Unleashing the Shadows (Nine Kingdoms Book 1)

by Ann Bakshis

  Lycus becomes louder as he reaches his end while the world for me begins to fade. He collapses on my chest when it’s over. Even though my vision is starting to return because he’s released his grip, I’m still having a hard time catching my breath since my heart is racing so fast and my throat is raw and probably swollen.

  “I knew you were the one,” he says, staring into my eyes. “Your mother bore you just for me. Our father made sure of that. Oh, the happiness we’ll provide to each other. We’ll never leave each other’s sides, my dear queen.”

  Lycus gets back on top and starts all over again. I begin to grow numb and withdrawn just so I can survive this ordeal with some of my sanity intact. I doubt I’ll ever recover from this and Evan won’t want me when he finds out what Lycus has done. How I wish I was in the cottage with my mother while it was burning, then at least I’d be at peace and not in a hell that could possibly last for eternity.

  “Honora, I need you,” he whispers. “My life is incomplete without you. Love me, sister. Love me until our last dying breath.”

  Lycus is curled up beside me when I wake. I go to open my mouth, but it’s in agony from his foreplay. I’m exhausted even though I slept, and every muscle aches. I look at Lycus and I’m beyond devastated by last night’s events, overwhelmed with learning that I have a brother who’s extremely disturbed and now has me as a wife.

  I wonder if Caster knew about him, and whether or not that could be the real reason we fled Latrest the night of the ball. I’m furious that he and my mother kept my true lineage from me. It makes me wonder what else they’ve been hiding, but I can’t ask Elizabeth because she’s dead. But I can ask Caster, and he won’t appreciate how I plan on going about it. Rage wants to fill my soul, but I’m so distraught right now I’m not allowing it to. It will eventually, but at the moment I need to figure out how to escape from this horror.

  I try to quietly slip from the bed, so I don’t disturb Lycus, and make my way into the lavatory where my dress sits in a pile on the floor. I reach for it with quaking hands as flashbacks from last night make their presence known causing me to wretch, but I don’t have anything in my stomach to throw up.

  I’m horrified with myself for allowing such a thing to happen. I’m stronger than that—at least I thought I was. Ore is supposed to be fierce, determined, and doesn’t take shit from anyone. Honora, on the other hand seems to be none of those things. So, which one suits me now? It’s definitely not Ore as she would’ve fought to her death last night. Honora is weak, scared, and careless. So, that’s who I am now… Honora. Ore died last night with Lycus’ touch and I’m not sure if she can ever be reclaimed.

  I shake my head to get it back to thinking about finding a way out of this room. The entrances may no longer be guarded, but the door to the bedroom is locked from the outside. Then how did Lycus get in? It wasn’t from the bedroom door because I would’ve seen him in the reflection in the window as well as heard the lock give way. Also, the others wouldn’t have needed to unlock the door when they entered, which they did. There has to be a passageway with a secret door in the lavatory then.

  I put on the dress before cracking the door to see if Lycus is still asleep, which he is. I carefully close the door and start feeling around the walls, pushing and pulling on anything that looks like it could hide a doorway. When I get to the full-length mirror, I stop. Dark, heavy bruises are beginning to form around my throat in the imprint of Lycus’ hands. I go to touch them and wince at the tenderness I feel, as well as the swelling. My eyes look inflamed as tiny blood vessels have ruptured around the edges of the irises. As I get closer to the mirror to examine them better, I notice a thumbprint on the glass along the right side, so I push against it. The mirror pops out of place, then swings away, revealing a staircase that leads down. I pull the mirror over, but I don’t close it because light from the windows in the lavatory is shining down the passageway illuminating it enough for me to see.

  I place one hand along the cool, brick wall and use it as a guide, for when I take glances behind me to make sure I’m not being followed. I reach a landing with a door, so I press my ear against it, listening for who might be on the other side, but I don’t hear anything. I lean my weight slightly against the door popping it out of place and it swings outward into a closet, so I step through the opening then close the door behind me. I move to the closet door and am about to lean into it for a listen when I hear a scuffle just beyond. Something snaps and everything gets quiet. I shove myself into the corner behind several fur pelts as the door begins to open. A man wearing a Geron Vagter uniform steps inside. I grow rigid until recognition strikes and I recall seeing him at the ball sitting behind Lycus on the stage. My trembling starts all over again as he pulls the door closed behind him, sealing us both in. I inadvertently let out a squeak, which catches his attention. He thrusts his hands into the coats and parts them, exposing me.

  “Ore,” he says with a sigh of relief.

  “You know who I am?” I can barely croak out since I have very little voice due to the damage done to my throat.

  “I’m here to get you,” he says, waving for me to come out and that’s when I notice his bloody sword. “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. I knew your mother… she was my sister.”

  “What?” I ask, trying to sound shocked, but it comes out in a whisper.

  “Let’s discuss this later,” he says, opening the door and then shoving me out of the closet. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

  We race down the hall but stop when we encounter several royal guards. The man beside me raises his sword to defend us while I search for a weapon of my own. I notice the room next to us is the trophy room and it’s no longer heavily guarded, so I rush inside and try to remove a few swords from the wall, but they’re tightly adhered to it. I glance around as the man begins to fight off our attackers and I finally find a black metal longbow with a leather quiver filled with black metal arrows. I sling the quiver around my shoulder, nock an arrow, and fire at a guard who’s trying to enter the room. I rapidly fire off a few more, hitting those who are blocking our escape route, then grab the man’s arm. We continue heading down the hallway as I continue firing at the pursuing guards. More Vagter begin moving around us as we reach the stairs that I know will take us down to the kitchen.

  “There’s a hidden passage in the linen closet in the kitchen,” the man says rather quickly. “Take it until you get to the end, then open the door and run until you reach the edge of the kingdom.” He squeezes my hand. “I’m sorry for all of this. Please forgive me, Honora.”

  He charges forward as I head below, my bow at the ready. The kitchen is unsettlingly empty when I reach it, but I find the linen closet, step inside, and open the door to the tunnel before closing the one for the linen closet. I bolt down the dimly lit tunnel, glancing behind me every few seconds. I hear the door squeak open, so I fire in rapid succession hitting several guards. They fall dead, blocking the doorway and preventing any others from trying to get through.

  It takes a great amount of time before I reach the end of the tunnel. I have to take several moments to rest because I can’t breathe properly. I know stopping is a foolish move since the guards can easily catch up to me, but I might pass out otherwise and still be captured.

  I’m drenched with sweat and I ache all over as I climb the narrow stairs and then shove open the door at the far end. I check the area with my longbow ready in case I need to fire it, but I don’t see anyone, so I cautiously step out and am immediately struck from the side. I fall hard onto the ground, hitting my head and knocking the bow from my hand as arrows spill from the quiver. The guard rips the empty quiver from my shoulders, grabs my arm, hoists me into the air, and places me on his horse to take me back up to the castle. I want to continue to fight, but my head is pounding, and I feel dizzy and tired. The only thing I can do at the moment is mourn the loss of my freedom and begin to resign myself, though only slightly, to the new life that has been forced upon me
. I still plan on escaping; I just need to find the perfect moment to do so.

  Fifteen

  Lycus

  Shouting rouses me from a peaceful rest. I ignore the noise as I move my arm to wrap around Honora so I can pull her against me and feel her warm naked body touching mine, but her side of the bed is empty. My eyes fly open, fury filling me when I notice she’s no longer in the room. I jump out of bed and wrap the heavy black robe she was wearing last night around my firm frame as I go to open the bedchamber door forgetting I had the maid lock it from the outside last night to prevent Honora from fleeing. I move into the lavatory and that’s when I notice Honora’s dress is gone and the mirror that hides one of the secret staircases is partially open.

  “God damn it!” I holler.

  I rip the mirror off the wall, slamming it onto the floor. It shatters into hundreds of shards that skitter across the stone floor, some hitting my bare feet and cutting me. But I don’t give a damn about that now, I need to get that fucking bitch back in my bedchamber before she finds any more of my escape tunnels.

  I take the stairs down into the closet then step into the foyer. Blood pools cover the floor as two of my men lie dead with deep slash marks across their abdomens, and the man who had been stationed by this closet is dead from a broken neck. I follow the sounds of shouting towards the kitchen discovering more guards either dead or wounded along the way, several with arrows in their chests and back.

  “Get your fucking hands off me!” a familiar voice yells.

  I turn the corner and discover a couple of my men holding Kerron down on his knees, a longsword pressed against his throat, and his Vagter coat covered in blood. some of it being his, from stab wounds in his shoulders. I slow my pace, grinning at the sight of him.

  “You just couldn’t stay away, could you?” I ask as I saunter up to him. When he doesn’t respond I bend down so my face is level with his. “Send several men through the tunnel in the kitchen as well as its exit point in the forest. We should be able to trap her there.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” the guard to my immediate right says, then signals for those who just arrived to follow him.

  “Get him to his feet,” I order the ones holding Kerron. I straighten up as they force him to stand. “This was foolish of you. Honora won’t get far in your failed attempt at stealing her away from me. She’ll be back in only a matter of minutes and you’ll be dead.”

  “I don’t give a damn what you do to me,” he hisses.

  “That’s good to know,” I say, and begin to think of ways to torture the arrogant man before killing him, and whether or not to make it a public or a private display.

  “Why do you want Honora?” he asks. “There were plenty of other women at the ball you could’ve had. Several of which who were vying for your attention and I know you bedded at least one of them that night.”

  “She’s special to me,” I reply, folding my hands behind my back.

  “You only just met her. I’ve never seen you get this obsessed over anyone before, so why her?”

  “What does it matter to you? You don’t know the young lady either, yet you’re willing to die to protect her. Explain that to me.”

  He bites his lip, but I already know the truth about him. I have for a while, but I’ve been holding off expressing my knowledge until the right time, and now is as good a time as any.

  “You want to know why Honora is so important to me, so I’ll tell you,” I say. “Because my father created her especially for me. Borne from your sister’s womb, and aged to perfection.”

  “You don’t know anything,” Kerron says, trying to sound angry, but his eyes show the terror he’s actually feeling.

  “David was quite the husband. Knocking up a whore while my mother was already pregnant with me. I was livid at first, until I realized his true plan.”

  “And what was that?” Kerron asks, seething.

  “To create my soulmate, of course. He knew no ordinary woman would satisfy his son, which is why he gave Honora the Geron medallion, so I could find her when the time was right. She’s absolutely perfect. Our children will be glorious and powerful,” I say, then darken my tone. “But you had to try and steal her from me like Evander almost did, and for that you must pay, just as he will, Uncle.”

  “You…you know?” he asks, his face growing white.

  “I’ve known for quite some time,” I say with confidence. “I know who you are, who Honora is, and how our sordid little bastard of a family weaves itself together. Too bad, you won’t have a happily ever after like I’m going to.” I focus my attention on the men holding Kerron. “Strip him of his uniform, then bring the whipping post down to the courtyard in the town square, not the village, and secure him to it. I want everyone there to know what a treacherous man he is. I’ll be down in a little while to inflict his punishment.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” they both say, then drag Kerron away as I retreat to my room.

  The door for my bedchamber has finally been unlocked and all my clothes returned to their proper drawers. I didn’t want Honora being able to cover up that sensuous body of hers with anything other than the robe. A maid is almost finished cleaning up the glass from the lavatory floor while my manservant prepares my bath. I order them both to leave as I want to be alone for the moment while I enjoy reliving last night’s activities.

  I remove the robe and slip into the hot water, then lean my head back and recount every delicious inch of Honora’s body as well as how it felt against my tightened skin. How her breath tickled my face as she exhaled in heightened anticipation. The way her eyes rolled back in her head as she reached her height of pleasure moments before mine. I was truthful when I told her there wouldn’t be any other women after having her. I’d never do that to the woman I love, not like my father and grandfather—men of dishonor who thought of nothing but their own happiness.

  The day my grandfather told me about David’s affair and that it resulted in a child, I knew I needed to find her at all cost. Gregor misunderstood why my father betrayed his family because he was, in fact, preserving it, and the only way to do that is to maintain the integrity of the throne. Those two years Gregor kept me trapped in the castle were put to good use, especially with the help of the hidden passageways. I could be gone for days at a time and no one even noticed because they all assumed I was in the library, which I kept locked from the inside during my ventures. The servants were too concerned with pleasing their king that I fell by the wayside. It took me a month to find Honora just outside Nysa, floating naked in a lagoon as if she owned the world. I knew immediately I needed her, but there wasn’t a way to get close enough. I would escape my confines as often as I could and ride for two days just to catch a moment’s glimpse of her beauty.

  When I was finally freed from my confines, the times I spent at the bathhouses I’d picture every woman I was with as Honora, but I was never satisfied. They all disappointed me, to the point where I wound up strangling a couple of them, but being whores, no one cared. I knew with Gregor’s death I’d finally be able to be with my beloved, and she with me. Sometimes I felt she was waiting just for me to arrive before sinking into the cool water of the lagoon or relaxing beside the babbling stream by an old hunting lodge. I could almost hear her calling for me as I slept, which only increased my desire to bring her home. I’m relishing my memories when the knock on the door interrupts them.

  “What?” I bellow, angered by the disruption.

  “Sorry, Your Majesty,” my new Vagter leader, Welland, says as he opens the door. Thankfully my back is to him otherwise he’d see more than he’s accustomed to. “The lady has been located and is returning to the castle as we speak.”

  “Excellent,” I say, smiling. “Have her brought to me straight away and make sure the bodies in the halls are dealt with and the messes cleaned up. Then take a count of how many guards we have left. We’ve lost too many of them in this short time.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “
Send in my manservant so I can prepare for Kerron’s torture.”

  “Will you be handling that yourself, or shall I call for the executioner?”

  “I’ll be dealing with this. Send word that it’ll begin within the hour and that it requires everyone’s attendance,” I say. “Make sure my sword is cleaned and polished for the event.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” he replies, then I hear the door close.

  I grab the robe off the floor before standing and stepping out of the tub. My manservant is in my bedchamber laying out my clothes—a crimson cape lined with white fur along the collar that’ll cover a white top, black pants, freshly polished boots, and the chain of crests I’ve grown fond of wearing to special occasions. As I begin to dress, Honora is brought to me, so I order everyone to leave while I deal with my wife.

  “Did you know he was coming?” I ask as I slowly approach her trembling body.

  “No,” she mumbles, but she keeps her eyes averted from mine as I glare down at her.

  “How far did you think you’d actually get before my men brought you back?”

  She looks up at me, anger pulsing in her eyes. “I was just…” but her voice fades since she probably can’t come up with a valid reason.

  “Do you know what happens to those who defy their king? Even if one happens to be the queen?” I ask as I tower over her.

  “No,” she says defiantly though tears spill down her flushed cheeks.

  “Well, you’re about to see it first-hand,” I say as I take her hand and guide her to the bed. “I’m surprised your bruises from last night haven’t given you an idea of the type of man I am.” I push her hair away, so I can relish the markings around her throat, then lightly stroke them, which causes her to flinch from their tenderness. “Hopefully I won’t have to add to them.”

  I have her sit on the edge of the mattress as I recall my manservant to come complete my attire. Once I’m properly suited, Welland returns with my longsword in its scabbard, the thick dark leather grip protruding from the top. I strap it around my waist, take Honora by the arm, and follow Welland down to the front of the castle where our horses are waiting. I place my wife on my horse before I mount so she’s forced to sit in front of me and feel my wrath as it breathes down her neck.