Blood Before Sunrise: A Shaede Assassin Novel

by amanda bonilla

  Moira. That devious bitch. “She’s known you were here—talks to you even—and she never told Raif you were alive?” Death was too good for her. When I got my hands on her, I’d make sure her torture was slow and painful.

  “It’s not like that,” Brakae said. “You shouldn’t think ill of her. It is not her place to speak for me. She’s not a Guardian of this realm, and the natural order must be protected at all cost.”

  Oh good. More cryptic explanations. Someone was going to give me a straight answer for once, damn it. “Oh yeah, well, what about—”

  “Darian, silence.” Faolán’s voice cut through my mind, effectively stifling my voice and putting an end to any questions I might be tempted to ask.

  As we continued to walk, I abandoned trying to speak through Faolán’s absolute control. O Anel became my sole focus, the Faerie Realm and all its wonders pressing in on me. In the human world, I sensed the energy of the supernatural like an assault on my body. Bones humming, skin crawling, breath stalling…I felt it all. But here, the energy of every being, every tree, every blade of grass mingled and became one. And the way it wove around me, permeated my senses, gave me peace instead of pause. Fear did not exist in this place—nor common sense, apparently. But despite my circumstances, the wounds that healed too slowly, and the thoughts of never seeing Tyler again, I was not afraid.

  We walked for a good hour before Brakae stopped at the face of a large granite rock. At least fifteen feet tall and draped with moss and clinging vines, a gaping maw of an opening invited us to enter. An ethereal golden light emanated from its dark depths, warm and pulsing with magic. “Brakae,” I said, my voice finally coming through, thick and sleepy, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  She answered with a soft glowing smile, though the gleam in her eyes screamed of steel-hard strength. This woman was one hundred percent Raif’s daughter, and I realized, as she stepped through the curtain of vines and moss, that I trusted her.

  At Faolán’s urging, I stepped through the curtain behind Brakae, my breath catching at the sight of her. No longer the poised woman, Raif’s daughter stood before me, the child I’d first met in my dreams. Time had no rules here. And wondrous magic ran rampant. I was so out of my league.

  “Come here, Darian.” Her tiny voice urged me forward. “I’ll show you what you’ve come so far to fetch.”

  Her soft little hand twined around mine, leading me deeper into the cave, which defied the laws of physics with the scope of its size. Like Reaver’s basement, this place sprawled out before us, lush grass, a pool of water—and holy shit!—gigantic trees. Brakae padded in front of me, Faolán pressed close at my back. Both were fighting for control of me in one capacity or another. And I walked helpless between them, unable to act to the benefit of either while they played their tug-of-war.

  “Stop,” Faolán said, winding his arm around my waist. His dagger pressed into the flesh at my neck. “Brakae, my dear, I think it best you stay with me and let Darian retrieve the glass for you.”

  She shrugged, her tiny shoulders thrown back, posture straight as a little soldier. “If that’s what you want, Faolán.”

  “Yes,” he said, beckoning her with a finger. “That is what I want.”

  She came to me, squeezed my fingers in her hand, and smiled. “As a Guardian, you may retrieve the glass for me. You and no one else.”

  “Do it.” Faolán shoved me forward, his command overtaking any hope of lucid thought.

  Brakae’s half of the hourglass sat nestled in a tree trunk. The main body of the tree had broken off long ago, and graying spears of splintered wood jutted up around the hourglass, encasing it like sharp, pointed teeth. But for all its menacing appearance, I plucked the glass from its perch with ease, just as I had with Reaver’s half. The supernatural world had its mysteries, but it didn’t know shit about security. Go figure.

  Golden sand swirled in a torrent, probably sensing its other half nearby. As if worried, time ceased its natural rhythm, abandoning order for chaos. I turned to find Brakae no longer the child, but the adolescent just blossoming into womanhood. Faolán stood before her, pain distorting his features as he looked upon her. A deep and scarring resentment flared bright in his silver eyes, and at once I shared that pain. It was the agony only a broken heart could cause.

  “Bring it to me.” His voice, thick with emotion, choked on the words. My heart raced in my chest as I fought the compulsion to do as he asked. As if unaware of my mind, my body responded, hurrying to his side, despite the burning, throbbing pain radiating from my torso with every step. Brakae stood silent, her face emotionless, save her eyes, which spoke of a sorrow too deep to express.

  I could stop this if I played my cards right. Though, to be honest, I had no fucking clue what Faolán planned to accomplish by bringing the two halves of the hourglass together. A few feet would close the gap between us. I stopped, despite the urge to go to his side. “I want to know what you’re going to do,” I said, digging my heels into the earth. “And then, I’ll give this to you.”

  “I am going to end this perversion.” He ground the words through clenched teeth. “I am going to heal the flow of time. There will no longer be two realms between us, but a single place. And our kind will not be forced to hide our true natures from creatures too narrow-minded and filled with fear to accept that which is extraordinary.”

  “And you will kill all of humanity in the process,” Brakae whispered. “Please, Faolán, if you love me, you won’t go through with this.”

  Hang on just a damned minute. “Do you mean to tell me, if Faolán puts the hourglass together, every human in the world is going to die?” Brakae gave me a look as if to say, Isn’t that just what I said? “What exactly is going to happen if he puts that thing back together?”

  “In the realms, time runs parallel to itself, though at different rates of speed. Mending the glass will merge the realms. O Anel with the mundane world. The veil between us will be lifted, and that parallel line in the human world will have to accelerate to match the pace of time here. They will age, Darian. Instantaneously. Before our eyes they will turn to dust and be no more.”

  Well, there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen. Sliced open and bleeding, zombie mind control or not, I could not allow Faolán to follow through with this insanity. “Listen to her,” I said, taking the diplomatic path first. “I can’t let you go through with this.”

  Faolán laughed, though the humor did not spread to the rest of his face. “You have no choice. I’ve had your blood, and you are mine by right of the oldest magic. Now, bring me the glass.”

  Could I drop it? Just smash it into pieces? If the sands of time itself swirled in the hourglass, what would happen if I dropped it? Whom would I kill? The inhabitants of this world? Mine? Both? It was too much to chance. I looked to Brakae. Her body quavered for a moment as the illusion of her young body grew to reveal the grown woman once again. Steel determination mingled with sadness, and I knew by the expression on her face that she would do what had to be done. No matter what she felt for him, she would kill Faolán before she would let him kill billions of people all in the name of his twisted version of love. Thank God she was on my side, because if she possessed even a fraction of her father’s prowess in battle, Faolán was shit out of luck.

  Toe by toe, my foot began to slip toward Faolán. I fought for all I was worth, leaning away from him as my body rebelled against my mind. Anytime, Brakae, I thought, trying to give her a silent signal. Whatever you’re going to do, you’d better do it—now. No such luck. Either I was a piss-poor nonverbal communicator, or she just didn’t think this was the right time to act. Regardless, stalling had gained me nothing more than a renewed attempt by Faolán to control me. His power flooded my body and mind, flowing through my blood with every beat of my heart. And as my mind clouded with only one thought, my feet and legs responded. Go to him. Give him what he wants. Do. Not. Fight.

  My arms reached out toward him, confusio
n swirling in my brain, and everything but Faolán blurred out of focus. He smiled, an expression of pure madness, and he plucked the second half of the hourglass from my waiting hands.

  I looked at Brakae, her face shrouded as if by mist. An almost indiscernible nod of her head was all I needed. I knew what would happen if I gave Faolán total control. I’d blacked out at the hotel twice. Like a light switch was being flicked off and on again inside my brain, I’d awoken from a state of prolonged unconsciousness, only to find that mere moments had passed. Time would mean nothing once I surrendered to him. I’d have no memories from now until Faolán decided to restore my self-control.

  But Brakae wanted me to do this, and I had to trust that she believed that giving myself over to Faolán was for my own protection. Standing on the precipice of losing myself completely, I looked into that dark abyss and smiled. No fear. No regret. You can’t win without losing. And so, with Brakae’s faith to support my decision, I stepped off the edge into the darkness.

  Chapter 25

  “You know what it’s like to be separated from your love,” Faolán said with all the fervor of the brokenhearted. “Imagine knowing your Jinn lived just beyond your reach, and you were stuck in a place you hated, forced to live there in order to protect the one thing you were forbidden to see.”

  Blinking to clear my vision, I looked around, completely unaware of my surroundings. As though waking suddenly from the deepest sleep, I realized I’d been brought back from whatever dark place Faolán had cast me into. The last thing I remembered was standing in the mouth of the granite cave. And now I found myself in a darkened forest, lightless save the silvery glow of the moon overhead, while Faolán held his dagger against my flesh and prattled on like a preacher at his pulpit. “You cannot deny you have experienced the pain of separation.”

  Thanks to you, I do know what that feels like, dickhead. But I thought better of lending my voice to the complaint. Faolán held me close, one arm wrapped tight around my waist. Though his words were for me alone, he gazed past me, toward the woman sitting beneath the swaying branches of a rowan tree. Brakae faced us, the two halves of the broken hourglass resting on the ground beside her, the tears in her eyes reflected in the swirling golden light as the sands of time rebelled against the inevitability of what would soon take place. What the hell had happened since I’d been out of it? Something magical bound her too, her helpless expression proof enough that she could force her way free no better than I. She looked at me and then at Faolán, a silent sob escaping her lips. She had loved him once. And that love had driven him to insanity.

  “She is the most beautiful creature I have ever beheld,” Faolán said, his voice breaking with emotion. “I never wanted her here. Trapped. Bound to chaos for eternity. How do you think it made me feel to know that the next time I saw her, she might not be the woman I could hold in my arms? What was I supposed to do with a child? Protect her and nothing more. It disgusts me. Time is perverse this close to The Ring—and that perversion is tied to her. It doesn’t have to be, though. I could never stay as long as I wanted. Every visit was a gamble, and too, too short.” Faolán waved the dagger before him in a flourish, as if showing me a point of interest. “Just as you live in the mundane, Moira lives here with Brakae. Of course, Guardians can travel between the realms. She visits the mundane world often, as once I would come to O Anel at my pleasure. And why this rule of nature? I ask you. Why could I not live here with Brakae and Moira with her brother? How better to protect the one I loved than to be with her always? But no. That is not the way. We must maintain the balance.”

  “Faolán,” I rasped through a too-dry throat, “it’s not too late to stop this.”

  “I should have stopped this millennia ago,” Faolán snarled in my ear. “It is far too late to change course. I will take this hourglass to Kotja A’ma, and there I will merge the realms.” I stared at him, completely uncomprehending.

  “You must understand how it all began, Darian,” he continued. “I was a warrior, once. The right hand of the goddess Badb. The Enphigmalé were bred to fight, and we served our purpose, making war against Badb’s enemies. The blood of our foes pooled on the battlefield.” His shoulders slumped as if the weight of his past forced him down. “It was so long ago, the memories are like remnants of dreams.”

  I knew how Faolán felt. I had only a century under my belt, and memories from my human childhood were hazy and without detail. I could only imagine what recalling the events from thousands of years ago would be like: lifetimes’ worth of memories slipping through the mental cracks.

  “The humans kept their distance from the Fae. Soon their curiosity of the extraordinary turned to fear and hatred.” Faolán’s dreamy countenance faded, and the muscles flexed in his cheek as he clenched his jaw. “War broke out between the humans and the Fae, but they were weak and fragile, and our armies decimated their numbers until few remained. The gods had come to love their human children and could no longer bear to see them killed.”

  “You sound bitter, Faolán,” I muttered. “Upset you couldn’t commit genocide when you had the chance?”

  “I’d been bred to kill.” His voice was a low growl in my ear. “What do you think?”

  “You’re not inherently cruel.” Brakae’s soft voice broke into our conversation. “Faolán, Badb would have never made you a protector if you were nothing more than a vicious killer.”

  His smile was sad as he turned his gaze on her. “The Enphigmalé had sworn an oath to serve Badb, and she pulled us from the battlefield. I was the wolf of war no longer. She made me a Guardian. Chosen to protect…”

  I pulled away from Faolán’s grasp, hoping he was too distracted to hold me. “Be still,” he growled, and I had no choice but to obey the command. “You’ll hear me out. Badb took the hourglass and broke it in two. The veil was created to protect humanity, and she split the world into separate realms that stood apart from each other, yet existed in a natural accord. Our kind was forced to make a choice: Live openly here, never to visit the mortal realm again, or live there, where we are forced to hide our true selves for the benefit of a lowly, ignorant species. She appointed two Time Keepers to watch over the halves of the hourglasses that maintained the flow of time, and Guardians to protect the doorways to each realm. We were each given a key. My key opened the doorway from the mortal realm into O Anel. And so in the mortal realm I would reside.

  “For centuries after the realms had been split, there was unrest. Many sought to seize the hourglasses and thereby control time. So many Keepers died. I’d never cared before. The others before Brakae meant nothing to me. But then I fell in love,” he almost whispered.

  “I loved you too, Faolán. How could I not?” Brakae shifted as if she wanted to stand, but something prevented her. “You were fierce and passionate and loyal. A true protector, though you believed yourself nothing but a heartless warrior.” Her voice broke. “You were gentle. Don’t you remember how you comforted me when I was afraid?”

  Something glistened in Faolán’s eyes, pooling like mercury. Tears? He cleared his throat and turned his gaze from Brakae as if her words threatened to convince him to change his course. “Everything changed. I no longer wished to live amongst the mundane and watch from afar. Protecting the doorway to O Anel and maintaining the balance of time became an asinine notion. I cared for nothing but her; yet I was forced to abide by tradition and follow the path Badb had laid out for me. I abhorred it. I despise it still. And when I rose up against my goddess, I prompted my brothers-in-arms to do the same. Warriors, bound by oath and blood, they yearned for battle and were more than eager to see an end to Badb’s peace. The Enphigmalé were her first children, her most beloved, and she cast us aside for her precious humans. They wanted revenge as much as I did. We wanted to lift the veil between the realms and see an end to her segregation once and for all. I was betrayed by the woman I loved and the goddess I had worshipped for thousands of years. Badb allowed Moira to raise an army, and Brakae, ever
the devoted Time Keeper, kept to her vow to protect the natural order, even if that meant destroying our love in the process. She lured us into an ambush. Well outnumbered, we were easily captured and had no choice but to wait until Badb passed judgment.

  “We were sentenced to be frozen in time and made to stand guard for all eternity. And over what?” he shouted. “Nothing! An empty dais and ceaseless time. But before I went to serve my sentence in that solitary green place, I bade an Oracle to help me. Her sister had been killed over the same secret I’d sworn to protect: that of Brakae’s existence in the Faerie Realm. She was all too willing to find a way for both of us to be avenged. Love had sent me to my end, she said, and only love would release me from my prison.”

  As Faolán rambled on, I listened with half an ear while I looked around us in search of escape. I wrenched myself free enough to glance behind me, and I noticed that Faolán had shed his glamour completely. Though it didn’t change him much, I found him almost too beautiful for my eyes to comprehend. The strands of his hair glowed faintly in the dark, and his eyes, not a touch of gray left, shone completely silver. Had he been so tall before? And had his skin been so flawless and smooth? He’d fucked with my brain to the point where I had a hard time recalling. But I could see why, in this magical place, Brakae would have been drawn to him. I found it hard myself to tear my gaze away.

  “The veil was created to protect humanity!” Faolán shouted, breaking me from my trance. “On either side of the veil, we suffer! But no more!” He exuded the raw charisma of a dictator. It wouldn’t be hard for Faolán to sway others to his cause. “I will set our world aright and rid it of humanity once and for all!”

  I expected a Yankee Stadium–sized round of applause and shouts when he concluded his tirade. I’m sure he imagined one. His diatribe did nothing for me except make me want to spit in his face. Clarity returned with every shout of his fervent oration, and I no longer sensed his utter control, though I didn’t doubt it could return at a moment’s notice. Brakae sat helpless, watching us with the calculation of a hunting cat more than that of a curious kitten. I needed her like this: an adult for starters, mature of mind and body, and able to fight if need be. An unsure teenager or wobbly child would do neither of us any good, and I hoped for once that time would be on my side.