Blood Beyond Darkness

by Brown, Stacey Marie

  “Another finger,” Aneira yelled and slunk behind me. Hiding Aneira? You pathetic fairy witch.

  Another one of Asim’s fingers met my skin.

  Power exploded through me and crackled the air. Electricity in the atmosphere sparked, sending a bolt of light out from me. The beam reflected off the mirror, cracking it in a mosaic of pieces. It bounced and headed straight for me and shot through my stomach. Blinding pain shattered through me and expanded to every cell in my body. A scream ripped from my throat. I crashed to the floor. I heard another scream sounding far away, and it bounced off the walls, merging with mine. I was only partially aware of a body falling behind me. The tearing sensation in my body was too much. Pain drilled through me, gutting me.

  I swam in and out of consciousness. Voices and people yelling brought me back before I fell into the darkness again. Through thick mud, I clawed my way back. I gasped for breath as my eyes popped open.

  “My Queen, are you all right?” A man stood behind me, and several men huddled around the body next to me. Aneira stirred and woke up.

  “Majesty?” Josh sat next to her, holding her head in his lap. His gaze darted over to mine, before returning to his lady. It was brief, but I saw his eyes fill with fear and concern. He had no right to care if I was all right. He chose his side.

  “Yes. Yes. I am awake.” She stirred with annoyance. “Help me up.” Three men fluttered around her, all trying to be the one to assist their monarch.

  I sat up and took inventory. Electricity still crackled inside me but was slowly diminishing. That’s when I felt it, or rather the absence of it, like someone had eradicated parts of my soul. I felt empty. Vacant. No words could truly describe it, but I knew without a doubt—my powers were gone. A panic descended on me. “What happened?” I looked up at Aneira. “What did you do?”

  Aneira swayed a little, and Josh jumped to grab her. “I am fine.” She swatted his hand away, then turned to me. “I told you, Ember, I learned how to transfer your powers to me without using blood.”

  Deep down I hadn’t believed she could do it, especially using my own magic. I felt betrayed by my powers, like they had turned against me and willingly chose to go to her. Pushing my feet underneath me, I stood on shaky legs. Our similar heights made it easy to look directly into her violet-blue eyes.

  Aneira stretched her arms out. “I now have the powers of a Dae and a Dark Dweller as well as my own.” She turned her hand toward the few lights along the wall, which had survived my wrath, and flicked her arm. At first nothing happened, and relief trickled into my chest. Maybe it didn’t work. I didn’t have my powers, but maybe she didn’t have them either?

  My gaze drifted below the lights. Mark leaned against the wall, standing, but the skin on his arm and cheek were red and raw. Our eyes connected, and mine filled instantly with tears. I am so sorry. I tried to express my regret to him. He shook his head, his eyes filled with love, his expression telling me he wasn’t upset with me. How could he not be? It had been me, my powers, who had burned him. My magic had destroyed and hurt so many.

  A sudden burst from the wall drew my attention away from Mark. The flames inside the bulbs surged and shattered the glass. The line of people along the wall ducked, using their arms to shelter themselves from the debris. An exhilarated giggle came from Aneira, and she ruptured every light down the line. “Oh, how enjoyable!”

  I felt violated. She took pieces of me, my soul, who I was. Anger pumped into my veins with every heartbeat. “For someone who hates Daes and Dark Dwellers so much, you seem awfully pleased to have their abilities,” I said.

  The smile fell from her face. “You will be such a pleasure to kill.”

  A growl came from across the room.

  “Tell your pet to behave, or I have a nice thick chain to shackle him with.” She sneered, keeping her focus on me. “It is so nice knowing I have absolutely no use for you anymore.” A cruel smile again twisted her lips. Energy slammed into me, picking me off my feet, and I bobbled as she tried to control her newfound strengths. With a jolt, I flew back, crashing against the wall. My head snapped with a crack, and I fell limply to the ground.

  Eli wrenched from his capture’s hold and ran to me.

  My head pounded with a sharp ache. I had known fear before, but realizing I no longer had my capabilities sent a new level of terror through me. I felt helpless against her. Naked. Magic was part of who I had always been, even when I wasn’t aware of it. My lids lowered; my body wanted to sleep.

  “Stay with me, Brycin.” Eli cupped my face, turning it to him. Don’t you give up on me. His eyes said privately.

  Aneira’s silky laugh filled the hall. “Oh, young love. You guys are so delectable. I could eat you up.” She tilted her head and looked at Eli. “We both know, Elighan, if she knew the full truth about you, she would not be so smitten. Shall we see?”

  Eli twisted his body, standing to face her. I could not see his expression.

  Aneira clasped her hands together and walked to him. “To top off my lovely party, I think it is time to serve the scrumptious dessert I planned for you, Ember.” Her tone was patronizing, her smile too wide, too gleeful. Protectively, I pushed my back into the wall, using it and Eli as a brace to stand. Aneira glared at my mom. “It is the least I can do. You should know the full truth about Elighan and about your mother ... your real mother.”

  Mom’s expression blanched, but she shoved her chin in the air defiantly. “Do your worst Aneira. I am not afraid of you.”

  Aneira smiled sweetly. “You should be.” Her head rounded back to me. “You think Ember will continue to love you after what I tell her?”

  THREE

  What did she mean by my real mother? My stomach sank, and Mom’s flinching expression to the Queen’s words sent a wave of cold dread skating around inside me.

  Aneira moved toward my mom while watching me. “The person you trusted without question lied to you the most. How much I wish she was your real mother, but this shifter is nothing but a fraud.”

  My gaze went wildly from Aneira to my mom. “What is she talking about?”

  “I was going to tell you the truth.” Mom gulped, pain set deeply in her eyes. “I am so sorry.” She choked, losing her voice.

  My heart thumped in my chest. My head shook back and forth. “No ...”

  “I see Ember is a visual learner. Well, why don’t you show her what you’ve been keeping from her, Lily?” The Queen’s hand grabbed my mom’s arm. Air rippled around her. Instantly, Mom’s body shrank to the floor, her clothes falling off. In my mother’s place stood a small red fox.

  I gasped. I knew the fox; it was the same one who had come with Torin in our dreamscapes. My mother’s orange and brown flecked eyes stared at me through the fox’s, wide with worry. No wonder it had felt so familiar to me. Somewhere in me I had made the connection a long time ago: her bond with foxes, her trips north. But denial was stronger than any magic. It could blind you to what happened in front of your face. How many things had I overlooked, too afraid to recognize the truth?

  My focus flew to Mark. He stood still, his face and body frozen with shock, confusion, and hurt.

  Aneira took her arm away from the back of the fox’s head. My mom’s naked body slowly formed back, curling around her clothes.

  She was a shifter. Not Fay.

  I understood now why she had a sense of smell like the Dark Dwellers while it was not a Fay trait. Why iron didn’t seem to bother her. It didn’t affect shifters. Why she hadn’t dreamscaped with me. Because she couldn’t. So many incidences I ignored. The intense truth of her not being my mother flooded me, circling the rock forming in my middle.

  “Did you never wonder why you looked nothing like her even after you learned Daes take on the qualities of both their parents?” Aneira placed her fingers below my mom’s chin, turning it for me to look at her. “Half of your blood is from pure Fay, not from a shifter. You have blood that is not only noble but royal.” Aneira ripped her fingers away.
A deep-seated anger flushed around her words, but it wasn’t her tone catching my attention.

  “Royal?” I knew my mother had been noble, which was different from royal. Royal meant only one thing ...

  “Yes, Ember. You share my blood.” She frowned at her declaration. “My baby sister, Aisling, was your true mother.”

  Aisling.

  Oh, God. Once again my name turned out to be a clue to who I was. A cruel, twisted joke.

  “So the relationship makes me your auntie. How happy I was to learn my only niece was a Dae.” Her mocking laugh pealed through the castle.

  My aunt? I was related to this bitch?

  I looked at the woman on the floor. She was still my mom, the only solid thing I had for most of my growing years. She had protected and loved me. Now I felt like I stood looking at a stranger. My reflexes wanted to fight against the soldiers who pinned her exposed body. I still wanted to protect her, but her betrayal was a vortex which might never reveal light again.

  “Your real mother let herself get seduced by a Demon. Demons are good at that, especially Devlin. He used Aisling. He twisted her mind into believing he cared, but he only wanted to create a weapon against me. And he did. You.”

  Lars’ stories in Greece clicked in my brain. He had been talking about Aisling, my biological mother. Everything he said contradicted Aneira’s statement. Lars’ version was that Aisling had been in love with Lars and Devlin, and both Demon brothers had loved her. My gut told me Aneira was lying. She knew the truth.

  “Are you sure it wasn’t they who were seduced?”

  She got my meaning. Her lids constricted. She marched to me, her hand wrapping around my neck, her lips nearing my ear. “My sister was beautiful, smart, above them in every way ... and she was killed because she lowered herself not merely to one but two of them. And because she let you live.” Now because I knew my mother was a royal Fay, the sister of the Queen, the reasons for Aneira’s hatred made more sense. So many things made sense.

  Her free hand wrapped around one of the red streaks in my hair. “You look so much like her. However, your yellow eye and your black hair is all a reminder of your true parentage. Every time I look at you, it makes me ill. You are a Demon and a disgusting cross-breed.”

  My first meeting with Aneira had caused her to step back in shock, like she had seen a ghost. In a way I guess she had. She had seen her dead sister looking back at her.

  “Everyone loved her and were like moths to a flame. There wasn’t a person who did not fall under her spell. Her magic was unequal. And you are the reason she is no longer here with me. She chose you instead of me. The fact you are living instead of her is torture. I cannot wait to kill you, slowly and painfully.” A crackle from the blazing lights indicated she was losing her temper. Another wave of fury careened through me. She was using my power. My magic.

  She took a breath and stepped away. “Not only will I destroy Earth and everyone you love, I will tell you one more thing before you die.” Her eager smile returned. “I want you to know the truth about your lover here.” A wicked smile twisted her beautiful face as she pointed at Eli. “He was the one who killed her. He killed your mother.”

  I collapsed against the wall. “What?”

  “Elighan helped murder Aisling. The man you let yourself lie with was there when she was slaughtered.” The Queen moved back from me, her eyes hazily scrutinizing me. “I am sure she would have been so proud of your choice in men.”

  I looked at Eli. He wouldn’t look at me.

  My knees almost gave out as another truth hit me. The night Lorcan interrupted Eli and me, Lorcan told me they had killed my mother. I had first connected it to Lily’s murder. I discovered her torn body. But when I found her alive in the Queen’s dungeon, I chalked what he said up to Lorcan trying to annoy me. Now I know he had spoken the truth. It seemed Lorcan always spoke the truth, whether you wanted to believe it or not.

  “Em—” Eli’s sentence was cut off by one touch of Aneira’s hand. His eyes glazed.

  “Be quiet,” Aneira directed at him. Eli’s mouth clamped together, obeying. “You had plenty of time to tell her the truth. I think it is my turn now. Don’t you agree?”

  He nodded submissively and backed away from me. It was frightening how easily she could put someone under her spell. A thought came into my head. Since I no longer have my powers, will she be able to glamour me? I didn’t even want to hint at it in case she hadn’t considered the possibility yet.

  The thought was pushed to the background when I gazed back at Eli. The deep pain of what he did hurt so much more than throwing myself down a ravine. Eli actually had helped assassinate my mother. The tattoo had not been lying. It had been trying to protect me. She had dreamscaped from beyond the grave, trying to warn me. It didn’t matter if I had known her or not. She was my mother, and he had assisted in her murder.

  “The Dark Dwellers wanted revenge against me. My poor sister was their way of getting back at me.” Aneira patted Eli’s arm, almost like she dared him to refute her claim.

  Lorcan had stated they were hired to kill; they didn’t do it out of revenge. They were appointed to kill a Fay who betrayed her people and her child who was an abomination. If she wanted retribution for her sister, then why wouldn’t she have gone after Lorcan, the actual killer, instead of working with him? She wouldn’t. Aneira was clearly lying.

  “Oh, don’t you play the martyr well? They may have helped kill her, but we both know you plotted her murder,” I sneered.

  Aneira moved so quickly I didn’t see her till it was too late. Her hand cracked across my jaw. The strength of the hit crumpled me. My “aunt” followed me down to the floor, grabbing my throat. “How dare you make such a preposterous accusation? I would never have hurt my sister. I loved her.” Then she whispered so no one else could hear, “You insufferable brat. You are the reason she is dead. You are to blame. She picked you instead of me ... I had to kill her. She betrayed me. She betrayed our kind. Broke the law. I was the one wronged.” Her words sounded frantic. She was slowly losing her composure. “You will soon be joining her. Finally.” She rested, taking a moment as she stood, putting her pleasant Queen-facade in place.

  “Now let us return to the festivities, shall we?” She took a step back, placed her hand on Eli, and looked toward me. Vindictiveness simmered in the touch. “Before I kill your lover, I want you to know I will take my revenge for what his kind did. I will force him pay. Over and over again.”

  My stomach knotted at her insinuation. A natural protectiveness for Eli filled me, and a snarl echoed from my throat. If anyone was going to hurt him, it was going to be me. I raised myself onto my feet. When I opened my mouth to respond, agony exploded around my jawbone. It felt like it was broken. But warmth already rolled up my spine as though my powers were at work, trying to heal my cracked jaw. But, how? My abilities were gone. That’s when it hit me: I was still Dark Dweller. Eli’s blood still boiled in my veins. I could feel them stir, sensing the vacant spot my old powers used to fill, and moving in. She hadn’t taken the blood from my body, so she didn’t receive the blood Eli gave me. The Dark Dweller was in my blood, not an element she could steal from me.

  She thought she had the Dark Dweller traits as well as my Dae powers. She didn’t.

  The Queen shook her head in false pity. “Don’t worry. I will let you watch me with Elighan for a bit before I kill you. I do not want you to feel left out.” Fury hit me and twisted into pain as Eli looked off into space as though nothing were wrong. Her glamour still coated him.

  Even if I remained part Dark Dweller, it didn’t change anything. I could not defeat her with my partial abilities. Defeat swallowed me. My brain and heart were full of grief. Part of me wanted to lie back on the floor and ask Aneira to finish me off. She had won. She possessed the sword and my strength. Mark and Ryan could never leave the Otherworld, my mom was not my real mother, and the man I loved helped kill my biological mother.

  My world and willpower
were crumbling into pieces. The only thing keeping me on my feet was the sight of Mark and Ryan across the room, their terrified eyes looking at me with trust and belief. I needed to try and get them to safety. West remained below my feet still locked in the dungeon. I hoped Cal had succeeded in getting him out since there wasn’t much I could do for him right now. The last time I dreamwalked to see West, he could barely keep his head up. I had to believe he would find strength somewhere. If he didn’t escape soon, he would die here with the rest of us.

  Aneira had no reason to keep any of us alive anymore. She would resort to torture and slow death for the ones she felt had wronged her. For the others, hopefully it would be quick and painless.

  A movement behind Ryan caught my attention. Deep in the shadows of the hallway stood Castien. He dressed in the Queen’s guard outfit, but he worked for Lars as a spy. A determined expression settled on his pretty features. He had short, shiny black hair and the bright, unique blue eyes of the Fay. His mouth pressed in a thin line and his hand gripped his sword. Would he try and get Ryan out of here? By himself? What was he thinking?

  At that moment the windows overlooking the lake shattered in an earsplitting spray of glass. The walls shook as pressure filled the room, wrenching us off our feet. My shoulder struck the ground as my body skittered across the floor. Screams boomed off the walls and mingled with the splintering sound of the breaking glass.

  Wind blustered through the opening as five figures floated down, descending from the roof. Through the rainfall of debris, my eyes zeroed in on one humongous person. Rimmon. He jumped to the ground, shaking the room like a goliath. Rimmon being here meant one thing.

  Lars.

  His telekinetic powers allowed each of his group to hover off the ground. As he let go of his hold on them, they sprang to the floor ready for battle. I quickly recognized Alki, Koke, and Gorgon standing next to Lars. My heart soared, and I felt the first ray of hope.