by Jewel Adams
Tarra’s eyes pulled away. Melane held fast to her hands making her answer. “Dragon will kill him if I don’t go.”
“But when you touch him you will be visible, the trap will surely close around you.”
“I must try.”
Melane didn’t move or breathe as Tarra searched her eyes. Melane nearly screamed before she finally answered.
“South along the coast are the white cliffs. Where the ocean crashes against the base, the place is a maze of caverns.”
Every description Tarra gave her forged inside her head.
“Melane, it is far from here. Can you do this?”
“I don’t know. I was there in my dream.”
“But your waking dreams and leaving your body are different. What of your powers? Can you use them in such a state?”
Melane shrugged, not liking the defeat she began to feel.
“I will find out.” She rose away from Tarra, disengaging the hand trying to stop her. “Stay there.” Melane stepped back. “I will stay in this room and I will give you a suggestion.”
“What of the lightening bolts and fire balls to fight him with?”
Melane looked about the room, envisioning its destruction. “If one power works the others should.”
Tarra proved easier to convince than herself. Concentrating, Melane went into her self-inspired trance. The odd feeling of stepping out of ones self would never be easy to accept. She felt lightheaded and a little giddy looking back at her own vacant image.
“Melane?”
“I’m here.” The sour melons were too obvious. Melane must pick something Tarra would believe. A large smile came with the choice she settled upon. Giving the silent suggestion was one of the simplest powers she’d mastered. Once done, Melane couldn’t resist going to the open balcony to try another.
The darkening evening sky was clear. Raising her hand out before her, extending her index finger, she found her target. One of Majok’s guards stood his stationed at the bottom step. Directing her thoughts she projected the force she felt mounting inside herself through her finger.
Before she could issue the invisible force to knock the guard off his feet, something gripped her and yanked her off her own.
The voices swirled around her in confusion. Tarra’s panicked scream! Majok’s angry hostility.
“Melane! What is wrong with her, Tarra? Answer me!” Holding the lifeless form of Melane to his chest, his eyes searched for the missing essence of the elamie. As if struck, her body jerked in his arms.
Lifting her up, he almost shouted in relief when she stirred in protest.
“Majok?” Melane was too dizzy to untangle herself from his powerful hold. “Tarra?”
“Put her down this instant!”
“Back away, I will release her when I am satisfied she is recovered from her sorcery.”
Their argument gave her the time she needed to collect herself. Although weak, she was not as helpless as Majok would have liked. Through half closed lids she studied the man. His closeness allowed her to see the possessive heat in his stern features. Melane’s senses were no longer blinded by ignorance. Majok’s intentions concerning her were regretfully clear.
“What foolishness have you been up to?”
The threat he posed ignited her anger into a torrent. “What right do you have to ask?”
Their gazes clashed in equal fury. Only Majok’s cooled, leaving Melane queasy over the confidence taking its place.
His arms finally lowered her feet to the floor. She refused to acknowledge that his lingering hold about her waist kept her from collapsing.
Without meeting his watchful eyes, she told him. “I’m fine, you can take your hands away.”
He did as she requested, donning her with a slight bow in the process. Calling on her pride, Melane stood before him and suffered his insolent stance. His confidence galled her. The casual pose he struck made her bite her lip to stop her temper from taking life.
He’d never confronted an elamie that displayed her anger so bravely. Like jeweled sapphires her eyes positively danced in indignation. Her hair was in a state of dishevel, cloaking her within its long midnight sable waves. As proud as any warrior, she stood before him declaring her defiance. Oh yes, she knew exactly why he was here.
“You still haven’t told me what little game I interrupted?”
For a second she faltered and sought Tarra’s apologetic eyes.
Bringing her attention back to him, she held silent.
“You are being foolish to test my patience so soon after your last display.”
He stepped closer and it was all she could do not to take flight. The knowing smile he gave her said he enjoyed his effect on her. Tarra tried to break their confrontation.
“What did you want, Majok?”
When his eyes shot at Tarra, Melane’s knees almost gave out.
“I can see our sire’s mother has explained the purity rites conditions.” His words stayed Tarra’s. Melane felt her heart sink.
Majok’s eyes fell to the slight quiver on her rose soft lips. “My claim has been posted in the Town Square, as is my right.” He waited for her attention to come to him, the anger he spied insured she would listen. It was the smoldering light of fear hidden beneath her control that he savored like a fine wine. If he held any doubt that Wylan might have claimed Melane, what she unwittingly showed him healed his conscience.
“Do you understand Melane, that I am claiming you as a lifemate?”
Only the minute movement of her head gave an indication she heard his question.
“Tarra leave us.”
“I will not.”
Majok didn’t have to call his guards they were beside Wylan’s mother before she could recover.
He turned to face her. Seeing what it cost Tarra to stand before this man tore at Melane. Only the warning look Tarra gave Melane stayed the force about to be unleashed. Retaliation could prevent her from helping Wylan.
“Go peacefully, Tarra. I have no desire to harm you or Melane.”
“You will regret your action against her and my son, Majok.”
“Your son is the only one that will feel regret for denying her. His mistake is something I have no intention of repeating.”
Seeing Tarra being escorted out between the guards became more than she could stand, but Majok stepped in front of her to prevent her from following.
Backing away, Melane avoided the hands she feared.
Halting his advance, he watched her. “You can relax Melane, I will not stake my rights on you until after the fights tomorrow.”
He smiled at the sharp arch in her brow.
“I won’t loose, you may not care for the outcome, but you will be mine.”
“Your confidence is appalling.”
His low laughter raked over Melane’s nerves. It seemed to her that all Selams carried an over abundance of self-worship. For a moment she forgot her precarious state and felt sorry for the Nemows, should these arrogant males lend their support. The choice between facing the beast or the cunning Selams kept narrowing.
The caress of his finger moving down her cheek summoned her attention. She stopped herself from jerking back, not wanting to recall the retaliating hold he could easily summon.
“I won’t hurt you, Melane.” For a moment there was softness in his manner and Melane latched onto the hope that he might relent.
“Isn’t taking what belongs to another doing just that?”
“Wylan made his choice. You’re too beautiful to let you stay with someone that doesn’t appreciate you. I’m surprised you would accept Wylan’s half hearted commitment?”
Stiffening at his insult, she’d been foolish to think he held any compassion.
“So much anger for the truth? He never could tolerate an elamie that displayed her feelings for him.”
He caught the small hand that rose to slap him. Holding it, the fragileness held by his strength seared the warnings into his flesh to be gentle with her. Ove
rpowering her with physical force would cause damage he might never repair. He couldn’t dismiss the unseen powers in her possession. She could use them against him.
Maintaining his hold over her, Majok placed her resisting palm over his heart. “Feel the power of my desire, Melane. It doesn’t lie. I want you and I promise I will not turn from the vow of life as Wylan has done.”
Melane couldn’t stand silent before his tender assault and unjust attack on Wylan. Clasping her other hand over his, her gaze rose in pleading. “Majok, please listen, Wylan has not deserted me; he is being held by Dragon in the cliff caves.”
She felt the powerful tightening in his chest beneath her fingers.
“I never believed you to be a coward, Melane.”
She fought back the threatening tears. “I am not.”
“What you say to stay my purpose is a lie!”
She held fast when he would have broken her hold. “It is the truth, I have seeing dreams, I was there in the catacombs, but I couldn’t reach him.” Panicked by his disbelieving glare, she tried harder to make him listen. “Majok, I never lie. When you came in, I was testing my powers to see if I could go to Wylan and free him. Please Majok…when you touched me, you pulled me back into myself.” The defeat he posed made her loose her fight against the lingering weakness. Against her will, Melane swayed in his arms, allowing him to pull her fully to him.
“Melane?”
“My powers have a dark side.”
“The weakness?”
Her eyes closed over the spoken truth, knowing she revealed a dangerous secret. All of Tarra’s warnings for what the knowledge could cost her shined in Majok’s enlarging eyes.
Majok moved carefully with his mounting awareness. He remembered how Wylan blocked him from seeing into the chambers that eventful evening. These last days, how pale she had been. Even now, she was too weak to prevent his hold. “Using the powers can kill you, can’t they Melane?”
She tried so hard not to react, but his tightening embrace made her moan. “Answer me, or by the gods I will take what’s mine and be done with your games!”
Startling her into answering, he quickly checked her useless attempt to escape him. “Melane?”
Her breathless admission made him draw her head into his shoulders. His hand ran down her silky hair to calm her fears for the truth he forced into the open.
“Are you sure it is the sea cliffs?”
“I told Tarra all that I saw in the dream.” Melane pulled back, clutching him in her desperation. “Please Majok, you must help Wylan.”
Why was the softness leaving his eyes? They grew hard against her. Melane tried to pull back from what she sensed.
“No Melane…” There was almost a flicker of regret in his eyes as they moved over her face. Her head shook to deny what he wanted from her. “I want your promise Melane. Wylan’s life for yours.”
She felt her life-force slipping from her. How could he demand such a high price? She would belittle herself and beg him not to make her do this, but she was staring at her own defeat. The courage she always relied on became smothered beneath his cold determination. Majok knew she couldn’t refuse, not when it meant Wylan’s very life.
He felt the victory swelling inside his chest. Never would she escape his claim. Majok also knew that Wylan’s pride would never allow him to forgive her. Melane was his!
Chapter 9
Crossing Invisible Lines
Could she survive a lifetime of Majok’s anger? Hadn’t she been facing a more potent one these last weeks? The cold unrelenting eyes did not ease their vigil over her. Melane suffered his fury throughout the ride to the cliffs.
“You have only thirty sweeps of time keeper to free him and then we enter.”
Her eyes darted to the pendulum. His conditions to her own were etched in the stone swinging between them. “No one must touch or talk to me.”
“It is understood.”
Melane looked back at the waiting force under Majok’s command. One hundred Selams in full battle gear could make the bravest fighting force taste the bitter residue of fear. She never truly faced the conscious difference between sexes as she did within the circle of these fearsome fighters. Majok may have agreed to Melane’s insistence in coming and using her powers to free Wylan before the assault, but his own terms to her minimal evolvement didn’t faltered. Only knowing he won what he wanted from her held him back from stopping her altogether.
She desperately missed not having Tarra’s supporting presence. Melane felt her shame when her eyes sought out his mother and the lady’s fell away in condemnation.
Bringing her attention back to Majok, she let her gaze fall under his guarded stare. He noticed her sensitivity to Tarra. Melane felt certain he actually felt outraged over Tarra’s treatment of her. She didn’t want his concern. What little pride she had left glared out at him. She would hold her silence over their pact. He would help rescue Wylan, one life for another. A fair bargain for Wylan’s life.
Not being able to explain to Tarra why she openly declared her acceptance for Majok’s claiming, delivered a blow Melane felt she could never recover from. To loose Tarra’s respect was a terrible consequence. Knowing the woman’s son would perceive her actions in the same light began to tear Melane’s heart apart.
Majok’s fierce gaze held all the power he coveted to control Melane. Majok would never rule her heart and thus she would forever call his rage down upon her.
“I am ready.”
“Thirty, no more, then I pull you back.”
“I know.”
A drawing power beyond her control fueled her urgency. Almost instantly, she found herself inside the caves. The darkness was blinding. Concentrating, she thought only of Wylan, praying he would not keep her away.
Time and obstacles meant nothing to her when walking outside herself. Only the sensation of moving to where she belonged carried any essence.
When next her awareness cleared she almost cried out in relief. There against the far wall was Wylan. Melane stepped forward, but a slight movement to her right froze her in place. Dragon!
Her hands rose to cover her chest fearing the miserable creature would hear the frantic beating of her heart. Her jaw ached with the pressure she applied not to scream when the evil moved towards Wylan. This being was not a man, but the very swill of the blackest forces of evil. Every move reeked of the terrifying destruction at the wizard’s disposal. The power felt so immense it pulled at her, like the rolling waves on Wylan’s shore when they dragged back into the ocean’s depths. She found her limbs growing heavy and breathing took a tremendous effort.
Panic made her seek Wylan, but he could not help her.
Gray as the ash strewn about the floor, his skin lost its golden vibrancy. A drawn, almost pulling weight appeared to be on his shoulders. No longer did he strain against his chains; they were all that held him up. Fighting the shock of seeing his wasted form, Melane made herself move closer. As she drew nearer, Dragon’s raspy voice grew stronger.
“Your little elamie must fear me more than she cares for you, Wylan.”
“Melane…stay away.”
Dragon’s enjoyment of taunting Wylan made her stomach rise to her throat. “Where is your great booming voice, my lord?”
Again, Wylan warned her away. Did Wylan see her?
Coming closer she felt the tears stinging her lids. No, he saw nothing in that lost agony reflected in his gray depths. So much suffering, his cherished eyes were only the mirrors for the torture he suffered. His pain became her own as her eyes found every cut and burn on his magnificent body.
A rage beyond earth’s fragile boundaries seized Melane, filling her miserable form with an immense source of power. She wanted to shatter the evil keeping her from Wylan. Only the fear that Dragon would strike and take his revenge against Wylan made her fingertips burn into her palms to keep from tearing the fiend to shreds.
Getting Dragon away from Wylan became imperative. She began worrying abo
ut Majok and if her time neared its end. Melane could think of only one power that might go unnoticed by Dragon. She would plant a suggestion in his warped mind. Touching him in any other manner could alert him of her presence. Yes, she would chance it.
The dark fingers were running over the chain links tightening their hold where suddenly they slipped. Talking to himself, for Wylan was beyond hearing anything the man spoke. “I seem to have forgot something.”
His attention went back to Wylan, Melane feared she failed. His hands grabbed Wylan’s hair pushing his head back against the wall. “You don’t mind waiting a little longer to die? No, I thought not. A pity she didn’t try to save you. I will just have to get her another way. Quite a surprise, your little sorceress. She is a rare one, it’s a shame she is against me. Our combined power could conquer the enter realm.”
Her small gasp escaped, bringing him spinning around to scan the room. Holding perfectly still Melane didn’t breath as his black eyes passed over her.
Again she concentrated on making Dragon leave.
“Now what was it I needed to get…can’t recall.”
Her breath exhaled over his mumbling exit.
Running to Wylan, “Oh please Wylan, come to me, see me.”
Cupping his slack jaw in her palms she pleaded with him to focus.
“Melane go back…trap.” His weak order earned her pitying smile.
“I will my love, but first you must wake and help me set you free.”
“Dragon.”
“I know, now hush, we haven’t much time.” Melane struggled with the lock, stepping back she searched the area for the key. Stopping herself her eyes grew larger in realization. “Yes, I can do it.”
Leveling all her concentration on the lock, she groaned over the effort. Finally one, then another and another fell away.
Wylan almost went to the floor with the falling chains. With Melane’s help he managed to stay on his feet.
“Wylan?”
His eyes came slowly up to hers. “You shouldn’t have come.”
“You weren’t there to stop me.”
A force above herself made her lean up and into him to find his lips. In gentle splendor, for a stolen moment, she lost herself to Wylan kiss. Leaving the haven she only just found was the worse of penalties.