A sneer spread over his face. “We’re the ones who won’t let you go.”
He could speak.
Frowning, I heard a rustling noise. My head shot up. A group of Souls leapt down from the trees, their drawn bows aimed at me. The kid wasn’t alone. And I was surrounded.
I shoved him away and raised my fists, preparing to take them on. I tried to count them with my eyes. They were everywhere. With a shrug, I smiled. “I’ve dealt with worse.” I hurled my stick at one of them like a spear, but a barrage of arrows smashed it away before it could hit him.
Two Souls attacked me together. I regretted not having brought any knives with me. Fortunately I was fast. I snatched an arrow from one of them and stabbed him with it full in the chest. Grabbing his dagger, I turned to face the other one, but found his arrow pointed right at my face.
“You know I can’t die, don’t you?”
To my surprise, the man replied, “Remind me of that when you’re inside my belly.” He drew his bow tauter and aimed at my throat.
“Stop!” A voice thundered through the clearing. It was Stella.
“Shit,” I murmured. I gestured with my dagger as a warning to the Soul not to move. “Stella! Get out of here!” I shouted.
Instead, she continued to advance toward me . . . and everyone lowered their weapons. I looked around in bewilderment as the Damned knelt down, one by one. Only the Soul whose arrow was aimed at me didn’t move a muscle.
Stella spoke again, this time in the language of the Damned, and my adversary answered her. She came toward us and everyone moved aside to let her pass. Once beside me, she and the Damned Soul who had remained standing stared at each other for a long moment. He was the only one who hadn’t lowered his weapon. He had dark hair that partially covered his face and looked like an ex-con.
In a gesture of peace Stella slid her two daggers into the sheaths on her thigh. “He’s with me,” she announced, her tone stern. After a moment of hesitation, the Soul lowered his bow.
“What does all this mean?” I asked.
Stella smiled at me. “It means that out here I’m the queen.”
9
Sensations of Times Past
“What do you mean, you’re the queen? And what the hell did you two say to each other? I don’t know your language.”
“I told them not to kill you—for now.” Stella turned her back on me and walked toward the cave, all the others following closely behind.
“Your subjects aren’t very hospitable.” I looked over my shoulder. She might trust them, but that didn’t mean I would. The kid I’d battled glared at me bitterly. I clenched my fists when he got a little too close to Stella. I was about to stop him, but she rested her hand on his arm and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and shot me another dirty look as he helped Stella unsling her bow from her shoulder. There was something I didn’t like about the way they were standing so close.
“Didn’t you say people don’t bond around here?” I asked, striding over to her. I watched the tribe of men and women moving around outside the entrance to Stella’s hideaway and settling in. They seemed to be planning to stay.
“I haven’t bonded with any of them.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” I shot back sourly. Stella followed my eyes to the kid, who was busy sharpening a long knife. “He’s a bit more attentive toward you than the others, don’t you think?”
“That’s Vargan, son of the great chief of the Grimash. We have an alliance.”
“Since when?”
“Since I killed his father. It’s a long story and it’s none of your business.” Stella moved closer until she was inches away from my face. “Listen, the Copse is a dangerous place. There are forces better left unchallenged, and others that are better controlled.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that even if you can’t trust anyone, it’s wise to have allies. So calm down, soldier. This side of the river is my territory. Like I told you, we’re safe.”
“Why are they here? And how long are they going to stay?”
“Until all the others arrive. Meanwhile—”
“Meanwhile what?”
Drums began to beat with a tribal rhythm and Stella smiled at me. “We enjoy the party.” I returned her smile and looked around. A fire came to life in the center of the clearing, lighting everything up as the men broke into a crude dance.
“Coming with me?” Stella asked.
“Where?”
She handed me my daggers. “Those rats won’t be enough for all these people.” She leapt into the air and grabbed hold of a branch. With a flip she pulled herself up. I flashed her a smile, but it faded when I saw Vargan hold out his hand to her from the uppermost branch. I grunted. Usually I liked threesomes, but not if Stella was involved.
“Would you rather wait for us here?” she said, egging me on.
I took a running start and jumped up to grab hold of the branch. “No, I’d rather follow you guys and rip his head off with my bare hands,” I muttered to myself.
Two other Souls accompanied us: a man with black skin and a woman with Asian features. As I struggled to keep up with them, I discovered they were called Lus and Ada. I was accustomed to battles and would have defined myself as the athletic type, but they were all moving through the trees as swiftly as monkeys. They seemed like natives who had grown up in the jungle, especially Stella, at the head of the group. From time to time one of them would come to a sudden halt and shoot an arrow. A moment later they would return with a new kill.
Stella stopped on a large branch and I rushed to her side before her wingman could. Only in my fighter plane had I ever been so high up.
“Drake, look,” she said, her eyes filled with wonder.
In the distance, the sky was a sheet of black crystal fractured by a thousand bright cracks that snaked across it like branches with our every breath, illuminating everything. They were lightning bolts, a sight as frightening as it was exhilarating, no doubt generated by the Witches. Somewhere in the middle of all that, the Castle was hidden. I held back a shudder and impulsively slipped my hand into Stella’s.
“It’s time to get back,” Vargan said. “We have what we need.” He stared at me hard and I interlaced my fingers with Stella’s, making sure he noticed. It was better to set things straight right from the start.
“Fine.” Stella fastened her prey to her belt. “Let’s get back to the camp.” She let go of my hand, looked at me, and flung herself into empty space, arms outstretched.
“Stella!” I screamed, lurching forward as I tried to grab her. Vargan sneered at me and followed Stella’s example, as did all the others. “Fuck,” I muttered, and jumped. I didn’t know what was below us, but if they had done it, there was no way I wasn’t going to follow them. I plunged into the abyss and immediately made out something through the twilight: a thick network of vines growing from trees so tall they seemed to be dangling from the sky. Stella’s laughter echoed through the Copse, filling me with energy. I caught a vine and swung through the air until I reached another one and yet another. It was electrifying. When I got close to Stella, I let go of my vine and grabbed hers.
“Drake!” she exclaimed with surprise, but then she smiled at me.
“If I didn’t know where we were, I would swear this was Heaven,” I whispered against her lips. I held her close and she looked into my eyes as the air gently rocked us in its embrace. Feeling her lips so close was a form of sweet madness that went straight to my head. I’d barely brushed them with mine when the vine suddenly snapped, sending us plunging down. I held Stella in my arms until we had rolled to a halt on the ground.
“What the hell?” I groaned, aching from the impact. “Stella, you okay?” She nodded.
“Nice landing,” Vargan said. There was a chorus of laughter. We were back at the camp. I caught sight of his boomerang-knife a second before he put it away to help Stella. He challenged me with his eyes as he took her hand and held it in his. That sly smirk
spoke volumes. It was he who had made us fall.
I leapt to my feet and faced him, slamming my hands into his chest. “She could’ve gotten hurt.”
“Then you shouldn’t have taken her so far up,” he shot back, inches from my face.
“Hey, hey! What’s going on?” Stella stepped between us and made us back off each other. Then she leaned closer to me. “Drake, I told you to calm down. We’re all on the same side here.”
“Well, maybe he’s a little too much on yours.”
Stella held my gaze and then said something to the kid. I couldn’t stand her being so close to him. Or their talking in Grimtholk, for that matter. When she walked away, the Soul smiled and passed me, bumping my shoulder as he did. “So that’s where my shirt was.”
A surge of blood clouded my mind and I lost control.
“Drake! Drake, stop! Let him go!”
I barely heard Stella’s voice as I held Vargan pinned to a tree, ready to rip the smile off his face. “She’s with me,” I hissed, almost like it was an order.
Vargan glared back at me, then looked over my shoulder. I turned too, and saw Stella. She cast me a bitter glance and walked away.
The other Souls seemed to be having fun. Some of them moved to the beat of the drums, doing cartwheels, flips, and acrobatic leaps from high in the trees. Others had captured an Insane Soul and were having a competition to see who could hit him from a distance with arrows and knives while he writhed against a tree trunk. Another group, including Stella, was gathered around the fire.
I spotted a face I recognized and went up to him, slapping my hands on his big shoulders. “Gurdan! You’re back!”
He gripped my fist and to my surprise pulled me against him in a man hug. “Still one piece, Princess.”
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Stella smiling at the sight. “Don’t hug me so hard or I won’t be for long,” I gasped. His grip was bone-crushing. When Gurdan let go of me I went over to Stella and sat down beside her. In her hands was a bowl. She was busy grinding up its contents. It was thick and black. “What is that stuff?” I asked.
She got up and sat down facing me, her legs crossed and the bowl between us. “Want me to show you?”
I nodded, my eyes locked on hers. I wasn’t used to such a roller coaster of emotions. What were we doing there? I wanted to take her away, away from all those Souls, somewhere I could remind her that she was mine. Stella dipped her fingers into the black liquid and began to draw marks on my face. “I’m guessing this isn’t ink,” I said.
“It’s black blood, prepared according to an ancient Grimash tradition.” Her fingers slid down to my neck, drawing who knew what marks. She was so close our knees were touching. “Your turn,” she said, her dark eyes probing inside me.
I dipped my fingers into the black blood and touched them to her face. “Do you remember that ‘Stella’ means ‘star’?” Back during the war, she’d been all I ever thought about. She was my North Star, who would guide me home.
“You always used to ask me that,” she said in a soft voice. Sharing old memories with Stella was as painful as it was moving.
“What does ‘Kahlena’ mean?”
Stella’s expression darkened. “‘She who has the courage to endure.’”
“Sounds like a perfect name.” It couldn’t have been easy for her to change and adapt in order to survive, but she had done it.
She watched me steadily as I painted butterfly wings around her eyes, sharp-edged, like her warrior spirit. I traced two marks on her cheeks, hypnotized by her lips. I touched them with my thumb and held it there for a long moment, gripped by a primitive desire to bite them. With the blood I outlined her neck, sliding my fingers down to her breast as our eyes confessed our most hidden secrets.
A shrill whistle broke the bubble of silence in which she and I had sought refuge. I clenched my fists. Vargan was calling for everyone’s attention.
“Hey everybody, don’t you think this celebration is missing something?”
“Elixir!” they all cried in unison, raising old goblets into the air.
“Full cups is what we want. Elixir’s better than hum! Where’s the apothecary?” some Soul who must have been from Merry Olde England cried.
Stella shook her head and stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“To get them what they want before a riot breaks out.”
I followed her inside the cave to the weapons room, where she took out some containers full of a red liquid. She shook them and poured a little of the liquid into two glasses. Pushing one across the counter, she said, “First taste goes to the guest of honor.”
I looked at the red liquid and then at her, amazed. “You’re an apothecary.”
Stella shrugged. “You pick up lots of things when you’re learning to survive. Come on, try it. It’s my personal stock. Higher quality.”
I grabbed the glass and knocked back the liquid in a single gulp. She stared at me with a little grin on her face and then did the same. There was no doubt about it: she was my soulmate. “You’re quite the expert,” I said. “It’s really good.”
“The hell it is! It’s more than good. It’s heaven.”
I moved closer to her, one eyebrow raised. “It’s also an aphrodisiac.”
She smiled and threw back another shot. “So they say.”
“Then we should take advantage of it.” I pulled her against me and kissed her neck. “Why don’t we go make love? Just the two of us,” I whispered.
She pulled away from my kisses. “Drake—”
“What’s the matter?”
“There are a lot of people out there. Be a good boy, now.”
“I don’t care about other people, you should know that. After the party we’re leaving. I told you I would find a way to get you out of here, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
“Well, I care.”
“About anyone in particular?” I stared at her suspiciously. “You’ve been with Vargan, haven’t you? Has he touched you?” Just saying the words sent the blood rushing to my head. “You’ve been with him. That’s why you had his clothes in your house. Tell me the truth.”
Stella’s expression turned cold. “It’s none of your business.”
“Yes it is,” I shot back, inches from her face. “You’re mine, Stella.”
“I’m Kahlena. I belong only to myself,” she hissed, furious.
“You made love with me.”
“It was because of the poison. The steam in the grotto went to our heads.”
“No! You can’t act like nothing happened. You can’t push me away like this. What’s happened to you?”
“Hell,” she said, serious. She picked up the tray of cups with the Elixir and stormed out. I gripped the countertop as anger flared inside me like a lightning bolt ready to destroy. With a frustrated growl I knocked everything off the counter, sending the weapons crashing to the floor.
Tricu rolled over to my side and looked up at me. “Go away, you stupid mutt.” I heard the Souls cheering the arrival of the Elixir and decided I might as well go out there and get drunk.
When I came out of the cave, Stella was standing barefoot in the middle of the throng, moving her body lithely like a black flame in the middle of a fire. The woman named Ada was with her. When the rhythm changed other Souls joined in, beginning a dance with a medieval beat. Vargan walked over to Stella and offered her his hand, inviting her to dance. Instinctively, her eyes flew to me, but she didn’t turn him down. Just the opposite: she used the opportunity to provoke me. The dance grew more sensual and she moved her body together with his, her eyes glued to mine. A Soul was passing me and I ripped the large cup out of his hands.
Unable to take it any more, I walked away from the party and headed toward the river. There was no way I was going to stay there watching a bunch of Souls high on Elixir.
I sat at the water’s edge, determined to do what I had been best at doing on Earth. I gulped down a long swig of the warm
liquid and felt it gliding down my throat and then surging back up to my head. I’d missed the sensation. “Now we’re talking.”
Lying back, I contemplated the dark sky. From time to time lightning bolts split it in two. There was no thunder, only luminous streaks that danced to the rhythm of the now-distant music. Part of me couldn’t accept what Stella had become. When I’d discovered she was still alive I’d fooled myself into thinking that all I had to do was find her. That part had been unexpectedly easy. But she had changed. I would have to adapt. Finally I had found an opening in her heart—she’d let me find it—but I couldn’t expect her to offer it to me. I had to give her more time to get used to me again. To get used to us.
I took another swig of Elixir and stood up, ready to return to her. I couldn’t believe that I, of all people, was thinking it, but the party was a waste of time. We had to find a way out of Hell. I would get her out of there or spend eternity trying.
“Drake!” A voice I didn’t recognize shouted my name, sounding alarmed. A moment later Ada came running out of the forest.
“I’m right here. Calm down. What’s going on?”
“Kahlena!” She was out of breath, but what scared me most was the look in her eye. “They took her.”
My world crumbled into a pile of black dust.
10
Battlefield
“What the fuck? They took her? Who did?!” I shouted, alarmed.
A hiss broke the silence and Ada’s head teetered unnaturally on her shoulders. Her black blood splattered my face. “Ada!” I watched in shock as her head slid off her neck. A moment later, her body exploded in a black cloud.
“Draaake!” Stella’s frightened scream pierced the night. A shudder made my blood run cold and I leapt into action. I could hear Tricu grunting as I raced desperately toward the clearing, trying to make out other sounds through the ominous silence. At the fire I came to a halt. The party was over. Bodies of the Damned lay on the ground, mutilated or abandoned in puddles of black blood.
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