“And no matter what you say, you are a lying bastard! You did care about me, and you did save me. But you are right about everything else. You didn’t leave me because you were never truly by my side. You are hers. For all your size and strength, that immortal bitch controls everything about you—even your body belongs to her!” She slapped her hands flat against his chest and shoved, utterly taken by surprise when he stumbled back. “You are her whore and a coward, Hugo. A pathetic weak coward!” she bellowed, her eyes a storm of violet lightening and hurt. “Even Simeon has more courage to stand up to her than you do.”
Hugo stared at her, his eyes glittering. But Diamond ignored the warning signs: the tightness on his face, the way he clenched his fists and the growl that rose from deep in his chest.
She opened her mouth to continue her barrage of abuse.
“Shut up!” he suddenly bellowed. Savagely, he grabbed her shoulders, his face contorted with anger and self-loathing—nothing of the cold guard from seconds ago remaining. “Diamond, stop. I know my failings, both as a fae and a warrior. You are right. I am a coward. I cannot defy my Queen because I cannot protect you. I have shown you that today. Did I miss something? Because I’m sure you were listening when she threatened to make me kill you and everyone you care about! Is that what you want, for me to have to look in your eyes as I take your life? Like you did the general?” He paused and took a shaky breath.
She stared at him, shocked by his distress. His eyes were dark and swimming with regret. It had not crossed her mind to consider what that threat might do to Hugo. But if he truly doesn’t care for me, why is he bothered? Conflicting emotions, made worse by grief and guilt over General Edo, stole Diamond’s ability to think straight.
“But you treated me no better than an animal. You were going to whip me, Hugo,” she accused tearfully, wondering in a moment of confusion if she had imagined his sorrow and regret as his eyes hardened and his face became cruel.
“So I was, but let’s not make this all about you, magic wielder. You are dangerous, and for everyone’s sake you need to learn how to control your magic. Unless I have missed something, you are no warrior; yet somehow I am expected to make you into a weapon powerful enough to subdue the immortal Wraith Lord.”
The elite warrior stepped so close she had to tip her head back to look at him. Digging his fingers into her shoulders, he shook her hard enough to make her teeth rattle and gave a warning growl. “You think me a whore, a murderer, a thief…a bastard?” he smiled cruelly and leaned forward. Tears formed in Diamond’s eyes as she watched his scar twist menacingly. “You think I shouldn’t follow my Queen’s orders? You think because you led me away from her with your innocence and needy glances you don’t deserve the lash for trying to escape? Little girl, you have no idea how much of a bastard I can be, but you are going to find out.”
Diamond felt sick at the pure ice in his eyes. He pushed her down into the armchair and squatted in front of her, his breath hot on her lips. His eyes flicked to the scrapes on her chest and a shadow flickered across his face. Just as quickly, it was gone.
“You will listen to me. The next few weeks are going to be hell for you. Your weak body will be beaten and likely broken, over and over, but let’s be perfectly clear: I do not and will not care. You will work hard all day, every day. There will be no moaning or tears or you will hurt more. I suggest you learn quickly or be prepared to suffer the consequences.”
Hugo leaned his massive frame closer until he had her pressed up against the chair back. He smiled, the tip of his nose touching hers. Warmth from his body seeped into her, and the smell of him smacked into her brain. His nearness, his scent, his impossibly beautiful eyes…. Her mind ceased to function and she could only stare at him like a cornered animal.
“And stay away from any other fae warriors—in the training ground or off it. It seems you command far too much interest from them. You are now the Queen’s property—just like me. Whether you think that makes you her whore or not, I don’t care; but you will keep your legs shut. You are not free to take a mate or share your body. Is that clear?”
Diamond stilled as his words sank in. The fae in the throne room.
“I will be here for you at dawn, so be ready. Wear something you can move in and fight in, or you will remove it and train in your underwear.”
He smiled maliciously, his scar revealing white even teeth in a macabre way. Heat and indignation seared her cheeks as he raked his eyes over her exposed skin.
“Although, I am absolutely certain any males around will appreciate the naked sight of that beautiful body. I know I did when you begged me to undress you.”
His mocking reference to the last time they had been in this room together sparked uncontainable fury in Diamond. Her hand shot out to slap him across the face. Almost lazily he caught her wrist, the hardness of his calloused skin scraping her as he squeezed. She yelped but he did not let go, he just shoved his face closer and snarled. Diamond recoiled. Moving in until his lips almost touched hers, he grinned wickedly.
“Save your anger for the training ground, little girl; you’re going to need it. Every. Little. Bit. Because I’m saving mine—just for you.
Hugo slammed Diamond’s door behind him, his self-control nearly in shreds. Clenching his shaking hands, he marched through the corridors, ignoring every single person that cowered against the walls. Not far now, he told himself, willing his legs to keep moving. In through the entrance to the guard’s quarters, then up the winding stone stairs to his small room in the tower.
Quietly he shut the door. The silence hit just before he fell to his knees, his chest heaving. It was no good. He launched himself up, only just making it to the bathing room before vomiting in the toilet. Bile and saliva burned his throat.
Spent and emotionally wrecked, he sank onto the floor, his broad back leaning against the wall. He wearily tipped his head back. Never had he loathed himself so much. But turning Diamond into a killer had been his only choice.
He uttered a heartfelt plea to the goddess for forgiveness, trying to convince himself the hours he had spent in the palace libraries looking for old legends, and pulling out dusty old histories to research the venom bond, had paid off. What he had learned, what he now knew he could do, scared the shit out of him.
He had never wanted to control Diamond, but he had wanted to know how the bond worked. Selfishly, he wanted to convince himself her actions were her own when they related to him.
Was it only this morning I allowed myself to hope, to dream of an escape? He chuckled bitterly. The dog. That scruffy-looking mongrel in the temple grounds had to have been a shapeshifter, a spy for the Queen—or the general had stupidly formed a deal with the Queen before he found them. Either way, it didn’t matter now. The general was gone, and he and Diamond were both trapped here.
The Queen had shown her hand. Hardly a surprising turn of events. Diamond had been allowed to live to become a weapon. Not for a moment, though, had Hugo guessed how his evil monarch was going to destroy Diamond’s spirit. Hugo still didn’t know if he could have whipped Diamond—or that poor pathetic boy. But he had hoped with every shred of his warped soul that he wouldn’t have to. He had known Diamond would not kill the crazed general, so he had uttered a silent plea for forgiveness and grasped her mind with everything he had. The gamble had paid off.
It hadn’t been Diamond who had killed her childhood protector—it had been Hugo. One day he would tell her. She did not deserve to suffer the guilt for such an action.
Sometime later, feeling calmer and in control once again, Hugo pushed himself up off the floor. Diamond was right—he was a coward; no matter his reasons, he could never undo the wickedness of his actions in that throne room, but he could try and do something good in the present.
Resolutely, he stood and walked to the window where he could watch the sun set. Patiently, determination in every line of his body, Hugo awaited the arrival of his closest friend—the darkness.
***<
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The gentle wind that fanned the two silver-haired women was neither warm nor cold. It just existed.
Diamond contemplated the woman from her vision. With arms even more emaciated and huge blue eyes that dominated her gaunt thin face, she seemed to shimmer like a spectre, coming and going with the breeze.
“Where are we?” Diamond whispered.
A snow-capped volcano smoked in the far distance, but the ground they stood on was silky soft and shifted gently. Warm blue sand squished between her bare toes. She gazed in amazement at the beautiful expanse of swirling dunes that stretched away into the distance. There was no definition between land or sky, it was all one, seamless in its making. Diamond had never seen anything like it—but she had read about it.
“This is the Sky Desert?” It was a strange and wonderful place, full of nothing yet containing everything. Diamond could feel energy burning into her magic—feeding her. Life thrived here. But one would only see it if the wizards who protected these lands deemed one worthy of entering their realm. The woman smiled but did not reply. In fact, she seemed unable to summon the energy to speak at all. She gently brushed her thin cold fingers against Diamond’s chest. Her brows drew together in a frown as she touched the gouges left by the Queen’s sharp finger nails. Her dull eyes were sad, questioning.
“She took it. The Queen took it,” Diamond answered, feeling the wrench of that loss again. “How do I get it back?” she asked through tears that left trails of moisture down her cheeks.
The woman frowned, her eyes flashing angrily. Turbulent wind blasted across them but not a grain of blue sand shifted. Currents of air tugged fiercely at Diamond’s cream silk nightgown before a bright flash of light had her squeezing her eyes shut. An answering warmth tingled along Diamond’s skin, fizzling down into her bones until something tight covered her body. She gazed upon herself in astonishment, her mouth gaping open. Lifting her hands in front of her face she turned them over and over, inspecting them—inspecting her whole body in awe.
A figure hugging suit that felt like warm liquid wrapped Diamond from neck to ankles. Layered on top were beautiful iridescent scales that encased her body. Glittering and utterly indestructible, the armour wrapped around her torso like a second skin. Her boots stopped just below her knees, her legs protected by larger metallic scales that covered her thighs, forearms and shoulders. Shining and glorious, the scaled suit writhed next to her skin as though alive, fluid yet solid, an impenetrable otherworldly force.
It was impossible to do anything other than stare at herself as the outline of majestic dragons pushed through the scales before disappearing, all of them were adorned with a single jewel in their foreheads. They slithered around her body like a living shield. Diamond screeched as a huge head appeared in the scale-encrusted chest plate and endless, multifaceted eyes rolled back to meet her own. A sense of overwhelming protection filled her chest.
These are the guardians, she realised in wonderment. The everlasting deities who protected Eternity and the gods. Daggers engraved with the runes of their ancient language hung from her waist, and she felt the vicious rigidity of blades that were secreted up against her body and thighs.
The woman stepped forward and placed the flat of her hand against Diamond’s forehead. Her touch was cold but the sudden images that flashed into Diamond’s brain burned her mind: images of battles long past, of fighting alongside fierce winged warriors, of fire unleashed from the gaping maws of magnificent dragons, of repulsive dead-eyed monsters she had never seen the like of in any mythical books. A cloying, eternal shroud of darkness threatened to swamp her soul and suck the very life from her.
Diamond gasped for air, fighting against the swirling black veil and sudden bitter cold.
Those images abruptly disappeared, replaced by a picture of this same woman, young and strong; her eyes cerulean, bright and glowing with cold fury. She was clad in the same armour that Diamond now wore, her face feral and splattered in red and black gore. Fighting with a grace and skill that took Diamond’s breath away, her movements were precise and deadly and so quick that as she turned and dipped and slashed it was hard to keep track. In one hand she held a dark metal spear, wielding it in a blur of lethal movements. Monster’s loomed above her; huge beasts covered in a shell like spiky exoskeleton. Enormous jaws, tightly packed with sharp teeth, snapped at the spear as if trying to take it. Evading their claws and teeth, this woman slew monster after monster. She did not tire or give quarter to her enemy.
Magic burst from her free hand in destructive waves. But Diamond could feel the woman pulling at the energy around her, manipulating the air, the earth, the flames of dragon fire and even the moisture from the tears of the fallen. She drew it towards her until the air hummed, and she filled with a power so bright it almost burned Diamond’s eyes.
The battle from a millennia ago raged inside Diamond’s mind. This was the same magic she had used in the forest, except this magic obeyed the woman’s command. Her energy formed a thousand swords at once, stabbing and cutting a path through her enemy. With just a thought, she thrust razor sharp ribbons outward and turned her enemies to dust. Realisation dawned, stealing Diamond’s ability to breath.
This was Lunaria. This fierce woman was the goddess of creation.
She was able to manipulate the elements and magic of this world to fight her brother, Erebos. Lunaria pushed thoughts and memories into Diamond's mind. She had fought for millennia to prevent Erebos from destroying every living soul in this world. But unlike him, Lunaria had a heart and had fallen in love. That love had become her greatest weakness. The goddess had loved her fae mate, King Noan Arjuno, and their new born baby so fiercely that she had died for them.
But here, now, in this dream world, Lunaria looked like the goddess of starvation and death. Diamond swallowed, her mouth and throat bone dry as the images receded.
‘Erebos is watching, he is waiting, but soon he will return. Child, it will take all your courage to fight through your grief and shadows. Even when your heart is breaking, you must remember that you are of my blood, and that only our blood can kill him.’
Lunaria’s voice was but a weak echo inside Diamond’s head. The bony hand lifted from Diamond’s forehead. Aghast, Diamond stared at Lunaria.
“W-what do you mean? How am I of your blood? How can I beat a god? I am only a girl,” she whispered, horrified that anyone would expect her to carry out such a task.
Lunaria smiled sadly. ‘You must, or he will destroy everything. Not just your home but mine too. I cannot help you, not from this prison. Only you can do what needs to be done. Don’t give up. Don’t let death and despair win—or Chaos will reign over Eternity.’
The goddess became more transparent, the air around them imploding. The atoms of this dream world cracked open until a gaping void yawned behind the goddess. Lunaria fought the ghastly shadow-fingers that tried to drag her into darkness. Forcing out her weak magic, the goddess drove them back before forcefully pushing her hand back on Diamond’s head.
Diamond’s magic flared into life, her body twitching as memories of lessons learned long ago were thrust deep into her mind, burning into her memory; a warrior’s lessons: how to think; how to read her enemy; how to move, strike and kill.
‘I will give you this…but you have to practice—beat him, beat death—and free me, her eyes begged Diamond.
The sands shifted, disappearing from under Diamond’s feet into a huge fissure that cleaved the earth, then she was falling, falling through darkness. There was no sound, no sight, only a desperate coldness. Down she plummeted, her mouth gaping in a silent scream. Her body slammed into something solid, then there was nothing.
Hugo had not attempted to sleep or rest; guilt kept tightening his gut into painful knots. How many times will I have to hurt her, to damage that beautiful face or body to save her from worse insult? Now that he had calmed down, he knew he would have done it: he would have lashed her skin open to save her from Lord Commander Ream’s puni
shments.
Hours had passed and he was still intermittently shaking, although he was at a loss to decide why. Fear. Regret. Anger. Self-disgust. He smacked a fist into the mattress and half groaned, half growled. He deserved Diamond’s contempt, but that did not dull the pain of it.
Why did I have to meet her? Why does she even exist? She had become his worst nightmare and his perfect dream. She didn’t know how right all her accusations had been. Hugo cared for her, to the point of losing control of his common sense. By bringing her to the palace, by guarding her room, by running after her this morning, he had broadcast his feelings.
Now she was a target for all those who wanted to get back at him.
His magic flared protectively. She was his Nexus. The implications of that almost stole his breath. Together they could stimulate and boost the other’s magic. But if the books he had been devouring recently were to be believed, if he and Diamond mated, their magic would swell far beyond any the Queen could yield alone. He swallowed and squeezed his eyes shut.
If I scoop Diamond up now and run, could we escape? He slumped, his chin resting on his broad chest. Too many others would die—Jack would die. Hugo sighed; he did not want that on his conscience, and he didn’t think Diamond would either. Besides, they would be hunted to the end of time by the Queen. There was no running—not for him anyway.
Hugo growled at his confused thoughts. Being ordered to kill Diamond made his soul shudder with fear, and with absolute certainty he knew he never could. Sitting on the side of his bed, he tossed his knife, catching the white-bone hilt with precision, over and over, just like he had been doing on and off for the past two hours.
A Bond of Venom and Magic (The Goddess and the Guardians Book 1) Page 32