“Converterent maledictionem,” Morgana whispered.
Everyone in the room held perfectly still. No one talked. No one even breathed. The only sound was the faint heartbeat of those who still made their own blood.
“Converterent maledictionem.”
A soft blue light rose around my hips, snaking up like steam to my ribs and covering my arms. I looked at Jason then Dad to see if they noticed and, clearly, they could see it too.
“Converterent maledictionem.” She said the words over and over, getting faster, almost angrier as her hands cupped my hips, thumbs digging in to my spine.
I jolted forward by some unseen force, and Falcon rushed in to hold me up, cradling my face to his broad chest. The pressure from Morgana’s thumbs intensified until my ears rung and my nose felt tight. The noise in the room filled every crack and every corner, getting louder and louder, like a rush of wind and a thousand people yelling over the top of it.
“There!” she said coldly, shoving me forward as she got to her feet.
And David jumped involuntarily beside us, like a bolt of lightning went right through his gut, then he landed in a floppy heap, his breath raspy and labored, the noise in the room gone.
We all watched, still as the dead.
“Is…” I stepped out from Falcon’s arms and faced the witch. “Is that it?”
“I give no guarantees that he makes a full recovery.” She shrugged one shoulder, making a haughty schoolyard bitch face.
“What?” I leaned forward. “Why?”
“Because the spell I used was an expansion spell.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means it gets worse as time goes on,” she explained. “Starts out mild, takes a while to fully possess the host but, when it does, it’s permanent.”
“Permanent?”
“Yup, and I’d say he was about…” she sung the last word while she considered David. “Seventy percent consumed. So, yeah, good luck getting the old David back.”
“Oh God.” I folded my lips in to stop my face crumpling, but my chin quivered horridly as my eyes filled with blinding tears.
“That’s enough taunting, Morgana. Will he be okay or not?” Falcon asked.
“No way of knowing. Yet. I mean, at seventy percent, chances are he’ll always have some niggling pocket of hatred for her, and I can’t fix that.”
Dad moved in.
“I can’t, Grandfather.” She cowered. “I swear.”
“You’d better hope the damage isn’t permanent,” Blade said. “Because I will personally rip your eyes out of your head and make you eat them.”
“You think I’m defenseless?” she said with a malignant grin, her keen gaze widening around Blade. “I am not afraid of you.”
Blade’s tongue came forward and he coughed once, his eyes bulging in his head as his hands moved protectively up to his throat.
“That’s enough,” Dad said, grabbing Morgana’s arm.
She snapped back from the haze she’d been in and stepped quickly away from my dad, right into the waiting grasp of Falcon. He seized her by the arm and drew her into him, parting his lips to speak. But I saw the change in his mind happen right there in his eyes as he watched Blade recover. Instead of issuing some threat, he simply reached up, placed his hand on her jaw and twisted it so fast I didn’t actually see her head move, only heard the deep crack of bone popping.
“Sorry,” he said, letting her limp body fall carelessly to the floor. “I didn’t see the point in arguing with her.”
Dad leaned down and hoisted her over his shoulder like a damsel being rescued by a prince. “I would say it had a lot more to do with the need for vengeance.”
Falcon’s lips turned down in thought. “Probably.”
“On the bright side,” Quaid said, “at least now you can lock her in a cell without a fight.”
“All very well if that had been the plan,” Dad said as he walked from the room. “Blade?” he added, and Blade followed, still gasping slightly.
The rest of us turned and focused on David again.
“The Sacrificial should be here any minute now.” I checked my watch. I’d ordered one over thirty minutes ago.
“We’ll have to wake him to get some blood in him,” Falcon said.
“He won’t feed in a room full of people,” Jason piped up from the corner of the room. “First thing he’ll do when he sees an audience is fly right out that window. Everyone will need to leave.”
“He can’t be left alone right now,” Quaid offered. “There’s no telling what state of mind he’ll be in when he wakes.”
“I’ll stay here with him,” I said. “He—”
“The hell you will.” Falcon took a step toward me. “He nearly completely drained you last night, Ara. He clearly has no regard for your wellbeing right now. I—”
“I can take care of myself, Falcon. You know I can.”
“It’s not your job to take care of yourself. It’s my job, and I say you’re not staying alone in a room with a dangerous predator.”
I folded my arms. “Let me tell you something, Falcon. He is my husband. He’s hurt and probably going to be quite afraid when he wakes. I will be the one staying here to comfort him, and if that means I need to call on the full force of my power to restrain him, so be it. If I get in trouble, I’ll call out.”
“But he could have killed you last night, Ara—”
“He did kill me, Falcon. I was dead. But I regenerate,” I added to myself. “He also caught me off guard last night, okay? I’m prepared for him to go crazy and attack this time. I’ll be fine.”
“You should have been fine last night,” he added. “Why didn’t you use your Cerulean Light? You’ve been practicing for months—”
“Because that’s just it,” Jason said dully. “Mike’s been forcing her to use it in attack mode. By default now, her body won’t call on it when she’s afraid.”
“Yeah, but I tried.” I looked down at my hands. “It just wouldn’t spark.”
“Is it there now?” Falcon asked.
I needed to look at David and think about everything that happened before he drained me last night to feel the warmth tingling in my fingertips, but when it did, it was sharp and strong. I smiled at Falcon. “Yeah. I’m all good now.”
“Okay then.” Falcon put both hands up and took a step back. “You can stay.”
“I know I can.”
“Look, I’m sorry, Ara. I know you can handle yourself. I mean, hell, I trained you,” he laughed. “But the thing is… I just got scared, that’s all—to find your bed empty this morning and then a bloodied, naked heap at the end of David’s trail. You can’t blame me for being overprotective.”
“And I don’t. I appreciate it—more than you know. But I’d be very grateful for the chance to prove that I’m not that fragile, timid little girl you met when I first came here.”
He smiled softly at me, then over at Quaid. “What can I say to that?”
Quaid moved to the door, patting Falcon on the back as he passed. “Let’s go see what they’re doing with the witch then, shall we?”
“You go,” Fal said. “I’ll stay outside in case of trouble.”
“Suit yourself,” Quaid said, and skipped out of the room with boyish determination.
Jason hung back a second until Falcon left and took his last-minute big-brother lecture with him, then walked over and knelt by the bed, placing his hand to his brother’s head.
“When he wakes, Ara, he may initially try to attack you. Just be prepared, okay?”
I nodded.
“The food’s on the way,” he added. “Three, two—”
“Here’s that snack you ordered,” Ryder said lightly, leading a fragile, rather scared-looking woman in by the arm. “She’s kindly taken some tranquillizers, so her blood should pacify the king a little once it gets into his system.”
“Thanks. You can just sit down there, please, ma’am.” I pointed to my dresser
chair.
Jason appeared standing at my side and leaned a little closer, keeping one eye on the human as he whispered in my ear. “You know he’ll kill her, don’t you? The Pledge is null and void in this situation, Ara. He won’t be able to restrain himself.”
“I can restrain him.”
“Okay.” He shook his head, backing away. “Just don’t beat yourself up if you don’t win that battle. Okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered, and the door closed, leaving me, the human, and a hungry and very violent predator alone.
* * *
My eyelids felt heavy, closing without my permission several times as I sat in the chair by the bed, waiting. The Sacrificial sat slumped in a rather uncomfortable position at the dresser, her head on her arms, feet sitting at an awkward angle on either side of her. The cocktail of sleeping drugs intended to knock David out after he ate had clearly taken its toll on her. But at least she wouldn’t be conscious when he fed from her. She wasn’t new to this world, but she clearly hadn’t been lunch to the king before either. She would have heard of his fetishes in the bedroom and his appetite for death, and I imagined, as I watched her sleep, that she must have desperately needed the money to have put her hand up for this feeding slot. Hopefully she didn’t have a family out there—a child or a sick parent that needed the money to survive because, truthfully, her number was probably up.
I looked through the darkness and studied David’s face. There were dreams there in his sleeping expression—dreams that weren’t likely to be good ones. He was restless and clammy to the touch. I just wished he’d hurry and wake up so I could heal his pain.
When my head drooped for the fifth time with exhaustion, I left the chair and crawled onto the bed beside David. The blankets and sheets were still stained with blood and I was sure a few stray pieces of flesh might be among the folds, but I didn’t care. It was David’s blood. David’s flesh, and I’d happily lie in it just to be closer to him. Also, I’d happily lie in anything just to get a moment of sleep.
I rested softly on the pillow so as not to disturb the sleeping predator, and rolled to face him, my hand under my cheek. As I lay there for a while, listening to the clock tick and the human heart beat, my breath slowly altered to mimic David’s. Including the quick breath I took when he did.
His eyelids popped open, black and soulless as a night of death underneath, flicking on to me a second later.
I braced myself, reaching back with one hand to get a strong hold if I needed to turn and run quickly. But his eyes focused then and his brow crinkled down the middle as he took in my face, one almost silent word spilling through his dried lips that made me stay put.
“Ara?”
“It’s okay.” I reached for him but didn’t touch. Didn’t dare touch. “You’re safe.”
“No.” He got on his knees and scooped my top half off the bed, crushing my cheek to his bandaged chest. “I killed you.”
“Yes. But I’m okay.” I tried to pull back, but he wouldn’t let me. “I was waiting halfway between life and death. Falcon found me.”
“I didn’t mean to,” he said, his cold breath chilling the top of my head in an unnerving way. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. I—”
“David. I know. And it’s okay. I’m fine.”
“The baby.” He bent slightly and placed his hand on my pink top. “I felt her move.”
I laid my hand over his. “Really?”
His black eyes closed, a hard, slow breath leaving his lovely dark-pink lips. “I’ve never felt that before. It… I felt you slip away and then… there was this tiny, strange little… bump from inside you.”
I smiled, catching his eye then. “And… what did you think? Pretty cool, huh?”
“I didn’t know what it was at first. I stopped, took a second, and after what felt like forever…” He smiled down at his hand over the bump, his deadly eyes alight somehow with a sparkling excitement. “She did it again.”
“She was probably telling you to get off her mother.”
He laughed, but it ended short, David folding over and shutting his eyes so tight his teeth formed a cage.
“You’re in pain.” I got up on my knees. “You need blood.”
“No.” He fell back against the pillows, jolting up like they were made of fire when his torn skin touched it. “I can’t drink it, Ara—”
“It’s okay.” I cupped a hand delicately over his bare knee. “It was the spell, David. Morgana undid it. You’ll be fine.”
“No.” He rolled onto his side and pulled the sheet over his nakedness, bringing his knees up to his chest. “I can’t risk it. I can’t take anymore.”
“Don’t be afraid.” I curled up just in front of him, not sure if I should touch him, but wanting so badly to brush his hair softly off his face. “Go past your boundaries in thought, David. Think of me in a way you’re not usually able to. You’ll see. The spell is gone.”
He frowned at me. “What do you know of the boundaries?”
“Only that there were thoughts or feelings you couldn’t express. I don’t know exactly what those were. But I need you to trust me.” I risked touching him then—using one finger at first to move a thick lock of bloodied hair from his temple. “Try going past them. Think about something you wouldn’t normally be able to think about.”
The look in his eye told me he trusted me enough to risk it, and when he drew a tight breath, I thought for a second that maybe I was wrong. But his eyes opened wider after and his lip angled sharply into that secret smile.
“See?” I said, my heart beating again.
“It’s not possible.” He sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms.
“What’s not?”
Baring all with no discretion, he threw the sheets back and hopped out of bed, shaking his head against his hands over and over again, saying, “No, no, no.”
“David?” I jumped up too and stood behind him. “What’s wrong?”
“All this time.” He fell into a squat right there on the floor at the foot of the bed, his bare feet holding his weight. “I’ve been in agony. Suffered unendingly, and for what?” He stood again, turning to face me, his eyes so black and so squared it seemed the anger had redrawn his features. “How did this happen?”
My eyes subconsciously drifted to the thin line of blood dripping from a cut across his rib. I swept in and cupped it with my hand. “David, please drink. I—”
“Where is it?” He twisted suddenly and charged toward the wardrobe, forcing the door open in a sweeping move and taking straight to the boxes of his personal effects, still sitting packed in piles around the space. Aside from the one we knocked over.
“Where’s what?”
“I can’t explain it to you, Ara.” He stopped for a second to rub his head, breathing heavily through what was very obvious pain. “Every time, even now, as my mind clocks over and I want to say it, I’m drawn up by the fear of the pain.”
I gave a knowing nod. “Morgana said there’s a possibility you might always hate me—that parts of the spell will never fade.”
He broke eye contact to rifle through his boxes again. “Then that’s even more of a reason why I need you to understand.”
“Understand what?”
A small leather-bound journal hit my arm as he spun around and shoved it toward me, not realizing I was standing so close. “Just read it. Please?”
“Okay.” I put the journal down and moved in to hold him up when he buckled. “But only after you drink. I can’t stand to see you like this.”
“Just read it!” he yelled in a breaking voice, grabbing the book again and holding it out to me, his whole face pleading.
“No.” I shook my head. “You’re trembling, David; bleeding. I wo—”
“Fine,” he muttered so coldly I squeaked as he grabbed my wrist and drew it away from his waist, using it to pull me unnervingly close, and with that dark, eerie hatred in his eyes said, “Then get out.”
I wanted to
protest—to beg him not to hate me after everything he’d suffered, but it was no use. He led me to the door, twisted the handle and shoved me out into the corridor, slamming it in my face before he even knew if I’d found my footing. Falcon caught me by the ribs and turned his entire body away from my room, shielding me in case any attack followed.
“What happened?” he asked.
I couldn’t talk through the air stuck in my throat.
Falcon studied my watering eyes for a moment, then pulled me back in to his chest. “It’s okay.”
“No.” I sobbed, hiding it behind my hands. “He hates me, Falcon. You should have seen the look in his eye. We’re gonna go on this pendulum love-hate thing now for the rest of our lives. I’ll never know when he’s going to turn.”
“Aw, come on, Ar.” He cradled the side of my face in one giant hand, and the comforting sound of his heartbeat through his warm shirt made the shaking in my lungs ease. “Give him time. He’s not himself right now. He’ll need a lot of healing both physically and emotionally before you can decide how things’re gonna be.”
“No. He’s conditioned, Falcon.” I wiped my snotty nose on my wrist. “You know, like a dog wearing a bark collar. He’ll never be able to come near me again.”
“I hope”—he kissed my brow and left his lips there as he spoke—“for Morgana’s sake, that you’re wrong. But there’s no point worrying about it now. We have a festival to attend in less than five hours, and at least one of the royal family needs to be there.”
I nodded, stepping back from his arms, a more composed version of the sobbing mess I was. “Can you send someone in later to get my costume?”
“Sure.” One cheek dimpled in an affectionate half smile. “I’ll wait ’til it goes quiet in there.”
My thoughts and eyes drifted back to my room and the woman I left in there for David to eat. “He’ll kill her, Falcon.”
His caramel eyes went cold and his lips pressed into a hard line. “He already has.”
“Oh God.” My two hands came up and wrapped the back of my neck, rubbing firmly as I backed away.
“Ara?” Falcon called.
Echoes & Silence Part 1 Page 46