by Ryvr Jones
Rhys tightened his embrace. He didn’t want to say anything, didn’t want to break the spell.
Caeron broke it for him. “I hate to interrupt your lovely reunion and shit, but we have an appointment with the end of the world. Remember? Darkness, the Abyss, rotten souls and all that crap?”
It had been too long since he had Tarani in his arms. Rhys allowed himself to cling to her for another moment before agreeing. “Yeah, we need to think about what we’re going to do.” He grabbed her shoulders gently and put some distance between them. His eyes found hers, and he took a deep breath. Here we go. “Have you decided what you’re going to do? Are you going to stay?”
“Yes. And yes.” She smiled. “If I want to decide my fate, it would be convenient to have a world where to live said fate.”
Rhys chuckled. “Yes, it would be.”
Tarani caressed his jaw, running her fingers over his cheek and down his throat. “I’ve missed that sound.”
“C’mon, love birds,” Caeron said. “We need to…I don’t know what the hell we need to. But we need to do something. And sooner would be better than later.”
Rhys nodded. “Let’s head back, take stock of what we know, and see what’s missing.”
An hour later, standing in Caeron’s library, they knew for sure that they didn’t know a lot.
Tamerah watched Rhys rake his fingers through his hair for the hundredth time. It was sticking up, and she found it…What was the word? Attractive. Sexy. “Hot,” she murmured without thinking.
Caeron and Rhys turned to her, both sets of eyes wide. Crap. She’d forgot they had enhanced senses and could hear her across the room.
“Excuse me?” Rhys asked, and a furious blush painted her face.
Way to go, Tamerah. Shut up. “Nothing,” she mumbled.
Caeron, who was way too perceptive and observant, looked at her, then to Rhys, then back to her. A smirk curved his lips. “I think our little demon is talking about you, my friend.”
“What?” Rhys’s head whipped around so fast, he must have felt whiplash. “Shut up, Caeron!”
“It’s not my fault if she thinks you’re hot.” Caeron shrugged. “Personally, I think I’m much more appealing.” He winked at her and Tamerah couldn’t avoid a grin, despite her embarrassment.
Crossing his arms, Rhys barked, “For the last time. She’s not ‘our demon’. And we’re not friends.”
Caeron’s face tightened, his eyes going dark. He seemed hurt by Rhys’s remark, but covered it quickly. “Okay, okay, sorry,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “Your little demon. But as much as I hate to be the one to tell you, we are friends, have been for a long time. Whether you like it or not.”
Tamerah didn’t know much about their past, but the hurt on Caeron’s face told her they were indeed friends. Why did Rhys deny it?
Whatever Rhys said in response to Caeron was lost to Tamerah. Blinding pain split her head, making her sway. She swung her arms, trying to find something to support herself.
“Tarani!” Rhys caught her before she feel to her knees. “What’s wrong?” His voice carried a note of worry, and it gave her some comfort. He cares. He will take care of me.
“Pain.” It was all she could say before the world went black.
Chapter Thirteen
“Awake,” Tamerah croaked, her mouth dry and scratchy as sandpaper. She was cradled in Rhys’s strong arms, sitting on his lap. She’d missed this, his warmth, his scent, his embrace.
Caeron knelt in front of the couch and gave her a glass. “The water will make you feel better.”
Tamerah nodded and drank in big gulps. The water went down smoothing the gravel she seemed to have swallowed. She returned the empty glass and leaned back into Rhys’s chest. “Thank you.”
“How are you feeling”? Rhys asked, caressing her hair, soothing her.
“I’m fine. It’s always like this when a big chunk of memories is coming back. My head hurts terribly, then I pass out. When I wake up, there are new memories in my head.” A shudder spiraled through her. “Some of them are bad.” She gave him a wan smile. “But some are good.”
Rhys smiled back, a hint of sadness in the curve of his lips.
“That sucks,” Caeron said, sitting on the floor with his legs bent in front of him. “What did you remember?”
Tamerah closed her eyes, searching for new information. It was weird, sifting her memories to find what hadn’t been there before. Caeron and Rhys waited in silence for several minutes, until she found it.
“A conversation between Seersha and the Sheramath.” Her stomach clenched, anxiety rolling inside her belly. Each new memory of the Sheramath completed the picture painted by Seersha’s stories, giving Tamerah a deeper understanding of Brianna. She’d been wise, courageous and kind. It would be an enormous challenge to follow her steps, to be worthy of her faith. Tamerah was afraid of failing, but she had to try.
“And?” Rhys prompted.
“They were talking about…” She struggled to make sense of what floated in her head. “It’s hard. The memories that aren’t mine are harder to understand.”
“Brianna’s memories.” There was longing in Rhys’s voice, something soft and nostalgic that made Tamerah jealous.
She tried to push the feeling away. “A vision. Yes,” she nodded, “Brianna had a vision. She wrote it down, and left it for you.”
“Where?” Caeron pursed his lips. “Unless you have some clue, it’s going to be hard to find it.”
“Do you know what her vision was about, Tarani?”
Tamerah focused on the memory. Shadow...The Shadow Word. Destruction. Death. I can’t tell her. Fire.
“Shadow Word. Destruction and death.” Tamerah’s voice sounded hollow even to herself. “The Fire was lost, the Fire comes first…Something they can’t tell me. Does any of that makes sense to you?”
Both dullahans seemed befuddled.
Caeron broke the silence. “I’ve never heard of a ‘Shadow Word’. Destruction and death, sure.” He shook his head, as if trying to shake something lose. “But fire? I got nothing.”
“The Fire Lineage,” Rhys said quietly. “It was lost a long time ago. The Fire Heir at the time, the last descendant of that Lineage, was the one who created Carden. Before her, none of the Heirs—and there were a lot of different Lineages—had ever done anything to put humankind at risk. No one knows why she did it.” He shook his head, pursing his lips. “She was stripped of the Lineage’s power and banished, and the Rules were created to avoid further incidents like that.” His eyes glittered with unspoken emotion. “Brianna managed to bring the Lineage back to destroy Carden, but I don’t know what happened to it when Terahmaht disappeared.”
“And we need to find it again.” She frowned and tilted her head to the side.
The woman to whom I delivered Caeron’s address. Tamerah’s eyes widened. Seersha hadn’t said anything about her except that she needed to find Caeron. Could this woman be the Heir of the Fire Lineage? Tamerah wouldn’t tell Caeron and Rhys about her, though. If they didn’t know Tamerah had broken the Rules, the Enforcers wouldn’t punish them if they came for her.
“Yes.” Rhys rubbed his neck. “Each Lineage had some specific powers. Clairvoyance, healing, synesthesia, all kinds of supernatural abilities. I’m guessing any of those powers would help us to deal with the darkness and the rotten souls, I just don’t know how.” He cursed, running his fingers through his hair. “I bet Seersha knows.”
A sigh bubbled from Tamerah’s chest. Seersha hadn’t been kind to Rhys, despite the way Tamerah knew she felt about him. And yet… “Seersha was never unfair to you,” she said. “If she says she can’t help, it’s true.”
Rhys scoffed. “More like she won’t help. She won’t risk her ass, not even to save the world.”
But she had risked it, telling Tamerah to deliver the message. Seersha had probably done things like that before and they didn’t even know she’d helped them, because she protected
them by keeping them in the dark.
“Maybe she won’t risk it not for her own sake, but because there are other things at stake,” Tamerah said. “Maybe she’s taking different risks. You shouldn’t judge her so harshly.”
“Whatever her reasons are, we need to figure this out by ourselves.” Caeron stood. “Are you sure you don’t know where the Sheramath left this manuscript? If this is her memory, it stands to reason she’d know what she did with it.”
“I guess.” Tamerah tried harder to grasp the memory. She closed her eyes and blocked out where she was, trying to immerse herself in the images and sounds in her mind. “They’re standing by water. A lake or a pond, surrounded by trees. It’s dark. There’s only a weak moonlight.”
Tamerah heard Seersha’s voice.
“You know I can’t risk it.”
“Yes. But I need to warn them. He’s dangerous.” The wind whispered through the trees, creating small waves in the lake. Brianna closed her cape, the flaming red almost bright in the moonlight. “I wish I knew who he is.”
“Wishing for the impossible is useless. Once the barrier started to close, the visions about the outside world are almost a miracle.”
“And yet, not enough. The Leian-Harun is blind. How will their world survive, without us? Without magic?”
“Life always find a way. We weren’t always here, and we’ll not always be. We’re part of something bigger, something beyond ourselves.” A smile curved Seersha’s lips. “But the Sheramath knows all these things.”
Brianna sighed. “The Sheramath is only human. I fear for those I love.”
“He will be fine.” Seersha laughed humorlessly. “Well, maybe not fine, but he will survive. And when the moment comes, he will die. I won’t break my promise.”
“My trust lies in you. And in her. I regret releasing her into such times, with the burden of my memories…”
“Each of us must do what’s required, and Tamerah is no exception.”
“Even so. It doesn’t seem fair to be born carrying so much pain. I hope she finds happiness someday.”
The wind picked up, shaking the trees and throwing fallen leaves in all directions. Seersha shuddered. “Our time is almost up.”
Brianna bowed her head. “I’ll write what I’ve seen. Can you take one last box to the other side?”
“I can try. They have been following me. He knows something is happening, and I don’t think it will take much longer for him to discover what I have done.”
“I’ll ask the Goddess for protection. I’m sorry for putting you at risk.”
Seersha shrugged, making a dismissive gesture with her hand. “This is my choice, and I’ll bear the consequences. I hope I can deliver the box to Tharm-Ag-Na before they catch me.”
“Tharm-Ag-Na,” Tamerah murmured, dizzy. She hadn’t “entered” so deep into a memory before, and she didn’t care for it. It was like being split in two. Her head hurt, though not as much as when the memory had come to her.
“Are you sure?” Caeron’s eyes widened. Tamerah nodded and he whistled. “I’ll be damned. Tharm-Ag-Na is the old name of this village. What we’re looking for is here.”
“A box.” She collapsed against Rhys’s chest. Tired. She was so tired, her voice was only a whisper. “There’s another box.”
“Now we need—” Caeron eyed the door. “We have a visitor.” He looked to Rhys, who gave him a slight nod. “Come in.”
Seersha stepped out of the corridor’s shadows and entered the library. “Why do you boneheads think I assigned you two to this region?”
Rhys stiffened. He took Tamerah off his lap and sat her on the couch. Leaning over her, he brushed his fingers across her temple, hooking her hair behind her ear. “Are you feeling better?”
“I’m fine. A little foggy, that’s all.”
He straightened and stood up, turning to Seersha. “Where’s the box?”
Seersha walked to Caeron’s desk and grabbed a book. She flipped through the pages. “I’ve heard the town’s archive is nice this time of the century. Lots and lots of fresh information.”
“The town’s archive? Seriously?” Caeron crossed his arms. “It’s small, and barely a century old. The box is much older, it can’t possibly be there. Besides, if it were, somebody would’ve found it by now and shipped it to a museum or something.”
Rhys gave him a dirty look. “If someone left it there for me, it would be hidden like the first one.”
“Go, don’t go, I don’t give a fuck.” Seersha kept examining the books on his desk, as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. “But let me tell you this.” She put the book down and walked until she was facing Caeron, barely a foot between them. “You don’t have any reason to trust me. I get it. But I’m getting tired of having to fight you two every step of the way.”
She turned to Rhys. “Despite what you think, I also don’t give a fuck about my ass, stunning as it may be. If you keep this crap up, my patience will meet its end, and I’ll decide the world can go fuck itself. Believe me, you don’t want that.” She walked to the door.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Tamerah waited for either of them to apologize, but they were both silent as death. No answer came. Stubborn dullahan. It’s up to you, Tamerah. “Dark light.”
Seersha stopped at the doorway without turning back.
Tamerah took a deep breath. “Maybe if you were kind to them as you were to me—”
“No.” Seersha turned around in a flash. Her eyes were completely black, and it was terrifying. “No. I am what I am. I won’t kiss ass because these two morons can’t see beyond their noses and their precious sensibilities. If they want my help, they’ll stop giving me shit. End of story.”
“Will you stop giving us shit?” Rhys asked. “How the fuck do you expect us to trust you, to accept your word without questioning, after centuries of being screwed by you?”
Seersha snorted. “If I’d have screwed you, you wouldn’t be standing here, gravedigger. And I don’t expect anything from you but this: to use the intelligence I know you two have. Everything I’ve ever done, I did for a reason. Every time I help you, I’m risking raising the Enforcers. Take a hard look at what we’ve been through along the centuries, and tell me again why you shouldn’t do exactly as I say.”
“You still haven’t told me how can I die.” Rhys’s voice was cold, his whole body taut, ready to snap.
Tamerah felt the ache in her chest, his anger clawing at her throat. “Rhys,” she pleaded, without even knowing what she was asking for.
Seersha walked slowly and got in his face. “Do you want to die right now, Rhys.” Her voice was so low Tamerah could barely hear her words. “Do you want to forsake your duty once again?”
Rhys narrowed his eyes, his lips pressed into a thin line.
“Will you unleash the darkness you brought from the Abyss into the world?” Seersha entwined her hands over her heart. “What the unholy fuck did you think would happen to the darkness once you were dead, Rhys?”
He turned his back to them, his head bowed. “I thought it would go back to the Abyss.”
“If it were so simple, I’d have given you the Nameless Death centuries ago,” Seersha said in a glacial tone. “But this evil is not part of you. It came directly from the Abyss, and it’s very powerful. Since your soul is the only thing keeping this shit contained, once it’s dead—either because you died and it crossed to the Otherside, or because it was destroyed while you’re still alive, time’s up. Darkness is free. World is screwed.”
“We need to find this box.” Squaring his shoulders, Rhys turned back to them. “Tarani, can you take me to the archive using the Shadows?”
“If you do that,” Seersha said, “you’ll miss the chance to meet the nice people who work there.”
“The archive only opens on Monday,” Caeron growled. “Are we supposed to sit and do nothing for three days?”
“Do whatever the hell you want,” she shot back, waving h
er hand. “But I wouldn’t count on the box having all the answers you need.” With that, she was gone.
Caeron shivered, and for a second, he seemed…Afraid? Worried? Tamerah hadn’t known the dullahan for long, but something was definitely off.
“Are you alright?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Caeron scowled.
“Well, there are all kinds of things wrong with you,” Rhys mocked, “but that’s nothing new.”
Tamerah couldn’t avoid a wide grin. It made her happy to see Rhys at ease, even if it was fleeting.
“Ha ha.” Caeron’s scowl deepened. “So, are we gonna wait until Monday?”
“Yes.” Rhys pinched the bridge of his nose. “And let’s hope the ‘nice people who work there’ won’t give us trouble.”
“Ye of little faith. My charm could get us out of any trouble. Don’t you agree, Tamerah?” Caeron wiggled his brows. “Tell Rhys how my charm is a powerful weapon.”
Tamerah had to laugh, and Rhys sighed. “I almost wish the world would end already, so I wouldn’t have to endure your charm, Caeron.”
The day went by slowly. Caeron had returned to his research, reading his pile of books and manuscripts and taking notes.
“Try to remember more,” he said when Tamerah asked how she could help.
As if it was easy. The memories came at random times, and she didn’t seem to be able to influence or control them. After the conversation by the lake, nothing else had appeared in her mind.
She curled up on the couch while Rhys paced. He was always pacing, like a caged animal. Once again, she let her eyes run over his body. His stride was graceful and silent, his eyes alert, even when in deep thought. His muscles flexed and stretched under his clothes, making her think of his naked torso, straining over her.
Scalding heat burned up her face. This is not the time to be thinking about sex, even if it was amazing.
And oh, had it been amazing. Not only because of the pleasure he’d given her, the joy of exploring his body and giving him pleasure in return, but because she’d felt close to him. She’d seen a sliver of his soul, his brave and tortured soul, bared for her as a gift.