Betrayed (Raven Daughter Book 2)
Page 30
“I don’t think even a convention dedicated to it could handle this much.” He grinned.
I chuckled as I pulled off my armor and began the process of freeing myself from the ick that covered me from head to foot then created new clothes. Blinking against the dizziness of so much blood loss, I was careful to hide my tired muscles. Whatever had healed me hadn’t fixed that. I wanted out of the chamber and out of the cave. I scrubbed my armor in the same way as I did my body and hair. Only the fact it was bound to me allowed me to do that, which in my mind made magic armor pretty cool.
Caius finished before I did and held my now-clean armor while I reassembled myself. After I was finally ready, we started back up the hall. When the torches in the chamber all went out at once and plunged us into inky blackness, we both held up a hand and let a flame dance on our palms.
***
“I had held out hope the prophecy didn’t truly pertain to Jo. Now that it was certain it did, if it was darkness they wanted, I would give it to them.” ~Caius
Chapter 41
When we exited the hall, everyone was waiting for us. I had only to look at Rowen to realize we’d been right about everyone knowing. There wasn’t a trace of anger in my guide’s face, only resignation and worry.
“Please don’t lecture me,” I said, feeling weary. The bonding had used up a lot of energy and I lost a lot of my blood to save Caius. The bonding had come on so quick and then with the initial after-effect that drove us into wild kissing, I don’t think Caius realized just how much I had given.
“I have no intention of it.” Rowen smiled. “I had a feeling this is how it would play out eventually.”
“So you think the prophecy really applies to me?” When he nodded, I couldn’t help asking again, “And you are okay with that?”
“I think the fairies had a good way of looking at it. The Morrigan saw you coming well enough to make a prophecy about it and yet didn’t try to do anything to stop it herself. Perhaps they are right, and everything that happens is supposed to happen the way she wanted.” Rowen put an arm around me. “Either way, I will be here for you.”
“Thanks, Rowen.” It felt good to have him on my side.
We only rested for a short time before starting back through the cave. As we made our way back to the portal, Caius filled everyone in on what happened in the chamber. I remained silent, concentrating on keeping forward movement while I listened to him tell it all, though he left out the exact details of the bond for which I was grateful. I didn’t regret it and if anything, loved Caius even more. At the same time, he’d seen everything, felt everything, known my every thought during the bond. I’d never felt so exposed.
The only saving grace is that it was Caius I was bonded to. He would never bring up what he saw and felt, would never try to make me talk about any of it. It would simply be something he knew and understood about me. In the same way, I would never bring up what I’d seen. I’m glad I was able to participate in something so intimate, but in the end, the past was the past.
When we stopped to rest part way back, James came over to sit next to me. He handed me water and a traveling square. While I chugged water, he said, “I decided I was wrong about you finding trouble.”
“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow and took a bite.
“Finding implies you just kind of stumble over it. It’s more like you seek it out, jump in with both feet, and bathe in it.” He grinned.
“And you don’t seek it out?” I tipped the canteen back and gulped down more water.
“Definitely not.”
I laughed, “Then what are you doing here with me?”
James glanced around the cave. “Well, life is more interesting around you. Scarier, but interesting.”
I snorted and finished my food, wishing I could ask for another square. The food and water had restored me some, but I wasn’t sure it was enough. After another drink, I handed the canteen back to James and stood. It looked like most everyone had finished and I was ready to get out of the cave. The heavy humidity glued my clothes and armor to my skin. If it got any higher, I was going to need to evolve into a fish in order to breathe.
The climb back up the hill was just as treacherous and irritating as the descent. I found myself grumbling profanities under my breath at the ravens and eagles that monitored our progress. Even if it wasn’t their fault they could fly while I scrambled up the side of the stupid hill. The rope ladder still hung at what would always be Broken Bone Trail to me. Caius and Rowen were the first up, then Bethany. When she was about halfway up, I started my ascent. Making sure I had a good hold on the ladder.
Climbing was a struggle made worse by the exhaustion creeping in. The food and water may have helped, but it wasn’t enough to support this level of activity. I paused a couple of rungs from the top and clung to the damp rope, panting. A thread of fear wormed its way through me as I became less sure how well I could hold on even if I didn’t move another inch.
“Everything okay?” Caius asked from somewhere above on the trail above.
I looked up. It was only two rungs to the top of the ladder where Broken Bone Trail leveled off a bit. A couple feet had never felt so far. Without answering, I focused my attention back on the ladder and keeping hold of it. The baby fluttered in my belly, but I was too shaky to appreciate it. Caius’s worry and concern threaded through me and although I didn’t look up again, I could sense exactly where he was as he descended the path to me and when he stopped.
“Take my hand, Jo.”
I let my eyes travel up until I saw Caius crouched above me, one hand braced against the stone, the other extended toward me. Mine shook as I placed it in his. Gripping my hand tight enough it was uncomfortable, he hauled me up and pulled me into his arms. “What’s wrong?”
My muscles felt watery and I had to focus to make my legs hold. “I think I let you have a little too much blood in the chamber.”
With a muttered oath, Caius turned and started pulling me up the path, keeping one arm around me. I breathed a sigh of relief when the path started leveling out. It meant we were nearing the top. Only a couple hundred feet left. The rest who had been climbing with me flew past in their bird forms. Caius picked me up and carried me the rest of the way, sitting me down near the portal and opening his wrist. I didn’t hesitate to take the offered blood. My tissues soaked it up like sponges.
I already felt better when he pulled his wrist away. “You lost so much in the chamber, how can you have enough to give me?”
“While you were talking to James, Malik and Zane both donated,” he answered. “I could feel you getting weaker, but didn’t know why. You should have said something.”
“I didn’t realize you had received more and didn’t want you giving me any if you needed it.” I shrugged. “I thought I could make it after drinking lots of water and eating. I guess it didn’t hold me as well as I’d hoped.”
“Next—” He jerked his head up as ravens started calling a warning.
Both reapers and demonborn dived for the top of the hill, many shifting just before they touched the ground. Caius stood and took a few steps to where Rowen glided in, changing to his human form and hitting the ground at a walk. Caius swept his gaze over the hilltop as if ensuring everyone had reached it. “What’s happening?”
Rowen folded his arms, his dark eyes uneasy. “A large number of demonborn and Skraelix.”
Oh, yay, the crazy mix of insect, human, and animal. “I hate those things.”
“You aren’t alone in that,” Caius said and turned to Rowen. “How many?”
“They outnumber us by far,” Malik said as he approached. “We can win, but only if you are ready for everyone in our group to know everything about the heritage we share. And you are ready for any who might escape to spread the tale.”
I got to my feet while they were weighing the pros and cons. Without hesitation, I touched the rune Hades had indicated, my mind focused on where I wanted the people in my group to go, and where I want
ed our enemies to go. I knew now what Hades had been trying to tell me. Either Caius wasn’t shown that bit of conversation during the bonding, or he wasn’t as obsessed as I had been in trying to figure it out. Hades’s words hadn’t stopped rolling around in the back of my mind since he left.
Caius turned, his golden eyes molten as the material within the portal began to ripple. “Why did you activate the portal?”
“I think it’s time we left.” I smiled. “Don’t you?”
“Jo, whoever activates it has to be the last through it. Even I will have to pass through it before you.” Anger flashed through him, all tangled up with threads of apprehension.
“I know.” I locked my gaze with his. “Trust me. In this, I know what to do.” When he didn’t answer, I said, “Please, trust me. I’ve trusted you countless times.”
He took two steps and crushed me to him. “It’s not like you’ve given me a choice.”
“If we are making our exit, we should do it quickly,” Rowen said. “They are moving fast.”
Caius called out to everyone and started ushering them through the portal. The sound of large insect legs echoed around the cave. Our enemies were closer than I’d thought. Good, it would go quicker this way.
When my band of merry men was all the way through and it was just Caius and I standing on the hill, he reached out a hand and cupped the side of my face. “I will see you on the other side.”
“I’ll be right behind you.” I watched him step into the portal, the bond sharing with me just how difficult it was for Caius to leave me behind.
I turned to face the first demonborn to make it to the hilltop and the ghastly horde with them. There was so much flora in that part of the cave, I easily began building a barrier. Not that it would stop them, but it didn’t need to, just slow them down so the majority were on the hilltop before I acted.
Patience wasn’t usually a big virtue of mine, but I found I didn’t need much of it. My enemies piled up behind my barrier in short order and listening to them trying to blast their way through it was amusing. When I was certain the bulk of their numbers were there, I stood right in front of the portal, where they wouldn’t miss seeing me, and dropped the barrier.
They spotted me instantly and surged forward. Feeling surprisingly calm, I turned and stepped through the portal with my destination firmly in my mind, and theirs as well. When I came through, I was surprised to see the pink beach of Nyx’s home. Although, to be honest, I knew more who I was going to, not where.
I barely had time to register Caius’s relief at seeing me before echoed screams emanated from the portal, making me cringe a little. Turning to watch the rippling surface, I couldn’t tell if the feeling of relief was just Caius’s or if mine at seeing him and the rest of my merry band safe was looping with his. I didn’t move until the distant screams in the portal died away. Reaching out, I touched the rune again and watched the portal dissolve into nothing.
When I turned to my friends on the beach Caius asked, “What happened?”
“I waited until as many as possible were on the hilltop and frothing to get at me in order to make sure a good number would charge the portal.” I smiled, though I couldn’t ignore the touch of sadness I felt over the lives of the demonborn I’d taken. “Remember when Hades said he could send different people to different areas even when they were all passing through the portal at the same time?”
When Caius nodded I continued, “Well, I made sure to send me here. And I sent each of them,” I pointed to where the portal had stood, “To two different destinations. The portal did exactly as asked and tore each one in half and sent them.”
“What were the two places?” Rowen asked, looking at me like I’d grown a third eye.
I guess what I’d done was a bit extreme, but I couldn’t hide from the fact that it was them or us. And I had a little life growing inside me that needed to be protected and it was best they learned now that my child was not an easy target, even if their deaths weighed heavy on my soul. “I sent one part of each of them to the carnivorous trees. The trees get free dinner tonight in return for trying to help against the Sentinels. And I sent the other half to the smilodons in the fairy forest. Maybe the pretty deer will have a peaceful night if the giant kitties are stuffing themselves on delivery.”
Caius laughed, amusement and pride in his golden eyes. Rowen shook his head. Malik cleared his throat and said, “Not that I’m opposed to our destination, but I’m surprised you chose Nyx’s.”
I frowned as I watched Nyx herself stride across the sand toward us and said, “I didn’t. I thought first of a place we could maybe rest for a day or two while we figure out the clue that will take us to the dagger. But I wasn’t sure where that would be. The only other thing I wanted when I touched that portal was Amisi. So I decided we would go wherever she was and figure it out from there.”
“That would explain why you ended up here then,” Nyx said as she reached us. “Amisi showed up here several days ago, hissing mad and demanding food.”
“How did she get all the way back here in just a few days?” Bethany said as she tried to control her wild curls in the wind coming off the sea.
Nyx snorted probably the most graceful snort that could be accomplished and said, “She is a Bastet cat, my dear. She can teleport across the Between as she wishes.”
Suddenly, Amisi’s disappearances made so much more sense. “I wonder why she came back here though.”
“She’s a cat, she likes fish.” Nyx motioned toward the opening of her house. “If you need rest, my house is always open to you.” She ran her gaze over the collection of reapers and demonborn. “It would appear more armor is needed anyway.”
Caius tucked me close to him as we followed her. Perhaps this visit would prove more restful than the last. And I could use some rest from the constant hiking, even if just for a few days. Once we left here, the immortal world would be doing their best to track us down. The path to the dagger was guaranteed to be full of enemies. We were fully bonded, and whatever I would be in the future, it seemed Caius was my consort.
As we walked the tunnel to the main room of Nyx’s small palace-like house, she turned and said. “You aren’t my only visitors. Hopefully, everyone gets along this time.”
“Who?” Caius gave her a guarded look.
Nyx scowled. “None are Succubi or Incubi. I have serious doubts about ever letting another of those in my house again.”
“Good. So who is already here?” Impatience threaded through from Caius.
We topped the steps and I gasped. The tall man with black hair I recognized from Caius’s memories. But it was the golden-haired beauty standing at his side that made tears sting my eyes as I ran across the room and threw myself into her arms. “Victoria!”
***
“Wherever this path led, I would be willing to walk it with her. Honestly, how could I not love a woman who stood calmly in the face of our enemies while at the same time sending everyone to her cat?” ~Caius
Coming 2018!
About the Author
A.D. Trosper currently lives on the plains of west-central Kansas with her husband, three children, five dogs, and a flock of chickens. When not taking care of necessary life stuff, she loves watching movies with her amazing husband, gaming with her kids, and exploring the fictional worlds and people that take up space inside her head.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
About the Author