Crown of Blood

by D G Swank

  The kicks stopped.

  “You, too, question my judgment?”

  “In this, yes,” Zane said. “If you kill her, you’ll be in the same situation you were in with Lenny—the orb will be stuck inside her body. And since Celeste was the one to free it from Lenny, the orb will be lost to you forever.”

  Donall was silent for a moment, then said, “She likely removed it with her expression magic. You can use yours. She’s nearly dead, so why don’t you try it now?”

  I prepared myself for a new round of pain, but nothing came. Instead, Zane said, “I think that’s unwise.”

  Another vicious kick hit me in the chest. “You think it’s unwise.”

  “Donall,” my father pleaded. “He’s right.”

  “You’re only saying that to protect her.” Another kick. “I’ve coddled her. Let her have freedoms she never should have possessed.” Another blow and I felt a rib crack.

  Do not react. But I wasn’t sure whether that was the best course of action anymore. He wasn’t just beating me because he wanted to make a point or teach a lesson—he was doing it because he got pleasure from inflicting pain.

  Zane had been right, not that it surprised me. Donall was a sick sadist. Even though I lay on the cold, dead grass, my anger and my magic flared to life when I thought of the pain he’d inflicted on my sister. I suspected Rowan had refused to kowtow to him too. He must have beaten her senseless.

  “You’re correct,” Zane said in his bored tone. “I’ve coddled her as well. Let me have three uninterrupted days with her. Then I’ll show you the progress I’ve made.”

  “Two days,” Donall said. “And then we’ll marry as planned. I’ll contact you with the location.”

  “You still wish to marry her?” my father asked in a mixture of horror and pride.

  I lay on the ground, beaten and bleeding, and likely with internal injuries, and they were discussing the logistics of my wedding.

  “She’s still a Whelan,” Donall said. “She still has control of the orb. Once she’s my wife, I’ll gain the respect that comes with her family name, and after I bend her to my will, I’ll have her power as well.”

  “I’ll need three days if you want her ready to take over the Large Council,” Zane said, sounding disinterested.

  “No,” Donall snarled. “Two days so she can attend her own wedding.”

  Zane sighed. “Fine. Two days.”

  “Perhaps you’re not the right mage to break her,” Donall said. “Perhaps having a sister as a healer has made you soft.”

  “No,” Zane said. “I’ve held back with her out of respect for you. I knew she was your fiancée and I presumed you wouldn’t want me to scar her.”

  “Scarring can be fixed with glamour,” Donall said. “Do what you need to do to break her so I can use the power of the orb the way I see fit.”

  “As you wish,” Zane said, sounding eager. I was too broken inside and out to speculate whether he actually meant it. He’d say the same thing if he wanted to save me, but I struggled to believe anything good could come of any of this. I’d made the wrong call about Donall, thinking I had him under control. I didn’t want to make a mistake with Zane too. “I want to take her to a location off campus to work with her. Once she’s remote and isolated from everyone and everything, I’ll be able to break her down to nothing.”

  Donall was silent for several seconds. “Fine, but I won’t allow your sister to heal her. Celeste must deal with her injuries as if she were a non-magical. I can send two guards to help watch over her.”

  “Guards?” Zane sneered. “You insult me. I can handle her on my own. You forget that I know her magic inside and out. Our plan has worked so far. Let me see it through.”

  “So be it,” Donall said, “but have her back here for our wedding two nights from now. At dusk. And I expect to see serious progress.”

  “Don’t worry,” Zane said. His magic surrounded me, its touch soothing despite his harsh words, as he scooped me up. “You won’t be disappointed.”

  We would see about that.

  Chapter Twenty

  I slipped in and out of consciousness as Zane walked in long strides. Each of his steps sent a fresh jolt of pain through my body. I did my best to hold it in, but after several steps, I let out a tiny whimper.

  Zane flinched, but he continued to march past the crowd, circling around the building. When we finally came to a stop, I tried to open my eyes to see if anyone had followed us, but they only opened into thin slits, enough to see that we were in the parking lot, next to his car. He opened the back door and dumped me onto the backseat. A sharp pain stabbed my side, and I suddenly struggled to catch my breath.

  The door slammed shut and he was in the driver’s seat seconds later. The car started and he pulled out of the parking space, not bothering to stop at the gate like he had this morning.

  After we left the compound, he said in an urgent tone, “Talk to me, Celeste.”

  My breathing became more labored. I tried to use my magic to stop the pain, but the attempt only made it worse. I started to panic.

  The car slowed and pulled to an abrupt stop. Seconds later, Zane got out and opened one of the back doors. I lay on my side, my legs tucked up at the opposite end of the car.

  Suddenly, his magic surrounded me again, but my own held on tight, refusing to give him access.

  “You have to let me in, Celeste,” he said in frustration. “You have to let me see how badly you’re hurt.”

  I shook my head, sending a fresh round of pain through my body. I refused to make myself vulnerable to him.

  “Celeste, please,” he begged. “I think you’ve punctured a lung. You need to let me help you.”

  I started to cry, which only made the pain and shortness of breath worse.

  His fingers lightly brushed my temple. “You’re safe. I’ve hidden us. He won’t hurt you again, I swear it.” He spat out the last part. “I’m not as good as Lisa, but I’m capable of healing you too. You have to let me in.”

  I tried to open my eyes, looking at him through the tiny slits.

  He leaned over and pressed a light kiss to my temple. “I swear on my sister’s life that I won’t hurt you. Ever.” His tone was emphatic. “I’m sorry I let you think that for even a minute.”

  “But Donall…he’ll make you.”

  “I’ll kill him before I hurt you. Now please lower your magic before you pass out and lock me out indefinitely.”

  Could I lock him out while I was unconscious? If I lost consciousness, I suspected I wouldn’t be waking up.

  “I…can’t…trust…you.”

  “I swear to you that you can.” He paused, as if realizing that wasn’t enough, then said, “You saved my sister, Celeste. How could I hurt you after that?”

  I looked up at him and the sincerity on his face convinced me to drop my magic. I knew he could be tricking me, playing some kind of twisted Dark Set long game, but I didn’t really believe it. Besides, I was tired and scared that I would die before I finished what I had set out to do. As soon as my magic folded, his own power rushed in, but not with the subtle prodding Lisa used. This was like a bulldozer flattening everything in its path.

  I cried out from the pain, and he murmured, “sorry, sorry, sorry,” under his breath. He grabbed my shoulder and turned me onto my back. The pain in my side intensified and I fought for air, the effort excruciating.

  “I’m going to put you out, Celeste. I don’t want you to feel this.”

  I reached up and grabbed his arm, panic swirling in my head. “No.”

  “The pain is making it worse for you,” he said in a shaky voice. “I don’t have the skill Lisa does, and if I take you to the hospital, Donall will find out and come for you. Please.”

  I dropped my arm, partially because I didn’t have the energy to hold it up anymore and partially because I knew he was right. About all of it.

  Tears streamed out of my eyes and down my cheeks. “Don’t let him have me. Not yet.
”

  “Not ever.” The conviction in his voice caught me by surprise, but he had already moved on, murmuring my injuries out loud. “Three broken ribs. Punctured lung. Lacerated spleen.” That one caused him the most distress. “I don’t think I can fix that one.”

  “Yes, you can,” I said, peering up at him. “I know how strong you really are, Zane. I…read the books you left out for me. One expression witch healed her son after he was crushed by a horse, Zane. You can do this.”

  “But you’re hurt too badly. I’m not sure Lisa could even fix this.” His voice cracked. “I’m worried I’ll make it worse.”

  I closed my eyes. “I do trust you, Zane. Put me out and do what you need to do.”

  He was still for a moment, then his lips brushed my temple again.

  Everything faded to black.

  When I woke, every part of me hurt. I was lying on a bed in a dark room, but I could feel Zane’s magic surrounding me, cocooning me.

  My eyes could open, but they felt swollen and puffy. I wondered if I’d cried myself to sleep and why Zane was in my room…and then it all came rushing back.

  Taking Ashley’s magic. Giving the wrong magic to Mark. Zane showing up and accusing me of being weak. Donall’s beating.

  I cried out at the memory and started to sit up, but Zane was instantly at my side, gently pushing me back down. “Don’t get up. Just lie still.”

  We were in a hotel room and the lights were dim. There was only one bed, and I was certain Zane hadn’t been lying on the other side of me. It looked like he’d been resting in a chair beside me.

  “You didn’t kill me,” I said with a grin, but it hurt to smile.

  “We’re not through the woods yet,” he said, sounding worried. “You lost a lot of blood, and I’m not sure how to make up for that.”

  “Maybe another healer,” I whispered.

  “No. Donall will be watching to see if I take you to one. He doesn’t trust me, and he still has my sister. I can’t risk it.”

  I could have taken offense, but I understood. I would have made the same call if Donall had been holding Rowan or Phoebe. “How bad is it?”

  He hesitated.

  “Tell me the truth, Zane,” I said. The effort of talking sent a sharp pain through my side, but at least I could breathe.

  “Your broken bones are healed, but they were easier for me to stitch back together than the soft tissue. Your spleen… I fixed it, but I don’t trust it to hold. Your lung is repaired, but your side muscles are still bruised. So is your face.”

  “Donall said he didn’t care about scarring,” I teased.

  Anger filled his eyes. “Don’t joke about that, Celeste. He nearly killed you.” He sat up straighter. “And I stood there and watched. We all did.” Self-loathing filled his words.

  “You had no choice. You had to protect Lisa.”

  “By sacrificing you?”

  “I was the least expendable to Donall. It was the right decision.”

  “Maybe so, but now I need to figure out how to save you and my sister, because Donall will torture her if I don’t bring you back to marry him.”

  “There’s no decision to make,” I said. “I’m going back. I’m marrying him.”

  “No,” he said. “We’ll find Brandon Cassidy. We’ll figure out a way to get Lisa out.”

  “You can get her out when I go back to marry Donall,” I said.

  “We’ll find another way, Celeste,” he said, sounding impatient. “Brandon found the Dark Set at the abandoned hospital and nearly defeated them. I can join them this time, and we’ll defeat them for good.”

  I considered it for a second, but only a second. My mother had been adamant that I needed to be the one to do this. “No,” I said, more harshly than I’d intended. “There will be a wedding. There has to be.” If I couldn’t figure out how to use the orb, I’d have to defeat them some other way.

  Disgust filled his eyes. “You want power that badly?”

  I released a harsh laugh that sent a wave of pain through my body. When I recovered, I said, “You think this is about possessing power, Zane? You think that’s why I let him beat the shit out of me?”

  “Then why the fuck would you go back there to marry him, Celeste? I understand wanting to master your power, but this? What the fuck? Why did you really come to the Dark Set?”

  I almost asked him to trust me, but he would likely put the pieces together. I knew he’d try to stop me from following through on my plan. It might be a suicide mission, and I doubted he’d just saved me so I could kill myself.

  “I still believe the Dark Set will be victorious,” I said, “and I want to be on the winning side.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You really expect me to believe that?”

  “You have no choice.”

  He stood and began to pace the room.

  It struck me that he’d sounded awfully chummy with Brandon for someone who’d supposedly been hiding out with the Dark Set for years. “You’ve been working with Brandon?”

  He stopped and turned to face me. “I’ve been undercover for five years.”

  “Was Brandon even head of the Protective Force then?”

  “Not yet, but he already suspected his brother was up to something. Your father recruited me when I left the Druids. Donall was already with them, rising in the ranks. They were looking for ins with the Druids.”

  “You’ve been with the Dark Set for five years?”

  “Yes, but I was low on the totem pole in the beginning. I worked my way up, but it wasn’t until I brought my sister on board that they truly trusted me.”

  “You purposely brought your sister into the Dark Set?” I asked in disbelief.

  He flinched. “No. She found out what I was doing and insisted on joining. She knew Donall, in particular, had trust issues with me. She suggested joining the group to help seal my cover.”

  “And you let her?”

  He turned to me. “You don’t have the right to judge me.”

  “You sure felt entitled to judge me.”

  He sat down on the chair next to the bed, taking my hand. His power, cool and soothing, radiated from it, but I knew that wasn’t the only reason I liked his touch. “Celeste, right now we need to figure out how to get you healed enough not to have a relapse. I know you don’t want to actually marry Donall, but setting that aside, you couldn’t walk down the aisle at your wedding even if you wanted to.”

  He was right. I needed to be healed and strong enough to destroy the Dark Set. But if all the healers were off-limits, that left one alternative.

  I might need to seek the spirit’s help, even if I did intend to eventually destroy the book. “I know what we can do.”

  “We can’t go to a healer, Celeste. Not even if they are a close friend.”

  “I don’t have any close friends,” I said. “I only have my sisters. The orb currently has most of Phoebe’s power, and I doubt Rowan’s glamour will heal me. She can make me look less like I’ve been a gang fight, sure, but it won’t make me hurt any less.”

  “Then what do you propose?”

  I was taking a huge risk. There was a chance Zane was double-crossing me rather than Donall, but I supposed I’d find out when I saw Brandon face to face. “I need to know that I can trust you.”

  Irritation hardened his jaw. “You said you did last night.”

  “This is important, Zane. That’s why I’m asking you again.”

  His gaze held mine. “I said it before, and I’ll say it now: I have no plans to kill you, hurt you, or turn you over to Donall. You can trust me to protect you.”

  “I don’t need you to protect me. I need to make sure you won’t betray me.”

  He squeezed my hand lightly. “I swear I won’t betray you.”

  I swallowed, still not sure this was a good idea, but I needed Zane, whether I liked it or not. Part of me did like it—a lot—but feeling like that wouldn’t get me anywhere. “I need you to take me to my sisters.”

&nbs
p; He shook his head. “I don’t know where they are, Celeste. Trust me, I’ve tried to find Brandon, but he’s taken your sisters deep. There’s no flushing them out.”

  “I can find them.”

  “And how do you plan to do that? Donall had the Small Council cut your coven bond.”

  “I have a source that will tell me. I only have to ask.”

  He cast me a skeptical look. “Who?”

  “Not a who. A what.” Taking a deep breath, I focused on my magic, not an easy task given my injuries. “Spirit of the book, come to me.”

  Like before, it was as if it had been following me, waiting for my summons. Mist slipped through the crack of the hotel door, seeping into the room, forming an oversized woman’s face.

  Zane leaped to his feet, standing next me and covering me with his magic. “Celeste, what the fuck is that?”

  “Zane Chambers, meet the spirit of the Book of Sindal.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” he said, his magic flaring brighter.

  The spirit laughed. “You’re protecting her from me? You’re Dark Set. I should kill you where you stand.”

  Could she do that?

  I sat up, ignoring the pain. “No. Stop! I need him.”

  Zane turned to me with terror on his face. “Celeste, you have to lie still. I told you I didn’t do a good job on your spleen and you could hemorrhage again.”

  “He’s truly helping you?” the spirit asked with new interest.

  “Yes,” I grunted as a wave of pain washed through me. “He’s on my side. He got me out and tried to heal me.”

  She floated closer and Zane beefed up the power in his shield. She grimaced. “Tell the Dark Set swine that I won’t harm you.”

  I wasn’t entirely sure that was true, but I suspected if she could heal me, she would. She thought she needed me for her own purposes.