Luckily, the door was well hidden between a line of carefully tended hedges that framed the back of the tower. A shout from nearby had her clinging to the trunk of the nearest tree.
They are getting closer. Do not waste time.
Licking her dry lips, she darted through the slight gap between the shrubs, her trembling fingers finding the panel on the wall. She slammed her palm to it, guiltily thanking Kira for plugging in her handprint, and the door slid silently open. She slipped through into darkness.
Go up the stairs to the top room. You will touch the crystal.
Stumbling in the darkness, Lucie pictured the spiral staircase in her mind. She traced her hand along the wall, taking shaky steps in the direction of the stairs. Her toes found the first step. She clutched the wall with one hand and the banister with the other and slowly made her way up the sharp incline. It was like climbing the stairs in a lighthouse. They were steep and went around in a tight spiral leading ever upwards.
The absolute dark gave way to grays as light filtered into the top room through magnificent floor-to-ceiling windows. In the pictures of the tower, the windows let the light of the now-dead crystal shine in all directions, like a massively powerful glow stick. No, however, the crystal remained dark in its cradle on a plinth in its holder in the middle of the circular room.
She crept up to the plinth. The holder the crystal rested in was a magnificent work of art. The design was intricate and made from a delicate filigree of shining gold. She thought she heard a whisper of a voice close by, but she wasn’t sure if it was real or if it was the voice in her head. Sometimes she heard things that weren’t there. Whispers in the dark she couldn’t quite catch. Sounds and not words. She was slowly going crazy, if she wasn’t there already.
Take the crystal in hand. Do it. Now!
The voice was sharper. Clearer. There was a heavy presence nearby and she cringed away.
I will hurt them if you do not take the crystal. I will not hesitate!
Dragging in a shaking breath, she undid the glass door to the crystal’s encasement. It was right there. All she had to do was reach out and touch it and then everything would be better. She would get to go home. There would be no more voices. The brothers—her mates—would be free of her to find their true match. Someone good enough without all the excess baggage she came with. This was all for the best.
She reached forward, her fingers curving around the gem. The overhead lights blasted on, soaking the chamber in vivid harshness.
“Lucie! Don’t!”
Gasping, she spun to see Kyel, Zaen, and Juliran emerging from the hidden doorway into the room. Their three huge bodies filled the space. The air seemed to be sucked right out of her lungs. Heat prickled her skin as her heart pummeled empty veins.
She’d been found.
Chapter Two
Kyel
Lucie’s brown eyes widened in a face that seemed too small to hold them. A tremor ran through her too-thin body, her fingers twitching around the Erion crystal. They seemed to reach for it while she did her best to pull away.
He stepped forward. Another shudder worked through her body. She was like a skittish Standon, cornered and caught in the wild. That had been their Lucie since they’d first laid eyes on her. Even after weeks of trying to calm her, she was yet to tame. Something held her back. He was still waiting to discover what that was.
She was still understandably traumatized from her abduction. Kyel knew it might yet be months, maybe years, before she would be rid of the daily nightmares, and yet there seemed to be something else terrorizing their sweet mate, besides her terrible experience at the hands of the scaled ones.
He’d meditated on their soul link. On the surface it was clear and connected, and yet there was something—other—about their link.
He was aware of what the Ozar and Arabis had faced. They all knew about this entity that was intent on using the power of the crystal to enter their dimension and control their planet, and he more than suspected that it was blocking their soul connection. They could feel her, but she had no way of feeling them.
If she had, they could have completed the mate-sync, and she would be happily in their arms during the day and in their bed at night. With the soul-to-soul connection, she would know beyond a doubt that they were made for each other. Their souls would recognize the strength of their love, even if her mind had yet to catch up. He sometimes worried she felt nothing because she was human, but the Fates wouldn’t have gifted her to them in the first instance. In fact, if he studied the Ozar and Arabis Quads, theirs were the strongest mate-syncs he’d ever seen. He knew their bond was also strong, if it wasn’t for the strange blockage.
His heart pounded at the mere sight of Lucie being so close to the crystal. It was powerful and there was no knowing what would happen if she touched it, however dormant it might look.
That was the other confusing thing. Returned to its cradle, set upon the strongest ley-line of their Homeland, the crystal should have linked right back into the ground, but it had yet to light and restore health upon their land.
Without the power returning to the land, their people could not recognize their mates. Without the power of a Quad, of four souls coming together through the mate-sync bond, new souls blessed from the Fates could not come into existence onto their planet. It took the power—and the love—of four connected souls to bring new souls into physical existence, to give birth to a new Triad of males and then a precious female. Two pregnancies per Quad that ensured the continuation of their species. Their people, the land and their crystal were intimately linked.
He’d had their lead scientists on the job, looking into the problem. The trapped power inside the crystal was building and nobody knew if it was safe enough to touch—and their mate hovered too close to unknown, unbridled power.
Her eyes shone with unshed tears, her face tightened in anguish. “I… I must. It told me to do this.”
His blood ran cold. If someone was threatening her, he would eviscerate them. “Who told you, Lucie?”
She shook her head, face twisted, clasping her forehead with the hand that wasn’t reaching for the crystal, waging an internal war. His heart stuttered at her pain.
“You don’t understand,” she said, voice hoarse.
“Little mate, we can help you.” Zaen stepped next to his shoulder.
Lucie shrank in on herself. “No one can help me. Don’t you understand? You have to go away. It’s the only way it’ll stop. Please… I just want to go home.” Her face contorted with anguish, tears leaking from her eyes, streaking down her cheeks.
“Lucie, please. You have to listen to us.” He shook with restraint. It took all his willpower to just stand there and watch his mate being tortured.
“I’m done with listening! It said… it will hurt you if you stop me. This is the only way!” She panted, fighting something only she could sense. A heart-wrenching groan ripped through her as she turned towards the crystal.
“Little mate. Don’t!” Juliran’s voice echoed around the chamber. He rushed towards her, but it was too late.
Her small fingers closed around the crystal. Her body went rigid as though bolts of electricity raced through her. Her head was thrown backwards, her long brown strands flowing down her back. Her eyes snapped wide open, seeing nothing. Pain was etched on every angle of her face and body.
The dead crystal in her hand came alive, glowing so bright that it washed her out with its intensity. Light streamed outwards, coating the landscape beyond with the bright blues and swirling greens of the Erion. It was alive, a swirling mass of living color. It reached the horizon and into the sky above, the brightest and strongest Kyel had ever seen.
A shriek pierced his ears. A sonic boom erupted throughout the chamber. The exterior glass exploded outwards, shards shattering through the air and shooting to the ground. Black clouds appeared out of thin air, swirling around the ceiling. Wind whipped their clothing, creating a stream of circular air with enough
force to take them to the floor. Kyel braced against the wind, feet wide apart, hand against the wall at his back.
A face emerged from the swirling mass. Two holes for eyes. A gigantic mouth yawned open, lowering as though to swallow Lucie whole.
“No!” Juliran stepped towards her.
Shards of lightning flashed, leaving black score marks in the floor. Smoke rose from the mark, separating them from their mate. A clap of thunder rolled through the chamber, and the entire building shuddered. The mouth descended directly towards her.
“We have to save her,” Kyel yelled over the screech of the storm.
“Three of us. Together. Like we’re hunting Standon,” Zaen called. His tattoos flashed blue and green in his terror for Lucie. Kyel had never seen his brother so agitated.
Kyel nodded, the increasing noise of the storm making it too hard to speak. Juliran moved to the right, while Zaen moved to the left. Kyel waited until they were in position, all three surrounding her.
Lucie’s body glowed with the power of the crystal, blue and green light glowing from her open eyes. Light streamed from cracks that opened all over her skin.
Gods, she was being roasted alive. Her little body couldn’t take this sort of torture. Hadn’t she already gone through enough?
There was no time to dwell. He shoved aside those thoughts. The only thing that mattered was saving Lucie. He had to concentrate.
Kyel nodded at his brothers and they moved as one. There was a thunderous roar, and lightning cracked, lashing towards them. White hot pain streaked along his arm, but he launched through the air with a powerful leap.
All three of them caught her at the same time. Juliran held her legs, Kyel caught her midsection, and Zaen banded an enormous arm about her shoulders. They all tumbled to the floor. The crystal fell from her hand, rolling across the floor with melodic tinkles.
Kyel came to his knees, grasping Lucie’s shoulders. Her eyes closed. Her skin was pale, her body unmoving.
He gave her shoulders a little shake. “Lucie? Lucie!”
Her head rolled, but she was unresponsive. His heart pounded and a slick wash of sweat coated his skin. An ear-splitting screech filled the room. The face above them merged back into a mass of swirling black clouds. An opening emerged from within the center and the clouds fed inwards, sucked back through the hole.
Above them, the ceiling disintegrated, obliterating the top of the tower, opening to the night sky. The clouds expanded over the tower, growing so large that it wiped out the light from the stars and moons.
They hovered, writhing and billowing. Shards of lightning sparked within the mass like an ominous storm yet to descend. Whatever it was, it couldn’t possibly be good.
“Gods. Her palm.” Zaen opened the hand she’d used to grab the crystal. The skin was charred and blistered, the layers burnt away.
Juliran tapped her cheek, his palm swallowed the whole curve of her face. “Lucie, wake up.”
Kyel cradled her unresponsive form into his lap. Her breathing was shallow and erratic, her pulse flittering like a small bird. “We have to get her to the healer.”
“What has happened?” Juliran looked to the sky.
A darkness pressed within Kyel’s chest and dread was like a rock in the pit of his stomach. The clouds above circled ominously, as if they waited for a chance to descend on Lucie as though she was at the center of them.
“Nothing good,” he said. “I think that thing above us was inside our Lucie all this time.”
That would explain the torment in her face, the dark circles beneath her eyes through lack of sleep, the weight her frail body didn’t put on. What she must have endured. And she bore it all on her own. If only she’d reached out to them. They would have done anything to help her through this.
“We have failed her,” Zaen said.
“We’ll fail her now if we don’t get her the help she needs,” Kyel said, rising to his feet as he picked her up. Her body was too light, like holding a child. She might have lost even more weight from when they’d rescued her from the cages. Intolerable. He hadn’t known, because she barely let them, or anyone else, touch her.
He bolted down the steps, meeting their guards halfway down. The strained face of his Captain of the Guard, Tann, was barely visible in the gloom.
“Call Erix,” Kyel said. “Our mate is in mortal danger.”
With a clipped word, Tann had his men hurried down the stairs without delay. Behind him, Tann’s tense voice alerted Erix, their healer, using his wrist comm.
“I’ll be in the medi-bay. Bring her in as fast as you can. I’ll have everything ready.” Erix’s voice sounded from Tann’s wrist-comm, panting in his haste.
“Make no delay, Erix. This is an emergency,” Kyel yelled loud enough for Tann’s wrist comm.
“Understood.” Erix’s voice was grim. Kyel could trust Erix to understand the gravity of the situation.
The guards followed Kyel as he held Lucie tightly against his chest, Zaen, and Juliran to the palace making their way directly to the medi-bay. Servants and guards silently lined the walls as Kyel broke into the room. Erix indicated the open and ready medi-bed.
Kyel laid Lucie on the bed and cupped her cold cheek with his palm. She was so precious, yet she didn’t have a clue as to how much she meant to them.
“Please, Kyel. Let me get to her,” Erix said.
Kyel nodded and forced himself to step away as Erix shut the transparent panel around the medi-bed. The chamber filled with mist that would deliver the nutrients and medications Lucie needed.
“What’s happened?” Kira burst into the room, a gown hastily thrown over her nightdress. She ran to the medi-bed and gasped, her hand hovering over her mouth. “What happened to Lucie?”
Juliran put an arm around her shoulder. Kira turned into him, silent tears falling. “We’re trying to work that out, sister.”
“Is she… She isn’t… Oh, it’s too awful.” Kira’s voice caught. She shook her head and buried it in Juliran’s chest. Juliran wrapped his arms about their sister, his face drawn and tight.
Zaen rubbed Kira’s shoulders. “Erix is the best. He’ll know what to do.”
Erix frowned, tapping on the hand-held device. Although Kyel wanted to ask questions, he knew to let the man work. He was the best healer in their Homeland. If anyone could work out exactly what was wrong with Lucie, it would be him.
Kyel still had to do something about the abnormal clouds that had burst from nowhere and hovered over the tower. He called Tann over from where he stood just outside the door. Tann hurried over to him. The look on his face mirrored the horror he also felt. Tann wasn’t just a guard, he was also a childhood friend. They spent many an hour in the training ground honing and bettering their craft.
“Gather your top guards and survey the clouds that hang over the tower,” Kyel said.
“Retrieve the crystal and take it to the laboratory. I want Erix to test it. Whatever you do, don’t touch it.”
Tann’s brows scrunched. “Don’t touch it?”
Tann had personally put the crystal in its place in the Tower and knew it could be touched—under normal circumstances.
“It had some inner power that was unleashed the moment our mate touched it and we don’t know why. It could hurt you too. At the moment, treat it as though it is dangerous.”
Tann turned a horrified look to Lucie’s unmoving figure inside the chamber. “At once.”
He wasted no time and disappeared from the room, taking a contingent of trusted guards with him. As Tann left, their fathers and mother rushed into the room, clothes askew, hair ruffled, wearing expressions of concern. Their mother went directly to Kyel and his brothers. Her gaze landed on the mist-filled chamber and she halted, visibly pale. Swallowing hard, she straightened her shoulders, looking about the room. “What happened?”
She was always calm against turmoil, displaying feminine strength that shone through again and again. Their fathers grouped around the mother, their ke
en eyes taking in everything.
“She touched the crystal, and this is what it did to her,” Kyel said.
His mother turned to Erix. “Do you have any idea what is wrong with my daughter?’
She had accepted Lucie the moment Kyel and his brothers had arrived from her rescue. Once they’d told her they’d found their mate, it was cause for celebration.
Lucie had no idea what that meant for their Homeland, underplaying the significance of it even through the public and private celebrations. She was shy, not used to attention. None of them had wanted to cause her more anguish than she’d already suffered and so hadn’t pushed her. Anger thrummed through his system. If he could have killed those scaled ones ten times over for her, he would.
Erix peered at her. His face was tight as he levelled a weighted look between all of them. “I’m afraid it’s not good.”
Chapter Three
Zaen
Zaen stood rooted to the spot as a wave of heat engulfed his body. “What do you mean ‘it’s not good’? Tell me exactly what is happening to her!”
His fist clenched, ready to hit something, but what could he lash out at that would make an ounce of difference? Anger and helplessness were not a good combination.
Erix held his gaze. “Her body is shutting down.”
Kyel let out a roar that shook the walls. Kira gasped and Juliran ploughed the fingers of both hands though his hair.
“Scan her again. It has to be wrong,” Zaen said. His hands clenched into useless fists. He wanted to pound into... something, but that wouldn’t help Lucie at all. Being helpless didn’t sit well with him, but until they worked out what had happened, he just had to deal with it as best he could, which included keeping a tight rein on his reaction.
“I’ve done it five times already,” Erix said.
Once was enough. Their machines were the best and didn’t miss anything. That Erix had scanned her five times showed how worried he was.
The Erion Triad: A Negari Sci-Fi Alien Abduction Reverse Harem Romance Page 2
