by Joshua King
"What is it?"
I didn’t want to acknowledge the tightness in my muscles, but part of me felt like my hands on the two women was to keep them apart as much as it was to keep me connected to them. With Aurora, Ashe, and Stephana, there was no tension, no worries about how they would interact or how they would deal with each other as part of my group. Brielle was different. Not a vampire like the other three, she brought a completely new dynamic into our bond, one that I wasn’t sure about. I worried the underlying conflicts between the vampires and the Fae would create tension that might form a wedge between the two women. That was something I definitely wanted to avoid. I had enough shit going on at that particular moment. I didn’t need to add a constant blood feud-induced cat fight between two of my mates to it. To my relief, Aurora leaned toward Brielle with an expression of compassion in her eyes.
"I’m really glad we were able to get you away from the village and they couldn’t force you through that ceremony."
"I am, too. I never thought there was anything that could make me feel more helpless than being locked in the glass in the Dark fortress. But that changed when I was in that throne room. There was nothing I could do. My magic was still weakened and the Queen has powers that I couldn’t fight. They had me completely under their control and I couldn’t leave. A Fae wedding ceremony isn’t like some others, especially human. It isn’t two people promising themselves to each other. It’s two people being melded to each other. It doesn’t require any action…or any consent. As long as I was there in that room with them, the Queen could tie us together and there would be nothing I could do. I don’t even know how to describe what that felt like."
"I know," Aurora said.
Brielle and I both scrutinized her.
"You know?" Brielle asked.
"I know what it feels like for someone to try to pawn you off for their own gain."
The answer stunned me and I pulled away from her enough to be able to look at her face.
"What do you mean?"
She looked hesitant, like part of her wished she hadn’t gone down this path, but she had already started and there was no looking back now. Rather than answering me, she looked to Brielle.
"We’ve already told you who I am. You know that Hayden is my blood mate and that he will one day be Prime. Our bond created stronger power for both of us and ensured that one day Hayden will be in a tremendous position of control. It’s a lot like what would have happened if you had been forced to go through the wedding to the Prince."
"But you chose Hayden," Brielle said.
"Yes. I did. I knew he was the one I was supposed to be with and I chose him to be my mate. But that wasn’t my father’s choice. If he had gotten what he wanted, I would have had a blood mate a long time ago."
13
"What the hell are you talking about?" I demanded.
I didn't want to think about the implications of what she just said. I wasn't naive about Aurora. She'd made her past very clear to me, and Ashe hadn't held back when talking about her prowess. I didn't care. None of that bothered me. Well, maybe the whole concept of her biting people and tossing them into ditches to die bothered me a little, but that had nothing to do with our relationship. As far as I knew, she had never even considered another blood mate, and the thought of her almost having one made me uncomfortable in a way I didn't like to feel, much less admit.
"I never wanted you to know. It's not one of my favorite things to think about, and I knew it would hurt you."
"What happened?"
"I told you that there was a long time I was away from Solan City and from my father. There were a lot of reasons why I would spend time away from the palace, but the longest time I was away was because Darian tried to force a blood bond on me. He had chosen a man from a powerful vampire family who he thought would be a good match for me and would bring more strength to the Prime family. He tried to compel me into it with logic, then with fear, then guilt, then back to logic, and then a lot of fear. It didn't work. Obviously. My father can do a lot of things, but scare me into bonding myself for all existence to someone I didn't know and really didn't like wasn't going to be one of them. So, I left. It infuriated him. They told me I was a traitor to our kind and was throwing away the opportunity for incredible power and influence. I don't think I have to tell you I knew that was total bullshit."
"He wouldn't have let you rule."
"Of course, he wouldn't. He would have me create the bond and then drain every bit of benefit out of it for himself. I went and created my own life, and for a while I didn't think I would ever go back to the palace. There wasn't any worth left in being the daughter of the Prime."
"What changed your mind?" Brielle asked.
"I can't really pinpoint the exact thing that made me go back. It's hard to explain. I just felt like I needed to, like despite everything, I had to go back there and face the life I'd left. And my father. He at least had the decency, whether it was real or not is still up for debate…"
"Actually, I don't really think it's up for debate at all whether Darian is decent. That one has kind of been established by now," I pointed out.
"Anyway. I was drawn back. Something made me go back. And he apologized. He admitted he never should have done that to me, that trying to take over my life in such a drastic way was wrong. Part of me really hoped he was going to say he was glad I hadn't gone through with it, but of course, he didn't. That would have required him to admit he was wrong to seek power."
"And to say he was glad you didn't do it, when you know as well as I do he wasn’t."
"I only started to piece my relationship with him back together after he swore he would never do something like that again. That feeling never left me, though. I will never forget what it was like to be offered to that man. It made me feel I was my own fucking dowry."
The fury I felt was instant and searing. The Prime looking at his daughter with such utter disregard and being willing to try to take over a critical element of her life in whatever way suited him just for the sake of his benefit was sickening. A new surge of determination filled me.
"We need to get going. We have to get to the portal."
"The portal isn't far from here," Brielle offered. "But we should go soon. We need to get to the portal before the sun comes up. The woods are dangerous at night, but we will be easier to see and trace during the day. Besides, the longer we're here, the more time they all have to come after us. Once we get to the portal, we'll be safe."
Crawling out of the shelter, we made our way back to the dead tree where I had woken up. Ashe and Stephana were still sitting there and as I walked up to them, I heard a deep rumbling sound I thought might be one of the dangerous creatures Brielle had just warned us about. My eyes snapped up toward the sound and I realized it wasn't another species come to attack us. It was Erral sprawled across the ground a few yards away, snoring as he slept.
"Where's Bex? It's time to leave."
"Erral made him his own shelter. He's sleeping," Ashe said.
She gestured toward another pile of rocks near where the giant was sleeping and I went over to them.
"Bex, come on. We need to get to the portal."
There was some grumbling inside that told me the former spy was distinctly not pleased to be woken up after what was probably only a very short nap, but I didn't really care. Brielle knew the woods better than any of us did. Even Aurora who had passed through the woods many times with Malakan didn't have the same level of familiarity as the Fae woman. Brielle was born and raised among these trees and knew the dangers that lurked in them. If she thought we should be on our way while it was still night and through the portal before sunrise, that's what we were going to do.
My efforts to wake Bex up seemed to have gotten Erral’s attention and he groaned loudly as I walked back toward the women. One knee bent up and then the leg smashed down to the ground again. The movement repeated on the other side, then his head rocked back and forth. He thrashed, one huge arm slinging across hi
s body and then back the other way, catching a tree trunk and sending it crashing to the ground. If he was still feeling afraid of Ryu, maybe I could bring him to the other world and introduce him to a crew that cleared construction sites. His skills with inadvertent tree removal could probably come in handy for them.
Finally, Erral got all of his body parts awake at the same time and opened his eyes.
"It's time to move on," I told him. "Brielle is going to lead us to the portal so we can make our way to the next part of the journey."
"I can't go with you."
The disappointment I felt surprised me.
"What do you mean you can't go with us? You're welcome to come along."
"I know, and I thank you for that. For everything. But I've been away from my family for far too long as it is. The treatments the women gave me while you were unconscious and Brielle's healing are working. I'm starting to feel like myself again." He looked down at his scarred hands and ran them along his torso, touching the places where pieces of metal had been grafted into him as permanent armor. "I know I'm never really going to be me again. Too much has changed. But what I am now is much better than what I was. It's time to see them again. I'll stay with you until you get to the portal, and then I'll go home."
"Are you sure? Don't you worry that Ryu is coming after you and will try to force you back to the fortress?"
"He didn't capture me the first time, Hayden. He won me. It won't happen again."
When he didn't offer any more explanation about what that meant, my gaze shifted to Aurora, but she shook her head to tell me she didn't know, either.
"Will it be safe to have lights?" Bex asked as he joined us.
"As few as possible," Brielle said. "We don't want to call the attention of anyone or anything in the woods. Even if they don't already know we're there and have no affiliations with the Fae, they might came after us just for their own fun."
That did not sound like the type of fun I wanted to throw my hat into the ring for, so I decided we would have only two lights. One torch held by the person at the front of the group, one held by the one at the end. Everyone else would stay in the middle. It ensured visibility without tossing around too much extra light that might draw in all those things that apparently quite literally go bump in the night. Positioning Brielle close behind me so she could guide me, I took the front of the group. The other three women and Bex took the middle while Erral closed the ranks at the back. The torch he carried looked tiny in his hand and it was almost funny as he held it in front of him. An image popped into the back of my mind of him singing "Happy Birthday" and then blowing out the torch.
We made our way carefully through the woods. The lack of leaves made this section seem less dense, but the tangle of fallen trunks and limbs, and old, rigid vines spiraled on the ground created terrain that seemed to conspire against us. We climbed over the logs and cracked the limbs, kicking away vines as they tried to pull us down to the ground, all the while trying to minimize the sound we were making so we called as little attention to ourselves as we could. It felt like the woods were stretching out in front of us, getting deeper and the path longer with each step that we took. Brielle had told us the portal wasn't far from where we had stopped, yet it felt like we'd been struggling our way through the woods for the better part of the night. Finally, the light from our torches bounced off leaves and we walked out of the copse of dead trees into a section that was fresh and lush.
"Here," Brielle said. "This is where the portal is."
"Here?" I asked, stepping ahead of the rest of the group and looking around. "All I see is trees. Where is it?"
"Behind that tree," Brielle pointed out.
We started toward it and I noticed Erral hanging behind. I walked back to him and he reached out his hand to me.
"This is where I leave you, Hayden. I'll never forget what you've done for me. You will always have my loyalty. Thank you."
"Thank you, Erral."
He said his goodbyes and gave our group a lingering look before turning away and pushing his way through the trees.
"He's going to be all right," Brielle assured me. "The realm of the giants is less than a day's journey away in the mountains. He'll be home soon."
I waited until I didn't hear his heavy footsteps crashing through the trees anymore and then turned back to the trees. We made our way to the tree Brielle had pointed out to us and walked around to the other side. A large door was set into it, immediately bringing my thoughts back to the door that led out of the stone chambers and into Malakan's private world. I could almost see the tall grass brushing against the door and smell the breeze I still wasn't sure how he managed to get into the contained space. I wondered if this portal was what inspired that door and just how much of his treasured, protected surroundings he had picked up from different places. Brielle nodded toward the door.
"Go ahead," she said. "You were already given permission to go through if you earned it, and you have. The portal knows and it will behave for you."
Pressing the latch down, I pulled on the door and it opened easily beneath my hand. I first plunged the torch through the opening to make sure there wasn't some kind of creature hunkered down in there ready to pounce on us as soon as we stepped in. There was nothing and I walked inside. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something attached to the wall with a large thorn stuck into the soft inside of the trunk. I pulled it down and lifted the torch to splash light over the parchment.
"What is it?" Bex asked.
"It's a note from Malakan," I told him, my heart beating a little faster now that I saw his handwriting and knew for sure we were on the right path.
"What does it say?" Brielle asked.
"We need to keep going. This is where he wants us to be." My eyes lifted to the group. "It talks about my Sanctification and says we need to hurry."
"Hurry? You have a whole year," Ashe said.
I shook my head.
"Maybe not. The note says my situation is unique and because of that, it might not take the full year to get through it. If I can manage the challenges more quickly, I can get it done faster and take on my full power. I could be finished before the war gets out of control."
Folding the note, I shoved it into my pocket and looked around the tree for the actual entrance to the portal.
"Does it say where we're supposed to go next?" Aurora asked.
"No, but it says how we'll get there."
My hand running across the inside of the massive hollow trunk finally rested on the portal itself and I reached behind me to take hold of the nearest member of the group. Ensuring we were all connected to each other, I pushed through.
14
Maybe I was getting used to traveling through the portals. At least it didn't feel like I was both going to get smashed into pieces and torn apart and thrown to various corners of the universe at the same time. I was going to go with I was just getting better at that form of traveling rather than the portal in the tree was just an easy one to go through. It helped me believe if we faced another one it would be as easy as this time.
I'd learned to have absolutely no expectations when it came to virtually everything about the Underworld, but especially traveling through the portals. Malakan's note had given me some expectations about what we were going to find when we got through the portal, but I was still surprised when we tumbled out onto the ground beside a large boulder and I looked up at the small building across a set of train tracks a few yards away. It sat on a wide platform, lights embedded under the gilded overhang shining down on empty green benches. The building looked like a miniaturized version of a turn-of-the century train station, complete with a glowing yellow window positioned in the center of the wall facing us. The silhouette of a person sitting on a stool on the other side of the window was reassuring. Getting to my feet, I checked the rest of the members of the group to make sure they got through the portal in one piece. No one seemed injured, so I helped Brielle and Aurora to their feet and ge
stured across the tracks.
"We need to go to the train station. Malakan's note said to talk to Millie. I'm assuming that's the person in the window."
Listening for the sound of the train coming, we rushed across the tracks toward the platform. The sun was just starting to lighten the edges of the horizon as we walked across the empty space past benches waiting for someone to need them. The man sitting on the other side of the window jumped slightly when we stepped up to it, and I noticed a battered paperback in his hands. It looked like he had read through it a few dozen times already but wasn't any less lost in the story this time around. Him shoving the book out of sight under the counter made me wonder what kinds of shenanigans might be going on in the pages, and the steely look in his eyes when he stared back at me through the thick glass seemed defensive and uncomfortable.
"What?"
Prime customer service.
"I was told to talk to Millie," I said.
"I'm Milford."
Ah. Millie.
"I'm Hayden."
I paused to see if my name would wake anything up and it seemed to do the trick. His eyes widened slightly, and his shoulders straightened, but there was no change in the downward curve of his mouth. He didn't seem ready to trust me yet, even though what I'd said obviously intrigued him.
"Why did you come here?"
"I was sent by a friend."
His eyes narrowed just enough to tell me a test was coming.
"Elwin the Troll?"
I wondered if there actually was an Elwin or if that was something he had just made up.
"No. I was sent by Malakan."
He didn't look convinced, so I took the note out of my pocket and spread it out so I could press it up against the glass with my palm. Millie's eyes flickered across it and then met mine again.
"He told me to expect you." His gaze evaluated the rest of the group behind him. "Not quite so many of you, perhaps, but I suppose these things have a way of happening. The snowball rolls, and whatnot. It'll be fine." He reached under the counter again but instead of coming up with his paperback, he presented me with a handful of sleek navy blue portfolios the size of my palm. "Bring these with you onto the train."
