Darkness Possessed (Order of the Blade)

by Stephanie Rowe

  The runes would have to go. For a thousand years he’d been protected from the sheva curse that had made his father murder his mother, teaching him all he needed to know about the dangers of it. For a thousand years, he’d lived life knowing that he would never become the rogue that would murder those he loved. And now, for Rhiannon, he would enter that realm. He called out his sai with a crack and a flash of black light, but paused with it poised over his arm. What if she wasn’t his sheva? What if he took off those protections, and then found himself linked to another woman, against his will, just as she was linked to José? Or what if she was indeed his sheva, and he bound her to him against her will, just as José had done? He thought of Rhiannon, and the depth of her fear of being controlled, and he shook his head. If he bound Rhiannon to him, it would betray her trust of him forever. He could not do it.

  Even if Rhiannon was his sheva, he would never trap her like that. Never would he call upon a supernatural bond and bind her to him. Never would he ask her to trade bondage with José for bondage with him.

  There had to be another way. There had to be. But what?

  Behind him, he heard the clang of weapons, and suddenly, it brought back a memory of his daughter, of sparring with her when she was five. She’d been too small to hold his sai, so he’d made her a miniature one. He remembered the day she’d played hide and seek, and gotten lost. He remembered how he’d called upon his fire to find her. His body stiffened at the memory. Hell, he’d forgotten about that. All he ever remembered was that his fire had killed her. He’d completely forgotten that it had saved her once as well.

  He bent his head and went still, softening his mind to the memories as he pulled them back from where they’d been locked up for so long. He recalled that moment of desperate fear when night had fallen and he hadn’t been able to find her. The woods had been too vast to track, and the rain had been coming down all day, wiping away all traces of her trail. So, he’d called upon the essence of what defined him, and he’d become the smoke that could infiltrate an entire land in one windy afternoon.

  Zach thought back to that moment, to the desperation that he’d tapped into. That same paralyzing fear was in his heart now, that same need to find someone who mattered to him more than his own life. He took a deep breath, allowing his fear for Rhiannon’s safety to fill him as he pictured that moment from so many centuries ago when he had transcended the boundaries of his human frame and become that which burned inside him so fiercely.

  He inhaled again, sucking air into his lungs. He held it inside his body, letting it settle in his lungs and mingle with his cells. He let it permeate his body, winding itself through him. Then he pursed his lips and blew it out into the jungle, a billion droplets of his soul drifting into the night, the ashes of his spirit riding the wind and smoke as it dissipated through the air.

  The breeze caught the particles, and they cascaded away from him. He closed his eyes, and focused on the droplets, keeping the connection. He felt every breeze that rippled through the jungle, and he felt the vibrations of energy as they fluttered past living creatures. It was working! Tracking the smoke particles as they flew through the woods, he opened his mind and his heart, searching the forest not for a scent or a sound, but for the rhythm of Rhiannon’s soul, for the signature of her emotions: a combination of fear, courage, softness, and vulnerability. He searched for that flicker of warmth that had somehow remained a part of her, despite all she’d endured. He called for the essence of her being that made her who she was.

  For an agonizingly long moment, he felt nothing but the wildness of the jungle…and then he sensed her emotions as they came tumbling over him. Fear. Desperation. Determination. A spirit warring with hope and defeat at the same time. “Rhiannon!” He honed in on her location and then leapt to his feet, breaking into a dead sprint as he tore through the jungle toward her. Toward José. Toward a fire god that no one could stop.

  This time, he had to win, or everyone who mattered to him would be dead. Again.

  ***

  Rhiannon knelt before José, her wet hair dangling loose over her shoulders. On all sides of her were his warriors, standing in silence with their weapons clenched in their fists. Before her, José sat on his throne of branches and vines, the one she’d made for him when they’d first met.

  Flames burned all around them, enclosing them in a ring of orange and purple fire that stretched from the earth to the heavens. The heat from the flames seared her flesh, but no marks appeared.

  “You covered my brands.” Obviously, he’d noticed that she’d covered his brand with tattoos while she’d been away from the jungle. Her arms were covered with beautiful vines and flowers that hid the ugliness of the marks that their bond had burned into her flesh.

  She closed her eyes as his voice rolled through her like a silken caress that made her thighs clench. His control over her was so complete that her desire for him didn’t even make her nauseous anymore. Her body craved his touch even more than it ever had, but like before, her thoughts were her own. He never seemed to bother with her thoughts. He didn’t care about them. To him, total physical submission, along with knowing that he stoked intense desire and lust in her, was all that mattered. To him, he had won.

  He was wrong. Her mind mattered. He hadn’t won, and he wouldn’t win this time either.

  “Yes,” she said. “I did cover them.”

  She couldn’t call out his weapon and kill him with his own blade. She couldn’t call the vegetation that surrounded them so thickly. But one thing that he wasn’t strong enough to defeat was the destiny of the sheva bond. For ten years, he’d stayed sane and not gone rogue, despite their destiny. But fate decreed that once their bond was complete, the Calydon would go rogue, and the only one who could stop him was his soul mate, who would kill him, and then kill herself.

  It was time to finish their fate.

  The sheva destiny commanded that after the bond was complete, the Calydon would lose his woman somehow, and that was what would make him go rogue. Her escaping him hadn’t sent him over the edge, but maybe that was because he hadn’t really believed he’d lost her. He’d remained confident that he would track her down, and he had.

  So, how could she make him lose her for real? And if she did make him go rogue, then what? Could she really kill him?

  She watched him through slitted eyes. Did she hate him enough to kill him, and accept that she would then have to die? Was that better than living under his rule again? Or did she hate him enough that she could kill him, but not need to kill herself? But even as she asked it, she knew it was impossible. The sheva destiny was too strong. She wouldn’t be able to break it. If she killed him, she would kill herself. And she was okay with that. If Zach was already dead, what was her life worth? It was worth saving the jungle she was born to protect. Something had to be preserved from his poisonous touch.

  José‘s gaze drifted to her breasts, which were barely covered by the silken gown he’d told her to wear when she’d gotten out of the river. Her breasts strained at the thin fabric, and her nipples puckered under his heated gaze. “You can make my body respond,” she said quietly, “but you will never get my heart.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I have all of you.”

  “No, you don’t.” She looked right at him. “I love Zach.” She’d intended the words simply to torment José, to draw him out of his controlled state, and to make him go rogue, but the moment she said it, she realized it was true. Her heart stuttered for a moment, and a great weeping sadness swept over her for the man who she had barely had time to know before she’d lost him. Fierce determination swept through her. José would hurt no one else. As his sheva, she was the only one with the power to destroy him. “I don’t care if he’s dead. He’s the one I love. The sheva bond means nothing to me. Nothing.”

  The words hung in the air, and she held her breath as José‘s face darkened. He’d been able to share her body with his men, but what about her heart? Could he share that too? Or would she f
inally trigger the soul mate instincts to covet his woman? “I love another man.”

  José suddenly exploded off his throne. He leapt at her, howling with rage. He was so angry that he forgot to hold onto her mind, and she leapt sideways, dodging his blow. He lunged for her again, but this time, she knew what she had to do. With courage she didn’t know she had, she forced herself not to flee, but to let him catch her.

  His hand closed around her throat, and he jerked her off her feet, squeezing until she couldn’t breathe. He was going to kill her. She’d triggered the final stage. He was going to destroy her, and now was her time to kill him, as fate decreed. It was time for his weapon to come to her to save her.

  But when she called it, it didn’t come.

  With sudden terror, she realized that his eyes weren’t red. He wasn’t rogue. Until he went rogue, the destiny wouldn’t be triggered. How was he not rogue? His sheva loved another man. How could that not turn him?

  But it hadn’t. Anger and bitterness were seething in his eyes, and his lips were snarled with disgust, yet his eyes remained black, fixed ruthlessly on her face as he strangled her. Gripping his wrist, she fought desperately, trying to pry his fingers off her throat. Her vision was starting to blacken. Damn it! Why wasn’t this working? Tears bled from her eyes as she fought to stay conscious. She kicked desperately, trying to find purchase, and her foot slammed into his throne, knocking his staff to the earth.

  The staff. In shock, she stared at the staff, understanding dawning too late. The staff that brought back his team from the state of rogue somehow kept him from crossing that line in the first place. No wonder he could hand her off to others without it affecting him. No wonder he could hear her love another man and not lose it. Dear God, as long as he had the staff, there was no way to drive him over the edge and trigger their destiny.

  No way to kill him.

  No way to break his hold on her.

  She jerked her gaze back to him. Triumph gleamed in his eyes. “You are mine,” he said. Then he jerked her over to him and slammed his mouth onto hers just as she felt the lack of oxygen triumph. She slithered into oblivion, knowing all too well what he and his team would do to her while she was unconscious…and knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it.

  Chapter 21

  Another ring of fire.

  Swearing, Zach sprinted up to the wall of flames, but the heat was so fierce, he had to stop several yards away. His shirt began to burn, and he ripped it off, stepping backwards. He focused his mind and tried to summon up heat from within. But just like before, nothing happened. Swearing, he backed up a step, then sprinted toward the fire. He leapt right into it, and it flung him straight up toward the sky, the flames melting his flesh. He screamed in agony and threw himself backwards, out of the fire.

  He landed hard on the ground, groaning as he struggled to his feet. The band of fire had to be yards wide. He couldn’t even leap through it. Beyond it, he could sense Rhiannon’s life force, fading and in pain. Rhiannon! I’m coming! Galvanized with a renewed sense of urgency, he sprinted around the fire, knowing as he did it that there would be no weak link, but checking anyway. He kept himself close enough to the fire for the heat to make his jeans smoke, but everywhere he passed, it was equally as hot and powerful. There was no opening. By the time he got back to his original spot, Eric and Jordyn were there, both of them panting.

  Rhiannon was inside that ring. He could feel her presence, but it had faded just as he’d reached the circle. If he didn’t already have her location targeted, he would never have been able to track her. She wasn’t dead, but close.

  Urgency hammering at him, he backed up, studying the top of the ring of fire desperately. It was several hundred yards high, too far for him to jump. He immediately called out his sai and plunged it into the dirt. He dragged the dirt aside, intending to go beneath the fire, like how they’d gotten out of the campsite before. But the earth spewed out fire through the hole he’d dug. José hadn’t just ignited the sky. He’d ignited the very earth they were standing upon. They weren’t merely in a ring of fire, they were in a cylinder of fire that went as far into the earth as it did upward.

  The only way inside was through the flames.

  “Where is she?” Jordyn asked as she hurried up.

  “Inside.” Zach went still, studying the wall of fire. Every instinct inside him shouted to attack, to just run straight through it, but yeah, tried that already. If he’d kept going, he’d be dead. If he died, no one would be there to protect Rhiannon or save Thano, but the longer he stood there, the more he betrayed her.

  “Well, go get her.” Jordyn shoved at his back. “You have no idea how fast a man can hurt a woman. You have to get her right now.”

  Zach ground his jaw, his brands burning in his arms. “I know exactly how fast a Calydon can hurt a woman.” And children. He knew. But standing there, outside the ring of fire, he had never felt so powerless in his life.

  Eric was standing beside Jordyn, but he wasn’t watching the fire. He was watching Zach. His dark eyes were thoughtful. “You don’t have fire, do you? Rohan’s wrong.”

  Zach shook his head. “I used to.”

  “What?” Jordyn turned toward him. “If you once had fire, you still have it. Just call it and go get her!”

  “Don’t you think I would?” Zach snapped, nearly insane with worry. “I can’t fucking do it anymore! I’m not that guy anymore!” Sweat was pouring down his face, and he spun toward the fire. He was going through again. This time he could make it. Fire wouldn’t kill him, would it?

  He backed up a step, then ground his jaw, his body tensing as he prepared to run—

  “Don’t be a fool.” Eric stepped in front of him, the flames flickering violently behind him. “You’ll die. Dying won’t save anyone. Turn on your damned fire before you go in there.”

  “Shut the hell up, and get out of my way. My fire fucked me before, and it’s fucked me again. I’m on my own—”

  “Wait.” Jordyn ran up beside Eric. “How did it fuck you before? What happened?”

  “Get out of my way!”

  “No!” she shouted. “Don’t you understand? I am an expert in domestic trauma, and this screams of it! Do you know how many devastated, scarred souls I’ve helped? Shut up and listen to me!”

  He shut his mouth, staring at her. What the hell was this woman on? “I have to save Rhiannon,” he growled. “Get out of my way.”

  “No.” She set her hands on her hips. “Who did you fail with your fire before? Don’t you realize that you’re emotionally scarred from your fire? You have to let go of your baggage and accept who you are! Accept your true self!”

  Zach gaped at her, unable to grasp the fact that this woman was screaming therapy at him. “You’re insane! Get the hell out of my way, or you’re going into the fire too!”

  “Accept what happened before,” she said, walking toward him instead of getting out of his way.

  “Accept it? Hell, woman, I killed my daughter! You want me to accept that? I killed my daughter and my family, and now Rhiannon and Thano are going to die!” He bellowed the words at her.

  “Yes!” she screamed at him. “Let it go! You’re a precious and beautiful soul, you big ass! Accept your inner beauty and allow peace and harmony to flow through you! You’re worthy of a beautiful life!”

  “You’re fucking insane!” Zach shouted at her. Behind Jordyn, Eric was grinning like some crazy lunatic. What the hell was wrong with these two?

  “I know I am! But I’m also right!” She screamed the last words right in his face. “I killed the man I loved,” she yelled at him. “I know about murdering someone you love, but don’t let someone else die simply because you’re afraid of who you are.”

  “Afraid?” He glowered at her. “I’m not afraid—”

  “Dude.” Eric walked up behind her. “I think you might be. You’ve got this sort of glazed look in your eyes. Kinda looks like fear. Listen to the woman. She’s kind of impressive on a
lot of levels.”

  Jordyn beamed at Eric. “Thanks. That was nice of you to say.”

  “I know it was. I’m that kind of guy.” Eric looked at Zach, ignoring his stunned expression. “Get with it, dude. You’re scared of the monster inside. Seriously.”

  Holy shit. He was going to lose his mind. Therapy in the middle of a war zone? “I’m not scared of my fire! I’m losing my shit because I can’t get to Rhiannon—”

  “No.” Jordyn touched his arm, a light, delicate touch that reminded him of the innocent touch of his daughter. “You’re afraid of who you are, Zach, but you’re not all bad. You have good in you, and you have to let it go. Your fire is part of who you are, and until you accept it, you will never be complete.”

  Tears burned at his eyes, and he looked past Jordyn at the fire that kept him from Rhiannon. He saw a violent, angry inferno, the kind that could destroy life. As he looked at it, the face of his daughter appeared in the flames. He felt his heart shudder with guilt and grief as she smiled at him, waggling her little fingers the way she used to do every time he rode off.

  He went down on his knees, overwhelmed by the sight of her. She looked so real, so vibrant, and so alive. It was as if he had never killed her, except, of course, for the fact that her face was in the middle of fire. The same kind of fire that had killed her. Her daddy’s fire.

  Suddenly, he felt weak. Exhausted. He had failed too many people. His wife, who had been killed when he’d been off doing a job for the Order, instead of staying home to protect them when danger was near. His daughter, who he had killed with his own flames. His stepdaughter, who had also died in the fiasco. His sister and her kids, who he had been too late to save because he’d been too weak, pathetic, and out of control with his fire to save them from the rogue.