"Who are you?"
Her beak opened and she sucked in the shadows, her wings tipped with black, and then she spoke. "I am a god. One you all made. Erebus tried to warn you."
Priya turned to Doulzen as Shara focused on the man. Doulzen brought shadows to him again and loosed another arrow at her. It hit home, right through her heart. But she just absorbed it, pulled it inside her body, and laughed.
"I am Ra. Thank you for releasing me . . . shadow hunter." The yellow bird flapped so hard the air gushed around Priya and knocked her and Doulzen over. When Priya looked up, Ra was gone.
"How are we going to find her? We have to stop this!" Priya stood and was about ready to change when Doulzen's hand pulled hers to him.
"You can't fix this. Erebus warned me when I asked for help that I would change things for everyone. I accepted those consequences. I didn't know what it meant. I'm still not sure, but we can't fight her. She took my shadow power and used it as her own. You won't win against her."
"Who is Ra?" Priya met Doulzen's eyes.
"A sun god."
"Right . . . and we just, what? Let her fly away?"
"Well, can you defeat a god? I'm pretty sure I can't. But Erebus knew something would happen. I'm sure he has his own plans."
"You are going to leave it up to some other god to fix?"
"No, I'm going to trust in my god, Erebus. He is of Ra's world."
Priya arched a brow at him. She wasn't sure how to take his faith. "What happened to you anyway? You seem fine now, but earlier . . ."
Doulzen smiled and his eyes twinkled with the kind of amusement only a man who has known a woman's body might experience. "I can bring that back any time you want. We'll pick up where we left off later, after this mess, I assure you. Let's just say I ate a feather and my body reacted."
Priya smiled until she remembered Richard. His body lay on the floor in a heap. She ran over to his side and felt for a pulse.
It was there. The guards started to come around from whatever spell Ra had placed on them. They shook their heads and looked around at each other.
"We need to get Richard to a doctor. Is there one here?" Priya asked. She may not want to marry him, no matter what alliances had been agreed on without her, but she didn't think he was a bad guy either. He needed help, betrothed or not. Somehow she'd deal with it when she knew he was safe.
Chapter 26
Nicholas was tied to a pole in what Priya assumed was some kind of gathering hall. She hadn't really explored this home very well yet, but once they had gotten Richard to the community's doctor over in the north wing, the other elders had ordered Nicholas brought up to the courtyard from the cellar Shara had put him in.
Priya hadn't met the other elders yet, but two older men stood beside Nicholas, one on either side, watching the crowd. Their matching brown robes hung to the ground and Priya wondered if it was a ceremonial dress the elders wore to meetings, or if they just liked the simple cassocks. One had salt and pepper hair and the other seemed much older, his hair entirely white, including his beard.
The older of the two clapped his hands once, and everyone's attention turned to him.
"Capri Romera, you are summoned by the elders to pronounce punishment on Nicholas, a human who has transgressed against you."
Priya didn't know why they hadn't called her name, except maybe because she wasn't exactly a part of the community yet. Had Shara even told them who or what Priya was?
"I can't do this. He kept me in a tank, Priya." Capri's palm was hot against hers.
"It's easy. All you have to do is walk up and say the words. Look at him, Capri. He can't hurt you. He's nothing. Just a little human who was lonely and psychotic. I'm right here with you." Priya wanted her friend to find her strength, wanted her to face what had happened to her. After saving her in the lab, Priya wanted to see her heal here too, needed to know that if Capri could do it, so could Priya. In truth, Nicholas was a pathetic creature, not even a man, a piece of crap that deserved far worse than confinement or death. He needed to pay for his crimes against Capri, her, and any others in his lab.
All the people who lived in the peak had flown to the courtyard, waiting to see what would happen, watching Capri and Priya beside her.
They walked toward the front of the crowd. The people whispered, pointed at Nicholas, some even laughed at the man. Priya wasn't sure making a spectacle of this was the right thing to do, but it wasn't her choice. And she understood a public sentencing was the best option so they wouldn't be fooled later, so Nicholas would be a face every firebird in her kinship remembered.
The elders stood in front of Nicholas. "We've sent the shadow hunter to destroy your lab." The younger elder's voice boomed out so everyone could hear.
Together, Capri and Priya walked up to the man who had caged them. The man who had harmed them. The man she should want dead, at the very least.
One arm was bound in front, the other to the poll behind him. His face was smudged with dirt and tears streaking down his skin. He reeked of urine and Priya resisted the urge to scrunch her nose. His always slicked-back, dirty-blond hair was ruffled and knotted.
Nicholas glanced from Priya to Capri and back. "All my work, my findings—"
"Are gone. You get to keep nothing," the elder said.
Priya looked at Capri. How could the delusional man ever think kidnapping and torture constituted "findings"?
"Capri, the honor to sentence our prisoner is yours for crimes he committed against you. Given that this human is not of our kind and because of the ways he tortured you and others of our kind, your choices are death, enslavement to one of our kin families, or imprisonment for the rest of his days in the dungeon." The older elder listed the options by rote, as if it was no big deal what Capri chose.
Nicholas's eyes widened and he visibly gulped. He shook in his bindings.
Priya watched her friend's face contort, first from wide-eyed fear to steely-eyed determination, as the options were set before her. Priya truly had no idea which one she would have chosen in her friend's place.
"Enslavement," Capri hissed.
"After all he has done, you'd let him live?" Priya asked. Slavery didn't seem a nearly harsh enough punishment. Her anger flared at the thought that Nicholas would have it so easy after nearly raping her, torturing them both, and yet he'd get to be a slave in the very place he'd always wanted to be?
Capri turned her animosity toward Priya. "All he's done to both of us. Death is too good for him, as that's an easy way out. In a dungeon, he gets to be alone with his thoughts. He gets to hide from what he has done. Enslavement is the only option." Capri turned back to Nicholas. "That way, you will always know what I did to you. You will have to regularly see the face of the person who has taken everything from you. You will be bound by magic never to harm another again, and you will have to serve."
Priya understood in that moment: torture for torture was what Capri had wanted. She squeezed her friend's hand, acknowledging the decision.
"The sentence is so decreed."
"Wait, Elder Resin," Capri said.
The older of the two elders turned to her with wide eyes, as if she was not supposed to interrupt. "Did you want to choose the kin to which he will be enslaved?"
"No, I uh . . ." Capri pulled Priya right up to her shoulder. "Priya deserves to sentence him too."
"She's not of our community yet," the salt-and-pepper elder said.
"No, Elder Mason, she is of our community, she was just lost to us for a time. You know her family, the Sullens. They founded our home," Capri argued.
Priya's heart slammed into her chest. What would she sentence Nicholas to if she knew death and imprisonment weren't good enough? Then her heart dropped because both elders' heads went down, as if that alone was their answer.
Capri gave Priya's hand a gentle squeeze. "She deserves to pass sentence. He nearly raped her. He should have to face her consequences too."
The elders looked up at Priya. "Is this
true?"
Priya swallowed. She hadn't wanted that little detail blurted out, but it couldn't be taken back now that it had been said. Capri had faced her fears, it was Priya's turn. "Yes."
"We can't send him to a kin family if this is true, Capri." Elder Mason gave her a stern look.
"We could if . . ." Elder Resin glanced at Priya, pulled on his white beard, and then continued, "if she agreed to castration. It's harsh and something we have not allowed in many years, but given her circumstances and that both need closure, we could make an exception."
"What!" Nicholas's face reddened. "You can't do that. I'm a human. I have rights. People will look for me."
Priya let his words fall on deaf ears. She would take that punishment. "I agree."
Nicholas struggled in his ropes. "You can't do that!"
"Human Nicholas, you are sentenced to enslavement and castration." Elder Resin nodded to a man behind the poll Nicholas was tied to and the burly guy came forward. "Take him to a cell below until we are ready to mete out his punishments."
Priya wasn't sure if this was actual closure, but in a small way, as petty as it was, she was glad he wouldn't be able to harm another the same way he'd attempted to harm her. She looked through the rest of the crowd, hoping to see Doulzen in their midst, but she couldn't find his form anywhere. She'd hoped he would have been back by now. She glanced over at Capri and smiled. Capri leaped into the air and turned into her bird form. Beautiful orange-yellow wings flared out. She flapped up high, then dove lower, her talons outstretched. Then, she scraped them down the side of Nicholas's cheek, and he screamed.
Priya hoped this was not a mistake, to let him live within the aerie among all the birds, but neither did she want him out there giving away their secrets or experimenting on any other firebirds he might find. The elders would need to keep him in their sights. The man in charge of taking Nicholas to the dungeon untied him as blood dripped to the floor. The scratches weren't overly deep, but they would leave visible scars, a warning for anyone who came near him.
Priya shifted to her white form. People still stared at her as if they would never see such a thing again. She wondered if Richard had ever shifted in front of them.
She flapped up and through the gathering hall's opening, gliding her way around columns and into the aerie's medical wing. It was like a mini hospital staffed with only firebird doctors and such. No matter what kind of hospital it was though, it still smelled the same, she decided. Like medicine and sickness. Though the big open windows did keep it a lot fresher, with breezes floating in off the peak to say hello. She guessed the fresh air probably did wonders for many of the patients. She let herself circle down to the floor, stepping out of the shift as her talons landed on the tile.
"How is he?" Priya had come directly to Richard's room. Doctor Lindsey was checking his chart.
The doctor pushed back her blond hair and looked up at Priya with a smile. "He's awake."
Priya hadn't really looked at him since she'd come in. Though she was worried about his condition, she was more worried about the marriage thing.
"Priya, my dear. So good of you to fly in," Richards's voice cracked.
"Are you okay?" Priya didn't rush to his side but stood at the foot of his bed.
"Ah yes, thanks to the good doc here." He winked at Dr. Lindsey.
"He should be able to leave by tomorrow. I just want to keep him overnight to be sure he's okay. I'll leave you two alone." The doctor sauntered out of the room, closing the door behind her.
"Look, about that marriage thing." Priya tied and untied her hair, flipping long strands over her shoulder.
"Don't. You saved me, probably saved all of us. The shade . . . well, I can't say I trust him or his kind, but I will give him this one for his help. The betrothal was something in place long before you were born. Our families had arranged for a marriage between their first-born son and daughter. You and me. But," Richard smiled ruefully, "I can see you have already given your heart to another."
Chapter 27
Doulzen hadn't anticipated leaving Marcus alone so long, but at least the man had slept most of the time. Doulzen had shadow-walked to the lab and woken Marcus with a sandwich and water. Together, they had used his shadow magic and Marcus's ritual heka as a focusing point to blow up the lab. No one would be able to find their way back.
"What will you do with me now?" Marcus asked. His hands clung to each other.
"I'm going to let you go." Doulzen started to walk away.
"Wait! Just like that?"
Doulzen looked over his shoulder at the sorcerer. "Would you prefer I do something else?"
Marcus shook his head and bolted.
Other things drove Doulzen. The hekan was no real threat, now that Nicholas was out of the way. No, the real threat was what would happen at the Blood Moon. It was so close now, and Erebus had known changes would come once that feather was consumed. What had it done to him? What had it changed?
"Erebus, hear my prayer, I seek answers." He cut a thin line on his forearm.
"Shadow hunter . . ." The day turned to night as shadows engulfed the land around Doulzen as far as his eyes could see. "What do you seek now?"
"Answers, my lord. What has happened to me?"
"You have bonded with the phoenix." Erebus hadn't said it as a question. Doulzen looked around the darkness, but couldn't see his god.
"I have."
"Your shadow magic is now bound to you. Between the shadows and the regenerative qualities of the phoenix, you are a child of the darkness. You have been reborn. Your magic can never leave you. My magic will always be your magic. Your powers will grow as you use them."
"How did I change that firebird into Ra?"
"You didn't. I trapped Ra there. Many, many years ago. She didn't know her true self until you used your shadows on her. That's when she fully awoke."
"But you knew I'd do something to free her?"
Erebus laughed. "I was counting on it." The darkness vanished, a clear sign Erebus no longer wished to speak.
"Why?" Doulzen didn't understand, but somehow he knew he wasn't going to get the answer to his question either. Gods answered to each other; they had no need to answer to those like Doulzen. "How will I fight her?" he asked, but silence answered. Terrific. He would have to travel back to his clan. Too much had been done or undone, he guessed. His clan would have to know the truth.
The thought of food hit him. He hadn't been hungry in quite a while. Since he'd eaten the phoenix feather, actually. Had Erebus changed that in him as well? To eat feathers instead of essence? It was still the nourishment of a firebird, but it didn't harm them. He could eat feathers . . . as long as they were from a shift. He didn't want to go around plucking the bird people.
His thoughts wandered to Priya and a need to be near her consumed him. Before he could stop himself, his shadows swarmed over him, taking him back to his mate. It took moments for the shadows to reach the peak. Even as he passed through the aerie's enormous gates, his flesh crawled as he traversed the magic barrier meant to keep his kind out. It no longer applied to him, evidently. He closed his eyes and concentrated on her smell, that airy, wonderful scent that had him hardening before he even saw her. The shadows pulled him to the medical part of the mansion, house, compound, whatever. It was large, it housed everyone.
Doulzen misted outside Richard's room. Priya gave the man a hug and Doulzen's stomach turned over. Anger boiled up. She wanted another? After everything? She turned and their eyes met.
"Doulzen. Come meet Richard on better terms." Her eyes were bright.
Doulzen pounded his jealousy back into place as he walked into the room. "Richard." Doulzen nodded then looked right at Priya and said, "Are you ready to finish what we started?" Her face turned red, blushing all the way down her ivory neck and he suddenly wanted to follow that blush with his tongue.
"Do not worry, shade. I have no intention of taking her from you," Richard's voice cut in.
Priya smile
d. "We will leave you to get better. Come see me when they let you out." She took Doulzen's hand and pulled him with her from the room. Once they breached the door, she lightly smacked his shoulder. "You're a menace." She laughed.
"But I'm your menace." He pulled her into his arms and kissed those lovely lips. "Let me show you how menacing I can truly be . . ."
Priya led him through the aerie to her room. He kicked the door shut once they were in and set her on the bed. "Clothes off." He growled at her while stripping. He needed to feel her under him, around him, everywhere.
***
Priya giggled. Her heart skipped a beat as she laid eyes on a man she should never have wanted and yet here she was, taking off all her clothes, anticipating what he was going to finish with that amazing mouth of his. Doulzen closed in on her, slowly, as if she really were his prey, and it made her slick between her legs.
"I want you to come around me." He shoved her legs apart. She gasped when he slid two fingers inside her and she arched her back, letting her breasts jut forward. "You're ready for me . . ." His husky voice rolled over her stomach before he kissed his way again to her clit. Within two licks of his enthralling tongue, she was quivering.
Doulzen pulled back and slipped his hips between her legs once again. She looked down as the tip of his engorged cock slid slowly into her, filling her inch by blissful inch. He backed out a little, pushed himself in, pulled nearly all the way out and then thrust himself in, slowly, measured, torturing her as he buried himself inside her.
"You feel so good inside me," she whispered. Doulzen pulled out of her and circled his hips, moving back in. She bucked against him, needing more. "Faster, harder, please."
He stopped instead, slipping himself out. Priya whimpered. Doulzen grabbed her and turned her around so her ass was in the air. She looked back at him and he pushed her into the mattress so she was completely open to him. Priya moaned when he slipped his cock back inside her. He upped his pace, fast shallow thrusts, and then when she bucked her hips to meet his, feeling her orgasm ride along the lines between them, he thrust into her, hard, deep. She spasmed, her orgasm taking her breath away, her eyes rolling to the back of her head in a pleasure greater than she'd ever felt before. The waves crashed over and over as he continued his pounding. He grunted and held himself to her, his grip on her hips so tight as he spilled his seed inside her.
Dark Burn: Fated & Forbidden Page 12