The king crouched beside him and examined the wound on Arwan’s neck, then let out a low huff. “You do not have much time left.”
Arwan never took his gaze off Zanya. Regret drilled into his bones. The child she carried would never know him, and he would never spend another night with Zanya, with his arms draped over her body under satin sheets.
“Boy.” The king slapped his cheek. “Look at your father.”
When Arwan refused, the king grabbed his chin and turned his head.
“There is no one more inclined to save you than I. All I want—all I have ever wanted—is my heir to return to his rightful place beside me.” He leaned in closer. “Do this, and I will not only spare your life, but I will withdraw my attack on the middleworld.”
His fingers were cold as ice. Arwan coughed, then swallowed down the metallic taste coating his tongue.
“It is the one gift I can give before you part ways with the fragile humans you have grown so close to.”
“If I refuse?” Arwan whispered—though barely.
“You will not leave my realm with your life.”
Arwan swallowed a mouthful of his own blood, and then gagged.
“If he stays, you’ll let him live?” Zanya said. “You’ll save him?”
The hellhound barked, making her flinch.
The king raised his hand, sending the beast into submission. “Yes, he will live to one day take my throne.”
“Then take him,” Zanya said. “Save him, and let the rest of us go back to the middleworld.”
The king stood and turned to examine the others.
“Arwan.” The pain in Renato’s eyes was frightening. “Fight. You must fight to stay alive.” Renato choked on his words, and a tear slipped down his cheek. “I know you have light in you. I’ve known since you were a boy. I saw it in your eyes.”
The king tilted his head. “You care for the boy.”
Arwan grabbed the king’s ankle. “Leave him alone.” He coughed a hot fountain of blood that dribbled down his cheek.
Zanya strained to reach Arwan. Her fingertips barely touched his. Shadows crawled into the edges of his vision and his heartbeat thudded in his ears, slowing with each passing breath.
A sob trickled from Zanya’s chest. “He’s fading.” Her voice was muffled in his ears.
The king grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him off the ground, sending a streak of pain through his body that jolted him awake.
“Make your choice,” the king demanded.
“He can’t,” Zanya said. “I won’t make him choose.” She curled her fingers around Arwan’s as tightly as she could. Her touch was so warm compared to his. “He’ll stay. Let him stay. Let him live.”
“He’s nearly dead,” Renato shouted. “Help him, for god’s sake, help him!”
The king looked back at Arwan. “You must choose yourself. Say so, and I will return your comrades and leave the middleworld in peace.”
Arwan blinked slowly, with little energy left to speak. He squeezed Zanya’s hand tighter. He’d never see her again. He’d never have the chance to hold their child, or hike through the jungle he’d come to love so much. He would never breathe the fresh air of Belize, or walk along the beach outside Renato’s home.
But Arwan knew the king enough to know the truth.
If he did not stay, the king would kill them all, and there would be no one left.
Arwan parted his lips and struggled to push out his consent. “I agree.”
The king waved his hand, and the tree snatched them all from the ground, pulling them to safety.
Everyone but Renato, who was left behind, still trapped in the roots.
Zanya’s scream faded into the distance. Arwan looked at Renato.
“You said everyone,” Arwan whispered, fighting to stay conscious. “You said you would save them all.”
“Yes, but you are beyond hope.” The king pulled a knife from his sheath. “A life for a life. That is the cost.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Zanya
The tree regurgitated Zanya onto the ground and quickly withdrew, filling the passage that led back to the underworld.
Zanya lay on the ground, leaves scattered under her body and a cool breeze drifting over her skin. Her heart ached so deeply, she’d never recover.
Zanya grabbed a handful of soil and crushed it in her fist while grinding her teeth.
He was gone, and he was never coming back.
“Zanya.” Jayden’s voice was tender, almost as much as his touch. He laid his hands on her arm. “Are you okay?”
“Where’s Renato?” her mother said.
Zanya closed her eyes tightly and curled into a ball. It was as if a hole had been punched through her chest. A massive, gaping wound that tore out her heart and scorched it to ash.
“Where is he?”
Zanya forced her eyes open and scanned the area. “He…” She swallowed against an aching throat. “He’s not here?”
“No, he’s not here!” Her mother circled the passage in the ground. “They blocked our way back.” She stopped. “Will it bring him like it did us?”
“I…” Zanya stared at the tree, its roots coiled tightly like a barrier, “don’t know.”
“Where is he? When is the tree bringing him?” Her voice turned fanatic. She looked at Zanya and buried her fingers in her hair. “Where is he, Zanya?” Her screams made the nearby birds flee from the trees.
Zanya’s heart pounded and her fingertips went numb. She’d just lost the one man in her life she would ever bond with, and now her uncle was missing. It was all too much.
Zanya pulled her legs to her chest and wound her arms around them, burying her face between her knees. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” The repetitive whispers did little to calm her. Nothing could ease the pain of the tether in her soul being severed from Arwan forever.
There was a thud. Zanya picked up her head to see her mother dropped to her knees beside the roots. The bitter woman she had known since her return was now stripped down to that of a child, desperate for the sanctuary of her family.
Her mother shoved her fingertips between the vines. “We have to get him out. We have to get him out.” She yanked and pulled at the tree, though it did no good.
Beigarth walked behind her, his eyes sad. He watched her in silence for a moment, then reached out and set his hand on her back. “Ellie.”
She slapped Beigarth’s hand away. “Don’t call me that! Only Renato calls me that.”
The Viking stepped back, more pity flooding his gaze. “Aye,” he said in a low voice. “Aye.”
“Renato!” Her mother screamed at the blockade of roots. “Renato!” She looked at Beigarth. “Do something! Petrify it. You can do that, right?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Jay said. “We can break through rock. We can use explosives or something.”
Beigarth shook his head. “If the tree is still holding to him, he will be petrified the same. It’s too dangerous.”
“But if it’s not,” her mother said, “it’ll work, right?”
Beigarth frowned. “The tree is too large. It spans the realms. I can’t do it alone.”
“With Grima,” Jayden suggested. “I mean…” He shifted his weight. “I know me and Renato didn’t start off great, but he deserves for us to try.”
“Even with me and Grima, lad, we aren’t enough. It’s not going to be enough.”
Her mother looked at Zanya, tears building in her eyes. She didn’t speak. She only stared with wide, empty eyes, as if part of her soul had left her, leaving her cold and terrified.
Zanya grimaced and stared down at her belly. If it weren’t for this baby, she would have had enough power to escape the tree in the underworld. She could have reached Arwan and saved him from Contessa’s attack. She could have saved them both.
“I hate you,” she whispered to herself. To the unwanted baby inside her. To the gods who created such a damn mess to begin with.
She hated them all, and she’d never forgive herself.
Her mother stood, her hair carried in the breeze. “We should get back.” There was a slight tremble in her voice. “Back to the others so we can tell them and prepare.” She dragged herself past Jayden and Beigarth, her arms hanging limply at her sides.
Zanya watched her mother walk back toward the house. “Ready for what?”
Her mother stopped. “Renato is gone. We have a proper Mayan burial to prepare.”
“Gone?” Jayden stepped forward. “But we don’t know that. Not yet. Not for sure.”
“Listen to me.” Her mother lifted her index finger, her hand trembling. “When you’ve been on this quest as long as I have, you learn along the way. One, your life really is at risk, and that becomes inherently clear the first time you watch someone you love die in front of you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Two, you can’t spend any time hoping to get them back. Hope is the most dangerous emotion to cling to because it’ll slow you down.” More tears shined in her eyes. “He is gone—in that damned realm with the king, and that monster you all trusted so much.” She quickly wiped a tear from her face. “Renato wouldn’t want us standing around here like a herd of lost cattle waiting for slaughter. He’d want us to lay him to rest and move on.”
Beigarth walked to her mother’s side. “Aye. I say we get back to the others before someone else gets hurt.”
Jayden watched Zanya, maybe waiting for her response. “I…” Zanya whimpered. “I guess that’s our only choice.”
Jayden spit on the roots and pursed his lips into a snarl before walking back toward the house without saying a word.
Zanya lingered behind, watching as the tree constricted and then eased, as if it were breathing.
It had to be by the king’s order they were blocking the entrance, and if that were the case, no amount of brute force would tear through them. The tree would have more reinforcements waiting, even if Beigarth petrified the top layers.
She turned toward the others, who stood quietly, waiting to go home.
Zanya felt sick as the word passed through her lips. “Home.”
Where was that without Renato or Arwan? Her home was with the man she had bonded with. The men she loved. If they were both torn from her life, what more did she have to live for?
“Don’t.” Her mother’s sharp tone tore her out of her thoughts. “Don’t think like that.”
Zanya knitted her eyebrows. “What do you—?”
“You don’t think I’ve seen that look before? Mostly in the mirror. I have, and I know how it can consume you. Don’t let your mind go there. Not now. Not ever. Do you understand?”
Zanya nodded.
Her mother’s features softened and she stretched out her hand. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Zanya walked toward her mother, who still had some minor burns over her arms and face. Peter would heal her when they got back.
Her mother grabbed Zanya and hugged her against her side. “You did good.”
“I tried.” Zanya pushed down tears. “I really did.”
“I know.” She combed her fingers through Zanya’s hair, which was strangely soothing. “If I knew everyone wasn’t getting out, I never would have agreed to leave.”
“You didn’t have a choice. He knew exactly what was going on, and he chose to let it happen.”
“He was half-dead.”
“That’s exactly why he did it, Zanya. You saw the change in him—the complete darkness in his eyes.”
“He came back.”
“Maybe, but for how long? The evil overtook him and he couldn’t control it. If you can’t admit that, you’re blinding yourself from the truth.” She sighed. “After you told us about the baby, I hoped he could be different—for your sake. But a rock is a rock. A tree is a tree. They can’t be anything different than what they are, and he can’t choose to be something he isn’t, no matter how much you wish he could.”
Zanya draped her hand over her belly. It was true. When they found him in the underworld, the Arwan she knew was gone. His eyes were empty. It was as if an unknown shadow had consumed his soul.
She curled her fingers around her shirt.
What would this baby be like?
Would it be human, or something…else…?
A powerful explosion erupted, and Zanya crouched as the land below their feet trembled. “What was that?”
Another blow rammed into the layers of soil. The roots guarding the underworld bulged, some of them snapping in half. One whipped into the air and flailed for a moment before falling limp to the ground.
“The king,” Beigarth said.
“No.” Zanya extended her hands, hoping her gesture would keep any of them from running toward the passage. “The tree would open for him.”
Another explosion, this time so close the vibration hummed right under her feet. “Get back,” Zanya said. “Get back!”
Vines from the tree trembled and morphed to a dusky brown.
Another blow snapped several of the vines. One vine whipped the ground beside them, tearing a hole in the dirt.
Deep scratches tore at the vines—visible from where they stood.
“We have to get out of here,” Jayden said.
“Aye. Go!”
The group turned and ran, but Zanya couldn’t move. Her feet were locked in place, her gaze focused on the vines as they strained to keep in whatever was working to escape.
The clawing grew louder, slicing at her eardrums like a metal rake over rocks.
Her mother grabbed her arm. “Zanya, now!”
Zanya jerked her arm out of her mother’s grasp, not saying a word.
“If ye don’t come on yer own, I’ll carry ye over my shoulder!”
Zanya extended her hand. “Just…wait.” She couldn’t explain it, but a flicker of familiarity rushed through her. Like the magic that bonded them was coming back to life.
The scratching stopped.
Silence filled the air.
The only sounds were that of her own pounding heart, and the rapid breaths of the others behind her.
Zanya tilted her head, watching the vines change from dusky brown to mottled gray, as if they were dying.
The ground trembled, carrying small sticks and rocks over the soil. The vines cracked, and a massive, dark shadow exploded from the underworld.
Zanya shielded her eyes, and her mother seized her arm.
Arwan, now in the form of the beast, scraped and scratched his way through the remaining vines, tearing them to shreds with his massive claws. He thrashed his head, snapping at Yaxche with a feral look in his eyes.
Once he’d broken his way through, he pulled himself onto the middleworld and scrambled to gain his footing, then circled the entrance, growling as he waited…
For what, there was no way to be sure.
Arwan couldn’t speak to her in this form. She just had to trust he knew who he was—who she was—and wouldn’t hurt them.
When nothing followed him through the portal, Arwan tilted his massive head to focus on Zanya and the others.
Still panting, Arwan shook out his fur, and then let out a massive roar.
His jaws gaped, displaying prehistoric canines and a bright pink tongue with fleshy curved spikes like a lion.
His roar was not an ordinary sound. Even as a beast, Zanya sensed it was full of pain and fury. It was a scream. That of loss. Of sorrow.
“He’s gone,” Zanya said softly. “Renato is without a doubt gone.”
When there was no response, Zanya turned to see her mother standing between Jayden and Beigarth, her face drained of color.
Chapter Thirty
Zanya
“Get away from it,” her mother screamed. She yanked Zanya back several steps.
“It’s okay. Don’t be scared.”
Beigarth stomped forward, a small ax clutched in his hand. “I’ll do away with the beast.”
Zanya braced her hand on his chest. “
No.”
“We need to get out of here,” Jayden shouted from behind. “It’s not attacking. Maybe we can—”
“Stop calling him it!” Zanya shifted her feet over the damp earth, her focus on Arwan. He was massive, with onyx fur and a gold tuft on his chest. But she still saw him—the glint of humanity in his eyes proved he was still in there.
“Him?” her mother said in a near whisper. Her brow rose while her gaze darted between them. “Him, as in, him—him?”
“Yes, but something’s wrong.”
“No shit, something’s wrong!” Her mother’s face flushed with color. “That,” she jabbed her finger at Arwan, “is the father of my grandchild! That is definitely wrong!”
“Shut up!” Zanya clenched her jaw. “Don’t you ever know when to just…shut up?”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” Beigarth murmured. “What on the god-lovin’ green earth is that?”
Zanya looked back to Arwan, her attention split between him and a lighted figure walking toward them—Cualli.
With every stride, newly sprouted grass sprang from the earth, hosting an array of wildflowers in a rainbow of colors.
Her mother stepped to Zanya’s side. “What is she doing?”
Zanya smiled. “She’s greeting him.”
Cualli walked to the entrance of the underworld and sprinkled a handful of soil into the gaping hole, then blew the remaining bits from her palm. A cluster of trees and bushes bloomed and sealed the hole, making it as if it were never there.
She turned to Arwan and gave a slight bow. “Welcome, half-breed.” This time the term didn’t sound so terrible. In fact, it carried an air of prestige in the goddess’s tone. “I welcome you to my realm.”
Arwan stopped pacing and watched the goddess.
His breathing calmed, and his fur lay flat and smooth.
He bowed his head.
“I don’t believe me own eyes,” Beigarth said.
“That is bad-ass,” Jayden whispered.
“I don’t understand.” Her mother shifted forward, as if investigating the situation. “Why are you welcoming him?” She spoke to the goddess as if they were good friends. Her mother was probably in shock. It was the first time she’d seem him in his beastly form.
Birthright (The Stone Legacy Series Book 5) Page 18
