Captive of Darkness (Heart of Darkness Book 1)

by Debbie Cassidy

  My voice. She was imitating my voice.

  “What have you done? What have you done to him?”

  Her hand kept moving against her sex, but her eyes were on me now, accusing and desperate. “Not me. I’m not doing a thing. Finn … Oh, Finn. Please don’t stop.”

  Disgust and curiosity tangled together to form a lump in my throat. “Stop. Stop it!” I strode toward her.

  She hissed and made a grab for my arm. Her touch burned like cold fire. “See. See what he does to me.”

  The world tilted and then we were in a room painted rose, staring at a four-poster bed, and on that bed was Finn, his naked body entwined with another. The female writhing beneath him turned her head, and I stared at my face, twisted in ecstasy, brow beaded in perspiration as I rolled my hips up to meet his thrusts. Desire washed over me, and heat coiled in my belly. This was us, this was what could be, and we were beautiful.

  “He can’t see you,” the ghost of Giselle said. “He can’t hear you, but if you want, you can feel him. All you have to do is climb in.”

  I glanced at her heart-shaped face, at her pretty pouted mouth, and the tongue that flicked out to lick those luscious lips.

  “Climb in and feel him inside you,” she purred. “Feel his hands on you.” She slid her hands up to cup her breasts and began to massage them before throwing back her head and moaning in ecstasy. “Yes, Finn, yes.”

  On the bed, Finn was kneading my breasts. He dropped his head to my chest, taking me in his mouth. My sex throbbed at the sight. I took a step toward the bed.

  “That’s it, Yav-born. Take your place. Finish the picture.”

  I glanced over my shoulder at her, my body suddenly heavy with sexual lethargy. Did it matter if I digressed from the plan for one moment? Did it matter? Because this was Finn. This was what I wanted. He was making love to me on that bed. Didn’t I deserve to at least feel it?

  Giselle nodded. Her gaze flicked over my head, and her eyes lit up. “Do it,” she said. “Take her.”

  For a moment it was as if she wasn’t even speaking to me, as if she was speaking to someone else.

  “Wynter. Oh, God. I love you,” Finn said.

  I turned back to him, to the bed and the embrace I wanted to be a part of.

  “Yes, yes, do it.” Giselle’s tone was eager and raspy, sending a thrill of foreboding down my spine.

  What? What was I doing? This wasn’t real. None of it could be real, but there was no stopping now, not with the malicious entity at my back. I continued toward the bed, fighting the coil and heat and tightening inside me, fighting the lethargy that attempted to wrap itself around my thoughts and silence reason. I wanted Finn, but not like this. Not now. The mattress dipped beneath me as I climbed up to meet him, to show him that the me he wanted wasn’t the one beneath him. The me he wanted was here, reaching for him.

  He can’t hear you. He can’t see you.

  But he’d always heard me. He’d always known my heart. We had a bond, we were connected, and so I had to try. “Finn, please look at me.”

  He faltered, staring down at the façade of me.

  “Here. Up here, Finn. Look at me.”

  He raised his head and stared right at me, right into my eyes.

  “There you are.” I smiled.

  “Wynter?” Confusion flashed across his beloved features and then his face bulged and morphed and horns exploded from his forehead.

  “Wynter!” Veles’s body burst through Finn, as if Finn had been an apparition, and tackled me.

  He body-slammed into me just as something metallic and glinting sliced the air where my head had been a moment ago.

  We slipped off the bed, and he twisted to land on his back with me cradled against him.

  Giselle’s scream echoed around the room.

  Veles rolled with me. “Stay down, Wynter.” He released me, and then leapt up to meet Giselle’s ghostly form brandishing a dagger.

  He knocked the blade out of her hand and made a grab for her throat. Her ethereal form solidified, and she was held aloft by Veles, the tips of her toes scraping the ground.

  Her face was serene as it looked upon Veles. “You see me now, don’t you?”

  “Giselle? Oh … Oh, Giselle …” His tone was saturated with pity. He released her and pressed his fingers to his temple. “How could I have forgotten?”

  Her lips twisted. “You said you wouldn’t. You promised you’d find me.” She leaned forward, her fists tight at her sides, body vibrating with anger. “You promised, Veles. You stripped me, and you sent me to the Soul Keep, and you never came for me. You played with your Yav-born soul and then you discarded her. But I came looking for you. I came here, and I waited and waited, and it was cold, and it was lonely, and the walls were warm. The castle was home. It accepted me. It remembered me.” She shook her head. “And then you came, but you didn’t hear, you didn’t see. So many others saw, so many others heard, but not you. Never you.” She turned her furious gaze to me. “Then you bring her, a Yav-born with a shell. You bring her here, and the way you look at her, the way you hold her … No. That was me once. That was me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Veles said. “Something happened, and I lost my mind.”

  Her lips curled. “You don’t remember what happened, do you?”

  He took a step toward her. “You do?”

  “Ha!” Spittle flew from her mouth. “Yes! Yes, I remember. I remember everything. The souls remember, we remember it all and everything since. Memories are our fuel of choice, after all. Yours, hers, and every living creature who dares taint our home. We watch and we experience and we feel. Pain, desire, grief, love. We feel it all by drawing your memories out.”

  “Tell me.” Veles grabbed her shoulders. “Tell me what happened.”

  “Fuck you, Veles.” Her tone was barbed with venom. “Fuck you. Get out of here.” She turned to smoke and slipped from his grasp, leaving him clutching air. “This place is no longer yours. It belongs to me now.”

  I pulled myself up off the floor, slowly so as not to spook her. There was no sign of Finn. He’d been here. That hadn’t been a memory pulled from my mind, so it had to have been him.

  “Giselle, I’m sorry, so sorry for what happened to you. You lost the man you loved so you know what it feels like, and I saw you, I saw the happy person you once were, and I don’t believe that you would want the same fate to befall another woman.”

  Her gaze narrowed. “You don’t know me. You don’t know anything.”

  “Maybe not, but I know you’re capable of love. I know you’re not a monster.”

  She flinched. “You only know what I’ve allowed you to see.”

  “Maybe, and maybe I’m wrong. But I’m begging you, please, help me. Help me find Finn. Help me find the man I love.”

  Her gaze flicked to Veles and a small smile played on her lips. “The man you love, eh? Hear that, Veles?”

  His jaw flexed. “I hear her.”

  She studied him for a long beat. “Yes. Yes, I do believe you do …”

  I wrung my hands. “Please, Giselle. Please, let him go.”

  She snorted. “You’re wrong, Yav-born. I did love once, but now … now I’m a monster, and Finn is mine. For now.”

  The world tilted again, and her laughter echoed in my ears.

  “Stop! Please, don’t take him!”

  The cold ballroom materialized around me. I stared at the dead fire. At the ashes and cinder.

  My eyes pricked and burned. “He was there, she has him.”

  “Wynter, I’m sorry.” Veles reached for me, but I brushed him away.

  “Don’t. I just … I just need a minute.”

  This wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, not even Giselle’s, it was the fault of whatever or whoever had messed with this place, and we were all paying the price. Hot tears slipped down my cheeks, and I dashed them away.

  “There has to be something we can do to free him.”

  Veles shook his head. “I d
on’t think there is. She has the power here. Unless she lets him go, there is no way to retrieve him.”

  Something she’d said niggled at the back of my mind. Something to do with Finn and keeping him here, and then awareness skittered up my spine and a sixth sense drew my attention to the archway.

  “Wynter?” Finn stood there, his expression wary.

  “She let you go?”

  He took a step closer. “Is that really you? Say something. Something only you would say.”

  That one was easy. I smiled. “Crudding hell?”

  He let out a strangled sob and bridged the distance between us. I wrapped my arms around his waist and pressed my cheek to his chest, listening to his crazy heartbeat. He held me so tight I could barely breathe, but it didn’t matter because he was here, and he was alive, and oh, God, he smelled like home.

  He pulled back. “You came for me?”

  I leaned back to look up at him. “Yes, I came for you, doofus. What did you expect?” My voice was thick with emotion.

  He swiped a thumb across the tear tracks on my cheek. “How?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “Which you can recount once we get out of here,” Veles said curtly.

  Finn’s head jerked up, and his eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”

  “He’s with me. He saved me and helped me find you.”

  Finn’s shoulders relaxed, and he tucked me under his arm. “In that case”—he held out a hand to Veles—“it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  Veles studied the proffered hand and then reached out tentatively to take it. The two men shook.

  “Thank you for keeping Wynter safe,” Finn said.

  Veles inclined his head. “We need to leave.” He brushed past us and into the foyer.

  Finn and I followed him into the night, into the chilly breeze that slapped my cheeks and brought fresh tears to my eyes.

  “We should head back to the glade,” Veles said. “Narina will be able to help us find a way home for you both.”

  He sounded brusque, as if he couldn’t wait to be rid of us. And maybe he couldn’t. I’d come into his life and dragged him on a quest that he had no real interest in and that didn’t benefit him in any way. He probably couldn’t wait to get back to Narina. The thought hollowed out my insides. God, what was wrong with me? I was going home with Finn. It’s what I wanted, but it also meant leaving Veles behind, it meant never seeing him again. The emptiness yawned wider, a lost, forlorn sensation that I knew I’d be carrying with me for a long time.

  “Wynter?” Finn was studying me intensely. “Are you all right?”

  I smiled up at him, and the hollow ache receded a fraction. Finn was everything, he was my heart and my home.

  “I am now that I have you back.”

  His throat bobbed. “There was something I wanted to tell you. I should have told you a long time ago.”

  My pulse fluttered, but a sick feeling unfurled in my stomach at the same time. He was going to say the words I’d been wanting to hear for too long, but Veles was standing right here, listening to us, watching us, watching me. It felt wrong. It felt—

  “Wynter, I’m in lo—Argh!” He slapped a hand to his forehead and doubled up.

  “Finn? Finn, what’s wrong?” I grabbed at his shoulders, trying to force him to look up, to allow me to see what was hurting him. “Finn, let me see.”

  He slowly raised his chin to look at me. His hands still covered his forehead. “It hurts.”

  “I have to see, Finn.” I tried to move his hand.

  “Wait, wait. One second.” He peeled back his finger, and silver light lanced out, slicing across my face and forcing me to squint to protect my eyes. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

  He removed his hands, a befuddled smile on his face, but my gaze was transfixed on his forehead, on the softly glowing silver mark that was pulsing steadily there.

  Veles cursed. “Wynter, this isn’t good.”

  “What? What is it?” Finn reached up to touch the mark. “Where is the light coming from?”

  Giselle’s words flooded my mind. He’ll be gone soon all right. Not long now until he’s ripped from me by a prior claim.

  Horrific comprehension dawned. Prior claim? Only one force had a prior claim on Finn.

  Finn’s mouth formed a puzzled “o.” “Something doesn’t feel—” His body wavered like a watery reflection.

  The Riders, they were trying to take him, pull him to them somehow.

  “Wynter. No!” Veles warned.

  But I was already lunging for Finn. My fingers closed around his just as Veles’s hand grabbed my free wrist, and then blinding light stole my vision.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Veles

  The light is all around us and for a moment I am blind. The only surety is Wynter’s hand in mine. If this is what I think it is, then she will need my counsel. Her love for the boy will get her killed.

  The light ebbs and dies, and slowly, my vision returns. We are no longer at the ruins. Instead we face a towering wall made of shifting silver light.

  The shimmer.

  Wynter looks down at her free hand, the one she grabbed the boy Finn with, as if by staring at it she could will his return. But he is gone, just as I knew he would be. The mark pulled him back and the shimmer claimed him.

  “No …” She shakes her head. “No.” She twists her wrist, trying to escape me. “Let me go.”

  Instead, I pull her to me and wrap my arms around her. “There’s nothing you can do now.”

  She bucks and thrashes, trying to be free, and my heart, which has been frozen for too long, melts a little more for this vulnerable yet brave human.

  “Wynter, hush. Hush.” My hands skim over her trembling body, and she goes limp in my arms. “I’m sorry.” And I mean it.

  I mean it even though the sight of them together was a twist to my gut, even though all I wanted to do was pull her away from him and toward me. I mean it because she is hurting, and her tears are shards of glass stabbing at my heart.

  She turns in my arms and buries her face in my chest. I cup the back of her head and inhale her fragrance. The hunger, the beast stirs, and I crush her to me, ignoring her gasp and the tightening of her fists against my shoulders.

  Mine, the darkness says, and it’s getting stronger, regaining its grip on my mind. It has been getting stronger the farther we travel from the glade. This is the farthest I have ever been, and the hunger is an overpowering force hovering at the edge of my clarity, waiting to strip it away and reduce me to a primal being. Something even worse than the creature Wynter first encountered. It won’t be long until it succeeds, and I forget myself, until every moment is a fight not to claim her, to hurt her and revel in her whimpers of pain.

  I close my eyes, blocking out the need. “We have to get you home, Wynter.”

  “No. I can’t. Not without Finn.”

  “The shimmer has him, and there is no going into the shimmer.”

  “But how do you know? How do you know for sure?” She pulls back, pushing at my chest, and I release her instinctively. “How can you know if you can’t remember.” She takes a step back.

  “I just do. We all do. We know the shimmer is dangerous.”

  “Yes, but how?”

  I rub my temple. She has a point, a valid point, but when I think on it, when I contemplate touching the shimmer, trying to step through it, terror clutches my lungs in an iron fist.

  “It’s dangerous, Wynter.” I reach for her, but she dodges me, and her intent is suddenly written all over her beautiful face. “Wynter.” I make a grab for her, but she slips through my fingers like silk.

  For a moment, my feet are rooted to the spot with a terror that is ingrained in my psyche, but then I am running after her. Running toward the shimmer.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  This could have been my death. It could have been the end, and yet there was a conviction inside me that spurred me on. The shimmer rose up to meet me ju
st as Veles’s hand landed on my shoulder and the angry caw of a raven beat at my eardrums, but it was too late. My momentum, and whatever strange gravitational pull the shimmer had, propelled me forward and through. Rainbow lights dashed around me, confusing my senses, and then my hands and knees met cold stone.

  A whirring sound surrounded me, mechanical and out of place in this world. I looked up, searching for the source of the sound. Was this death? But no, there was no death waiting for me. There was only a gray stone courtyard leading to a tower so high its pinnacle was lost to the clouds. A tower made of silver and gold, of gears that turned and levels that rotated. A tower that was a machine.

  Veles’s forest scent was followed by a low, menacing growl. My hackles rose and my body acted on instinct, rolling out of the way just as he hit the ground where I’d been a moment ago. His face was unrecognizable, twisted in feral hunger, and his ember eyes were ringed with crimson.

  This wasn’t Veles. This was the beast. This was primal hunger.

  I backed away, hands up placatingly. “Veles, it’s me. It’s Wynter. You don’t want to hurt me.”

  He crouched on his haunches, fingertips grazing the ground, hair falling into his face as he canted his head. “Hurt you.” His voice was guttural and thick.

  I’d done this. I’d pushed him into following me, pulled him too far from the glade. Narina had warned me this might happen. My hand went to my mouth. She’d warned me, and she’d given me something to help in the event that it did.

  Veles flew at me, and I dove out of the way, barely escaping his clutches.

  “Hurt you.” There was real glee in his tone. Real intent.

  He lunged again, and I ducked and dodged on instinct, hand going to the bone shard tucked into my belt. No. No, I couldn’t fight him, couldn’t hurt him. Instead, I spun to face him, heart in my mouth, because there was only one way to deliver what Narina had given me, and to do that I’d have to let him catch me.

  Feet planted shoulder-width apart, I stood my ground even though every fiber of my being screamed at me to run. Veles charged, and a shadow flew over my head and hit him in the face. Feathers flew and flapped angrily as the raven attacked Veles.