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Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2)

Page 17

by A. D. Koboah


  She left the room shortly after and when she came back down, she was wearing a red gown I had longed to see her wear ever since I stole it for her. The ruby necklace hung around her neck.

  Stunned by her beauty, that ever-present desire tightening around me, I bowed to her.

  “Luna. Why, you look as you should. You look like a queen.” A curious mix of emotion I could not identify came over her features, and then she curtsied to me.

  We spent the rest of that evening largely in silence. At eleven thirty p.m. she got to her feet, appearing bored as she had all evening.

  “I’s gonna go on up to bed. Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day.”

  I nodded, watching her carefully, trying to commit to memory every last detail of her face—her raven eyes and their every nuance—as the darkness I had walked in before I found her began to huddle around me.

  “You...you ain’t gonna go nowhere tonight, is you?” Her gaze was intense.

  “No, I will stay here until it is time to wake you.”

  She nodded and lingered at the door as if she were reluctant to depart. When she finally turned to leave, I called out to her before I could stop myself.

  She spun around, her inscrutable dark eyes boring into me.

  “You have nothing to fear when you return to the plantation. Everything has been taken care of. Even if your old master were to try and go back on his word, he cannot for he signed a legal contract giving you your freedom. I would never let him anyway, and neither would your mother.”

  She merely stared at me for the longest moment before she abruptly turned and left the room.

  Moments later, I heard her footsteps beating frantically up the stairs to her room.

  I was alone. The light, the joy she brought into my world, seeming to have fled the room with her. Those years lost in the wilderness were upon me again as loneliness, along with profound darkness, fully claimed me once more.

  I felt weak, my head swimming with images of the past few weeks with Luna and I felt my chest clench to the point of pain.

  I moved to the window where I glanced down at my large, pale hands, thinking of the many times over the years when those hands had been stained with the blood of the innocent. When Luna placed her warm brown hand in mine, it was as if it had wiped away all my sins, the crimson blot on my soul that had driven me to a wasteland of despair. It was so cruel to have come so far, to have the possibility of everything I wanted within my reach, only for it to be snatched away from me.

  Luna entered the drawing room a while later. I didn’t turn around when she came and stood behind me. She was breathing normally, but her heart was beating fast, a steady tattoo pushing against the wall of darkness surrounding me. She didn’t speak and then, like a rope thrown out to me in the dark, she lay her head against my back. Then her arms came around me, pulling me back from the brink of despair. The pain in my chest disappeared as she held me in a tight grip. I turned slowly, feeling lost when she released me. She looked up earnestly at me as I stared at her, but I had no hope of deciphering what thoughts lay behind those bewitching eyes, altering the contours of her beautiful face. Fearing she would immediately back away, I slowly brought my arms around her and pulled her to me. She hugged me fiercely, her head resting beneath my chin. We stayed like that for a few moments.

  “I promise, I will not let anything happen to you, Luna,” I said. “I will die to protect you, so do not be afraid of what awaits you at the plantation.”

  She pulled away then and looked up at me again, such a tumult of emotion in her gaze that I grew deeply concerned.

  “Luna? What is it?”

  Without warning, she reached up on tiptoe and kissed me. Electrified by the feel of her warm, moist lips on mine, something I had longed for for so long, I pulled her to me and kissed her fiercely, losing myself in the sweet taste of her lips, her soft warm body pressed against mine. My desire for her was as overwhelming as the crimson sea that enveloped me when I drank blood, so I pulled away before it could drown me. She just stared at me, seemingly caught in the effect of the kiss, but I had to fight my desire for her because something was wrong.

  “What are you thinking? Tell me what you are thinking, Luna.”

  “I’s thinking of you, Avery. Only you.”

  I wanted to believe her words, but it somehow sounded like a plea of desperation.

  I struggled to say something, but she placed her fingertips against my lips.

  “Take me upstairs,” she whispered.

  When I didn’t respond, she pulled my head down to hers almost aggressively, and kissed me. When she pulled away I could only stare at her beautiful face, and unable to resist my intense desire, I swept her into my arms and drew the ether to us so the drawing room faded away and we were in the sumptuous glow of the red velvet bedroom.

  Chapter 20

  Although dawn was only a few hours away, darkness still smothered the land. A much deeper darkness clung to my heart as I stood naked by the bed watching Luna sleep. She looked much younger in sleep, her lips parted slightly, her long dark lashes a blunt brush stroke on her upper cheekbone. She had thrown the covers away from her in her sleep and her sleek, dark limbs were thrown carelessly against the white sheets, her full brown breasts deepening to the colour of a ripe plum at the nipples. The thatch of dark hair between her legs, and the treasure within, called to me, and I had to resist the urge to wake her so I could lose myself in her flesh once more.

  Instead, I kissed her lightly on her forehead and then dressed before retreating to the chair by the window. Everything I had been dreaming of, and what I had held on to in the wilderness, appeared to be mine. But it only appeared to be. She didn’t love me, that much I was certain of, but she had given herself to me. And now I’d had a taste of what could be, how could I take her back to the plantation, back to Jupiter?

  She stirred then, stretching languidly, a movement that sent a shiver of desire through me and I had to force myself to remain in the chair. She reached out for the place I had vacated by her side, a smile curving across her lips. The smile fled and her eyes flew open when she found only an empty space beside her.

  “I am here, Luna.”

  I stood and moved to stand before her, resisting the urge to caress her, take her into my arms and cover her with kisses, for I had already made a mistake in giving into my desire without finding out why she had offered herself to me.

  “Luna. I need to know why you let me make love to you.”

  She wouldn’t tell me. She merely stared at me wide-eyed, and then her brow furrowed, her eyes black crystals glistening with confusion.

  When she turned from me, pulled the sheets around herself and climbed out of the bed, my anxiety, along with bitter desperation, rose to a deafening clamour.

  I appeared in her way, barring her from leaving the room.

  “Luna, please. I need you to tell me what you were thinking about before you kissed me. I need you to tell me.”

  “I don’t know why, Avery. But it be like I wasn’t in control of myself,” she spat at me.

  ‘It be like...’ Was she saying...? “Luna!”

  She left the room, slamming the door behind her.

  Alone, I stared at the empty bed, picturing her as she had been just hours ago, completely yielding to my lips, my touch.

  I leapt into the ether and out of the room.

  Outside, I sat and waited, confused and torn. She came down a while later and wouldn’t even look at me. She wanted to ride Julia part of the way to our destination and when I offered to saddle the horse for her, she gave me a look I recognised from long ago.

  My wife Julia had been a very gentle soul who rarely became angry, but on one occasion I received a look exactly like the one Luna had just given me. That was when I knew she was angry with me, deeply angry, but not because she believed I had used my mental powers to get myself into her bed. In fact, she appeared hurt. Her mind was closed to me but her face, and the many secrets it held, was beginning to
open up to me. But too late, it seemed. We set off on the journey that would see me alone and lost once more.

  We soon reached our destination, a large rock face surrounded by a thin smattering of trees.

  As the sun began to rise, I gave Luna all I had left to give to her. I mentally showed her maps of the area around the mansion and the plantation along with places I had hidden provisions for her in case she should have need to escape. I also showed her the house by the Mississippi bluffs. Lastly, I tried to give her the chain I had carried for so long, the one given to me by another slave. I had never been able to free Minny in the way I had freed Luna, for I was sure Kato would not have been able to keep the massacre at the Foster plantation a secret from her for very long. But I could see now that her faith in me had not been completely misplaced and she would want the beautiful, courageous woman before me to have this chain.

  But Luna merely stared at it and then placed it over my neck, staring intently at me, deep shadows behind her eyes, the anger I had observed earlier completely gone.

  “No, Avery. I’s gonna be fine so long’s I knows you out there somewhere even if I don’t never sees you. Thank you, for everything you done for me.” She let her hand rest on my chest. “You gots to go now, Avery.”

  I gathered her tiny hands in mine.

  “It will take them about three quarters of an hour to reach here,” I said, referring to Mama Akosua and Master John. “Goodbye, Luna.”

  I quickly bent my head and stole a kiss on the forehead before I disappeared.

  Away from her, but close enough to reach her in minutes if she needed me, I waited and watched the sunrise, knowing it was likely to be the last sunrise I would see. I thought back to those long years waiting in the wilderness. Luna had been worth every second of it. I could die now knowing she was free and she had been mine, if only for a few hours.

  They were close. Already I could feel Mama Akosua’s messengers of death from the netherworld gathering in anticipation. The air had an arctic hint to it and the sunlight appeared to be eaten away as they gathered, a breathing tangible force, although still invisible.

  My attention was on them, so when I heard the sound of Luna’s footsteps, I did not immediately realise she was running back from where we had just come, until she came to a stop.

  “Avery, Avery!”

  I leapt from my seat and raced toward her, running into the thick of the gathering entities.

  I soon saw her standing among the thin forlorn trees with her head in her hands.

  “Luna!” I cried.

  When she looked up, I saw tears coursing down her face. She looked on me as if she had just seen a miracle. Then she ran into my arms.

  “What happened, Luna?”

  The words I had been hoping to hear from her ever since I saw her face at my darkest hour were I love you. She didn’t say those exact words, but the ones she did utter made my soul soar with joy.

  “When you asked about Jupiter, I lied,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, tears still coursing down her face. “I do feels for him but...but it ain’t nothing compared to what I feels for you, and I wants you to never leave me, ever. I wants you to know that I’s gonna follow wherever you go and for as long as you’ll has me. If you won’t let me be with you, then promise you gonna let me see you from time to time over the years.”

  Is it possible to hear death, to feel it all around you, and yet experience such joy? In that moment I did, even with Mama Akosua's messengers of darkness drawing strength all around me.

  “Oh, Luna. My dear, Luna. It...it is too late. They are coming,” I told her, watching her face crumble as it dawned on her that staying nearby instead of running away had doomed me.

  “I’s gonna die before I lets anybody takes you away from me.”

  She clung to me fiercely as if her very life depended on it even though our pursuers were only seconds away. Fear lit a feverish path within me for I knew her master would kill her if he saw her affection for me. The only thing that could save her was to use my telekinetic powers to push her away and onto her knees with her hands over her head.

  The spirits attacked and I was thrown against a tree as Mama Akosua, Master John, Jupiter, and four white men came around the rock face.

  And so I was captured. But when Master John raised an axe which had been blessed by Mama Akosua for the sole purpose of killing me, Luna stopped them. But not for the reason I had first assumed.

  “You has to take it back to the chapel,” she said, her words turning the blood to ice in my veins. “That where it be made so we has to kill it there at night.”

  I stared at her in bewilderment and did not truly believe that the love she had professed for me had been a lie until she faced me.

  “You’d better be sure about this,” Master John said to her.

  “I is,” she said, iron in her eyes, her lips curled in a sneer. “He gonna suffer more this way and I never has to worry about him coming back.”

  Every last bit of strength I had dissolved under the weight of that truth. I sank to the earth, the chains they had placed around me sapping the last of my strength, the flames the sun ignited in my bones becoming unbearable under this new onslaught. Consciousness dissolved all around me.

  ***

  I do not recall most of what occurred from that moment on. I know I slipped in and out of consciousness during the journey back to the Holbert plantation, and even when I was awake, I was in pain and could not be sure of what I saw around me. All I knew during those brief waking moments was that I was aflame. Fire burned through my bones, devouring every inch of me. I was in so much pain it paralysed me, and I could not move or even let out a cry in protest.

  Just when I thought I could not take any more, sweet relief came and darkness swallowed me, only to hurl me back into fire and pain. I awoke, knowing only that I was slung over the back of a horse. The metal chains wound tighter around my body, while the relentless sun continued its work upon my unnatural flesh. Then the darkness would come for me.

  The only lucid moment during that day was when I was thrown out of the darkness by an image that forced itself upon the dark.

  Luna.

  Luna’s face was contorted in terror as she screamed my name. I saw blood, blood everywhere, and Master John looming over her.

  I opened my eyes in panic and tried to sit up as the fire blazed again, although not as fiercely as it had before. I was aware of the silver chains winding tighter around me and of the decaying walls of the chapel. Everything else was a whirl of confusion, noise, voices, and, of course, pain.

  “Luna! Luna!” I cried, so sure the image I had seen was real.

  The din around me diminished for a few seconds, long enough for me to see her through the eyes of those around her. She was walking away from the chapel when I cried out her name. She came to an abrupt stop, her back straight as if something chilled her to the core. Then she hurled herself toward the trees, entering the woods as if the hounds of hell were nipping at her heels.

  I lay back. She’s alive. She’s safe.

  I would have surrendered to the darkness again were it not for him.

  I couldn’t see Jupiter, but I felt him, his blood calling to me as he moved to stand at the chapel door. His mind was on the night I attacked and almost killed him. The next thing he remembered was daylight, Luna gone and Mama Akosua tending to his gunshot wound.

  The creature not only let me live, he thought to himself, it took me and Father Geoffrey back to the plantation. Now the mighty creature is laid low. I know it is evil, but I still cannot understand why it let me live.

  He stared into the shadowy interior of the chapel, lost in thought, when an image pressed itself against his mind. He jumped, taking a step back as if someone had struck him. He kept still and showed no fear although the impulse to cry out was strong.

  He saw his own memory of his ill-planned escape from the plantation. He was eighteen years old and he had disappeared into the woods when the overs
eer had been distracted, with only his midday meal tucked into his pants and no real knowledge of the area, or where to go to reach safety, if even safety could be found in this world of evil masquerading as men, where the colour of your skin meant you were punished all your life. Then he heard something and followed the sound until he came across a child in the woods. The attack, the violence that had been done to one as young as her horrified him. He hadn’t even remembered his plan to escape until he reached the slave quarters carrying Luna in his arms.

  Then he saw something else, a memory that did not belong to him. This time he gasped out loud.

  He saw the rock face where they found Luna and the demon only a few hours ago. It was dark, although he could see everything as if the sun shone directly ahead. Luna was on her knees a few feet away in the memory, and her face was lined with tears. She was begging the person the memory belonged to, begging them to allow her to go back and bury him and Father Geoffrey.

  The images stopped and his mind was clear and his once more.

  I felt his intense confusion regarding what had just occurred. He backed away from the chapel and then swiftly moved toward the trees.

  I listened to Jupiter’s retreating footsteps.

  I was alone now, although there were humans nearby. I closed my eyes and waited for the sweet release that the darkness brought me, and for death.

  Instead of meeting the darkness, I found myself in the hidden chamber beneath the chapel. It was aglow, all the sconces along the walls lit and burning fiercely. I was lying on the ground on my back a few feet from the golden altar and the chains were gone.

  Luna stood at the altar. She was completely naked. A necklace of tiny human skulls, which could only have come from babies, hung around her neck. Both her nipples had been pierced by two small bones, and an elaborate headdress of raven-coloured feathers adorned her head. She regarded me with a soulless smile.

  You are not Luna.

  Its head moved slowly from left to right. Suddenly it was by my side leaning over me, placing a cold hand against my brow. My mind was flooded with it and I groaned, feeling only coldness, death and time stretching backwards and forwards with nothing in between. It did not speak words, for language had long been lost to it, but its wants and what it offered were clear.

 

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