by Kate Keir
Finlay suddenly flinched so violently his arm knocked into mine.
“Finlay, are you all right?” I laid my hand on his forearm as I spoke.
He turned pained eyes on me. “I’m okay. I think the original owner of this body must have suffered from migraines.”
I raised a concerned brow. “Are you sure it’s a migraine?”
“Shooting pains spearing through my brain and an inability to tolerate light or sound? Yeah, I think so, Flor.” He laughed humourlessly.
Fear rose within me. If this body fell apart then Finlay’s soul would be homeless once again, and I was still convinced I could persuade him to stay with me on a more permanent basis.
He surprised me with his next words. “I’ve been thinking, Flor. I’m starting to get kinda used to this body, and I was thinking I might keep it for a while after all.”
I beamed at him as I threw my arms around his neck. “You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
Hugging me back hard, he laughed. “I made you a promise, and I suppose I have to stick to it, Flor.”
Pulling back from the embrace, I stared into unfamiliar brown eyes. “Always?” I asked, smiling.
Returning my smile, he replied, “And forever.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The next morning, Pen called us to meet in the great hall to discuss the prophecy with Leah. Pen asked Enid to stay with Lyall in case he woke up, and the younger girl eagerly agreed.
I smiled fondly at her as she dashed up the stairs to sit with Lyall. I was pretty sure she had a crush on him, and it was adorable. Making my way into the hall, I sat down next to Freya and smiled at the others who were already gathered around the table.
Pen started. “To put your minds at rest, I am confident that Lyall will wake up today. He has shown strong signs of improvement this morning.”
Everyone breathed sighs of relief and smiled at each other. I joined in the celebratory mood, but the fear of facing Lyall still lingered at the back of my mind.
Pen continued, “You’ve all met Leah by now, and you all know that she is a seer. Fortunately for us, she has expressed a desire to stay with us at Castle Dion, which means we have access to her gifts.” Pen paused to smile at Leah, and the girl beamed back.
Pen grew more serious. “Unfortunately, Leah has confirmed what we long suspected. Finlay’s false treachery was not truly intended, and so the prophecy regarding Flora’s death or betrayal still stands.”
Finlay gave me a weak smile, and Freya spoke up. “Can we do something to avoid the prophecy coming true, now we have someone who can see the future?”
Leah answered her. “Not really, my visions are totally subject to change. I can’t actually see how Flora dies or is betrayed, only that one or the other will happen before her twenty-first birthday.”
“No offence, but what use is your gift to us then?” Artair asked, not unkindly.
Leah shrugged. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s no use at all.”
Pen interrupted. “I have promised to work with Leah to see if we can find a way to unravel her visions and work out what they mean. Hopefully we will be able to understand them a little better soon.”
“So, what do we do now?” Finlay was using two fingers to massage his right temple as he spoke. I frowned, worried about his borrowed body again.
“I think Flora needs to spend some time with the Super Draugur. Perhaps she will be able to find a way to extract the soul from its body,” Pen replied.
“Do we even know what kind of soul is inside it?” Freya asked.
Pen shook her head. “No, all we know is that Helena must have killed someone and trapped their soul in the human world to create the Super Draugur. I have no idea if she will have chosen good or bad souls.”
Thinking back to the waves of evil that had rolled off the Super Draugur, I shuddered. “I’m pretty sure they weren’t good people that she used. Did you guys sense the darkness coming from the Draugur yesterday?”
“Nope,” Artair confirmed.
Freya and Pen both shook their heads, and Finlay blinked blankly at me.
“Okay, this must be a Soul Keeper only kind of thing then. The Draugur we have down in the cellar feels so evil it almost hurts. I’m sure Sluag and Helena chose some pretty awful people to convert,” I told them.
“While that doesn’t surprise me, it does worry me, Flora. I would be grateful if you could spend some time with the Super Draugur and try to figure out if you can destroy it?” Pen asked.
I nodded. “Today?”
“Yes please,” she confirmed.
“All right, I’ll go now,” I suggested, standing.
Just as I was about to head for the huge double doors, they burst open, and Enid flew into the room with a smiling face. “He’s awake. Lyall’s awake.”
Sounds of delight and relief echoed around the stone room. My own laugh of delight joined them before I started to make for the door—I had a Super Draugur to deal with.
Enid put out a hand to stop me. “He asked for you, Flora.”
Pausing, I looked from Enid to Pen. “I have to go and work on the Super Draugur. Later maybe.”
“You have time to see Lyall first, Flora.” Pen’s voice was firm, and I had no doubt she knew exactly what was going through my mind.
“All right,” I murmured before slipping through the door and jogging upstairs toward his room.
When I pushed open the door and saw him sitting up in the bed looking so much better than he had, I smiled in relief, and he smiled back at me. I came slowly closer to the bed, and my lips tightened into a grim line as I saw how bloodshot the whites of his eyes still were and the bloom of purple bruises ringing his neck.
“It’s okay. I’m okay.” His voice was raspy, as though he needed a drink.
I stopped approaching the bed and looked around the room. “I’ll get you some water. You need water.”
He leaned forward and caught my wrist in his hand. He was surprisingly quick, considering he had only just woken. Pulling me toward him, he whispered, “I have water. Flora, are you okay?”
My legs hit the side of the bed and I had no choice but to sit. I perched myself on the edge and replied, “I’m fine, but I should be the one asking if you’re okay.”
He let go of my wrist and leaned back against the headboard while he scrutinised my face. “You’re not okay. You look terrible. What’s wrong, love?”
I dropped my gaze from his face to my white-knuckled hands which I had twisted together on my knees. “How much do you remember?”
He frowned. “Once that monster started strangling me, nothing.”
I took a deep breath. “Lyall, your mother is dead. I’m so sorry.”
He looked toward the window. It was a dreary day outside. I thought it matched my mood perfectly.
“I’d like to say I’m sorry or that I’m even sad about it, but I’m not. Up until recently, I thought she was dead and to be fair, she tried to kill me.”
I could see guilt on his face, guilt for not feeling sadder about the death of his mother. His inner turmoil increased my own guilt even more. It was my fault he felt this way.
“Lyall, I killed her. I had no choice. She was going to let that thing keep throttling you until you were dead. In fact, I thought you already were dead.” I stood quickly and backed away from the bed. “I’m so sorry.”
He swung unsteady legs out of the bed and cautiously stood up before crossing the room until he was standing in front of me. “Flora, you’re the one person I trust to have my back, no matter what. You saved my life, and yet you’re killing yourself with guilt. I can feel it.”
I tried to take another step back from his intense amber gaze, but he caught my wrists gently with his hands and refused to let me back off.
“I killed your mother, Lyall,” I whimpered miserably, looking at the floor.
“And you saved my life. Please don’t let this…Please don’t let her turn you away from me.” He let go o
f one of my wrists as he spoke and used his thumb to gently wipe away a tear I hadn’t realised was there.
I looked up at him but didn’t speak. Whatever we had once had, even the bond between us had been damaged forever. How could I be happy with Lyall after I’d killed Helena? I didn’t know if I could ever be happy again now I’d taken a life.
He caught my chin between his fingers and tilted my head so I was looking at his face again. “Flora, it was my own fault. I abandoned you because I thought it would protect you, when actually all I did was hurt you worse than ever. I’m so sorry.”
His eyes burned into mine, and all I could see was Helena’s blank stare as her body slid to the floor. I jerked my hand and pulled my wrist free of him before heading for the door.
“I’m sorry, Lyall I can’t do this,” I murmured.
His voice stopped me with my hand on the door handle. “Flora, before I left you, you told me something. I know you still feel it because I do too.”
I moaned as though in pain and bowed my head. I didn’t want to hear him say it. I yanked frantically at the handle and pulled the door open.
As I slipped through the door and into the corridor, I heard his voice carrying through the open doorway. “I love you too, Flora Bast.”
Biting my lip, I hurried down the stairs and made for the cellar.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Pen and Artair had fashioned cells for the group of Draugur who had attacked the castle and a single, smaller cell for the solitary Super Draugur in the underground cellar space at the castle.
Pen had also spelled each cell to prevent any magic—including porting into the Endwood—from taking place inside.
Although most castles traditionally have dungeons, Castle Dion was slightly different as Dion don’t usually take any prisoners. The makeshift prisons worked perfectly well, however, and I paused to look in at the group of ordinary Draugur before I went to see the Super Draugur.
The creatures clamoured to get to the front of the cell when they noticed me. Each of them called out my name, and many asked how they could serve me. We still hadn’t decided what to do with my loyal little army until a thought suddenly struck me.
I opened the cell door and beckoned the Draugur out. Once they all stood before me—waiting for instruction—I spoke.
“Go to the Endwood and attack Sluag,” I instructed.
They didn’t even hesitate before simply fading from sight, free to transfer to the Endwood now they were clear of Pen’s spell.
I smiled to myself. They couldn’t harm Sluag, but he wouldn’t be pleased about having to kill twenty of his Draugur because they couldn’t be stopped from attacking him.
Turning my attention toward the cell at the end of the room, I approached the Super Draugur. I could feel the sickening waves of evil pulsing along the stone corridor. The closer I got to the cell, the more uncomfortable I felt. As soon as it caught sight of me, it hissed and came to the bars of its cage.
“Sssoul Keeper? What do you want? I will not be dispatched to irritate my master in the same way as those fools.” The waves of the monster’s evil washed over me so thickly I suspected I could let myself drown in it.
Looking around, I located a chair and dragged it in front of the cell before sitting down and watching the Super Draugur pace up and down the floor of its prison.
“Esperi rith tai, mortis oct suoil, fortun rais dor, al noi pertina.” I gave no warning of my intention, and I hurled the words at the Super Draugur with every ounce of power I possessed.
Absolutely nothing happened, and the creature paused in its pacing to turn oil-slick eyes on me and laugh mirthlessly. “It’s no use, Soul Keeper. No matter how many times you try it.”
I narrowed my eyes at the disgusting face staring back at me, but I could see intelligence burning in its eyes. I tried a different approach. “Why won’t it work?”
The Super Draugur came to the bars and wrapped grey, graveworn fingers around the bars. It stared at me so hard from eyes set within a rotten face that I wondered if it could see into my soul. Suddenly, its form shimmered and changed, becoming a man. He was about forty, and he had a very unfriendly face.
I gasped and looked around the cell, thinking that Pen’s preventative spell must have failed.
The man laughed. “You’re wondering how I managed to change my form while in a spelled cell?”
“Yes,” I admitted.
“You see, Soul Keeper, this isn’t a stolen body or face, this is my body and my face. Helena killed me and elevated me into something great using your dead Dion’s blood.”
I suddenly understood. “She didn’t put your soul into that body.”
He laughed. “No, my soul belongs inside this body. There’s no magic involved in revealing my true face.”
“So, if that soul belongs inside your body, there’s no way I can kick it out?” I was talking to myself more than the Draugur.
The Super Draugur clapped its hands slowly. “She finally gets it. Well done, Soul Keeper.”
I leaned back against the chair and thought the new information through. It meant this thing was impossible to destroy. I had to tell the others, which was going to do nothing for morale.
I stood up to leave.
“Going so soon, Soul Keeper?” the Draugur spoke smugly.
“Don’t get too comfortable. I’ve got a whole library upstairs that is brimming with manuscripts. Somewhere in there is an instruction manual for killing Super Draugur,” I snapped.
The Draugur sat down on the cell floor with its back pressed against the stone wall. It raised a hand to wave mockingly at me. “As I am the first of my kind, I suspect you might be looking for quite some time. Goodbye, Soul Keeper. Have fun.”
I growled in frustration as I turned away from the creature and headed back up into daylight.
I ducked my head into the great hall, but everyone had already left. I jogged up the stairs and knocked at Pen’s bedroom door. She opened it, and seeing the look on my face, she quickly stepped aside and invited me in.
Once Pen had closed the door, I told her about my encounter with the Super Draugur, her expression growing darker and darker with every word I spoke.
“I have no idea what to do next, Pen,” I confessed.
“It hadn’t occurred to me that they would use the same body and soul. Of course, the two cannot be separated in the traditional way.” Pen spoke quietly, almost as though she were talking to herself.
“Do you think there’s a way to kill them?” I asked.
Pen gave me a comforting smile. “There’s always a way to kill them, Flora. We just have to find it.”
I nodded. We would find a way. It was just going to take a little time.
“Have you seen Lyall? How is he?” I asked her.
Pen frowned. “Physically he’s fine, but I suspect that he expected a slightly warmer reception from you after he almost died, Flora.”
I sat down heavily on a wooden bench near the door. “How can he forgive me when I can’t even forgive myself?”
Placing a comforting hand on my shoulder, Pen spoke. “Sometimes we are unable to forgive ourselves until others forgive us first. He loves you, Flora, and any idiot can see that you love him too.”
I looked up, miserably, at her. “I do love him, I can’t help it. It’s as though he’s the other half of me, and when he isn’t around, I’m not really whole.”
“Then why are you not by his side right now?” she asked curiously.
“How many times do I need to say it, Pen? I killed his mother. I can’t even look at him without feeling as though the guilt is killing me.” I dropped my head into my hands.
“He doesn’t blame you sweetheart. You’re only hurting yourself and him by staying away, and he could really use your support right now.” Pen’s voice was quiet.
“What if, every time I look at him, I see his dead mothers eyes?” I asked her.
“It won’t always be that way. You’re bonded to each oth
er, which means you are supposed to be together. Allow him to heal you, while you heal him.” She spoke gently.
I stood up and hesitated, but Pen had seen and heard enough. She crossed the room and gently but firmly shooed me out of the door and into the corridor. Crossing her arms over her chest, she shot me a look that told me I had no choice in this.
“What about the Super Draugur?” I asked.
“I intend to pull every single manuscript from the library this afternoon. Once I have everything together, we can start researching,” she replied.
“Do you think we’ll be able to find anything?”
“I do. Now stop stalling and go and put that Dion out of his misery,” she insisted.
I smiled at her before I headed along the corridor and took a left turn that led to the main hallway which housed all of our rooms. I paused at Lyall’s door for a moment before lifting my hand and knocking twice.
My heartbeat quickened as I waited. Half of me hoped he wouldn’t answer the door, and half of me felt as though I would die if he didn’t. The handle suddenly clicked down, and the door swung open.
He’d showered since he had woken up, and his dark hair glistened with water droplets. He was wearing his trademark black T-shirt and jeans, and his feet were bare. He smelled of shampoo and clean water. He was beautiful.
For a full minute I stood and stared at him. Everything I wanted to say kept coming to my lips but fading away before I could speak. He stood patiently with one eyebrow raised inquisitively, waiting for me to speak.
Finally the tension became too much. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
For a fraction of a second, he didn’t say anything, and I almost imploded with fear. I’d hurt him so much he couldn’t forgive me.
But then he made a sudden step forward and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me through the doorway and into his room. He kicked the door closed, and before I could speak again, he had crushed his lips against mine.
I lifted my hands and almost placed them against his arms to try to push him away, but then I thought better of it and instead wrapped my own arms around his neck, pulling him against me. I kissed him back with everything I had, and as I melted into him I felt the pain and the guilt over Helena lifting from my mind.