“You cannot harm me with your fists, brother,” he shouts, sick amusement in his voice. “And if you use your magic, you’ll draw the wraiths to you”
“Ahhh, look—the wraiths are already on their way.”Smoke like acid stings in my ear as he dissolves around me.
Behind Reahgan, a shadow soars straight at me. So fast, so close. I wince, but instead of me, it slams right into my brother. The collision sizzles like water on coals.
The shadow shifts into a blond fae with her hand around Reahgan’s throat, black flames licking over her skin. She slams him against the wall of the cottage.
Reahgan groans quietly, his smoke flickering.
“Don’t you dare touch him,” Caelynn spits.
“He attacked me,” Reahgan says with a weak voice.
“The wards,” I say. Caelynn partially turns toward me. I don’t dare question how she found us here. That’s the least of my concerns right now. “The house has wards to keep the wraiths away, and it hurts him.”
Caelynn presses his harder against the door. “Good to know.”
Reahgan lets out a withering cry, but it morphs into a laugh. With a crash like a bull, I’m thrust onto the ground. “Kill!” a voice hisses at me. A new wraith, charcoal grey, wiggles over me, eager to have claimed a prize.
Caelynn drops my brother and turns to face our new threat. She throws her black flame at the wraith over me, but he’s quickly replaced by two more.
Three wraiths have approached from the mountainside, eager to spill my blood. Reahgan was right—my magic did draw them.
Master has called.
She’s waiting for you.
“Get inside the house!” I call to her. I throw up a wall of white light between us and the wooden door. We both sprint toward the safety of the warded cottage.
I slam the door shut behind us and press my weight against it. My chest heaves up and down as I press my back against the very small barrier between us.
The attack began as only three wraiths, but how many more will be after us? I picture the army from the plains and shudder. Even with ward magic, I can’t imagine this cottage could withstand such an attack.
I’ve never heard of wraiths hunting someone the way they’re apparently hunting us. It’s part of the “plot” Caelynn uncovered, but even so it seems... odd.
The mountains rumble around us.
Hysterical laughter fills the house, and the overcast face of a wraith appears in the shattered window.
“Would you look at who decided to show up,” Reahgan purrs. “Now, it’s my turn to save my ungrateful brother and the world all in one violent murder.”
My brother chuckles, and Caelynn shudders beside me.
“Reahgan, stop this.” I have a lot of conflicting feelings about Caelynn, but I do not want her dead. I haven’t for months now. She’s already doomed herself, sacrificed herself, in a misguided attempt to save me. She doesn’t need to die too.
“Why would my death save him?” Caelynn asks suddenly through heavy breaths.
Reahgan’s body simmers into a liquid form as he seeps through the small window and his body reforms besides the rusty pans.
“Ah, I see now.” Reahgan tilts his head curiously as he flutters toward us casually. “I’d thought us two eternal enemies, fated to always battle, but we’ve found something in common.”
I purse my lips. What—
“Our love for Reveln,” Reahgan says.
It’s hard for me to imagine a wraith loving anything at all, but this is my brother. The tattered remains of my brother’s soul.
“So, let me explain, my dear, and perhaps we can come to an arrangement.”
“Stop this, Reahgan.” Chills cascade down my spine. I don’t like this conversation at all. “I don’t care what plot you’ve uncovered; unnecessary death is never okay.”
“Oh! But it is necessary. And I think your lover will agree.”
“How does my death save him?” Caelynn says firmly through gritted teeth.
I turn my gaze to hers, pleading. She can’t possibly be considering... “Caelynn, he’s manipulating you.”
But her stare doesn’t leave my brother’s. Outside the walls of this little cottage, the eager moans of wraiths fill the valley. I swallow.
“The Night Terror needs you,” Reahgan says in a pleased, singsong tone. This is a game to him. He’s enjoying it. “He requires you alive and Rev dead. If you were to die, all hopes of his plan are lost. Rev will be of no consequence to him any longer.”
My gaze darts between them—Caelynn is considering his words carefully, still fully ignoring me. Reahgan wafts gently, almost dancing beneath the short ceiling of the wooden building.
“He’ll still kill him for spite.”
“True, but the Night Terror is trapped inside the deepest parts of the Schorchedlands. She has sent messages to all the corners of this place, so all the spirits know you. They know that you are the key to their freedom. They won’t live again, but they can be free within the living world. All they need is you captured and my brother dead. If I were to succeed in my mission to kill you before that happens, I could feasibly get Reveln out before the Night Terror reaches him. And there will be no reason for them to continue the hunt.”
“No!” I yell. Are they both this insane? Don’t they understand how hard I worked to get here? Between the trials and the months I spent desperate to figure out how to get through the Wicked Gates... they think I’d throw it all away because a few wraiths are after me? Or even because there is an ancient being who wants me dead? “I am not leaving without the cure!”
“There is no cure, you fool!” Reahgan yells. “It’s all a farce. You can leave here and save the world by using that magical healing power of yours.”
“He’s right,” Caelynn whispers.
“What?” What the hell does she know that I don’t?
“I mean I don’t know about your healing powers but... there are apparently other ways to cure the scourge.” She bites her lip. “The spellbook—they need it and me—to break the binding on the Night Terror and set her free. That was always the plan. That was the reason for the trials, for all of it. They used us.”
“No,” I say again.
“Enough useless talk,” Reahgan says as he leaps straight at the incredibly beautiful blond fae beside me. Panic rushes through my body as Reahgan’s clawed hand forces its way through Caelynn’s chest, just below her sternum, and she cries out in agony.
The pain must be immense, but she doesn’t try to stop him even as bright red blood splatters against the walls.
“NO!” I scream again.
I blast my blinding light at my wraith brother. With trembling fingers, Caelynn thrusts open the door and sprints into the valley where three wraiths are waiting for us.
“She is going to die, brother.”
My breath comes out shaky.
“Let me break the mating bond first. Then, you won’t feel the pain of it.”
I shake my head. I will feel the pain of it no matter how I lose her.
I only wish I knew how to tell what’s magic and what’s real.
Caelynn
Tears sting my eyes as I run headfirst into three startled wraiths. They call me by name. Caelynn. The Night Bringer’s pet. Come with us. Become one of us.
Oh, I intend to.
Because Reahgan was right. Entirely right. My death will ensure Rev’s survival.
Victory and defeat in the same moment. That right there is the story of my life.
The Night Bringer and his apparent lover will be foiled. She’ll be trapped inside these cursed walls forever. And it will ensure the falling of the Shadow Court.
If I die... it’s all over. The good and the bad.
I’m trapped here anyway. There’s no escape for me from this place, so why not begin my life as a wraith earlier than planned?
I run past the wraiths, straight to the edge of the bubbling pit of muck. Then, I face them. They won’t kill me, that
’s the problem. I need to die for this to work. Or I’ll risk the Night Bringer winning this game of will and wit. I will not let him win.
I will not let him, or his comrade, get his claws into me again. With my last breath, I will fight him. Literally. I’ll give my last breath to ensure their loss.
“Reahgan!” I call out. The other wraiths come floating up slowly, calling to me. Saying my name over and over and over again. “I’ll make a bargain with you, Reahgan.”
Rev
Reahgan chuckles lightly. “It sounds as if your lover is prepared to die.”
He turns from me and soars out the jagged glass that had been a window. I rush out the door, but the three other wraiths are surrounding Caelynn. They have her pinned between them and the black swamp.
They call to her. Come with us. Come.
“No,” she tells them. “I have other plans.”
In her eyes is a resolve like I’ve never seen. What the hell is she doing?
“Get back inside the house, Rev,” she yells. “It’s the only safe place.”
“What’s your bargain, dear?” Reaghan asks.
“Get them away from me, and we’ll discuss.”
My brother’s wraith twists in delight, a sick dance of smoking limbs.
“Get the male,” Reahgan demands of the wayward wraiths. Their eyes are unfocused. “I’ll get the girl. We’ve come to an... understanding.”
The slack-jawed wraiths pause as if considering, but finally, one prowls toward me, and the other two follow.
Then, with a smile that chills my spine, my brother’s broken soul turns toward Caelynn.
Caelynn who isn’t even holding a weapon.
I need to stop whatever is happening between them. They’re both my allies, and yet, I know them working together will only result in a shattered heart on my end. I’m supposed to hate her. I’m supposed to want her dead.
Maybe it’s only the mating magic talking but... I don’t have time to think it all through before the wayward wraiths are on me.
The darkest of the three collides with me; his touch burns like hellfire, sending my whole body into convulsions. I scream but manage to send a jolt of magic to toss him back. He hisses in pain, but the next grasps my throat in his greedy hands. My iron knife slices through his limbs, but he’s replaced by the next. One after the other. Slap, a punch, slice, all defended one after the other, but I’m not fast enough. My magic dissolves one into ash. It’s easier than I expected to fell him but now their every blow comes faster and stronger, and every defensive move comes slower and weaker.
Then, it’s her scream that fills my ears. Caelynn.
Everything in my body reacts, and it hurts so much worse than anything the wraiths could do to me. She’s dying.
Caelynn is dying.
The wraiths attacking me seem to have the same thought, and they rush to where my brother stands over her limp body, blood pooling at his smoky legs.
No.
I pool my energy into one blast and let my rage be my guide as I blast it from my body like a grenade. The wraiths hiss in agony, and I sprint past them toward her.
My mate. My enemy. My heart, dark and broken. But mine all the same.
Another wave of magic knocks Reahgan from her fallen body, and I can’t think anymore. I can only feel the panic coursing through my body.
Not her. Not now. Not like this.
Caelynn’s long eyelashes flutter as I fall to my knees beside her. There is a gaping hole in her stomach oozing black. A hole my brother put there. She wheezes with every breath, her eyes staring straight up into the hazy sky.
She will never leave this place. She will never have hope or love again.
The wraiths scream, their power rumbles the ground beneath her. Her. Mine. Reahgan chuckles but stands between us. More wraiths appear over the mountainside, approaching quickly. Hunting me. Stalking her.
“You did this on purpose,” I say to my fallen mate.
“Rev,” she says.
She keeps doing this. She keeps making these sacrifices—for me. So long ago, she killed my brother and lost her freedom just to save me. She fought battles she shouldn’t have been able to win to save my life in the trials—when I wanted nothing more than to strangle her with my bare hands. She gave up the win for me.
She gave up the chance to see her own kingdom for the first time to help me.
I liked it, her voice rings in my ear. I believed her. But seeing her now. The expression on her face when Reahgan first showed up. The adoration in her dying eyes as she looks at me now. I wanted an excuse to push her away because it was easier.
Easier than this hopeless desperation. Easier than letting her go, knowing she was everything I’d ever desired in a lover. Beautiful and strong and bold and brave.
But I don’t believe her anymore.
I forgave her for a sin I’d thought unforgivable—until she’d used that very thing to push me away. Why did she do that if it wasn’t true?
My stomach twists as my mind leaps to the wraith’s riddle. What is the quest every soul takes up when they enter the Schorchedlands?
“Why do you keep doing this? Choose yourself, just once,” I beg her as I press my hand to her stomach. The black liquid burns my skin.
“I’ll always choose you.” She wheezes.
My fingers flash with warmth, my magic pulsing, already stitching her together from the inside out. Her back arches, her eyes shut, and she lets out a magnificent groan. A moan that heats me from the inside. Dammit, now is not the time to think of her that way.
“You see, your magic acts without your permission,” Reahgan says calmly. I pull my hand away and swallow, glancing back at the scene behind me. Apparently, those three wraiths were no match for my brother. They are all but ash scattered on the ground. But there are more lining the mountain passes, staring down at us. It’s only a matter of time until they join the fray.
Reahgan always was the strongest of us all.
Except Caelynn.
Caelynn was always stronger.
I look down at her, checking her health. Red blood still pours from her open wound, the pain still sketched across her face. But she’ll live, at least for a little while longer. I have time to figure this out first.
“Let’s finish what we agreed to in the cottage,” he says, approaching slowly like I’m a wild animal he’s afraid to spook. He stands over us both.
Caelynn’s eyes grow wide.
“Give me your hand, and I’ll break the mating bond.”
Caelynn gasps, and my stomach sinks.
“You’ll be free of her curse, brother. You’ll see clearly,” Reahgan adds patiently. Always the older brother, looking to teach me something new.
I did want it.... Because I’m so confused about what is real and what is just the magic. I turn back to Caelynn, and her eyes are... indescribable. Pain like I’ve never seen before.
I’ve seen fear in her eyes before, but not like this. This time, it’s pure devastation. “No,” she breathes. “Please.”
My breaths become labored, my heart aching. I could break the bond with her. I could clear my head, and maybe Reahgan’s right—I’d see clearly then.
But then, maybe I wouldn’t. Maybe I’d still love her and hate her and need her without magic telling me so.
“I’ve already given everything,” she begs. “Please, don’t take that.” Her body is beaten and battered, her blood slick on my hands.
“Pathetic child,” my brother complains. “Stop your whining.”
My eyebrows pinch together. “The things you said to me in the shadow room at the High Court.”
She winces, and her face falls more, as if resigning to her fate. Her lips press together, and a sob shudders her shoulders.
“Did you only say those things,” I continue softly. I have to know. “Because you knew breaking my heart, pushing me away, was the only way to get me through the Wicked Gates?”
Their single worst sin becomes the soul
’s new quest. Resolve it, and be redeemed.
My hatred of her, my rage—that was my flaw. My weakness. My damnation. And I’d forgiven her. Is that why I couldn’t enter the Schorchedlands? And is that why she said it?
“Rev,” my brother says more forcefully.
Caelynn’s eyes pop back open, gold flickering for only a moment. “Yes,” she whispers desperately.
I nod; that truth settles easily. It all fits, all makes sense. It’s so within Caelynn’s character to destroy things, especially herself, to save me.
My brother, the brother I mourned for a decade, whose death I never got over, is standing by me, ready to fight with me. For me. He’s ready to take my hand and help me become High King, the position stripped from him by the very female dying in my arms.
But I won’t take more from her. I won’t let her keep giving all of herself for me.
This time, it won’t be Caelynn breaking herself for me.
This time, I’ll break myself—for her.
I stand and face my brother, hands clenched into tight fists.
Caelynn
I can’t breathe as I look up at Rev’s glowing hands grip his brother’s throat. Reahgan roars in rage and pain, writhing in agony.
“No,” Rev says, his voice husky and determined.
My heart throbs in my chest. I squirm, but I can’t move. He healed me enough that I’m not currently dying like I’d planned, but my body is still broken. Shattered.
“Please!” Reahgan begs, his expression falling into desperation as Rev’s magic grows hotter, stronger. Even the wraiths on the edges of the valley have paused, watching his luminescent power light up the miles around us. Wraiths do not like the light.
“Let me kill her, and it’ll be all over,” Reahgan begs. “You can go home, heal the world with your father’s magic, and become king.”
“You and I both know it’s not that simple,” Rev says, pushing his brother farther back, away from me. “You don’t want to kill her for me. None of it was ever for me. It was all for you. Everything you ever did was selfish, only to put yourself ahead.”
Curse of Thorns (Wicked Fae Book 2) Page 19