“I knew Rowan was alive, but I couldn’t find her. It became an obsession,” Jonah confessed, watching Mack as he spoke. His second-in-command’s expression hardened. In sympathy or condemnation, Cole wasn’t sure. “It wasn’t until Bri’s nightmares that I knew I’d been right all these years.” He pinned Cole with an ice-chip stare. “And then Rowan connected with you and planted a compulsion for you to find Bri. It didn’t make sense.”
“And it does now?” Cole’s patience had worn thin.
Jonah stared at him for a long moment before he spread his hands in a bid for understanding. “It gives me hope that she is not entirely lost to us.”
“Why didn’t you tell Bri the truth?” Cole asked. The rest of the man’s decisions aside, this was the one he struggled with most.
Jonah let out a long breath. “In the beginning I tried to keep her safe, under the radar. If she had known anything about her mother, she might have tried to find her. The women in my lineage are exceedingly powerful. This is what I’ve been trying to avoid.”
Cole turned away from the father who had taken a gamble with his daughter’s life, and now his granddaughter’s, and lost. What he’d been trying to avoid, throughout Bri’s life, was here. Jonah had power, incredible power, and longevity, and yet he hadn’t been able to protect his own daughter.
It seemed like he’d tried to make up for it with his granddaughter and once again failed miserably.
Chapter 29
Rowan sagged against the wall, glassy green eyes reflecting hopelessness and defeat. Fear flickered behind their tired depths, her frail body drained of strength.
Her mother’s fear frightened Bri more than anything. Anton had taken her family, killed her father and could easily kill her mother, sister, Cole, and Jonah. He could take everything from her, and by the sound of it, the earth with him.
“Celeste, don’t let him know your powers have returned no matter how he tempts you,” Rowan warned. “Unless you think he is about to kill you, then defend yourself. I’ll do my best to help you, but I may not be in a position for much. Whatever you do, don’t let him know you’re my daughter.” Her voice caught on the last word.
Celeste nodded sharply and turned toward the door. “We have to be ready to attack. I’m not at full strength yet, and Rowan could shift sides at any time,” she sent across their link.
Bri fought to keep the fear off her face. “We have to find a way out of here.”
“I know.”
“Bri, stay quiet, appear meek, do not acknowledge your power—” Rowan broke off, and her shoulders slumped. “This will never work. He’s too powerful and will likely be able to sense the power in both of you. You must fight him.”
Rowan shrank against the wall again and closed her eyes. Pale, nearly translucent skin stretched impossibly over the sharp bones of her face, making her appear more skeletal. The transformation turned Bri’s stomach to jelly. When she caught Celeste’s eye, the same shock was mirrored on her sister’s face.
“I can join with you,” Celeste suggested.
“Shhh . . .” Rowan hissed, as the metal door to the chamber chinked in release and began to rise.
A tall, thin man dressed in a dark suit ducked under the rising panel. Anton. Confidence in his authority rang with every click of his fancy shoes on the smooth, hard chamber floor. Crystals lining the walls and ceiling flickered, reflecting off his shiny bald head. The effect captured Bri’s attention, and she bit back a bark of hysterical laughter.
She teetered way too close to the edge of her control and her sanity. Inhaling sharply, she thought of Cole, the strength of his arms as he held her, the absolute conviction of his soul when he refused to let Rowan’s power consume them. For a moment everything fell away, and she felt his presence calming her, lending her his strength for what they had to face.
Anton smiled at Rowan, a dangerous, twisted grimace of affection that turned Bri’s stomach. This man killed her father and imprisoned her mother, forcing her to take soul after soul for his own dark purposes.
He turned to her with greedy eyes, taking in every detail of her body and energy. Bri’s gut told her to run, to get away from his insanity and his cave of power. Hide. But she kept her feet firmly rooted to the rock-solid floor. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“Which of you is Brianna?” he asked, his hungry stare bouncing between them. His voice was smooth, like a cool drink on a hot day, impossible to resist.
“Only answer what he asks,” Celeste warned. “There is power in his voice.”
“I am.” Bri stepped forward.
“Lovely.” He raised an eyebrow and swept her body from head to toe. He turned to Celeste. “And you are?”
When Celeste didn’t respond, Anton cocked his head to one side. “Quytel. I do love family reunions.” He chuckled to himself and glided closer to Rowan. “Your father is finally on his way to you. It took him so long to find you.”
“This is not good,” Celeste whispered in Bri’s mind.
Anton smirked at Rowan. “This may be your last task, my dear.”
“There are too many of them,” she responded stiffly, all trace of emotion drained from her voice.
Anton spun, a blur of movement that gave Bri no time to react. He crowded her and inhaled, his mouth inches from her forehead. Bri reached for the strength to not react, but her body had been through too much and uncontrollable trembling took over.
His fingers stroked her hair, gently at first, and Bri held her breath, refusing to look at him. A split second later, he fisted his hand against her scalp, forcing her head back. She yelped in pain.
“Like mother, like daughter,” he whispered in her ear, his voice laced with poison. “Are you prepared to take her place?”
“Don’t touch her.” Rowan’s voice, stronger now, echoed off the crystal walls.
Bri couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. Her skull throbbed and her heart pounded so hard she could barely hear anything else. She tried not to wince when he tugged harder and tightened his fist. From the corner of her eye, she spied Celeste inching closer to Rowan.
“I have no pow—”
“Tsk, tsk. Little liar,” he reprimanded, his voice smooth and compelling. “Tell me the truth.”
Bri tried to draw air into her lungs, to resist the words leaping in her throat. “I have only just discovered I have any abilities. I don’t even know what they are or how to use them.”
“A small thing.” He released her head with a shove. “You will watch and learn.”
Bri stumbled but managed to stay on her feet. Glaring at him, she rubbed her aching scalp.
“No, please,” Rowan whimpered, drawing his attention momentarily. “This was your promise to me.”
His maniacal laugh bounced off the chamber walls. Bri shuddered when he turned the full force of his twisted attention on her.
Forget standing, I need a place to hide!
His magic slashed her mind like razorblades, cutting tiny lacerations into soft tissue and shredding it to ribbons. There was nothing she could do to stop it. Grabbing her head, Bri tore at her hair to ease the pain. Her body hit the ground hard. Desperation made her want to smash her head against the cave floor to make it stop.
Celeste and Rowan screamed in unison as her mind exploded from the inside out.
The attack abruptly stopped. Bri’s head throbbed as if a thousand jackhammers were trying to break her skull. Holding her breath, she tried to pull her tattered pieces together.
“Go ahead.” Anton’s soft command skated over her ragged nerves.
Bri cautiously opened her eyes and rolled to her side. She longed to close them again and blot out the scene in front of her . . .
Rowan, eerily possessed. The ice-cold and heartless vision-woman stared at her without recognition.
“They are ready for you, my dear.” Anton made a wide sweep of his arm. “We will be unstoppable.”
Celeste lay crumpled on the ground not far from where Bri had fallen. Her black leather leggings and white shirt stained with dirt, her dark hair had collected bits of debris from their kidnapping ordeal. Their gazes locked. She gave Bri an almost imperceptible nod and focused on their mother.
“You don’t want to do this, Rowan.” Celeste’s voice held remarkable calm given her broken position on the ground.
“Don’t I?” the vision-woman echoed slowly. It was Rowan’s voice but softer, slower, with a mechanical vibration resonating creepily in the chamber.
“No, you don’t,” Bri urged. She’d managed to make it to all fours. Not the strongest stance, but it would have to do. “He’s using you.”
The vision-woman laughed, hesitated, then gasped as Rowan fought her way to the surface with an unnatural, jerking protest of her frail body. Her eyes shifted and hope flickered momentarily in the ice-cold depths.
Anton remained unconcerned as he squatted down in front of Bri. “It’s a terrible thing to think your own mother would kill you, isn’t it?” He tilted his head mockingly and cupped her chin.
Eyes of deepest black, lit with a terrifying fanaticism, stared at her, and she couldn’t turn away. He leaned in close. His sour breath made her want to gag. “Join with us.” He growled the demand into her ear.
Heart pounding out a rhythm of fear, Bri tried to wrench her chin free. When that didn’t work, she hissed, “You’re out of your twisted little mind if you think I would ever join you.”
A shadow crossed Anton’s face and his eyes narrowed. He shoved her away from him with enough force that her head smashed on the cave floor. Ears ringing, she thought for sure her skull must have split open this time. Over the pain, she heard the crack of his knees when he stood and the click of his shoes as he stalked away from her.
Gingerly, Bri touched her head and her hand came away clean, no blood.
I need a minute to rest, get my strength back.
Pain swirled in her stomach. Closing her eyes didn’t help. It only caused the cave to slow-spin as she lay on the hard floor.
“The three of you will join with me before the end of the day.” Anton’s voice echoed in the cave with certainty.
“Don’t count on it,” Celeste ground out.
Wincing, Bri turned in the direction of the voices. Antagonizing Anton didn’t seem to be a good strategy.
“You are becoming a problem.” He turned to Rowan. “You may start with the Warrior. I know how much you have craved a soul such as hers.”
Bri shoved her pain away, her eyes snapping fully open. Though sitting seemed a monumental task and made her body throb, there was no way she’d let her sister be hurt, or worse, if she could help it. She pushed herself to her knees. Her head seemed as though it weighed three times as much as it should. Gulping in a breath, she focused on the being fighting with her mother over supremacy of their shared body.
“No.” Rowan’s voice had lost some of its mechanical tone and now held a firmness that gave Bri hope.
A tic pulsing along Anton’s jaw revealed his displeasure. “No?” he repeated. “You do not say no to me.”
He surged forward threateningly. Rowan held her ground, fighting the goddess feeding on the power and energy of psychics. Her body jerked unnaturally, eyes rolling up until only the whites showed. She threw her head back at an angle that would have snapped the neck of a mortal.
“Whatever you do, don’t reach out to her.” Celeste’s command ripped into Bri’s traumatized brain as she stuffed a hand in her mouth to stop from screaming. “Don’t give her access to your power. Not yet.”
Rowan’s head snapped down. Clear green eyes locked on to Anton’s in fury. “I just did.” Her voice held power now, no trace of the other. “You have me. You know I can’t leave you, and I won’t. But I will not let you have my daughter.”
A cruel smile twisted his face. “You will regret this as you have never regretted anything in your life,” Anton threatened in a low, soft voice.
Chills skittered down Bri’s spine as her mother faced off with this man who was clearly insane.
She held her breath, waiting. Finally, he reached into his pocket and the metal door groaned as it opened. Bri exhaled, shaky, each click of his shiny shoes jangling her nerves as he strode away. Crystals flickered in his wake and went silent, leaving the chamber with a dull yellow glow that barely penetrated the darkness.
Anton ducked beneath the door and disappeared into his labyrinth.
Chapter 30
Bri closed her eyes, relief making her knees week. The metal door clanged shut on the rock-solid floor. Her eyes popped open. She was not made for this kind of stress.
Sitting on her heels, Bri tried to still her swirling stomach and catch her shaky breath. They’d made it through round one.
Celeste crouched next to her, pressing a cool hand on her aching head. Healing warmth ran from her sister to her.
“You need to tell us everything about how he uses you. How is he able to access your power?” Celeste fired questions at Rowan. “What does he do with the energy?”
“We don’t have time or the resources to fight him.” Rowan held a fragile hand to her throat. “You need to take Brianna and find a way out of here.”
“No.” Celeste gave a hard headshake. “Rowan, we cannot let that monster win. Do you hear me?”
Bri’s dizziness subsided, allowing her to look around without the world tilting and spinning. Well, that’s progress.
“Better?” Celeste helped her to her feet with one arm around her waist.
“Celeste.” Anguish burned in Rowan’s voice, and they turned together.
Their mother watched them with such longing, Bri thought her heart might break.
“I am not going to lose you, not like this,” Celeste echoed the protest on the tip of Bri’s tongue. “We don’t have much time. Rowan, start talking.”
She helped Bri over to a boulder jutting out of the cave wall which provided a small perch.
“You were always impatient,” Rowan sighed, although her lips curved up at the ends.
Celeste tossed her a glare, slapping her hands on her hips. “How does it work?”
“Stripping a psychic of their powers is one thing we learn as Warriors, but Anton wanted more than to destroy. At first he gathered abilities and then the life essence. I wasn’t strong enough to have him kill me instead.” Rowan’s gaze shifted to Bri.
Remaining upright only with the help of the wall behind her, Bri’s urgent thought was to get to her mother, comfort her.
But Rowan held up a hand to stop her. “I don’t tell you this to justify what I’ve done, only to provide you with information that may give us a fighting chance.” She split a glare between Celeste and Bri. “Do not give me too much credit, either of you.”
Bri froze at the harsh condemnation.
“All he needed was my initial consent which I gave him when I thought it would protect you, Bri. I have been a slave to him ever since. He wields dark magic,” she warned, drumming bony fingers on her thigh. “It’s a different power than the Quytel. I hope Jonah appreciates that. Anton reversed my divestiture.”
Celeste inhaled sharply. “How?”
Agony flashed in Rowan’s eyes and she paused before responding. “It was not a magic I recognized. I couldn’t fight him. It didn’t matter what I did to try to stop it.” She pressed a shaky hand over her stomach. “Over time it became like a drug. The power of a soul singing through my blood. I began to crave it, like an addict. And he knew. You saw that today. He controls me. I cannot fight him.”
Rowan shuddered visibly, whether with pain or pleasure it was hard to tell, but the cave responded.
Crystals flickered orange and red, and tiny bolts of lightning shot off the walls between them.
Watching the display with worried eyes, Celeste asked, “How does he take their power from you?”
“This chamber.” She raised both hands, palms up. The fanatical adamancy in her voice made the hair on Bri’s nape stand up. “I can’t leave this place without dying. My soul is attached to the energy here, to all the souls and power I’ve stolen. Leaving will kill me.” She uttered the last in a whisper as a tremor visibly wracked her body. Yet her face softened as if she were experiencing a pleasurable memory. Her lashes fluttered closed.
Celeste tensed beside her. Arms hanging loosely at her side, her sister widened her stance, every inch the fearsome Warrior preparing herself for battle.
She was right to be wary. Almost as if a switch had turned, Rowan’s body began to glow, tiny blue and red lightning bolts crackling in the air around her.
When Rowan opened her eyes, they held steady on Bri and Celeste. “I told you I have grown to need this. It’s an addiction for me now. You have to leave.”
“Rowan.” Celeste visibly tried for calm and reason. “We’re not leaving you here.”
Their mother’s sharp laughter echoed in the chamber. “You are welcome to try to get me out.” Her eyes narrowed. “But Celeste, you’d better be damned sure you know what you’re doing. You can’t trust me to fight this. Do you hear me?” She pinned Bri with the same penetrating stare. “Both of you.”
Bri nodded even as doubt ate away at her certainty.
“We get it,” Celeste said almost dismissively. Bri envied her sister’s confidence. “Now tell us what we need to know to defeat him.”
Rowan formed a sad smile and gestured to a small, coarse-fiber rug positioned in front of the altar. “There’s a chamber below this one.” She raised her hand to her throat, stroking the slender column. The gesture gave Bri the creeps. “When I’ve finished collecting, he comes. He uses a crystal globe to contain the power, abilities, life force, all of it.” She spoke as if in a trance. Then blinked. “Along with a part of my own essence.”
Circle of Dreams (The Quytel Series Book 1) Page 28