“Yes, baby, just like that.”
Her hands on my shaft, pumping, squeezing, her mouth sucking. Oh, God. Oh, fuck. No!
I shoved Tonya away. “Not you.”
She stumbled off the bed, her face contorting from hurt to rage then back again too fast for me to be sure I’d seen it.
She stood and adjusted her shirt. “I’ve made pancakes. Your favorite.” She grinned, sunny and bright. “Tomorrow’s a big day, babycakes. Tomorrow we’re going to become one.”
She walked out of the room, leaving me swimming in dread and scrabbling for that snippet of memory, of that thing ... that fucking thing ...
“Hello, Taylem.” Councilmember Heraldine stood in the doorway, her broad, friendly face wreathed in a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Are you ready for your medication?”
Yes, the medicine would make these feelings go away. The medicine would bring back the joy.
4
We stood staring at the cottage, a tiny, detached structure sitting atop a rise with a huge thundercloud hovering above it.
“Um, Seb, what the fuck?”
Sebastian didn’t reply; instead he set off up the hill, his stride determined, leaving me no option but to follow. The trail led here. Tay had come here. Was this his home while in the knell?
No one had spoken to us as we’d cut through the village, no one had acknowledged us. It was as if we didn’t exist, but now as we made our way toward the cottage under the localized storm, eyes flicked our way, nervous and wary.
“Seb, I think they’ve noticed me.”
“Keep moving. We’re running out of time.”
I broke into a jog up the rise, the phantom breeze of this place riffling through my hair and kissing the nape of my neck. The cottage grew closer, blackened windows and dying fauna. The thatched roof was edged in some kind of creepy black mold. The door was the only thing that looked new and solid. Made of some kind of polished wood, it sported several thick bolts. There would be no getting in that way.
Seb ground to a halt at the thorn-covered gate. “This is bad.”
“What does it mean?”
“It means that Tay’s in trouble.”
“Explain dammit!”
He studied the cottage speculatively, as if searching for a chink in its armor. “This whole place is an astral plane, and everything in it is connected to actual physical beings on the earthly plane. So, these houses represent a troll blood’s psyche.”
Comprehension dawned. “This is Tay’s cottage.”
“Yes.”
“Tay’s psyche. Oh, God. We have to get to him. We have to get inside.”
I made to open the gate just as a shadow fell over us. My heart stalled in my chest. A troll blood female stood beside us. She was tall, powerfully built with a broad face and piercing gray eyes.
“I was wondering if you’d come for him,” she said.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who cares for Taylem’s true happiness, but I fear you may be too late.”
“What do you mean?”
The woman sighed. “Taylem is under a knell enchantment. His mind is being purged of the memory of you, and in a few hours he will forget he ever loved you.”
Mind manipulation? Who the hell did they think they were? The impulse to rage at the woman was a burning at the back of my throat, but she was the only one who might be able to help us understand what the heck was happening here.
I swallowed the curses threatening to spill from my lips. “Why? Why are you doing this to him? Why can’t you just let him go?”
Her face was a map of resignation. “Because that would mean admitting that the knell way isn’t the only way, isn’t the best way. It will encourage troll bloods to start thinking outside the carefully created box, and if more followed Taylem’s example—if too many left—then the knell would shrink and lose power.”
“The troll bloods keep the knell alive, don’t they?” Seb said.
Her gaze flicked over my head to settle on my ether-mate. She could see him, while the others couldn’t, which meant she was no ordinary troll blood.
“Yes, in a sense,” she said. “Once, a long time ago, pure trolls roamed the world, and their powerful minds created this haven, a place for them to go once they passed.”
Did she mean ... “A troll heaven?”
She smiled wryly. “Exactly like that. But once the last troll passed onto this plane, there were no live consciousnesses to keep the knell alive. It began to die, and we pure trolls were on the verge of a second death.”
She was a pure troll? She didn’t look very troll-like.
Her smile turned conspiratorial. “Perception is relative in the knell.”
I glanced at the cottage, Tay’s cottage. “I’m beginning to understand that.”
“We had no choice but to draw upon our Black Wing descendants, the nephilim who carried our blood in their veins. We brought them here, we tamed them, and we provided them with a safe haven, a nirvana to retreat to, to keep the troll within in control.”
“And in turn, they feed this place and keep it alive,” Seb finished for her.
“Yes.”
That was all very well, but they’d been lying to the very troll bloods that kept this troll heaven functioning. “Why tell the troll bloods they could leave?”
“Illusion of freedom is important if you are to build a secret prison.” The words were laced with bitterness.
“And yet you’re telling us this, you’re revealing your secrets. Why?” Seb asked.
“Because freedom should not be an illusion. Because Taylem is ... he is special to me. The Stephensons are the last of my bloodline, and I cannot sit by idly while his will is stripped away and he is forced to live a lie.”
“Even if doing so brings down the knell? Even though it brings about your second death?”
“Nothing ever truly dies.” Her eyes crinkled. “You of all beings should know that, and if the knell falls, then we will live on in our descendants, in their children and their children’s children as it was meant to be.” She glanced over her shoulder at the cottage. “But time is running short for Taylem.”
I gently grasped her wrist. “Then take me to him. Now.”
She glanced down at my fingers wrapped around her arm. “Yes, I do believe you may be able to bring him back, but I can’t take you to him. You will need to find your own way in.”
So he was in the house. Shit.
“Wila.” Seb’s hand fell on my shoulder. “This is something you’re going to have to do alone. I can’t come with you. That cottage represents his subconscious mind, a mind that won’t recognize me, but it may let you pass ... if he isn’t too far gone, that is.”
A shiver of apprehension skated up my spine. “Okay, I can do this.”
“Good luck,” the troll blood female said.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me just yet. You may still fail.”
No. Failure wasn’t an option, because my heart wouldn’t survive the loss of my best friend and lover. The gate opened for me easily enough, but as I climbed the path, brambles shot out of the earth to reach for me. A hop here, a skip there, shit, get off. They were trying to trip me up, to prevent me getting to the door, but if they were fast, then I was faster. The door loomed closer, the polished wood gleaming enticingly. Hell, yes. Made it. Now what? The handle was stiff, unyielding. Should I knock?
The tap on my knuckles produced a short, sharp rap, and then there was deep silence. “Tay. Babe, can you hear me?” Another tap. “Babe, please let me in.”
Ivy crept up the wall and across the door, blocking the entrance completely. There would be no getting in this way, but there had to be some crack, some breach in whatever was holding his consciousness captive.
A feather-light touch on the back of my neck. A window, look for a window. Seb’s voice was a soothing balm to my frazzled nerves. The ivy was growing faster now, crawling over the house as if rushing toward a
finish line I couldn’t see. Soon the structure would be nothing but vines. Shit. Leaping over the flora and kicking out at the brambles, I made my way around the house, scanning for a gap in the flora, a way in, and like a prayer, there it was, the tiniest window, too tiny to allow me in. My heart sank.
Your consciousness needs only a sliver, Seb said.
Yes. My body was merely an illusion; it was my mind that needed to invade his. Ivy slithered toward the window. It was now or never. I’m coming, Tay. I leapt at the breach and sank into darkness.
5
Taylem
Tonya straddled me. “Tell me you want me. Tell me you love me.”
Joy bloomed in my chest. Love. Yes. I felt love for ... I loved her. I wanted to be with her.
She freed my cock and gripped the shaft, massaging it up and down until it was aching for release. “Fucking hell.”
“Fuck me, Tay.”
She rose above me, pressing a palm to my chest, positioning herself over my cock, ready to claim me. My body tensed, my stomach twisted. I loved her, so why ... Why did this feel so wrong?
“Not wrong, baby, this is right, so right. You and me celebrating our mating tomorrow with some hardcore fucking. I won’t break, you can do it rough. You can let the troll out. I can take it.”
Couldn’t hurt her, not like I’d hurt ... who? Who had I hurt?
“No thinking.” She rubbed her wetness across the tip of my cock, and my body tightened in need. “Yes, babe. That’s it. Tell me you want me. Say it.”
My mouth parted, the words hovering on the tip of my tongue.
“I’m coming, Tay ...”
The words turned to ash, because that voice? Who was that?
Tonya’s expression darkened, and her nails dug into my chest. “Say it, Tay. Fucking say the words.”
Heat bloomed in my heart, joy and love and need and want. “Tonya, I ...”
“Yes!”
“Tay. Babe, where are you? I love you, Tay. Come back to me.”
That voice again, tugging at my heart, diverting the love, diverting the need.
“Babe,” Tonya said. “It’s time to say ‘I do.’”
6
The room was dark and gloomy, and every step was muted, as if someone had turned off the sound. Here was a kitchen, a cozy affair if not for the black mold climbing up the walls and the layer of obsidian dust that seemed to have settled on everything. A dining room was next—oak table, four chairs, and a teapot exactly the same as the one I had at home. There was a cup too, a replica of mine, except it sported a huge crack and the arm had fallen off.
Pictures on the walls of Tay and a female silhouette led up the stairs.
“Tay! Taylem! Babe, where are you? Tay, I love you.” He had to be here somewhere. He needed to hear me before whatever they were doing to him reached fruition.
A door slammed somewhere up ahead. Wait, there was another set of stairs? Another floor? Where had that come from? Was Tay up there? Was that where they were holding him hostage? There was only one way to find out.
The stairs were steep and getting steeper by the minute. Shit, how high was this staircase. An illusion? A trap? Oh, God. A glance over my shoulder showed an endless spiral of steps leading into darkness. No, I had to get to Tay. I had to save him. And then a male voice, oaky-deep, cut through the silence.
“Taylem Stephenson, troll blood, knell beholden. Today, you claim your mate, Tonya Garristeon, troll born, knell beholden. Today, you forsake all others and start anew ...”
Wait, what? Where was that voice coming from? No. No, he couldn’t be. This wasn’t what he wanted. I broke into a sprint up the stairs, but my mad dash simply spawned more stairs. My eyes pricked and heated with the threat of tears. But there would be no real tears, because my body wasn’t here. It was back in Tay’s apartment lying on the bed next to him.
None of this was fucking real.
Realization dawned glorious and bright. I could get to Tay, all I had to do was will it. All I had to do was connect. There had to be a part of his mind that still remembered, a part that represented me ... Oh, God. The teacup. I was the fucking broken teacup.
The dining room. I needed to be in the dining room. Holding onto the image of the room, I let go, falling backward. The stairs whirled above me, melting away, and then I was staring at a china cabinet. Yes!
The teacup sat on the table, the handle lying forlornly beside it. Was I crazy? Was this a fucking useless leap? There was only one way to find out. The crack in the cup had widened slightly, and I ran my finger down it, watching in fascination as it healed. Oh, God. This could work. Please, let it work. Taking a deep breath, I pressed the handle to the side of the cup.
“I love you, Tay. Baby, please don’t forget me.”
The dining room warped and bulged and then split in two, plunging me forward and leaving me standing on lush green grass. Ahead of me were two figures facing an elderly neph. There was a slender female draped in a see-through, gauzy shift, her pert buttocks clearly visible through the fabric, and a large naked man. I’d know that ass anywhere.
“Taylem?”
The elderly man’s face pinched. “This is a private ceremony.”
“Fuck you, creepy dude. Taylem. Babe, look at me.”
The female turned to face me. “Get out. Just fuck off, will you.”
Tonya, the bitch. I strode forward, pulled back my arm, and smashed her in the mouth.
She didn’t even flinch. Instead, she smiled, all perfect teeth and not even a speck of blood. “This is the knell, Wila. You can’t hurt me.”
Taylem still had his back to me. “Tay, look at me.”
“He can’t hear you, and in a few seconds, he won’t even remember your name.”
The aroma of sweet blossom was heavy on the air, suffocating and cloying. “What have you done to him?”
“What we had to do for his own good,” the elderly man said. “Taylem belongs here with us. He belongs in the knell.” He looked me up and down. “I must say, the fact you made it this far is a testament to your attachment, but he belongs to us, always has and always will. Leave now and forget him.”
“Forget? Like I said, fuck you, creepy dude. You’re doing this for you, not him. You’re afraid others will decide to follow Tay’s lead and leave, that your precious knell will be left without the power of the troll blood consciousness to keep it alive. Taylem has a right to make his own decisions. He has the right to free will.”
Tonya looked to the elder. “What is she talking about, Jarold?”
The elder shook his head. “I have no idea.”
Oh, he was good with the blank expression. “I’m talking about the fact that this whole place is dependent on the troll bloods who connect to it. That without them, the knell would cease to exist, and all the original trolls, like this elder, will finally have no choice but to truly move on.”
Tonya looked from me to Jarold. “You said Taylem was under an enchantment, that she had an arcane grip on his mind.”
I let out a bark of laughter. “And you believed that?”
She looked thrown. “I ... I love him.”
And she’d wanted to believe. “I get that, Tonya, but he loves me. Do you really want to live a lie? Do you really want to be mated to someone who had to be coerced into doing it?”
Her expression hardened. “Jarold, is this true?”
“Do you value the knell, Tonya? Do you value the peace it can give you, that it can soothe your troll, allow you to live in normal society?”
She looked from me to Jarold. “Yes, of course I do, but—”
“Then we must protect it at all costs, child. We cannot allow Taylem to end our way of life on a whim over a neph female that will never understand what we are.”
Tonya looked torn.
Maybe she wasn’t the uber bitch I’d made her out to be in my head. It was obvious she cared about Taylem, and that was why she needed to let him go. “Look, I know we haven’t gotten on, but I think you d
eserve to be mated to someone who really loves you. This mating would be a farce, because you’d know in your heart that he was coerced into it.”
Her cheeks paled, and she averted her gaze.
I walked up to Tay and stepped around to face him. His eyes were closed, his expression serene. “I’m not the kind of woman to give up on her man.” And then I kissed him, my lips pressed to his with every ounce of emotion I was feeling, every iota of love that was in my heart for him, for us, for what we could be.
Baby, can you hear me, can you feel me? Come back to me, Taylem, come ...
His lips moved against mine, and then his arms came up to encircle me. His tongue flicked into my mouth, and I was hauled up against his bare chest as he deepened the kiss. Memories flickered through my mind—memories of us, of our time together, of our love for each other.
“Stop. Stop it now,” Jarold said.
“Oh, God.” Tonya’s voice was a sorrowful gasp. “I didn’t realize.”
I broke the kiss, pulling back slightly. We were back in the dining room, except now the room was bathed in sunlight. The mold was gone and every surface shone as if it had been tended to with love.
Tay’s eyes were still closed as he set me back on my feet. “Wila ...” His tone was dreamy.
Jarold stood by the china cabinet, his expression unreadable.
I tightened my grip on Taylem, pressing myself against him. “Let him go, Jarold. You let him go, or I’ll make it my personal mission to tell every fucking troll blood the truth about this place.”
Tonya slowly lifted her chin. “Do it, Jarold. Release him or I’ll be helping Wila to spread the word.” She met my eye, her expression pained. “I’m sorry, Wila.”
How could I be mad at her when she’d thought she was saving him?
Jarold paled. “Get out. Take him and go.”
Tay opened his eyes. “Wila.” His smile was beatific, and then he glanced about, a dark frown settling on his brow. “How are you here?” His gaze settled on Tonya then Jarold. “What is this?”
City of War (Chronicles of Arcana Book 4) Page 3