Bonds Broken & Silent

by Kris Austen Radcliffe

  Chapter Fifteen

  Stilettoes. Navy blue fishnets. Graceful legs and a leather skirt. The knee next to Daisy’s head bent and the tip of the expensive shoe at the end of its leg rammed into Daisy’s lower back.

  She rolled with the momentum of the kick, but the pain turned the yellow sun blindingly white. Her innards sloshed against her spine. More kicks would be what killed her, if the drug in her system didn’t first.

  The blonde Fate who’d attacked Daisy and her mom in their apartment yanked on Daisy’s ponytail. “On your knees.”

  Aiden rounded the front of the camper, his hands shoved in his pockets. He stared at Daisy, his head cocked just a little bit, the way he’d cocked it so often since they met. “My beloved, my mate, mine. I do love you. I love you in a broken way. A twisted, pathetic, dependent way. So I need to rid myself of you. Because you are too weak to help me.”

  He squatted and cupped her chin, making her look at him. “Remember broken. Remember weak and dependent. Too weak to stand against my triad. It’s going to be important.”

  Speaking would have made him angrier, and probably more violent, so Daisy stayed silent. She didn’t think about escaping, either. The Fate yanking on her hair was a present-seer. Panicking and yelling would get her nowhere.

  Aiden stood. “Ethne, is everything set?”

  The blonde woman pushed Daisy down. “Fina is in place.”

  Aiden stroked Daisy’s cheek. “You are quite lovely, for a Shifter.”

  Ethne snorted.

  “And quite easy to manipulate.” Gently, he grasped the cord and drew it up and over her head. “I think I will keep this for my troubles. Ethne says it’s disruptive.”

  “I told you,” Ethne dug her fingernails into Daisy’s scalp, “I think a Fate’s using it. I think it’s the focus of someone’s stitching effort.”

  The doctor and the angel Fate said something about “stitching.” About how Fates could mess with the what-is so past-seers in the future looking at it as what-was can’t see.

  But…

  She slapped away the thoughts. The less she thought about it, the less Aiden and Ethne would pick up.

  Aiden crinkled his nose when he held it up. “Then why was she so easy to read?”

  Ethne shrugged. “Looks like you being close to her overrides its protective influence.” Her face constricted into a horrified and disgusted look of pure hatred.

  Aiden looped the cord over his head but forced his finger into the ring. Holding it out in front of him, he squinted at the crest. “Hmmm. Whatever.”

  Ethne jabbed a finger in his direction. “Leave it here. It’s fucking cursed.”

  Leave it, take it, priceless or not, her father’s or not, it didn’t matter. They could take her money. They could take every fucking shard of their Progenitor’s fucking talisman as long as they left her alone and alive.

  Still staring at Daisy, Aiden curled his lip and tucked the ring under his shirt. “As compensation, my beloved, I shall give you this.” His fingers danced over the chain he used to carry his talisman, and he pulled it up and off.

  He held still for a long moment squatting in the dust, the gold band on his palm, his eyes spacey and his mouth slack. But a tremor vibrated through his body and he shook off the vacant look. “For you. Because I love you.”

  Aiden hung the chain with the wedding band around her neck.

  Daisy almost screamed and snarled and flailed at the two Fates. But if they were going to kill her, she wasn’t going to give them the extra satisfaction of watching her whimper.

  “I told you the truth, Daisy.” Aiden ran his finger down her chest and between her breasts. “Using my seer does pain me.” He sniffed. “But I’ve learned to control my disability. I’m no longer a panicky thing.”

  His eyes hardened when he said “panicky thing” like she was supposed to remember that, too.

  “You are my proof. My return to this world.” Aiden grinned like a skull. “My raison d’etre.” Aiden grinned like Death himself. “Thank you.”

  His kiss clamped onto her mouth. Aiden tried to suck out her soul but she pushed him off.

  Gagging, Daisy spit in his face. “Fuck you.”

  Ethne kicked her in the back again, in just the right spot to make the world flare. The too- bright overtook her senses and she saw burning, heard buzzing, felt searing. A terrifying, wicked agony shot up her spine and down into her legs all the way to her toes.

  Dying out here became a real, physical possibility.

  Aiden stood up. “This might be the end for you, Daisy. It might not.” He jabbed his hands into his pockets. “The probabilities of your survival or death appear to be even.”

  “Unless I shoot her in the head.” Ethne snorted again.

  Aiden’s face twitched and he waved a hand at the other Fate. “And where’s the fun in that? Easy equals boring, sister.”

  Ethne yanked on Daisy’s head, forcing her to look up. A red, angry scar ran across the Fate’s left cheek. Another across her hand. The Burner explosion in San Diego had damaged her.

  “We will find your bitch of a mother. We will have the fragment. Do you understand?” Ethne yanked again.

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” Ethne nodded toward her brother. “No one pulls shit like you did, you little bitch, and gets away with it. No one burns us.”

  “No one, Daisy.” Aiden ran his finger over her cheek again. “We do the burning, isn’t that right, sister?”

  Ethne laughed. Her clothes rustled.

  A long, shiny blade appeared in her other hand.

  The panic in Daisy’s gut solidified into ice. They were going to bleed her to death.

  Aiden took the knife and rolled it in his fist, watching it gleam in the Texas sun. Blinking as if he couldn’t decide what to do with it, he suddenly squatted again. The point of the knife dug into the dust.

  Aiden hung his head to the side, and he drew an arc. “When that healer comes out of hiding, we will kill him.”

  He drew another arc in the dust, finishing his circle. “When your mother comes out of hiding, we will kill her.” Little snapping sounds rose off the pebbles as he dragged the knife over the hard dirt.

  “When the Fate who helped you shows his or her face, we will kill whoever thought themselves special enough to interfere.” His other hand bounced against his chest, over her ring.

  “When you feel your failed love for me has festered to the point you have to lance it like a boil, I will know. I will kill your confidant.”

  Daisy’s heart beat too fast, too strong. It’d pop right through her breast bone if the Fate holding her head twisted harder, or hit again. Or cut.

  Aiden grinned as if daring her to talk. To ask for help when she got away from him. Because she would. She had to, no matter what he threatened.

  Down the center of his circle in the dust, Aiden drew more curves. “I know you thought I might be your true love. I know you entertained that thought for a few moments, before the poison caused your body trouble.”

  When he flicked away a rock, it bounced across the dirt and hit Daisy’s knee. “So I did research. Some looking forward.” He tapped his temple. “I know who he will be, Daisy. Your ‘true love.’” He air-quoted the last two words with the hand not holding the knife.

  A new wooziness rolled over Daisy. Not the same poison-caused stomach pitching. This wooziness started where Ethne kicked and crawled up her spine and into the base of Daisy’s throat.

  Aiden poked at his drawing. “Daisy,” he said, his voice changing tone and accent, pitch and pace. “I can’t help with the fighting. With the war.” Aiden swept a hand through the air. “But I can help you with this. Please. Let me help.”

  Aiden was playacting something that would happen. Something from the future. Something her true love would say.

  “We know who he is. We know where he lives. And Fina marks him.”

  Ethne laughed. “It’s done.”

  “What did you do?” They att
acked some guy she didn’t know. Wouldn’t know for God knows how long. Some innocent guy who probably had no knowledge at all of Fates and Shifters and Burners.

  Aiden dragged the knife through the dirt next to her boot, tracing the curve of her toes. “You speak of this, I will kill him.” He slammed the knife into the ground, barely missing the leather of her shoe. “You tell your people anything that helps track us and I will kill him.”

  Daisy gasped. She tried to fling her body backward, but Ethne held her in place.

  Aiden twisted the knife. “You give them a good description of me, I will kill him. I will do it in such a violent way that no matter where you are on this Earth you will know what I have done, do you understand?”

  Daisy nodded. It was all she could do.

  “Look.” Aiden pointed at his drawing. “Remember it.”

  Inside the circle were two entwined dragons, both with ridged backs. Both with six talons on their hands and feet.

  The dragons.

  “I have fought through the ice-fire in my head.” Aiden tapped his temple with the flat side of the knife. “You are the proof. But I came through changed, as did my sisters.”

  “Yes,” Ethne intoned.

  “We see the truth of the future.” Aiden stood up. Quickly, he took several steps back. “They’re coming.”

  Ethne looked over her shoulder at the dirt road. “Yes.”

  Aiden lunged forward, his foot coming down on his drawing, and he lifted Daisy by the collar. “Get me the water bottle from the camper cup holder, Ethne.”

  Daisy smelled Aiden’s metallic blood-stink of anger and his sour, low notes of disdain. He pressed the knife into her neck.

  Ethne reappeared. “Here.”

  He flipped the knife and presented the hilt to his sister. “Trade.”

  Fast like a Burner, he flipped Daisy around. And fast like a Burner, his fingers wormed between her lips and between her teeth and cheek. His hand tasted like dirt and sand and shit and Daisy gagged, unable to stop herself.

  Aiden held open her mouth. “Drink it, beloved. Drink the whole damned bottle.”

  The water splashed onto her face. It ran up into her nose and sloshed against her eyes. It flowed down her throat and she tried to breathe and not swallow. But some of it got through anyway.

  When Ethne handed Aiden another bottle, the water, hot and plastic-tinged, tasted even more of the bitter mud. Like the Fates had spiked it with twice as much poison.

  More flowed into her eyes and her nose. She blinked. She wheezed. And more made it down her throat when she coughed. A lot more.

  Aiden threw her down. Ethne kicked her in the gut.

  Maybe she’d puke. Maybe it would come up. But the wooziness made her forget she needed to vomit.

  “I’d crawl into the shack, if I were you.” Ethne kicked her again. “Probably the safest place to be while you wait for your rescuers.”

  Aiden laughed.

  Daisy’s arms gave out and her knees buckled. She collapsed into poisoned mud under her body, her chest heaving.

  The knife flickered. A blade of hot sun pierced her vision and Daisy closed her eyes, hoping for darkness. But darkness didn’t come. The inside of her eyelids burned white hot and yellow.

  And she couldn’t get up.

  The Fates laughed and dragged their feet across the dirt, Aiden’s boots thumping and Ethne’s heels clicking. Aiden said something about finding her satchel and taking the last of her cash. Ethne droned about knives and guns and how they needed to leave or they’d see the trail and follow.

  The camper’s door hung open and the Texas heat wafted as little waves of distortion in the air. The buzz of insects rode the waves into Daisy’s brain, but ripples disturbed the loudness, and the lulls.

  The door pinged. Ping ping. Ping.

  Aiden said it all meant something. All of it. Abilene meant something. The pinging meant something. She couldn’t die because it meant something.

  Ping.

  On the other side of the shack, an engine purred to life.

  Daisy opened her eyes. Aiden stood between her and the camper, his jeans dirty and wet from forcing the poison into her throat. His knit cap slid down the back of his head.

  He walked toward her head, his boots flicking up puffs of dust. Daisy’s nose tried to twitch. She tried to sneeze, but she couldn’t.

  Nothing came out.

  His mouth hovered a fraction of an inch above hers, his breath as bitter as the poison. “Les Enfants du Monde Brûlant,” he whispered. “We are the Children of the Burning World.”

  And Daisy burned too.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Get up, Daisy.

  Dawnstar talked to her. Her dog spoke. Where the hell was her dog?

  Get up, pup! I cannot care for you if you bleed to death.

  “What?” Daisy tried to talk but her vocal cords didn’t want to work so her words came out as whispers.

  Your human mom told me that I am your mother now. You are an obstinate puppy.

  “No, I am not, you stupid dog.” She needed to open her eyes because she had to be dreaming. Dogs don’t talk.

  I can’t smell you from where I am on the road. Get up!

  The road. How far was she from the road? They’d driven about ten minutes on the dirt, so probably not far. If she got up, she could get to the road.

  Her face burned like her skin had baked too long. Her shirt stuck to her belly, wet and sticky.

  That fucker Aiden had slashed a long but shallow cut into her side and she’d passed out on the dirt under the Texas sun.

  Passed out and heard her dog talking.

  I cannot smell you from the road! You are too far…

  The dream vanished into the screaming hum of desert insects and the blinding brightness of the midday sun. How long had the poison circulated in her system? She should remember things. Important things. But she didn’t. Things about burning children.

  Daisy groaned and tried to sit up. She had no sense of the world other than the heat and the buzzing. No sense of her loss of blood. Just that she needed to get up.

  She needed to get to the road.

  Could she drive? Would the camper get her there? Daisy rolled onto her side and shielded her eyes, peering at the vehicle.

  The son of a bitch had slashed more than her belly. He’d slashed the goddamned tires.

  “Motherfucker,” Daisy groaned. “Douchebag with his douchey hat and his douchey smirk.”

  I’m going to kill him, she thought. Him and his douchey asshole sisters.

  Daisy pulled herself upright and onto her knees. Walking wasn’t happening. The world swayed, so she’d better stay the way she was, sliding her legs toward the camper, one hand over the wound on her side and the other out to help her balance.

  She couldn’t kill him if she died. So she needed to get the fuck up into the camper and get to the road.

  I’m going to kill the motherfucker, she thought again. Kill the motherfucker dead.

  Rip out his fucking throat and leave him to bleed in a fucking shack. Because it seemed poetic.

  The world teetered again and Daisy almost fell over but she buckled forward instead, planting a hand in the dirt, and held herself up. Five more feet and she’d reach the open door of the camper. Five feet and she’d pull her ass into the driver’s seat and drive the damned thing on its rims.

  Let the world spin and lurch. Let the camper grind and groan. Dawnstar couldn’t smell her where she was next to this motherfucking shack so she needed to get to the road.

  The driver’s seat smelled like Aiden. Like his slightly singed, slightly bitter anger and disdain. The smells she’d missed because the poison and her own desires pushed them back. The scents that must have triggered her original desire to run away from him. The ones covered by the happy enthraller scents and his motherfucking poison.

  “Fucker,” she groaned as she pulled herself into the seat. Patting at the steering column, she prayed he’d left the keys.
>
  He did.

  “Yes!” The ignition scratched, groaning once, twice, three times. And turned over.

  The camper rumbled to life. She peered out at the flat Texas horizon, hoping to see small glints. Reflections. Anything that told her she was driving in the correct direction. Because she doubted she was going to get far on flat tires.

  But anything would help. If she had to crawl the last twenty feet, she would. At least she wouldn’t be crawling twenty miles.

  She stared at the stick shift for a long moment, trying to remember which letter she was supposed to put the transmission in. R didn’t seem right. “D,” she said, and slammed the camper into drive.

  It lurched forward on its dead tires. Metal screeched. Rubber tore. In the mirrors, she saw sparks every time she crested a bump. But the camper moved. Daisy aimed it as best she could, working to keep it within the bounds of the dirt road, but she couldn’t always. She’d blink, sucking in her breath, like she’d just woken up, and have to pull the wheel back in the right direction.

  Glints appeared on the horizon. Reflections. A line of black asphalt up ahead. The road.

  Daisy pressed on the gas pedal.

  The camper skidded, one of its rims catching on a rock. The vehicle spun and the road suddenly vanished from her perception as fast as it had appeared.

  Don’t roll, she pleaded. Please, universe, give me this one thing. Don’t roll.

  She slammed on the brake and the camper skidded to the side.

  Something loud and major snapped. A deafening, high-pitched scream popped from the back end, followed immediately by a low-pitched crack.

  The entire rear of the camper dropped down onto the dirt.

  She’d lost the axle. Just like that. Snapped it off the camper.

  Daisy flung open the door and dropped onto the dirt. God, her shirt was red. Very red. That son of a bitch cut her.

  “I’m going to kill him!” she hollered. “He’s fucking dead!” No one would ever get to her again. No one would ever get close enough to try.

  The road. She needed to get to the road. But all she saw were glints and reflections.