Entangled Darkness

by Brandy L Rivers

  “Ancestors of each of your families started the Branches of Emrys,” Ms. Murdock explained, giving each a thoughtful smile. “I had hoped to wait a bit longer before bringing you all in, but timing is rarely on my side.”

  Robert held up his hand, staring Old Lady Murdock in the eye. “What are you talking about?”

  “The Branches of Emrys. You were always destined to be included, but you needed to bond first.”

  Tremaine shook his head. “Please tell me you didn’t engineer the three of us to become lovers.”

  “No,” Ms. Murdock stated. “Your bonds were forged long before you all took your relationship to this level. Tremaine is the protector, Liz is the strength, and Robert is the voice of reason. Together, you have all accomplished great things, but nothing like you will in the years to come. I can’t say I’m surprised where you wound up, though that was never the goal.”

  Relief settled in. Yes, they’d been manipulated, but not completely. They still had free will. If she were truly Ceridwen, she was one of the supposed divines, worshipped as a god for centuries.

  Tremaine scrubbed a hand over his face and let out a laugh. “Did you and Maverick form Branches of Emrys? Does that make Maverick actually Merlin?”

  She nodded. “It does.”

  Liz gasped. “So, Preston’s grandfather is really the wizard of myth and legend.”

  “The legends are over exaggerated, but there is a grain of truth.”

  Draecyn cleared his throat. “Maverick has had many names as well. Bastard enjoyed the crazy rumors of the other Silver Council members but had fabricated a realistic enough story that he took the place of an ill-fated descendent. Maverick had also been a wild mage who stayed away from the Silver Council. Myrddin was able to take his place without question. Myrddin gave Maverick a more respected persona.”

  Ms. Murdock laughed in an almost sad tone. “Unfortunately, the new persona didn’t dampen the rumors and legends enough to cast doubt on everyone. He’s been trapped in another realm, and I’ve been unable to locate him.”

  “What does any of this have to do with Branches of Emrys?” Tremaine demanded.

  Draecyn pressed a hand to his chest with a wince, then sank to the ground with a groan.

  Liz knelt beside him. “What’s wrong? Is that where the knife was?”

  “Don’t worry about me. We have important matters to discuss. I’m healing—”

  “That’s the wound from the knife we thought killed you?” Frowning, she shook her head. “Even without magic, that should have healed.

  He shook his head, a sad smile. “It’s healing, but time doesn’t exactly work the same here. The process is slower. Consider it like an old battle wound that leaves aching joints.”

  Liz stood and stepped away, shutting back down.

  Draecyn pinched the bridge of his nose. “Elizandra, it’s not that I don’t trust you. I do. The wound itself is healed. The damage inside is the problem. Neither Ceridwen nor I could fully heal the damage.”

  “Understood,” she answered, unconvinced.

  Tremaine shot him a glare and moved to Liz’s side, taking her hands. “You okay, Doll?”

  Heaving a sigh. She nodded. Then she turned toward Ms. Murdock. “You created the Silver Council?”

  A soft smile graced her lips. “You’ve heard the stories. Yes, I helped. There have always been different factions of Others. Most want to stay to themselves. Some would love to take over the world. The idea of the Silver Council was never to run all the Others, but to prevent any one group from gaining control, or destroying Earth the same way we destroyed our realm.”

  Robert shook his head. “Then why do you avoid the Silver Council now?”

  “Same reason I avoid getting directly involved in anyone’s path. Guiding is safer.”

  “But why?”

  Ms. Murdock met his gaze head-on. “Like Myrddin, I was hunted. Only I disappeared from the Council long enough so everyone forgot. One of my gifts is taking the memory of me away when I leave. It comes in handy.”

  Tremaine snorted. “Yeah, and helps confuse some of us.”

  “Perhaps, but you always remember when the time comes. And I won’t be removing yours again.”

  “If you don’t involve yourself directly, why did you take Christian in? Why did you urge Liz to stay with you?”

  “Simple. Christian needed a home. He inherited enough mystic abilities from his parents to be a full mystic, the first in eons.”

  “Then why not train him sooner?”

  “Our magic develops more slowly. He has no mage abilities to alter his mystic abilities. Therefore, he couldn’t learn until his mind was opened to the possibility in a more natural way.”

  “You mean, he had to seek the knowledge?” Tremaine asked.

  “Yes. For us, the power won’t come without our own curiosity. Had he asked while under my roof, I would have given him whatever guidance I could, but he wasn’t ready, and he’s still young enough that getting a grasp on his powers may be challenging.”

  “Why create the Silver Council if you refuse to help now.”

  “I do help. Though, like Myrddin, I was hunted. I helped too much when I first came here. People remembered, started telling stories as if I were some kind of goddess, which I’m not. Neither are any of my people, though some would have you believe they are. It was better for me to step away and let the mages handle their own problems, and help redirect where I could, to avoid the same follies my people suffered.”

  “But the corruption still exists in the ranks?” Robert asked.

  “I could force decisions on the mages, but I’ve seen the results. It’s dangerous. You each need to grow, to learn, to adapt. When I take control, nothing is learned, nothing gained. Far more harm is caused when I dictate how things should go. And sometimes, though rarely, you all have better ideas than me.”

  Tremaine scratched his head. “What is the goal?”

  “To bring HARP down. To bring the Silver Council back to what it was meant to be,” Draecyn stated simply.

  “Why wait until now to tell me?”

  Draecyn drew a slow breath. “You needed to learn what they were and make your own decision. It was important that you chose your way.”

  Robert stepped closer. “How does my family have mystic blood? Mother was so proud of being able to trace our mage blood back all the way.”

  “My people are similar to yours. We took lovers, intermingled. Many mages have some trace of mystic blood. However, one maternal and one paternal grandparent was full mystic. Your mother didn’t know, but your father did. He was part of the Branches of Emrys.”

  Robert’s mouth fell open. “I know where I heard that name. A man came for us when I was a boy. We were camping. The storm, the fire. Father killed him.”

  Liz took his hand and Tremaine his other. “When was that?”

  “I was five years old.”

  Draecyn nodded in confirmation. “Unfortunately, someone high in the ranks of the Silver Council suspected Wilhelm was a mystic. The Council member sent an elite hunter to prove Wilhelm was anything but a mage. The Hunter didn’t survive. Not long after that, the man who made the accusation was killed before he could tarnish Wilhelm’s reputation.”

  “Our own people?”

  “Oh, he was part of HARP as well. One of the few of my people who believed we needed chaos to keep mortals in line.”

  “But why?”

  “Members of HARP want knowledge and seek to understand how this world came into existence, believing the best method is to learn how to deconstruct it so they can reconstruct their own.”

  “Which is why they want Rift Benders,” Tremaine answered as the thought struck. “So we can pull the pieces left from their world into ours, and they can reshape the matter how they see fit?”

  Old Lady Murdock nodded. “I believe that is why you are so important to them. And why you both must learn to use your gifts to escape when they come for you. They will come for you.”r />
  Chapter 18

  First, her father was alive. Then he refused her help. Next, Tremaine was telling her HARP wants her to destroy the world to rebirth a dead one. Plus, they gave Robert one hell of a doozy with the mystic crap. It hadn’t sunk in for him yet, but it would soon.

  None of that mattered to Liz at that moment. Draecyn’s eyes shone with some kind of determination. Just like HARP wanted to use Tremaine, Branches of Emrys now wanted to use all three of them.

  Her own father had left her abandoned. He clearly had no warm spot for her with the way he focused on all the details of bullshit she didn’t care about.

  She stormed toward Draecyn in the wake of her fury. “I want to know why my father chose to send me to another family. Why you kept me from my mother. Why not take me in, save me? You sent another man to rescue me, then let him take me to someone else’s family. Maybe I was right all those years I believed you cared so little about me, you sold me to the slavers. I regret ever thinking you could have loved me but were trying to protect me while you lay dying in my lap. How could you feed me such bullshit?”

  Draecyn slowly shifted toward her, reaching for her shoulders. She stepped back with cold eyes. “No. I don’t want lies. Forget it.”

  She stepped through the rift and saw four figures. The wind blew their cloaks around them with a whoosh as they rushed toward her.

  Someone’s hand wrapped around her arm and hauled her back into the rift.

  “They’re coming. They can’t get into this pocket, but if we go out there, they will take you,” Tremaine warned in a low, dangerous tone. “They followed us. But how the fuck did they find us?”

  Draecyn spoke up, “They knew of this place. They’ve had scouts searching for any sign of you for years. It’s why I’m glad you brought Robert. Ceridwen can enter and leave, but she can’t take anyone with her. Their limitations are different than ours.”

  The shield that held the pocket open lit up in a thousand colors.

  “We go now,” Ceridwen ordered.

  Robert held out his arms, and everyone touched him. He took them back to Draecyn’s hidden chambers. “What the hell is really going on?”

  “We told you. They want to try destroying our world so they can bring theirs back. At least the inner core,” Old Lady Murdock answered.

  Tremaine’s earlier words echoed in Liz’s head. She spun toward Old Lady Murdock, the accusation on her tongue. “You knew all of this was going to happen, didn’t you? And what Sinclair would do to me. You didn’t even try stopping it.”

  Dipping her head in a nod, a look of anguish took hold on her face. “I may be able to predict outcomes and steer people around pitfalls, but I’ve learned completely altering what is to come does more harm than manipulating the circumstances. It broke my heart to let that monster violate you, but I kept him from it until I knew you could survive what came after.”

  “And my child. You let James rip him from me, then all but forced me to take care of Christian after I lost everything.” A cry ripped from her chest, and she sank to her knees, clutching her stomach where another baby grew. “And now some twisted fucked up group wants to take me to use my talents to destroy my world? Fuck that!”

  Liz shot to her feet, and closed the distance, glaring at the woman she thought of as a mother for so damned long. It gutted her to know that she was just a piece of a puzzle the ancient woman was slowly putting together.

  Tears filled Ms. Murdock’s eyes as she stood her ground. “I don’t expect you to understand or forgive me. You’ve been through so much heartache. Nothing I say or do will ever change the pain you’ve suffered.”

  “I can’t lose my boy. I can’t have everything ripped away from me. I’m finally happy, and everything is ready to fall apart again.”

  “We won’t let it,” Draecyn promised.

  “We won’t,” Old Lady Murdock agreed. “I plan to train Robert myself. Christian as well. Though a large part of what Christian decides rests with you. If you shut me out, the boy will too, and then I’m not sure anything I can do will ever save this world.”

  Liz paced away, tears burning her eyes.

  Draecyn slid into her path. “I didn’t know what Sinclair would do. And I couldn’t claim you as mine without putting you in more danger. I knew HARP wanted Rift Benders, and it was only a matter of time before they resurfaced to try to take you. It’s why you being with Wilhelm was safer.”

  “My mother, the druid compound, why not there?”

  He sighed. “I feared she would take you from me, hide you away, and I would never see you again. Because of the way I ended things with her, I didn’t believe she could ever forgive me.”

  “Why?” she demanded.

  “Guilt tore me apart when we lost you. I was sworn to secrecy regarding who took you and what they wanted. Amalie knows nothing of the Branches of Emrys. I swore not to confide in the man I trusted most.”

  Tremaine groaned. “Yeah. You were always a secretive bastard. It’s why, after a point, I didn’t hound you for answers I knew you wouldn’t give.”

  Her mother still spoke fondly of him. Liz couldn’t imagine Amalie shutting him out completely if she learned he was still alive. And all it took for Robert to have her back was to tell her he never wanted to leave. She had the kind of love that no matter the time and distance, it would never go away. Did her mother, too?

  Did they share the same kind of love? Liz looked into his eyes. “What did you do to Amalie?”

  “Shut down, pushed her away. I hated myself so much and couldn’t let her take the hurt away. Your abduction was my fault. I knew we needed to be cautious, keep you quiet, but I couldn’t see past my love, and then everything fell apart.”

  Tremaine growled. “I told you a million times… you were wrong. You could have gone back to her. She put on a good front for everyone to see, but she always loved you. She still does.” He shook his head, looking at Liz, then Robert. “Love like yours doesn’t die. You were both broken, but sometimes coming back together is what forges the strongest love.”

  “Even now, I still can’t tell her anything. I no longer have the desire to lie to Amalie.”

  “You weren’t lying,” Ms. Murdock pointed out. “Withholding is far different.”

  “Doesn’t matter. It feels like lying, especially when my knowledge might have sparked an idea within her. Perhaps she could have found them faster.”

  Draecyn turned to Liz. “I believed I made the right choice after failing you in the first place. I knew that if I found you, HARP would learn what you were, and they would take you again. You weren’t safe with the druids. You weren’t safe under my roof. I sent you with Tremaine, knowing he would take you to another mystic who well understood what it was like to be of mixed blood.”

  “Wilhelm?” Liz frowned. “He never acted as if he knew.”

  “As far as I knew, he did not,” Tremaine told her. “Though I should have figured it out when he didn’t press for answers about your arrival.”

  Draecyn frowned. “He knew. He helped me formulate the plan to take you in. Wilhelm had already agreed to accept you into his home before I sent Tremaine on his mission at Sinclair’s.”

  Tremaine snorted. “He knew what I am?”

  “Not when you were young. We inducted him into the Branches of Emrys soon after his father died.”

  “That was just before he chose not to go into the Enforcer program. Shit, why did you put me through hell and not tell me any of this?”

  “You were the only one I trusted. However, I couldn’t very well tell you what you were walking into and give you all the background. I knew they would torture you, they would send people into your head. You were the first we’d heard of who didn’t break under their psion. Of course, we were worried what would happen. And when Jules survived, we were forced to keep you in the dark because there was always the possibility that you would be dragged back into HARP.”

  Tremaine raised his hands and backed away. “I’m no s
afer now. None of us are.” He pushed his fingers through his hair and pulled them into fists. “You know how close I came to breaking? And now it’s okay to tell me everything? What the fuck?”

  “But you didn’t break,” Draecyn pointed out. “You were the one they should have taken into Branches of Emrys. I tried to convince them, but they were right, you were the only one who could do what you did. You had the added benefit of already being known as a Rift Bender by two of the Silver Council’s supposed heroes. They’d been in line with HARP for as long as they’d been alive, thanks to their parents.”

  “This is a lot to wrap our heads around,” Robert stated, looking from Liz to Tremaine and back. “And with our child on the way, none of us are going to willingly walk into their grasp. You’re a little late to be asking us to join a cause none of us understand.”

  Old Lady Murdock approached Liz and took her shoulders. “I give you my word you will not lose this child, and you will not lose a piece of your heart. We are not asking you to walk into their hands, only requesting you all learn a few skills to better hide and help you escape when they inevitably come for you. And they will.”

  “How can I trust you when you knowingly let everything happen to me?”

  “Because you were the one to save all of Sinclair’s slaves. Without you killing him, the wards would have never fallen. Without Tremaine, you may have suffocated, or been taken when HARP swept in to clean out everyone they thought they could use.”

  “You wouldn’t have made sure I got out?” A bitter laugh escaped, and Liz walked away, thinking about running, but she didn’t know where Draecyn’s home was located. How the fuck did HARP know where to find us? She spun back. “What exactly is it you want?”

  “To look at the evidence and form your own conclusions. We’ve given you access to everything you need. And if you can forgive me for making hard choices, then learn from us. Please.” The old woman was pleading, something Liz had never seen her do.

  None of this bullshit was fair. They put Tremaine through hell. Didn’t stop her hell from happening. And Robert’s parents had lied to him.