Release (The Protector Book 3)

by M. R. Merrick

  “Yeah, that’s him, and this is awesome, I just can’t wait to meet him.”

  “You want to meet him? Why? He looks terrifying,” Tiki asked.

  “That’s not what I meant. I was being…nevermind. What exactly is this?”

  “It is called a…Kiv-rak-ai—a deadly beast of speed, agility, strength, and power.”

  “Is that all?”

  “No,” Tiki said. “Its third eye can unleash a flame so intense that it melts even the thickest armor. They dominate all Underworlders who cross their path, with the exception of the Drakonian, their only known predator.”

  “Drakonian?”

  “They are demons, much like what I’ve read the dragons of your world once were, only they can change the size of their forms from incredibly large to immaculately small. It is also rumored they can appear in somewhat of a human-like form, but that is just legend. They are respected and feared by all, but no one has seen one in ages. They live secluded in the mountains of a dimension known as Orian, a world birthed from the god Korinth. Many travel there, but nobody ventures to their mountain land in fear of their wrath.”

  “What of these Kivrakai? What dimension are they from?” Marcus asked.

  Tiki went silent, sliding his finger lower as he finished reading each line. “Here it says they are from Vortan…”

  “And you know this world?”

  Tiki looked up at Marcus and nodded, but his words said otherwise. “No.”

  Confusion warped Marcus’s face.

  “I know of it, but I have never been. After disregarding the warnings I’d been given of Theral many years ago, I traveled there anyway to see it for myself. After that experience, I told myself I would never return to another Ithreal-born dimension. They are all filled with fierce, honorless creatures, and I did not wish to risk my life in such a way again.”

  “So now what?” I asked.

  “I don’t think we have a choice,” Marcus said. “If we wish to collect a soul piece, we have no option but to go to one of his worlds. Right now, this is the only one we know of.”

  “I’ve heard many stories of Vortan since I was a child,” Tiki said. “If we go there, we must be prepared. Even the weaker creatures that live in these worlds are horrid in comparison to what you’ve seen.”

  “Like the Visceratti?”

  Tiki shook his head. “The Visceratti are born of the Proto dimension, and they never leave their world…until recently, I suppose. In comparison to the creatures of Vortan, the Visceratti are mild. Anything that can survive under these creatures,” Tiki pointed to the image of the Kivrakai, “will not be anything we should take lightly.”

  “And you’ve never heard anything of them before?” Marcus asked.

  “It is rare for any of Ithreal’s creatures to be brought up in discussion. It is considered disrespectful.”

  Marcus pursed his lips. “We’re going to need a large group.”

  “And a lot of weapons,” I added. “But still, we’ve narrowed down the world I saw, but we already knew which two we needed to visit. This doesn’t help us with where in that dimension the soul piece is.”

  Marcus nodded. “We’ll need to wait until Chief and Jax return. We’ll discuss how to move forward once they can be included. Perhaps by narrowing our research to just this world, we’ll be able to find something.”

  “Well, Kivrakai are usually found in the Northern part of Vortan,” Tiki said, reading down the page. “Although that may not help us either. I have never been there, and being unfamiliar with the land, I’ll have even less control than usual when teleporting us.”

  “I think we can all agree we’re going to have to hope for the best on this one. Elyas has guided Chase before, and unfortunately, we need to put some faith in that.”

  “Great….” I said.

  “Until then,” Marcus looked up at the clock above the fireplace, “I think we all need to get our rest. I’ll see you two in the morning.” Marcus nodded and carried himself silently down the stairs.

  I looked back over the page Tiki had shown me with the Kivrakai staring back at me.

  “Is everything okay, Chase Williams?”

  “It just sounds like this is a dangerous place.”

  “Very,” Tiki said. “But why does that trouble you? We are in, and have been in, a dangerous place for some time now.”

  “I don’t want to get anyone else hurt. And these are entire worlds we’re talking about. I never considered the fact that we’re putting our faith in the guidance of an invisible spirit who appears at random. I can’t lose anyone else.”

  Tiki’s hand touched my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “You are the Protector, Chase Williams. It is not in your fate to be defeated.”

  I let out a half-laugh and shook my head. “What exactly is my fate?”

  Tiki was silent and when I looked at him, he shrugged. “You are meant to save the dimensions. At least that is the interpretation I always took away from it. I do not have the answers, but I do have the faith, and it lies in you.”

  “What about you? What’s your fate in all this? We collide out of nowhere in Drakar, and you just offered to help me. Why?”

  “It is my fate.”

  “No, you don’t get off that easy this time.”

  Tiki’s orange eyes stared up at me and his neutral expression was unwavering. His unblemished caramel skin was glowing in the firelight, and his shirtless body disappeared into tattered white pants. You could take him shopping, you could tell him to wear regular clothes, but he would always appear the same. This was Tiki.

  “When I was little, I was almost killed by my eldest brother and father. They were ashamed to have a half-breed in their family, and they wanted the honor of taking my life. My mother, however, would not allow it, as it was against our laws.”

  “Against the law to kill?”

  “You cannot challenge a youth. It is considered cowardly.”

  Before I could ask, Tiki was pacing in front of me, continuing his story. “Instead, she sent me to the dungeons, where I cleaned up after dead and tortured prisoners. When I wasn’t there, I worked in the stables and on the farms. My father and brother waited until I became of age, and on my birthday, I received the challenge. The only option was to accept, or be killed, and so I accepted.”

  “You had to fight your father and brother just to stay alive?”

  “They fought me for the glory of ridding their family of an embarrassment. I fought them for my life, and more so, my freedom.”

  “Well obviously that didn’t turn out well for them.”

  “After years of working as a slave, they expected me to be starved, weak, and exhausted. But I had adapted to small meals, and the work had strengthened me. I had been taught to fight as a child, and I never stopped training. My family was also unaware that when I came of age, my demon came alive inside me. I entered the arena and put on the show that was demanded of me, and when the time was right, I unleashed my hidden Underworlder.”

  “You won your freedom.”

  “I took the lives of my enemies, and spared my brother and father. I left them to a worse fate than death—embarrassment. I spent hundreds of years as a drifter, wandering from world to world. I was unaccustomed to coming and going as I pleased and eating what I wished, so at first I just enjoyed it. I grew arrogant, taking what I wanted from others, and fighting any who dared to challenge me. This was how I earned respect—for the most part—among the Underworlders.”

  “How did that lead you to me?”

  “By my third century, I was a large, wealthy, and arrogant man. I had a small army of half-breeds who followed my every footstep and did as I commanded. I took land and slaves of my own, forcing them to do what I once did. I was full of sin and blinded by anger.”

  “You were a king…” I said.

  “I was a murderer.” Tiki lowered his gaze and release a quiet sigh. “After a night of too many drinks, I awoke to find all of my people dead. Poisoned by unsee
n hands. I should’ve been angry, and quick to react, but instead, I was sad. All the people I’d once cared for, but had come to regard as unimportant, were gone. The pedestal I’d placed myself on was shattered before I’d had an opportunity to defend it.”

  “Did you find whoever killed them?”

  Tiki stared into the dwindling flames. Light blue arms reached up off the ashy logs, snapping red embers onto the floor.

  “I realized then I was lost. The freedom I fought so desperately for was stolen from me by arrogance and greed. I do not know who spilled the poison, but truly, it was I who got them killed. I angered the pure bloods, I stole from the rich, and I killed the innocent. I did not need to be the one to pour the poison. I was the poison.”

  “I think you’re being a little hard on yourself.”

  “You are welcome to your opinion, but you know that isn’t true,” Tiki said, taking a deep breath. “I spent years in search of myself then, until I finally met Krulear. She fed me and gave me guidance, allowing me to travel with her. After several years she offered to see for me. She tasted my blood and saw my future. She told me I would have the opportunity for redemption. The walls to the Earth dimension would fall, and from that, a hunter would invade my world. That hunter is you, Chase.”

  “You think I’m your redemption?”

  “I know you are. I do not know why we met when we did. I do not know how we met like we did. I have been teleporting from dimension to dimension for centuries, and I have never heard of this happening. It is fate that we came together, Chase. You can argue your logic should you so choose, but fate has no logic.”

  “I…” My voice trailed off and I was at a loss for words. I couldn’t argue with Tiki, and part of me didn’t want to. This was the first time he’d had ever opened up to me. Granted, it was the first time I had tried to get him to, but regardless, I didn’t want to spoil it.

  “I see a lot of my former self in you, Chase. But in you I see a hope that did not exist in me. I pray to the gods that I am able to help you in a way nobody could have ever helped me. I don’t wish you to experience what I did. I don’t wish that loss on anyone.” Tiki turned to face me and his face was still, but I could see a sadness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. “If you’ll excuse me, I must get my rest.”

  “Tiki…”

  “Goodnight, Chase Williams.” Tiki walked past me, his bare feet silent against the hardwood floor.

  “Goodnight,” I whispered.

  My eyes were lost in the fading embers of the fire. Tiki’s story played out in my mind and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t envision him as angry or arrogant. The Tiki he spoke of seemed like an impossibility to me, but I saw the look on his face, and I knew Tiki wouldn’t lie.

  I tried to imagine what he had gone through and what it might feel like, but I couldn’t. I thought my exile was horrible. Being the son of an infamous hunter was the bane of my existence. I was hunted by the Underworld and mercilessly killed any demon that crossed my path.

  Even now, having seen that the world didn’t exist in only black and white, I held my own opinions above everyone else’s. I too reacted with only emotion and look where it had gotten me. My mother was dead, Willy was missing, and the family that had built itself around me was starting to fall apart.

  Now I was asking them all to travel to a world full of creatures more powerful than them—than all of us. I wanted them to risk their lives to fulfill a prophecy I was a part of—even though we didn’t know what that prophecy was—and they would. Each of them was prepared to fight and battle their way through the unknown.

  Tiki was right; I was the Protector, and as such, it was my duty to ensure they all remained safe. I wasn’t so naïve as to think I could do this alone—I knew I couldn’t. But what I could do was make sure I wasn’t working against them. When I needed help, I had to ask for it. And when push came to shove, I had to make decisions with them, not for them. This wasn’t about me, it was about us. We were all in this now and there was only one way out of it, and that was together.

  Chapter 17

  I closed the door to my room and Rai chirped wildly from her open cage. I reached in and stroked her feathers. A low purring came from her throat and she nibbled gently at my fingers. Light flashed in her eyes, and from where I was standing, it almost looked as if she was smiling.

  I fell onto my bed and stared up at the clean, white ceiling. I had stared at it so many times over the past few months, and still I wasn’t used to it. This ceiling represented the fact I was no longer in my old apartment; it also meant my mother was gone.

  That image of her charred body lying motionless in the blue and red grass of Drakar formed in my mind. The waves crashed around us, the wind blew, and lightning flashed in the sky. I had put all my magic into her that night, trying to bring her back, but I was too late. My careless, erratic anger got her killed and I couldn’t change that, but I could stop it from happening to anyone else.

  The image shattered as I heard a soft knock and my door creaked open. Rayna slipped inside and quietly closed the door behind her.

  “Hi…” she whispered. She stood in front of the door in black pajama pants and a long-sleeved pink t-shirt. Her hair was pinned up in a golden clip, the red strands swallowed by black.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked, pushing myself up and resting against the headboard.

  “Yeah…” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “No, not really. I was hoping we could talk.”

  “Of course. I’ve been wanting to since I got back, but things have been a little crazy.”

  “That’s an understatement.” Rayna took a deep breath and turned to face me on the bed. “I wanted to apologize for how I behaved today. It was immature and I…I don’t know what got into me. I’m letting everything with us, and Jonathan, and Riley get under my skin.”

  “It’s fine. There’s—”

  “No, it’s not fine. Jonathan has been reaching out to me, but ever since I first shifted with him, I’ve ignored him. I always wanted to meet my father, and now that I have, it’s just…not how I envisioned it.”

  “It’s going to take time, Rayna. You’ve survived a lot of years without him, and suddenly he’s just back in your life and he wants to be involved. That’s a big adjustment. As for everything else, well, it’s not like we’ve had a chance to breathe. We’re all just pushing forward the best we can.”

  “No,” Rayna said. “I haven’t been. Karissa was right. I’ve been horrible and rude to her, and it is because I’m jealous. I know we talked and everything else needs to come first, but ever since then, things have been weird between us. I didn’t have anyone to talk to anymore besides Tiki, and well, you know how that can be.”

  I laughed. “Talking with Tiki is sometimes more work than relaxing, but you know I’m always here.” I reached out and covered her hand with mine. “And maybe I was too quick to pull the trigger. Maybe everything else doesn’t need to come first…”

  Long eyelashes lowered as Rayna blinked and her cat eyes looked into mine. “What?”

  “I mean what if this is the end? What if I can’t beat Riley, then what? We’re—”

  “Chase, how can you say that? You will beat him. We will…”

  “I’m just saying in the off chance that we don’t, I don’t want to…be gone and never have told you how I feel.”

  Rayna’s lips parted but she held back whatever she wanted to say. Her eyes searched my face and I curled my fingers around her hand.

  “I care about you. I don’t know why I said we should focus on everything else.”

  “It makes sense, Chase. I wasn’t trying to say it didn’t. We do need to focus on Riley and the Brothers. We don’t need to have our judgment clouded with…distractions.”

  I shook my head. “You’re not a distraction. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead in an alley somewhere and some Underworlder would be carrying my head around like a trophy. I’ve been on the run ever since I was exiled, an
d what was happening between us was new to me. My nerves were a mess and I was quick to back out.”

  Rayna didn’t respond. Her eyes fell away from me and her fingers played with the edge of the blanket.

  “Before you, I was angry at the world. You showed me what it was like to let someone in and taught me what it was like to trust. When I lost the most important person in my life, you reminded me what it was like to feel. You need to know that if we go after Riley, or he comes back, and I don’t make it—”

  “Stop saying that!”

  “We need to be realistic here. We’re not winning this fight right now, and I’m not saying we won’t, but it’s an uphill battle. I’m not some invincible warrior who always comes out on top. I realize that now, and I can’t go in on blind faith.”

  I dropped my gaze to the bed. My heart raced and adrenaline shot through my veins. I removed my hand from Rayna’s and squeezed it into a fist so she wouldn’t see me shaking. I didn’t say those kinds of things to people. Ever. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d told my mother I loved her.

  Realizing that made my heart ache, and my eyes were drawn to the brown box that held the last gift she’d ever given me: two silver daggers with the golden face of an eagle at the base.

  Rayna’s hand touched the side of my face and her fingertips slid down my cheek. Goosebumps shuddered along my arms as her nails glided down my jawline, coming to rest on my chin. She pulled me forward, forcing me to look into her eyes.

  “My faith isn’t blind. I saw who you were and I see who you’ve become, and I know in the depths of my heart that you’re going to make it through all this. And I know more than anything that you’ll never stop fighting.”