried in his hair. She only wanted to feel his strength. His comfort. She needed it more than she needed to breathe.

  Closing her eyes, she listened to his heart beating. Never had she heard a better sound. His body was back to a normal temperature.

  Varian closed his arms around her as he felt her trembling. What had she done? He wanted to be angry, but how could he? Whatever bargain she’d made, she made for his life and powers. Only an absolute cad would condemn her for such a thing.

  “It’ll be all right, Merewyn,” he whispered against her hair as he tightened his arms around her.

  She pulled back to look up at him and he offered her a gentle smile. “Are you angry?” she mouthed.

  He cupped her face in his hands and hoped that the sincerity he felt showed. “No.”

  Merewyn wanted to shout in relief. She’d been terrified that he would hate her for her actions. As it was, she only wanted to be closer to him. She pulled his lips to hers so that she could taste the warmth of his mouth. She ran her hands over the bare skin of his back, delighting in the feel of him.

  Growling, he pulled her closer to him as he nibbled and teased her lips. Merewyn gave a silent laugh at his eagerness. But the truth was, she wanted him as badly as he wanted her.