I winced when my knees cracked against the hard stone.
“Honey, I’m home,” Allis called out, and I sat up, making to stand until the plagued shoved me back down.
We were in what must have been the new throne room, and at the end was a massive stone seat.
A figure sat hunched in the chair, but as Allis approached, it lifted its head.
It was too far away for me to make out any details, but the fear prickled along the back of my neck even as I forced myself to sit up as tall as I could, when I finally came face to face with the evil behind all of this.
Zohar.
It had to be him.
“So,” a deep voice called out as the figure rose, clasped his hands behind his back, and stalked down from the dais, moving towards me.
The braziers’ trembling flames kept Zohar’s face in shadow as he moved closer. “It appears you have finally come home.”
“This is not my home,” I snapped. “Not in this world at least.”
His laughter was rough on my ears, making them itch. “I was not speaking to you, Katherine Darrah, Vindicar of the new age.”
I frowned, looking dramatically around. “No? I’m sorry, must be a mistake. I’ll go then.” I attempted to stand again, and the plagued shoved me down even harder. “Seriously? Is this how you treat all your guests?”
The man continued moving until he was only a few feet away. He lifted his head, but the face staring back at me was not the one of Zohar I saw on the scroll back at the sorcerers’ mansion.
It was younger, softer around the edges, but those eyes were pitch black, overflowing with evil intentions.
When he grinned, his fangs appeared, sharp and stained.
“You are not a guest, are you? As I said, you have come home.”
“This is not my home,” I seethed through clenched teeth as he glared down at me.
“Be silent, you insolent girl,” he snapped and thrust his hand out towards me.
Pain exploded in my head and chest as I gasped for air, my arms stiffening at my sides. My vision blurred, and I knew I was going to die, just like this, right here and now on this stone floor.
Something was clawing inside me.
I didn’t want to give this bastard the satisfaction of hearing me scream, but I couldn’t hold it back, and my mouth fell open. I screamed and cursed, waiting for the torment to end, but then my scream was joined by a second, a woman.
My eyes refused to open, and I worried who else was here being tortured with me when the pain cut off and I collapsed to the stone floor, sucking in air like a drowning person.
An echoing sound met my ears, and I turned. “What the hell?” I scrambled away as the woman did the same, glancing from me then up to the man in horror. “You… it can’t be!”
The man’s hand fell to his side as a wicked grin lit his lips, and he bowed his head to the woman. “As I said, you have finally returned home. It is very good to see you after all these years, my dear sister Celandine.”
The woman, wearing the outfit I saw Celandine die in, pulled herself to her feet, glowering at the man before us.
Her eyes narrowed in hate, and she curled her hands into fists at her sides. “Hello, brother.”
“Brother?” I snapped. “This is your brother?” I squinted at him and cursed, finally recognizing him as the man I saw from the vision of the attack in the throne room. The day Zohar had officially turned against his kin.
“Cassius Darrah, at your service,” the man said, bowing towards me, but it was far from friendly. “I must say, I have been looking forward to this day for a very long time.”
I could think of nothing to say as he stalked closer and I realized how screwed I was.
15
Craig
I growled in the face of the plagued demon, holding it back inches from my face, its jaws snapping as it tried to bite me.
My blade lay on the ground in the grass, and I scrambled to grab hold of it.
Forrest cursed nearby, and I heard the dull thud of a body slamming into a tree.
The plagued demon pushed harder, driving me down into the dirt. Saliva dripped from its mouth and landed sickly warm on my face, making my stomach turn.
My fingers brushed against the hilt of the sword, and I barely got it in my hands when Forrest scooped it up, lit it on fire, and the demon grunted and collapsed against me, dead.
I shoved it off before the flames burned me too, and grunted as I rolled away from the wretched stench of the now burnt and blackened corpse
“Having problems, your majesty?” Forrest smirked as he stared down at me.
My side hurt, and my face throbbed from where the bastard clocked me when he fell out of the trees.
“Really?” I groaned as he held out a hand and pulled me to my feet, handing over my sword. “I thought we agreed no mentioning my title. Especially here.”
“You’re welcome. And why not? You really don’t want Kate to know?”
I wiped the blood from the sword on the grass and sheathed it back at my hip as Forrest dislodged my dagger from another demon, currently a smoldering pile of debris thanks his now formidable dragon fire.
“You think we’re good for a while?” I said, avoiding his question.
He shot me a funny look, but shrugged and I was thankful he let it be, for now.
“Maybe,” he mused as he turned in a slow circle. “Better question would be why there’s suddenly patrols of roaming plagued here. I thought this realm was meant to be deserted?”
“It’s not a good sign, I can tell you that much.”
As we set out on our path to find Kate, we expected to run into a few plagued beasts, but this was the second patrol we saw.
The first, we managed to avoid, but the second ran right into us, and we had no choice but to chase after them and kill them before they could report back to whoever their master was here. Allis or Zohar, either one was bad news.
I checked the pulsing of the bracelet on my wrist and breathed a sigh of relief to see it still glowing as urgently as before.
We were catching up to Kate, but it wasn’t fast enough. Not being near her, not knowing if she was in danger or not had me on edge. Add the news that I was now King of the Demons to make my stress go through the roof. She didn’t need to know about any of that, not until we got her safely home.
All of that was wearing on me, and something was eating at Forrest.
A strange glint had appeared in his eyes and hadn’t gone away.
I wasn’t one to push for answers, but something told me it had to do with Kate.
“Come on,” I said, and we took off through the trees once more. “You going to tell me what’s wrong with you?”
“Me? You’re the one that almost got your throat ripped out,” he shot back.
I arched a brow at his sharp tone. “You can’t tell me nothing’s wrong.”
He shrugged his shoulder and glared straight ahead. “I’m fine, it’s nothing.”
“Clearly it’s something and I’d rather you get it all out in the open now before we get into a worse fight and you’re off your game.”
When he still said nothing, I dragged him to a stop, but he yanked his arm free and stalked off.
“Forrest, just stop and talk to me for five seconds. Don’t make me pull my new title on you.”
His feet stilled, and his hands clenched at his sides. From the set of his shoulders, I knew he was pissed off and had a feeling I already knew what it had to do with, or who.
I had blocked out my own anger towards Kate, letting my worry override any other emotions until we found her and got her to safety.
“I’m angry, too,” I told him. “At her.”
His shoulders hunched more before he finally sagged. “I don’t want to be, but I can’t help it. She put everyone at risk by leaving, put us at risk,” he growled. “She should’ve just talked to us!”
“I know, but she thought she was saving us.”
“Well, she’s not! And now w
e’re here, unprepared to take on all these patrols. And the others, what if they’re still under attack, or worse? What if whatever went through that portal killed them, Craig? What if she gets herself killed! What are we supposed to do then?” He ran his hands through his hair as he paced from one tree to the other. “I hate her for doing this to me, for making me feel so attached to another person! I can’t think straight because I’m so damned worried!”
I crossed my arms and leaned against a nearby tree, feeling exactly the same way, and I think that was part of the problem.
Forrest wasn’t just dealing with his emotions, but juggling mine as well, probably without realizing it.
“If you were in her place, what would you have done?” I quietly asked him.
Not stopping his pacing, he barked a bitter laugh. “Not run off from the two people who I’m meant to fight the darkness with.”
“Even if you believed this darkness was coming only for you?”
His steps slowed, and he hung his head.
“You can be mad at her, it’s allowed, but we can’t be too harsh on her when we find her, no matter what happens. We all know how our lives ended before,” I reminded him, “and she, like us, does not want us to end up dead.”
Forrest breathed out heavily through his nose, hands planted on his hips, and nodded slowly. “You’re right. I just can’t stop thinking of how quickly this plan of ours to hunt down the shards went south. I can’t stand being—” His words cut off as he bellowed in pain and collapsed to the ground, holding his head.
“Forrest?” I rushed towards him, holding his shoulder as he grabbed my arms, his nails turning to talons while he struggled to hold on.
I grit my teeth at the pain, ready to knock him out, but then he muttered Kate’s name, and I froze.
“Where is she, what’s happening?” I demanded.
He shook his head, gasping through the pain, “Don’t… don’t know. I can’t… I can’t see, but she’s in pain. Damn,” he snarled, and another bellow burst from his mouth.
Heart pounding, I closed my eyes and pushed my mind, searching for Kate, needing a vision, but I saw nothing.
It killed me to know she was in just as much pain as Forrest, possibly worse.
Zohar, he must have her and the idea of him hurting her nearly drove me to leave Forrest behind and take off in the direction the bracelets guided us.
Forrest sucked in a deep breath, and his body relaxed. “I’m alright… I think… I think she is, too.”
I managed a nod, but could say nothing else, not trusting myself to speak.
“We’re running out of time.”
“Can you walk?” I finally asked, and he nodded as I helped him to his feet.
My arms stung from the punctures of his talons, but as he said, we were out of time.
Without a word, we found the direction we needed to go and took off at a steady jog.
Before long, we were at a dead sprint, leaping over roots jutting out of the ground and swatting at errant tree branches with a mind of their own, driving to slow us down even more.
I pumped my arms as hard as I could, muscles screaming for me to stop, but eventually, they went numb.
The only time we slowed was to check our direction and ensure we were still headed towards Kate.
Forrest’s screams of agony echoed in my head, and soon I heard Kate instead.
I ground my teeth, preparing myself for whatever state we were about to find her in.
“Craig,” Forrest hissed, and I slid to a stop in the leaves as he snatched my arm. “Look.”
Both of us panted to catch our breaths, but I followed where he pointed and cursed.
The fortress stood tall and whole in the middle of the clearing, rebuilt by the plagued soldiers surrounding it.
They swarmed like a hive, dragons, and demons, many were barely bones managing to stay together.
The dark power spreading out from the area made my skin crawl, and when I lifted my right wrist with the bracelet, the glow was almost constant.
“She’s in there,” I whispered. “How are we supposed to get her out without alerting the entire bloody army!” I smashed my fist against the nearest tree in fury.
“We’ll find a way,” Forrest said, but I heard the doubt in his words. “We have no choice.”
I stared back at the fortress that was formidable, at worst. The wall had not been erected yet at least, but the only way into the structure I could see was a front door, guarded by at least ten plagued demons.
Forrest and I moved as close as we dared while sticking to the shadows of the tree line.
Lying on our stomachs, we crawled through the dead grasses, scratching our arms and faces, before I patted Forrest’s arm to keep him from getting too much closer.
“A distraction would pull them away from the doors,” I suggested. “Or…”
“Or what?” Forrest asked when I took too long to answer.
“Think you can use those clouds as cover?”
“And do what exactly? Drop out of the sky onto the tower?”
I shrugged. “Why the bloody hell not?”
“I was hoping we could get out of here without breaking any bones,” he grumbled.
“Where’s the fun in that?”
I didn’t have to turn to know he glared at me.
“Once we fall onto the tower and manage not to break our legs, what then?”
“Get inside and find Kate, then get the hell out of here.”
“This is really your plan? As in you seriously want me to fly up there into the clouds and pray to the gods nothing goes wrong. That’s the best you can do?”
“What’s your idea?” I snapped, and he hung his head, cursing under his breath. “It’ll be fun.”
“Fun, he says,” Forrest grunted as I smirked. “Sometimes, I still very much hate you.”
“Once we get Kate out of there, you can hate me all you want,” I promised. “Let’s find someplace they won’t see you shift.”
Carefully, we backed through the grass, and I told myself this plan would work.
One of those times, I thought I might actually believe myself.
We were pulling back to find a safer spot for Forrest to shift when something hummed in my pocket.
I frowned, not sure what was there, but pulled out a small mirror I hadn’t even known I had.
From the runes on it, I assumed it came from Lucy.
I wasn’t sure how to get it to work and pressed my finger to the glass.
A second later, Lucy’s face appeared, blood dripping from a cut at her eyebrow.
And judging from the chaos going on behind her, she wasn’t the only one hurt.
Forrest leaned over my shoulder with a curse as we watched her message.
“The sorcerers’ manor has fallen,” she said in a rush. “Do not come back here. The plague, it’s taken over and destroyed everything. When you find Kate, take her to Gregornath. Contact me then. Stay safe.”
She looked like she wanted to say more, but someone yelled her name and the message cut off.
I tucked the mirror back into my pocket, swallowing hard.
Whatever attacked the manor had to be stronger than anything we faced so far if it was able to stand against sorcerers and witches.
“We need to get Kate, now.”
“Agreed.” He glanced skyward and nodded firmly. “Time to go fall out of the sky.”
16
Kate
I somehow managed to avoid any awkward family dinners due to the fact that for the first part of my life, I only had my parents and then afterward it was Mama Lucy and the kids.
Really nothing awkward there. What I sat through now had to be at least ten times as bad as what a normal strained family dinner was like.
And I couldn’t just get up and leave.
A heavy chain wrapped around my legs, holding me to the hard-backed chair and another wound around my shoulders. My arms were also manacled as well as my ankles, so all I co
uld do was turn my head, barely.
A drink was poured before my eyes by a smirking Allis, and I glowered right back. The bastard.
“Would you like some?” he asked.
“No, I’ll pass,” I snapped.
“Oh, but I insist.” He picked up the goblet with the thick, dark liquid and held it to my lips.
I clamped them shut, not about to drink anything given to me by my host, or his minion, but Allis tipped the goblet anyway, and it spilled all down my front.
I sputtered, and he managed to get some dumped in my mouth, so I choked on it, coughing and hacking as he laughed in glee.
“Allis, enough,” Cassius drawled sounding bored. “Take your seat.”
I spat at him as he passed, and he slammed the goblet down, spilling more onto my lap.
“Do I need to be chained? I mean really? Where the hell am I going to go?” I asked.
Cassius, his cheek resting in his open palm as he sat across the table from me, smiled slowly. “You think I’m going to let the Vindicar wander around my fortress unattended? No, I think I’ll keep you right where I can see you.”
“Please, brother,” Celandine said.
I still had a hard time understanding how she was here.
She was dead, and though her soul lived on in me, there was no explanation for her body being present.
And yet there she sat, also chained to a chair, right beside me. “Why are you doing this?”
“Why? I would’ve thought that would be obvious.”
“None of this is obvious,” I replied for her. “What happened to Zohar?”
“Father? Yes, he sadly met an untimely end,” Cassius said with a fake pout. “Living in this world killed him, it truly did. Or well, I did.”
Allis laughed with him, and I rolled my eyes. “Wow, how original, you killed Daddy Dearest to take over what, his plan to rule the world? He failed, remember? And you’re going to fail again. The prophecy is all about stopping you.”
He stood, but I kept talking, more out of nervousness than anything else.
“You’re going to lose in the end. You might as well just give up now and save yourself the heartache.”
Chaos (Dragon Reign Book 4) Page 8
