Of Darkness and Crowns

by Trisha Wolfe

  Table of Contents

  Chapters

  1. 2. 3.

  4. 5. 6.

  7. 8. 9.

  10. 11. 12.

  13. 14. 15.

  16. 17. 18.

  19. 20. 21.

  22. 23. 24.

  25. 26. 27.

  28. 29. 30.

  31. 32. 33.

  About the Author

  Books by Trisha Wolfe

  Of Darkness and Crowns

  A Goddess Wars Novel

  Trisha Wolfe

  * * *

  Copyright © 2014, Trisha Wolfe

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Design © Arijana Karčić, Cover It! Designs

  Ebook Design: JW Manus

  Men who care passionately for women attach themselves at least as much to the temple and to the accessories of the cult as to their goddess herself.

  ~Marguerite Yourcenar

  ♦ 1 ♦

  Kaliope

  RUBBING THE SAND BETWEEN my swollen, bloodstained fingertips, I feel each grain, missing my home.

  I don’t know when I’ll see Cavan again.

  The setting sun casts Perinya in shades of dark blue and lavender, the horizon a deep plum, reminding me of the entrance to the Otherworld. It’s been nearly five months since my mismatched companions and I—some of which are the newly formed Nactue—escaped the underground realm. But I haven’t forgotten.

  Anything.

  The Cage, snapping with fiery currents and descending instruments of death, comes to me in nightmares, along with the face of every person taken during the bloody competition. When I’m lying in bed, chilly air mixed with the scent of mercury and damp earth invades my senses, making it impossible to find sleep.

  Yet, there are also good memories. Ones that I’d never replace: Caben’s deep laugh echoing off the stone walls of the training facility, his warm breath caressing the back of my neck as he held me on the tiny cot. His leanly muscled yet giving body holding me in the illuminated pool of water in the cavern, whispering to me about his past, entrusting me with his secrets.

  All these irreplaceable moments happened before he sacrificed himself in the Cage. For me. And he was possessed by the dark goddess of mayhem and madness, the moon goddess—Bale.

  I close my eyes and focus on the good memories. Of Caben.

  When I open them, I’m determined, filled with renewed purpose to guide his kingdom—to keep my promise. And to defend it…even against him.

  I release the grains of sand. They slide through my fingers as I catch movement in my peripheral. A wail rips from my throat as I bring up my sword to block the advancing Otherworlder. Getting to my feet, I push against his blade with mine, forcing him back.

  His matted dreads clink against his black armor, their beaded ends swaying. The sheen off his lens-covered eyes glints as he blinks. For one quick second, he resembles my new ally, Bax, and I wonder if they’re kin. I force the thought from my mind and meet his roar with another yell of my own.

  His warrior sword swipes the air before me. I suck in my stomach, evading the attack. No, he’s nothing like Bax—an Otherworlder who used to be my league’s ring leader in the Cage fights, but who turned on his culture to save his family.

  Once we defeated the Dark Priest, I thought the Otherworlders under Bale’s mind control would awaken and join us—or at least they wouldn’t rally alongside the dark goddess. Bax tried to explain what would happen many times, only I wouldn’t listen. My optimistic belief in the good in people blinded me to the certainty of what was taking place. The Otherworlders did awaken, but it was to a long sought-after reality.

  Their goddess was finally here.

  Just prior to the Reckoning—the ritual to summon Bale fueled by the bloody Cage fights—Bale had lost their faith. Years and years of serving her, waiting to be repaid for their loyal worship, had taken its toll on the Otherworlders, transforming them into hideous mutations of the people they once were. They turned against their deity. But she just needed their servitude to hold strong a while longer, until her opportunity to escape her imprisoned tomb within the earth would present itself. The Reckoning.

  Bale used Bax’s own father, the Dark Priest, to place a mental hold over the Otherworlders until her moment could be realized. Once Bax and I freed them, I trusted the Otherworlders to see Bale for what she truly was. To side against the dark goddess.

  But if you had devoted your life—if your ancestors before you had devoted and sacrificed their entire existence to a goddess—once you were finally given proof, would you turn on her? For the Otherworlders, it was a resounding no. They worship her more loyally now than ever before. And they plan to keep her to her promises forged in blood. In their blood.

  I block another attack from my foe, trying to see him for what he is: my enemy.

  As he growls and slashes at my face, I duck and strike out with my sword, keeping thoughts of Caben buried. I have to in order to stay focused. But they come anyway, unbidden.

  The Otherworlders welcomed Prince Caben as their new leader. They follow his bloody trail through battles waged on our lands, seeking to garner the one thing that will finally set their goddess free. Where she can rule over them. Unstoppable. A living deity on earth.

  And once she’s loosed on this plane…what will happen to Caben?

  My mind clouds, fuzzy with unsure thoughts, and my foe takes advantage of my misstep. He nails the side of my head with his elbow. The blow sends me to the ground. Dirt fills my mouth as I suck air into my lungs, and memories of the Cage surface, covering my vision.

  “I’ll get a nice reward for bringing your head to my Liege,” the Otherworlder snarls. “He wants to mount it, ya know.” He chuckles.

  Anger wells in my chest, hot and biting, bringing me out of my daze. The mercury in my blood pounds against my veins, urging me to unleash its strength—but I suppress it. Instead, I locate my fallen sword a few feet away and grip a handful of sand. “Then he’ll have to face me himself, slime,” I say low, so that the Otherworlder has to crouch.

  He kneels on one knee and yanks my head up by my hair. “Speak loud and have your say, above-worlder, before I sever that pretty little head.”

  I smile and pitch the sand into his face, then roll toward my sword. He growls and stomps toward me, his warrior sword swinging. I grasp my sword handle and swipe the blade parallel to the ground, slashing his shin. He drives his sword down as he falls forward, his wounded leg giving out.

  Rolling, I come up behind him and take out his tendon.

  “Bale…” he shouts, but the rest of his prayer is lost as I cleave his head from his body.

  My chest rises and falls with my heavy breaths, my gaze locked on the destroyed Otherworlder. Just hearing the moon goddess’s name sends my stomach into a nauseous tumble. I swallow down the rising bile.

  A rumble sounds in the distance, and I glance at the dimming horizon.

  Somewhere out there, Caben is lost in that darkness.

  “I’ll find you,” I whisper to the dark. With my free hand, I touch the ring tucked beneath my uniform shirt. Then I wipe the blood from my blade on the Otherworlder’s back and sheath my sword before racing to catch up with the protectors ahead of the battle.

  Every day, I hope it’s the day we see the end of this war.

  Caben

  The Crusher grinds to a halt. I’m propelled forward, and my head smacks the low-hanging ceiling of the front compartment.

  “Damn, you fool!” I palm my throbbing forehead, eyeing the driver of the Crusher—the machines I now call by their Otherworlder name.

  “Sorry, My Liege,” he says, backing against his seat, farther away from the glowing ribbons circling my fingers.

 
Ignoring him, I study the luminous white—like the surface of the moon—crawling beneath my skin, and marvel at the power. My power. Had I possessed it that day the Cavan Army forced me from my home, they never could have done so easily. But then, I never would have obtained this power. Ironic.

  “Just drive,” I tell him. I take a seat on the front bench, away from the foul stench emanating from the back compartment—our diversion tactic that will gain me entry into my palace, where I’m now considered the enemy. Something of mine is being kept there, and I’m taking it back.

  The glow beneath my skin illuminates brighter, reminding me of her skin. I curl my fingers into a tight ball.

  The battle up ahead is only part of my plan, one that I know Kaliope will fall for. I need the reserves away from the palace. My molars clamp down hard at the thought of her—a mix of something like fire and nausea invading my stomach.

  At one time, I felt things for the black-haired beauty. I chuckle to myself. Well, at least my groin did. Just thinking of her body makes me ache, and I have to adjust myself. But that was when I was weak, when I only thought and felt with that weakness. As much as I hated my father for thinking me too feeble to rule, he was right. I was pathetic.

  Bale freed me. Released the part of me that I kept buried, locked away deep down, and I no longer fear anything. I think of everything that once made me shudder or quake with dread and laugh. It’s so simple.

  Without fear, there is only freedom.

  Power.

  And if I free Bale completely, releasing her essence from within me and making her corporeal by reuniting the crystalline shards with the goddess relic, she’ll bestow me with even more power. I don’t care what the dark goddess does or where she goes once I restore Empress Iana’s relic. I don’t give a damn what happens to the maggoty Otherworlders or their realm.

  I just want her out of my mind. And I want the power.

  Then I’ll set my sights on Perinya, my kingdom, and on gaining what belongs to me.

  A throaty cackle fills my head, deep and sultry.

  “Quiet, woman.” I roll my eyes. We’ve come to a compromise, the goddess and I, that she may remain within my being, but she’s to keep silent. I got tired of her constant lectures and angry rants about her sisters. She doesn’t speak too much…for the most part. But the sooner I get her out of my head, the better.

  Having a woman fill your thoughts is a weakness in itself. A sudden flash of a smiling, laughing Kal blurs my vision, and I shake my head.

  There’s only one way to rid my thoughts of that woman.

  Kill her.

  “Burrow, leach,” I command the driver. “We’re coming up on the battle. Go underground.”

  “Yes, My Liege.”

  Tonight, I invade. Find a way into the capital of Perinya and into my home. And then take back what’s mine. The goddess can have what she wants. I’m only interested in claiming my belongings.

  No one will ever take anything away from me again.

  Stay away, Kal…

  I shake my head harder, trying to quiet the pesky thoughts that always spring up when I think of her. Something left over from before—a residual feeling, an effect she has on me.

  It won’t be there much longer. My downturned lips are forced into a smile as Bale laughs.

  ♦ 2 ♦

  Kaliope

  “KAIDE! BEHIND YOU—” I thrust my sword forward, and the blade is swallowed by the belly of the Otherworlder before me. He drops to his knees, his crooked sneer falling from his face. I plant one foot against his stomach and yank my sword free. Then I sprint to where Kaide is now facing off against two Otherworlders.

  He shouts and slashes his sword, slicing the Otherworlder’s leather armor and cutting a thick gash into his shoulder. “Every one of you—” Kaide inhales deeply, his chest rises“—is for my brother.”

  I launch myself in the air, bracing my palm against the pommel of my sword, and drive the tip of my blade into the back of the Otherworlder’s neck advancing on Kaide. It brings the giant Otherworlder to his knees as I land. Gaining my balance, I stand over him and push my blade through his neck. His gurgling cry is silenced by the blood filling his mouth.

  Wiping the sweat from my brow, I turn and see Kaide just as his blade connects with his foe’s chest. He belts out another battle cry as he follows the Otherworlder to the ground, driving the sword deeper into his chest cavity.

  Kaide wrenches his weapon free and then stabs his enemy’s chest again. And then again.

  This angry display is shocking compared to the quiet and reserved Kaide I knew in the Otherworld. But after his twin brother, Orion, was taken from him in the Cage, and our fight began above ground, a violence has been unleashed within him.

  Stepping beside him, I say, “Kaide, that’s enough.”

  His gaze is lost and unseeing as he strikes his dead foe, his arms trembling with rage. When I touch his shoulder, Kaide takes in a deep breath and yanks his sword free a final time. Then he turns toward me.

  “It’s all right,” I say, before he apologizes, as he’s done in every battle we’ve fought together. I understand the rage boiling inside him. I know. Because I fear the day I have to face the moon goddess—and how I might lose myself destroying her.

  “Come on.” I cock my head toward the Cury-craft rumbling in the distance.

  He nods once and pushes his dark bangs from his tan face, revealing the swirled feather tattoo below the corner of one eye.

  When we reach the Cury, I sheath my sword and place my bloodstained palms against the hull’s open compartment and lean inside. “What are General Corvin’s orders?” I ask the protector with the live transmitter held up before him. It crackles, an electric blue-green light domed above, and a distorted robotic voice just cuts off.

  The protector’s head snaps up. “We’ve been ordered to pursue the Otherworlders to the southern border.”

  My brow furrows, and I glance at the near-black sky over the barren field. Groups of the Cavan Army move through the battlefield, checking for survivors and mending the injured, and throwing Otherworlder corpses onto crafts to be discarded.

  Why have the Otherworlders suddenly veered south? “Are they retreating?”

  The Otherworlders don’t retreat for long. They always come back.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he says. “Are you coming with us?”

  “No.” I look at Kaide. “We’re going back to the palace.”

  I bang the side of the Cury and step away as it hovers off. Then I take out my own transmitter. “Lilly.”

  A dome springs above my silver device, and the hologram washes her face in a blue tint as it appears. “Already fought-out and missing us?”

  For a moment, I’m just happy to see her smile. After she lost Willa in the Cage fights, she’s been battling her own demons of rage and guilt. But recently, she’s been nearly back to her old, carefree self, and I thank the…whoever…for whatever brought on this transformation.

  Thanking the goddesses for anything these days isn’t happening. But old habits die hard.

  A thundercloud overhead pulses with light as a strike crashes in the expanse, and I’m thrust back into the present. The Otherworlders’ uncharacteristic, quick retreat, and now the coming storm that will obscure our army’s vision, fills me with dread. “Where’s the empress?” I ask.

  “She’s safe, Kal. With us, as always.”

  I nod. She can’t reveal Empress Iana’s exact location over the transmission, but I trust her every word. “The Otherworlders are trying to pull some…tactic.” I glance around. “Keep her in sight at all times. We’re heading back now.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Lilly says. Then she closes the transmitted link between us.

  After I pocket my device, I sweep my long hair into a bun and tuck the end under. The wind is picking up, sending loose strands whipping at my cheeks. The weather here is so strange compared to the constant humidity and stillness, the never-changing climate of Cavan. I still haven’t
gotten used to the erratic shifts.

  “Let’s go,” I tell Kaide.

  Waving my hand in the air, I flag down another Cury-craft. One that’s heading back to Court to deliver the injured to the ward.

  The Cury commander spots us and hovers the craft closer, then begins to lower it.

  A blast sounds from behind us, and the ground shakes, sending me to my hands and knees. The Cury is tossed sideways and back.

  I whip my head up as a mix of sulfurous air and a metallic scent hits my nose on the breeze.

  “An explosion?” Kaide says, getting to his feet. He wipes the dirt from his Nactue uniform as he stares ahead. “The Otherworlders have detonated a…bomb? They’ve never used weapons of destruction before. I didn’t know they had any.”

  Scrambling for my transmitter, I bring it to my lips. “Lilly!” If the Otherworlders haven’t already taken out half the Cavan and Perinyian units, we might have time to regroup. I need the Nactue to secure the empress and the reserves to—

  My brain quits its train of thought as a dark cloud plumes in the distance, smoke from the explosion wafting upward toward the sky. Why are they attacking when they were just retreating? The crackling of my transmitter draws my attention.

  “Kal? Is everything all right? Kal?”

  “Put Empress Iana in lockdown. Now.” I look up at Kaide. “They’re trying to call our reserves away from the capital.”

  His dusky features pull into a serious expression, his lips pressed tightly together. “The prince?” His voice is soft, questioning, as if he’s unwilling to say Caben’s name.

  I look toward the horizon and feel the pull in my soul that gives me my answer.

  I nod. Maybe I’m unwilling to say his name aloud also.

  “Bale wants us clear of the palace…I’m sure to make her move. She’s going for the shard tonight.” Eyeing Kaide, I make certain he’s following my logic as I jump to my feet. “They’re going to raid the palace. We need to get back.” Kaide gives me a questioning look, and I avert my gaze. “I said, let’s move.”