by Rachel Jonas
My vision, clearer than it had ever been, tinted a deep crimson, shading the edges of the room in red. An unfamiliar sensation filled me from head to toe, a deep-seated ferocity that controlled me more than I controlled it. I took Hilda’s question to heart and answered from the very depths of my soul.
“I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Chapter Eight
Nick
I couldn’t tell if time was really passing this slowly or if I was losing it. I was certain it hadn’t been more than a few hours since I’d seen Richie. He dropped in for a second visit after a meeting a few levels above, in the Elders’ chamber. Still, I was pacing the length of my cell like it’d been months.
A caged animal. That’s what I was.
My thoughts wandered as I paced, but mostly they lingered on Roz. When we spoke, she shared that something was going on with her. I guessed that, if an Elder and the Chancellor had gone out of their way to visit, it was serious.
She’d experienced a lot of changes lately. Most notably, that she was no longer fully submitted to her father. On several occasions, she’d been able to break the sire bond and act of her own free will. The obvious reason was that she was transitioning, taking on the role as alpha of their small pack of only two. But I wondered if there was more to it, a larger picture I hadn’t been able to discuss with her because I was … stuck here. That meant she’d have to face whatever it was without me.
A pang of guilt hit because, through everything, she’d been right beside me. Even when no one else could be.
When no one else wanted to be.
Among the many things that had me on edge, a growing concern was that no one had bothered to feed me. I could have complained to Richie about it, but didn’t. In a way, I suppose allowing myself to be starved was a means of self-punishment. By now, I should have been weak, seeing as how I’d gone without sustenance for so long, but weak was the exact opposite of what I felt. In fact, I couldn’t remember a time I felt stronger.
Which wasn’t a good thing.
The magic that had made leaving this place feel like an impossibility didn’t exactly feel that way anymore. I noticed it maybe an hour ago, but there was definitely a change. Before, it was like my limbs were weighed down by an invisible force, one I couldn’t overpower. Now? I wasn’t even completely sure I couldn’t pry the bars of my cell apart if I tried hard enough.
At the thought, I eyed them, those wrought-iron posts that separated me from the free world. They kept me from my family, friends … Roz.
They also kept me from hurting someone else I cared for deeply. Someone who, at the thought of her, I wanted to feel the tendons of her throat in my mouth as I ripped it to shreds.
I crouched and held my head, wishing there was a way to rinse my mind clean of this darkness, but … there was no remedy. I felt that harsh reality all the way down to my bones. This feeling, this thirst for her death, wouldn’t be quenched until the job was done.
Until she no longer breathed.
“Doing all right over there, friend?” came that odd, raspy voice that sent chills down my spine every time I heard it.
She—the only other person I believed to be locked away in this dungeon—had been quiet. I hadn’t heard from her since the brief speech she gave when I awoke here, groggy and just coming down from a fit of rage.
Honestly, I was grateful she’d made herself scarce until now. There was something about her strange voice and cryptic messages that made being stuck down here just a little bit creepier. I had to remind myself she couldn’t leave her cell any more than I could leave mine. Only then was I able to fall asleep last night. Otherwise, I might have stared past the bars, into the dark, narrow corridor half expecting her to come for me.
I could only guess what she might look like, but you couldn’t convince me there wasn’t a real-life monster residing in the cell beside mine.
“Ohhhh … something’s happening,” she crooned, practically singing the words before a sinister laugh hit the air. “Can you feel it? Can you feel the thinning?” she asked.
The meaning behind nearly everything she said was always vague, open for interpretation. However, tonight, I was positive she spoke of the magic. It was what bound us here and, she was right … I could feel it weakening.
“My guess? The clan’s working on something big, something that’s pulling on the spell placed on these bars,” she explained. With those words, I heard those dry, rough hands of hers slowly caressing the very bars she spoke of.
“If we try, there might be a chance of escaping,” she suggested, that same hint of a smile I always sensed mingling within her statement.
I said nothing, just focused on trying to block it all out—her voice, the dark thoughts that continuously rested on the outer fringes of my mind.
“You’re a tough one to crack, aren’t you?” she commented when I failed to respond. “Don’t tell me you’re still trying to fight your nature, Nicholas. Still pretending you’re not exactly what you are.”
A sharp pain in the back of my head brought my lids slamming down, cutting off my line of sight from the bars of my cell. With the stabbing sensation, an image rushed in.
I saw it clear, vivid—a gruesome scene that brought more pleasure than I would ever admit. Walls slathered in blood, a floor covered in more of the same, and in the center of the room … a body.
Or what was left of one.
Covered in sheer white, blood-stained fabric, Evie lay lifeless, a blank stare fixed on me. Behind that stare, only terror, the last emotion she experienced before death took her.
Before I took her.
I squeezed my eyes tight and tried to shake it off, but there was no turning this off. When I opened them again, my gaze landed on my arms. Every vein had gone dark again, filling with the venom that fed the beast.
In her cell, the wicked one laughed—a dark sound I wished I could forget, but knew I never would.
“Just let it in, Nicholas. Just let … it … in.”
I wasn’t sure how, but she knew. Without seeing me, she knew I was losing this fight. Knew there was no contending with what could only be described as the deepest primal urge I believed to exist on the planet.
“Help!”
The desperate plea flew from my mouth without thinking, a final effort to signal someone that things weren’t right. If I could just yell loud enough for guards to come down and see the state I was in, see that the thinning magic was no longer enough … maybe they could stop me.
I was aware that, if this cell could no longer hold me, there was only one other option, but that was better—better than being free and dangerous, better than having to live with the damage I knew I was capable of doing.
“Help!” I called out again, the depth of my voice reverberating off the walls.
“Help me! Please! Pleeeease!” the witch said mockingly, letting out another one of those menacing laughs again right after. “No one’s coming, Nicholas,” she teased, adding, “It’s just you and me.”
Another image flickered and, this time, I staggered backwards until my shoulders touched the wall. The scene hadn’t changed, but I wasn’t satisfied just to see her lying there. I’d begun to feast on Evie’s flesh, tearing the softness of it from her bones, feeling the warmth of her slick blood draining down my throat.
I panted, feeling a strange sense of calm fill me as I allowed the fantasy to play out instead of forcing it from my thoughts. I was completely incapable of denying myself such a simple pleasure—the joy of just … imagining it.
My tense limbs relaxed, breathing slowed. The feeling equated to what I imagined an addict must feel giving in to their vice after years of resisting it.
“That’s it,” the witch whispered. “Let it in. It’s who you are.”
No, she was wrong. These thoughts, these feelings, weren’t natural. They weren’t who I was. While the urges were purely instinct, I was still aware they were terrible.
Disgusting.
I sn
apped back to reality with a gasp as my eyes widened. Next, a surge of determination filled me. I was suddenly less content to revel in the idea of succumbing to the darkness. As easy as it would have been—as satisfying as it would have been—I had to fight it. The defiance that rocked me to my core caused me to act out of character, doing the one thing I swore I wouldn’t.
I engaged.
“It’s you,” I accused, letting the witch know I was aware she’d taken advantage of the weakening magic to taunt me. “Get out of my head!” I yelled, hearing the forced words rip from my throat.
Her laugh rang out once again, this time seeming to echo off every surface. As if she was … suddenly everywhere.
Surrounding me.
“Believe me, if I could take credit for the pretty things swirling around inside that mind of yours, I would in a heartbeat. However, whatever you’re seeing,” she said, “it’s only your true self begging to be set free, begging you to stop bridling it.”
Fear crept in and inched its way right across my skin. I knew, without a doubt, I’d messed up. Speaking to her, even if only to try shutting her up, was a mistake. Now, regardless of what I said next, she knew she could affect me.
“What would you say if I told you you’re, quite possibly, the most perfect being in existence? The embodiment of all that is just and all that is righteous within the supernatural realm?”
I held my head as my body slumped down the wall. I wanted her to stop. She wanted to infect me with her foul thoughts and twisted rationale, but I wouldn’t let that happen.
“There’s a child, isn’t there? A new descendant soon to arrive?” she asked next. “I overheard you speaking of it yesterday.”
Each breath I took came unevenly as I tried to recall when I’d mentioned that, when I’d uttered aloud that Evie was expecting. It didn’t take long for it to come back to me—the conversation with Roz. I only wanted to fill her in on everything, bring her up to speed on what happened with me, but now … I realized Roz wasn’t the only one I shared this info with.
“Don’t you see, Nicholas? You were sent here for a purpose. To restore balance. If it weren’t so, my magic would not have seen fit to create you,” she explained.
But I didn’t want to listen.
So, trying to drown her out, I clamped both hands over my ears now, letting my eyes fall closed again. Meanwhile, the spell continued to deteriorate, meaning I had to fight to ignore that, too. If I didn’t, if I focused on how easily I could have broken out, I might have given it a try.
The witch continued to taunt me, but her voice was muffled now. Still, that did nothing to stop the visions she forced—dark and grim as they were. The room around me seemed to vibrate with her energy and I could only hope that, when I opened my eyes again, the spell hadn’t broken completely.
“Don’t shut me out!”
Her voice came flooding in, piercing the cone of silence I attempted to create around myself. I was convinced she hadn’t even said these words aloud, but rather that she’d somehow entered deeper into my thoughts after I all but invited her in by interacting. She, like every other witch, was cunning.
“You’re meant to be powerful, revered among the lycans,” she insisted.
Her words were practically tangible now as they became harder to drown out.
“Let me help you reach your full potential,” she went on. “No one knows you, or what you’re capable of, better than I do. After all, you’re only who and what you are because of me,” she added.
I coiled into myself, shrinking against the wall, putting up the last ounce of fight I had within me to resist her offer.
All around me, that energy that vibrated the very foundation of my cell seemed to explode outward. When my eyes opened, just beyond my line of sight, the sound of metal giving beneath tremendous pressure—twisting and groaning.
I stood and backed away, feeling the pull overpowering me, but I had to resist.
I made up my mind that I wouldn’t give in, that I wouldn’t allow my nature to rule me. I’d stave off the beast as long as I could, as hard as I could.
No one else could make this choice for me. So, deciding that my fate was still in my own hands, I turned to rush toward the back of my cell, but …
The speech I had just prepared and planned to use to keep myself from going against this new vow was plucked right out of my head. Instead, a different sensation had replaced the feeling of determination.
Fear.
She was like nothing I’d ever seen, and the moment I turned to retreat, I was staring directly into her dark, sinister eyes. A small vile of lycan blood hung around her neck, resting on the lapel of a large cloak that stretched the length of her tall frame. Deep crags set in her decaying, leathery skin made her appear more dead than alive. In short, her appearance was nearly as putrid as her smell, and as terrible as I imagined her to be, seeing her in the flesh made it clear my imagination had come up short. Everything about her was frightening and … indescribable.
I felt confused and lightheaded, trying to grasp how she’d just gotten from her cell and into mine without the door unlatching, but I could only imagine how powerful she was. The twisting metal I heard a moment before had to have been her bars, but she made a show of proving to me that she couldn’t be contained, controlled.
A sinister smile donned her expression, revealing blackened teeth. With the look, came a question.
“Will you accept my offer?” she asked. “Are you ready to see who you were meant to be?”
She stared into my eyes and I honestly equated this experience to being face-to-face with evil incarnate. Her demeanor was alarmingly calm as she awaited an answer.
The two sides of me warred—the one wanting to hold on to everything I could to fight for some sense of normalcy, but then there was the other side. The side that constantly pushed me to do the wrong thing.
My voice was hard and unyielding when I finally answered, doing what I could to contain my fears, speaking the only response I felt she deserved.
“Go to hell.”
That sick smile of hers grew and I had a hard time reading it, reading her. She took a step closer, her foreboding figure cloaked beneath the shroud of the dark robe.
“As you wish,” she uttered with a grin, “but do understand; I’ll be taking you with me.”
Long, bony fingers extended from the sleeve of her robe, clutching a large stone. There was a glint of pleasure in her eyes and there was no doubt she enjoyed the fact that I resisted her. Nearly as much as she enjoyed lifting that stone the next second, wielding it through the air until it struck my skull.
The edges of the room went dim as my body slumped to the stone floor beneath my feet. I was dazed and writhing in pain, but knew it wouldn’t be long until everything would go dark. I resisted it as long as I could, because I feared what she’d do to me once I was unconscious, but, eventually, there was no holding it off.
The room around me went black and silent, all except for the sound of a voice whispering the last words I’d hear before going completely under.
“He’ll be so happy to see you.”
Chapter Nine
Evie
Heat still lingered from the day, covering my skin even at this late hour. Half my vision fixated on the lush expanse of greenery beyond the terrace, the other half—a smooth, ink-stained back trimmed in moonlight. My hand went there, to Liam’s frame and I was starkly aware of not being in our present time.
Even beyond the antiquated setting, I just … knew.
This was another glimpse of our life before, all set within a dream. I still had no idea how or why this was possible, but it was and I couldn’t control it.
My cheek pressed to his back when I moved in closer, letting my eyes drift closed. Beside him I felt safe, protected, like nothing in the world could move me. It wasn’t long before, in this vision, I drifted off, recalling the last thought that came before sleep being that of how, the next day, we would venture to the other
side of my father’s kingdom—our kingdom—to visit a close friend whose face I couldn’t recall, but knew by name.
Zahara.
After that … peace.
It felt like this silence stretched on forever and it reminded me of how I’d visited Liam in the past, wandered into his dreams. Only, this time, I believed I was visiting my own past, wandering into the remnants of my former self’s memories.
My eyes opened when a light sound startled me awake, but then … everything happened so fast. One moment I was peering beyond the pristine, white stone banister that enclosed the terrace. Then, the next … terror.
I barely had time to make a sound before I was covered by a shadow, a large body with strength like I’d never known before. Within seconds, it had taken me and leapt over the banister, falling several stories to the ground below. Its massive, powerful body absorbed the impact with ease, never slowing as it darted across the property without so much as a glance back.
I managed to peek past the beast’s shoulder to catch a glimpse of a flame-covered giant hunting us down.
Liam.
He called out to me and I did my best to shift. But this monster … it had some how suppressed my ability to change. My dragon struggled to ignite, managed a dim flame that covered my skin, but there was nothing more.
“Evangeline!”
The desperation woven into those four syllables was … it was heartbreaking. It was the sound of a man chasing down the woman he knew he couldn’t live without. I was sure of this because … I felt the same way about him.
Liam was fast, but this creature that carried me was somehow faster, managing to keep the lead when Liam took flight.
I knew how this would end, because I’d been told this story before. My heart raced inside my chest as I fought to end the vision, fought to awaken before things went any further. I didn’t want to know what it felt like to be ripped limb from limb. Didn’t want to be reminded of all that had been taken from me—centuries with the man I love, memories I might never recover.
*
When I sat up straight in his bed, Liam was startled awake, taking in the site of me before he spoke—panting, drenched in sweat.