by Kyra Dune
Mark’s heartbeat first slowed and then sped up. Could it be possible she was about to say the words he had so longed to hear fall from her lips? Or was this some cruel joke? If he told her he adored her, that she was everything he wanted, that yes, he was deeply, insensibly, hopelessly in love with her, would she brush him off with a laugh? He didn’t doubt such wickedness was in her.
“Say something,” Daniella demanded. “A simple yes or no is all I require.”
“I...” But his voice was frozen with fear of what this moment meant.
Daniella’s sharp features softened. “You are in love with me.” She traced her fingers across his cheek and then leaned forward to rest her head against his chest. “I was bored and you seemed a bit of fun. I never intended...” She sighed. “Everything I thought I knew, everything I thought I wanted... I’ve been so wrong. How did it come to this?”
It seemed to Mark as if his entire body had become suddenly lighter. Though she hadn’t said the words, he knew then what this was all about. Daniella loved him. The impossible dream had become reality. No moment in his life had been filled with greater bliss.
He wrapped his trembling arms around her. “Where do we go from here?”
“Nowhere.” The word dripped with horrible finality and pain. “This is to be my punishment for all the wrong I’ve done.” She pushed away from him and their gazes met for a brief instant before she turned back to the candle.
Confusion stole Mark’s ability to speak. This was no game, the look he had seen in her eyes was proof enough of that, but the perfect moment was marred by something he couldn’t understand. Something terrible.
Daniella whispered strange words in a voice broken and on the verge of tears. The ground vibrated beneath Mark’s feet. A sound like muted thunder echoed, sending the birds shrieking from their nests.
Beyond the candle, the air split in two to reveal a barren, rust red landscape. A monstrous winged form, all covered in black scales, landed before the opening. Fear twisted in Mark’s guts at the sight of it.
“Mark, look at me,” Daniella said.
Somehow he wrenched his gaze from that terrible sight to the vision of his lover bathed in a fiery glow. Dawn had broken, painting the trees beyond in lurid red light. “Wh...what...”
“Kiss me,” Daniella said. “Please.”
Senses reeling, Mark obeyed his princess as he always had. She grasped the back of his head and kissed him with a sort of desperate intensity that at any other time would have stolen his breath. When their lips parted her hand remained there. She pressed her forehead to his and looked deep into his eyes.
“I love you Mark. More than I knew. More than I wanted to know. But it was you or Richard and so, this could end no other way. I’m so sorry.”
Her words had barely registered in Mark’s mind before a sharp, twisted pain bloomed in his abdomen, sending white sparks across his vision. He hit the ground face first before he even knew he was falling.
Mark reached out for Daniella, but his fingers only brushed the hem of her skirt as she moved away. He wanted to ask why, but this time it was blood choking off his words. The last thing Mark saw as life slipped away from him was the black monster staring at him from beyond the rift.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
“I swear, I’m going to die of heatstroke before we reach the temple,” Ethan complained. A complaint which was not completely without merit. The sun was just creeping over the horizon and already the heat was oppressive.
Kat wiped the back of her hand across her brow. “If you don’t quit complaining every five minutes, you’re going to die from something all right, but it won’t be the heat.”
“Really, Katherine, that is no way to speak to me after you begged me to help you out on this little job of yours.”
“Begged you?” Kat twisted around in her saddle. “I did not beg you. I merely offered you a part. Which I am highly regretting. If I could go back and trade you for Brandon, I would. He might be missing a few bricks, but at least he wouldn’t spend every minute of the day mewling like a kitten hungry for its supper.”
“Why don’t you both shut up?” Jesse snapped. He was feeling bad enough about the entire situation without having to listen to the two of them going at each other. It wasn’t the heat, or the sand, or the long ride bothering him either. It was Manny walking out ahead of them with Nika. As if Jesse were an outsider and no longer family. He didn’t know if they felt it, but he certainly did.
Manny came to a sudden stop, his eye scanning the horizon to the south. “Something comes.”
Jesse followed his gaze to see a cloud of dust approaching. His heart sank. It was the one thing he had feared most about traversing the desert, but he had hoped their party was too small to draw attention.
“Pirates.” Nika breathed the word.
“Pirates?” Ethan squinted at the dust cloud. “This is hardly the high seas.”
“They’re bandits,” Jesse said. “Same as we have in Hyacinth, only the Children call them desert pirates. They’re a nasty lot by nature. Very nasty.” He glanced at Manny. His friend’s brutally scarred face was a reminder of how nasty. Jesse bore his own scars from , though they weren’t visible to the eye. “Do you think we can outrun them? Is there anywhere we could hide?”
“What?” Kat stared at him. “Run? Hide? What are you talking about?” She drew her staff. “We aren’t defenseless. We stand and fight like always.”
“Too late to run,” Manny said. “Kat is right. We must stand our ground.”
Kat nodded. “Like my father says, better to face an enemy head on than to flee and have them at your back.”
“You’ve never dealt with these people,” Jesse said. “You have no idea what they’re capable of.”
“And how do you know so much about them?”
Jesse’s hands tightened around the reins. “I’ve had a run in with them before.”
“So what are you so strung out over?” Kat asked. “You came out of it alive.”
“No, I didn’t.” He met her gaze and found himself telling her something no one else beyond his adopted family knew. “The last time I had a run in with these pirates, I died.”
It was easy to tell by her expression how this little statement had hit her. Despite being romantically involved, Jesse had done his best not to reveal too much of his life before arriving in Marigold to her. In his opinion, the past was dead and buried and best left that way. But it was kind of hard to ignore the past when it was riding toward them in a cloud of dust.
Somehow, with death bearing down on him, Jesse felt the need to unburden himself on her. It surprised him to find he wished he’d told her a long time ago, on one of the dozen or more occasions she asked after his past.
“It happened when I was twelve,” Jesse said. “I was with my father and a group of Children, including Manny and Nika. My father had word of some exotic materials to be had for a rock bottom price in Martinique.
“One night, our camp was overrun by pirates. They came in so quick, so quite, we had hardly any warning at all. They didn’t kill us. Not right away.” Even under the burning sun, he could still feel the chill of that night. Could still hear the screams over the sigh of the wind.
“I remember lying in the sand watching the sun rise and thinking to myself it was the last dawn I would ever see. And then I died.”
Kat shook her head. “But you’re not dead.”
“Only because of Nika,” Jesse said. “If not for her, Manny and I would be nothing more than bones bleaching in the sun right now.”
“It’s the earth spirit we have to thank,” Nika said. “He saved me. Wrapped me up in sand and hid me until the pirates had passed on. And it was he who gave me the power to save you both.”
“Then maybe he should give you the power to do something now,” Kat said. “If these pirates are so fearsome, summon up the earth spirit and ask for his help.”
“One does not summon a spirit,” Nika said. “They choose
when they will intervene in mortal affairs.”
Jesse eyed the dust cloud, which was rapidly gaining on them. “Now would be a good time for a little intervention.”
“If the spirits will it, then it shall be.”
How she could be so at ease was beyond him. True, she had been spared living through the horror of that long ago attack but she had seen the aftermath. Jesse had no intention of going through anything like it again, nor did he intend to allow Kat and Nika to fall into the hands of the pirates. Death was better.
“Do you have your palm pistol, Ethan?”
“Of course.”
“How many bullets?”
Ethan quirked his brow. “Six.”
Jesse nodded grimly. “Then we’ll have one to spare. Give me the gun.”
“What are you thinking, Jesse? Are you crazy? As for you,” Kat pointed her staff at Ethan, “get off that horse and I swear I will crack your skull.”
“This way will be quicker and cleaner than if the pirates get us,” Jesse said. “Trust me. I know. I’m trying to save you.”
“Don’t do me any favors,” Kat replied. “If I’m going to die I’d rather go down fighting.”
Any further argument was cut off by the whooping cries of the pirates as they bore down on the companions. A dozen strong, all men, and clearly wildlings though they wore their hair long and strung with bones.
Jesse’s stomach clamped, but he drew his sword and prepared himself to fall on it if he had to rather than be taken alive. And then something exceedingly bizarre happened. With a sound like ripping paper, the air between the companions and the pirates split open and woman on a black horse leapt out.
She tossed her long, blonde hair over one shoulder, eyed the advancing pirates, and grinned. “Oh, looks as if I arrived in time for a party.”
Jesse’s mouth fell open. He’d missed out on seeing the nightmare himself when it busted into the Duke’s manor to kill Lady Anastasia, but Brandon’s description had been so detailed he had no doubt the mount this woman rode was no mere horse.
The pirates seemed to take no notice of the arrival of the nightmare, but their horses were another matter entirely. Even Jesse’s mare, who had been rock steady through all manner of encounters, went a little crazy. She reared up with a sharp, loud cry, unseating Jesse. He hit the ground with a thump hard enough to steal his breath. All around him his companions and the pirates alike were sharing similar fates.
The pirates weren’t down long. They leapt to their feet, weapons in hand and murder in their eyes. Jesse had lost his sword as well as his breath when he fell and scrambled to regain both, a swift pain up the side of his leg warning him something was broken. He glanced down at a bloody patch on his pants to see bone poking up through the skin.
Ethan backed toward the nightmare. “Priscilla if you could stop laughing long enough to give me a hand it would be much appreciated.”
“You mean you can’t deal with this bunch on your own?” She leaned over the nightmare’s neck. “Losing your touch?”
“No.” Ethan ducked a bolo aimed for his head. “But I may need my companions alive and I can’t take care of my own hide and theirs without a little help. So be a sweetheart and pitch in.” He fired his palm pistol, striking the bolo thrower dead center between his eyes.
“Oh, all right.” She swung her legs over the side of the mare and slid down. “But I had better not break a nail.”
By this time, Manny had moved to Jesse’s side and was using his scimitars to keep him safe from the pirates. Incapacitated as he was, Jesse could only lay there and watch the battle unfold around him.
One of the pirates charged toward Priscilla. She punched him in the chest so hard her fist came out his back. She shoved him away, grimacing and shaking her hand as he fell. The sight made Jesse wonder if he’d hit his head harder than he thought.
“No fair,” Priscilla exclaimed, watching Ethan dispatch three more pirates with his pistol. “Hand to hand combat is so messy. Look,” she held up her gore covered hand, “I have people bits under my fingernails. I want to play with the gun.” She kicked out at a pirate advancing on her left side and her foot connected soundly with his side. His rubs made a sound almost like breaking glass.
Ethan fired on a pirate Jesse had been too shocked to realize was coming toward him and then spun neatly to shoot another about to decapitate Kat from behind. “Sorry love,” he shoved his pistol into the waistband of his pants and drew a pair of long knives, “all out of bullets.”
She stomped her foot, raising a little puff of sand. “You always get the best toys.” She looked down at the man whose ribs she’d shattered. He was gasping, little flecks of blood dotting his lips. “I suppose I’ll have to make do with this.” She picked up his curved sword and without a moment’s hesitation, used it to remove his head.
Things got a little hazy for Jesse after that. Later, he would mostly remember the sound of clashing steel and the hoarse cries of dying men. It seemed to go on forever, though in truth the entire skirmish lasted no more than ten minutes from the arrival of Priscilla to the death of the last pirate.
Nika knelt at Jesse’s side and laid her hands over his leg. “Lie still. If the earth spirit wills it, I’ll heal your leg.”
Jesse raised himself up on his elbows. He didn’t much like the idea of leaving his well being to the whims of the spirits, but he supposed he didn’t have much choice. If the earth spirit wouldn’t allow Nika to heal him then they may as well go ahead and shoot him because with the horses run off he wasn’t going anywhere.
Ethan cleaned the blades of his long knives on a kerchief. “Not to say I don’t appreciate you showing up when you did Prissy, but what are you doing here?”
“I came looking for you of course.” She planted her hands on her hips. “Morpheus is dead and you are supposed to come home.”
“I’d rather not.” He slipped the knives back into place. “I find the high realm to be so tedious. You of all people can understand.”
“It’s true the lesser realm does have its pleasant distractions,” she said, “but the desert? Really? Look at you, all filthy and covered in sand.”
Ethan smiled. “I’m not the only one.”
“I know.” She gazed mournfully at her dress. “I must look such a fright. And all this sun is no good at all for my delicate skin.”
“You should have come dressed for the desert and not the bedroom, my dear.”
She shot him a dirty look. “If I had known you were in the desert I might not have come at all. Now,” she ran her hands back through her hair, “aren’t you going to introduce me, or has all this time among humans robbed you of your manners.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Kat said, holding her staff in both hands. “Exactly who is this” she looked Priscilla up and down with a curl of her lips, “girl and how do you know her, Ethan? And what’s all this talk of ‘humans’ and the ‘high realm’?”
Jesse winced as his bone popped back into place. It didn’t hurt as much as he might have expected it to, but the skin stitching over the wound itched like mad.
“Ah, well, it would seem I have been discovered.” Ethan straightened his cuffs. “May I present to you Priscilla, daughter of the late and largely unlamented Morpheus, Lord Of Dreams, and the elder higher power currently referred to as Fate.”
Kat snorted. “She’s a higher power? Right. How would you be acquainted with a higher power? If there were any such thing.”
“She’s my sister,” Ethan said. “Well, half sister, at any rate. Via Morpheus. Prissy, these wildings are Manny and Nika. These others are my fellow mercenaries, Kat and Jesse.”
“You expect us to believe you’re a higher power?” Kat asked Ethan. “Seriously?”
Priscilla glared at her. “Not only is he a higher power, with the death of our father he’s now an elder as well. So you best show some respect, you dirty human sow.”
“What did you call me?” Kat’s face reddened as her grip
on her staff tightened.
Priscilla smirked. “If you’re hard of hearing, I could repeat myself.”
“Ladies, please,” Ethan said. “Much as the two of you coming to blows would be briefly entertaining, it would be rather regretful to have Kat dead at this point.”
“Who says I’d be the one to end up dead?”
Jesse rose unsteadily to his feet. “I think we have enough dead bodies around already. Can we please move this along before the smell gets any worse?”
“You want to take her with us?” Kat pointed her staff at Priscilla. “We don’t even know who she is. She could be a demon.”
“Demons you believe in, but not higher powers?” Jesse asked.
“Do you believe she’s a higher power?”
Jesse eyed Priscilla. She batted her lashes and smiled flirtatiously at him. Normally such attention from a beautiful woman would have been more than welcome, but after having seen what she could do it only served to give him the shivers.
“I believe she can fight and we may need all the help we can get where we’re going.”
“I can do more than fight.” She winked at him, which earned her a black look from Kat.
“You mean you don’t intend to whisk away home?” Ethan asked as he approached the nightmare. The demon horse snorted, but seemed to take no offence as his hand stroked the side of her neck.
“Depends on why you’re out here in the desert,” she said.
Ethan swung up onto the mare’s back. “We’re off to fetch a tablet from a temple.” He offered her his hand.
Priscilla wrinkled her nose. “Sounds terribly boring.”
“Oh, trust me, my dear, it will be anything but.” His voice took on a tone Jesse had certainly never heard there before. “Now you’re here, I’d really rather you stay with me.”
“I’m not certain I like this side of you at all.” She took his hand and accepted his help up onto the nightmare’s back behind him. “You’re so serious.”
