The Complete Set

by Ainsley Shay

  The house was dimly lit. A few scattered candles made the statues come to life. As the flames quivered and swayed, so did they. I was still awed by them. Blacwin paused just outside the kitchen. “Why don’t you find someplace to sit where you’ll feel comfortable? I’ll make coffee, then I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

  It was a promise that chilled me to my core. I came here for answers, so why was I so frightened to learn what they were?

  The confines of the house were too much, so I settled on the back porch swing. Using the few minutes to clear my head would have been smart. But, my thoughts were scattered on too many things, with the last thought bursting into pieces when I heard Blacwin come up behind me.

  “Here.” Over my shoulder, he handed me a mug of coffee. He came around to the front of the swing and waited.

  I nodded; I wanted him next to me. The swing stopped swaying when he sat. He gently pushed us back and forth. The ropes creaked against the thick eyebolts in the ceiling. “Talk to me, Iris.” His voice pleaded in the dark of the early morning.

  I wasn’t sure where to start, so I asked him what about the nightmare. “Why are you in my dreams?”

  “I was there.”

  I closed my eyes and for the hundredth time tried to fathom all of this, again for the hundredth time, failing. I wanted to look at him, but I was afraid of what I would see. “Like Chandler, Penemuel, and Adelina?”

  “Yes, we were all there.”

  “Me? It really is me in my dreams, isn’t it?” I should have stopped, been patient for his answers, but I rambled outrageous notions that couldn’t possibly be true. “I mean, Chandler said I was. But how—it’s inconceivable. I don’t even know the dates of those dreams, but it had to be in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. I mean that would make you—”

  “Over five hundred years old.”

  Okay, yeah. “What did you put in this coffee?”

  “Cream and two lumps of sugar.”

  He bought sugar cubes for me. My heart swelled at that. “Anything else? Like say... a molly or ecstasy?”

  His lip twitched like he wanted to smile. But, I thought, based on the situation and how off the charts this was, he held back. I decided to tuck that piece of insane knowledge in the back of my mind for now. Because, if he was that old—I asked before I even fully thought about the question, “What are you?”

  He looked out at the yard of statues. Their light alabaster forms reflected the moonlight. His voice was low and distant. “I was taken from my family and brought to Skelside when I was eleven years old.”

  “Taken, like, kidnapped?” He was just a small, innocent boy.

  “Yes, but my mom knew he would come for me. He came for all of us.”

  “He?” I questioned, but in my gut, I knew who the sick kidnapper of children was. I wanted to ask why, if his mom knew, she didn’t take him far away, hide him.

  “Lord Darenfys,” he confirmed.

  “Why?”

  “Every day, Lord Darenfys had guards who trained us to kill, to fight in battles that would never happen. All the surrounding kingdoms knew they could never win. When the night came, he forced us to drink blood mixed with wine. Years later, we learned it was his blood, the blood of an immortal fallen angel. His blood coursed through our veins. We were strong, unable to get sick, required less sleep. All sounds great, but there were drawbacks: our bodies grew fast. By the time I was fourteen, I had looked like I do now. Blood became part of our daily diet until we were like him. The roughest part was our emotions and senses were heightened to extreme measures.”

  I was still lost at the part when he was taken from his family. I shut out the image of those poor boys forced to drink blood with the brutality and inhumanity like in my nightmare. “So you can never die?”

  “No.” He glanced over at me. “There were times when I wished for death more than anything else in the world.”

  I understood. I had wished for the same many times over in the last several weeks; starting when my father was killed. But, my dad had been right, no matter what seems to be hopeless now, with time, it will be healed, understood, or made right. But, to endure that kind of pain for centuries? That was beyond torturous.

  “Why do you want to kill Lord Darenfys?”

  “My brother and I want the same thing, we all do: the key to killing Lord Darenfys, which may be locked in your memories. But, like I said in the cemetery, we want it for different reasons. My brother wants the knowledge destroyed, to protect the Lord.”

  “Why would he want to protect that monster?”

  “My brother will honor him for eternity.”

  “Is that why you hate your brother?”

  “That’s one reason. The other is for forcing you into the dungeon. I came to see you every day. I was powerless to do anything to help you...”

  I realized I’d stopped breathing when my lungs began to sear. I took a deep breath and asked, “And your reason for wanting the secret?”

  “To kill Lord Darenfys for what he did to you.”

  All of this was for revenge.

  “Adelina is the only one who knows how to kill Lord Darenfys. But, I was too late. By the time I had arrived, she was already gone.” He took a sip of coffee and was quiet for a long moment.

  “Is that why you wanted her journals?”

  “Yes. I hoped she had written something about that day, the curse, but, I found nothing.” He took a deep breath.

  When I wrote down the dream of Adelina finding Catherine with Lord Darenfys, I hadn’t understood what Adelina had done. But, with that one word, ‘curse’, Blacwin made it very clear. Adelina had bound Catherine to Lord Darenfys. “I had dreamt of that the other day; the curse.”

  Every muscle in his body froze. “You did?”

  I nodded. “Yes. I didn’t know what was happening. But, I’ll never forget the hatred in Adelina’s eyes.”

  “The argument Chandler and I had in the bookstore, well, that was a misunderstanding we have had since, well, our days at Skelside. I had known Chandler escaped to find Adelina after she fled. He wanted to find her so she could lift the curse from you. I—” his voice cracked. He took a deep breath. “I was supposed to keep you safe, just like he said. I was the reason—”

  “Don’t.” I rested my hand on his thigh. “Please don’t. If Skelside was anything like it had been in my nightmares, I know there’s nothing you could have done.”

  “Adelina’s hate comes second to the hate I feel for Darenfys.” Blacwin hissed out his name. “There were only two I’ve ever cared about finding: Adelina deBlays and you. Let me rephrase, needed to find Adelina and desperately wanted to find you.”

  As agonizing as it was for him, Blacwin was fulfilling his promise. I still had plenty of questions after he had explained the history behind what was going on. I needed to know what was happening between us and why. “How did you know it was me? Catherine, I was her?”

  “Your eyes,” he simply said.

  “Did we know each other before... I went to Skelside?”

  Blacwin shook his head. “Chandler had become my best friend at Skelside. That’s how I knew of you. He adored you and spoke of you often. I think I fell in love with you before I had met you. He was furious with me when he learned I brought you to Skelside. Of course, I had no idea you were his sister until he saw you. But for his safety and yours, he didn’t tell anyone but me.”

  I pondered that for a moment. “How did you know where I was? How to find me?”

  “I have always had a lead as to where you were because of Chandler. He does have a gift of seeing things, although I think it’s mostly a hunch that’s unclear and selective, it’s still helpful at times. Plus, he has a bond with you that’s stronger than most.”

  I smiled. “I think you might be right on that.” The air between us lightened.

  “When I realized he was settling down in Gradywoods, I knew he was on to something. But, I had no idea that you were here. I’m not sure if he
did either. He came because Adelina was here, or had been at one time. She’s not the easiest to track. When I moved here into her place, I searched every crevice of this place for a way to kill Darenfys. As you know, I found nothing. But, I found a receipt for the pickup of old books from Yves Antique Pages.”

  “When you came in the store, that’s when you knew it was me?”

  “Immediately. It was like being struck by lightning. But of course, I couldn’t tell you, because that would have been, let’s just say, weird at best. You would run as fast as you could from me, and I couldn’t let that happen, not when I had finally found you.” He set down his coffee and turned to face me. His hand gently lifted my chin. “You and I have a history together, a bond, that is virtually unbreakable. For me, every day since the moment I met you, no one else seems to exist. Then, we were separated. You could only imagine the loss I felt.” He paused, seemingly incapable of finishing what I had dreamt of less than an hour ago. It was unbearable to think of.

  It all sounded very horror-fairy-tale like. “Is any of this real?”

  “Very.”

  44

  30 days after ~

  The short guard was kneeling next to me. My head swam with all the things that I could do to escape. But, my body wouldn’t cooperate and lay against the bars of the cell. The guard held the goblet to my lips. I didn’t fight. I drank. Then, I drank more.

  “That’s a good girl,” he cooed. “You see, we told you you’d get used to it.”

  I felt blood dribble out of my mouth and down my chin. My eyes were heavy, and I fought to open them. Something was happening to my body. It was as if the tiny switches that kept everything functioning, my lungs, heartbeat, the tumbling of thoughts, movements small and large, hearing the water trickling onto the floor, tasting the blood still in my mouth, were one by one being switched off. I tried to keep what I knew was my last breath of air, but my lungs sank in my chest, and the air expelled between my cracked lips. My eyes were the last to fade out. They closed on their own for the final time.

  As if watching myself from above, I saw Blacwin come to see me. He reached through the bars and stroked my hair. He took something out of his pocket and wiped away the blood from my lips. It was then that he realized I wasn’t breathing. A growl was wrenched from his throat and morphed into something that was un-human-like.

  Blacwin stood. With his arm outstretched, he stormed toward the guard who had stopped dead in his tracks. The guard had no chance to run before Blacwin was on him, his hand around the guard’s throat. “You killed her.” Blacwin lifted him off his feet. “You killed her,” he repeated in a voice that was nothing like his own.

  The guard’s face was changing colors and swelling. He tried to pry Blacwin’s hand away, but couldn’t. Blacwin held him in his fist. Anger rushed from every pore. He growled and cursed in a language I didn’t know. The guard’s head fell to the side, and Blacwin finally released him. His body slumped in a dirty pile on the ground.

  Blacwin turned toward me and came into the cell. He kneeled next to me, lifted my body and gently set me on his lap. He rocked us as if we were one. He repeated two words over and over again, “I’m sorry.”

  They say when you die in your dream, you die in real life; that didn’t happen to me. I woke up screaming.

  “Iris, calm down, you’re okay.” Chandler’s voice cut through the darkness. He wiped the tear rolling down my cheek.

  I shook my head back and forth, back and forth. “No, I’m not, I’m not okay.”

  “Did you die?”

  I nodded and whispered, “Yes.”

  He pulled me into his arms and held me like I would break into a million pieces if he let go. “Then, that was the last one.”

  45

  I don’t know how I was able to fall back asleep after watching myself die, but I had. I woke to the sun beaming into the apartment. When I turned onto my back, I stared into the eyes of another nightmare. Penemuel sat on the edge of the bed and positioned his arm so that I was trapped under the covers. “Good morning.”

  “Where’s Chandler?”

  “I believe he went to the café, so we don’t have much time. Get up,” he demanded and stood.

  I reached for my phone on the nightstand but then remembered I left it in the kitchen to charge overnight.

  Penemuel walked to the table where the statue was. He picked it up and studied it. “She is amazing.”

  I didn’t know if he was talking about the statue or the one who had carved it, Adelina. I glanced at the balcony. Was it possible that I could take the two steps to get to it, unlock it, and scream at the top of my lungs over Main Street? Someone would have to hear me.

  “Don’t even think about it.”

  “Too late.” I looked at him, and his harsh stare met my scared and furious one. He was in front of me in two long strides and tossed the statue on the bed behind me.

  Grabbing my arm, he pulled me to the kitchen and snatched my phone off the counter. Then, he dragged me to the front door. “We leave now.”

  I could only hope Chandler’s timing was perfect as we made our way down the stairs.

  Penemuel abruptly turned before we reached the bottom. “You scream, and I will kill every person you care about.” I knew he would, he had already proven it.

  Cool air skimmed my bare legs, and the roughness of the sidewalk scraped my bare feet. Chandler was nowhere that I could see, and I silently cursed him. Penemuel yanked my arm and pulled me to the side of the bookshop where he had parked his car. No one else was parked in the small alley, and that was unfortunate for me. Fear coursed through me as he forced me into the passenger seat.

  He pulled out of the alley and drove away from town. “She was quite a catch, you know?”

  “Who?”

  “Adelina.” He shook his head in disgust. “So, when you showed up, I had no idea what in the devil’s eye he saw in you.” He glanced over at me. “You were, correction—are, so plain, helpless, and powerless. It was a joke to all that he wanted you to take the place at his side. He let the minuscule part of his human side take over any sense he had. His need to be a mere mortal almost broke us. He was the only one who was oblivious to the near collapsing of our kingdom.”

  “Then why didn’t you let me go?”

  “If I had known he was going to be so taken with you, I would have. But, it was too late; he had seen you get out of the carriage when you first arrived. Love at first sight and all that crap,” he mumbled. “As for my brother, I knew that look on his face when he first saw you.” He shook his head and huffed. “We were bred to be strong and heartless. Blacwin was weak. He would never succumb to its power. Then, when he saw you, I watched the strength he was gifted fade. I wanted him to suffer for it.” He barked out a laugh. “And he has, every day since.”

  The barn where the rave parties were held was up ahead on the right. The car slowed as we approached it. My stomach flip-flopped. This was where the other girl had been killed. I wanted to throw up. “You killed that girl, the one found hanging here, didn’t you?”

  He apparently admitted murders with slinky evil grins. “Lord Darenfys taught us all to crave the need for blood. Our bodies need it to sustain what we are.” He glanced over at me. “What, my brother hasn’t asked you for a taste yet?”

  I didn’t want to hear any more. I reached for the handle and yanked. Nothing happened.

  He roared with laughter as he pulled around to the back of the barn and put the car in park. Reaching over me, he pushed the button to release the seatbelt. “This is what’s going to happen: I am going to get some supplies out of the trunk, come around to your side to get you. Most importantly, you are not going to run or scream, do you understand?” I nodded. “Then, we are going to go in that side door,” he pointed to a closed door of the barn, “this will be your new home until you tell me how to kill Lord Darenfys or break the curse.”

  Everything went exactly as he planned. The barn smelled musty and sickly like someon
e had lived here without a toilet.

  He wrapped my wrists with rope and forced me to sit near a beam to which he tied me. “Welcome home.” I fought the urge to fight. “Locking you in that dungeon was one of my happiest moments. I thought things would go back to as they were. But, they only got worse.” As he talked about Skelside, an accent that had been camouflaged began to surface. “I should bring you there now.”

  “It still exists?”

  He ignored me. For the next several hours he ignored my cell phone that repeatedly rang and chimed, advising of new texts, while my thoughts ebbed and flowed in and out of my consciousness. I hadn’t realized I laughed aloud. Penemuel asked, “What’s so funny?”

  “This is how I was going to lure you to your death, tell you what you want to know.”

  His head whipped around to look at me. “You know how to kill him?”

  Nonchalance would only piss him off, so that’s what I went with. I lifted one shoulder.

  “Have you told anyone?”

  I never had to lie and say I knew how to kill Darenfys or how to break the curse, he merely assumed. Luckily, for me, he played right into my own game. BAM! I never played chess, but I mimicked in my head, checkmate and I felt ironically in control of the situation; even though I was tied up and he was free—okay maybe not completely in control. My mind raced to think of a way to get free while I let him believe what I had never actually admitted. My head lolled to the side to meet his glare. He looked like he wanted to drain me right then and there.

  Pene’s jaw pumped. “Tell me,” he growled.

  “Untie me.”