by K. A. Linde
Cyrene felt sick to her stomach. “This brought down the magical barrier that had been there for two thousand years?”
“Yes. It must have been something very powerful.”
Cyrene turned away. She knew exactly what had happened the night before Elea’s Presenting and had felt the very shock wave Matilde and Vera spoke of.
It had happened when she kissed Kael.
It was almost dark when Cyrene first felt that something was wrong.
“Shouldn’t they be back by now?” Cyrene asked. She paced a line in the grass as she waited anxiously.
“Indeed,” Vera said.
“They’ll get here when they get here,” Matilde said.
“No, something is wrong.” Cyrene shook her head. “This isn’t right.”
“Cyrene, the trek to Levin and back with supplies could take a considerable amount of time,” Reeve said, adding his two cents.
“Are you sure?” Dean asked instead.
She glared at him. “I trust my gut.”
Though she knew that she shouldn’t. It had been wrong before. It had been wrong about Dean.
“I’m going out to look for them,” she said, pulling her hair back into a ponytail and setting off.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Dean and Reeve said at the same time. “You can’t go alone.”
Cyrene ignored them. “I’ll be back in ten minutes. One of you, go check on Avoca. But, if you mess up her traps, you’ll pay for it.”
Matilde and Vera didn’t even argue with her. They were back in their silent conversation. What about, she didn’t know. But she could see the blatant worry on their faces when they looked at her.
Yeah, she didn’t look like a savior so much anymore. She didn’t feel like one either.
Cyrene moved out of the narrow mountain pass where their glen was secretly concealed when she heard footsteps behind her. She rolled her eyes. Of course Dean is going to follow me.
“I don’t want to talk to you. So, run back up to camp. I’ll be there in ten minutes,” she spat without looking over her shoulder.
The footsteps drew nearer, and she huffed out in exasperation. Seriously, she wanted to be alone.
“I cannot believe—”
A hand clamped over her mouth, and a blade was being held at her throat.
“Don’t say a word,” it breathed into her ear.
She froze as still as a board. Whatever was touching her was not of this world. If it had been a man, she could have sunk into its mind and commanded it to release her or blast the person away from her.
But this was no man.
This was…evil incarnate.
The touch of the blade at her throat and the hand on her mouth made her insides squirm and her mind want to pull away. But fear held her steady. She needed her wits about her to figure out what she was going to do.
“I will be happy to gut you from throat to navel, but my master desires your safe return,” it said. The voice slipped and slithered over and all around her. “Lucky for you, I do love the taste of magic. It feeds my bones, and it has been far too long since I tasted one such as yourself.”
Cyrene shivered. “What are you?”
The blade cut deeper. “I said…don’t say a word.”
Cyrene closed her eyes. She could smell decaying flesh and rotten eggs. She wanted to gag, but she swallowed and tried to focus. Though the hand on her felt sturdy, it seemed to be made of smoke, as if, at anytime, she could break through the form and find it not to be corporeal.
“What are you waiting for? Take me back to your master,” she spat the word out.
A forked tongue glided out of its mouth and came to lick up her cheek. She shuddered.
“I think I would like to taste this one before we go.”
Not a good sign.
“Does Doma flesh still taste like sucking the juices out of a pig? Succulent and brimming with energy?” The thing cackled. “I think I’d like to find out.”
Cyrene couldn’t wait another moment. She shot a blast of energy in a burst of power. The thing released her, and she abruptly stumbled forward. She whirled around to face her attacker with her hands up, ready to fight. But there was nothing and no one there. Just mountains.
Her heart was racing, and her skin was hot and clammy, as if she had a fever. She reached down for her magic, that overflowing well, and found next to nothing.
Holy Creator!
The energy she had used to throw Kael across the room was tremendous, but she’d still had plenty. He’d said that blood magic from someone you were close with would give you more powers. She had assumed that meant she would have gotten a lot from her parents. How could I possibly be running low when all I did was cast aside that strange creature?
She took two steps back up to camp before her legs gave out. She collapsed down onto one knee and raised her hand to her forehead. Have I been poisoned? Is its blade like the Braj? Whatever it was…
She touched her hand to the spot where the blade had been, but there wasn’t any blood. Not even a nick. It had been holding her in place, not trying to hurt her. Well, not yet anyway.
Her thoughts stalled as hurried footsteps sounded from the trail below her. She turned her head to see what the commotion was and found Ahlvie, Orden, and Aubron sprinting toward her with at least a dozen guardsmen on horseback following a clip behind them.
What now?
“The fun never ends,” she bit out as she rose shakily to her feet.
“Cyrene, out of the way. Get going!” Ahlvie cried once he was within range.
But she held her ground and reached for the magic she still had harnessed at her core. She could do this. She could make this all right. The truth was that they could not be followed. She would not be captured and taken back to the capital to face Kael and Edric. She was finally free, and she was damn well determined to stay that way.
“Go,” she spat as all three men formed up around her. “Go warn the others.”
“Aubron, do it,” Ahlvie commanded.
His brother nodded once and then scampered up the mountain pass. Orden and Ahlvie dropped their supply packs and traded them out for swords.
“They’re mine,” she told them.
“Cyrene, you look near to death,” Ahlvie told her.
“What a compliment from a scoundrel.”
He grinned ferociously at her. Something in his eyes shifted from brown to hazel to gold, his features more angular, his teeth bared.
“Ahlvie is right,” Orden said. “Allow us.”
“None of us are getting out of these mountains if you do not get out of my way and let me work.”
Then, she took a step forward, drew her powers into her, and let them loose on the guardsmen barreling toward them. The ground shook with the force of an earthquake. Their horses skittered across the rocky ground, tossing their riders and falling into a crack she had created in the earth. The rumble lasted for what felt like an eternity before ceasing.
But, still…more came forward. One or two had managed to remain on their horses and a handful more with swords drawn, warily approaching where she stood. She raked her hand to the side, knocking the two remaining riders off their steeds, and then spiraled all the men up in a wave of air, constricting their airways and keeping them from breathing.
“Cyrene,” Orden whispered softly.
“Cyrene, please,” Ahlvie said, “drop them.”
She did as he’d said. Fifteen feet down they went without any of the feline grace that she had.
Crunch.
And, it wasn’t enough. She stalked forward, a predator advancing on her prey. She reached for the men still living and tasted the blood on their bodies. Tasted the hint of magic emanating from the dead. So much power. So much right here for the taking. All she had to do was—
No.
No, she wouldn’t. Couldn’t.
But if she did…
She seized all the broken bits of guardsmen and dragged them toward her with a flick of her
wrist. Then, she lined them up in a pretty row and dropped into their minds like wet sand.
“You did not see us here. You will forget our faces and everything you saw and heard. You came out to investigate the earthquake. You found nothing unusual. You will ride back to Levin and not report anything out of the ordinary to your commander.”
She precariously held them. Her magic waned. And, in all of it, all she felt was the ache. It crawled at her. Begged her. Coaxed her.
Who are these men and women?
They would have killed her or collected her with no conscience. No hesitation. She would have been halfway back to Byern, her friends slaughtered.
Why didn’t they deserve the same thing?
A life for a life after all.
She reached for it. Ready to drain the life force from these men to refill her well. Because, if Kael was right, then she would need it. And, right now…she did. She desperately did.
“Don’t!” Ahlvie said, jumping in front of her. “They have families, Cyrene! Wives and husbands and children. They were following orders. Let them go home.”
“They wouldn’t have done the same for us.”
“I know I might not look it, Cyrene, but you and I, we’re the good guys.”
“What does that even mean?” she shouted. “What is good and evil in this world? There is only power. Who has it and who doesn’t and how far you are willing to go to take it.”
“You don’t believe that,” Ahlvie pleaded with her. He stepped forward, and with no fear in his eyes, he took her trembling hand. “You are good. So, maybe we all have a little darkness in us, but we are not murderers. We do not silence voices of dissent. We listen and help change the world. And, those men, Cyrene, they want more than you are going to give them. Let them find that new world with us.”
“How can you be so sure?” she asked, her voice wavering. Her grasp on her magic slipping.
“Because there was a time when you believed in me when no one else would. When you had no reason to. When I could have been that killer. And I believe in you just as much as you did in me.”
Cyrene looked up into Ahlvie’s shining eyes, and with a gasp, she dropped her hand. All of the guards crumpled onto the ground. Confused to be sure when they woke up but alive.
“Thank you,” she muttered. “Thank you.”
“Come on,” he said. He put his arm around her frail frame. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I don’t know that I can…”
She was lucky that he held her because she took two more steps before collapsing as thoroughly as the guards.
Rhea groaned noisily as she came to. Her hand went to her head, and she felt the nasty lump where Captain Merrick had dropped his sword against her skull.
What an idiot she’d been to think that she’d be safe when Cyrene left. To think that they wouldn’t come for her. Sure, she might have been doing good work for the kingdom, but that didn’t mean anything now.
She sat up in the dungeon cell and let her eyes adjust to the dim lighting. The stone cell itself was tiny with nothing more than a pot to do her business. Iron bars took up the one other wall, and she rattled them until her shoulders ached but to no avail.
Finally, she sat back on her heels and waited. Surely, someone would come back for her. Right?
It wasn’t until a few more hours of utter solitude when she heard crying from the cell next to her.
“Hello?” Rhea called. “Who is there?”
“I’m…I’m not alone?” the voice said.
Rhea grinned when she recognized the voice and then immediately frowned. “Elea?”
“Rhea?” she whimpered.
“What are you doing down here?”
“Cyrene, Cyrene…she…she did horrible things,” Elea whispered. “And, now, we’re to be punished for it.”
Rhea frowned. “What kind of horrible things?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“Try me.”
Elea peeked her head against the bars, and Rhea could barely make out her face.
“She…she used some kind of magic to fight Prince Kael. They both have the curse. They blocked off the ballroom of my Presenting ball, so no one could get out. Cyrene threw Kael thirty feet into the wall before we could all get away.”
Rhea sighed. She had known it would only be a matter of time before everyone knew that magic existed. She had come to terms with it a year ago when Cyrene told her. But performing it in front of the entire ballroom? That was suicide.
“What happened to Cyrene?”
Elea shook her head and sniffled. “I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”
Rhea breathed a sigh of relief. That meant that Cyrene could have gotten away after all. There was still hope.
“How long do you think they’ll keep us down here?” Elea asked, her voice trembling.
Rhea took a deep breath. She didn’t want to give Elea false hope. “A while. Long enough.”
“But I didn’t do anything!”
Rhea shrugged even though she knew that Elea couldn’t see it. “Doesn’t seem to matter.”
Elea grew quiet from then on. Rhea didn’t know what she was thinking, but she could hear her soft sobs from the other side of the wall. She understood how Elea felt. They had been close before she went through her own Presenting. And, now, the day she was to become an Affiliate, everything had been ripped from her. Worse than what Rhea had felt when she was placed into Second Class. Elea was imprisoned just for being related to Cyrene. She’d lost her parents, her sister, her status, and her freedom, all in one week.
It was a long couple of hours before anyone else ventured down to the dungeons. Elea must have fallen asleep somehow because Rhea hadn’t heard a peep from her in some time. Not even any of her muffled tears.
Rough footsteps scraping on the floor made Rhea jump to attention. She stuck her head out to see who was approaching, but the light from the lantern blinded her in the darkness. She had to blink spots from her vision before she was able to see that it was not one but four people.
They stopped before Elea’s cell, and a gruff voice said, “Get up, girl.”
Rhea heard that voice in her nightmares. She shuddered as he came into view.
Merrick.
The king’s Captain of the Royal Guard.
His interest in her work had been…unstoppable.
In fact, he’d had interest in more than just her work. If she hadn’t had Kael as her ally, she wasn’t sure where exactly she would be. Not that she was exactly singing Kael’s praises at this moment. He had manipulated her as thoroughly as anyone to get what he wanted—bombs of his very own. But at least he hadn’t tried to put his hands on her. Not like Merrick.
“I said, get up,” he snarled.
Elea sniveled, and then Rhea heard her easing onto her feet.
“What…what do you want with me?”
“We need information.”
“What kind of information?”
“On Cyrene. Everything she told you before she left. Everything she might have hinted at. We need you to recall every little detail. Did she seem off? Did she seem distant? Had she been planning anything?”
“I…I don’t know.” Elea hedged. “We got into an argument. I didn’t really talk to her.”
“But did she say anything about planning something?”
“You mean, about the magic?”
Merrick shot his hand through the bars and grabbed Elea by the neck. “Do not use that word in this kingdom!”
Elea broke down into sobs, and Rhea couldn’t take it.
“Leave her alone!”
Merrick’s eyes shot to her, and he dropped Elea. “Hello, Rhea.”
She took a step back at that voice. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“How would you know that?”
“Because Cyrene isolated herself completely while here. I only saw her twice, and from what I gathered, she was with Prince Kael the entire time. Maybe you should question him,
” she told him.
“We intend to,” a second voice added.
Rhea startled when she saw King Edric step into view. “Your Majesty.”
Elea blubbered from the other side of the wall as their attention turned to Rhea. “Please, please, let me out of here. I didn’t do anything! I didn’t know my sister had magic. I didn’t know she was going to go insane! Please, I’m not at fault here. I’m an Affiliate. You gave me my pin. I shouldn’t be treated like this.”
Edric turned back to face Elea. His expression was dark and haunted. “You say you know nothing. Yet your brother has disappeared from the premises as well.”
“Reeve?”
“That means you must have all been plotting together.”
“But I’m still here! I didn’t try to run! I came back to my rooms. I was in fear for my life after what I saw. Please, I will do anything. Anything you ask.”
“Shut up, Elea,” Rhea snapped.
Merrick hadn’t taken his focus off of Rhea through Elea’s tirade. “I think we’ll have better luck with this one. The young girl seems to be clueless.”
“Still,” King Edric said with a shrug, as if he didn’t much care if Elea rotted down here, “she might know something.”
“I don’t! I don’t!” Elea cried.
“Tell us what you know,” Merrick said to Rhea. “Or I can make this very unpleasant.”
Rhea glared back at him and remained silent. Elea might dissolve into a sniveling idiot at the first provocation, but Rhea wasn’t about to divulge what she knew. And she knew a lot more than Elea ever did.
“Open her door,” Merrick snapped at the other guards who were guarding the king. “I will take great pleasure in peeling off each of your fingernails. To start. We’ll see how long you last.”
She raised her chin. The horrors that awaited her were hers to bear. She would not give up her information about Cyrene without a fight. If Merrick wanted to have one, then she would steel herself for the challenge.
“Do you think these bars can hold me?” came a voice from the cell to Rhea’s right.
