By Dark Deeds (Blade and Rose Book 2)

by Miranda Honfleur

  “Whatever is on this island, it’s affected his mind and his senses,” she said. The phantom enemies and attacks were as real as anything else to him, and her words couldn’t cut through that reality.

  “Some sort of poison?” Liam asked as they labored to the beach. “There are plants that can cause hallucinations.”

  Plants… They hadn’t ingested anything. “Something in the air?”

  “A spore,” Liam suggested.

  When they finally got him back to the boat, she leaned him against it. His breathing slowed, but his gaze still darted about erratically.

  She stroked his face, its coarseness, and smoothed back his hair. “Brennan, I need you to wait here for me. Can you do that?”

  He wouldn’t—or couldn’t—meet her eyes, but he didn’t move. He remained in place, his back against the boat, perched in the sand.

  “Perhaps in time, whatever’s affected him will wear off,” she said. “Could you take him back to the ship?”

  Liam sighed. “Not a chance, little bee. A few minutes here, and this island has already showed us its teeth. Either I come with you, or you take him back to the Liberté.”

  Never.

  Shadow had cost her far too much, and whatever it took, she’d end things here. Today.

  “Fine,” she snapped, using her finger to write a message in the wet sand telling him to stay.

  “I doubt he’ll be coming to anytime soon.”

  Hopefully the spore wore off soon… If not, perhaps they’d be paying Olivia another visit.

  She turned back to the jungle, the woven tapestry of anima, then made her way to the center of the island with Liam.

  She drew the knife he’d given her. The earthsight offered clarity that only a mage could achieve, but there were mysteries in this world that magic did not yet comprehend, as the kraken had so viscerally demonstrated. She was no knifehand, but even the feel of the grip in her palm gave her strength.

  Among the moist foliage and tangled vines and roots of the jungle floor, they picked their way through the terrain. Unusual birds called, competing with the hooting and shrieking of small primates in the trees. The occasional predator entered her field of vision, a well-built jungle cat, not nearly as massive as the hallucinations; she gave them a wide berth, spelled a flame in her hand, and clutched the knife a little tighter in the other.

  Soon, an enormous clearing, devoid of anima, lay ahead—some hundred paces.

  The ruined tower. It had to be.

  Liam paused, and she stopped next to him.

  “I’m going to take a look without the geomancy,” she whispered.

  When he nodded, she interrupted her earthsight. The dark, glassy peak tore into the sky before her. She replaced the spell once more; she would not be caught unaware.

  She took a step forward, and a twig snapped. Broke. There, at the top of the tower, stood one lone, bright figure of anima.

  Shadow. It had to be. Waiting there, prepared, ready to fight, to kill, and a hotheaded fool would charge up that tower, through traps and any number of preparations—poisons, if Brennan’s reaction was any sign—and would rush straight into Shadow’s domain.

  A hotheaded fool.

  She hissed sharply. What was more important: that she kill Shadow immediately, or that Shadow die?

  She curled a fist. “She’s up there.”

  “I see her,” he said, his voice low.

  “She has something of mine. An arcanir ring. Once we get that back, I’m going to trap her in a sangremancy ward.”

  “Sangremancy?” he hissed. “Are you insane? If the Divinity finds out—”

  “Will you tell them?” She didn’t look away from Shadow’s figure.

  “No,” he murmured.

  “Good.”

  A great metallic clang. Sharp, deafening, heavy.

  A bell. A massive bell.

  There had to be one at the top of the tower.

  “An invitation?” he asked.

  Or a challenge. Regardless, she wouldn’t let Shadow dictate the terms of this engagement.

  “No time to waste.” She pressed the blade to her palm and drew the edge across her skin as Liam winced. Blood rose to the surface. Good.

  Among these enormous jungle trees, she cast the sangremancy ward while the bell rang again and again. “Ward of blood, thread of my soul, / Make this place mine, grant me control.”

  Over and over again, she repeated the incantation, creating three perimeters while Liam laid pyromancy contact runes on the ground and some of the trees. Shadow would have the Sodalis ring, no doubt, but the trap would work. I’ll make sure of it.

  The sangremancy ward laid, she sheathed her blade and healed her palm. There would be no hotheaded foolishness today. Shadow would come to them.

  Still covered among the trees, she took a step forward.

  “What are you doing?” Liam hissed.

  “Bringing her down.” She held out a hand before her, threaded her magic into the earth beneath the tower. She moved her fingers, destabilizing her earth-threaded magic. Destabilizing the earth.

  A great rumble claimed the air, rippled through the ground. Leaves fluttered, branches trembled, the earth’s tremors climbed up her feet, her legs. The frantic calls of birds and animals shrieked as they fled.

  And the tower cracked. Great black shards and slabs fractured off its surface, plummeted to the ground. Walls broke. The entire structure crumbled into bits and pieces, a ruin pounding to the ground and shattering.

  That lone figure floated effortlessly to the ground, safe. And turned her head directly here.

  Rielle dispelled the earthquake, put up a wind wall before her and Liam, and waited. Shadowmancy would afford no stealth now, not when they were ready.

  But another rumble shook through the ground. Not me—

  Radiant anima streaked across her field of vision, darting past the massive trees. And the glow of shadowmancy bloomed as she turned her wind wall and deflected the spell. She shot back with fire—and her earthsight dispelled. Liam split off from her, holding up a fire shield while he threw flame arrows in Shadow’s direction.

  Shadow dodged, but the trees caught fire. Shadow hit Liam with a force of shadowmancy, then tackled her to the ground.

  “No!” Rielle caught her wrist—a wrist that forced a blade right above her chest. And the Sodalis ring right there. Was Liam all right? “Liam!”

  Pinning her, Shadow pushed down the blade. She laughed. “You’re too late.”

  The tip of the blade drew nearer and nearer. With both hands, Rielle held Shadow’s wrist away. With both hands.

  She needed one.

  Another rumble quaked through the earth. The earthquake had destabilized the island—the fire spread, all around, wreathing the trees in flame. Branches groaned, one directly above their heads.

  A flame arrow hit the branch—Liam’s.

  Shadow’s gaze darted upward.

  Now. Rielle gestured a fire spell, flame bursting around her hand—and Shadow’s wrist.

  Shadow hissed, her sleeve afire, and Rielle deflected the blade into the ground next to her and yanked off the Sodalis ring. She pounded the pommel deep through Shadow’s hand, tremors of pain snaking up her arm.

  A crack came from above, and she rolled Shadow over—they both did. Right into the sangremancy ward.

  Rielle rolled back out and activated the first perimeter. A fire shield appeared before her as Liam darted to her side.

  Shadow followed—and met with an invisible wall. She was trapped inside the ward, with the burning tree and flaming branches falling from above.

  And no arcanir to escape with.

  “You all right?” Liam breathed.

  Rielle lay on her back, breathing heavily amid the smoke, ash, and flame of the burning jungle. “Fine. You?”

  He narrowed his eyes at Shadow. “She knocked the wind out of me.”

  Rielle propped herself up, fixing her eyes on the cause of so much pain, and put the So
dalis ring on her thumb. Shadow pounded against the invisible wall, face contorted.

  “Only one other way out”—killing the caster—“and I’m on this side of the ward.” Rielle scrambled to her feet as another tremor shook the earth, trying to maintain her balance as she recast her earthsight. There wasn’t much time left before the entire island would be destroyed.

  Shadow hit the wall again and again, but Rielle closed the second perimeter, pushing her back. The burning branch hung directly above Shadow and faltered.

  “You killed Marko. I will have my justice.” Shadow stood, chin raised, staring down.

  Rielle shook her head. “Justice would be him paying for that crime. And he has. And now so will you.”

  Her eyes narrowed, Shadow looked her over. “Your precious king is still alive.”

  “Our child isn’t!” As soon as the hissed words left her lips, she regretted them.

  As Shadow’s eyebrows rose, laughter bubbled from her mouth, laughter that rose and rose and rose.

  “What are you laughing at?” Rielle spat, flinching as Liam rested a hand on her back.

  Shadow shook her head with a bemused smile. “And you want vengeance for that, do you? I didn’t intend to kill your child any more than you intended to kill my husband. And yet, here you are, looking to repay blood with blood in the endless dance.”

  No.

  No, it wasn’t the same. Wasn’t at all the same.

  “Don’t let her get into your head,” Liam said.

  Sucking in breath after breath, Rielle tried to scramble to her feet but tumbled backward, and he caught her. “It’s not—You can’t—”

  “Oh, but it is. And you dare judge me? Judge Marko? You killed your own family. You should pay for the crime. He wasn’t there to kill anyone.”

  Liam stiffened behind her. “What?”

  Rielle stood on shaky legs. Divine, no, not like this—

  He shook his head. “The invaders were pirates—”

  Shadow scrutinized him. “You look like her. Family? If so, you should get away while you can.”

  “Liam,” Rielle breathed, “I can explain—”

  “Liam Amadour Lothaire?” Shadow asked, with a tilt of her head. “The brother. Alive? Ha!” She laughed to herself. “You didn’t think it strange that ‘pirates’ attacked and didn’t kill anyone? Not even as a show of force?”

  Shadow pressed her palms against the sangremancy ward’s invisible wall and turned to Rielle. “Just how stupid are you, Favrielle? After all these years, you never thought it strange that your older brother had his éveil a year before the attack, but his twin, your sister, still hadn’t? And that an éveil occurs during moments of great stress?”

  “Dominique,” Liam whispered.

  Rielle clutched her chest. Took a step back. And another. The jungle burned around her, the circle of fire reaching to the sky.

  The pirates weren’t pirates? The attack had something to do with Dominique’s éveil?

  And Great Divine, Liam now knew the truth.

  “Sometimes an éveil needs to be provoked.” Flames filled the sangremancy ward, devoured the ground toward Shadow. “Your brother was to be the next marquis of Laurentine,” she said, nodding in his direction. “And her mother was a quaternary elementalist. The world sorely needed her progeny.”

  The world? “What are you talking about? Who needed—”

  “Marko had come to awaken your sister. She would have had her éveil and served the world, served the Most High. But you—you just couldn’t wait to kill, could you? Hovering on the edge of battle fury, about to fall into fureur with the slightest provocation. You are corruption festering on the pure flesh of magic, a curse to be eradicated—”

  “Shut your mouth,” Liam snarled. “Enough of these lies.”

  “Liam,” she said, her voice breaking. “They’re not… they’re not lies.”

  His head snapped in her direction, his sky-blue eyes a glittering tempest.

  “It is… as she says,” she whispered, her chin quivering. “I had my éveil during the attack… and the fire… killed everyone.”

  Shadow’s laughter rumbled from the ward, permeating the air.

  His eyes widened, maddened, as he stood still but for the ragged breaths heaving his broad chest. “And you think,” he bit out to Rielle, “that this is your fault?”

  He took a step toward her, and she flinched. If he wanted to yell at her, punish her, she deserved it.

  “You believe this madness? What this woman has to tell herself in order to accept the death of her husband?” The wildness in his eyes deepened. “What wife would want to believe her husband a murdering pirate bastard? Better to paint him a hero, some benevolent force feigning attacks for the greater good!”

  “But I—”

  “You were a keg of black powder they unexpectedly lit while trying to burn our family,” he gritted out. “You’re no more to blame than a bolt of lightning or an earthquake.” He turned to Shadow. “This is over.”

  “It has only just begun.” Flames slithered up Shadow’s boots and trousers. “O Divine,” she murmured, “blessed be Your reign, / Share Your might, numb my pain.” The skin of her hands reddened and crisped. “For all the innocent lies you’ve taken, you will suffer. I have made certain of it.”

  “Innocent lives she’d taken? You madwoman!” Liam rounded on her, stomping up to the ward.

  Made certain if it? “What have you done?” she asked Shadow.

  Flames embraced Shadow, burning her like an effigy, and as she blinked, her eyelashes caught fire. “You will suffer as I have suffered. Blood for blood,” she croaked. The branch above her plummeted. Consumed by fire, Shadow collapsed to the ground.

  The brilliance of Shadow’s anima faded… and faded… and faded until she became nothing, nothing but ash returning to the earth.

  “Good riddance.” Liam spat.

  With a gesture, Rielle cleared the flames around her, then knelt, turned the ground to sand, and pulled free the knife. She tucked it into her boot and looked up at Liam towering next to her. “I’m so…”

  He shook his head and held out his hand to her. When she took it, he pulled her up into an embrace. “You should’ve told me,” he whispered, stroking her hair. “You’ve carried this too long.”

  He didn’t blame her? He forgave her?

  “If not for me—” She cried into his shoulder.

  “No,” he whispered. “If not for them. We didn’t ask to be attacked. You didn’t ask to be attacked. Something happened that you couldn’t control.”

  A charred bough cracked and fell next to them. He pulled back and took her hand. “Let’s go. It isn’t safe.”

  Not safe… Blood for blood.

  “Whose blood?” she whispered. When he frowned, she added, “Shadow said ‘blood for blood.’ Whom could she hurt here?” Great Divine. “Brennan.”

  “Come on!” She raced through the burning jungle, dousing the flames as she passed through.

  If Marko had been the one Shadow had loved and lost, and she had targeted Jon, whose blood had she sought to claim here? Brennan’s? She couldn’t have done anything to Jon from here, could she? Or had she cast a sangremancy spell of some kind?

  Please be all right. Please be all right. Please be all right—

  The white sands of the shore came into view. But not the boat.

  She searched the shoreline with her earthsight.

  “There!” Liam pointed.

  At last, a bright figure shone in the distance. She dispelled the earthsight.

  Brennan. Still leaning against the boat. She hurried to him, to his pallor, his sweat, his panicked murmuring.

  “Brennan.” Her knees dropped to the sand, and her hands roved over him, tapped his face. “Are you all right? Speak to me.”

  His murmuring continued, and she brought her ear to his lips. “… not going to die like this, let me up, let me up, let me up… Run, Rielle… Don’t look back… will kill you all… all o
f you… tear me to pieces… let me up, let me up…”

  Swallowing, she pulled away and cupped his face in her hands.

  “He needs healing. Badly,” Liam said.

  Healing Brennan could never get, as a werewolf.

  And still… “Sundered flesh and shattered bone, / By your divine might, let it be sewn.”

  Nothing happened.

  “Arcanir poisoning?” Liam suggested.

  Healing magic didn’t work on him; it never had. Nothing had happened, but she’d needed to try.

  “Let’s get him into the boat.” She slung Brennan’s arm around her shoulder and Liam took the other. They tried to rise with him, to help him into the boat, but the best they could do was to topple him into it.

  Even at that, he didn’t flinch, didn’t wince, nor react at all.

  Oh, Brennan… What’s happened to you?

  They arranged him carefully, comfortably, pushed the boat bit by painstaking bit out into the water, and then Liam began rowing them back to the Liberté.

  But Shadow’s words rang in her head. And you dare to judge me?

  Chapter 71

  Olivia strode through the malodorous darkness of the dungeon, keeping her head high despite wanting to jump out of her own skin.

  After Spiritseve, if she’d never returned here, it would have been too soon. But here she was. Again.

  “You really think he would have killed you?” Edgar asked quietly from next to her.

  His evergreen eyes were soft, his mouth set just slightly in a contemplative line. Cautious. Caring.

  She offered him a thin smile. “I… I don’t know.”

  The look in Tor’s eyes when he’d grabbed her… It had been this wide-eyed disbelief, like he couldn’t believe she’d accused him, or couldn’t believe she’d read his correspondence… or couldn’t believe what he was about to do. As for which it was… would she ever know? Did he?

  “What do you think His Majesty will do when he returns?”

  Divine, she couldn’t even imagine. Jon had lost his parents, his whole family, a child, Rielle, and now… one of the few people he’d considered closer than blood had betrayed him.