“You were able to resist my control.” Her tormentor’s pastel lips curled upward. “It is true. You are the one.”
Had the woman been attempting to seize possession of her mind—invading as Kiren, Miles, or Edward, but grabbing the reins rather than gleaning or planting information? Deiliey’s eyes no longer burned red, rather they were dark in the pulsing light of the medallion.
Alexia sucked in a breath. “You control minds?”
Hopeful eyes lifted to hers. “Those too weak to resist.” She picked at the hem of her sleeve. “There is one, only one who can withstand me.”
Chills seeped into Alexia’s skin. Had Kiren been controlled by this woman? And for how long? She gasped. That must be why he feared Deiliey, and perhaps also why he loved her. Her heart ached. Had her husband been taken against his will?
Deiliey shifted. “I apologize if I frightened you. It is difficult to keep them under control all the time. Locking them on the other side of the door helps.”
The Soulless. Then she did command them. When they had come for Alexia—the night Miles sacrificed himself, the night Kiren fought them off, the night she truly began to use her gift—their eyes had beckoned her, just as this woman’s had a moment ago. Miles had said they were coming for her, not to consume her, but because of her gift.
Alexia pushed up into a sitting position, her head spinning. Kiren’s necklace lay across from them, pulsing with a golden glow.
“I am Deiliey,” the woman’s head bobbed demurely. “Corona Deiliey.”
Alexia squirmed, uncomfortable with her companion’s expectant stare. Were they to be friends, despite the hold this woman had taken on Kiren? “You are clearly not Soulless. Why are you here?”
The lines deepened around Deiliey’s nose. “I am the subject of unfavorable circumstances, but that story can wait for another time.” She brushed a hand through the luminescence cast by the medallion, finger shadows cutting across the walls. “Let us say, I am here by choice to preserve my existence, but no, I am not one of the Soulless.”
“Your eyes...”
The woman scooted forward. Her skin was rough and her mouth turned downward naturally, as though she’d long ago forgotten how to smile. “My gift is to possess the minds closest to me. By that means I am able to preserve my own existence here, but it has proven...” Her gaze shifted away. “...precarious on more than one occasion.”
Alexia bit down. Like when she possessed Kiren’s mind and it nearly resulted in her death—as had been insinuated? “You attempted to possess my mind.”
“To protect you from them.” Deiliey lifted her hands in a gesture of surrender.
“To confirm your uncertainties about me,” Alexia shot back. She was not going to play this woman’s game, and she had to know why Corona wanted her. “What is it you think I am?”
The woman leaned forward, her breath quickening. “You are the one who can save us.”
Alexia glared. “From destroying one another?”
Deiliey reached out, as though to touch her, but stopped short. Alexia burned the woman’s fingers with her stare, hating her like no other. Corona’s hands came together in supplication. “You can go back. You can stop the destruction of the Passionate.”
Leaning as far away as she could, Alexia scowled. So this was her intention—manipulating Kiren and controlling him in order to force her obedience. “I cannot. It is beyond my ability.”
“It was,” Deiliey lifted a hand over the throbbing metal, “but no longer.” Her mouth worked, overly excited, nothing spilling out, then starting in a rush. “The pendant, it gathers power from the life about it, as though siphoning light off every source in existence, only a little so as not to do harm. It strengthens the bearer beyond any natural capacity, even beyond understanding.”
So it could strengthen the bearer, but what did that matter? “Only one person can use it.”
Deiliey shook her head. “No, only his bloodline can utilize it, but you will one day bear his child.” The woman’s eyes gleamed. “With his heir growing inside you, you will be able to use his pendant. You can go back. You can intervene and stop our people from being destroyed.”
“Then why have you taken the medallion?”
“I could not come to you. You had to come to me.” The smile faded. “Do not allow him to prevent you from fulfilling your destiny like he did to me.”
Alexia blinked.
Deiliey tugged at her sleeve. “He is so afraid of what’s to come he will allow our people to grovel, to suffer, and to succumb to fate.” Her voice softened. “Love makes us do strange things.”
Alexia’s throat tightened as her mind whirled into a realm she didn’t want to consider. Love. How did this woman know so much about her husband, and more especially, what had he meant about loving her? Was he manipulated by her, or had he naturally cared for her? He had been so sincere in his proclamation.
Alexia slipped into her memories, reliving the many times Kiren had pushed her away, the fear constantly in his eyes, the sadness that always possessed him. There was another woman, despite his insistence otherwise.
She knew one thing for certain. She did not trust Deiliey.
The woman rose, brushing debris from her skirt.
“It is truly possible?” Alexia scoured the woman’s face for the slightest tick, any hint that she lied. “I can go back?”
“It is not only possible, it is inevitable.”
“And how can you be so certain?”
Deiliey licked her lips. “Because you are my mother.”
Sixty-Nine
Mother
The world circled her head like a falling leaf.
Mother.
And then an avalanche of snow.
Mother.
Her veins turned to ice, a glacier palace crushing down on her chest.
Mother.
Alexia sucked in air and blinked twice. “You are saying...”
Shadows amplified Deiliey’s grin. “You will return to the past, and there I shall be born. I have waited long to meet you.”
Mental fuzz buzzed through her ears. Mae’s words returned: I have waited a long time for you, Alexia. Had they also met in the past, or did the innkeeper mean something else entirely? Did Kiren know about this? Had he been withholding this truth from her?
She shook her head clear. “To meet me? Why did we not know one another in the past?”
Deiliey’s brows scrunched down. “Some say you died. Others insist you merely disappeared, but in five hundred years, this is the first I have heard of you.”
Spider-shivers crawled over Alexia’s skin. “And how can you be certain I am the one who gave...will give birth to you?”
Deiliey sat back. “Kiren told me.”
Alexia blinked, shocked. That Deiliey knew his name... “He is—?”
“My father.” A tremor traveled down the woman’s cheek.
This grew stranger and stranger by the moment. Alexia studied the woman, her straight nose and high cheekbones, like Kiren’s. But her eyebrows were thinner, her mouth the same shape as Alexia’s, and her eyes were more pointed at the inner corner—something Alexia had always liked about her own. She was, without question, Kiren’s relation, but could she be mistaken about Alexia? Was there any way this might be his lost sister?
Alexia cleared her throat. “If you are my daughter, why do you not possess my gift?”
Deiliey frowned. “It appears I inherited something of my father’s line. He is, after all, from a lineage of dominant royals.”
Alexia had to admit there was a similarity in gifts—Kiren’s ability to read people’s thoughts as compared to this woman’s power to control thoughts. “We chose the name of Deiliey for you?”
“Corona.” Her voice softened. “To remind me of my heritage, though I much prefer Deiliey.”
Corona. Crown. A child born into a royal family.
Alexia rubbed her arm. “Where did Deiliey come from?”
“The man who sho
uld have been my father, the one who taught me everything.”
Alexia blinked. “Kiren was not there to raise you?”
Deiliey’s head shook.
She swallowed. She didn’t want a future without him, a place in time before his existence. If what Deiliey said was true, she would not survive long there anyway.
But the choice was hers. She didn’t have to go back. She may not even be able to go back.
The door burst inward.
Seventy
Reconcile
Two Soulless carried Kiren into the chamber, dragging his feet. His chest heaved, his head dangling. They dropped him before Alexia and closed the door behind them.
She brushed the hair out of his face, the coppery scent of blood stinging her nose, mixed with his sweet oak. Kiren’s fingers brushed against hers, twitching as he groaned. A shiver of heat rolled up her arms. It lifted the weight of despair that had been crushing her and warmed her cheeks with the awareness of his closeness.
Kiren jerked upright. He sucked in a breath and leaned his forehead against hers. He grunted, fingertips curling between hers.
“Has she hurt you?” she whispered.
“Has she hurt you?”
She bit down. Not in the conventional sense of the word, but she had so many strange ideas to consider, and such a deep and abiding sorrow lodged in her throat. She glanced at the woman in the shadows, the waiting pendant, and forced the words through their connection: Have you always known I would go back?
His forehead dropped to her shoulder.
“Kiren?”
His head shook, but the depression seeping through their clasped hands said otherwise.
She blinked into the darkness. “You should have told me.”
Kiren groaned. “And taint what little time we had together?”
“Have together,” she corrected and squeezed his hand. Deiliey told me who she is.
“I was afraid of that,” he muttered.
Her chest squeezed. Then it was true. Their child had been alone, waiting to meet both her parents in the future, parents who couldn’t possibly fill the gap in her life or compensate for the cruelty of being abandoned in another time.
And for all Alexia knew, she would die in that past. “Why did you say nothing? Why did you let me believe it was impossible?”
He caught her face between his hands. “Because I am not ready to lose you.” His lips found hers in the darkness, an apology in their tender press.
What of Deiliey? she whispered mentally.
She hates me, and she is right to. He pulled in an uneven breath. She led the Breeders. She always believed in her cause, breeding our kind to try and create the most powerful elementals.
“Why would she—?”
He shrugged. My theory is, in hopes of finding you.
The hint of a lie hovered in his words, a half-truth. “Kiren.”
He grunted, gaze flashing to their watching daughter. I do not know her full motives, but she was crazed for power. His eyes returned. Imagine if the most powerful Passionate were under her control. What could anyone do to oppose her?
She squeezed his fingers. “Tell me what happened.”
Deiliey gained too much power. Her experiments... His palm grazed across her cheek and images flashed through her brain: A woman being force-fed blood, another sliced open right after death so her fertile organs might be implanted in someone else, a man in chains raving incoherently about being bonded to multiple women while blood seeped from his wrists in a suicide attempt. I had to stop her.
Alexia shivered. And she hates you because of it. She nestled up against his chest, working hard to keep from watching the atrocity across from them. Is she mad? I mean truly, deeply touched in the head?
She is driven. Kiren’s arms curled around her. Her presence here explains why Passionate have been disappearing, taken by the Soulless. It seems she has begun to rebuild her army by force, and perhaps she has even begun her experiments again.
Alexia shifted up onto her knees, coming nose to nose with him. “Then you always knew I would go back?”
He shook. “We decide our own destiny. I intended to stay away from you and prevent it from happening, but I could not.”
Tears gathered in her eyes. He loved the Passionate enough to sacrifice his own happiness for them. Oh, Kiren, how could our daughter become this?
“She may not have to,” he whispered.
He was right. Alexia had a decision to make. If she remained in this timeline, the Deiliey who now existed might never come to be. She would grow up with both her parents, a happy, loved child, and perhaps her determination might be turned to aid the Passionate.
But Alexia might die in childbirth. That was probably the reason for her disappearance in the past, and if she died in childbirth, Kiren would follow her into the afterlife. Who then would be left to check their child? Who would stop her from inflicting cruelty and unspeakable tortures on her brothers and sisters? Was this a lesser of evils?
Furthermore, if she could go back, she might prevent others from suffering: Sarah from dying, John from becoming Soulless, Kiren from losing his parents... “What if I could change things?”
Quiet.
“Kiren?”
He tugged her to her feet, arms rounding her waist as she threatened to topple. Shall we away, my love?
Blue had never known such definition, such depth as it did in his eyes. She would go with him anywhere. This was where she belonged.
He surged forward the same instant Deiliey leapt for the necklace.
Seventy-One
Mind Tricks
Kiren’s finger caught one link before the cool metal jerked forward. He held tight. Deiliey had the pendant’s face, the amplifier. He growled.
The possessive eyes of his daughter glared at him through the gloom. He tore the metal from her grasp, jerking her forward, links clinking together as they swung at his side.
The woman stumbled to a halt. “You must send her away or you will kill us all!”
He lifted the chain over his head. “I believe that is the fate we were assigned from the beginning.”
She hissed and lunged at Alexia.
He threw an arm between them and nails pierced into his flesh. He swept her away from his wife, slamming her back into the wall, fingers clutched about her neck. Deiliey tore at his hand, legs kicking.
Power surged through him from the necklace, a familiar warmth he had been missing. He felt three feet taller, energy pulsing through his skin, threatening to burst it for the magnitude. The charm had not been emptied in some time, and a lesser man would have succumbed to the blast, exploding like an overstuffed sausage.
Trickles of power escaped through his connection with Alexia.
Her eyes widened in shock. What is this? Why have I never felt it before?
He held the overwhelming flow in and turned on Deiliey. “It is best to know when you have lost a battle.”
She glared.
The ground beneath them trembled. Little rocks clattered and vibrated across the uneven floor. Brackets cracked. He whirled about, ready to face a new foe, but the doorway was clear, the iron door lying useless against the wall.
Nelly.
Something must have happened and the cook was using her gift—but if she brought down the caves...
He sprinted through the door, pulling Alexia after him. The ground shuddered again, shaking boulders into the underground lake, throwing gleaming spatters of water at them like razors.
Deiliey ducked around them and shot through the quaking tunnels.
He silenced his inner workings, ignoring the pounding of his own heart and focused outward. Locating the tremor in the ground, he searched for the direction it amplified, the way it shook the walls harder—such a fine difference in the frequency of grinding stone it was almost imperceptible.
He took off toward the source. Alexia’s feet scuttled beside him, her breath rasping in his ears.
Fissures ripped thro
ugh the walls, widening cracks. He pushed himself faster.
A low moan curdled beneath the crash of falling stone, the cry of the earth reaching to obey its master.
“Nelly!” he shouted. “Stop!”
His voice was drowned out by the cannonade of rubble. Thick dust billowed around them. Stones crashed down from the roof.
Alexia shrieked.
Kiren threw himself over her.
Shards bit into his arms and back. The world disappeared in a storm of dust and stone.
Seventy-Two
Rubbish
Weight crushed down over Alexia, Kiren’s weight. The tang of blood was thick in her nose, along with dust and a hint of oak.
She blinked her eyes open.
Darkness.
She closed them and heaved upward. His weight shifted, rolling and toppling next to her.
Dull light emanated from the pendant exposed on his chest, a bubble of light that surrounded them both. She shivered where it touched her, its raw power saturating the air. Loose stones trembled atop the arch of radiance, the energy holding the rubble back as if the slightest disturbance might bring it down.
She gasped.
Kiren’s leg was pinned under the stones that locked them into a pinched berth. Blood pooled down his trapped limb and etched random streaks across his clothing—multiple lacerations.
Injuries he’d sustained while shielding her.
She covered her mouth and held back a sob. She brushed a hand over his bloodied and still brow. A weak exhalation feathered across her palm.
“Kiren?” she whispered.
His chest lifted shallowly, eyes closed and unmoving. She placed a hand next to him on the ground, into something wet. Dark liquid stained her palm. The pool spread below him, murky in the light. Lifting his shoulder, she bit back against her lurching stomach. A stone had penetrated several inches into his back. She’d freed it by moving him, leaving a gaping hole right next to his spine.
Soulless (Maiden of Time Book 2) Page 27