I gaped in horror as metal crashed against metal. The air shifted again, gaining intensity, swirling around me, threatening to twist me into a lump of human flesh.
Valen was toying with me, using lesser powers to make me vulnerable. I refused to be his plaything.
The ground shifted underneath me as I formed a barrier of earth and stone between the two of us. A grunt sounded outside my shield moments before it cracked, crumbling to dust at my feet.
All my training fled my mind. Thought transformed to instinct as Valen shot his own lightning bolt at my head.
I flipped sideways, narrowly escaping the blast. He pushed me onward as if herding me into his territory. I kept careful calculations of where I was, blocking his attacks as best I could.
The clouds above us darkened, letting loose a cacophony of thunder song. A part of me wanted to hunker down until it passed, but I had to keep moving. I drifted again, calling on every ounce of strength I had inside me.
Moving away from the sanctuary barrier, I tried to draw Valen more firmly into the mortal realm.
His laughter echoed around me until it sounded right by my ear. I crouched, somersaulting forward. But no matter what way I shifted, he was there, taunting me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a grey mist swirl like a vortex of doom. A band of steel and bone entombed my arms at my sides and something sinister attacked the barriers of my mind, calling my name over and over again in different tones and volumes. I concentrated, determined to drift before he could pin me completely.
A jolt slithered through my form, shaking my attempts. I cried out, feeling my flesh burn from my bones then knit back together just as quickly, equally as painful.
My power caught hold, catapulting me to an unknown location. Valen, close on my heels, pursued me through the forest, battering me with his unrelenting attack.
Fatigue plagued every part of me, my mind included. His attempts to wear me down were working. Once again I had been stupid, thinking I could take care of him myself when I’d known for a while now just how dangerous he could be.
I needed a break, but none would come. It wasn’t as if I could call a time out. I moved to drift again, keeping close attention to where the barrier was. At least I hoped I was.
The sounds of metal clashing and the grunts of warriors fighting still surrounded me, so I couldn’t have traveled all that far.
Without warning Valen solidified in front of me, his blue eyes sweeping over me in an instant.
“Rayla,” he said. “Stop this foolishness. My offer still stands. I will spare the others if you give yourself to me.”
I couldn’t negate what my family and friends had openly sacrificed for me so easily, but if I could get him to think I was caving, I could get a much needed breather. “You’re lying,” I said. There was no doubt in my mind that he was lying. He was no honorable man. He didn’t seem to follow the same rules as the other lords, having come up with his own law long ago.
“I could be lying to you,” he admitted with a shrug, “but I’m not completely compassionless. I will find a place in my new world for your family.”
Yeah, probably digging a trench to hell. “What about the lords?” I hedged.
“They are a necessary casualty,” he said. “I cannot spare them.”
“And Lambert?” I said, hoping my voice carried to the man.
Valen laughed. “There is plenty of room in this world. He has proven himself worthy. He is a born leader.”
Maybe of beef-heads and freak-shows. I couldn’t believe the man had fathered Cassie. “I don’t want him around,” I said, pitting my worth against Lambert’s.
Once again I was honored with a chuckle. “Whatever my queen desires.” His eyes grew dark and he stepped toward me. I stepped back, and back again until I completely lost my bearings.
To my relief, Jett fought not twenty feet away from me, hacking away at five Order hybrids. They had to be something unearthly because they came forward limbs akimbo even through violent slashes of his enormous sword.
When I glanced back at Valen he stood directly in front of me again. A gnarled tree trunk blocked my retreat. My heart hammered in my chest, my mind searching for a way out of this. He should know better than to touch me, but even when I used my power on him in Lombarda, he’d merely let go of me, without any outward acknowledgement of pain or any emotion for that matter.
His mind reached out to me, pulling me under. I closed my eyes, gritting my teeth against his mental onslaught. I had to stay strong. I had to win. It wasn’t a question. He couldn’t penetrate my barrier if I had enough faith.
His fingers slithered over my cheek along my jaw line down my neck toward my shoulder. “Such a beautiful specimen. When I finally claim you, it will have been worth the wait.”
My eyes snapped to his. “What do you mean?”
Would he tell me what had happened between he and Faine? Even now the memory called to me.
He leaned forward, hissing into my ear, “Go ahead. You should see it. You should witness the moment that sealed your fate to mine.”
His breath slapped against my skin, causing a shiver to slice over me. My lungs stopped working. I could hardly think the desire to give in was so strong.
“Fight it,” came a soft female voice.
I glanced around, sure I had imagined the whisperings.
“There is nowhere to run, Rayla.” Valen grunted. “Your name has eluded everyone, but not me. I shall have it.”
I skirted sideways, my arm scraping against sharp bark. Valen laughed at my cry of pain, the distraction giving me just enough time to move away completely.
“Yes,” said that feminine voice again. “Into the trees. Hurry,” she said.
Tabitha? I asked.
“Hurry,” she pushed into my mind.
I turned and bolted, letting my feet fly over the bramble filled terrain. I’d never moved this fast. My body seemed to glide on the wind.
Iridescent light spilled through the trees—pure white, brilliant light.
Hope flared in my belly, surging me onward. A thought about my family and the lords nearly caused me to trip up, but I had to keep going. I was the one Valen was after. He streamed right behind me, letting me separate the two of us from the fray.
I couldn’t wait for the lords to catch up. If Tabitha was here, I had to reach her. She’d protect me. She’d take care of Valen.
My limbs reached for hidden strength, crying out as I required them to propel me onward. Valen’s presence didn’t abate, and for a moment, I wondered if this was a horrible illusion, if I would wake up in the sanctuary depleted of my powers.
The light beckoned me onward, filling my heart with hope. If I could just reach that light, I would be safe. If I could just make it to the clearing, I would find help.
Valen continued his mental onslaught until I thought my brain would rend in two. He shoved thoughts into my mind. Let go. You needn’t concern yourself with this. You have always been mine.
My vision blurred, tripping me up, but I plunged forward. My mind was called inward to that strange memory even though this time I fought it. Zach said it was a trap. If the trap got sprung I would be done. I would be Valen’s bondmate or whatever he had planned for me.
Images strobbed in my mind. Valen and Faine, standing close. Him leaning to whisper into her ear. Her small smile of relief. Her face twisted in regret as she headed for the door. Valen’s look of triumph.
My knees buckled and I fell onto the moss covered ground. A vision took me, but it wasn’t the one I expected.
A woman paces in front of Valen, her dark gown pooling at her feet, sliding along the floor with her movements. She is at once beauty and terror.
Ainessa.
I can’t find enough breath to gasp. Despite her insistence she has been working with Valen. Her body calls to me, the memory opening up more fully now.
She faces him, her melodic voice flowing through the room. Her skin prickles with electricity
from his presence, but she pushes the feeling away. “How can I be sure this will work?”
Valen’s arms snake around her shoulders. One hand strokes her neck. She stiffens, but it’s imperceptibly so. “What is time to an immortal? You shall have all you desire…in time.” His expression shifts with open ardor and her eyes flutter momentarily. “Until then,” he says. “I would be happy to provide for your needs.”
She steps away, unable to calm her trembling heart. Her emotions overwhelm me. She can’t resist his physical touch any longer. “I shall call on you often,” she says, an air of haughtiness she doesn’t feel in her tone. “When you are not bound, that is.” The thought of his hands on her repulses her and excites her, yet her expression is soft and her eyes sharp with sexual power.
When he inches nearer, she laughs. “You should learn to bridle your desires, Callum.” When he’s close enough to touch, she places her hand against his forearm staring at the spot as if it is a distant shore she longs to reach. Being imperceptibly, subtle she implants a trigger on the surface then another hidden beneath.
He smiles, the gesture full of open lust. “And you should learn to stay in your own mind, mistress.”
She pulls in a long breath, leaning back against him as he lifts her hair away from her neck.
“I had to try,” she says, chuckling. “We have so little to keep us occupied while you lords have unending distractions. Tis hardly fair.”
His breath tickles her neck, sending shivers she should not feel down her skin. “If it was any other woman I might not blame her, but you, my dear, are on perilous ground.” He lifts his hand to her face, tracing her cheek.
She glides out of his embrace, looking over her shoulder at him. “When am I ever not?” She gives him a smirk and strolls through the doorway.
“Don’t enter my mind again, Ainessa,” he says. “I will not be so forgiving next time.”
She nods, hoping there will be no next time. Once out of his reach she screams inside, hating herself for sinking into his darkened depths, but she’d do anything for the man she loves, including bargaining with the enemy if it means his destruction.
She makes for her chambers, plans forming in her mind. When the time comes she will be able to control him.
Strong hands clamped around my upper arms, hoisting me to my feet, pulling me up from the memory. When I finally got my eyes to open, Valen leered at me, inches from my face.
Panic screeched up my throat but only emerged as a whimper. I stiffened, refusing to acknowledge the sound. This man would not have me. I didn’t care who he bargained with in the past. They did not have control of me.
I lit my body from the inside, focusing all my power along my skin. He took in a sharp breath.
“Such glory,” he whispered. “I’ve not felt this level of purity in a very long time.”
He should have been blown to bits from the power I shot at him, but he stood there as if absorbing everything I gave him.
Had someone said his powers were unnatural? Just like mine?
The connection hadn’t been lost on me.
His hands slid along my arms until he grasped my hands. Every inch of me recoiled from his touch, but I had to focus.
If I was right, I now had Valen’s true name. I could try to compel him, but it would be a last resort.
My eyes dropped to his arms, searching for the spot Ainessa touched. He hadn’t aged a day since he’d held her in his arms.
If anything his glamour had grown stronger. When I concentrated I could see the ordinary man underneath it. It was like he was really a human pretending to be fae.
Something Jett said in his story hit me. He said the underlord had merged forms with a human. He’d called it a glamour. I had no idea how he could merge with a human, but if he had, I wondered if that gave him protection over fae power. Would anything work on him?
I closed my eyes, allowing my staggered breath to intensify, hoping he would think he’d managed to compel me.
Even now, he battered at my barriers and one by one they fell. I only had a few seconds before he would consume my mind. With the physical contact, my power flowed out of me like an open sieve. If I didn’t do something soon, I might not have anything left.
That strange, soft voice erupted in my thoughts again. “Now,” she said. “Do it now!”
I staggered, careening toward Valen. My fingers grasped at him as I fell, landing on his forearm. And just like that, he slumped forward as if his strings had been cut.
Blinding noise erupted in my head, and I pushed away from him. Ainessa stood three feet away from me, her mouth tilted in triumph.
She held my gaze as I passed, ducking her chin. “Don’t wander too far, sweeting. I’ve got plans for you as well.”
Not wasting another second, I stumbled down the path, the noise in my mind intensifying. Out of the frying pan…
“Rayla!” hissed that soft voice. “Come. Now!”
Tabitha!
I wrenched my body forward, forcing my limbs along the path. Each step took more effort until I moved in inches instead of feet.
I glanced behind me. Ainessa had Valen by the scruff, pulling him to his feet. His face held no recognition as he stared at me. I couldn’t feel him at all, as if Ainessa had taken his essence into her.
I made myself turn away from the scene. It wasn’t my concern. The white light beckoned me onward despite Ainessa’s command to stay in the area. My mind reeled from the ever-present noise. Hoping it would stop, I shoved my hands over my ears. If it didn’t stop soon, I was going to pass out.
The clearing was only a few yards away. From this distance the light pierced my eyes—blinding me as if I was looking into the sun.
“Tabitha?” I croaked.
“Come, Rayla,” beckoned the voice. It remained outside of me, wafting through the air, not in my mind.
I shielded my eyes, moving forward still. Once inside the circle of light a figure solidified, non-human. I could barely believe my eyes. This wasn’t Tabitha.
“Bastion?” I breathed.
Her hooves pawed the ground, digging divots with each pass. “Hurry,” she hissed. “He comes!”
He? But Ainessa—
“Hurry, Rayla!” With the sound of my name, I snapped out of it, racing for the glowing pegasus in front of me.
She was a vision of beauty, shining like the sun, a bastion of hope in a floundering sea of despair.
I only gave myself a second to contemplate why she had chosen this moment to speak to me and why she hadn’t used a mental connection. When I reached her side, she lowered to her knees, giving me easier access.
I grunted, flinging myself onto her back. She didn’t give me any time to get settled before she took to the sky, jostling me around.
Once I got my leg over her back, I leaned against her neck, throwing my arms around her. “Thank you,” I said, my voice faltering.
She nickered. “We aren’t out of the woods yet.”
No kidding? I glanced below us to the illuminated clearing and choked back a scream. Valen stood there, his arms outstretched, chanting in a language I did not recognized. Even bathed in the glow of Bastion’s aura, he seeped darkness. This wasn’t creatures of the dark realms kind of darkness, either. It was a living, breathing evil that radiated from him.
I’d had people help me out in the past, creatures, fae, humans and lords, but this act pierced my heart. Bastion had come for me when no one else had been able to.
As if spooked, she banked right, throwing me off center for a moment. I glanced behind us, pushing my hair back so I could see. Nothing pursued us yet. It was just a matter of time, but maybe we could figure out a way to keep Valen away. Maybe we could find a place to hide?
I whispered thank you into her ear again, holding onto her with trembling hands.
What had happened back there? Ainessa had him. She’d plucked him like a sprouting bud, but he had been the one to come after me. I’d seen power since I’d learned of the
fae. I’d seen manipulation, and machinations, but my mind couldn’t quite grasp his level of filth.
The edges of Bastion’s feathers glided against my legs in a soothing rhythm. I clung to her, soaking up the light she offered.
Her soft voice infiltrated my thoughts. “Their coming. Brace yourself!”
I glanced behind us, unable to believe the vision. Valen astride a pegasus, black as midnight with purple fire spewing from his mouth toward us.
Bastion tucked her wings against me, trapping me between them. We plummeted toward the green tapestry below at a blinding speed that jostled my insides. Smoke drifted around us, stinging my lungs.
“Styx!” I yelled in my head.
“Don’t!” hissed Bastion. “Don’t open a link.”
“What’s going on?” I hissed back at her, mentally. White noise greeted me.
Her soft voice grew louder until it boomed around me, drowning out the other noise. “Sit back! Don’t say another word, or I will drop you on your head.”
That wasn’t very nice.
She continued. “He has overcome all. Only I remain. I had to wait until your connection was severed. I still do not dare open a link with you.”
“What?” I said out loud, not stupid enough to try a link with her mind again.
“All have fallen. Puppets to the master puppeteer.”
She wasn’t making any sense. “Why is Styx letting him command him?”
“When he commands the master, he commands the servant.”
“But how?”
“How won’t matter if he gets you too. You must concentrate on the sound of my voice. Block all others out.”
Just then Heath called to me. The message was like a radio signal in my head. “Rayla? Are you okay? We’ve beaten the Order. We have your aunt and your brother. Come back to us.”
I shook my head, tuning that voice out, listening instead to the soft voice chanting a hypnotizing poem.
In the mists of time, one must survive.
In the midst of darkness, one to protect.
Life for life, death for death, service for service.
When she stopped, I asked, “What was that?”
“A vow.”
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