With a motion from my fingers a deafening crack erupted as a tree to our right split at its base, falling toward Lucius and breaking his link to my body. As it toppled over, he rolled out of the way just in time, a cloud of snow and the ripe scent of pine billowing out from the crash. My eyes darted around, losing sight of where he ended up.
I swallowed, backing up. I inhaled sharply as I stumbled back into a body, and when a hand closed over my throat, I knew it wasn’t Daelon joining the fight. Lucius’s skin was like ice, and he squeezed around my airway. I could feel an insidious magick beginning to slide through my barriers, seeping into my skin like suffocating black ooze.
I grabbed at his hand, channeling fire and attempting to force Lucius to loosen his hold.
“Ow,” he muttered, releasing his grip and the curse along with it. “That actually sort of hurt,” he marveled, as if surprised by something unexpectedly delightful. His ambivalence was unnerving. Was he normally immune to pain?
I took hold of a current of power reaching out for me, and in a rush, I was transported to the other side of the fallen tree. I coughed, glaring at Lucius as he shook out his singed hand. I could feel his red-hot anger, and it only mixed with and inflamed my own.
“You’re less erratic now,” he said. “More focused.” He narrowed his eyes as if he were asking a question.
I opened my mouth to say something about Daelon but thought better of it. Lucius had told me Daelon would betray me. He wanted me to believe it so I’d lose control, and I would not provide him with that ammunition. Whatever magick he’d worked on Daelon could be broken. I just needed to find it within myself to pull the trigger.
“You think you’re going to kill me, don’t you? I can see it in your eyes.” He seemed amused by this, not an ounce of fear in his aura. “You will never be strong enough for that, little witch.”
I didn’t answer, focusing on raising energy. I thought back to Daelon’s teachings about invocations, intent, and aggressive magick. I knew that the power I had at my disposal wanted Lucius dead as much as I did. I recited silent prayers like my mothers had done before me.
Momma Celeste, Momma Jane, I call upon you and our people for protection for Daelon and me. I call upon your strength so that I may defeat this evil and be free to discover my purpose.
I homed in on the currents of power reaching to me from all directions, my mind flashing to all of those swims in the ocean, where I was connected to all of the energies of nature, uninhibited and unweighted by the fabric of physical reality.
Time halted as flashes of visions ran through my mind’s eye like memories that didn’t belong to me—of Lucius and men tied to him committing atrocities, murders, and torture in the name of power, in the name of supremacy, and in the name of cruelty. I saw Lucius on that altar in the forest, convulsing as he inhaled dark shadows, his eyes completely white. I saw my mothers murdered from their perspective. I saw Daelon running through the street as a young boy, buildings and homes crumbling into ash all around him. I saw myself murdered by men who saw me as a threat over and over again in different ways in different places. It wasn’t me, but I took the place of the fallen as I relived their last moments.
I was seeing the darkest part of the story, and though it was more fragmented than seamless, with no clear context, I knew that these images were what made Lucius’s energy so dark. He was empowered by the pain of others.
I lost myself, my ego stripping away until I was no longer separate from my power. I was power. With a scream that felt detached and foreign even as it left my own lips, I let go. I was vaguely aware that my feet were no longer planted on the ground, my vision overwhelmed with a white light emanating and pouring down from my palms.
Lucius braced himself back on the ground below, raising his hands above his head as the brightest, most fiery energy I’d ever seen collided with him. It crashed into an invisible shield he’d constructed around his body, and I heard him strain and fight as it permeated, then broke through his defenses.
Paralyze.
I may have gotten something useful out of our run-in with the mysterious Nathaniel after all. As Lucius convulsed in the snow, my spell took over his body, and I dropped from the air back to my feet. I took my time making my way over the fallen tree, still riding my power high. I watched as Lucius reacted to my energy in the same way I reacted to his, shivering and shuddering in the moonlight.
He glared up at me, and in his aura, I finally detected fear. It looked like the defensive paranoia of a cornered animal.
I knelt down beside his body. “What was that about showing me my place?” I asked sweetly, my voice strong as I reacclimated with my own ego again. “I’m going to need some answers while I think about whether or not to kill you.” I was definitely going to kill him.
I ran through all of the mysteries I so desperately needed solved, but the only question that sprung to mind for several moments was: Where was Daelon? Shouldn’t he be here by now?
“Who am I? Why are you so afraid of me?”
I compelled him to speak, admittedly reveling in his helplessness after all of his attempts to make me feel the same.
“I’m not afraid of you,” he spat. “I don’t know who you are any more than you do, though I suspect that your existence is mostly to annoy me.”
I pursed my lips, feeling the anger turn over in my stomach. He wasn’t being honest with me even as he faced death. “You killed my mothers, didn’t you?”
He smiled, no doubt hoping to provoke my weaknesses to get him out of this situation. I was prepared for that, thanks to Daelon. Nothing he could say would make me falter.
“Not personally.” His eyes flashed disdain. “They were working against their new king. They were traitors and heretics.”
Yes, I was going to kill him. But not yet. I channeled my anger into my paralytic hold over him. “What were your plans for Daelon and me?”
“My plans were, and still are, to take you back to my creepy castle, as you put it. It’s the only way I can figure out what to do with you. Although, a part of me sort of wants to end you now,” he spat. “As for Daelon, he’ll be free to go back to doing whatever he wants.”
I faltered. There was a glint in Lucius’s eyes now that ran contrary to his current predicament—even as he lay at my complete disposal, he looked at me as if he’d won the fight. I felt my power slipping as he pushed against it, and I knew I was running out of time. Daelon was right. Ultimately, Lucius was stronger than me… which meant I needed to kill him soon.
“What do you mean whatever he wants? You’re not going to kill him?”
Lucius laughed like I’d just told him the most glorious joke. I gathered that I was the punchline. “How many times do I have to spell it out for you? I would never hurt Daelon.” He said the words slowly, his eyes so steady that they nearly revealed boredom.
I started to feel physically ill, a wave of nausea overwhelming my perception. My hold over Lucius dimmed. I recalled in horror that astral encounter in which Lucius had gestured to the place next to him and asked me who I thought belonged there. At the time, I thought he meant me.
Daelon’s off-handed remarks about his friends, his past, his pleads for me to trust him—the wall that Lucius could get through without issue but that shocked me to the touch.
“No,” I whispered to myself, my power spinning out of control.
But he was like me—I saw it in the ocean, I saw it in his energy—all I had was my intuition. There was no way that it had led me so far astray, over and over again. He told me he loved me, one of few to say those words since my mothers’ deaths. As I reminded myself of all the times Daelon had proved himself to be on my side, to truly care for me and yearn to shield me from the darkness, I felt Lucius push back stronger than ever before. His sickening energy began to reach out to me like a thick fog.
It was as if he was syphoning the energy of my pain.
“You’re messing with my head,” I hissed, trying to gain back control ov
er my power as I saw Lucius beginning to flex his fingers.
I took all that was left of my channeling capabilities, using more power than I’d ever used before, and I balled it into a single, lethal weapon. Cool steel materialized in my hand, my eyes widening at the dagger I’d manifested from thin air. That was an interesting new development.
I saw the moonlit blade reflected in Lucius’s glare as he clenched his teeth. His ice blue eyes were rimmed with hatred, but as I brought my hands up above my head, eyeing his heart beneath his rising and falling chest, Lucius smiled. I hesitated, feeling a shift in the atmosphere around us.
“Took you long enough,” Lucius said casually, like he was in the middle of watching a movie rather than paralyzed under a magickal dagger of death.
My breath hitched, and I knew Daelon had found us. I felt time slow down, the forest all too quiet aside from the sound of my labored breathing, the whistle of wind, and the crunch of approaching footsteps.
I was out of time.
The forces around me broke through the stillness, calling upon me to act. They were a cacophony of lyrical notes, of song and loud whispers. With a decisive exhale, I brought down the blade, a visceral sound escaping my throat.
In the same second, I was grabbed from behind, pulled away from Lucius as my only chance to kill him was torn from my grasp. The voices faded from my ears until I could only hear my heartbeat once more. I struggled against Daelon as he twisted the dagger from my grasp and held me in place.
My hold over Lucius had dissipated, along with every last bit of the power I’d channeled. I was fading quickly as I fought against Daelon.
“Let me go!” I yelled, watching Lucius rise from his place in the snow. I looked into Daelon’s eyes and saw nothingness.
It couldn’t all be true. It couldn’t.
My limbs grew heavy, and my vision turned hazy. As unconsciousness reached for me, all I could focus on was Lucius’s triumphant smile. He wasn’t looking at me, though, his gaze focused on the space above me.
He was smiling at Daelon.
“Sleep now,” Daelon whispered in my ear, just as he had the night we first met.
Chapter 23
From an empty darkness I was thrust back into reality, my heart sinking as soon as I regained consciousness.
“Glad to be back?”
“Of course.”
“How long is she going to be out?”
“Last time it was nearly a full day.”
Realizing I had awakened much earlier than my captors expected, I kept my eyes closed. I felt softness beneath me, as if I was on a bed or couch of some sort. The room smelled of roses and chamomile.
“You missed so much,” Lucius exclaimed. “Like I had to interrogate half the court because Amos convinced me one of them was behind this whole Armageddon business. Full on plague, locusts, water to blood… it was a whole ordeal.”
Amos. I knew him. His energy was pure.
It took everything within me not to cry, not to fight, not to let them know that I was awake and was going to destroy them both.
“What have you learned?”
Daelon cleared his throat. “Not as much as we’d hoped. Her mothers channeled the dark magick of their own murders to conceal her for so long. They cut her off from her power and kept her blind to the witch realm. She—”
“That’s an understatement,” Lucius interrupted.
“Right.” Humor seeped into his tone.
Yet again, I was the punchline. I fought back tears as intense, bitter anger rose in my chest—as if my heart was physically breaking. I had never felt so stupid. So ashamed.
“And as far as her access to power—it’s exceptional but still not comparable to yours. I speculate it’s just the Universe’s reaction to the imbalance created.” Daelon’s voice lowered as he spoke, as if he was telling a secret.
I sensed Lucius’s energy shift like Daelon had said something offensive.
“You’re starting to sound too much like Amos,” Lucius hissed. “The universe is not conscious. It is the canvas on which reality is painted. It does not feel or desire anything.”
“I know,” Daelon said quickly. “I’ve been away for too long.”
“Yes you have,” Lucius said, his tone changing back to a more upbeat, nonchalant air. “I even started making Nathaniel keep track of humorous moments I wanted to tell you about but couldn’t. He really hates you, you know.”
“I’m well aware.”
Nathaniel. That was where I’d recognized him from. He was one of the men who flanked Lucius in the astrals. He stood closest to Lucius on the other side of the missing space, as if he and Daelon were Lucius’s two favored men. Why hadn’t I made that connection sooner? If only I had paid better attention. If only I hadn’t been so trusting. Blinding nausea rose in my gut. I was going to be sick.
Lucius clucked his tongue. “When I told you to get close to her, I hadn’t realized you would take it so literally. It did make the betrayal all the better, though, and her pain so much more enjoyable. Points for creativity.”
I heard shuffling. I didn’t know how much more I could stand to hear, but like a horror movie, I just couldn’t look away. Or, rather, stop listening.
“That’s very unlike you. Am I going to have to be the one who scolds you about honor now?”
“It was a necessity, yes,” Daelon sighed. “But it was the only way to keep up the charade. It was the natural progression of things, unfortunately.”
Through the heaviness of my exhaustion, even as every fiber of my being yearned to give back into the peace of slumber, red hot anger flooded my veins. This couldn’t be real. There was no way that Daelon had faked any of what we had—it was too intense, too pure.
I opened my eyes to a dimly lit bedroom, vast and ornate, with white and green accents. A lavish canopy hung overhead where I lay. Daelon and Lucius stood to my left near a wardrobe, their backs turned to me.
“Tell me more a—”
“Fuck you,” I spat. I tried to move, but my limbs were locked in place. My power was nonexistent.
Both men whipped their heads around to assess me. Lucius’s demeanor barely shifted, his eyes widening ever so slightly. Daelon paled, but quickly regained his impassive composure.
“You’re quite off in your estimations,” Lucius muttered to Daelon. “And I take it respect for her divine ruler didn’t make it into the curriculum?”
“She knows better than to speak to me like that,” Daelon said, stepping forward. “Don’t you, little witch?”
“Brutal,” Lucius laughed, grabbing Daelon’s shoulder. “Fantastic. You should be grateful I didn’t go back to my original plan of killing you after that little stunt,” he said, wagging his finger at me. “Really, you should be more grateful to Daelon for convincing me I’d be better off with you alive.”
I glared, struggling to free my limbs from whatever spell they were under. I didn’t think I’d ever been more angry or more hurt, not since my mothers had been murdered right before my eyes.
I ignored Lucius, fixing my stare at Daelon. His face was unreadable, showing only coldness in his eyes.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t begin to find the words for what I wanted to convey to this man I’d let in, despite all of my doubts, and put my trust into in such intimate, vulnerable ways. I showed him the Divine—what my mothers, and maybe even his parents, called the Goddess. I showed him my soul and everyone else’s souls, too.
I kept glaring at him, my eyes boring into his, unwavering even as they grew heavy with exhaustion.
“Well,” Lucius said, looking from Daelon to me then back again. “As much as I appreciate a well-orchestrated, complete emotional destruction of a person, we still have much to discuss from your intelligence mission. Let’s retreat to the study.”
The floorboards creaked as Lucius turned away, his expression cavalier like he’d grown bored of the entire ordeal. As my vision went awry, I watched Daelon look away, turn his back on me, a
nd walk out.
When I woke again, I was alone. The room was dark and quiet. It was a relief, actually, because this time I couldn’t hold back a cascade of tears. It felt like I was trapped in a nightmare, and I just needed to scream and claw my way back into reality.
I sat up and assessed my surroundings, which were grand and luxurious. It was the largest bedroom I’d ever stayed in… by a lot. I rolled off the bed and onto the cold hardwood floor, pausing after a headrush left me with the spins. I was barefoot, still in the oversized sweater and leggings I’d been wearing back at the cabin.
I took a deep breath, hurrying to the tall, white double doors at the far side of the room. I wiped the tears from my cheeks. I couldn’t focus on the grief that threatened to pull me under. I had to focus on the anger, or I would drown.
The doorknob was cool under my touch, and I twisted it slowly as my heart pounded. The door creaked as I pulled it open, revealing another room even vaster than the first. There was an arrangement of couches in the center, a fireplace crackling to the left, tall windows with an empty bookshelf in between, candles flickering scattered around all the furniture.
Well, I’ve seen prisoners with less, I supposed.
I jumped as a head shot up from behind one of the couches faced away from me. It was a girl who appeared around my age, her near-black hair cascading messily around her shoulders. She peered at me like I was the one who was intruding upon her, narrowing her green eyes as she yawned.
I was glad to find that my power was at least somewhat recharged, though it felt farther away from myself—more disconnected, like how it felt back on Earth. I took on a defensive stance, reaching out to assess her energy. It was guarded and apprehensive, but there was nothing inherently threatening about it. It was neutral, albeit intense and wild as it spun out all around her. It was tinged with red and deep violet, and there was a hint of something I recognized deep in my gut.
The Discovered Page 24