by Shania Tyler
“Cousin,” Ashur whispered. “It’s time for you to join your wife and sweet, little Reena.” His laugh sounded sickly.
Mason’s fingers tightened around his sword. He’d instinctively pulled it out when the horns blared.
There was silence and then singing.
A male voice broke over the crowd and his lyrics wrought chaos.
“Lift every sword, my brother.
Fight your brother, my brother.
Make your friend your foe
Fight until their eyes have closed.”
The destructive tune continued, and Mason looked out over his men, hoping that when he’d warned them about the Scourge, they’d been wise enough to plug their ears.
He watched a few swords raise from the group and cursed. Some had not been prepared.
Two men, friends, faced one another, one under the effect of the lullaby and the other with a clear mind.
“John,” the man said to his disillusioned friend. He raised his hands in surrender. “You know me. Put down your sword.”
John didn’t listen. He was of the House of Orry and his gift was Cacophony, a sweet tenor that soothed one toward their death. Mason, like the leaders of the Rebellion, were unaffected by the sound, because of their blood’s strength, but he was deeply affected by what happened next.
John lifted his sword like many others, with his teeth bared in murderous intent.
The ring of metal prompted Mason to turn.
He blocked Ashur just in time.
Their swords clashed.
Mason pushed Ashur back.
Ashur came again.
Mason moved and Ashur passed his mark.
Ashur turned around and grinned. “There’s something different about you, cousin. Tell me what has given you this strength and I might let you live.” There was no chance of either of them acting on his words. There was no way that Mason would tell Ashur about Kelly’s blood, and there was no way that Ashur would walk away from a fight.
The sounds of grunting and groaned continued, adding to the never-ending chorus.
“Have you gained the family blessing?” Ashur asked with his sword raised to Mason in accusation. “Impossible. The temple was destroyed before you were old enough.”
Mason grinned. For Ashur, his greed always got in the way of his potential. Ashur and Mason were almost matched in strength, as they were in looks, but it only took some taunting to get his cousin off course. “Yes,” he said. “I am Seocan’s chosen leader.”
Ashur frowned and said warily. “Then prove it. Make a shadow.”
Mason lifted a hand and watched as Ashur’s followed. Then he attacked with his other.
The fighting continued, and Ashur pushed his strength into every blow.
“You are lying!” Ashur said. “I will be the Lord of Shadows!”
Mason blocked a hit. “You weren’t chosen five hundred years ago. You won’t be chosen now.”
Ashur growled and swung. “But your wife chose me in the end.”
“What?”
Ashur’s blade cut through his shirt and a stinging sensation sliced through his chest.
Mason looked down at the flaps of his shirt and the blood that began to flow from the cut. He looked up at Ashur and whispered, “What did you say about Cecina?” He finished his words just in time to forestall Ashur’s next strike.
His cousin leered over him, trying in vain to push his blade close to Mason. “Who do you think Cecina turned to when you upset her?”
Mason narrowed his eyes, but kept his hold firm. “Why would she confide in you? You lead the army of the Evaness.”
“Who said anything about talking?” Ashur chuckled and jumped back out of reach.
“You’re lying,” Mason said with a confidence he did not feel. Was it possible his cousin was telling the truth? He’d not been the same man back then. He actually hadn’t been much different than Ashur, always seeking power, even during the years where the vampires were forced to hide from the eternal day, building a labyrinth of caves that had finally led them to the source of light and allowed them just enough time to cut off the elves’ power and overtake the government.
“Watch out!”
The shout came from somewhere farther down the field, but Mason took the words to heart and maneuvered. A blade missed him by inches.
He turned to see it was one of his own men.
He fought while searching the crowd for someone with the power to resist the music. His eyes caught hold of Noel first. “Stop Cos!”
“I’m trying,” was Noel’s reply as he kicked a man down and headed toward the orchestrator for the chaos unfolding.
His men were not ready. The Evaness hadn’t even sent the entire army and they were falling.
He knocked the man he’d been fighting down and looked around for Ashur.
He couldn’t find the leader and, to Mason, that was a horrible sign.
* * *
16
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
.
.
.
* * *
“I believe you.”
* * *
.
“This way.”
“Wait,” Kelly told Vivi as she spotted the woman who had fallen by one of the torches. She kept her head low and rushed over to look at the woman’s wound and had to swallow down her bile when she saw what lay on the woman’s shoulder. Her body was rotting and the smell . . .
Kelly turned away. “What is that?”
“Decay,” Vivi said as she knelt by the woman. “Lana,” she whispered to the woman as she stroked her dark hair back. “You are not alone.”
Lana groaned in agony and shut her eyes against the pain she obviously felt.
Vivi went to Kelly and whispered, “This was done by Jasna. She is the woman who rides with Ashur and Cos. She never kills anyone in just one blow. She simply touches everyone, infecting them, and allowing the decay to slowly take over the body in a matter of days.” Vivi had already explained the other two’s ability. Cos was the grand orchestrator of chaos and Ashur caused his own confusion with fog and shadow.
It hadn’t taken Kelly a second to realize that Ashur’s ability was linked to the thing that had chased her on campus. His shadows carried the same eerie feeling that she’d gotten at school.
Was this the ability Mason wanted? Why would anyone wish for this?
Kelly breathed slowly, in through her mouth and out through her nose, as she took another peek at Lana. The wound looked a week old, festering with yellow and white pus, blood, and strained blood vessels. “Run its course?”
“She will die,” Vivi said under her breath.
Tears blurred Kelly’s vision. “Die? From one touch?”
“The part of the body that decays will poison the rest. The poison will eventually reach the heart and she will die.”
Kelly shook her head. “Aren’t there any healers?” She had to raise her voice over the continued fighting few yards away. Thankfully, Ashur’s smoke still left them nearly invisible if they stayed close to the ground.
Vivi shook her head. “You must be an elf of the Jinn bloodline to combat Jasna’s gift and you must have visited a temple during a Year of Blessing to have had your gift unlocked.”
Kelly wanted to scream. “Why only one year every one hundred years?”
Vivi’s gray eyes widened in horror. “Imagine millions like Jasna, able to do what she does? It is better to assign gifts every one hundred years, that way, fewer people have these abilities.”
“But what kind of gift is Decay?”
“In the beginning, everything served a purpose. Some things must die in order for other things to grow and live, but our world is corrupt. Is yours not?”
Kelly shook her head. “No, our world is corrupt.” She turned to Lana who was crying in pain. Her face was paling and Kelly knew she didn’t have days. Lana had maybe an hour left. Or minutes. Or seconds. “I can’t let her die.”
&n
bsp; “Then pray you are of the Jinn bloodline.”
Kelly moved over to the woman and knelt at her side, but didn’t move. She threw her hands up to Vivi and asked, “What do I do?”
“Touch her,” Vivi instructed, dropping beside Kelly on the ground. She took Kelly’s hands and placed them on Lana’s arms. “Feel her. Feel her pulse and make it your own. Feel her skin and bind yourself. Become one. Forget everything and everyone else."
Kelly listened to what Vivi was instructing and tried to clear her mind and do as she was told, but couldn’t. She was still worried about Mason and the men. She was also worried about Ethan. “God, I can’t do this.”
Vivi squeezed her hands. “You are her only hope. Bind yourself. Become Lana and feel her pain.”
Kelly closed her eyes and tried again, feeling the soft skin underneath her fingers and the fine hairs that covered the woman’s flesh. The coolness. The moisture. She shook her head and opened her eyes. “I’m not a healer,” she whispered.
Vivi grabbed Kelly’s shoulders. “It’s all right. Lana’s pain will soon fade, her body will turn to ash, and the ground will remember her story.”
Kelly stared down at the woman, feeling horrible as she pulled her hands away and dropped them to the ground. The rocks underneath her were covered in soil, grainy under her fingertips and driven under her nails as she stroked the dirt.
She choked around a sob and asked Vivi, “What is my destiny?” Why was she here? At this fight? Why did she sit living while Lana died?
Vivi squeezed her shoulders again. “The answers you seek will come.”
Lana gasped and her breathing grew shallow. She took a breath and then slowly her body calmed and the crying and shaking ceased.
Vivi moved toward Lana and said, “We can move her once the battle is over. For now, I must get you to the house.”
Kelly nodded and began to move, but when she looked back at Lana, she simply couldn’t allow the woman’s dead body to remain with her dark eyes open, pointed toward the fighting that went on. She knew Lana to be dead, but it didn’t seem right to leave her that way, as a frozen spectator to more death.
She reached out, aware that her hand was dirty, and did one final act of kindness: she closed Lana’s eyes.
The moment she touched Lana, the woman’s lungs expanded and she began to breathe again.
Kelly jumped back, but Lana reached out for her. The pull of energy left Kelly and traveled down the arm that Lana held onto. Kelly fell to the ground and held onto the rocks underneath her as Lana wept and shivered, pulling more and more energy from Kelly.
“She is healing,” Vivi whispered from behind her.
Kelly lifted her head and looked at Lana’s scar. The wound was still angry, but the veins around it were no longer inflamed and the color had turned from green and blue to a light pink much closer to Lana’s color.
Vivi hovered near but did not touch Kelly as she spoke. “You are a healer, Kelly of the House of Jinn.”
Kelly grinned and when Lana’s scar looked weeks old, Lana let go and wept one final tear before turning to Kelly and whispering, “Thank you.”
“Oh, a healer.”
The voice belonged to someone Kelly didn’t know and she turned around to find a tall and lean muscled woman standing behind her.
The woman’s long, black hair was pulled high into a severe ponytail and her eyes were slanted at the ends. She looked down her pale nose at Kelly and when she grinned, fangs appeared. “I didn’t know Theo had a healer. The Evaness would be very interested in you.” Then she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. When the breath left her body, it was shaky. The eyes that returned to Kelly’s blazed. “Or, maybe I will keep you for myself.”
She took a step toward Kelly.
Kelly walked backward, but was quickly tangled in the long hem of her dress.
Jasna reached down to touch Kelly.
Vivi grabbed the assaulting arm. “Would you like to know your future?”
Jasna’s eyes turned to Vivi and her body stilled.
Kelly got to her feet.
Vivi said, “Would you care to know when you die? How soon your end shall come?” Kelly couldn’t see Vivi’s face, but could only imagine what sort of expression it must have held to spook Jasna.
Jasna’s mouth thinned. “It will not be today.”
Vivi’s head tilted. “So sure?” To Kelly, she turned and yelled, “Run!”
Kelly kept her head below the fog and ran toward the house. She glanced up every so often and saw the top of the mansion in the distance, but the closer she got to the house, the louder the noise of the battle around her and the voice of the singer.
She stopped when she saw a blade fly in front of her face. Had she been a second quicker, it would have removed her head. Then she saw a foot and lifeless hand on the ground and realized she was at the heart of the battle.
Her heart beat violently in her chest and the taste of metal on her tongue rose from exhaustion.
She backed a foot away and bumped into someone’s legs.
The singing stopped and an arm grabbed her, raising her from the fog.
She turned around and found a pair of cold, dark-blue eyes staring at her. He, like Jasna, closed his eyes and inhaled her scent before saying, “Oh, you’re a powerful one. I’m taking you home.” The voice of an angel attached to a demon.
“Or maybe,” her captor said, “I’ll drink you right here and now? I would empty you within minutes and then use your lifeless body for other purposes.” He chuckled.
Kelly trembled at the image his words painted in her mind.
A glimmer of a blade caught light above their heads and Cos went down.
Kelly fell with him, but was swept up by a strong arm before touching the ground.
“I’ve got you.”
She looked up into Noel’s hard, brown eyes right before he turned his head and raised his blade to stop a foe’s strike. He battled with one arm and Kelly clung to the one that held her.
Cos’s voice began to rise again from the shadows.
Kelly closed her eyes, thinking this fight would not end until every man was down.
She tightened her eyes, listening to the sounds of crying, roars of battle and blades, and the sound of Cos’s tenor.
And then something else.
It was coming from the distance. A flute with a melody that was joyful and sweet, the sound of victory that had no place here. The music grew and the flute’s chiming tinkled in her ears and made her . . . smile.
She was amazed when she heard the battle cease. There were still a few men groaning in pain, but the metal had gone silent and everyone seemed to still in peacefulness.
Cos tried to lift his voice, and Noel swiftly turned to hit him again.
The singer went down as the flute music grew.
There was the sound of shuffling and then Kelly looked down at Cos before a shadow passed over him and he was gone.
All the shadows gathered around Kelly and then vanished as though they were never there.
Noel stood her up and Kelly looked around at all the wounded scattered around her feet. When her eyes caught those of a dead man with a gash in his neck, she turned away and Noel gathered her in his arms. “You are safe.”
She was, but so many were dead.
Footsteps came forward.
“Kelly.” Mason’s call forced her from Noel’s arms. Without opening her eyes, she went to him. Her body crashed into his and the air left her lungs with calm relief.
“Ashur might still be around. Lead the search for him and the rest.”
“On it,” Noel said, followed by the sound of his retreating feet.
“You came just in time, Davor.”
Kelly peeked over to see a very pale and very beautiful man with short, white curls approach. His ears were high and sharp. He was an elf, but he had no slave marks. A flute with a row of diamonds hung on a thin rope from his neck.
Davor nodded with a grim face. “I can see
.” His sky-blue eyes then turned to Kelly with a lifted brow. His eyes moved from Mason to Kelly.
Mason said, “This is my wife, Kelly, from Earth.”
“Kelly?” Davor asked Mason. “From . . . Earth?”
Kelly didn’t see the look they exchanged, but Davor’s eyes slowly returned to Kelly and he bowed.
“An honor.”
“Move the wounded. Count the dead,” Mason instructed him. “I’m taking Kelly inside.”
“No,” Kelly whispered and she began to look up to his face, but stopped at the gash in his chest. “You’ve been hurt.”
“I will heal from this without a scar,” he told her.
She looked up at him then and said, “But I can help those who won’t.”
He gave a reluctant wave of his hand, and Kelly backed away from his hold. She turned toward the field, braving a look at the men who’d fought for the freedom of those who were like them and those who were not. Elves and vampires were scattered everywhere, and Kelly moved to one she saw groaning in severe pain near her.
She knelt down and touched him. Already she could feel a small current passing between them. His outer thigh had a deep slash in it and blood pooled underneath him.
“What is your name?” she thought to ask.
He was shaking with the loss of blood and grimness marred his face. “Lou.” He was the first really buff person she’d seen in Morwen. His ears weren’t pointed, so Kelly guessed him to be a vampire.
She nodded and moved her hands over his exposed arm, just like she’d done with Lana, but the connection was not as strong as before, so she moved her hands to his eyes, but still it was weak.
Lou opened his eyes once she’d moved her hands away. “Are you going to help me?”
Kelly wanted to, but didn’t know how.
“What are you doing?” Mason asked as he knelt by her. His green eyes were patient. Davor, who was kneeling on her other side, simply stared with expectation.
Kelly hand shook in frustration. “I’m a healer. It worked before with Lana. She was dying and I healed her, but I can’t get it to work again.”
