by Tenaya Jayne
Shi came closer, keeping herself invisible, surprised at the woman's appearance. Under the many scars on her face and neck were the traces of her lost beauty. Shi dug into the woman's mind for her name. Helena. She carried many scars on her heart as well. But she also had joy. A terrible, jealous ache spread through Shi as she looked at images of Ler and Helena's children.
Helena spoke, not realizing anyone could hear her. "This changed him so much… Such a terrible thing." Then she hissed angrily, "Quinn."
Shi watched Helena's memories of Quinn and what he'd done to her. And how Ler had rescued her, restored her, and had given her the throne regardless of what anyone said.
"Hello," Shi said quietly.
Helena jumped and looked around. Shi remained invisible.
"It's you, isn't it? You're her? You're Shi?"
Shi didn't answer.
"Forgive my intrusion. I meant no harm."
"Don't fear. I won't hurt you…not like I did Quinn."
Helena gasped. "Quinn? Quinn came here?"
"A long time ago. I killed him."
"Good. I'm glad to know for sure he's dead. There were no reports or sightings of him after he escaped prison. His crimes convicted him to death, but after all that happened, Leramiun couldn't bring himself to end anymore life."
Shi's memories came rushing back, along with the rage. It flooded her, pushing out reasonable thought.
"You should go," Shi warned. "I'm volatile and I might change my mind about hurting you, unjust as it might be. I'm not sure I can control myself."
Helena didn't need telling twice. She moved swiftly out of the wood and was gone. Shi trembled against her emotions, trying to ease them back. The images she saw of their children, children with Ler's eyes, gave her a strange crushing feeling, and yet she was glad they existed.
As the years wore on, more people came to the wood, some by accident, some seeking it out. Shi talked to none of them. She would riffle through their minds for lack of anything else to do, but she left them alone. Mostly, she slept, cocooned in her old trunk.
When Ler finally came, he came at night, and he came alone. She felt him like a hook through her core. She drifted, invisible, over him, amazed at the time that had passed. He was an old man. She looked inside him and saw the disease. He was dying.
"I've come back, Shi," he whispered, moving slowly toward the falls.
He squinted, his sight failing, as tears ran down his aged cheeks. He reached the beach and fell to his hands and knees, his shoulders shaking as he cried. His pulse labored, weakening. She caught him as he fell forward and turned him over to look up at her.
"Shi…there you are, my love."
Her hands clenched tightly on him. "Why are you here?" She flashed back and forth internally from love to hate, unable to make it be still.
"I came here to die. You died in my arms, now I can die in yours."
"Beg! Beg my forgiveness! I'll never give it. Beg anyway."
"No," he rasped. "No, I won't. The fault lies with both of us… I wish I had died next to you. You were my only love, Shi."
"And what was Helena?" Shi demanded.
"Obligation. Hate me if you must, but you can't stop me from dying where you are. Since you left, it's all I've wanted…just to die where you are."
He was right on the edge. Death slipped up behind her and reached its hand out for him. Racked with sobs, swamped with too many conflicted feelings, Shi acted without thinking. As his spirit lifted from his body, she seized a hold of it and shoved him backward.
"No!" she screeched. "You can't move on while I'm stuck here forever alone."
His spirit looked just as he had the day she mixed her blood with his, right there on that beach. Death came back around and reached for him again. Ler began to fade.
"No!" she screamed again, grasping at him. She caught his arm and pulled him to the Heart. "I curse you to torment, Leramiun! I bind you here with me forever!"
She grabbed him by the shoulders and shoved him into her trunk. She turned around and faced down death. "Mine!" she shouted at the hovering shadow.
Death hesitated, then backed away. "For now," he whispered.
Chapter 13
"Forest, Forest wake up." Shi shook her shoulder gently.
Forest came to groggily, her head throbbing painfully. She sat up, her eyes clearing. Shi's face came into focus next to her. Forest felt like she'd been beaten up as the effects of the sand wore off. Her heart ached with the knowledge she'd just acquired.
"I understand why you didn't tell me."
"You should go home now. It's late."
"He's still here, isn't he?" Forest asked.
"Yes," Shi whispered, looking down.
"Wow. And you still haven't forgiven him? You've kept him caged all this time?"
"Time doesn't matter that much to the dead, Forest," Shi hedged.
Forest looked at her severely for a moment before shrugging. "Whatever. Keep living your lies. I've butted in to your business enough for one day."
Forest got to her feet and dusted off her butt. She turned her ring around in her hand, but before she could go home, Shi reached for her hand.
"I love you, Forest."
"I know. I love you, too."
"Love Syrus better. Love him more. Appreciate every moment. Tragedy can happen to anyone at any time."
Forest nodded "You're right, Shi. I'll do that. Do you want me to give you some space for a while?"
"No, daughter. Visit me when you want to."
Forest hugged Shi gently, opened a portal, and went home to Syrus.
****
The night came in, soft and warm. Shi felt emotionally bludgeoned after having to watch everything Forest saw. She had never experienced their history like that before. She drifted to the flame. The thorn of rage that had been stuck in her ghostly heart for so long dislodged. She laid her hands on her trunk. She felt him from deep within lay his hands against hers. Just a faint vibration of energy from him tested the barrier.
Shi sighed and moved the breeze past them. It whispered a promise of coming absolution as it danced through the trees.
The End
Dark Soul
The Legends of Regia
Book Four
By
Tenaya Jayne
Copyright © 2015 Tenaya Jayne
All rights reserved. Please do not violate the author's rights by participating in or encouraging ebook piracy. No part of this book may be scanned, reproduced, ripped, or distributed in any printed or digital form. **If you downloaded this book for free, it is pirated! Please go to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or another retailer to purchase a legal copy. Thank you.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover design by Cathleen Tarawhiti and Erika Doucesse
Edited by Amanda Fiske and Claire Ashgrove
Proofread by Ally Robertson
COLD FIRE PUBLISHING, LLC
Prologue
Regia, fifty years ago…
Years of combat in the royal army, stringent training for the Crimson Brotherhood, and seven medals celebrating Mycale's honor and bravery amounted to nothing with two katana in his back. The flames consuming his house lit up the night as the acrid smoke of burning wood and flesh filled his lungs. The screams of his life mate and children caused his body to jolt, adrenaline attempting to force his body to accomplish the impossible. As he struggled to get up, the blades were thrust deeper, pinning him to the ground.
Mycale had never failed in anything, ever. But now, he'd failed to protect that which he loved the most. His family died thirty feet in front of him while he lay powerless to save them. The screams of his son and daughter quieted, and he knew they were dead, but one moment before Geanna's life was extinguished, her voice cried out to him.
"Mycale! I love you!"
Then she was gone. She died before he could
answer and tell her for the last time that he loved her. The spiritual bond of destined life mates crashed within him, utterly demolished. The light inside his heart turned black, the atriums and ventricles broke apart. He wanted to crawl into the flames and die beside them, where he belonged.
The blades impaling him slid back, removed from his torso. The rush of blood from his wounds soaked the ground beneath him. He attempted to pull himself forward to the house when a foot kicked him over on his back. The light of the fire moved along the length of the sword now pointing at his heart. Mycale looked up into the eyes of his best friend, Steven. And his broken heart broke a little more.
"Why?" Mycale rasped, his lungs full of smoke and blood.
The lifeless expression on Steven's face flinched, smoothed out again, and then crumpled completely.
"I'm so sorry. I'm just following orders." Steven's voice broke, and he looked up at the burning house, tears running through the soot on his face. "The wolves will be blamed for this, and the entire peace treaty will be forgotten."
"Geanna…the children… How could you?"
Steven closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm sorry."
Steven stood directly over him, the hilt of his sword clasped in both hands. He lifted the blade over Mycale and plunged it into his chest.
****
The deaths of Mycale and his family was the catalyst to end the fragile diplomacy that had been formed between the werewolves and vampires. And it worked, the treaty died. Mycale, however, did not. The sword through the chest missed his heart by a breath. Hours later, lying half-dead next to the pile of ash that used to be his home, a werewolf on the run tripped over him.
Tek clambered to his feet, cursing whatever obstacle had tripped him and was immediately shocked from his thoughts of running as he surveyed the macabre scene in front of him. He crouched down beside the body at his feet and felt for a pulse. The light thump of the vein beneath his finger had him cursing again. Taking a deep breath, he grabbed the vampire by the arm and hefted him over his shoulder.
Tek labored under the dead weight. The constant flow of obscenities running through his head was directed at his mother's memory for teaching him to always help those in need, friend, stranger, or foe alike.
The pale sun broke the horizon and seemed to taunt him. He wheezed under his new burden, a nasty cramp in his leg and a shooting pain under one shoulder. He couldn't continue on in broad daylight with a charred heap of vampire across his shoulders, despite the fact he was traveling off the road.
He looked around. He had no idea where he was. The distant sounds of civilization made him apprehensive and hungry at the same time. Unloading the man on his back to the ground, he began scouting a place to hold up for the day.
An hour later, he was cursing his mother's memory again as he dragged the unconscious vampire into the obliging cave he'd discovered. Propping him against the moist rock wall, Tek did something he'd never done or even thought about before: he placed his forearm against the lips of a vampire. Still unconscious, the vampire opened his mouth and bit down.
Three gulps, and the vampire's crusted, bloodshot eyes sprang open. He watched as the vampire threw himself back, clutching and beating at his chest.
"NO!!" His cry of agony resounded off the walls.
Tek grabbed the young man by the forearms and had his seized in return. The vampire's eyes locked onto his again. Tek was no stranger to suffering, his own and that of others, but these eyes burned with the torture of the damned to a level he had never seen.
"You saved my life?" he demanded.
"Yeah, I did… And I can tell, you're not about to thank me for it."
Tek let go and tried to back up. The devil in those eyes wanted his blood, and not just for a light snack.
The vampire grabbed at his sides but found only empty sheaths, his weapons gone. His eyes shot back to Tek. "I'd appreciate it if you'd kill me now."
Tek blinked. "Aren't you polite."
"Just lend me a weapon, I'll do it myself."
"I'm sorry. Unfortunately, I'm completely unarmed."
The vampire got to his feet and looked out from the entrance of the cave. "Where are we?"
"No idea," Tek answered. "I left my last dwelling with the thought anywhere but here."
The vampire turned. "Why did you save my life?"
Tek shrugged. "Morality. It's a serious flaw… You're a royal soldier?" He'd just noticed the embossed emblem on the scorched, damaged breastplate.
The vampire blinked confusedly for a second before looking down at his chest. His hands touched the holes through the metal. The next second, he was ripping the armor from his body. Tek backed away from him as he caught the look in his eyes again. How could eyes go dead and still burn like that?
He watched from the mouth of the cave as the burned soldier limped off a ways and began to bury his armor in the ground under a tree. He saved only a ragged scrap and used its sharp edge to carve into the tree trunk. Tek turned away from the sight as the vampire's grief began to pour out of him. He knew unquestioningly that crossing his path, into the middle of this terrible crime and the pain resulting from it, would change his already complicated life. He just couldn't yet see how.
Tek came back to the cave's opening at the sound of uneven footfalls. "I wasn't sure you'd come back."
"Neither was I," the soldier conceded, turning the rough scrap of metal over and over in his hand. "I must disappear…I must bide my time…"
Tek smiled ruefully. "Me too."
"I won't thank you for saving my life. As far as I'm concerned, I died last night with my family… But my body is still animated for one purpose… revenge."
Tek ran his hands through his hair and sighed. "I don't know where I'm going, or when I'll stop, but you're welcome to come with me, provided you don't slow me down."
The vampire turned his dark eyes to the ground, one hand rubbing a spot on his back. "I didn't heal completely, and after this amount of time, it means I never will. I'll probably always limp, but I'm still strong and well trained. I could watch your back."
"Okay." Tek extended his hand. The vampire caught it firmly and held fast. "My name's Tek. What's yours?"
Hesitation filled the vampire's face.
"I'll use any name you give me," Tek prompted. "Pick a new one."
The vampire nodded, hesitating again. "Merick. Call me Merick."
Chapter One
Unseen. That was how she lived, not one single soul had laid eyes on her in over a year. Solitary, she kept to the wilds and retreated whenever anyone wandered too close. She talked to no one except herself and sadly found her own company distasteful. High on a great precipice, she looked out over the world and could see all the way to the rose-colored Crystalline Sea, the setting sunlight glinting off its jagged waves. She sighed deeply at the approaching, desolate night. Lonely and bored to the point of unqualified despair, Netriet ran her fingertip along the sharp edge of the rock she'd found earlier. Its flinty weight felt rough and dirty in her palm. She contemplated the edge and what she could do with it.
Will you please stop trying to kill yourself?
"I would if you'd go away."
We both know I can't do that.
"I promise not to try to kill myself for the rest of today if you shut up and not say another word."
The shadow was silent for one minute before she began to hum a disjointed tune in the back of Netriet's mind. Netriet took a deep breath, trying not to give in to the tears of defeat layering under her eyelids. If only it could just be over, but the shadow never let her harm herself. When she focused on benign or pleasant things, the shadow would be quiet and retreat to the corners. But before long, before Netriet could really relax and breathe peacefully, the shadow's sharp fingers would start to scratch and pick at her tendency for negativity, prod deeply at her fear, and tickle the longing for revenge.
Sometimes she fought it. Sometimes she won. But when her defenses were down, the shadow would wrap
its arms around her and whisper in her ear, skillfully seducing her into submission. Netriet hated her own weakness. The blackness of her scars and the dark tendril that circled her left eye bespoke of the disease within. She ached to get back at the persons responsible for all of her trouble… The elf woman who first put the collar on her hand and sent her to Philippe. She was the catalyst. And the transparent being in the Wolf's Wood who prevented her from dying and placed the shadow within her. Netriet didn't even know their names, but their faces were forever branded in her mind.
You want revenge, don't you?
"Shut up."
Why do you keep us out here away from everyone else? You'll never get your revenge like this.
"I'll never get revenge regardless."
Netriet looked down on the rising smoke of civilization as the closest town built their evening fires. A sharp-toothed wind picked up around her, sliding through her threadbare clothes, biting at her skin. She huddled down against a large tree trunk, wrapping her arm across her knees. How long could she go on like this? She often desired food but since her transformation, no longer needed it to survive. She existed with no purpose and no prospects, an entirely pointless entity.
Let's go back. The shadow crooned in its most seductive tone. You're so lonely. I know you'd like to see your friends again. Huh? Forest? The ogre lady, Martia? She said she wanted you to come back. You never did. That was rude of you.
Netriet sighed and shook her head. "I can't. I won't let you hurt anyone."
I wouldn't! I promise. Why do you think I'm so bad? I save your life almost every day.
Netriet ground her teeth. "You don't care about me. You're just afraid if I die, so will you."
Not true. I care about you. That's why I want you to go back. You've been through so much. I want you to have some happiness. Otherwise, why would I tell you to go see Forest? I hate Forest. But I'll suffer her company because you like her.
