Torrent of Tears (Scourge Survivor Series Book 3)

by JL Madore

  We watched as first one, and then the other, slumped in his chair. Two down.

  Taking out a lighter, Ydorus’s cousin pointed it toward the tray and I drew my dagger. The whoosh of blue flame was massive, the patio bursting alight. He must have used a stein of booze to ignite the thing because the awning caught fire and in seconds, flames leapt in every direction.

  Chaos ensued: the scrape of chairs, the scream of patrons and the rush of two more hidden soldiers to investigate.

  The whistle that rent the air was Eury’s signal that he was on the move to secure the guardhouse. That was my cue.

  As the waiter and his brother faced off with two very surprised fellow soldiers, I darted from shadow to shadow, edging closer. Despite being close enough to see the feral grin on Tasso’s face, I couldn’t get a clean shot. I ducked low and rolled to the side, coming up against the trunk of one of the metal sculptured trees. Holding up the bow up, I sighted Tasso. Shit, almost there.

  I needed him to step out from behind the streetlamp.

  The restaurant commotion was still in full riot when a merchant woman burst from her shop and started screeching at the two Strati hiding on her balcony. Waving a broom and a flashlight, she screamed about privacy and the perversion of men watching from the shadows.

  Eury rammed a metal bar through the door latch of the gatehouse and blocked the exit for the Strati inside. Whether it was a flash of movement or the Fates deciding to screw me, Tasso turned exactly the wrong way, at exactly the wrong moment and chased after him.

  Shit. Tasso was headed out of the courtyard.

  Abandoning plan A, I launched into the alley nearest me and gunned it in the same direction. My thighs ate the distance as my heart raced inside my chest. Tasso was mine and no way was he taking Eury down for helping me.

  As the commotion of the courtyard grew faint behind me, I cut through a side street. The rhythmic sound of heavy footsteps connecting with stone echoed hollow somewhere on my right. Male voices grumbled and shouted. Something clattered loud behind the candle shop. I raced on.

  The moon slid behind the clouds and the luminescence of the field was gone. The sudden loss of light had me blinking to adjust my vision. Footsteps resumed to my right and I pushed into the darkness by sound alone. Eury and Tasso were coming down the next street, had to be.

  Adrenaline pumped the thunder of my pulse into my ears. They would be intersecting just about—

  The rollercoaster drop had me flailing mid-air.

  Water scrambled my mind as I splashed and sank. My muscles tightened as icy darkness enveloped my body.

  The canal.

  I must have run off the edge of the walkway and landed in a canal. Struggling to find which way was up, I broke the surface and choked my lungs clear. The clouds were passing, the glimmer of moonlight casting a path back to the edge. I was a strong swimmer, but the lip of the alleyway was at least five feet above my head. No ladders. No edges to grab.

  The scuffle of a vicious fight, echoed above. Cursing. The dull thud of bodies connecting. The grunt and crash of hand-to-hand. Shit, Eury.

  I needed out of this canal. I needed to be up there. A surge of water pushed at me from below. Did I do that? But I could barely work the shower.

  The sounds of the battle above tightened in my gut. I couldn’t tread water here all night while people were getting hurt. With all my might, I focused on the water raising me to the edge. I needed a lift. I needed out. I needed—

  The catapulting effect was immediate and far more powerful than I expected.

  The stone of the walkway came hard and fast. My tuck and roll barely saved my head from cracking. My shoulder hit and bent behind me. White-hot pain shot through my hip. I blinked, my vision spotty.

  Tasso was there, not twenty feet away, beating on Eury like a dog in the street.

  I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the lethargic response of my left leg or the road rash on my palms. Fuck, where was the crossbow? Canal, likely.

  Hand-to-hand it is. Crossing my arms over my waist I grabbed the two hilts protruding from my battle vest and drew steel. Tasso and Eury were still hard at it. Didn’t even hear me slip in behind them when—

  I froze. Shaking my head, I breathed deep again to make sure. Scourge. The rotting stench of the undead clung to Tasso’s uniform . . . how?

  My hesitation wasn’t long, but it cost me. Tasso spun and back-fisted me to the face. Staggering to the side, I breathed through the hit. He whirled me around. The instant I spun to face him, I rammed my knee between his legs and locked my hands on the fucker’s throat.

  An earthquake of emotion ripped through me.

  Gone was the strategic, Battle Master of The Academy of Affinities, gone was the Talon Enforcer for the Realm of the Fair, gone was any thought or emotion beyond the violent menace erupting from my core. My skin ignited with a burning heat.

  A hard punch to the gut and my breath left me in a rush. Struggling in an all-out brawl, my body moved on autopilot, slashing and hacking at the bastard who had taken pleasure in killing Tham—the sweetest male ever known.

  With my vision still on the blink, the images Zophia had shared with me flashed like a never-ending lightning storm behind my eyes. My muscles and bones ignored the damage, ignored the teeth-rattling strikes Tasso landed.

  I was action. No thought. No feeling. For the first time in my life, my temper exploded and I didn’t reel it in.

  Struggling in a close melee, I unsheathed my Guardian from my thigh and brought it up in a hard arc. The blade fought through his ribcage, positioned to pierce his heart.

  “That is for Tham.” I jammed it in, hard. “And for me, you fucking piece of shit.”

  Tasso’s eyes widened and then we both sank to the cobbled ground.

  Sometime later—a long time later judging by the ache in my muscles—I became aware of Eury’s low moan. I yanked my knife from Tasso’s body and crawled over. The buckles of his chest plate were slick with blood and tough for my cramped fingers to manipulate free. Shit. He was drenched and in bad shape.

  “Princess?” I gripped my blade and whirled, blade poised. No need. It was the merchant woman with the blue wings from the other day. She approached slowly, her hands up between us. “Princess, you’re hurt. Let us get you in off the street before more soldiers come. It’s not safe here.”

  “Him first.” I wiped my blade on Tasso’s cape and sheathed my knife. “Eury’s worse off than me. He needs Rowan.” When she just stared at me, I snapped. “Lir-Rowan, Noble of the Fifth House, get him for me.”

  She recoiled. “This man is a Strati soldier. Leave him to the night. You need to—”

  “He’s with me,” I said, resting a protective hand over Eury’s chest. “Not all soldiers are the Queen’s men. If you care anything for what remains of Attalos’ honor, I demand he receive shelter and care.”

  She pursed her lips but didn’t hesitate long. Whistles sounded a few streets over. Men shouted. Nodding, she waved to the three young men. They scurried out from the shadows.

  With booted feet, two of them rolled Tasso like a rotten log and kicked him into the canal. The third grabbed a large sheet of wood from the alley and dropped it onto the bloody stone walk beside Eury. He and the woman shifted Eury onto the board and dragged him down the alley to a door.

  The voices grew closer.

  When I made to follow, my foot skidded. Pain ripped through my knee as it hit blood-slick stone. I tried to catch myself, but my body didn’t obey. My vision fritzed again.

  The thundering of soldier bootsteps were almost on top of us. The last thing I remember . . . strong hands scooped me up and pulled me in tight.

  “We’ve got you, Princess,” a voice whispered. “We’ve got you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  “Easy Trouble. Don’t try to get up. You’re safe.” Familiar hands stroked my bare arm, the gentle scratch of callused palms calming me like a balm on a wound.

  My eyes were not so much closed
as on lockdown. The world was spun, my head throbbed, and my stomach felt as if it were filled with writhing eels once again.

  I laid statue-still and pictured my surroundings. A fire hissed and crackled nearby. The dim glow of lantern light danced on the outside of my lids. I inhaled deep. Earthy. It smelled the same as Balor’s hidden underground home.

  I shifted my leg. My clothes were off. Rough blanket fibers rubbed against my belly and thighs, but not where my underwear and bra covered me.

  My stomach sloshed. Oh, gods. My lips pursed.

  “Oh, I know that look.” A quick shuffle beside my head and Rowan was rolling me to my side. “You’ve got to stop—”

  My ears cut off all sounds as I gripped the basin. My throat burned, my sides ached and my head was about to spew grey matter in every direction. When the retching stopped, Rowan laid me back and wiped my face with a damp cloth.

  “You have a concussion,” he said, wiping my bangs back from my face. “Would you have anything for her to drink?”

  “Of course. Tea? Water? Ade?”

  “Whiskey,” I croaked.

  “No. Not with a concussion,” Rowan said, a smile in his voice. “Water is best.”

  Soft footsteps shuffled away and returned within moments.

  “Here, Trouble. Drink this.”

  I cracked my eyes open and played good-patient while focused on the masculine beauty in front of me. He’d been to the smith’s shop. I could smell forge smoke on him. He looked tired, but relieved. “So, by the smirk I take it I’m not going to die?”

  “Not tonight. No.”

  “And Eury?”

  Rowan pointed to the pallet on the floor by the fire. Eury lay still, a threadbare blanket draped over his hips. His clothes had been removed and most of the blood had been cleaned up. He was bound in gauze and bandages and looked like a black and blue piñata that had had his insides beaten out of him. “He’ll survive too.”

  I leaned back and closed my eyes. Bad idea. Open was better. Definitely better. “We need to get out of here. The Strati will be all over these people if we—”

  “Don’t you worry about that, Princess,” the woman with the blue wings stepped closer. “You’re safe enough down here and the boys cleaned up the walk outside.”

  “Tasso’s body—”

  “It’s taken care of, Princess,” she said. “Please, lay back and rest.”

  I guess I did, because the next time my eyes opened, daylight streamed in through wide solar tubes fixed into the soil ceiling above. By the quality of the light, I’d guess it was approaching midday. A muffled moan had me rolling over to check on Eury. His swollen face stole my breath, his brow drawn so tightly he looked like he was reliving the whole nasty ordeal in his sleep.

  I swung my legs off the little bed and let them sit flat on the woven mat. So far, so good. After tightening the blanket under my sore shoulder, I tested my balance and shuffled across the floor. “Hey, my man. Ease up.”

  I slid down beside him and traced the crease of his brow. As my thumb pressed over his forehead, the scowl began to lessen. I continued to smooth out Eury’s stresses, avoiding the cuts and bruises the best I could. After a time, I felt the weight of someone watching from the door and cast a glance over my shoulder.

  “My brother Bruin,” I said to my hostess, “used to have terrible nightmares when he first came to live with us. His family and entire community were killed and he had a hard time during sleep. My sister and I would take turns trying to soothe him.”

  “Did it work?” she asked, setting a small tray on the chest by the bed.

  “Usually. Once he stopped fighting, he’d sink into a deep sleep and we’d take turns watching over him.” As if he were listening to my voice, Eury eased and settled. “Eury just relaxes, Bruin would change form. That’s how we knew he was really out cold.”

  “Change form?”

  “Mhmm, my brother is the Alpha Were. He’s the Bear King of the Realm of the Fair.”

  “So you did grow up as royalty,” she said, surprised. “The company you keep has everyone wondering.”

  I didn’t miss the judgment in her voice and took an extra few minutes straightening Eury’s blanket to simmer down. Tugging the thing up over the shallow rise and fall of his gauze-bound chest, I folded it back a bit and struggled to my feet. “Where I’m from, it doesn’t matter if you’re an orphan, a warrior or a barmaid, my father makes sure everyone knows their value.”

  She raised a brow and rose from the cot to give me back my bed.

  It felt good to sit, my little tour of the room had drained most of my energy. “Attalos could learn something about looking beyond appearances.”

  “No offense, Princess, but idealism gets people killed.”

  “Oh, it’s not idealism. We’ve got bad guys too. Scourge, that’s what our enemy is called.” The memory of Tasso’s stench hit me again.

  “Are these Scourge like our Strati? Like our Queen?”

  I considered that. “Evil is as evil does, I suppose. The Scourge are nasty bastards who allow a sorcerer to suck their souls in exchange for power and what they think is going to be immortality. Really, they just become rotting undead, and raid and kill indiscriminately.”

  “What does the sorcerer do with their souls?”

  I shrugged. “We haven’t figured that out. He’s obviously siphoning off power from them somehow—he’s very powerful—but my other brother, Julian, figures with the number of Scourge that have been inducted, there must be something much bigger happening. Something we’re not seeing.”

  I thought about that for a bit, my mind still occupied by Tasso and his funky stench last night. I needed to talk to Terran and Rowan. “Has Rowan been by this morning?”

  “Yes, but we assured him we could take care of you ourselves and sent him on his way. I doubt he’ll be back.”

  “What? What did you say to him?”

  Her eyes widened as if my reaction surprised her. “We were protecting you, Princess. Your doctor friend is in league with the Queen.” She bit her lip and brushed her forehead with the tip of one of her wings. “It won’t do to have people thinking the two of you are—”

  “Are what?” I drew a deep breath and tried to hold back the anger burning in my gut. “Rowan’s a good man and, as a Noble, he should be respected by his people. Where do you get off judging what he’s had to endure?”

  “Endure?” She arched a brow. “He’s the Queen’s whore, Princess, a Noble no longer. He turned his back on our people and chose a coward’s path to survive. He’s done nothing but shame himself and the members of the fifth district for years.”

  I jolted up, the sheet pooling to the floor. Clamping my hands, I took a measured step away from the woman. Like last night, I experienced true ferocity. I reached for my shirt and awkwardly pulled it over my head. “Rowan’s sacrifices safeguard his sister’s life. She’s the only family he has left—”

  “Despite whatever lies he has spoken, Princess, his sister is dead. Killed a full cycle past with his parents.”

  I shook my head. “Elani is a prisoner at the Palace, a pawn in the Queen’s game. When Rowan steps out of line, the Queen hurts her.” I pulled my pants up my thighs and steadied myself against the wall. I needed air. Sliding my vest over my shoulders, I tightened the lacing and met her eyeball to eyeball. “What would you do to save your children from the Queen’s evil? What wouldn’t you do?”

  “There is nothing.”

  I nodded. “If that’s true . . . and if there really are no secrets in Attalos, I want everyone to know Lir-Rowan, Noble of the Fifth House, has done nothing but protect his sister. It’s his district and the citizens of Attalos who turned their backs on him, not the other way around.”

  Before I said too much I turned to the stairs. As I lifted my foot to the first step, I looked over my shoulder. “If it’s safe, I’ll send for Eury at nightfall. I expect he’ll be well cared for until then.”

  She met my gaze straight on and b
owed. “Of course, Princess.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Duty soldiers and Strati swarmed the city streets like angry wasps. They stood at every intersection, patrolled the alleyways and perched on rooftops, watching from above. Obviously, it would be smarter to stay hidden. Safer to go back into that cellar and wait till nightfall. I wasn’t in the mindset to play it smart or safe.

  I needed to find Rowan. Needed to find my boys. But first, I needed to find Sera and learn more about what she and Balor had done to me. What was I capable of? How did my connection to the elements work?

  Stealth was a polished skill of mine. It was the work of twenty minutes and I was down the hidden stairs in the back of Balor’s townhouse and searching the underground apartment.

  I knew before I finished looking around that Sera had cleared out. Balor’s things remained in place but the apothecary room was cleaned out. The only thing left was a piece of paper sitting on the mixing table with a single sentence written on it. From the one with forethought and prudence, a leader shall rise.

  Allrighty then. So, Sera would be no help.

  I made my way back to the street and considered my next move. Beeline it to Rowan’s mansion, check on Coal, and see what the legal ledgers of the Nobles said about ousting the Queen. Rowan still owed me and my injuries a private once over. My current need to get naked with Rowan was more than a biological urge to satisfy and more than easing the hurt and anger of the way his own people judged him.

  A brush with death had a way of bringing the world around you into hi-def, surround-sound focus. It made you want to live out loud and crank up the volume. And time spent skin-to-skin with Rowan was exactly the kind of sensory explosion I was amped for.

  Ousting the Queen could wait. Our troubles could wait.

  I skirted down a side street and jogged along the backside of a low retaining wall. My leg was still kicking up a stink and my shoulder felt as if it had been ripped from its socket and knocked back in place with a sledgehammer. Boo-fricking-hoo. In the long list of ‘things that have gone to shit’ that was the least of my problems.