by Liz Schulte
“Yes, she is pretty and you already told me you didn’t want a brother. If you keep saying it, I’ll get a complex.”
She smiled a little. “Are you going to save her?”
“I will do everything in my power to save her.”
She looked me up and down. “I actually believe you. If you aren’t a serial killer who captures and kills women in his castle, you may be a halfway decent guy.”
“Thank you—I think. Now please go back to your room.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” She walked down the hallway with Landion, glancing back over her shoulder occasionally. She looked very young without makeup, wearing a pair of Selene’s pajamas that I’d sent over to her. She probably wasn’t more than eighteen or nineteen years old and she was already running a business and dealing with jinn. What kind of life did she have?
I went into the room and woke Frost. “I need your help.”
“I thought that was what I was doing.” She yawned.
“Do you know what an elverpige is?”
Her ice blue eyes met mine and she blinked. “Yes.”
“How do you stop one?”
“Kill the source.”
“Are there no other options?” If I didn’t have to kill my father, that would be preferable. I wasn’t sure that was something I could live with.
She took a deep breath. “An elverpige is a spirit brought back and fueled by anger. It’s possible that the spirit would retain its memories. You know how it is when you get really angry and you can’t think of anything else but all the reasons you’re so furious? Well, it’s possible that’s what’s happening to the spirit. If you could break through that anger, you might be able to break the spell. But it’s risky. It would be easier and more certain to kill the source.” She sat her book down. “Why do you want to know?”
“One is killing off my bloodline as we speak.”
Stress flashed across her stoic face, and she glanced at Selene. “Kill the source, Erlking. Don’t risk it.”
I glanced back at Selene. “Did something happen? Did you feel something? Is she back?”
Frost shook her head, even paler than she was before. “It’s nothing.”
I struggled with whether I should press her to find out what had spooked her or ask the other two questions I needed answered. “What reasons would an elf body not disappear?”
“Someone like me could be holding onto it. Other than that, none I can think of. A half-elf may leave a body. It’s dicey though.”
“My sister was killed a long time ago by a human man whom she loved, and her body didn’t disappear.”
Frost shook her head. “Are you sure she was dead?”
I gave her an impatient look. “He buried her and I later dug her up. She was still there, still dead.”
She shrugged. “I’m not really an expert on elves. There isn’t much to work with there.”
“So you wouldn’t know how long it would take her to decompose?”
She looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “No. Can’t say that I do.”
“Okay. Thanks anyway.” I started for the door.
“Cheney,” she said. “Kill the source. If you only ever listen to one thing I tell you, make it that.”
“Why?”
She looked at Selene then back to me. “Her life may depend on it.”
I blinked. “Selene isn’t a blood relation.”
“No,” she said softly. “But all the same. End this curse now.”
I opened my mouth to question her further, but the door opened and Sebastian popped his head in. “We have something.”
The longer we stood, the hotter it got.
“We have to keep moving,” Corbin said, nodding to my hand where a large blister was forming.
Stop and you burn. Got it. I trudged forward.
“Selene,” Cheney’s voice came from my right, so soft, so alluring. As if all of this were a dream he was trying to rouse me from. I closed my eyes and let myself believe it was true for a moment, that he was leaning over me, waiting to kiss me awake. However, nothing had changed when I opened my eyes again. I stared in the direction of his voice, even though I knew I shouldn’t. I didn’t see him though. He called again, “I need you, Selene. Please.” I veered off to find him, but someone caught my shirt.
“Don’t listen to it,” Corbin said.
“It’s Cheney. What if this isn’t real, Corbin? What if none of this is real and all I have to do is wake up?”
He shook his head. “You know it’s real. You planned the whole trip and talked me into coming with you. It isn’t Cheney.”
“I just want to see him.” I pulled harder against Corbin, a terrible thought entering my mind. What if Cheney had come here looking for me and that was why he needed me? “I need to see him.”
“Then make it back home,” he said, pinching me hard enough to leave a bruise.
“Ow.” I rubbed my bicep. “What the hell?” I punched him on the arm.
“You don’t hear it anymore, do you?”
“Asshole,” I said under my breath, but I didn’t mean it. Corbin was right. I needed to focus and fight. I was letting the location manipulate my emotions and cloud my thoughts. That’s what it wanted, and that was what it was counting on to defeat me.
“How could you?” Jaron’s low, rumbling voice came from my left.
I blew out my breath and ignored him.
“I loved you. You took everything from me,” he said. “But I still love you, Selene. I always have.”
I swallowed back my guilt. He wasn’t real.
“You were never supposed to fall in love with him. That’s wasn’t part of the plan.”
“Shut up,” I whispered. Could Corbin and Simon hear everything he was saying? It was like a knife twisting in my gut.
“We were supposed to be forever. How many times did you say you loved me? Was it all a lie?”
My steps slowed. Tears came to my eyes. “Of course not. I did love you, but you changed.”
Jaron materialized in front of me—tall and scruffy and still oh so tempting.
“I’ve missed you,” he said, bringing my steps to a halt with his gentle tone.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
He gave me a sad smile. “But you did. You hurt me long before you finished the job and killed me. I never loved or trusted anyone like I did you.”
I had done what I had to do. He’d been unstable. He’d lied to me. He’d wanted to kill Cheney. What choice did I have? What choice had he left me with? But none of the justifications that had offered me comfort before made me feel better now. With Jaron standing in front of me, no more than an arm’s length away, right and wrong seemed very foggy.
“You betrayed me long before I betrayed you,” I whispered.
“Are we keeping score now?” He raised an eyebrow. “You pursued me, not the other way around. We had an understanding. We were alike, no matter what you tell yourself now. You knew what you were getting into then. You left me for a full breed with more money and more power.”
I shook my head. “I never agreed to kill people. Especially not Cheney.”
“Change is hard.” His eyes flashed. “Sacrifices have to be made.”
“And what sacrifice did you make?” I ignored my sizzling arm.
“You. I let you go to him, though it shredded my very soul to watch you go. I trusted you and you betrayed me. You betrayed us. You turned every word of love you ever spoke to me into a lie.”
I shook my head. He was twisting what had happened. “You tried to kill me.”
“I never would’ve hurt you. I just needed you to come back to me. I needed you to choose me over him, but you didn’t. You killed me instead.”
“You wouldn’t have let Cheney live.”
“You never took the chance to see. I said I would leave with you and I meant it, but you wouldn’t go. You pushed me to what happened. We could have gone away together and been happy. Left it all behind. Like it or not, i
t was your choice. Your actions didn’t speak of desperation when you shoved the blade into my chest and twisted. You didn’t have the noble mission of saving the kingdom in mind. You wanted one thing and one thing only.” He leaned in close. “Revenge.”
The smell of burnt hair filled my nostrils. My choice. Everything was my choice. Someone nagged me and something tugged at my arm, but I shrugged both off, staring into Jaron’s eyes. I reached for his face but stopped my hand before I touched him. “It wasn’t about revenge. I was righting the wrongs we caused. The Erlking was the problem, not Cheney. He has a good heart and wants to make things better for everyone. You didn’t want that, no matter what you say. You would have treated the full elves as they had treated us. I love Cheney for everything he is, was, and will be.”
My legs felt rooted to the ground, but I forced one foot in front of the other in tiny shuffling steps. Little by little, my true surroundings began to register again, but Jaron stayed with me as well. Corbin and Simon were on either side of me, helping and coaxing me along. With awareness, though, also came pain. My skin was tight, like it was scalding from the inside out. I drew in a deep breath, pressing my hands against my thighs, but I kept moving, knowing if I didn’t, the agony would only get worse.
“Just stop, Selene. You don’t deserve Cheney. You know that. I know that. Stay with me,” Jaron leaned forward and whispered in my ear. “We deserve each other.”
“Leave me alone.” I kept moving.
“We’re trying to help you, pet.”
“Not you. Him,” I said between breaths.
“Is he hurting you?” Corbin glared at Simon.
Simon let go and held up his burnt hands defensively. “I wasn’t doing anything.”
I tightened a hand on Corbin’s arm. “Jaron, not him.”
“Who’s Jaron?”
“You can’t see him?”
“Selene, Selene. Is one man ever enough for you?” Jaron taunted me, glancing at Corbin.
Corbin tilted my chin up. “Can you see him?”
“Yes.”
“He’s not real,” Corbin said firmly. “Let him go.”
“You know I’m right. You can’t stand to be alone. Even for a few hours, you’re already looking to replace poor Cheney with a vampire.” He made a noise. “Surely you can do better than that.”
“I’m not replacing anyone. I’m going to get back to Cheney.”
“Yes, you are. Now stop talking to it. You’re just feeding it energy. It isn’t whoever you think it is, Selene.” Corbin pinched me, but I hardly noticed it with the constant pain I was in from the burns. “Your insecurities are being used against you. Don’t help it.”
“You aren’t going to make it back. You don’t deserve to go back. Simon and Corbin would make it through so much easier without your baggage, Selene. Stay with me. You owe me,” Jaron said. “You put me here. I need you so I can move on.”
My feet stopped. “You did this, Jaron. Not me. I loved you long ago. I would’ve stayed with you, but your need for revenge did this. You perverted what we’d shared. This punishment is yours to bear alone.”
I walked up to him, fists clenched at my sides. He smirked at me, waiting for my attack. I swallowed back the anger and the guilt. In my heart I knew what had happened. “Cheney isn’t his father. You would have liked him. Think of what you could have accomplished together…as a family.”
Jaron shifted. “You—”
“Shhh. Just listen. You let your anger and hate ruin both chances you had for a family. Let it go, Jaron. Move on.”
“Both?”
“With me or with your brother. But I forgive you. We are all blind to something and you were blind to love.”
Jaron smiled slightly and leaned down to me. “Beat this place, Selene. Beat it for all of us.” He kissed my cheek and faded into nothing.
“Damn it, you have to keep walking.” Corbin shoved me forward, making me stumble, then helped steady me.
I didn’t ask how bad I looked because I no longer cared. For the first time in too long, guilt wasn’t weighing me down. I coughed like I’d been a smoker for thirty years. Wisps of smoke rose from my arms, but I was alive. Better than that. I was winning. “He’s gone.”
“Good. Don’t fucking stop moving again.”
The land grew darker as we went. I could still see, but barely. “Where’d Simon go?”
Corbin glanced around. “I have no idea.” His muscles tightened as he picked up our pace, taking my hand. “No matter what happens, don’t let go.”
It probably wouldn’t work, but I held on tighter to him.
“There are people out there,” Corbin said.
I looked again but couldn’t see anyone. “Where?”
“Everywhere.” He squeezed my arm so hard I was worried the skin would peel off and the bone would snap underneath.
I cast a small darkness spell to illuminate my hand and held it out in front of us. There was nothing but burnt remains surrounding us. Corbin’s eyes darted back and forth, and he pulled me harder to his side, squeezing me tightly and moving faster. I understood finally. He was going through his own personal challenge, but at least we were still moving, so I didn’t say anything. Twenty feet ahead, Corbin stopped dead. “You can’t be here,” he said. “This isn’t where I left you.”
His forehead scrunched. “You aren’t real. None of you are real.”
He loosened his grip on me. “She doesn’t know anything.”
It was too hot to stand still. I slipped my hand out of his and circled around him, hoping to catch his attention. I could try to wake him up, but he had to work through whatever was holding him or they’d never leave. His pale face turned red with ugly, oozing blisters until he was hardly recognizable. Movement to Corbin’s right caught my eye. A shadowy gray figure was headed our way with jerky movements. I scanned the rest of the area. At least five more similar creatures were moving toward us. Not good.
“Corbin.” I tapped his cheek with my open palm. “Corbin, we have to move.”
He brushed me away. “I said I’d do what I have to do… No, now is not the time.”
“Sorry about this.” I swung my arm forward and caught him under the chin with a right hook. Pain shot through my arm, but he barely flinched.
“We need her,” he said.
Crap. He was too far gone. Part of me wondered who he was talking to and what it was about, but I’d have to think about that later. At the moment I had creepy gray guys to take care of. I tried spell after spell, but they kept closing in. Scanning my mind, I grasped for anything they could be, hoping to find a weakness. Nothing. I could fight, but they’d easily over power me with sheer numbers. Corbin needed to start moving.
Before I could move in front of him to try to get his attention again, a scorching hand grabbed me from behind. I kicked and swung my arm at it. The gray creature disintegrated into ash but left a perfect burned handprint on my shoulder. I swallowed and glanced around. If one of those monsters wrapped its arms around me, how long would it take for me to burn to death? I had one more idea. Then I had to move on—with or without Corbin.
If I couldn’t hurt him enough to wake him, maybe I could create a hunger that would. I pressed my lips to his, not so much a kiss as an invitation to take what he wanted, what all vampires always wanted—a piece of the life they’d lost. He could absorb me as he had the souls earlier, but I had to believe he would stop himself. It took only a second for a reaction. A startled inhale, then a pull like nothing I had ever felt. It was like part of me was going into him. For what he took from me, he also gave. I didn’t know vampires could do that. His essence swirled within me and then spread. I began to fade.
He lurched back. “What did you do?” His voice was strained and rough.
I pressed my hands to my knees, dizzy.
“We have to go. Are you all right?” he asked, standing over me with worried eyes. His hand hesitated over my back before he jerked it away. “I shouldn’t touch you.
Can you walk?”
I nodded, forcing myself to straighten. It felt like he’d taken chunk of me when he pulled away. I wanted to touch him to feel whole again. I followed behind him as he fought through the gray figures as they attacked. I was worse than useless, my arms limply hanging by my sides, too heavy to lift.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Corbin said as we finally outpaced the gray creatures.
“You weren’t moving. We had to go.”
He shook his head. “It’s not the same down here as it is up there.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. I needed to slow down. I reached for him, but he dodged my hand. He glared at me with a furious expression. “You cannot touch me.”
“Fine. Slow down though. I feel lightheaded.”
He pursed his lips and moved a little closer, gazing down like he was assessing damage. “When vampires feed in the Abyss, they take someone’s life force.”
I nodded.
“In the Underworld, the people are already dead. It’s pure soul we are feeding on. Think of the best drug in the world. One that’s euphoric and makes you feel like a god.” Hunger pinched his face. “That’s what it’s like. Now that I’ve tasted you, I won’t be able to stop myself from taking more—and I have already taken too much.”
I bit my lip, considering his words. “Do you always give part of yourself when you feed?”
He started to speak but stopped, eyebrows laced together. “I gave you part of myself?”
“I felt it. I still feel it.”
He backed away. “That’s not possible. What exactly did you feel?”
I explained, and though I wouldn’t have thought it possible, he looked even more alarmed. His paced slowed so much we were barely moving, and the heat became unbearable once more.
“I couldn’t have,” he said to himself. “Not again.”
I had no idea what to say to make this better.
“Stop walking,” he said.
I stopped with a sigh. Instantly it was excruciatingly hot, but he gave me a warning look before I could move as he paced around me. A new blister popped up on my neck, and his hand darted to his own neck. “Damn it.”
