by Queen, Nyna
Darken slowly shook his head. “And if anybody ever has a complaint about the quality or authenticity of a piece of jewelry, they could just blame it on their procurers in Tharsis and be off the hook.”
“Quite ingenious, the whole thing,” Belaris said.
“Ingenious, indeed.”
Another explosion rattled the room on Belaris’ side, this one even louder than the previous. Belaris ducked his head with a curse. His outline became distorted and the projection flickered, dangerously close to breaking.
Muted, Darken heard shouts and something that could’ve been gun fire and then the high, shrill sound of—
“Are they trying to drill their way in?”
Belaris puckered his lips. “It seems they have realized that trying to break my sigils is too costly for their numbers. So instead of defusing them to get through the doors, they have now moved on to ripping out the entire wall.” He gave a disgusted shake of his head. “All the pride of the country’s guardaí force in one place, and they have to revert to brute force! I must say, I feel almost sorry for them.”
The shouts and drilling blasts endured, sending waves upon waves of rippling blue energy through the projection, frazzling the image.
“They are almost through. There’s not much time left.” Belaris leaned toward the console, his expression becoming urgent. “Listen, Darken, you’ve always said that we can be better. That we can be more than just the killers they see in us. And I hope you’re right. I hope things can … change. But, Darken, I’m a goner. I’ve been for a while now.” A sad smile crossed his face that made him suddenly appear so much older than his years. “All the people I’ve killed … all those lives…”
He closed his eyes for a second. “I can hear their screams, Darken. I can see their faces. They follow me day and night. They never sleep. Never.”
He shuddered, and the haunted look in his eyes intensified, becoming a window into a tormented soul. Darken’s lips pressed together, choking back the pain of understanding he was feeling in his heart.
Belaris raked a shaking hand through his hair. “I want to go when I’m still myself, you know? When I’m still me and there is still a shred of humanity left in me. Not needed to be shot down like a rabid beast that cannot tell friend from foe.” His gaze found Darken’s, holding it with its intensity. “I have killed so many in the name of the Order, and I never had a choice about it. But this time, I have. I might only have one life to give—and the Jester knows it’s not nearly enough to balance out all the despair I caused—but it is mine to give. My life, my choice. And I’m giving it for you, Darken.” He rushed on when Darken opened his mouth. “This is my gift for you. Don’t waste it. Survive. Find a way to make a real life. For yourself. For both of us.”
Darken’s throat became so tight, he could barely squeeze out a word. “Belaris, I—”
“I know, man. I know.” Belaris’ eyes were glistening brightly. He reached out. Darken raised his hand, too, and their fingers touched in the air, blending into each other’s, separated by hundreds of miles yet connected through space by friendship. “It’s been glorious Dark. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend, or brother.”
The shrill drilling noise grew louder. Shots sounded to Belaris’ right, coming in rapid succession.
Boom! Boom! BOOM!
Darken flinched. Probably grappling hooks being shot into the wall to tear it down. Belaris’ gaze flickered in that direction, then back to Darken. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the sound of the magic-fueled drills. “Do me a favor, will you?”
Darken didn’t hesitate. “Anything.”
“I left a little package at the usual spot. Can you see to it that my sister gets the small blue box from it?”
Darken nodded. “I’ll make sure she gets it.” Somehow he would. He might not have any idea how he would survive even the rest of this day, but somehow he would make sure of it.
Belaris released his breath as though a great weight had been taken off his shoulders. “Thanks. And Darken?”
“Yes?”
Crimson flared in Belaris’ eyes and a smile curved his lips, cold like a frozen blade and maliciously sweet. His killer smile. The words spilled from his mouth in a lover’s croon, “Make them pay for what they did!”
The familiar deadly heat seared the inside of Darken’s skin, setting his soul on fire with a sharp, all-consuming hunger, yet this time he welcomed it, reveled in it. He returned the smile. “You bet on it.”
Belaris winked at him. “I always bet on you.”
Something broke with a sharp crack and then stone smashed against stone in a cascade of ear-deafening thuds. Belaris jerked around with his arms raised, shrouded in a coat of slithering black darkness, and unleashed a torrent of death.
People screamed.
Wood shattered.
Shots pelted the walls in a quick staccato.
Above it all, Belaris was laughing wildly.
The projection flickered. More shots popped, uncontrolled, as if someone was firing blindly around without aim, biting chunks of wood and stone from furniture and walls. Something metal rolled over stone and clinked against a table leg.
An explosion flared. The holo-image turned blindingly white for an instant. Darken reflexively raised a hand to shield his eyes and swore. He couldn’t see. Could do nothing but helplessly listen as Belaris’ wild laughter turned into a fierce battle cry that was drowned in gunfire.
Suddenly the gunfire stopped.
Darken dropped his hand and lurched forward with a howl, trying to reach for his friend, trying to do something, but the transmission was gone, and all he saw was his own horrified image reflected on the polished wooden surface of the table.
Pain seared his heart, hot and sharp, turning his innards into mush. Darken staggered against the nearest wall, pressed a fist against it and bowed his head, his mouth filling with a bitter taste. The ashes of dreams and regrets.
“Belaris,” he whispered as the tears began to fall. “Oh, Belaris.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
ALEX’S fingers slid off the doorframe as she slowly approached Darken in the half-dark of the workroom, her thin robe flaring softly behind her in the light draft.
Darken had dropped into a chair and was hunched over a small table with his head buried in his hands and his shoulders shaking in silent agony. Through her sensory threads, Alex could feel his pain. It pulsed out of him in wave after wave of heart-rending anguish, rippling over her skin like invisible flames. It was a pain so raw and deep that she wanted to double over and whimper like a child.
Her bare feet came to a stop beside his chair. She hesitated, not sure how he would react to someone invading his grief. Not sure if he would want her there with him right now.
Sometimes you only realize you need something the moment it is given to you. Rachel’s never-failing wisdom. All her life, Alex had pretended that she could face everything alone and that she needed no support from others, but the truth was, if their roles were reversed right now, of all people in the world, she would want Darken to be with her. Just to be with her.
She reached out and gingerly touched his arm. “Darken…”
He raised his head. The look of pure agony on his face almost tore her heart in two.
“Alex.” Her name came out in a hoarse whisper, a desperate plea in the brittle silence around them. “Alex.”
She bridged the small distance between them and he pressed his face against her stomach, his arms winding around her waist, clutching her so tightly she could barely breathe. Alex’s fingers fisted in his hair, getting tangled in the silky raven strands.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her own throat thick and tight with pain. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Her head pounded and her mouth was so dry even breathing hurt. Belaris—dead? Her brain simply refused to process it. The last time she’d seen him, he was so full of life, brimming with mischief and jokes, ready to take on the world with nothing but arr
ogance and charm. And now he was gone. Just like that. A star that had been burned out of the night sky, leaving behind nothing but a vast, expanding darkness.
There were no words to make this right again, nothing she could say that would fill the raging emptiness of loss inside him or make the past few minutes unhappen, so she simply held him, and hoped that it was enough.
After several minutes, Darken leaned back.
Alex blinked, completely taken aback by the sudden change of expression on his face. Instead of the pain that had raged there moments ago, it showed nothing but icy calmness, glazed with a hint of chilled red fury. A cold mask carved from gold and marble. As if there was an off-switch to his feelings, and he’d just pressed it.
His dark, cavernous eyes found hers and she could barely suppress a shudder. A dangerous red glow smoldered at their vast bottoms, waiting for the merest mental gust of wind to flare up.
“I suppose you heard everything.” Even his voice sounded expressionless.
“Yes,” Alex said softly and pointed to her ears apologetically. “Shaper hearing.”
Darken just nodded as if she’d confirmed something he’d already surmised. His hands slid from her sides and he abruptly rose to his feet, wordlessly moving toward the bedroom.
Alex followed him, startled.
When she reached the doorway, he had already put on his black denims and was slipping into his shirt.
Alarm lashed through Alex. “What are you doing?”
Not glancing up, Darken swiftly fastened the buttons of the black shirt.
“You heard what Belaris said,” he said, the slight jerk of a muscle in his jaw at the mention of his friend’s name the only indication that he was not chiseled from stone but still a man of flesh and blood somewhere underneath that glacial mask. “I’ve been declared rogue, and the hunt has already begun.”
He sounded so calm, so even, he could have been talking about the weather. Alex wished he would scream, rage, tear down the walls—anything but this frightening, eerie calmness.
“I must leave immediately.” He shook out his shirt sleeves. “They will be able to trace the communication back and this will be the first location they’ll come looking for me. This place isn’t safe. Neither will be my family’s other properties. Everybody near me will be a target, that’s why I need to get as far away as possible.” He paused and there was the merest flicker of emotion crossing his face. “Belaris died to buy me time to escape, and I don’t intend to waste his sacrifice.”
It sounded like there was more behind those words, but he didn’t say anything else before turning and pulling a zipper on a camouflaged carryall.
Alex puffed out her breath, feeling slightly steamrolled. Now this was an unexpected development, but then, her life had always been a series of unexpected developments. She could handle it. As long as she was with Darken, it would be okay. Even if it meant being on the run again.
Part of her argued that they should contact Stephane first before doing anything overhasty, but Darken also had a point. Any minute they wasted likely brought his pursuers closer. She knew the rules: get out of immediate danger, make a safe base, come up with a plan. Survival was the prime directive, or you could just as well throw in your hand immediately.
Alex inhaled. “Alright, sugar, just let me quickly grab a few things from my room.” She paused, considering. “And since it sounds like we’ll have to slit a couple of throats, we better stash up on weapons, too—”
Within a heartbeat, Darken had crossed the room and was right in front of her, holding onto her wrists with bruising force.
“Alex, no!” His eyes burned into her like furious red candles. “You’re not coming with me.”
She bared her teeth at him and yanked at her arms clutched in his steel-vise grip. “Damn right I’m coming with you! If you really think I would let you face them on your own, you must be out of your mind.”
Darken’s voice rumbled with deep thunder. “Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve just said? The entire force of the Order is on my heels. I’m leaving, so that the rest of you will be safe!”
“I heard you very well the first time,” Alex snapped back. “And I don’t give a damn about safety. But it so it happens I give a damn about you!”
Darken pressed his eyes closed, gritting his teeth so hard that the sinews in his neck were standing out. “Alex, please.” His voice was shaking from the effort to keep it under control. “Don’t make this any harder for me than it already is.” The mask cracked and pain flickered in his eyes, coated in desperation. “I need to know that you’re safe. Please. Don’t fight me on this one.”
Alex realized that this was probably the closest he would ever come to begging, but she was too damn mad to cut him any slack for it.
“The only person here making anything harder for anyone, is you!”
Darken’s hands clenched into tight fists at his sides. “Why do you have to be so damn stubborn?”
“That’s rich, coming from you!”
For a second, Darken looked like he was about to shout something back at her but then instead, his jaw tightened and his eyes turned as hard as blood-red diamonds. “You’re not coming. End of discussion.”
He turned on his heel and reached for his carryall.
Excuse me?
Alex curled her fingers to keep her claws from accidentally gutting him. “This wasn’t a discussion,” she squeezed through her teeth. “A discussion requires actual arguments. At the moment, you’re just throwing your balls around!”
Darken shouldered his carryall in a quick, fluid motion and reversed, his face carved from a glacier.
“This isn't open to debate.”
Oh, we’ll just see about that!
He made a move for the door, but Alex slid forward on quick spider legs, blocking his way.
“What’s your fucking problem?” she demanded to know, shifting with his movements when he tried to circumvent her. “What’s this really about, sugar? Do you think I would slow you down? That I would be a vulnerability?”
His gaze was hard and merciless. “Yes.”
Alex recoiled. His word sliced into her like a poisoned dagger.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” The hurt quickly spawned into anger that tore through her restraints like hot knives through butter. “If I remember things correctly, I saved your lousy ass at least as often as you saved mine during these past weeks. I would be a freaking asset! So, do me a favor and jog my memory, but in what reality exactly did I give you the impression that I am a little damsel in need of protection?”
Darken was looking at her with a strange, tormented expression. “I’m aware that you don’t need my—or anyone’s—protection.”
“Then why won’t you take me with you?” Alex yelled at him.
“Because I love you, you stubborn, snarly woman, and I don’t want you to die!” Darken roared.
Alex froze and stared at him, speechless.
Darken let out a growl, tossed his carryall to the side, grabbed her arms, and kissed her. It wasn’t a gentle kiss. He kissed her as though the world would end tomorrow and this was his only chance to prove to her that he meant it. It was a kiss that set her on fire, that left her dizzy and empty and yearning for more. Hungry for a thousand lifetimes.
The world started spinning around her, yet she wanted more, more, more. She wanted to stay with him right there, poised on that burning edge between heaven and hell, floating in a flaming sky bristling with lighting.
He snapped back and Alex staggered, trying to catch her balance—and her breath.
Darken’s eyes were on fire. The mask had shattered and she saw the man underneath the armor. A man so full of tormenting emotions that he needed to keep them contained for the time being if he didn’t want to break under the strain and so he could do what needed to be done. That he’d let it down for her sake must have cost him.
They were standing so close she could feel the searing heat from his body see
p through the layers of clothes between them.
Darken’s eyes slowly wandered over her face, his gaze tormented. “Don’t you get it, Alex? You are my vulnerability.” He cupped her head in his hands, his rough thumbs stroking her cheeks. “I love you, Alexis Harper. Your life matters more to me than anything.”
He closed his eyes. “I want you to know that I don’t regret any of what happened. I just wish we’d had more time.”
He said it as if it was already over. Well, not if she had any say in it.
Alex swallowed. “Don’t worry, sugar, I’m planning on sticking around for a long time and being a real pain in the ass. You’ll have your regrets.”
A harrowed smile flickered over his lips. “I don’t think there’s another woman like you in this world.”
He dipped his head down and his lips touched hers again, yet this time their touch was soft, fleeting, as if he was already halfway gone. They tasted so much like goodbye Alex wanted to scream.
They broke apart slowly, their gazes locked upon each other’s.
Alex’s voice was barely above a whisper. “Now there’s no way in hell I’m possibly letting you go without me.”
Pain washed over Darken’s features, sharp and desperate. He opened his mouth, but Alex quickly stifled the coming protest by sealing his lips with her own.
He stiffened for a second before reluctantly giving in to the kiss. Alex didn’t give him any chance to regret it. Using every trick of seduction she knew, every bit of emotional blackmail, she stroked the fire inside him, teasing him, while spinning her silky little web. She let her tongue dance with his until she felt him relax a little. Until she felt his grip on her ease.
Putting one hand on his chest, Alex brushed her lips across his cheek as she leaned toward his ear.
“I’ll just need a minute.”