“Good luck with Blackburn,” Shaylah said dryly. Annabelle thought of Malachi’s horribly disfigured face.
“Maybe I should go with you,” Annabelle murmured.
“Your concern touches my heart, but don’t worry, I can handle Blackburn. He might think he’s more powerful—but I’ve always allowed him to believe that. He’s just my little lackey. He has no power at all. None that’s his own anyway. He was a non-magic serf when I first found him, and now, I’m taking what I gave to him back from him.”
“Are you saying that Blackburn really isn’t a naturally born wizard?” Connor’s voice turned deathly low. “Are you saying that you bloody well gave that bastard all of his power—that’s how he’s been able to inflict all of his torturing and maiming on the people of Thaliana? I’m going to enjoy killing you, King Roland.” Distaste lined Connor’s face, coupled with disgust.
Her stomach did a swift nosedive. Her hands started to shake. Blackburn wasn’t the monster. He wasn’t Roland’s master. She’d suspected it before but now, now it was confirmed without a shred of doubt. Her father was the puppet master.
“I’ll be back in few minutes, Annabelle. Have fun!” Roland waved his arm, and passed through the door.
“Can we finish her off, now?” Larissa’s voice held no emotion.
“No. We can’t, dearest, sister. She is telling the truth. Even though my powers are still bound, I still can sense whether or not someone is telling the truth. It seems to be an innate talent of mine.” Shaylah moved forward. Her eyes rested on the jewelry Annabelle wore. “Besides, Malachi wouldn’t have given her the jewels she wears unless he loved her and trusted her with his heart. Look closely, and you’ll see it too.”
Larissa seemed to relent, for she backed away from Annabelle and moved to the far corner of the room.
“What do you think you’re going to do that could possibly help us?” Connor looked at her, hatred still burning in his eyes.
“First of all, I must apologize. Shaylah, I have Ardal with me and he’s most worried about you. He says that he underestimated King Roland.”
They all laughed nervously. “It would seem that Ardal wasn’t the only stupid fool that did that. We underestimated him as well. He’s a powerful and almost unstoppable adversary, Annabelle. We had never come up directly against Roland in all of our past battles. His other lackeys were easy to defeat, but he, he is nearly invulnerable.”
Annabelle sighed heavily. “Nonetheless, we must find a way to stop him.”
“He is your father. Do you honestly think you can do that? I don’t know if even I could do that.” Connor turned to her, boring his eyes straight through her. She felt as if he was trying to search inside her soul.
“I don’t know. I know that he is capable of horrible things—I can’t allow him to continue on the path he is set upon.”
“I don’t think you’ll have a choice, Annabelle. You aren’t exactly in the best of health,” Shaylah said sadly.
Annabelle stiffened with apprehension. “How did you know that?”
“I can sense those sorts of things.”
“How can you talk to us in such a blasé manner when you just told us our brother had been killed at your hands?” Larissa still sounded as if she didn’t trust her as far as she could throw her…and without her abilities, Annabelle guessed that wouldn’t be too far.
“I never killed him. I had to use that as a pretense in order to convince my father to bring me up here. Ardal told me he had tried to break through his magical blockade and he’d failed. He asked me to do something to help you. And, so, here I am.” She said gesturing to herself.
Annabelle tried to give them a warm smile, but they continued to stare back at her with the implacably guarded expression. She felt like a caged animal. She had nowhere to run, and yet, she shouldn’t feel that way, she had come to them offering them her assistance.
“You have to leave immediately. My father is planning to marry you off to vile men. He thinks he is doing this in order to gain revenge against Malachi for raping me.”
“He didn’t!” Connor looked outraged. “I can’t believe that. We Hawthorne men would never do something so violent. I don’t believe you.”
“That’s good, because it isn’t the truth. But it’s what gained me my father’s trust. You have to believe me, everything I’ve done has been for a very good reason.”
“I bet.” Larissa folded her arms across her chest. “I bet killing Daniel was done for a good reason as well.”
“I never bloody well killed Daniel. I veiled him so he could escape.”
“Veiled him?” Shaylah sounded doubtful.
“Yes. I’m endowed with the ability to veil myself and other objects.”
“What about the explosion? I trust there was an explosion since Roland believed that Daniel had exploded?”
“Yes. There was a grand explosion. I asked Daniel to do that so Roland wouldn’t suspect. I did something harmless with my magic so Roland would sense that instead. He can’t sense my veiling magic you see, but he can sense my other magic.”
“Roland said you were untrained.”
“This is true. I’m about as powerless as a non-magic born.”
“Is that how you intend to get us to safety? By casting us into the veil?” Connor seemed to be calming down. All of the anger drained from his face.
“Yes.” She was rocked off her feet by a sudden quake in the tower. Connor went hurtling toward her, and Larissa and Shaylah were thrown off their feet and landed against the far wall.
“What the hell was that?” Larissa’s voice was weak and hoarse.
“That felt like someone moved the ground.”
“Maybe that someone did.” A cold voice announced.
“Katrina!” Shaylah grunted looking up at the figure that had just emerged through the wall.
“How did you break through my father’s spells?” Annabelle demanded.
“I knew what incantation he used to guard this place, so Blackburn and I eventually figured out how to get past the shield,” Katrina laughed.
Shaking her head, Annabelle looked up at her. Katrina looked like she’d already been given quite the beating. Her clothes were torn, and blood seeped out of a wound on her shoulder. “Are you admiring your father’s handiwork? You should be. Blackburn is fighting back as we speak. The little toad will probably end up getting himself blown to smithereens, but that isn’t my problem. He is after all just a pretender. He could never think to aspire to the sort of greatness that King Roland possesses.”
“What do you seek to do? Are you going to kill me?” Annabelle asked, looking toward Connor, Larissa and Shaylah. Even if they wanted to help her, they couldn’t. They were as powerless as she was.
“Not kill you right away. I intend to make you suffer just a little before I do murder you. You are just a little whore that needs to be punished.” Katrina took a step toward her. Connor stepped forward. “As for you, dear cousins, do not try my patience.” Katrina waved her hand toward them they all started to grab at their throats as she levitated them up into the air and threw them against the wall. “Sleep well, my sweeties.”
They fell to crumpled heaps on the floor.
“You might as well just skip the entertainment and kill me,” Annabelle challenged.
“Why, now, that would just spoil all of my fun.”
“I’m dying anyway. If you kill me now, it makes no difference to me.”
“You should be trying to fight.”
“If I try to fight you, you will most likely kill Larissa, Shaylah and Connor out of spite. I can’t expect to win, since even if you don’t out power me, you do have an upper hand when it comes to knowing how to battle the magic kind way.”
“Yes. It’s a shame really that you were never given that education. You were raised as a lowly peasant and yet, here you stand, dressed to the hilt in riches beyond your position. I don’t care if you really are Roland’s precious little daughter. I was so close t
o having him wrapped around my pinky finger and then you had to come in and spoil it all. I want to see you suffer, I want to see you pay for taking away from me what I’ve always wanted!”
Groans from the far side of the room where the twins and Connor lay earned Katrina’s attention.
She raised her hand toward them. “Oh, well, I should just put them out of my misery right now. Soon, if I have my way the entire Hawthorne line will be gone. They’ll just be ashes on the wind.”
“No!” Annabelle screamed, lunging toward her. She knocked her off balance, struggling wildly with her in her fight to keep Katrina from killing them in cold blood. Sweat beaded across her forehead. She had to be holding Katrina back somehow, but for the life of her, she didn’t know how. All she knew was that if she failed, Malachi would never forgive her.
They thrashed around each struggling for dominance. Triumph lit Katrina’s eyes. She slammed her fist into Annabelle’s abdomen. Annabelle’s eyes started to sting against the cramping pain that filled her lower stomach. She gasped, let go of Katrina and staggered away from her. Blood rushed from her body. She had been wounded. She crumpled to her knees. She could hear Larissa and Shaylah screaming, while Connor shouted obscenities at Katrina. Darkness loomed on the horizon of her vision. She smiled as she rolled to her side.
She was dying. This time, there would be no one to bring her back from the very brink of death. No would was there now to catch her when she fell.
“Malachi,” she whispered. She could feel is presence inside of her and all around her. It almost felt tangible. “Help me.” When she looked through her hazy vision she saw a man’s figure standing in the room over Katrina’s lifeless body. Who was it? Blackburn? Her heart burned with pain. She didn’t care. Nothing mattered now. All she wanted was Malachi to hold her in her final few moments. She wanted to hear his voice one more time before she died.
“Annabelle.” The voice that spoke her name with such urgency wasn’t Malachi’s. Tears pooled in her eyes. It was Roland. Sourness filled her mouth. What could he do that would possibly fix what Katrina had done?
“Annabelle! You have to snap out of it. Listen to me you have been hit with mind power. You have to bring yourself out of it, or the stress you are inflicting upon your body will finish you off.”
“No. I’m dying. I’ve been dying for two years…and this, this is only the wound that will send me there that much quicker.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about, Daughter.” He pulled her up by her shoulders, and shook her so her teeth jarred inside of her head. She winced against the ache in her temple.
“Release her! You’re going to kill her!” Larissa screamed desperately. Roland either hadn’t heard her or he was choosing to ignore her.
“Annabelle, you must listen to me. I command you to listen to me.”
“I—You don’t know what you’re saying. I am dying. I’ve done this to myself. Two years, ago I was playing with potions, one blew up in my face, and from that day on, I’ve been living on borrowed time.” She closed her eyes and opened them to stare at Roland’s stunned expression. “It’s true. I’m dying. There is nothing that can be done for me. Let me die.”
“To hell I will! You must break the illusion. There is no blood. Katrina, the little bitch only made you think she’d given you a mortal wound. You are alive!” He yelled at her, probably thinking he would be able to convince her that much faster. Something filtered through her brain. She could her Malachi’s voice. She closed her eyes, and drifted to where he was.
“Roland is telling you the truth. You are not dying—not tonight anyway. Fight the mind torture, Annabelle. Win for me. Live for me.” She smiled at him, and then she was sucked back through the long tunnel back into her body, back into Roland’s arms.
“What happened?” Annabelle felt dazed. The fog of pain she’d been in evaporated. Now, that she had heard from Malachi, she believed that she would live.
“You were attacked. Katrina was filled with a blood rage against you. She surprised me by overpowering my men…and then, Blackburn engaged me in battle. He is no more.”
“No more?” She blinked her eyes. Hope flared in her chest. Blackburn…the man that had done horrible things to Malachi was dead. She smiled. “You killed him?”
“Indeed I did. I could not let him live—not after how he turned against me. I guess he was more than a little attached to his whore. He didn’t want to see her publicly humiliated and then killed.”
“Publicly humiliated?”
“I will not go into details…it will be too much for you in the state you are in. We should go back to your quarters now I have to insist that you get some sleep. I will stay behind to deal with the Hawthornes.”
“Katrina is dead as well, I trust.”
“Well, she hasn’t suddenly turned into sleeping beauty,” Roland laughed, and helped her to her feet.
“Please, Father.” Annabelle pulled on his sleeve. “Do not kill the Hawthornes. They tried to help me—I must find a way to repay them for that.”
His eyes hardened. “Are you speaking the truth?”
“Yes. They did…they did try to help.”
“Indeed.” His eyes were still narrowed to thin slits. “I will contemplate my next course of action, then.”
“I think I would like to go to bed now.” Her knees felt weak. She didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to hold out without collapsing again.
“Let us leave, then.” In a spark of light, Katrina’s body vanished, and then they walked through the walls into the corridor that they had arrived in.
Roland waved his arm, and she felt the familiar pull of being magically transported. She looked around her when they appeared in the hallway between their two bedchambers.
“Will you be able to proceed from here?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“Good. It will be a late night for me. I have to do some reevaluating.”
She nodded her head. She didn’t know what he was talking about, and right now, she didn’t have the strength to make any inquiries.
As if in a daze, she walked to her bedroom door, and opened it. She didn’t need to look around the darkened room to know that she was not alone.
“I’ve readied a bath for you, you look like you’ve been in the pits of hell and back,” Ardal sighed.
“I feel like it,” she sighed.
Ardal came toward her.
“You do need to bathe and you’ll need your sleep in order to deal with tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day.”
“Fine. I take it you’ll be remaining here?”
“I’ve left a double of myself down in the servants’ quarters. No need to worry. But yes, I’ll be staying here. How was Shaylah?” Ardal asked.
“She looked like she was battle worn, but other than that, she was fine. She was very relieved to hear that Daniel was still alive.”
“Good. We’ll have a hell of a time getting her away from her future husband tomorrow. I’m just glad you are safe. I thought for certain that Katrina was going to make short work of you.”
“Well, I’m still here,” she chuckled wryly.
After she had bathed, she climbed into her huge four-poster bed. Ardal was in a cot across the room, guarding the door.
“Goodnight, Ardal.”
“Goodnight, Princess.”
She closed her eyes, and fell into a fitful sleep plagued with monsters that would see her dead—and angels that would see her live.
Chapter Twenty
Malachi looked over at Daniel. He was going to live, though he had a long road to recovery.
“She was amazing.” Daniel sat propped up by pillows on his bed. His eyes were darkened with fatigue, and his hands shook from lack of food.
“Eat your soup. You can tell me more about Annabelle’s heroics tomorrow.”
“I pray that the queen’s forces reach the castle within a few days. Time isn’t on our side. Roland’s powers have grown. They have tu
rned into a force that no one really knew how to fight. Even the Queen was hurt in his battle backlash.
“Then, we need to prepare.”
“Malachi…you do not understand. Nothing any of us threw at him affected him in the slightest. He’s able to absorb it all into his body. He is untouchable!”
“Untouchable or not, we will have to find a way to destroy him.”
“I’m afraid you aren’t grasping the seriousness of the situation. He felled Connor and I—without even breaking a sweat. He broke down Larissa and Shaylah almost as easily. He is a nightmare come to life.”
“I think you need to rest. You’ve been traumatized by battle. You need to recuperate not only physically but emotionally.”
“Malachi, I’m not a weak wizard. I’ve seen things in battle that would make most people scream—but I’ve never ever gone up against a warlock from Roland’s side that had such terrible power. The damnable part of it is, he’s drawing on white magic—not dark magic. He’s just a force to be reckoned with—he’s the greatest warlock of his age to be sure.”
“Annabelle and I will stop him.”
“I don’t know. Though brave, Annabelle might hesitate when it comes to actually turning on her own father. He is very loving—with her anyway.”
Malachi closed his eyes against the pain welling in his heart. Every second, every minute without her made him stir crazy. He wanted to go on the offensive and take the battle to Roland, but he knew that was a good way to lose the war—and they needed to win—at all costs.
“So you believe that Annabelle is capable of betraying me?” Malachi asked.
“No. She would never betray you. She risked her life when she helped me to escape—and I’m certain she’ll do whatever she can to save Connor, Shaylah and Larissa…but she might not have the heart to take Roland down when the time comes.”
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