by Kyra Alessy
He rubbed his face. He needed to find her before she began picking those fucking flowers. Fuck Lucian. By the time Mace was done with him, he’d be bedridden for weeks. He threw on his clothes, wondering how long before Kade heard about last night’s events. His Brother had made no secret of the fact that he liked Kora, and he was going to be furious when he learned what Mace had done.
Chapter 9
The day was warm and fair, and being outside the keep’s walls, even with a guard in tow, made Kora realise how much she missed the freedom she’d always taken for granted. Slavery was a necessary evil, she’d always thought. After all, every one of her servants had been house slaves, as had their parents and their parents’ parents before them. They’d always seemed happy with their lot. But now, after having a taste of it herself, she saw things differently. It wasn’t right for one person – or three, for that matter – to own another. To have such control over another’s life invited tyranny. If she ever did go back home, she vowed that she would see the slaves her family owned freed to stay or go from the estate as they chose. She would make all that had happened in the past weeks mean something somehow.
She found the little pink buds that had been described to her dotted around the hillside just outside the keep. Lucian had ordered her to pick as many as she could. According to Davas, they only bloomed once in the autumn, and he needed to make enough salve to last until next time they flowered.
She began to gather them, placing their heads in a large basket and moving around the hillside as she picked. The guard sat a short distance away looking bored but attentive. She was going to wait for the afternoon sun and hope he dozed off. It was a plan that hinged very much on luck, and she prayed to the gods to have mercy on her. If she was able to run, she would go north, she decided, and try to get work at one of the port towns. Then she might be able to learn where her uncle’s ship moored. There were quite a few ifs, buts and mights, but if the gods deemed that she had learned the lessons she was meant to, perhaps all would simply fall into place.
She smiled at the guard innocently and continued with her work, her mind wandering. It was a short time later that she noticed her hands beginning to itch and sting. They also felt wrong, as if they were suddenly too big for her body. Tiny lights appeared in her periphery that were gone when she turned to look. Then her throat began to feel scratchy and she was hearing funny chirping sounds that came from nowhere in particular.
‘Do you hear that?’ she called to the guard.
He was looking away from her. His head turned back slowly and she dropped the basket with a cry. His face was devoid of life. Frightening. His skin was pulled taut over his bones. His black, sunken eyes bore into her. His hands stretched out and, before her eyes, his arms began to grow grotesquely long, the elbows bending in the wrong direction. He began to drag himself towards her on similarly horrifying legs that looked like they’d been broken at the knee and twisted around. He shouted at her, his mouth opening unnaturally wide. But his words were garbled. She screamed and began to flee in the opposite direction as quickly as she could on the rocky terrain.
And then she was falling; down and down. She splashed into water; dark and deep. It was a cave. Everything was hazy and distorted and terrifying. There were deafening sounds; awful echoing noises. She couldn’t see anything properly, but she didn’t know if it was because the cavern was dark or because her eyes weren’t working. There was something moving in the water next to her. A voice in the back of her mind was telling her that this wasn’t real, that her senses were lying to her. She tried to scramble away from it anyway, but she was dragged under by her skirts.
She tore at the lacings of her bodice and, mercifully, they snapped and she was able to pull the dress apart enough to shimmy out of it. Her head broke the surface. She tried to swim to the stone walls, to grab onto the uneven rocks and perhaps pull herself up away from the creature, but she couldn’t make her limbs move except to keep her head just above the sloshing waves. But whatever it was had disappeared.
She looked around her, only just able to make out the steep walls of the cavern. Something hung above her, swinging back and forth slowly. She peered up at the round thing, trying to focus on it. An old, wooden bucket on a tattered rope.
She’d fallen into a disused well probably from the earliest days of the keep. She smothered a cry, knowing with certainty that she was going to die here.
LUCIAN
Lucian stared at his book. He’d been glowering at the same page for ages, just rereading the same sentence over and over again. He threw it onto the large table next to him with a growl and it slid across the polished wooden surface to fall to the floor on the opposite side. He sighed and took a long draw from the goblet with a slightly shaky hand. Water. He’d forgotten.
‘Fuck!’ he muttered and threw the metal cup at the wall.
It clanged on the stones loudly and clattered to the floor next to the book. He stood up with a snarl. Where in the name of the gods were their goods from the town? The wagons should have been here days ago. The wine and the ale were gone. If nothing arrived soon, he’d have to begin fermenting his own fucking fruit.
He moved to stand by the casement that overlooked the valley. His eyes narrowed as he caught sight of her on the hillside with that new fucking blue dress that fit her like a second skin. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her in the kitchen earlier, even after hearing the rumours that she’d spent the night in Mace’s room. He’d known already anyway; it wasn’t as if they’d been quiet. He’d heard her cries and Mace’s roar of completion from his own room down the hall.
It had taken everything in him not to join them. As it was, he’d got not a wink of sleep because of it; imagining what Mace was doing to her to elicit those little moans she was trying to muffle … It was only that he hadn’t wanted to play into her cunning little hands that he’d not given into temptation. With both Mace and Kade under her spell, it was up to him not to let his guard down.
He would corner her soon, he resolved. He’d find out what their little slave’s motivations were. Until then, he would play at his own diversions with her. He gazed down at her lithe figure. A tiny voice whispered that he was going too far, but he pushed it away. The flower-picking was his best idea yet. Touching them would cloud her mind, make her feel as if she’d imbibed too much. She’d have no control over what she said and did for the rest of the day. By the time the moon rose and she came out of the haze, she’d be mortified by whatever she’d said or done. He chuckled at his nefarious little plan. In truth, the threat to put her in the barracks tonight was a hollow one. He couldn’t stand the thought of the men’s dirty hands on her, but she didn’t need to know that.
He watched her down in the vale, going about her task. He imagined her in front of him, her dark hair around her face when it fell out of her plait, her graceful movements as she did her work even when she didn’t know he was watching, her beautiful fucking eyes that looked so innocent they had to be a lie … His fist struck the sill hard and pain bloomed in his hand, making him feel marginally better.
When he was finished teaching her not to trifle with Dark Brothers, even former ones, he was going to plough her so hard and so thoroughly she would forget her deceits. Then he’d see who she really was behind the façade, and perhaps afterwards he’d be able to go about his everyday life without constant thoughts of her.
Unable to help himself, he looked out of the window again just in time to be met with a sight that made his head tilt in puzzlement. She was running as fast as she could, as if her very life depended on it. Surely the little fool wasn’t trying to escape in full daylight with Riken on her tail.
The guard was yelling after her; Lucian could hear it faintly on the wind. And then she was gone. She disappeared off the hillside as if she’d never been there! Lucian was out of the door and down the stairs to the kitchen before the guard could even raise the alarm for help.
‘Sound the bell!’ Lucian yelled, startlin
g Davas as he ran through the kitchen.
Lucian leapt down the steps into the yard as the bell began to ring. Mace and Kade were outside, talking by the stable. They were on his heels immediately, drawing weapons.
‘What’s going on?’ Mace shouted behind him.
‘She’s trying to flee the guard,’ he called over his shoulder, and they doubled their speed, making their way out of the keep and down to where he’d last seen the girl.
Riken was still there, looking frantic.
‘You let her escape!’ Lucian yelled at the hapless man.
‘No!’ he looked down and gestured to the ground helplessly. ‘She fell down there.’
‘Where?’ Seeing nothing, Lucian walked forwards to the pile of stones. His heart dropped into his stomach when he saw the hole. No bigger than a cartwheel. ‘What the fuck is that doing there?’
He knelt at the edge and looked into the darkness. The other two joined him. There was a bit of light, but not enough to see through the gloom. Was there even water down there or just a stone floor with a broken body upon it?
Bile rose at the thought of her lying dead in the darkness, and he turned away for a moment, afraid he would retch. He, who had killed indiscriminately and bloodily since he was a callow youth. The fear he was feeling was palpable, but he didn’t understand it. He didn’t even like her.
‘Tell us what happened,’ Mace demanded of the guard.
‘I don’t know. I was watching her as ordered and she said she heard a noise. I asked her what she meant and she looked at me like I had five heads and then ran from me screaming. I tried to stop her, but before I could catch her, she … she was just gone.’
‘Shh!’ Kade was staring intently at the hole, eyes unfocused. ‘I can hear her breathing,’ he mumbled. ‘Shallow and quick. She’s frightened, but she’s alive for now.’
‘Get some rope,’ Mace ordered.
Lucian took off his boots. ‘I’ll go down. I’m the lightest one here.’
‘Only because you’d rather drink your meals these days,’ Kade muttered.
Lucian turned, the tide of anger rising in him, not really at his Brother, but at himself. Why had he sent her from the safety of the keep? Almost casually, he struck his Brother’s cheek with the back of his hand in a practised strike and was rewarded when the larger man’s head snapped to the side and his lip began to bleed.
MACE
Mace had seen enough. ‘Silence, both of you. I’ll go.’
Sulking, Lucian simply looked at the ground, not saying another word on the matter.
Kade bared his bloody teeth. ‘Go, then, before the lass drowns.’
Another of their men appeared with a length of rope. Mace tied it securely around his waist, and his Brothers and the two guards in attendance lowered him into the breach.
He searched the depths, his eyes adjusting quickly. He pulled hard at the old rope that hung next to him and let it fall away, listening for the sound of it landing. He heard an echoing splash not too far below and then a small, scared cry that, for some reason, made his chest ache. She must be just beneath him.
He descended slowly, the men above keeping a steady pace, until he could see the dark rippling surface of the water just below him. Then he saw her, head bobbing above the surface, her head turning this way and that in panic.
‘Stop!’ he shouted to the men out on the hill, and his descent halted. He peered down at her. She wasn’t looking at him. His brow furrowed. ‘Kora?’ he called out, the name echoing through the cavern.
There was no reaction. It was as if he wasn’t even there.
He reached down and deftly plucked her from the water by her arms, realising belatedly that her dress was gone. That was lucky, he thought, wrongly believing that the lack of heavy, sodden wool would make it easier to hold her. But she fought him – with a fervour he wouldn’t have believed her slight body capable of; scratching him, biting, flailing and hitting. She shrieked as his fingers gained purchase on her bare skin, her eyes wild and terrified.
At first he thought it was because of last night, but she wasn’t even seeing him. She was locked in a flower-induced dream. He tried to calm her, speaking soothingly into her ear, but she wouldn’t listen to him, just bucked and struggled like a captured animal.
After she almost slipped from his grasp for the second time, he finally gritted his teeth and slapped her as Lucian had Kade only moments before, though not so hard. She went limp and he sighed, cradling her against him.
‘Pull me up!’
He was raised out of the pit slowly, blinking rapidly when he finally reached the top. The girl was taken out of his arms by Lucian of all people and he divested himself of the rope.
Kade frowned at her unconscious state. ‘Was she knocked out in the fall?’
Mace shook his head. ‘She was struggling. I would have dropped her ...’
Beside him, Kade made an animalistic noise. ‘Why was she beyond the walls in the first place?’
Lucian flinched subtly and Mace’s eyes narrowed. Clearly his Brother had been hoping these questions would wait until later.
‘He sent her out here,’ Mace growled. ‘Another of his games. Collecting faerie flowers with her bare hands.’
‘How the fuck would you know?’ Lucian piped up with a sneer. ‘You were still in your bed after fucking her all night.’
‘Enough!’ Kade growled low in his throat.
The noise was a warning Mace would recognise even if he didn’t know his Brother wasn’t quite as fully human as he seemed. It would be a miracle if either he or Lucian made it back to the keep unscathed while Kade was this enraged.
But he took a deep breath, visibly trying to calm himself before he gave in to his temper. ‘Give her to me,’ he ordered Lucian.
‘It’s not what you – ’ Mace began, but he trailed off as Kade bared his rapidly elongating teeth.
‘I’ll not ask you again, Brother,’ Kade snarled at Lucian’s hesitation.
She was passed over and Kade’s intake of breath made even Lucian take a step back. In this mood he was very dangerous. He wouldn’t be able to take both of them at once, but they’d all suffer bodily if he changed into the beast now.
Kade caressed the girl’s thigh and hip, mottled with dark finger-marks. A deep rumble of anger came from deep in his chest.
‘Your handiwork?’ he ground out to Mace, his voice sounding more monster than man.
Mace sighed, remorse enveloping him like a damp fog. ‘I didn’t mean to. She came to my room last night. I thought – ’
‘She’d never been with a man before,’ Kade muttered, staring down at the girl in his arms.
Mace’s gaze shot to Lucian and then to Kade in surprise. ‘I didn’t know that last night. How did you?’
‘She told me.’
Kade looked up and Mace could see the change in his eyes. Almost solid black. Kade usually had full control, but not now. This was it, Mace thought. This was where the Dark Realm blood would manifest itself and the change would happen. Kade would put her down and then he would attack them on this hill. He couldn’t kill them; they were bound to each other. He would make sure he hurt them, though. Gravely.
But, instead, he gave them both a look that promised a reckoning later and his eyes shifted back to normal. Then he turned and walked back towards the keep with their slave still unconscious in his arms.
‘I’ve never seen him pull the beast back when he’s been so far gone before,’ Mace whispered.
‘It doesn’t matter. He’s going to kill us later if not now,’ Lucian muttered dramatically.
Mace shook his head, running his hands through his hair. ‘Perhaps we both deserve it,’ Mace returned.
‘Do we?’
Mace turned on him and suddenly he was on the ground with Lucian under him, grabbing him by his long fair hair to keep him in place. He drew back his fist and struck Lucian’s face. Lucian roared in anger and grappled with him, gaining the upper hand after a few moments. Ta
king Mace by the throat, he forced him to his feet.
Mace tore at his fingers and Lucian hissed in pain. ‘Why was she naked in my chamber?’ he thundered.
Lucian shrugged but his jaw clenched. ‘I found her in our bathing pool and stole her dress to teach her a lesson.’
‘But the kitchen is closer. Why didn’t she just go there?’
He looked away. ‘I doubled the guard last night so she’d be caught to add to her humiliation.’
‘So she was driven to my room. Like a lamb to the slaughter.’ Mace stepped away from him, anger and guilt warring for dominance inside him. ‘I thought she was there by design and I treated her like a woman I paid for. Worse, even.’
Lucian snorted. ‘Well, really you did pay for her; quite a lot, in fact.’
Mace threw his hands up in the air. ‘Gods, don’t you understand, Lucian? We left the Army so we didn’t have to be like this anymore! We bought the keep and its lands to make a better life; to be better men!’
‘Well, maybe we shouldn’t have!’ Lucian shouted. ‘At least as Dark Brothers we knew what we were! What are we now, Mace? Kade can never go back to his home. You can’t go one night without reliving your time in that dungeon. And my sister – ’ his voice broke and he let out a growl of misery. ‘I fucking pray every night that she is dead, because I can’t bear to think of her in that place instead of you!’
He fell to his knees and pounded a fist into the ground. ‘Was this the life we wanted?’
Mace stalked up the hill without another word, leaving Lucian on the hillside alone. He closed his eyes and took a breath. There was still a penance to be paid. Kade would demand it as soon as he’d seen to the girl. It was going to be a bad one and Mace wasn’t looking forward to it, but it was their way. And he knew he deserved it.
Chapter 10
She woke with a jolt, her mind disordered and confused. It was so dark, it must be well into the night. She wasn’t in the kitchen. This was no pile of smelly old blankets; she was definitely in a bed or on a deep pallet, perhaps. A thick coverlet weighed down on her. She was too hot. She tried to push it away but realised with rising panic that her arms were tied away from each other above her head, well and truly anchoring her. Her dress was missing too.