Shades of Darkness

by Alexandra Ivy

  At last there was a strange creak, and a hidden door across the narrow hall pushed open and Jord cautiously stepped out. Ah. So that was how the guards had moved through the castle with no one seeing them.

  With a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching, the male entered the cell where Riza was waiting.

  “I told you we couldn’t be seen together,” Jord snapped, his low voice easily carrying to where Troy was hidden. “We want that revolting ogress to think we’re squabbling over what happened to the prisoner, not realizing we’re working together.”

  Troy grimly controlled his fury. The scent of scorched citrus was sure to warn the mer-folk they weren’t alone in the dungeons.

  Instead he concentrated on what Jord had revealed.

  The two males were working together and had presumably assisted Brigette in escaping from her cell. Plus, his worse fears had been confirmed. They’d done so because of their hatred for Inga.

  Bastards.

  “She’s asking questions,” Riza whined, the heel of his boots clicking against the bedrock as he paced around the cell.

  Jord made a sound of frustration. “All the more reason to stay away from each other.”

  “I think she suspects something.”

  “Why should she suspect anything?” Jord snapped. “You’re allowing your imagination to run wild.”

  The pacing abruptly halted. “Is it also my imagination that Troy was nosing around the guard room, demanding to know what Koral and Lusca saw the night the prisoner escaped?”

  Troy smiled. He’d hoped that word of his conversation with the two guards would make the rounds. The more pressure put on Jord and Riza, the quicker they would break.

  “He’s a nosy bastard.” Jord spat out the words. “Always pushing himself into mer-folk business. Perhaps when the Tryshu is in my hands I’ll stick it through his impish heart.”

  Troy’s breath locked in his lungs. He’d suspected that the guards had been trying to lure Inga into some sort of trap or perhaps just hoping to embarrass her by allowing a high-value prisoner to escape from her dungeons. Far too many of the warriors had been loyal to the previous King of the Mer-folk, Riven. And now they harbored resentment, not only because Inga had ultimately been responsible for Riven’s death, but because she was a mongrel who looked more like an ogress than mermaid.

  But to take the Tryshu?

  That was impossible, wasn’t it? The ancient trident was the very heart of the mer-folk magic. It picked the leader. And it’d chosen Inga.

  Period. End of story.

  So why did these fools think they could somehow force it away from her?

  A question that had to be answered.

  First, however, he wanted to make sure that no other mer-folk were involved. He leaned forward, intent on the guards’ whispered conversation.

  “And when is that going to be?” Riza hissed.

  “Soon.”

  Riza’s sharp laugh indicated he’d been told that before. Probably more than once.

  “You promised it would be after the Were was released. She’s gone. We should have our reward,” he reminded Jord. “I think you were tricked into giving that witch everything they wanted without ensuring that you’re going to get what was promised.”

  Troy lifted his brows in surprise. Their partner was a witch? That was…unexpected.

  The stench of charred salt lay thick in the air as Jord battled to contain his temper.

  “You have to be patient,” he insisted.

  “Until when?”

  “Until I tell you.”

  “Or until we’re revealed as traitors and we end up in one of these cells,” Riza muttered.

  Assured that there was no other mer-folk involved, Troy left his hiding place and strolled into the cell.

  He took enormous pleasure in the guards’ mutual expression of horrified shock.

  “Traitors don’t end up in these cells,” he assured them with a mocking smile. “They end up dead.”

  Chapter 20

  Chaaya was in shock. Not the surprise birthday party sort of shock. Or an I can’t believe I just lost all my money on the roulette table sort of shock. This was a soul-deep shock that stuffed her brain with wool and made her limbs far too heavy for her body.

  And worse, she couldn’t concentrate. She knew they were in danger, but the memories of her childhood that she’d tucked away centuries ago were swirling around so fast they made her dizzy. Everywhere she glanced brought a vivid image of herself and her life in small village.

  She remembered dashing around the fire and laughing when her mother tried to catch her. Sneaking away to swim naked in the nearby stream. Being tucked into a warm bed with her spear at her side, like a barbaric teddy bear. The druids dressed in white robes rising early to tend to the sick who waited at the edge of the village.

  For endless years the only recollection that stuck in her brain was the night she’d been dragged from her bed and hauled to the burrow to be sacrificed. That sort of thing tended to overshadow everything else. Now a tangle of emotions overwhelmed her.

  Then, without warning, Chaaya felt a cool power tingle through her. The mating bond. The delicious energy Basq offered helped to soothe her raw nerves and gave her the strength to square her shoulders and confront the female who was staring at her with a hint of disgust.

  “I speak for myself,” she assured Greta, stepping away from Basq even as she continued to draw on his strength.

  This might be her battle, but she didn’t have to face it alone.

  The knowledge banished the last of the fog from her mind.

  “Thank the goddess.” Greta curled her lips. “I was beginning to fear that he had somehow bewitched you.”

  At last capable of focusing on the female who claimed to be her aunt, Chaaya took in the features that resembled her own. A sharp certainty that she’d encountered Greta when she was very young jolted through her. It wasn’t a specific memory, but more a sense of dread that curled through the pit of her stomach at the sight of her.

  Instinctively, she grabbed the hilt of her spear. This didn’t seem to be a good time to get caught unprepared for…well, for whatever hideous surprise was waiting for her.

  And there would be a hideous surprise waiting for her.

  No doubt about that.

  “Vampires have no magic,” she muttered, more for something to say than to make any special point.

  Greta clicked her tongue, shooting a malevolent glance toward Basq. “So they claim. I’ve never trusted leeches.”

  His own smile was as cold as the Arctic. “The feeling is mutual.”

  “Stay out of this,” Greta snapped.

  Basq growled, taking a step forward. Chaaya hastily reached out to touch his arm.

  “Let me handle this, Basq,” she commanded.

  She expected him to argue. He was a male. He was a vampire. And he was mated. Each one of those meant he was 100 percent convinced that it was his duty to protect her. Instead he gave a grudging nod and stepped back.

  “Okay.”

  She brushed her fingers down his arm in silent gratitude before she sent the female an accusing glare.

  “You lied.”

  Greta was instantly wary. “Excuse me?”

  “You claimed you were a favorite of the village, but I remember you lived in that hut away from the others.” Chaaya used her spear to point toward the distant chimney just barely visible.

  Greta shrugged. “I enjoyed my privacy.”

  Chaaya shook her head. The ancient memories were returning. Not like an old movie playing in her mind, but in strange bursts. Like a flickering bulb that was on the verge of burning out.

  “The others suspected you of performing foul rites,” she abruptly said.

  Greta’s lips pinched in annoyance. “Your mother
obviously poisoned your mind, sweet Chaaya.”

  “Sweet Chaaya?” Basq snorted.

  Chaaya smiled wryly. “He’s right. No one who’s ever actually known me would ever call me sweet.”

  Greta grimly ignored the vampire, as if pretending he wasn’t there would somehow make him disappear. Good luck with that, Chaaya acknowledged wryly. She’d tried that trick herself. Complete waste of time.

  “You said yourself you were very young when I left,” Greta said. “Obviously your opinion of me was tainted by your mother.”

  She had a point. It was possible that Chaaya’s opinion had been swayed by her mother. But that didn’t explain the wariness crawling over her skin. Or the instinct that was screaming at her to stick the spear in the heart of her aunt before something awful could happen.

  She didn’t believe for one second that Greta had been chosen as a sacrifice. The druid priestesses would never have allowed her to simply walk away. They would have scoured the world until they found her and returned her to fulfill her destiny.

  She was careful, however, to keep the skepticism out of her voice. “Where did you go after you left the village?”

  Greta frowned. “What?”

  “Where did you go?” Chaaya repeated.

  “I traveled the world.”

  Well, that was vague.

  “Alone?”

  “Mostly.”

  Even more vague. “How did you survive?”

  The older woman waved a dismissive hand. “I used my healing gifts to earn food and a place to sleep for the night.”

  Chaaya narrowed her eyes. There was enough truth in Greta’s words to convince Chaaya that she wasn’t blatantly lying, but she certainly wasn’t being completely honest.

  The question was…what was she hiding?

  “And you lived happily ever after?”

  “I lived.” Greta blinked, as if fighting back tears. “I’m not sure how happily. It was a brutal existence that I barely endured. One I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.”

  “Did you have children?”

  The pretense of a tragic vagabond forced to wander the world alone was shattered by the abrupt question.

  “Children?”

  “Do I have any cousins?”

  “Oh. No.” A visible shudder raced through the woman’s body. “I wasn’t blessed with children.”

  Her tone made the thought of children sound more like a curse than a blessing.

  “And you never returned to the village?”

  “No.”

  Chaaya waved the spear to indicate the strange void that surrounded them. “How did you end up here?”

  A portion of Greta’s tension eased. This was a question she’d obviously been expecting.

  “I’m not sure. I was battling against a wizard—”

  “You were battling a wizard?” Chaaya interrupted. Those weren’t words you heard every day. Or ever.

  Greta shrugged. “He was the leader of a cult of human magic users. They had a grand plan to take over the world.”

  “So how did you get involved?”

  “I happened to be taking refuge at the wizard’s temple when someone snuck in and stole a powerful amulet.”

  The words were polished to the point of perfection. As if Greta had been rehearsing them for years. Perhaps centuries.

  Chaaya studied her aunt’s delicate features, which gave nothing away. There were a few possibilities. Greta might be telling the truth. Unlikely. She might have snuck into the temple and stolen the amulet herself. More likely. Or she might have been staying at the temple and colluded with someone else to steal it.

  She kept her thoughts to herself. “An unfortunate coincidence,” she instead murmured.

  “Most unfortunate.” Greta sniffed. “Especially when the wizard blamed me for the theft.”

  “What did he do?”

  A genuine expression of horror twisted her features. “I was tied to a post and burned alive.”

  Chaaya grimaced. No one deserved that. No one.

  “That’s truly awful. I’m sorry,” she murmured.

  “It was a ghastly way to die. You can’t imagine how I suffered.”

  “You should have stayed to be sacrificed.” Basq mocked the woman’s tragic tale. “It’s not any worse than being burned at the stake, is it?”

  Greta ground her teeth, and Chaaya hid her wry smile. The vampire was deliberately trying to piss off the arrogant older woman, no doubt hoping that he could aggravate her into revealing the truth of why they were there.

  Greta grimly refused to glance at Basq. “Perhaps we could speak in private,” she suggested to Chaaya.

  Basq stepped in front of Chaaya, his arms folded over his chest. “She doesn’t go anywhere without me.”

  “Careful, leech,” Greta snapped in outrage. “Druid priestesses bow to no man, whether he has fangs or not.”

  “We’re a package deal,” Basq warned in stubborn tones.

  Chaaya swallowed a sigh. Things could get very messy very quickly if she didn’t take command of the situation. She moved to stand directly next to Basq, sending a silent assurance that she could handle her aunt.

  “How did you end up here?”

  “I assume the wizard cursed me before he set me on fire.”

  Chaaya deliberately glanced around. “This is a curse?”

  “I’m not sure. One moment I was being consumed by the flames and the next I was trapped here.”

  “And it just happened to look like your own village?” Basq dryly demanded.

  The flames in the pit hissed, as if in reaction to Greta’s anger. Still she refused to glance in the vampire’s direction.

  “It must use my memories to create the illusion.”

  The words were again said with the quick assurance of someone who had a lot of time to consider her answers to various questions. Chaaya needed to shake things up.

  “Why did you lure Brigette here?”

  Silence. Well, except for the continuing hiss of the flames. Greta hadn’t been expecting that.

  She finally licked her lips. “Who?”

  “The pureblooded Were.”

  More lip licking. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

  Chaaya rolled her eyes. Greta was a remarkably bad liar, probably because she was so accustomed to bullying others she never had to worry about explaining herself.

  “She was traveling with a three-foot gargoyle with fairy wings. They’re hard to miss,” Basq pointed out in dry tones. “Not to mention the fact that their scent is still in the air.”

  Greta’s head snapped to the side, her eyes narrowing. Clearly, she’d reached the end of her patience with the vampire.

  “You…”

  Basq arched a brow. “Yes?”

  Greta glanced back at Chaaya. “How do you bear him?”

  Chaaya smiled. “He sneaks up on you. Slow and steady.”

  Basq’s fingers lightly traced the curve of her spine. “That’s the only way to capture a ghost.”

  A white-hot pleasure seared through her, helping to banish the strange darkness that swirled around her aunt. It wasn’t the pulsing evil that filled the beast. This was cold and empty and foreboding. Like this void.

  Greta held out her hand in a pleading motion. “My sweet Chaaya.”

  “Stop saying that,” Chaaya snapped. She was many things. Sweet wasn’t one of them. “Why did you release Brigette from her dungeon in the mer-folk castle?” She pointed the spear at her aunt. “I would suggest you not lie again.”

  “I was trying to find you.”

  “Through a Were?”

  Greta dropped her arm, peevish frustration marring her face before she smoothed her expression.

  “I don’t know what went wrong. I called out, hoping to reach
you, and instead a Were answered me.”

  “Crossed wires?” Basq drawled.

  “Something like that, yes,” Greta managed to grate between clenched teeth.

  “How did you get her out of the dungeon?” Chaaya asked. The older woman was off balance. The trick was to keep her that way.

  “She swore to me that she would contact you once she was out of her cell.”

  “That’s not what I asked you.” Chaaya forced a hard smile to her lips. “How did you get her out?”

  The pale brown eyes darted from side to side. Chaaya assumed she was searching for inspiration.

  “She said that she had made friends with a guard who would be willing to help,” she finally said.

  “You do realize that makes no sense?” Basq scoffed. “If she had a guard to release her, then why did she wait until you just happened to contact her?”

  “Stupid leech.” The flames stopped hissing and started to spiral, dancing together in a fiery fury. The glow lent an orangish cast to Greta’s face, emphasizing the angular sharpness of her features. “She needed a means to get out of the castle. I offered her that in return for contacting you.”

  Chaaya frowned. Okay. That might be true. Brigette couldn’t create portals, and that was the only way in or out of the mer-folk castle. But the whole “crossed wires” and “reaching out to you” was a bunch of crap.

  “So where is Brigette?”

  Greta waved her hand in an impatient gesture. “The Were assured me that you were following her, but she was unreasonably terrified you intended to kill her.”

  “No, her terror is perfectly reasonable,” Chaaya corrected her aunt. “I fully intend to kill her.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s evil.”

  “Oh.” Greta tried to look stricken by the revelation. The artificial emotion, however, never made it to her eyes. “I had no idea.”

  Basq released a sharp laugh. “Really? The fact that she was locked in a dungeon didn’t give you any hint?”

  Greta took a step toward Chaaya, angling her body to block out Basq. “As I said, I reached out in an effort to contact you, Chaaya.”

  Chaaya sniffed the air. The scent of wolf and the dry tang of granite lingered, but they were too faint for Brigette and Levet to be in the area.