Vardaesia

by Lynette Noni

  While veeyons were neither as large nor as intimidating as draekons, they weren’t small by any means, their sharp teeth and talons enough to incite a healthy amount of fear. Furthermore, Alex knew from her Species Distinctions class that they were capable of spitting venomous green sludge. That alone would have caused her to give them a wide berth, if given the choice, but the sheer numbers that surrounded them made that all but impossible.

  “What, exactly, did you forget to tell us?” Alex asked Hunter, careful to keep her voice down even if she doubted she’d be heard over the speed of the Valispath and the screeching veeyons—a noise she likened to thousands of crows all cawing at once.

  “Somehow Aven’s controlling them,” Hunter answered. “It’s only recent—maybe a week since they were first sighted during a skirmish at Graevale, if that. We don’t know how he’s doing it, but since the creatures work like a hive mind following their leader, at a guess—”

  It was Alex who cursed this time, cutting him off with a sharp exclamation. “You think he’s bonded with their leader?” Just like her bond with Xira.

  “That’s my presumption, if it’s even possible.”

  Alex was beyond words, soothed only by the light, reassuring stroke of Kaiden’s thumb along the back of her hand. She turned to meet his calming blue gaze, reading his silent promise that they would get through this, just as they had everything else.

  “As long as we avoid their detection, they won’t be a problem for us,” Hunter said.

  For now, Alex wanted to add. But she kept her thoughts to herself and her mind on the moment, not daring to think ahead.

  With them invisible, she didn’t need to be cautious about their approach to the palace, since not even Meyarin sight could see through Kaiden’s transcendence. She considered the best place to deliver them, aware that many of the rooms were warded against Valispath entry, before she settled on sending them soaring through the walls and towards the library, a central place from which they could determine their next move. She assumed—or at least hoped—that Jordan, D.C. and Bear would be together, just as she assumed her parents would be with each other somewhere. Then there was Niida who they also had to locate, along with Grimm Helkin. That meant four different places to search out in order to collect everyone who needed to return from Meya with them. And Alex had no idea who to prioritise first.

  But the choice was taken out of her hands when they landed in the corner of the Meyarin palace library only to discover that it wasn’t empty.

  It took all of Alex’s willpower to keep from uttering a sound when she sighted Jordan, D.C. and Bear bound with Moxyreel at their wrists and strung up against one of the walled bookshelves, their hands high overhead, their bodies struggling furiously against their bindings. They were bloodied and bruised—D.C. had a nasty cut along her temple, Bear had a black eye that was almost completely swollen shut, and Jordan had what looked like fingernail marks scoured deep along his forearms—but otherwise they appeared mostly unharmed.

  The relief Alex felt was almost crippling, enough that she mindlessly moved a step forward before she was tugged back into the corner by Kaiden. Only then did she have a care to look around the rest of the room and see that her friends weren’t alone.

  Three Zeltora warriors were standing sentry and staring blank-eyed at nothing, while the blond-haired Calista Maine was seated casually at a worktable nearby. Beside her, to Alex’s increasing relief, was Grimm Helkin, the dark-skinned, beanpole-thin man looking just as he had when she’d first seen him at Taevarg.

  There was no sign of Aven amongst the assembled audience, and she almost decided it was worth the risk to try and get their friends and Grimm out of there straight away and return later for her parents. But then Alex remembered that while Calista’s telekinesis wouldn’t work on her, it would on everyone else, with the same being true about Grimm’s gift. The three Zeltora warriors were also a consideration, making her acknowledge that they needed a clearer run with less risk of failure.

  Instead of acting upon her restless impulses, she silently activated the Valispath again, relocating them behind a backless bookcase separated from the walls and in an opposite, much darker corner from where they’d arrived. Protected from sight, Kaiden was able to release them from his transcendence, after which they each carefully removed a book at eye-level, peering through the unnoticeable gaps to watch everything that was happening in the middle area of the library.

  … Which meant they saw when Aven strode in through the door only seconds later, a vision dressed in black, his head held high, his golden eyes bright with cunning intelligence. Signa Zu was barely a step behind him, the mind reader looking gleeful as he shadowed the footsteps of his master.

  Alex sucked in a soundless breath—mostly at the sight of Aven, but also at the fear that they might have been wrong and Signa would somehow become alerted to their presence. But the mind reader didn’t even glance towards their corner of the library, easing some of her panic.

  “I apologise for my delay,” Aven told her friends who had stilled upon his arrival, each of them paling rapidly, just like Alex. “I was in the middle of… breakfast.”

  The way he said the final word while wiping away a red droplet on his chin caused bile to rise in Alex’s throat. She barely managed to push it back down, only doing so when Kaiden’s grip on her hand increased until it was nearly painful. She looked at him and he caught her eyes, wordlessly telling her to keep it together for the sake of their friends.

  Hunter was also watching Alex carefully, the same message clear in his gaze, and she nodded at them both, indicating she wouldn’t do anything that might give them away. Until they collected her parents and Queen Niida, it would be suicide to call attention to themselves. They had to wait for the perfect time, after which they would only get one chance to escape.

  However, that meant her friends were on their own until then, left to face the nightmare of a Meyarin in front of them.

  “Tell me,” Aven purred, walking closer to the bookshelf where D.C., Jordan and Bear were bound side by side. “Where has dear Alexandra been hiding?”

  Alex shuddered at his silky menace, prompting Hunter to shift soundlessly around Kaiden so that he was closer to her, apparently fearing she would do something stupid and he would need to intervene. But she was rooted to the spot, unable to do anything except watch what was about to play out before them.

  “Come now, don’t be shy,” Aven said when none of her friends answered. “I’m sure you all know by now that she and I have a long history together.” His tone darkened. “A very long history.”

  The sound of his voice, the look in his eyes… everything about him had Alex quaking from head to toe. This was the monster who cared only for revenge, who wanted to wipe all mortals off the face of Medora. This was the monster who had once been her friend, who had once considered himself in love with her.

  This was the monster she had created…

  … and the monster she had to destroy.

  “No one wants to tell me?” he asked, but rather than seeming angry, he appeared pleased; something that had Alex pressing her free hand to her middle as her insides churned with dread. “Then I guess I’ll just have to… motivate you.”

  He moved faster than should have been possible—almost faster than Alex’s enhanced vision could follow. Before she could even consider what was about to happen, he drew a Myrox dagger from his belt and swiped it through the bindings holding D.C.’s arms above her head.

  “What—” D.C. breathed, terror stealing her voice, as Jordan and Bear shouted at Aven to get away from her. But he didn’t listen to any of them.

  Instead, with a smile that was as vile as it was beautiful, in one single, unfathomably quick move, he sliced the blade across his free palm and pressed his hand to the side of D.C.’s face— right over her bleeding temple.

  Red and silver blood combined, and barely a second later, D.C.’s eyes glazed over just as Aven’s flared with triumph.

/>   Alex rocked backwards in horror. She opened her mouth but no sound came out—partly because she couldn’t draw air into her lungs, but mostly because Hunter had slammed a hand over her mouth, stopping her from releasing the scream that was rising up from within. She wondered if his gift had showed him what would have transpired if he’d failed to silence her, or whether he’d simply been unwilling to risk her reaction to watching Aven Claim another one of her closest friends. Either way, he didn’t release her. Indeed, the only reason she was still standing was because both he and Kaiden were supporting her weight between them, her body limp in their arms.

  “There now,” Aven said smoothly. “That’s much better.”

  “You son of a—”

  With a strangled gasp, Jordan’s yell was cut short as he began choking for air, an invisible vice around his neck. With every strangled sound that tore from his throat, Alex’s shakes grew more violent, along with her desperation to do something, to get to him, to save him. But she couldn’t move. Kaiden’s and Hunter’s constricting arms were warning enough—they wouldn’t be able to rescue anyone if they were discovered first. So she had to endure it, had to watch Jordan’s face purpling as Bear screamed at Aven to stop.

  And then, just as Alex feared Aven would keep going until Jordan suffocated, the Meyarin finally made a flicking motion with his hand, after which Jordan began gagging and coughing and sucking painful-sounding breaths into his lungs.

  “I can’t say I’ve missed you, Jordan,” Aven said casually, as if he hadn’t just been trying to kill him. “You were always difficult to control. Always fighting me at every turn.”

  Jordan didn’t respond—he was too busy with the effort of trying to breathe again.

  “Perhaps you’ll be more cooperative now that I have your girlfriend under my thumb,” Aven said, trailing a finger down D.C.’s cheek, a mockery of tenderness as he smeared their blood together. D.C. didn’t move, incapable of resisting Aven’s Claim on her mind. “The royal princess of Medora—now this is a prize, if not the one I truly seek. I wonder…”

  He cocked his head, looking from D.C. to Jordan. Bear might as well have not been there for all the attention he was receiving, though Alex found that a relief more than anything.

  “I do believe we could have some fun with this,” Aven went on, his lips curling up at the corners.

  He pressed the hilt of the dagger into D.C.’s hands, and her fingers immediately closed around it with a white-knuckled grip.

  “Why don’t you show your boyfriend what happens to those who disappoint me, dearest Delucia?”

  The sound of Alex’s hammering heart was all but deafening as D.C. stepped towards Jordan. The library became a foggy haze as she watched—just freaking watched—when her best friend responded to whatever mental command Aven had given her…

  … And stabbed the dagger straight into Jordan’s side.

  Alex’s torso jerked as if it were she who had been stabbed, the sound of Jordan’s scream piercing her eardrums. Bear’s too, as he shouted hoarsely at Aven, at D.C., at anyone who might listen to him.

  “What about now, Jordan?” Aven said. “Are you ready to tell me where Alexandra has been hiding?”

  Blood gushed from Jordan’s wound and his face was drained of all remaining colour as he panted against the pain of the dagger speared into his side. And yet, he said nothing. Neither did Bear—or not about Alex, at least, but there were definitely cursed exclamations spewing from his mouth.

  “Perhaps you need more motivation,” Aven mused.

  Following another mental command, D.C. ripped the blade from Jordan’s flesh before plunging it straight back in again.

  The sound that left Jordan was worse than before, his cry flooding through Alex in a wave of agony.

  “Dix, please,” he gasped from between pain-clenched teeth. “You’re stronger than anyone I know. Fight him. Fight him.”

  But more than anyone, Jordan knew how difficult—how impossible—it was to resist a Claimed order.

  When D.C. acted upon yet another command and tore the blade out again, Bear screamed, “STOP!” so loudly, so gutturally, that Aven turned to him, with D.C. pausing as if having been told to wait.

  “You’ve Claimed Dix—you already know everything we know!” Bear said, struggling so hard against his Moxyreel bindings that his wrists were rubbed raw and bleeding.

  “I knew everything before I walked into the room,” Aven returned emotionlessly as Signa smirked with pride. “But this isn’t about me already knowing, it’s about you being willing to betray your beloved friend.”

  “That… will…”—Jordan gasped around a raspy cough— “… never…”—a wet, struggling breath—“… happen.”

  Aven’s eyes flashed at Jordan’s steadfast declaration just as Alex’s burned at his unyielding loyalty. But all Aven said was, “We shall see.”

  Before he could say—or do—more, Skraegon appeared in the room on the Valispath and called for Aven’s attention. In the Meyarin tongue, the hideous brute who had nearly killed Soraya said, “As far as we can tell, she’s no longer at the academy.”

  A dark smile touched Aven’s mouth as he replied, also in Meyarin, “So she’s on her way here. Perfect.”

  Turning to Calista and the three Zeltora guards, Aven gestured towards Jordan and Bear and ordered in the common tongue, “Watch them.” To Grimm, he commanded, “Find Marcus and have him drag Alexandra’s parents over from Taevarg. By the time she arrives, we’ll have a reunion ready and waiting.” In an undertone he added, “And she can watch as I kill them all, one after the other.”

  Alex closed her eyes against the roaring in her ears. She focused on the tight grip of Kaiden holding onto her, on Hunter’s hand still slammed over her mouth, and somehow the combination of both managed to help her beat back her growing numbness and control her emotions.

  “I’ll return as soon as she’s sighted,” Aven finished, not that any of his Claimed followers cared about his actions. With the number of people he’d performed the blood-bonding ritual on, there was no way he was controlling all of them at once. Their mental link might keep them under constant surveillance, but unless they were given specific commands, they were free to go about their lives, just as Niyx had done when Claimed by Alex.

  So, while those in the room didn’t need nor care for Aven’s declaration of return, Alex did. Because, as Skraegon drew close and swept both Aven and Signa away on the Valispath, she knew she’d been given a window of opportunity. And she was going to use it.

  Praying that Jordan wouldn’t bleed out before they could get him medical attention and that D.C. would remain standing there blankly without being issued further orders to use the dagger still held loosely between her fingers, Alex gestured for Kaiden to reactivate his transcendence around them, and she summoned the Valispath. Together with Hunter they travelled down the hallway of the palace as swiftly as possible until she found the nearest empty room. Once there, she dropped Kaiden’s hand and motioned for him to cancel his gift again. She was alarmed by the strain in his features, but the look he sent her promised he was just as determined as ever.

  Before either of her companions could speak, she quietly said, “We need to split up.” They both opened their mouths to object, but she continued over them, “We don’t have time to argue. My parents are being brought here which means we don’t have to hunt them down”—she refused to think of them having been locked in the dark prison for two weeks, refused to think of what they might have gone through in that time—“but we still need to get Niida, as well as Grimm, if he doesn’t return after completing his task. Both of them need to be in the library so we can all leave together.” Especially now with the veeyons overhead, because they would need to slip invisibly through the masses of flying creatures again. Making multiple trips was no longer an option.

  “If you both hurry, you can catch up to Grimm and knock him out after he’s followed Aven’s order about my parents,” Alex continued, extracting
the black powder and opening her palm to keep half of the dust for herself before handing the glass vial to Hunter. “Do it quickly enough that he doesn’t have a chance to get a warning message off to Aven. Then take him back to the library and wait for me behind the bookcase again. Once I have Niida, we’ll come straight back. Then we’ll… figure out the rest.”

  “How do you know where the queen is?” Kaiden asked, his tone grave at the idea of them splitting up, but also at the knowledge that it was necessary.

  “If Niida’s anything like she was when I once knew her, she’ll be in her sunroom having breakfast,” Alex said, confident in her deductive reasoning. “I’ll get you both close to Grimm, but from there, you’ll have to find your own way back to the library. Can you do that?”

  “I’ve been here before,” Hunter said, and Alex raised her eyebrows, since as far as she’d known, she, Jordan, Bear and D.C. were the only humans to have visited Meya since her time in the past—thousands of years ago. But now wasn’t the time for questions, and Hunter went on to confirm, “I can guide us back easily enough.”

  Alex nodded her approval and then linked hands with Kaiden again, Hunter doing the same. As the transcendence washed over them—and Kaiden’s face paled even further, to Alex’s increasing alarm—she said, “Once I drop you both off, I’ll have to move on straight away so I’m not spotted.” She mentally crossed all her fingers and toes that no Meyarins would see her as she zoomed untranscended through the palace on the Valispath afterwards.

  “We’ll see you back at the library,” Kaiden said, his tone making it clear that she’d better arrive safely.

  “I’ll be there,” she promised, hoping her words proved true, while accepting the promise in his eyes that he would be there, too.