The Dark Princess (The Balance Series Book 3)

by Janelle Stalder

  Cillian paused, looking up at him. The words he hadn’t said were there on his face. “I don’t know if I can, Boss,” he said. “We never...it’s not really there, even though it is.”

  “It’s enough. It will be enough. Find her. And kill whoever took her.”

  “That, I can guarantee.”

  I lost track of space and time in that cave. I’d never experienced such pain before. There were times where death seemed like a gift, a promise of the end of all this, one I would have welcomed with open arms. Except it never came. Much to both mine and Aaron’s disappointment. After every session, as he called them, my body would find a way to heal itself, and so we would start from scratch again. No matter how many drugs he gave me, whatever power I had, my body seemed to maintain enough of it to heal myself.

  He’d gone as far as to break each one of my fingers, those clicked back into place by morning. Once he’d cut them off, but again, by the next day they were back. I’d been unconscious from the pain during that entire time so I had no idea how my body regenerated.

  The worst though, more than all the cuts and bruises, the broken bones and severed limbs, was when he had slit my throat in a furry. His crazed eyes the only thing I saw as I lay, chained to a table now, my blood leaking from my neck all over me, the warmth of it strangely comforting against the cold that was seeping into the rest of my limbs. I’d bled out like that, staring at him, tears falling from the corners of my eyes, until blackness took me, and I thought, this is it. Finally. I can get away from him.

  But that had only been wishful thinking. When my eyelids had fluttered open, a sob had wracked my body, and I hadn’t tried to hide it. I didn’t care if he knew he was breaking me, or that I wished for death. I had cried because I knew it was going to start all over again. Perhaps this was hell. Perhaps this was my fate, being a demon spawn.

  I didn’t know. All I did know, was that time was going by, and I had lost track of it all. Aaron never spoke about who he worked for, or where we were. There were no grand monologues as he praised himself and his hate for me. It was just the two of us, his tools, and my screams.

  Until one day, after he’d cut a zipper down my chest, from collarbone to hip, a phone rang. The sound was so oddly normal, I almost laughed, except my entire body was split open. The idea that there was even reception wherever we were seemed so utterly ridiculous.

  “Hello?”

  He walked away then, and I only heard snippets of the conversation as I wavered between consciousness and unconsciousness, but I got enough to know he was leaving to get a special weapon that was sure to kill me. Relief actually shot through me as I heard his footsteps walk away, and he said, “I’ll be back soon, bitch.”

  I wanted to let him know I’d be right where I was, but my vocal cords didn’t seem to be working. Probably something of his doing. He liked to sever them if my screams started to annoy him. I couldn’t even remember if I had screamed as he’d pried my ribcage open.

  There was a dripping sound somewhere nearby. I often focused on that, letting my mind wandered as the pain would come back again when my body repaired itself. There were always two phases to the pain.

  ***

  I must have nodded off longer than I thought, because I heard him coming back already.

  This is it, I thought. Even though my death would cause my mom pain, I couldn’t help but beg for it now.

  A deep curse reached my ears, and the sound of it had my eyes burning with tears instantly. Then the face that belonged to that voice was there in my line of sight, and I cried even harder at the horror on it. I wanted to tell him it looked worse than it was, but that probably wasn’t true, and I couldn’t speak yet anyway.

  “Fuck, Hope,” Cillian said. His eyes looked to mine, and I wouldn’t have believed it, had I not seen it for myself. In them were unshed tears. For me. I imagined I must have looked really bad to garner such a reaction from him of all people. “What did he do to you? Who did this? Is he here?”

  I shook my head.

  “Can you...” his hand cupped my face, and I leaned into it ever so slightly, my body too weak to do much else. “Can you talk?”

  I shook my head again.

  “I don’t know-” He looked down my body and back up. “I don’t know if I can move you.”

  I widened my eyes, as if to say, just do it. I might have wanted to die, but I didn’t want Cillian to too, and if Aaron really did come back with some magical weapon...

  No, we needed to leave. Now. Even if I wasn’t fully healed yet.

  With every limb that he freed, I would grunt, and he would apologize profusely. It would have been funny, in any normal situation. I wanted to laugh at him for being so damn nice for once, but I couldn’t seem to stop crying from seeing him here. When he lifted me off the table, his strong arms securing me under the legs and back, it was almost hard to tell which one of us suffered more from it. Honestly, it was probably me. As soon as I was in his arms, I passed out. The pain was too much.

  When I woke back up, we were in some tunnel, and I could hear him talking, either to me or himself, I wasn’t quite sure. I didn’t know what he was saying, something about a bond, and why he couldn’t find me sooner, but then the jarring motion of his walking sent me back into the darkness I had come to call friend.

  The next time I woke up, we were in another cave. It looked similar to the one Aaron had, except this one was only big enough for us. Cillian had to duck just to walk around in it. He’d laid me down, his back to me as he stared out at the opening, his forearms resting on his bent knees.

  “W-where are we?” I croaked. Ew, I sounded awful.

  His head snapped in my direction, dark circles under his eyes as he crawled over to me. His hands fluttered over my body as if he didn’t know where to touch me. “You can talk again,” he said.

  “Lucky for you, huh?” I said, trying for a smile. He didn’t return it. In fact, this was the most serious I’d ever seen him, and that was saying something. “Too soon?”

  “I just spent the last four hours watching the skin on your chest knit itself back together, along with...everything else he did to you. So yes, it’s too soon.”

  “Four hours? And we’re still in a cave? Where the heck are we?”

  He muttered under his breath, shaking his head. “Are you not the least bit concerned about what has happened to you?” he said, gesturing at me.

  I swallowed, trying to keep the lump that was forming there from rising. “I don’t know how long I’ve been - here... wherever here is - but however long that is, he’s done this, and much worse to me again, and again, and again. Because I just keep healing. So, he found new ways to hurt or maim me. So, yes, Cillian, I’m concerned about it. I’m also trying not to lose my mind over it. I’m grappling at whatever threads of my sanity I have left, so give me a fucking break.”

  If possible, he looked even more pissed. Wonderful.

  “He kept hurting you when you’d heal?”

  I pressed my lips together.

  “Who did this? Do you know him?”

  I sighed, looking at the rock above me. “Yes. He went to my school. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say he’s probably not actually human.”

  A menacing growl rattled his chest. “He’s a dead man.”

  “Yeah, well, I have first dibs - if we ever get out of here. Care to tell me just where that is now?”

  He stared at me for another moment, trying to regain a semblance of control, I imagined, before he answered. “We’re in an intricate network of caves in one of the demon plains. It’s quite vast, which is why it took me so long to find you. It will take us a while to get back out since you’re still healing, and weak.”

  “Can’t you just shift us?”

  “Not with you in your state. It’s not easy on our bodies, especially if you’re not used to it. With you as weak as you are, I’m afraid to even attempt it.”

  “You talk like I�
��m some sort of invalid. I’m not that bad.”

  “Your body is still repairing itself, and I’m going to guess you haven’t had anything to eat in the past week, because I can see almost every bone on your ribcage.”

  I cringed at the word, remembering the pain and the sound of that particular set of bones when they broke. “I’ve been down here a week?” I asked.

  “Just over,” he said, his voice laced with guilt and anger. “We’ll stay here until you’re fully healed and back on your feet. Then we can make faster ground.”

  I gripped the blanket wrapped around me and said, fine, before realizing that said blanket was the only thing covering me. I tried my best to look down, but lifting my head was still too painful. “Am I not wearing clothes?”

  Cillian shook his head. “I was too afraid to try and put some on you after you passed out, so I just grabbed the closet thing I could find and left that place.”

  “Wonderful,” I muttered. I yawned, every part of me exhausted.

  “Sleep, Hope. I’m here.”

  I would have argued, just for the sake of it since he was giving orders, but I really was exhausted. And for the first time in a week, apparently, I felt safe enough to let myself truly rest. Cillian was here. I was protected for now.

  Twenty

  The Line

  “I knew something was familiar about that portal,” I said as we walked down what felt like the millionth tunnel. This place made the labyrinth look like some amateur corn maze at the fall fair. It was starting to get on my nerves. I felt like I was never going to see the light of the sun or moon again at this rate. It didn’t help that we were going extra slow. Which normally I would have bitched about, but I knew he was setting the pace for my benefit, and honestly, I wasn’t sure I could go much faster anyway.

  “What are you talking about?” Cillian asked as he led us down another turn. I wanted to ask if he was picking these things at random, or if he actually knew where he was going. I’d decided to leave it since I knew how testy men could be about directions.

  “The portal to the vampire land,” I said, ducking beneath a particularly low part. “Remember, I said there was something familiar about it at the time? I realized when I was with...Aaron, that it had been his scent I’d picked up. I just didn’t put it together.” I stumbled, Cillian’s arms were around me in a blink.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I said, pushing him off. I wavered on my feet slightly before he gripped my arm again.

  “No, you’re not. We need to stop and rest.”

  I huffed. “I don’t want to stop,” I complained. “I want to get out of here.”

  “It’s not that easy,” he said, leading me to a small alcove. “There are many layers to these caves, and even when we get out, we’ll need to pass through Erebus where your father’s kingdom lays. He’s waiting there for us before we return to the human realm.”

  I sat down, leaning my head back against the rock wall. “Why is he waiting for us there?”

  “When I figured out you were in the demon realm, I told him to stay there until we arrived.”

  “What about my mother?”

  “She’s with Collin at the penthouse. Don’t worry, she’s safe.”

  “Good,” I said closing my eyes. I just needed forty winks, and then we could go again. Even though my body could heal itself, I wasn’t at a hundred percent. Everything took energy from me that I just didn’t have yet.

  “You need food and water,” Cillian said.

  I peeked open an eye to find him watching me with a frown.

  “I’m fine. Just let me rest for a bit and then I’ll be good to go.”

  That didn’t seem to reassure him in the least.

  “There is one option...”

  I opened both eyes this time. “What’s that?”

  He scowled.

  “Will it help me?”

  He hesitated before nodding slowly.

  “Then what is it?”

  “My blood.”

  I blinked at him. “Your...blood.”

  He nodded.

  “As in, you want me to...drink it?”

  He cleared his throat, shuffling. “It would heal you even faster, and give you nourishment so we could move quicker. You wouldn’t feel so weak.”

  “No way. I’m not drinking blood. I don’t care if that stuff is like Red Bull right now, I’m not doing it.”

  “Fine. It was just an option,” he said with a shrug. “Rest for a bit. I will watch over you.”

  I stared at him for a moment before closing my eyes again. Drink his blood. As if. That was disgusting. I didn’t care how weak I was, there were just some things a girl drew a line in the sand for, and did not cross it, no matter what.

  ***

  We were moving on an hour later. I felt slightly refreshed from my power nap, but it wasn’t long before my steps began to drag again. It didn’t help that not only was the terrain all over the place, but it also happened to be super-hot. I was sweating more than I had ever sweat before. If I wasn’t already skin and bones from my week with Aaron, I’d have been happy to be getting rid of some calories.

  We’d been climbing a particular steep incline in a dark cave, when I saw an opening up ahead. I was about to ask if that was the end, the lighting slightly different enough to make me think we had finally reached the exit, but my words died in my throat when I heard the sounds echoing down to us from above. Our feet froze at the same time. Cillian looked at me warningly as we both crouched and eased our way closer. Motioning me back, he inched forward and looked out. I didn’t have to see to know we were in trouble. One look at his tightening muscles told me that whatever was out there, it wasn’t good for us.

  He surveyed the area for a few beats before waving me back down the way we had come.

  “What is it?” I asked when we were twenty feet or so away, whispering just in case.

  “I counted about thirty demons or so, all of varying species. Looks like whoever is behind this Aaron asshole, called in additional backup,” he answered.

  I swallowed. Wonderful. I knew it had all been too easy up until now.

  “I’m guessing he came back to find you gone and made a phone call.”

  I blew out a breath. “Did you see him down there?” I was both terrified to see him, and anxious to. I wanted to rip him apart even though the sight of him was likely going to make me break out into a cold sweat.

  Cillian shook his head. “No humans. They’re all demons. And while I’d like to think I can handle my own, thirty against one is not good odds, even for me.”

  “I can help,” I defended. “I’m not just a pretty face you know.”

  His lips didn’t so much as twitch. I couldn’t get him to relax an inch since he’d found me. Those dark, bottomless eyes just raked over me, his brows lowered over them. I was sure his mind was racing over different ways to deal with this.

  “Still too soon?” I asked, cocking a brow.

  He just grunted, glancing back up at the opening.

  I let myself openly stare at his profile. When the silence stretched on, I finally asked, “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m debating on whether or not we turn back and try a different route, or if I go out there and try to kill them all myself.”

  “What about me?”

  “You’re too weak, Hope,” he snapped.

  I pressed my lips together.

  “You won’t last one minute out there. You’re huffing and puffing just from walking.”

  “But - ”

  “No. I can’t protect you and fight them.”

  He started to head further into the tunnel we were currently in.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To find a place to stash you until I can get the way clear,” he said.

  I ran to catch up with him. “Stash me? And what am I supposed to do, just wait somewhere for you to come back and
retrieve me?”

  He spun around so fast I almost crashed into him. His face was right in front of mine.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what you’re supposed to do. I didn’t find you just to lose you again.”

  “And what if you don’t come back?”

  His jaw ticked. Our bodies were both strung tight, our eyes not blinking as we stared at one another. The air between us was electrified with something unnameable.

  “I’ll do it,” I said.

  His eyes narrowed. “Do what, exactly?”