But Nina was another issue. I could press him on that subject. “Can you find out about my sister?”
He sighed. “Focus on the trials. They start in forty-eight hours. Rest, recharge, and be ready. I can’t help you with your sister, but I can arrange to have you taken to the outer district to visit your family. They’ll be moved to central Middale in a few days. You can give them the news yourself.”
His mouth smiled, but it was an empty action that didn’t reach his eyes. My skin crawled at his fake attempt at consoling me. He’d just thrown me to the wolves for the second time, and now he was basically giving me an opportunity to say goodbye to my family, again.
Frustration was an angry ball in my throat. “Get out.” My voice was husky with the threat of tears. “Just get out.”
Aspen stared at me for a long beat before leaving the room.
The door closed, and I was alone as the events of the past few hours crashed down on me. I was going to have to fight again. I was going to have to kill again.
The walls closed in, and my lungs grew tight. I opened my mouth and screamed.
Do you feel better now?
The sword’s words resonated in my head.
How was it doing that? I wasn’t holding it. I hurried to the dresser and pulled the sword out of hiding.
Thank you, it was awfully cramped back there.
“I’m sorry.”
Don’t be. I can’t actually feel anything. It’s simply fun to pretend sometimes.
I settled on the bed with the sword in my lap. “You can speak to me without my holding you.”
Our connection is growing.
Connection. Killion hadn’t told me anything about this sword or why I could communicate with it, but maybe the sword itself could enlighten me.
“What are you?”
Um…I’m a sword. Are you feeling well?
“I know you’re a sword, but why can you speak to me? Why do they call you a weapon of the conquered?”
Honestly, it’s all a little fuzzy. I’ve been asleep for a long time. You woke me up, actually.
“And before the sleep?”
Darkness and before that…You.
“Me?”
You always wake me, Danika, except that isn’t always your name. But your soul. It remains the same, and I am bound to it. To you.
I was so confused. This made no sense. “I don’t understand what you mean.”
I’m not sure how to explain it any better. I was awakened by you and have been bound to you for my whole existence. I am your partner in battle and your conscience when in need. I am your blade.
“And how long has that been?”
Eons.
Eons. This made no sense either. The sword had to be broken. I needed to speak to Killion. He’d explain it all. In the meantime, I needed to focus on how the hell I was going to survive three blood trials—whatever form they might take.
You’re troubled.
“I have to fight again.”
Which is something we do well. He sounded almost smug.
“I won’t be able to take you with me.”
Ah, yes. We are in hiding.
Silence filled the room.
Unless you find a way to change that…
Aspen wanted me to win the trials. He wanted Winter in power. He’d said if the sword belonged to me, it would find me. I hadn’t wanted to ask him about the sword before, afraid he’d find it and take it away. I wasn’t thinking straight then, but now…Now my head was clear, as if holding the sword sharpened my mind.
Aspen had made the proviso that I got to bring one weapon of my choice, and my gut told me that the bastard prince didn’t do anything without a good reason.
He’d seen me wield the sword. He knew what I could do with it.
The fucker wanted me to choose it.
You have a solution.
“Yeah, I think I do.”
* * *
I woke to dim light and the smell of coffee. I’d fallen asleep on top of the covers, fully clothed, but there was a blanket over me, and someone had removed my boots for me. Was it morning? Impossible to tell without windows. Fuck, I hated this poky, dead room.
Movement in the periphery of my vision had me sitting up straighter.
“It’s all right, mistress,” Blossom called out as she emerged from the tiny washroom. “I ran you a bath. Coffee is on the dresser.” Her expression was neutral, but there was something in her eyes. Something that, if I didn’t know better, looked like compassion. But these wankers had no compassion, did they?
“Did you cover me and take off my boots?”
She blinked sharply, an almost involuntary action. “Yes, mistress.”
“Why?”
“To make you comfortable.” She pressed her lips together.
My neck prickled. Killion had taught me to read people, their body language, the slightest twitch of a brow, and hers screamed that she was hiding something.
I tilted my head to the side and scrutinized her. “And why do you care if I’m comfortable or not?”
Her throat bobbed. “I don’t.”
That made no sense, and I wanted to push further, but she made a beeline for the door. “I’ll be back in an hour to help you dress for your trip to the outer district.”
She exited, leaving me with an awful sense of wrongness. The whole exchange had been off.
No, Dani, no. Not your problem. Focus on Nina and staying alive.
Six days till Killion came for me.
Six days and I was out of here, if the blood trials didn’t kill me first.
3
Blossom was true to her word, returning an hour later to help me dress in more Winter colors, clothes cut to accentuate my shoulders, and make my limbs look toned and powerful. I strapped the blade Aspen had given me to my waist, where it gleamed bright gold against the dark blue of my trousers.
Blossom pulled my hair back in a severe French braid and rimmed my eyes in kohl once more.
I stared at myself in the mirror. All the kohl made me look psycho. “Is the make-up necessary?”
“Lord Aspen insists you look your best. There will be drones filming your visit to your family. Lord Lowland has ordered coverage of your activities leading up to the blood trials. Holoscreens across Middale will be screening the event and snippets of your activities in the lead-up.”
Anger bubbled up inside me. It was bad enough that Aspen had thrown me back into the pit, but to steal my private moments with my family, too? No.
“I need to speak to Aspen. Now.”
“I’m afraid he left to attend to some urgent matters an hour ago,” she said.
Fuck. “When will he be back?”
“I’m not sure, but your transport to the outer district is waiting.”
Double fuck.
Blossom met my eyes in the mirror. “The drones won’t follow you into your family home. You’ll have some privacy once you’re indoors.”
Once again, there was something in her eyes that mimicked compassion and…empathy. I was going nuts. Imagining things. Seeing what I wanted or needed to see.
She dropped her gaze. “I’ll escort you to your transport now.”
I stood and studied myself once more, stripped of what made me…well, me. The silver glint of Timothy’s pocket watch on the dresser caught my eye. It was one of the few things from my life before the games that I still had. I picked it up and tucked it into my pocket. Having it with me felt right, a reminder of what I’d been through and lost. What we’d all lost.
She led me out of my room and down the tunnel-like corridor outside to a shuttle lift I’d seen several times but hadn’t had the privilege of using. She entered a code and stepped back as the doors opened.
The inside was crimson with slender silver pipes lining the walls vertically. “What is this?”
“Fast transport to the surface.”
“The surface…. Wait… Are we underground?”
Once again that sharp b
link. “The majority of the Keep is below ground.”
Wait a second, so the domes of the mothership that were visible to us were just a fraction of the whole? How big was this fucking ship?
“The pod will take you to the surface. Your transport awaits.”
Fuck, I guess it was time to get this over with. I stepped into the weird pod thingy. As the doors began to slide shut, Blossom stepped forward.
“They’ll be waiting for you,” she warned.
The doors closed.
What did she mean? My family?
My stomach shot into my chest, and bile stung my throat. The doors opened to bright sunlight. I lifted my arm to shield my eyes before stepping out of the pod.
A low hum surrounded me, and as my eyes adjusted to the natural light, I caught sight of the three drones hovering at various heights around me.
They’ll be waiting for you.
That’s what she’d meant.
I resisted the urge to give the drone the finger. Ignore them. Just fucking ignore them.
“Winter’s Blade.” A bulky Danaan guard with short horns on his forehead and chestnut hair pulled back in a queue strode toward me. “Come with me.”
He was dressed in the regular Winter Guard uniform, but it stretched across his chest and hugged his shoulders like a second skin. His bottom lip protruded slightly where two short tusks jutted up to kiss his upper lip, and a five o'clock shadow gave him a dangerous air.
I noticed the sleek black car behind him for the first time. “Is that our ride?”
He glanced back at the car as if to confirm. “Yes.”
The car looked tiny in comparison to him. “And you can get in there?”
The corner of his mouth twitched as if he was suppressing a smile. “Yes.”
He walked over to the car and held open the back door. I noted the barrier between the backseat and the front seats. I was done being penned in.
I strode to the front passenger side and opened the door. I expected him to say something, to stop me, but he didn’t object as I slid onto the soft leather seating.
I didn’t know shit about cars. The general population of Middale didn’t use automobiles for transport. We had the trams and bikes and our legs to take us where we needed to go. Cars and vans were the shining ones’ tools, as were the fancy carriages pulled by baku. Although, the old history books I’d managed to sneak a look at showed humans as the architects of much of the technology that the shining ones now claimed as their own.
The monolith Danaan climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed his door closed. I kept my eyes ahead, ignoring the drone that buzzed outside my window.
It hovered in the periphery of my vision for a moment before shifting position to the front windshield, so it was in my fucking face. My face, which would be on every holoscreen right now, streamed live for the world to see.
I gritted my teeth. “How fast can this thing go?”
The Danaan started the engine. “How about we find out?”
* * *
The Danaan could drive. He wove effortlessly through the streets, avoiding the other cars on the road, and when we hit the outer districts, he was careful to avoid the pedestrians that were used to treating the roads as an extended path. Although I couldn’t help but note how light the foot traffic was for this time of day. Then we passed through the market square, and it was obvious why.
The holoscreen was lit up, and my face dominated it, eyes wide as I stared out of the window. A crowd of people was gathered, watching the screen, unaware I was right there in the car behind them.
I thought we’d left the drones behind, but I should have known there would be more stationed at various points along our route. They dropped out of the sky now to hover a meter away, scanning me from all angles.
Someone cried out my name.
“It’s here. She’s here. Look!”
People began to turn toward the car.
“Fuck,” the Danaan said.
We slowed as the crowd surrounded us.
“Dani!” a female voice called out from the crowd. “Danika Khatri!”
The crowd parted, and a woman broke through. I recognized her slender, ragged form. The last time I’d seen her, she’d been hugging her son.
The son I’d been unable to save.
Timothy’s mother approached the car. “Dani, what happened to my boy?”
I reached for the door release.
“Don’t,” the Danaan said.
I glared at him. “Why the fuck not? She deserves to know the truth.”
“You think knowing her son died painfully will make her feel better?”
“Knowing he died a hero might.” I made to climb out again, but he stalled me with a hand on my arm.
“Wait.”
He got out of the car, and the crowd backed up to give him space as he walked around the bonnet to my door. He was obviously meant to be some kind of bodyguard. I’d have scoffed at them sending me with only one guard, but he was huge, and he was Danaan, and his fierce looks and the fact he was one of the shining ones would be enough to keep the humans in line.
“Airm Marfach,” someone said.
“Airm Marfach,” several others echoed.
They knew him? How did they know who he was? It didn’t matter as long as he kept the crowd in control so I could speak to Timothy’s mother. But as I opened my door and got out, the crowd surged toward me, as if drawn by a magnetic pull.
Timothy’s mother was knocked back and swallowed by the gathered.
“What happened?” someone demanded of me. “What happened to the others?”
“Stay back,” the Danaan ordered. “No one touches Winter’s Blade.” He turned to me. “Get back in the car, unless you wish me to hurt these humans.”
He thought they’d hurt me, but all I saw was fear and confusion. The panacea in the air and the water obviously wasn’t enough to suppress the horror of so much death. I needed Mrs. Weiland to know Timothy had died a hero.
“Get back in the car,” the Danaan growled, his body so close it was almost touching mine.
I could feel the heat emanating off him and smell the zesty scent of whatever cologne he was wearing.
I lifted my chin and looked him square in the eyes. “No. Get out of my way.”
His eyes narrowed.
“They won’t hurt me.”
He met my gaze levelly. “If they do, I’ll be forced to hurt them.”
My stomach quivered. “And if you touch them, I’ll kill you.” My lip curled with the threat. “They don’t call me Winter’s Blade for nothing.”
He stepped aside, and the buzz of the crowd washed over me. I scanned the faces searching for Timothy’s mother.
“Mrs. Weiland? Mrs. Weiland?”
“Danika?” Her voice came from my left.
I took a deep breath and dove right into the crowd.
4
The Danaan was right behind me, his huge body a shield at my back as I searched for Timothy’s mother. Drones buzzed to my left and right, but I ignored them.
“Dani!” A hand grabbed mine, and I turned to find Timothy’s mother trying to squeeze through a gap in the crowd.
I grabbed her hand, desperate not to lose her. “Let her through.”
The people complied, and she was free. The Danaan growled, and the humans backed up, making a circle around us. I was trapped in a prison of human bodies, and maybe I should have felt a little claustrophobic, but looking into Mrs. Weiland’s eyes was like seeing Timothy all over again.
My throat grew tight then I pulled her into a hug. The hug I’d wanted to give my friend. The hug I never got to give him.
“What happened?” she asked. “Dani, how did he die?”
The memory of Timothy’s last moments surged up to fill my mind. His plea for them to kill him first to save my life. His eyes, filled with regret and so many goodbyes, just before they slit his throat.
“Dani, I need to know,” she insisted. “Please. I
need to know what happened to my boy.”
My eyes pricked and burned as I pulled back and cupped her shoulders. “He was a warrior. He was brave till the last, and he saved my life.”
Her lip trembled. “He did?”
“Yes, he did. Timothy died a hero.”
A raw sob broke from her throat, and she pressed her hands to her mouth to stem the sound.
I plucked his watch from my pocket and held it out to her. “I couldn’t bring him back for you.” I squeezed my eyes shut against the sting of hot tears as an image of the Tuatha holding up Timothy’s head filled my mind. “I couldn’t bring him back, but I brought you this.”
She reached for the watch with trembling fingers. “His pocket watch. He loved that watch.”
I swallowed the lump on my throat and nodded. “I know.”
She took it and held it to her chest. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
I registered the echo of her words and looked up to finally acknowledge the holoscreen that was streaming this moment. This moment that should have been private. This moment of pain. Rage spun a tornado in my chest as an idea formed in my mind. If they were going to insist on filming me, I was going to use it to my fucking advantage.
I turned to the nearest drone and looked right into the lens. “Timothy died a hero because he saved my life. Karl died a hero, and so did Vala Neilson. They died protecting each other, fighting to survive a deadly game that should never have taken place. They were strong and courageous, and they deserved better.”
The crowd had fallen silent. I had the floor.
Behind me, static flared from the radio at the Danaan’s hip.
“Winter has the capital, but tomorrow I have to fight again in another game to keep it. Why? Because we are nothing to them. We are pawns. We are cannon fodder. We are insignificant. But only if we choose to be.”
Murmurs broke out, and I could see the knowledge blooming to life in the eyes of those closest to me.
“Danika!” The Danaan made a grab for me.
Feel My Power: The Iron Fae book 2 Page 2