by Nikki Landis
“Never,” I whispered, afraid. “I just couldn’t watch Kellen suffer.”
His sardonic grin spread across his face as he grabbed my arm and hauled me away, walking down into the dungeons where I was sure to meet a horrendous fate. Opening one of the cells with an iron key, he tossed me inside, calling for his ever present blood mages to aid in his fury.
“Strip her of her magic and ability to enter the fade. Make sure she can’t leave this cell. Tonight we start her rehabilitation.”
I screamed at his retreating back, calling frantically for him to forgive me, but I knew my pleas fell on deaf ears. I would be punished now, tortured, and tormented for betraying the trust of the Dark General. It was not Domhnall that I would deal with now but his ruthless counterpart.
And I was doomed.
“RENEE.”
I tried to raise my head but there was too much pain and pressure in the back of my skull.
“I know where Aedan is but you won’t like it.”
“Tell me,” I managed to slur.
“They bargained with him. He’s a Reaper now, like me.”
“No.” The single word launched from my throat and nearly choked me.
“I’ll try to help you.”
“Don’t. I won’t have you punished like me. Forget any plans you’ve thought up.”
“But...”
“No Sam,” I insisted, “not this time. I need you to watch over Aedan.”
He left in a huff.
Only a few minutes later Dom poked his head inside my cell.
I rose my bleary eyes until they met his hard unwavering stare. I blinked but refused to break contact. Show no weakness, I thought as my entire frame trembled in pain and unrelenting agony.
Rehabilitation.
The term was too kind for what I endured.
“Why did you set Kellen free?” He demanded, his voice echoing in the cold damp chamber of the jail cell deep in Carden Castle’s dungeon.
There was no escape; not from the truth, from my torment, or from the inevitable ire that would rise from the man who stood towering in front of me. Nothing I said would matter or make a difference. He was beyond hearing any justification or reasons for my actions. Asking was only a formality.
“I couldn’t stand to watch him suffer,” I admitted through my jaw clenched tight in pain.
The blood mages, Dom’s personal guards, continued to inflict their unrelenting spells upon my tortured body. I groaned as another wave of agony pressed in on my muscles and extremities.
“Why?” He asked, his voice so menacing I wondered how I ever could have believed he cared for me at all.
“Because I love him,” I spat in defiance, “I always have Dom.”
He seemed taken aback by that statement and then he smiled, so dark and sardonic, so cruel and full of hatred that I flinched. “And I thought you loved me. How truly deceptive you are Renee. The darkness has taught you well.”
I shook my head, as if to disagree but he held up a palm.
“Save your supplications and lies. Both of us know you slept in my bed and seduced me because you wanted to manipulate me. Do you think I am ignorant of your plans? Your desperate hope that Aedan will escape the clutches of evil?” He laughed darkly and grabbed me by my hair, forcing my gaze to lock on his.
Pain radiated down my neck but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing it on my face. “I think you will believe whatever you need to in order to win.”
He smirked in disgust. “You think you suffer now...wait until you learn about your brother.”
My cry of horror and despair launched into the room, filling every empty space. “Nooooooo!” I wailed, my chest heaving as I sobbed, truly broken in an instant. “Not Aedan, please,” I begged.
But my cries fell on deaf ears.
Domhnall left the cell and waved his hand, my continued torture more excruciating as my thoughts lingered on the two men I truly loved more than anything.
Even my own life.
And I lost them both.
MY EYES SLOWLY OPENED as I felt my strength begin to return. Weeks of torture left me weak and lethargic but I refused to remain here in agony and pain any longer. The blood mages were gone. In a few hours they would return and this time my life was sure to end. How I endured this long, I wasn’t sure. Maybe it was my will to survive long enough to see Kellen and Aedan one more time.
My fingers felt numb. I wiggled them with great effort and managed to stand against the stone wall of the cell. Domhnall thought he stripped me of all of my power but he forgot one important detail. He was not the one who changed me, Death’s blood had mixed with mine. Weakened but not destroyed, I was now his deadly enemy.
Scurrying sounds in the corners of my chamber let me know the rats were back. Instead of being upset about their squeaking and constant snatching of my meager food supply, I used my remaining power to call to them.
At first nothing happened, and then the rats began to appear. One, then five, and then twenty. Expectantly they waited as if my plan was already revealed. I smiled as the guard knocked, announcing my next meal. I called to him and taunted with sarcastic and demeaning insults until he opened the door and entered the cell.
It was his final mistake.
On my command the rats attacked, biting and tearing at his flesh until he was nothing but blood and bones, lumps of muscle and tissue, but no longer descendant. No longer a Lycan.
Good, I hated those monsters anyway. Abominations, all of them. They shifted by blood magic and only by the spell. That jerk of a guard didn’t deserve to live. He had it coming for what he did to me as well as the other prisoners.
Bending down, I managed to grasp the set of keys that once dangled from a metal ring on his pants. Covered in blood, they slipped from my fingers so often I thought I may never actually manage to unlock my restraints.
But I did.
The metal cuffs fell to ground from my wrists with a light thunk. I laughed lightly and grabbed my cloak, flipping it over my shoulders, and stepping into the fade. As I did my eyes narrowed and I focused in on the one I wanted to see first.
Yes, Aedan was important. I loved my brother but I knew Dom lied to me. He wasn’t in immediate danger. Not yet. Sam would have told me.
Kellen.
My heart called out to him, hoping just once I could tell him the truth. Just once I could reveal everything. Just once I wanted to beg for his forgiveness and feel his lips pressed to my own.
This was my last chance.
I better make it count.
I STEPPED FROM THE fade, finally catching up with Kellen. After so many long months and years of waiting I could hardly believe my chance was finally here. Holding onto my side, my feet barely able to take the necessary steps, I stumbled forward, fighting the urge to pass out every second.
The fade was draining my remaining power. I had to hurry.
“Kellen,” I called, my voice so low he would never be able to hear.
He stood with his fellow Guardians, laughing and talking, unaware that I would pass out or succumb to my injuries, possibly even die only a short distance away.
“Kellen!” I called louder, my vision dotted with flashes of light and tiny wiggly lines. I wasn’t going to make it. After all this time, I was going to fail.
A sob let loose from my chest as I stumbled, my hand reaching out, calling one last time with the remaining strength that seemed to ooze from my battered and tortured frame.
“Kellen!”
He seemed to hear, his head turning as he saw me fall to the ground. A few seconds later he was picking me up, his eyes wide and fearful as they landed on my face. “What happened to you Renee?”
I slid my hand over his cheek and tried to smile but the pain was almost too much. “Domhnall found out.”
He shook his head, confused. “Found out what?”
“I let you out of Carden Castle,” I whispered, “I saved you.”
My eyes fluttered as my head fell
back. This was the end. I knew it.
“Why did you save me Renee?” His voice was thick, full of emotion. “Why did you care for me in the dungeon and refuse to tell me the truth?”
“Because I love you,” I answered simply. “I always have Kellen.”
He tightened his hold, shaking his head, probably in shock. “Renee. Why?”
I could barely stay conscious. My last words left my mouth before I succumbed to the darkness and my body fell limp in his arms.
“I never betrayed you. Death made me.”
Chapter 12
“You took care of me. The least I can do is take care of you.” Kellen stood and carried Renee to his stallion.
In total and complete bewilderment, he held Renee closer to his chest. She didn’t betray him? She loved him? He was so confused. Shocked. Scared.
He figured out much too late that she was the one who cared for him in Carden’s dungeons but why he didn’t act he wasn’t quite sure. Maybe it was the shame he felt. By now he knew most of her story, her past, and her decision to save Aedan and push him away in order not to hurt him too. Seasnan finally came clean and confessed what really happened that day so long ago.
Kellen was a different man than the one who raged in betrayal and heartbreak. He loved Rhiannon but not in the same way he once thought. Maybe she was a rebound at first because the only woman who ever made his heart truly sing was the one who was sheltered in his arms. Rhiannon was in love with Baethan and the two of them shared a deeper fate.
His lips lowered to Renee’s forehead as the held her close.
She passed out from her injuries, no doubt a result of Domhnall’s displeasure in her. He tried not to think of what she suffered, not yet. Kellen only knew of one person who could help her. A healer with such a powerful gift he could restore her broken body. Climbing on his horse, he held Renee close and traveled as fast as he could to Caden.
There was no time to lose.
Hours later, thankful he hadn’t ventured too far and was already on his way to Cornell, Kellen found the inn where Caden was staying. Everyone else was gone and he didn’t have the time to ask questions about Seasnan and the others. Caden seemed to understand and helped him settle Renee into a bedchamber. After paying for her room, Kellen sank next to her on the bed.
She was covered in so many bruises, in various stages of healing and colors, that he knew she was as tormented and tortured as he had been. Rage boiled under the surface. To treat a man this way was one thing, but a woman?
Kellen had to take long calming breaths to keep himself from violence.
“Can you help her?” He asked, his voice cracking and breaking.
“Yes, but she is near death’s door. This will take a lot of magic, time, and healing. You must commit to staying with her. The process will be long and grueling but she needs an anchor.”
“I’ll be the anchor,” he answered immediately.
“You understand this means you must remain by her side?”
He nodded. “Yes, she saved my life. I have no problem returning the favor.”
Caden nodded and began to invoke, chanting spells and incantations of healing for long minutes. Kellen looked on, holding her hand tightly in his own. Who knew? Who would have thought that she wasn’t the conniving deceitful bitch he once thought her to be?
His heart clenched at the abuse she endured. No one deserved that.
Long after Caden left he remained by her side until he realized she was dirty and needed a bath. Taking deliberate care, he lifted her hands and cleaned each one, then her arms and legs and feet. He gently scrubbed as much of her body as he dared. Angling her just right, he managed to wash her hair and brush it until she was clean and resting peacefully, covered by thick blankets.
He rose to stoke the fire, letting the heat penetrate the room until her skin was warm to the touch. Sitting by her bedside, he kept careful vigil over her, just as Caden asked.
Hours later, his eyelids drooping from fatigue, he heard the sound of Domhnall’s harsh voice, calling to him from the nearby mirror.
Rage filled his frame. Not again. Never would he be used as a pawn. For the first time he tapped into the hidden strength of his soul and the Light buried deep down inside. A little sliver but there nonetheless. He latched onto the strength it provided.
Rhiannon was right. Choosing the Light was easy.
Darkness was hard. Evil was exhausting. Following the dark lord and succumbing to his torture had cost Kellen greatly, he knew that now. But if Renee could be redeemed, so could Kellen.
He stood in fury and resistance, eyeing the form of the Dark General in the mirror. “You don’t control me anymore. And you don’t control Renee either. We’re free from you.”
Domhnall’s roar echoed throughout the room but Kellen stood his ground. “Leave us. Your power is wasted. Neither of us will ever serve you again.”
He felt the hold that once bogged him down snap in an instant.
As Domhnall’s visage disappeared, silence stretched over the room. Sweet, blissful, contented quiet. The solitude engulfed his soul as his eyes lowered to the sleeping woman next to him. For once he was proud of his actions but it wasn’t Rhiannon he wanted to tell.
No, the beautiful woman resting in the large bed was the only one he wanted to speak with. When she awakened he would have much to tell and confess. As his heart filled with warmth, he knew the answer and his fate belonged with Renee. All along. The fates had intervened.
Kellen finally fought the darkness and he won.
For them both.
I DIDN’T KNOW HOW DEEPLY Kellen had been used until that moment. It never occurred to me that Dom would use the malevolent to control him so completely. Forced by blood magic he had been held hostage by Domhnall, his soul tainted as darkly as mine.
I stood in the fade, the light fog playing around my ankles. I watched Kellen care for my body and hold my hand while a smile curved his lips. He won. His defeat and rejection of the enemy had given him the freedom to move passed his trauma, pain, and torture.
He was a different man than the one I knew years ago and he was better for it. No longer spoiled and ruled by his selfish desires he sought to help others in genuine need as well as perform his duty as a Guardian. Perhaps this was part of his fate, to endure such cruelty and pain in order to become a better man, one who was worthy of his title and position.
I was proud of him. When I awakened he would know everything.
The fade was calling to me, pulling me toward the deep Underworld of Hell. My final destiny awaited as I began to run toward the ebony chamber of death and suffering. Death sat on his throne as if he could also feel the moment was ripe for my conversion. I would either live or die within the next few minutes but I would never hand over any more of my soul.
I would choose light instead of darkness, hope instead of despair, and goodness instead of evil.
Witnessing Kellen as he stood up to Domhnall proved to me how wrong this all had been. I should never have been forced to sign a contract for my brother’s soul. Aedan was wrong to kill our father but he acted out of love for me, not the selfish sadistic desire to kill. There was a difference.
Visions of my past flickered before my eyes.
“Renee!”
My father’s voice echoed inside the old red barn that bordered the rear of my childhood home. I stood in the center, surrounded by hay and the smell of decay. No longer a child I didn’t fear him as I once did. He was unchanged, still the burly man with a scruffy beard, torn clothes, and reeking of alcohol.
His cruel laugh flung from his mouth along with his spittle. “Come Renee.”
Years of abuse played over in my mind. I relived every horrible painful moment. Running with Aedan in my arms. Hiding Aedan in the treehouse. Standing and enduring his physical abuse. Cowering in my room as a young girl in the middle of the night.
Faster and faster the visions repeated until I cried out in rage.
Death’s laughter fil
tered through the back of the barn and I realized none of this was real. These visions that haunted me were from the past. They no longer controlled or dictated my behavior and only held power over me if I let them.
In that moment everything changed.
The mind was the battleground of the soul. Why that never occurred to me before this precise moment I will never know but realizing this gave me the advantage. If I was truly controlled by the limitations and horrors of my own mind, then it made sense that breaking free from that contract was simple. I held the ability all along and never realized it.
With determination I sprinted forward and picked up a discarded pitchfork from the ground. Raising it in the air I shoved the rusted metal forward at the last moment and speared my dead father’s chest with the sharp prongs. Blood spurted from his chest as I heard the rage filled bellow of the Death Dealer echo across the corridors of my mind. My father’s body slumped to the ground – defeated, discarded, and finally dead.
No longer did he occupy my heart with such torturous agony. No longer did he take up space and residence in my mind. No longer did he dictate my choices or fill my body with shame. I was rid of him once and for all. Free of him and free from him. Never would I be a victim again.
I heard Death’s roar of outrage but he was too late.
The scroll appeared before me, the exact same contract that I signed with my own blood. It slowly unrolled until I could see the crimson signature on the bottom of the parchment. Before my eyes it glowed and then began to fade away until not a shimmer or hint of my blood remained. I snatched it from the air and began to rip the paper violently into a hundred tiny pieces that fell on top of my father’s dead and forgotten body.
With a flick of my wrist I doused them both in flames and walked through the open doors of the barn. I felt light. Released. Unencumbered. The ashes of my former life, filled with sorrow and agony were left behind.
I was free.
The sun burst through the clouds above me and shined upon my face as I tilted my head up and received the warmth for the first time in years. Triumph exploded in my chest as I thought of my future. Nothing had ever seemed so bright and full of promise.