by Trina M. Lee
Then confusion broke through my blind rage. Raoul was gone. His entire office was gone. My dagger was buried in the back of an easy chair sitting askew from its companions. I wrenched my blade free, shoved it back into its sheath, and turned a slow circle to scan my new surroundings. Every wall was lined with books. It was some fancy-ass library, books up to the high ceiling, complete with those sliding ladders. Several easy chairs were arranged in corners meant to be cozy. A fire blazed in a hearth where a few more chairs were situated. Despite the fire, the library held a deathly chill.
A whimper behind me had me whirling to find Falon crouched in the darkened corner furthest from the fire. He was on his knees with his head in his hands. His beautiful silver wings dragged on the floor.
“Falon?”
Cautiously I approached. If he was caught up in some illusionary reunion, then he wasn’t going to be coherent. Could I break him out of it?
Half of his face was cast in shadow. The rest was bathed in the orange glow from the fire. His hands covered most of his face, preventing me from seeing his eyes.
I knelt down to study him, careful not to get too close. “Falon? Are you with me?”
Nothing. Shit.
There were options. I could shake the shit out of him until he snapped out of it. Or I could grab a book and wait patiently. A quick scan of the nearest shelf revealed only demon histories and spell books. Scratch that idea.
Well, I could, of course, leave him.
The dark thought flitted through my mind like a rabid bat. Dangerous. Contagious. My gaze roamed over him, scrutinizing the fallen angel from head to toe. I lingered on his wings. Not only could I abandon him, I could swipe a feather before I left. If one of Shya’s feathers could be used against him in a spell, a feather from Falon could be used the same way. Tempting. So damn tempting.
No one would blame me for considering a contingency plan. Falon would have done the same if our positions were reversed. Lucky for him, I still had a semblance of a conscience. Sometimes.
I couldn’t do it. He hadn’t let the gross tentacle monster take me, so I wouldn’t let his past take him.
“I really hope you remember that I didn’t fuck you over,” I muttered, not expecting him to hear me.
He didn’t react.
Was it even possible to pull him out of whatever illusion Shya had plunged him into? Uncertain and cautious, I raised a hand, preparing to touch him. I had to convince myself to do it. Only the need to get through the friggin’ house kept me from changing my mind.
Lightly, I rested my hand on Falon’s shoulder. He stiffened and jerked away without raising his head or opening his eyes.
“Don’t touch me, bitch,” he hissed.
Annoyed at his nasty reaction, I raised a hand to slap him.
His next outburst stopped me mid-motion. “I told you I never wanted to see your face again.”
Pretty sure that, of all the nasty things Falon had said to me, that had not been one of them. Yet. He wasn’t talking to me. Or maybe he had been, but he was talking to someone else too.
“It’s an illusion, Falon.” I murmured, afraid of speaking too loud. “You can get out of it.”
“God, don’t you ever shut up?” Again it sounded like he was talking to me, but then he followed it with, “I listened to your grating voice for a thousand years. I cannot stand to hear it for even another second.”
My curiosity was piqued. I was dying to know who he was seeing. As much as I would like to eavesdrop, I had to break him out of there.
Steeling myself for a bad reaction, I grabbed his shoulder again and gave him a shake. “Falon. I need you here now. We have to keep moving.”
He made a sound of irritation.
I waited, but there was no further response. I shook him again, repeating his name, and he was oblivious. Crap.
In a move that could be risky, I pushed a little sensually charged power into him. My hand grew warm against his shoulder. His head snapped up, and he glanced frantically about, but he wasn’t seeing me or the library. Still, it was better than nothing.
“Falon.” A low, breathy whisper in his ear made him shudder. “I need you, Falon. Come back to me.”
I slid my hand down his arm, a light touch that left a trail of sexual energy. If this didn’t get through to him, nothing would. Relief hit me when he grabbed at my hand, clumsily sliding his fingers between mine.
“I’m seeing two worlds here,” he said, squeezing tight. “Everything feels…wrong. Get me the hell out of here, Alexa.”
This was promising. Keeping him talking was vital.
“Who are you seeing right now?” My question received only a refusal in the form of a headshake. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked, “Is she someone you loved?”
“Maybe once. Now I hate her more than I hate you. And that’s really saying something.”
I smiled, intrigued by the woman who could incite such loathing from the fallen angel. “Is she human?”
Falon stared off into the shadows. His eyes were glossy, and I could see him slipping away. “No.”
“What is she? Is she… dead?” I was poking my nose where it didn’t belong, but I wanted to know. Falon’s history was a mystery to me. The brief record I’d found of it had told me nothing. I couldn’t help but wonder.
“She…” Falon dragged that one word out. “Is none of your damn business.”
I had to laugh at how he’d just echoed my thoughts. That laughter stuck in my throat, however, when he gave me a sudden shove. I skidded across the floor, stopping when I grasped the leg of an easy chair.
“It doesn’t matter who she is,” Falon shouted, his voice thundering through the library. He stood up and whirled around, wings flared. “You and I have nothing left to say to each other, Winter. Don’t say another word. I’m done with this. Done with you.”
Whoever Winter was, she didn’t want him to escape the illusion Shya had created. From the sounds of it, she also wanted to know who I was.
Falon grabbed his head again, making an agonized sound that was guttural and not even remotely human, but of course, he never had been. A wind whipped through the room, tossing my hair into my face. The fire grew like it had been splashed with gas, throwing sparks into the air.
Frantically I searched the room for a way out other than the door we’d come through. Going that way would mean backtracking all the way to the ballroom we’d first arrived in. I didn’t want to leave Falon, but if he was going to lose his mind, I had no choice.
“Falon,” I said, fearful that I was losing him to Winter and the illusion of wherever he was seeing her. “Come on, man. Don’t be such a pussy. We have to go. Get out of there. It’s not real.”
He turned to face me, eyes wide and distant. He was staring right past me. It gave me the feeling that someone was standing behind me. I turned ever so slightly to check.
My mistake.
He was on me so fast I barely had time to get my hands up in front of me. Thrust against the back of a chair, I struggled against him as he wrapped both strong hands around my throat.
“I will fucking destroy you, bitch. I promised you I would. You should know better than to call my bluff by now.” To emphasize his threat, he shook me until my teeth rattled.
I flung a hand in his face and drove him back with a blast. His attack wasn’t meant for me, though I didn’t doubt that there was one coming with my name on it. There was no way I was going to take a beating meant for Winter. Falon’s mind was lost inside Shya’s illusion. I could only hope a good fight would knock him out of it. Besides, one on one, I was pretty sure I could take him.
Right away I realized how wrong I was about that. Instead of using any more offensive moves, I focused on blocking the slaps of power and fists he threw at me, but every smack I blocked and each shot I deflected only served to hype him up more. I wanted a way out of the library that didn’t involve returning to the ballroom, but once Falon grabbed a poker from the fireplace and wielded it like a massive st
ake, I knew I had to kick his ass or run for it.
That fight might be inevitable, but it wouldn’t be tonight.
“Dammit, Falon, can you settle the fuck down?” Making a split-second decision, I ran for the door anyway.
He beat me there, blocking my escape.
I skidded to a stop, turned, and fled across the library. There had to be another way out, preferably one that didn’t involve returning to the ballroom.
“You can’t run from me.” Slowly he pursued me, poker in one hand and a ball of fire hovering in the palm of the other. “You should know that. You already tried.”
Many nights from now, when I’d had a substantial recuperation from this night, I was going to spend some time pondering all the things I was learning about Falon. For now, I needed him to break out of Shya’s illusion. “Falon, stop. It’s not just Winter you’re attacking.”
I circled myself in an energy barrier right in time for him to throw that ball of fire. It coated my shield in blinding bright flames that quickly went out. Lucky.
Moving about the library, I kept a careful eye on him as I searched the perimeter for a way out. There had to be one. Unless this was exactly what Shya wanted. Had the other teams of two also successfully been turned on each other? The thought bred such urgency and desperation. Shya was playing us all.
Falon was suddenly there, right in front of me, backing me up against a wall of books. His hands were alight with fire. “Two birds. One stone.”
Aw, fuck no. There was nowhere left to run. He wasn’t giving me a choice. I was going to have to fight.
The flames leapt from his hands, and I retaliated with as much force as I could muster. Scorching heat, so hot I screamed, crawled up my arm. Falon was flung backward. He hit the floor and rolled. I smacked at the fire until it went out, but he recovered fast and came at me again.
I raised my hands to defend myself but never got the chance.
Suddenly I was moving. The bookshelf swung in a one-eighty turn, sweeping me from the library to whatever lay behind the massive wall of books, leaving Falon behind. The wall sealed shut, and I was both relieved at having escaped the fight with the fallen angel and apprehensive as to where the house had just taken me.
“I knew there had to be a way out of there,” I muttered.
Unfortunately, wherever I was, it was absolute black. So dark my keen night vision couldn’t make out a thing. An unholy, unnatural kind of darkness. With careful focus, I created a psi ball that glowed bright enough for me to see where I was. It took some effort to light it up. Most psi balls could only be seen by the supernatural eye, but this one, I suspected, was strong enough for even the human eye, another sign of my improved abilities. I didn’t have time to be happy about it though.
Not once I saw where I was.
It was a stone tunnel. Though the library had been on an upper floor, I felt very much as if I were underground. The walls were cold and grey. The air was stale and moist. Worst of all, I was alone.
A close inspection of the wall I’d come through revealed it to be well sealed. No obvious openings. There was only one direction I could go.
Nerves gripped me. The sensation of being trapped was suffocating. Not needing oxygen did nothing to change that.
It was instinct to reach for Arys. Finding the barrier still between us was discouraging and downright terrifying. I was alone now, in every way.
Steeling myself for whatever lay ahead, I ventured into the tunnel.
Chapter Nineteen
Right away I saw something scurry out of my path. It disappeared into the shadows before I could identify it, vanishing like it had never been there. Before I could give it much thought, I was dive-bombed from above by something winged. A bat? It was too dark to tell. The light of my psi ball didn’t extend far overhead. I smoothed my hair back out of my face and searched the dark above. Nothing. Although if there were anything up there, I probably didn’t want to know about it anyway.
The tunnel widened gradually as I went. Being able to see just a few feet ahead was discomfiting. My senses were on overdrive as I tried to get a feel for my new surroundings. The steady roar of rushing water grew with every step. Pretty sure I wasn’t on the upper floor anymore. Ah, demon magic, was there anything it couldn’t do? Wretched stuff.
Suddenly the walls fell away, and a small river flowed on either side of the walkway I followed. Though I couldn’t see far above, it felt wide open. Cavernous.
I walked for a few minutes, waiting for something. Anything. When an object whistled through the air toward me, it was expected. My reaction time was damn good. I caught the arrow in one hand, never losing hold on my glowing psi ball. Before I could get cocky and feel good about myself, another arrow hit me in the back, burying into my shoulder with a vicious sting.
I flung the arrow I held into the water and dropped down low cursing. A few more whipped through the space above my head. Booby traps. Great.
To maintain a psi ball, I needed a constant flow of energy to feed it. The easiest way to do that was to hold it in my hand. However, I’d managed to float small, simple psi balls with only my mind. No hands. It wasn’t easy. Too bad for me because I needed to be able to do it now. I wasn’t going on without both hands free, and there was no way in hell I was letting the light go out. With arrows flying and a river waiting to sweep me away, I was not plunging myself into darkness.
Concentrating with the occasional arrow whipping by inches from my head was tough. I stared at the ball of light, willing it to leave my hand and hover along beside me. It shook in my palm, quivering under my influence.
“Come on, little dude,” I murmured.
Inch by inch the psi ball lifted off my palm. I willed it to stay connected to my energy as it drifted away. Envisioning a cord connecting it to me made it easier to control. The light flickered a few times but didn’t go out.
When I was sure my light wouldn’t fail me, I turned my attention to the arrows, starting with the one in my shoulder. I wrenched it out with a yelp. Blood trickled warm down my back.
Upon close inspection it became apparent the flying arrows were following a pattern. Front, back, then both sides at the same time. They whisked by at waist height and up, their position never changing. Too bad I couldn’t see where exactly they were coming from.
Knowing Shya had to be loving this, I clenched my teeth and began to crawl forward. With so many arrows flying, I didn’t have much of a choice. An energy shield could stop a few, but it wasn’t guaranteed while maintaining the psi ball, which would divide my focus. I’d been hoping for a chance to discover how my powers had grown, but this was not how I wanted to do it.
With the little ball of light hovering a foot ahead, it led the way as I pushed on. I assumed the arrows had to end at some point. I just needed to get there.
As I crawled along, feeling pissed off and mildly degraded, the arrows did begin to thin out. The water on the other hand began to increase in strength. The waves lurched, throwing water over the edge onto the walkway. The roar grew like an angry beast, echoing all around me.
Panic burned in my chest. The thought of being swept away in the darkness to God only knew where scared the hell out of me. I began to move faster. Surely there had to be an end to this.
In time with my hurried motions, the waves grew. I pictured the worst, waters raging so hard and high that there was no escape. Though I could swim and drowning was no real concern, the seed of terror had already sprouted.
All it took was a wave large enough to crash over the edge and pound me into the ground. Then I was up and sprinting, thrusting my light ahead. Dodging arrows was easier with instinct driving me. I escaped half a dozen before one pegged me in the ass. Figures.
I didn’t have to look back to know the waves were spilling heavily onto the path. They raced toward me, chasing me as I ran, jerking the arrow from my ass with a curse. This was one of those rare times when I envied my winged companions.
“Come on, come on, co
me on.” Desperate for escape, I poured on speed, hoping like hell I wouldn’t run smack into something awful or fall into a black hole.
That thought slowed my pace. The last black hole had been pretty damn frightening. A glance back revealed the waves rushing toward me. I had about ten seconds to avoid being swept away.
If Shya thought this was where I would break, he was so wrong.
The roar of the water reverberated through my skull. My feet barely touched the ground. The light shone on a steel door that opened as soon as I crashed into it, having no time to stop so suddenly. The door closed, sealing the wave out as it crashed down.
I hit the ground and rolled with a pained grunt before ending up on my feet. Wet and injured, I groped at my wounds while gawking at the lavish room. An old organ to my left played that same macabre melody from the ballroom.
“Repeating yourself, Shya?” I muttered with a headshake. That lame trick wouldn’t creep me out twice. I was over it already.
The floor was covered in the same rich red carpet as other parts of the house. Leather furniture made up a seating area across from a large, circular bed draped in gauzy curtains.
Perhaps the most shocking feature was the severed heads mounted on the walls. Mouth open and mind blown, I stared at each of them in turn. Wolves. Every last one of them but for one tiger. Tiger? Uncanny. I’d never known any myself. To find one here in Shya’s trophy room was downright sickening. Not surprising though.
My wet clothes clung to me, and the two arrow wounds were sore but otherwise minor. A musky animal smell drew me toward the furniture with a lump of revulsion in my throat. A closer inspection confirmed my suspicion; the leather was shifter skin.
This would be a good time to be able to vomit. I backed away from the couch, ready to vacate this nasty room.
A noise from above stopped my search for a way out. I tensed, power gathered, as ready as I could be for whatever came next.
The ceiling creaked and groaned before opening up and dropping a body down on top of me. A small yelp escaped me as I went down. It was accompanied by the shriek of the person whose fall I cushioned. The familiar scent of leopard and perfume turned my yelp to a relieved sigh.
