by S. D. Grimm
He locked gazes with her, and the small smile that pulled the corner of his mouth didn’t dim the intensity in his eyes. “Are you doubting my ability to protect you?”
“Of course not. I just mean—”
“The correct answer is ‘never.’” The way he stared into her eyes pierced her soul. Did they all feel such a strong tie to her?
Logan’s deep voice severed her eye contact with Ethan, which was just as well. It was starting to get very warm in the tent. Logan placed his finger in the middle of the map. “Something Anna said leads me to believe my daughter may be in the Forest of Legends, the Forest of Memories, or the Forest of Old. I know the Forest of Old is closer to Meese, where she’s supposed to be, but I feel pulled back to the Forest of Legends. Since Salea is on the way, I’ll take Ryan and Chloe there to be trained.” Logan’s fingers traced the locations on the map. “I’ll stop in the library at Salea to see if I can find anything about the Whisperer that could help me. Samantha, I trust you can train and protect the younger siblings?”
She smiled, accentuating the beauty mark on her cheek. “You can count on me, Logan.”
“Good. I need the rest of you to help me.”
Beck slammed a heavy fist onto the butt of his axe. “You can count on us.” The others murmured their agreement.
Gavin motioned to himself and Melanie. “Let us go to the Forest of Old.”
“We can travel to the Forest of Memories.” Beck motioned to himself and Reuben.
Reuben met Logan’s eyes. “A war is coming. I hope we find the other Deliverers before it starts.”
“We leave tomorrow. I can’t waste any time,” Logan said, and Jayden felt a sense of kinship flood through him. This was his family. “Thank you, friends.”
“You have more news, don’t you, Logan?” Beck squinted at his friend.
Logan smiled. “Yes. More of a riddle.”
“Riddle?” Beck rubbed his hands together, and a smile spread across his scarred face.
Logan held out a small velvet bag. With a clatter of wood against wood, its contents fell to the table. Eight tokens rolled across the smooth surface of the map.
One stopped in front of Jayden, vibrated on the table, then lay flat in front of her. The picture carved into the wood was beautiful—a horse’s head. Unable to take her eyes away, she reached for it. Five stars congregated around the horse’s profile. Her finger nearly reached the token, almost touched the smooth-looking wood. Though it wasn’t possible, it almost felt like the wooden token was reaching for her with . . . an emotion? A strange type of nostalgia.
Logan’s hand bumped hers. He scooped it away before she could grasp it.
“These are the tokens the Whisperer gave me.” Logan’s deep voice interrupted her thoughts—her thought. She had just the one thought: touch the token. Jayden blinked and shook her head. She needed sleep.
“Souvenirs?” Reuben chuckled.
“Messages. She called them keys to be used when the time is right.” Logan passed around one of the wooden tokens and shared what Anna had told him.
There was a carving on one side of two wolves howling together at the moon. Jayden felt emotion pulse through the wood. Sadness and hope mingling together, as if she was getting pieces of what Anna’s husband, the Wielder, had felt when he carved the tokens.
“This one signifies the Protectors,” Logan said. “Anna said it was the key to my protecting the Deliverers. That I would know when to use it.”
“This next one represents our Whisperer,” Logan continued to pass around the tokens and relay to them what Anna had said.
It was a tree on fire. Jayden touched it, and the feeling of sadness and pain pulsed into her. She passed it along quickly.
Logan continued, “And this one represents our Wielder.”
It was a picture of a man surrounded by animals. His right hand rested on a wolf, and a beautiful bird like nothing Jayden had ever seen perched on his left arm. “What do the Whisperer and Wielder do? Why is it so important that we find them? Will they be . . . together?”
Melanie answered, “According to history, they unlock ancient secrets of the prophecy to help you defeat the Mistress. They know where to find the four thrones and how to obtain the Creator’s power, which will help you keep the Mistress of Shadows in her prison. All records of what kind of power the Wielder possesses are lost, but stories say the Wielder can destroy the land. He can bring fire or turn water to blood. Many of the tales are embellished, but we know he’s powerful.
“The Whisperer has an opposite, symbiotic type of power. She can heal the land, call memories from the trees. The Feravolk were born of the first Whisperer and Wielder. We get our connection to the earth through that lineage. Their powers directly fight the Mistress’s ability to destroy the land. The Whisperer can tell you where to find the Mistress’s prison, the other Deliverers. I’m not sure how, but she has always had these answers.”
Strange. But Jayden knew she had a link to them—the emotions in this wood. If it was any indication, the Whisperer was scared, innocent, familiar with pain. The Wielder was ashamed, confident, reluctant. They didn’t sound like a very powerful team. Then again, Jayden was certain she didn’t appear powerful, either.
Logan passed the next token around.
It was the one she’d seen before. “This is one of the Deliverers. Anna said she could sense the moods of others and calm them. She desired peace. Fast, resilient, and an ally in storm and water.”
Ethan smiled at her. “Pretty accurate, huh?” He held the small object in his fingers. The horse-head token.
Someone had carved this for her before she’d been born. She touched it. And intense hope filled her. A strength. It felt like a congregating storm and fueled her desire to persevere. Breath left her lungs in a rush.
Ethan nudged her shoulder and his eyes met hers. “You okay?” he whispered.
She was supposed to be the one in tune with everyone else’s emotions, but he seemed to be able to read hers. Did her talent affect him that way?
“Yes, thank you.” She tore her gaze from him and passed the token along. Then she picked up the next one. The carving depicted a spiraled horn sprouting from the center of a plant. Not just any plant—the plant. The one that had healed Ryan from the black lion venom. “White alor.”
Reuben took the token from her. “What’s white alor?”
Melanie stole it from Reuben’s hands. “It’s an old-world plant with special healing qualities. I’ve never seen it. It is said that unicorns really like it.”
“That’s certainly a unicorn’s horn in the picture,” Ethan said.
Melanie looked closer at the coin. “How can you be sure?”
“I’ve seen one. Up close.”
Melanie tapped her lip with her finger. “What did the Whisperer say about this Deliverer, Logan?”
“She’s a Healer. Fierce and beautiful. She can sense the pure of heart and be aware of the truth of things. Difficult to tame, not trusting of men.”
Melanie set the token down in front of her. “It all makes sense. A Healer’s bond structure is for a unicorn. If you narrow down which animals are depicted on these tokens, I think they’ll have the same attributes as the Deliverers the tokens represent. These pictures are the animals they’ll bond to.”
“I’m not sure all these animals exist.” Samantha set the wooden trinket she held down on the table. “I have never heard of an eagle with ears. These are as big as a horse’s.”
Jayden looked at the center of the table at her token. “Mine’s a horse. Can they predict storms better than other animals?”
“Do you have other Blood Moon-given talents?” Reuben raised his eyebrows.
Jayden looked at her lap. “Yes, but I don’t see what they have to do with a horse. Except . . .”
Beck leaned closer. “Except?”
“I’m fast. And I can . . . I can tell what people are feeling. Emotionally. Horses are very good at that.”
A bolt of surprise shot through her. Ethan’s. His worry churned her stomach. She really needed to get her involuntary connection to him under control.
Jayden didn’t look at him. “I rarely use it. But what about storm predicting? You really think that comes from an animal? I’m not even bonded.”
Reuben folded his hands and set them on the table. “All those marked by the Blood Moon are Feravolk, and all Feravolk are born with gifts. After we bond, those gifts grow, mature, heighten. But they’re there from the beginning. Children of the Blood Moon are just now reaching the age to bond in the last couple of years. We don’t know what they’re capable of. I personally think Children have extra talents.”
“If they bond to the animals on the tokens, we’d best be careful.” Beck set the token he held on the table, and with one thick finger pushed it back toward the center. “This one is a dragon.” He rolled up his sleeve to reveal a scarred arm. “Fire does that.”
Jayden looked at the coin. A ring of fire surrounded a scaly eye. Beck was right; he had to be. “I thought dragons were dangerous.” She glanced away from Beck’s mutilated skin.
“Oh, they are.” Beck pulled his shirtsleeve back down and chuckled. “But so are wolverines.”
Melanie picked up the token with the dragon’s eye. “What did Anna say?”
“Secretive until he gets to know you, then intensely loyal. Wise. A friend of fire,” Logan said.
She nodded. “I think we’ve figured it out. That means Beck’s right. Better be careful.”
Beck grunted. “I hope he’s not the one Franco has.”
Tension flared in the room again. Jayden concentrated on not letting it affect her. She uncurled her fists.
“Samantha is right.” Gavin set the other coin on the table with a snap. “This is no eagle.”
Ethan reached over and pulled the token close so Jayden could see it. This one bore the head of a golden eagle with tufted ears like a horned owl. “What did Anna say about him?”
“Strong, fast, and cunning. Protective of what is his—his family, his friends, his quest—things that are important to him.”
“It’s a gryphon,” Ethan said. “My sister was always obsessed with them. Always trying to prove that they really existed.”
“Makes sense,” Melanie said as she looked at the carving.
Reuben picked up the one token Logan hadn’t yet explained. The one carved with the picture of a snake. “What about this one?”
Logan growled like a wolf. “That one represents the traitor. The one who would hand us over to the Mistress.”
“Traitor?” Reuben’s eyes shifted back and forth. “I’m sorry, Logan, but don’t you think we already know who the traitor is?”
Tension swelled and Jayden pressed her arm against Ethan’s. He didn’t pull away from her.
Beck narrowed his eyes. “You mean Rebekah?”
Logan glared at Beck. “I think we all know about Rebekah.”
Chapter 20
Teaching Loyalty
Belladonna could hear the man’s screams reverberating off the walls even after he’d stopped. He was weeping now. Broken. How perfectly marvelous. He feared her.
“Unshackle him,” Rubius said.
Belladonna did as the wizard ordered, and the prisoner fell to the floor. Free of his chains, he tried to crawl across the floor toward her, slipping in his own blood. In the seven days she’d spent beating him, today he’d taken the worst.
“Please,” he whispered. “Please, mistress. I’ll do anything. Just—just heal me.”
Belladonna glanced over her shoulder at the wizard, and he nodded once. It was time to complete the training.
“I’ll heal you.” She bent down next to the man. He moaned when she touched his back. She took the pain from him. Her own back burned as the whipping she’d given him passed into her body. She clenched her jaw tight.
Seven days of torture, and she had never once healed him completely. Today Rubius instructed her to do so. She dug deep with the healing, reaching to even the oldest of the wounds she’d inflicted. Her bones cracked and mended, her skin felt as though it tore open and healed from the inside out. She used all the strength he still possessed to aid with quicker healing.
When all the pain receded from her body, she towered over him. “Do you think you can serve me?”
Still trembling on the floor, he lifted his head. “Yes.”
“Good, because there is something I want you know about me.” Belladonna crouched near him and pushed his chin up with her finger. “I am more powerful than you.”
“Yes, I know you are.”
“You know?” Belladonna cocked her head. Then she chuckled. “I don’t think you know. See, I am not just a Healer. I am an Originator. Do you know what that means?”
“No.”
“It means I can do things against Healer code. Things Healers would die for if they tried. Would you like to see my great power?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Belladonna gripped his hand and helped him to his feet. Then she placed her hand on his chest. “I have taken much pain from you, haven’t I?”
“Y-yes, mistress, and for that I give you my allegiance.”
“And in case you ever try to take your allegiance back, I just want you to know what I can do to you.”
Belladonna released the pain—just a trickle of it at first. The wizard had been right. It felt magnificent, like power. It coursed through her like a rushing wave and crashed into the man’s body. He screamed. She sent more pain through—whippings, burnings—all the things she had healed him of. The pain poured into him until the blood thundering in her own ears seemed as loud as his screams. The man fell away from her, breaking the connection, but the pain was still unleashed inside of him. She watched him writhe.
If the Healers of old had used their full range of powers, men never would have imprisoned them. Never would have taken them to bed against their will. Never would have used them as human shields.
“Enough.” Rubius’s haggard voice interrupted her thoughts.
She bent down and stroked the writhing man’s ear, turning the pain off. He lay shaking on the ground.
“Very good,” the wizard said. “Come, have some tea with me. We’ll let him rest; then you can test his loyalty.”
“Haven’t I done that?”
“No. But I’ll show you how.”
Belladonna joined Rubius at the table and sipped her tea. “So I can give him that kind of pain any time?”
“Yes.”
“But not to others?”
“You can only take pain they’ve experienced and use it. That is why, when you find one you want to break, you torture them first. You make sure they know what pain is. Then you heal them. Not fully at first. Just enough to take the edge off—until they begin to beg you to heal them. They’ll profess their love to you because you alone set them free of the pain. That is your weapon. That is how you gain allegiance. Love.”
Belladonna looked at the shivering man on the floor. He lay curled in a ball, whimpering. He did not look like he loved her. “He looks broken to me.”
“It is the breaking that makes them yours. Now you know how to do it. Shall we see if he loves you?”
Belladonna cocked one eyebrow. This should be good. “Yes.”
Rubius snapped his fingers. “Mario.” An older man stepped forward from his position behind Rubius’ chair. Rubius held a sword in each hand. He gave one to Mario. “Take this sword and lay it next to the man on the floor, please.” Mario did so. Rubius held up the other weapon. “Now come and get this sword.” Mario obeyed. “Now, kill the lovely Belladonna.”
The chair scraped against the stone floor and clattered to the ground as Belladonna stood.
Mario raced at her with his weapon held high. She reached for her daggers, but Rubius had made her remove her weapons for torture sessions. He said it was in case the prisoner tried to get hold of one. The whip she’d used earlier was out of reach, bu
t she had her hands, and she had every intention of using them.
The man she had been torturing grabbed the sword next to him on the floor. He charged Mario. Mario didn’t stand a chance against this trained fighter. He drove Mario to the wall and stabbed him through. Mario got one good swipe and cut the man’s stomach open.
When Mario slid down the cave wall, dead, the man turned to Belladonna. Holding in his entrails, he knelt in front of her, placing the sword tip on the ground and resting his other hand on its pommel. “Did I please you, Mistress?”
Rubius clapped slowly and stood. “Well done.”
Belladonna stood open-mouthed. “You did please me.”
“Good.” The man groaned and fell to his side. The sword crashed against the ground next to him.
Belladonna knelt near him and placed her hand on his open stomach. Pain ripped through her as she healed him.
No one had ever saved her from anything. No one had ever taken a blow for her. She self-healed. Why would someone protect her? His hand curled around her wrist and she looked into his dark eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Cain.” His grip loosened as he closed his eyes in sleep.
“That,” Rubius whispered behind her, “is how you teach loyalty.”
Belladonna glanced at Mario’s still form on the floor. Blood leaked out from him, a puddle of crimson seeping into the wood. Did Rubius not care that one so loyal to him would so willingly die? She regarded the wizard. If he cared so little for his own pawns, what did he care for her? For Cain?
She would not allow him to hurt her subjects.
If the time ripened, she would kill the wizard and take his power and knowledge. Then she would use it to take the Creator’s power. After she freed the Mistress of Shadows.
Chapter 21
Summer’s End
Feravolk took their feast days seriously. Even out here in a temporary camp with only a few, they decided to celebrate Summer’s End. Ryan was glad Logan had decided to stay the night. They needed a little fun in the midst of all the other heaviness.
There was music, fire, and the animals had caught enough food. The cinnamon-flavored root Thea had given him was working. And soon there would be sparring matches and dancing. The bonfire, as they called it, blazed almost as tall as him, but those who had built the camp assured him no one would see the light. It crackled and popped and snapped louder than the music sometimes. The glow showed everyone’s happy faces. Ale flowed readily, adding to the cheery, loud mood, and the smell of wood and smoke was joined by pipe tobacco and cooked apples. Perfect night to forget about worries. If the night continued this well, maybe he’d challenge a few burly men to an arm wrestle.
