The Daath Chronicles- The Complete Series

by Eliza Tilton

  Hadda squawked and rushed between us.

  Jeslyn beamed, reaching for Hadda. “I missed you.” She squeezed Hadda in a hug, rubbing her feathers. “What are you doing here? Did you know I was in Daath?”

  I shook my head. “When I returned from war, I couldn’t find you. My mother said you vanished and that Krischa was seen wandering your floor that same night.”

  Jeslyn slid her hand up my arm.

  “I told my father I was ready to start the transition into Tarrtainya, then I went to Krischa. When she said she disposed of you, I lost control. Where have you been? How did you survive the poison?”

  “The butterflies,” she smiled.

  “What butterflies?”

  “The ones from the grotto. I know they healed me. Again. There was this black tiger as well. At first I thought it was you.”

  “You saw the guardian?” The myths were true? We had never been able to test the theory of the grotto. I had assumed it was the water, but it never healed anyone when we tried, but we had never tried healing someone while in the grotto. No one had ever seen the mythical tiger, a guardian of the forest’s magic.

  “I’ve been staying with Jericho,” she continued. “I lied about how I got here. I don’t know if he believes my story. What’s going to happen now?”

  I grabbed her hands and gently led her to sit on the sand. “My people are here. Moving in groups and traveling through the tunnels. The war has been a great cover. Once our numbers are respectable, the mages will join us and we’ll take control.”

  She gripped my hands tighter as her beautiful smile fell into a frown.

  “Your family will be protected,” I assured her, gently squeezing her hands. “You will be protected.”

  “I know.”

  Would she still stand by my side? While some of my people may not respect the marriage, she would be my bride, an alliance between humans and Reptilians. Her silence made my chest ache with worry. Had she changed her mind about me?

  “I love you,” she whispered. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know my place is beside you.”

  “I knew you—”

  “But, I don’t want another war. Promise me you will do everything you can so that we can all coexist.”

  A difficult promise.

  “Please,” she begged. “You have to try.”

  “Very, well. You have my word.”

  She smiled and leaned into my arms, laying her head against my chest. With my arms around her delicate body, I closed my eyes, savoring this moment. The deep ache that had been plaguing me dissipated within her grasp. I wanted to hold on to her indefinitely, but duty would force me away, again.

  “I must return to the palace.”

  She gripped my shirt. “Can I go with you?”

  “No, stay at Jericho’s. It will raise too many suspicions. I must remove Daago from his regency before I can bring you to the palace.”

  “About that …” She sighed and pulled away. “I must tell you something.”

  “Go on.”

  She played with the ends of her hair, focusing on everything but me.

  “Jeslyn.”

  “I killed Daago,” she blurted.

  “Impossible.” I shook my head, bewildered by the admission.

  “It really wasn’t.” She bit her bottom lip, attempting to stop smiling. “I went to him pretending you had commissioned a piece of jewelry and since you had already paid, I wanted to give it to him. Well, he decided to put me in his dollhouse, and—”

  “What were you thinking? How could you be so careless?” My voice rose at the absurdity. Madness!

  She backed away from me and furrowed her brow as if I had said something so ridiculous. “I was trying to find you! And why didn’t you ever tell me you had a house full of very pretty girls?” She folded her arms, waiting for an answer.

  In time, I would have told her about the dollhouse.

  “We had more important things to discuss.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Her shoulders slumped as she sighed and glanced to Hadda. “Daago was abusing them … I convinced Willis to help me and he brought a poison which I used on Daago—it didn’t kill me, which is good because I had to drink some.”

  I fell back on the sand. The more she spoke, the harder I found it to breathe. How could she be so careless? I rubbed the sides of my head “You drank poison? Didn’t you say Krischa poisoned you?”

  “Yes. Maybe they were the same.” She tapped a finger to her chin. “I wonder if that’s why it didn’t kill me …”

  “Jeslyn,” I groaned. “You must stop getting into these situations.” The ache in my head throbbed. I couldn’t hear anymore. “I need to return. Since you’ll just get into trouble, you might as well come with me.” I stood and held out my hand to help her up.

  She grabbed it, smiling. “What will you say? I have to go back to Jericho’s and tell him otherwise he’ll go searching for the girls and me. I need to tell them where I’m going.” She stood on her toes, playing with the front of my shirt. “Can they come with me, as my ladies?”

  “How many are with you?” I reached my arms around her waist, bringing her closer.

  “Nine.”

  “Nine ladies?”

  “This is your mess.” She poked my chest with her finger. “You should never have kept them there, and what Daago did … you owe them. Do this for me, please.”

  She begged me with those big blue eyes.

  “Very well. Come in the morning. Do not tell Jericho about me. Think of an excuse that won’t get you killed.”

  She nodded.

  I lifted her chin. It was difficult to stay angry with her. Fire burned within those icy blue eyes. She was no longer the helpless girl I first met. Bringing her lips to mine, I relished in the fact that she was here, alive, and would soon be my wife.

  Chapter Thirty

  Avikar

  Poppies of every color of the rainbow filled the field around us. Sweat covered my face. I’d never forget this deadly valley. How could we be in Daath? “This can’t be!”

  Yoshi bent over, plucked a red poppy from the grass, and sniffed it. “What an interesting flower. Deceptive. Cunning.” He crushed the flower in his hand. “Deadly.”

  A wave of exhaustion hit me and I blinked back the urge to sleep. “Raven, get up.”

  Drowsiness assaulted every muscle, and all I could think of was curling into the soft grass and closing my eyes. Just for a little bit.

  I yawned, but then quickly shook my head awake.

  Get up. Get up.

  Raven rolled to her side, staring at Yoshi. “How did we get here?”

  Her chest rose with deep breaths. Grabbing her arm, I tried to lift her, but all my strength vanished and I plopped to the ground. The flower’s floral scent had a wicked side effect—everlasting sleep—and I had a hard time fighting it.

  Yoshi snapped his fingers and a streak of lightning blasted a path through the dangerous flowers. “Show me this temple, boy.”

  Scorched dirt covered the space around us. Clouds still blocked my thoughts, but I could finally stand. I reached over to help Raven, but she was already on her feet.

  “It’s far from here,” I said. I slapped the side of my face, waking myself up.

  “Give me a location.”

  How far was the temple? It had taken a day and a half for us to travel from Jericho’s to the thick wood. How far were we from Jericho’s? “We need to get clear of this field. I can’t think straight. East.” I pointed to the tall trees on the eastern side of the valley. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  Raven kept her hands on her daggers, watching Yoshi stroll ahead of us.

  “How did we get here?” I asked.

  “I thought that was obvious. Me.”

  The farther away we got
from the poppies, the more the fogginess in my head cleared until I could finally think straight. We were in the Crystal Caverns, on the other side of Tarrtainya. In an instant, Yoshi had transported us here. The old man had shown a lot of spunk on our journey, but magic?

  “I don’t trust him,” Raven whispered. “If he can use magic, why didn’t he help us in the caverns? We could have died.”

  She was right. Yoshi disappeared during the fight, and if he could wield magic, he should’ve stayed and helped us fight those black orbs. What was he up to? And why was he really helping us? Something told me he wasn’t just a concerned citizen.

  “Avikar … what if he’s one of them?”

  “He’s not.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I don’t, but why would he offer to help if he was? And wouldn’t he know where Daath is?”

  Raven glared at Yoshi, gripping the hilts of her daggers.

  “Trust me?” I said, hoping she would. We needed all the help we could find.

  “This way?” Yoshi pointed, interrupting the conversation. I nodded, and he trekked way ahead of us, unaffected by the magical poppies.

  “We won’t make it to the temple by nightfall,” I shouted to Yoshi. “We should find a place to camp. There’s an inn in the village. We can make it there, but you’ll have to keep your rats outside.”

  “They’ll be fine.” The cage dangled off Yoshi’s belt, and I held in the urge to gag.

  I should’ve known no sane person carried around a box of rats.

  Before we reached the village, I asked Raven if she still had any coins from Daath. We were lucky that her pouch hadn’t fallen off during the fight; I had no way of paying for a room.

  “Enough for one room, but I don’t want to share one with him,” she murmured, glancing ahead at Yoshi.

  “Yoshi,” I called ahead. “We only have enough for one room at the inn. It would look odd if the three of us took one together.”

  “Let me see the coin.” He held out a bony hand, wagging his fingers.

  Raven dropped five gold coins in his palm. Yoshi waved his hand over the pile and five more coins appeared.

  “No reason to keep up pretenses.” He smirked and gave Raven back her coins.

  I didn’t trust him either.

  “We can’t stay with him.” Raven slammed the door to our room.

  “Shh. He’s probably listening.” I nodded for her to move away from the door. “We have to.”

  “No. This doesn’t feel right. All of a sudden he can make coins, create lightning … what is he?”

  I grabbed her shoulders in attempt to stop her pacing. “Relax.”

  “How can you be so calm about this?” She pushed away from me. “We were in another land this morning!”

  “Magic is something we will never understand, but it exists.”

  She threw her hands up in the air and began pacing again.

  “You must have people in Daath who can wield magic?”

  “No.”

  She said it so matter-of-factly. With no Order presence, there would be no reason to hide any magical ability. Still, I couldn’t believe no one had any power.

  “Never?”

  “No!”

  There it was, the real reason behind her fear and frustration, until recently, she had never seen magic, but how? Daath practically breathed magic.

  “We should see Jericho first.” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I need to tell him I’m okay. We can’t go to the temple yet.”

  “And what do we do with Yoshi? He’s a bit eccentric.”

  “I don’t care.” She sat on the bed and kicked off her dirty boots. Her shoulders slumped and she ran her fingers through her long hair.

  “Hey.” I sat next to her. “What’s going on?”

  “I’m so tired.”

  I knew she didn’t just mean physically. We had been through too many battles, and we almost lost each other more times that I wanted to remember. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders, pulling her into me. “Soon, this will all be over.”

  “I hope we make it until then.”

  I kissed her forehead. “We will.”

  She fixed her beautiful, brown eyes on me. “Promise me, if anything ever happens, you will keep going.”

  I huffed.

  “I’m serious.” She placed a hand on my cheek. “What we’re trying to do is bigger than us. Someone has to stop them, all of them.”

  “Nothing is bigger than how I feel for you.”

  She scooted forward, leaning toward my lips. “Promise me, if one of us falls, the other will keep going.”

  Her lips were a breath away from mine. I’d promise her anything right now. “Promise.”

  Raven parted her lips and I dove in. When she wrapped her arms around my neck, forcing me closer, I pushed her back onto the bed. The curves of her body pressed against me. Her clothes were an annoying barrier, and I wanted to rip every piece of fabric off, but I wouldn’t. This was the first time, in an extremely long time, that she let me be this close. One wrong move and she would push me away.

  When she slid her fingers under my shirt and touched my back, I caved. Did she have any idea the effect one touch could do to me? On the other hand, maybe she knew exactly what she was doing.

  One touch. If she cringes or pulls back, I’ll stop.

  With my right hand, I traced the area by her hip and slowly, very slowly, pushed her chemise up. Her kiss deepened, and she gripped my back.

  One … two … on three, I slid my hand further up her stomach. Every ounce of self-control I had disappeared. Gone. Never coming back. My head was so lost in her; I couldn’t stop myself from touching her chest, arms, legs, face, any patch of skin I could find. Our kisses became faster and deeper than ever before, and my stomach rolled with nerves and excitement.

  I slid over so we were laying side by side and cupped her face with my hands.

  She pulled away, face flushed. “Avikar?”

  “Yes?” I whispered into her neck.

  “Is there anything to drink in here? I’m really thirsty.” She sat up and smoothed out her tangled hair.

  Besides the rickety bed and bare night table, I didn’t see anything else in the room which I expected. With only a few coins, I’m surprised they didn’t house us in the stables.

  “No, but I’ll go get some downstairs.” I kissed her warm cheek and ran out.

  When I came back to the room, which was very quickly, so quickly I spilled half of the water, she was sleeping. Her long hair spread across the pillow. Her full lips slightly parted as tiny breaths left her lips. I had never been in love before, and I definitely never wanted to be around someone as much as Raven. Pushing her hair back behind her ear, I smiled, thinking of what our future would look like together. I was ready to give her everything.

  She had my heart, and I never wanted her to let go.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Jeslyn

  Jezebel lay next to me on the straw in Jericho’s barn. We spoke in whispers as I recounted my meeting with Lucino, and how he promised we could all return to his home in the morning. I had wanted to go to the beach just for a moment to clear my head, yet fate had guided me, knowing Lucino would be there that night.

  Did Jezebel and the others know Lucino wasn’t from this world? Had she ever suspected? I wished I could have someone to talk to, a friend to confide in. There was so much going on and some nights I wanted to scream at it all.

  “What is it?” Jezebel asked.

  I laid on my back staring at the wooden beams in the ceiling. “I wish I could tell you.”

  “You can trust me.”

  “Not with this. It’s not my secret.”

  “After everything you’ve done for me and the girls, you can trust us with your life. No one has ever fought to protec
t us. Anything you say will never leave this barn.”

  “There’s a war coming, one that will put our people against his.”

  “His people?”

  Should I continue? The desire to share my worries and fears consumed me until I couldn’t hold it in anymore. “His people are not from Tarrtainya. They’re different.” I turned to gauge her expression, expecting her face to be full of confusion, but she smirked.

  “Is that it?”

  “Why don’t you look surprised?”

  “Guards talk a lot when they’re drunk.”

  “What do you know?”

  “It was only once,” she whispered, glancing around before continuing, “but I overheard one of Lucino’s guards talk about leaving their world. There’s a difference between his guards and Daago’s lackeys posted at the dollhouse. Lucino’s never—ever—tried to be with one of us. We used to laugh at how proper they were, even when one of us purposefully showed too much skin. It was odd that none of them ever looked at us with desire. One time, one of them scrunched their nose in disgust!”

  I giggled, thinking of Willis, who had a permanently scrunched nose. Lucino didn’t explain much about how Reptilians viewed humans, but I knew from the few conversations we had, they saw us as a lesser race. Whatever happens,” Jezebel added, “we’re with you.”

  I smiled. “I’m so happy I can talk to you. It’s been hard not having a …”

  “Friend?”

  I nodded.

  “Now you have nine.”

  I glanced around at the other eight girls. They slept around Jericho’s barn on blankets, soundly and peacefully.

  “Get some sleep.” Jezebel pulled the blanket around her shoulders. “We’ll leave in the morning. Leave Jericho to me.”

  “What are you going to say?”

  “Something that will make that man’s eyes even wider.”

  “You’re leaving?” Jericho stood outside, holding a torch, glaring at Jezebel. “Jeslyn should stay here.”

  “I’ll be back,” I said. “I’m going with them to help get them settled.”