The Return of Absent Souls (After The Rift Book 6)

by C. J. Archer

  Fear gripped my insides. Last time he’d got his hands on me, I’d been taken to the dungeon in his family’s castle where he’d threatened to rape and torture me. I’d escaped thanks to the help from the villagers and palace guards. But Sara had made it clear there would be no rescue attempt from the villagers again, and the guards were too far away to rally in time. Lord Xavier wouldn’t wait to perform his cruelty on me. He’d been thwarted before and learned from that mistake.

  The figure ahead stopped and turned, hands on hips. Lord Xavier’s eyes were two black pits gleaming with the promise of cruelty. “Welcome home, my pet. I’ve been waiting for you.”

  The brute shoved me back against the wall and let me go. My head smacked into the bricks and stars burst in my vision. But my hands were free. There was no time to pull the knife from my skirt pocket, however. There wasn’t even time to blink away the stars.

  Instinct took over and I lashed out at Lord Xavier, wanting to wipe that smile off his lips. My fingernails raked across his jaw, scraping skin.

  “You bitch!” He smacked me across the mouth, slamming my head against the wall again.

  Pain spiked. Everything went black. I felt myself falling, my knees too weak to hold me up. I struggled to remain alert. I needed to be strong if I wanted to talk my way to freedom.

  But I couldn’t even think what to say, let alone sound convincing. Nor was I capable of fighting off both men, not even if I caught them by surprise with my knife.

  The footsteps were so light that I didn’t hear the approach of my rescuer. Nor did Lord Xavier and his thug. It wasn’t until the fingers digging into my shoulders released me that I knew something had happened.

  Someone cried out in pain then swore. “This ain’t worth it.” The growled voice belonged to the brute.

  My vision cleared in time to see him run off, clutching his arm. A woman with her back to me, sword in hand, watched him go. Meg, also clutching a sword, held Lord Xavier at bay with the point aimed at his throat.

  He swallowed hard. “You’ll pay for this.”

  Mistress Diver turned to him. “You touch my family and I will kill you myself.”

  His lip curled in a sneer. “I know where you live.”

  “And I have the gem,” I said. “If you want it, you won’t harm anyone. That is my price. Do you agree to it?”

  “You don’t have it,” he snarled. “Your lover does.”

  “I don’t have it with me now, but I can get it. Dane will agree to give it to you, if you promise to leave us all alone.”

  A beat passed. Two. He was considering my proposal, at least. “Lord Barborough wrote to us,” he said. “He told us that you spoke to him in Noxford. He told us everything you learned from the Zemayan.”

  “You lie. He would inform the king of Vytill, not you.”

  “He claimed he can’t return there. He bargained for a position on the Glancian council, after Gladstow wins the war. Lord Barborough will be a senior advisor. In exchange, he informed us that Brant was telling the truth all along. He did inherit the remaining wishes when he killed Leon. So it seems you can’t offer me what I want, only half of it.”

  “I never promised you the wishes, only the gem,” I said with as much defiance as I could muster. “It shouldn’t be too hard for your family to find Brant. You have the resources to look.”

  The sneer became a genuine smile. A knowing smile.

  My heart pounded in warning. “Do you know where he is?”

  The smile turned slick.

  “Do you know where he is?” I demanded.

  He pushed away Meg’s blade.

  She stepped back in line with her mother. They clutched one another, their terrified gazes on Lord Xavier. But he only had eyes for me.

  “Give me the gem, or you will never be safe,” he said. “Not you, not your lover, your friend, her family. None of you. You have no warrior priests to protect you now. You have few friends in the village. We made sure of that while you were away. Get me the gem, my pet, and I will do my best to keep you alive while I have my way with you. Perhaps you’ll even enjoy it…but I doubt it.”

  Mistress Diver made a choking sound in her throat. She grabbed Meg and tried to usher her back along the alley, but Meg resisted. “Josie,” she pleaded. “Come.”

  “Am I clear, pet?” Lord Xavier taunted. “The gem in exchange for their lives.”

  “And their freedom,” I said.

  He nodded.

  “Bring it to me this time tomorrow or your ugly friend here will be the first to feel my wrath.”

  I picked up my skirts and raced with Meg and Mistress Diver back along the alley. We slammed the door shut and bolted it. We didn’t reopen it until Dane knocked.

  It was only then that I apologized to Mistress Diver and begged her forgiveness for placing her family in danger. She gave a curt nod and walked away, taking Meg with her.

  “What is it?” Dane pressed. “What’s happened?”

  He wanted to march to Deerhorn Castle as soon as I told him, but common sense prevailed, thankfully. He pressed his palms to the door and lowered his head.

  “I should have been here,” he muttered.

  I touched his shoulder. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have opened the door. I thought it was Brant…”

  He suddenly turned and grasped my shoulders. The candlelight danced a wild dance in his eyes. In that moment, I worried that common sense had fled. “He admitted he has Brant?”

  “Not in words, but I suspect Brant is in hiding at their castle.”

  “Perhaps, or perhaps not. Brant wouldn’t go willingly.”

  “You think he’s being held captive?”

  “It’s likely. We can mount a rescue mission and storm it again.”

  “They’ll be expecting that,” I said. “He might not even be at the castle. If I were them, I’d hide him somewhere we wouldn’t think of looking.”

  He swore under his breath.

  “Dane, we have to proceed with caution. And we have to make sure Meg and her family are safe. If we don’t deliver the gem by tomorrow night, Lord Xavier won’t waste a moment in punishing them.” I choked on the last words. The horror of our predicament was only now sinking in. We had no choice but to give the Deerhorns the gem or the Divers would suffer. That only gave us one day to find Brant. If we couldn’t retrieve him from their clutches before we handed over the gem, they’d have all the power they could want at their fingertips.

  We waited for Lyle and his father to return before leaving for the palace. Meg decided to stay behind with her family, and Dane promised to send guards, just in case Lord Xavier broke the agreement.

  I rode with Dane back to the cottage. The close proximity would usually lend itself to intimacy between us, but not tonight. We both had too much on our minds. His solid, familiar presence was a comfort, nevertheless.

  Yelena and Martha were relieved to see us, but Erik and Kitty didn’t look at all worried by our long absence.

  “We tell them you will be with Meg’s family,” Erik whispered as he passed me to join Dane by the horses.

  Yelena was ahead of him, trying to convince Dane to stay and eat something. “Martha cooked for you.”

  “I ate at the Divers’ house,” he told her. “I must get back to the palace. My absence might be noticed, and if the dukes catch wind of you all living here…” He eyed me over his mother’s head and gave a firm nod.

  We had agreed that I would tell Kitty about my meeting with Lord Xavier and he would tell the others in the garrison. I wasn’t looking forward to the discussion but it was necessary.

  I watched as he and Erik rode off through the dark forest and returned inside with Yelena to where Martha and Kitty sat in the small parlor. I locked all the doors then told them why.

  “Lord Xavier is despicable,” Kitty spat. “I’ve always loathed him.”

  “He’s even worse now that the Deerhorns have more power, thanks to Violette’s marriage to your husband,” I said.
/>   She stared at the flames licking the logs in the fireplace. “I should reveal myself.”

  “Not yet.”

  “It’s the only way to take away their power.”

  “They will still have some power.” I reached across the gap and clutched her hand. “If you reveal yourself, Gladstow or the Deerhorns could kill you. It’s far too dangerous.”

  “But I need to do something,” she whined.

  “There is only one thing to do.” Yelena’s voice cut through the air with sharp clarity. “If you want your friends to be safe, Josie, then Dane must come forward and declare himself to be the rightful king.”

  My insides recoiled. I shook my head.

  “It’s the only way,” she went on. “As king, he can protect them. The Deerhorns and dukes won’t dare harm your friends.”

  I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “He doesn’t want to be king.”

  “I was in the village today and I heard about the lack of grain, the dire need for work and housing. The Deerhorns’ corruption is strangling Mull. Dane can stop that. Not just here but all over Glancia. He has it in his power, Josie. And you have it in your power to convince him that he must become king.”

  “I can’t!”

  “You can,” she bit off. “But you won’t. You want him all to yourself.” She pushed to her feet and marched towards the stairs. She paused, one hand on the railing, and turned a cool glare on me. “Stop being selfish. Think of your friends, your village, your country. It’s time to accept what he is. The king of Glancia.”

  I slept on the floor in the parlor. I didn’t want to be in the same room as Yelena. I tossed and turned as a thousand things raced through my mind, all jumbling together in a tangled mess. I must have dozed off, however, because I awoke with a start to the pounding of a fist on the front door.

  “Josie!” It was Quentin. “Josie, come quick!”

  I wrenched the door open. Quentin stood there, breathing heavily, his doublet unfastened, and terror in his eyes. My heart dove. “Quentin, what is it?”

  “Get your medical bag. It’s Dane. He’s been poisoned.”

  Chapter 9

  Dane lay in his old bed in the room next to the king’s bedchamber. Despite no longer being the captain of the guards, no one had been appointed to replace him. According to Quentin, Dane had returned there as if it were the normal thing to do.

  I took the information in as I assessed Dane’s condition. He was pale, warm to touch, and had thrown up in the basin. It had been at that point that he’d shouted for Theodore. The valet had also continued to sleep in his usual place, on a roll out bed in the king’s bedchamber. Theodore had immediately woken the guards and Quentin had ridden to the cottage to fetch me.

  I had never seen Dane look so weak. His physical strength had always reassured me but now he probably couldn’t even wield a sword. Seeing him like that made the world seem wrong. The notion that he might succumb to the poison in his body rocked me to my core. If that happened, my life would be forever cast in shadow. There would always be a piece of me missing.

  “Well?” Balthazar asked. He hovered nearby, as did Theodore, Quentin, Yelena, and Martha. “Will he live?”

  “Of course I will,” Dane snapped.

  His vehement response was like a hammer tapping on the glass of our fear, shattering it. A collective sigh was heaved, relieved smiles were exchanged. I breathed again and silently thanked the goddess for answering my prayers.

  Balthazar suddenly sat on the chair, nodding to himself. He looked as pale as Dane, now struggling to sit up.

  Yelena helped him and plumped the pillow at his back. “Thank the merciful goddess. She saved you. She has blessed you.”

  “My lack of appetite saved me.” Dane indicated a plate on the small table by the window with half of a pie slice on it. “That was waiting for me when I returned but I dined at the Divers’ tonight and wasn’t hungry.”

  I sniffed the pie. It smelled of direweed’s earthiness. The poisoner hadn’t used the rarer and more lethal traitor’s ease, thank Hailia. “If you’d eaten all of this pie, you would have thrown up more than once,” I said. “Your condition would also be more perilous than it is now.”

  “Thank Mistress Diver and her delicious cooking.” He smiled at me.

  I did not smile back. I was still shaken. Now that the immediate danger had passed, I couldn’t help picturing how badly this might have ended. If he’d ingested more of the poison, I could not have made up an antidote without my father’s equipment and all the ingredients. Dane was strong, but not even he could have survived a large dose. Going by the smell of that pie, the dose had been large indeed.

  Someone wanted to kill him.

  “From now on, you eat only what Martha cooks for you,” I said. “You are not to touch a single thing from the palace kitchen.”

  Martha pressed a hand to her stomach, but the look of determination on her face helped my own frayed nerves. “I’ll only use ingredients purchased directly from the village market,” she said emphatically. “You’re not to touch a thing from the palace, Dane. Do you hear? Not a drop of water, not a single crumb or lettuce leaf.”

  His smile gentled. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Who could have done it?” Yelena snapped.

  “Not the Deerhorns or anyone connected to them,” Balthazar said, frowning. “They need Dane alive or they know we’ll never give them the gem.”

  Dane closed his eyes and leaned back against the pillows with a heavy sigh. The dark circles under his eyes worried me. He might not be entirely out of danger. My father had ordered Miranda to sleep after she’d been poisoned, and I suspected Dane needed it to.

  “Everybody out,” I said. “He needs a thorough rest.” I shooed them towards the door, but Yelena didn’t get up.

  “He’s my son. He should be watched in case he takes a turn for the worse.”

  “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Get some rest. Josie will stay.”

  “But I am your mother.”

  “If I do take a turn for the worse, she’ll know what to do. Will you?”

  Her nostrils flared. Then with a tilt of her chin, she followed the others out.

  Dane patted the bed beside him and I sat on top of the covers. Then I threw my arms around him and fell against his chest. I didn’t speak. I didn’t tell him of all the horrible scenarios going through my head. I just held him and listened to the sound of his heart, a little quick but mercifully strong.

  He stroked the hair off my forehead and tilted my chin up. He wiped my damp cheeks with his thumb and smiled gently. “I’m glad you stayed.”

  I sat up. “Why? Do you feel worse? Will you be sick again?”

  The smile reached his eyes. “I feel fine. Stop worrying.”

  “I can’t help it. You could have died.”

  “But I didn’t.” He patted the pillow beside his head. “I’m glad you’re staying because I want to lie with you. That’s all.”

  “Oh. Right. But just to sleep, mind. Nothing more. You need to rest.”

  He laughed softly. “Trust me, I have no strength for anything more than talking.”

  “There’ll be no talking either. Just sleeping.”

  He sighed. “Very well. Take off your clothes and come to bed.”

  I removed my shoes and dress but kept on the nightshirt I wore under it. I climbed into bed beside him and kissed his forehead. It was still warm against my lips, but not hot.

  “Who do you think did it?” he asked.

  “I said no talking.”

  “Not even to tell you I love you?”

  I smiled against his throat as I snuggled into him. “I love you too, Dane.”

  “It sounds like something the Deerhorns would do,” Max said. “Are you sure it wasn’t them?”

  “It’s highly unlikely,” Balthazar said. “They need Dane alive. For all they know, he’s the only one who can give them the gem. They aren’t aware that we all know where it is.”

  Max crossed h
is arms as he considered who else could have tried to poison Dane. He had returned early in the morning from his shift guarding the Divers’ house to discover what had happened. He’d been as shocked as the rest of us, but reassured to see Dane sitting up in bed.

  Dane looked much healthier. His color had almost returned and his temperature felt normal too. He still complained of feeling weak, but only to me and only when I pushed for an answer. He’d consumed the soup Martha had made for him, but I wouldn’t allow him to have the bread yet. It was too soon and his stomach needed time to fully recover from the trauma inflicted on it by the poison.

  “It can’t be Brant, either,” Quentin said from where he sat on the bed beside Dane, his legs outstretched. “Josie reckons the Deerhorns have him.”

  “It must be one of the dukes,” Erik said. “To get you out of the way so they can take the throne.”

  Balthazar shook his head. “They aren’t aware he’s in the way yet.”

  “Someone from Freedland?” Theodore suggested.

  Yelena agreed. “They sent an assassin. It’s the only explanation.”

  “A stranger would have been noticed in the kitchen,” I said. “I’ve met the head cook and he doesn’t like anyone in his domain unless they’re supposed to be there.”

  “That means nothing,” Yelena said. “Someone bribed a kitchen hand to add the poison to your pie and your pie alone, Dane.”

  But none of us agreed with her. “None of the staff would accept a bribe to kill him,” Quentin told her. “We’re like a big family here.”

  “Families fall out,” was all she said before turning her face away.

  She looked tired this morning, and not like the ageless beauty I’d first met. The illness on the boat had left her gaunt, and the shock of the poisoning attempt seemed to have added even more years to her sharp features. Her hand shook as she fidgeted with her ring.

  Theodore paced the small room, his hands at his back. “It must have been someone who could enter the kitchen and not risk being thrown out.”

  “Someone who doesn’t want me announcing that I am the rightful king,” Dane added with a dark look at his mother.