To Darkness Bound Box Set

by Zandria West

  ‘Better if I do the talking, don’t you think? Your aura will be sufficient, thanks to Reuben.’ Graciela smiles again, and I feel heat colouring my cheeks. I’m pretty sure that my mother knows exactly what we were doing to prepare for the coming of Izushi.

  I nod, and keep my mouth shut.

  ‘Ready?’ Gabriel asks, approaching and taking my hands. His dark eyes are steady on mine, but he’s watching me closely. I nod again.

  ‘You can still choose,’ he speaks quietly. ‘If you don’t want to do this, we won’t do it. I will never force you to act against your will or judgement.’

  I swallow. I absolutely don’t want to do this, but I can’t get the vision that Graciela showed me out of my head. The horror that is coming, if I’m not able to remake the Barrier in time, is more terrible than anything I could have imagined. As much as every fibre of my being wishes there was another way, a way to avoid bloodshed, if this is how the spell works, then there is no choice. It must be done.

  ‘Alright,’ Gabriel says softly. He sounds tired. ‘Come.’

  I look at where he’s directing me. There’s a chair that looks more like a throne – it’s wooden, with ornately carved arms and legs that are encircled with garlands of flowers.

  ‘What’s that?’ I ask.

  ‘Like I said, Izushi does not walk. Izushi is carried,’ Reuben murmurs near my ear. My skin prickles at the touch of his breath.

  I shake myself free. ‘I can’t let you carry me!’ I protest.

  ‘It would be our honour, Lana,’ Alex says seriously. I look around and see them all watching me, waiting.

  I shake my head with disbelief, then take a few shuffling steps to the chair. Reuben holds my arm as I lower myself down into it. He’s right, of course. There’s no way I could walk through the village unaided. I can hardly make it across the room in this dress. The cut of the dress means each step is about the half the length of one of my feet. I can’t do more than a blind shuffle.

  ‘Ready?’ Alex is on one side of me, Grayson on the other. They lift me easily. I have to resist a sudden urge to giggle. The whole thing feels ridiculous. Then I remind myself that it’s deadly serious.

  My sense of dread grows as we leave the house and begin to make our way down the path that leads to the village below. Gabriel is walking before us with Graciela, conversing in a low tone. I shift until I spot Reuben, who is keeping pace just behind, scanning our surroundings for any possible threat. I don’t want to do this, but it’s too late now. I wish I was anywhere but here.

  The children spot us first and I hear them yelling as they race ahead to alert the rest of the village – Izushi, Izushi! The word carries like a chant, and soon it is echoed from all around as people welcome me, praise me, honour me as a Goddess. I sit still, desperately uncomfortable, wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do. We follow Graciela’s slow, deliberate pace as she leads us to the centre of the village, which is marked by a large boulder.

  Graciela gives a signal, and Alex and Grayson carefully lower the chair down to the ground.

  ‘She is here!’ Graciela calls, her voice clear and strong. ‘She has come, as promised in the prophecy. The Goddess Izushi, a legend given life, sprung from the darkest depths of the earth, come to reward her followers, to claim you as her own.’

  At her words, people fall to their knees before me. I look around at their faces – men, women, children, gazing with expressions of hope and wonder. My stomach turns. I’m going to be sick. Thinking about this in the abstract, from the distance of Graciela’s house, was one thing; but to see these people here now: real, living, breathing humans, tricked into believing in something that does not exist…

  The dress is too tight. I can’t breathe properly in it. I feel dizziness taking me. In an instant, Alex is at my side, squeezing my hand.

  Steady Lana… I hear his thought as clearly as though he were whispering them in my ear. Don’t think ahead too far. Just do this one thing. I know you can do it… Reuben is at my other side. He takes my free hand and the comforting grounding of his presence helps me start to feel steadier. Gabriel and Grayson stand behind me, each placing a hand on one of my shoulders. I feel the rush of energy that comes from having all my men touching me. It’s the feeling of something falling into place; a circuit suddenly completed, allowing the power to flow.

  ‘Izushi…’ I only vaguely hear the young woman as she approaches from the back of the crowd. ‘Help me, I beg you…’

  The woman is carrying something in her arms, a small bundle. I feel Reuben tense beside me, ready to leap to my defence. I look across at him and shake my head. My amulet hangs cool against my skin. I sense no threat.

  ‘My child is sick. I’m scared that she will die without your help. Please, there must be something you can do...’

  The woman kneels before me. With slow care, she unwraps the bundle to show me a baby. It lies too still. It doesn’t cry. The eyes that gaze up at me are dull and distant. The little arms flop loosely by its side. I’m pretty sure that babies are meant to make fists and yell, like tiny, angry old men. Without thinking I reach forward and stroke the child’s forehead. In the periphery of my vision, I can see Graciela watching me. I can’t make out her expression.

  ‘Her name is Lilia…’ the young mother says, looking up at me with huge dark eyes that are filling with tears. She looks so tired. Exhausted. Deeper than that, she looks empty, like she has already given up hope, and is just waiting for the inevitable grief to shatter her life into pieces. ‘She was strong when she was born, but something happened, I don’t know what. It’s like she’s been fading away…’

  ‘May I hold her?’ I ask. The words come out before I realise I’m going to say them.

  I don’t hold babies. I’m too scared they’re going to decide they hate me and scream their lungs out, or projectile vomit as soon as I touch them. The woman passes me the child and as she does, she gives me a look of such hope that I feel like my heart is about to break. The baby is tiny in my arms. What am I doing? I don’t know what’s wrong with her baby and I don’t know how to make it better. If this woman knew who and what I really am and why I’m really here, she’d be fleeing in horror.

  The child stirs in my arms and looks up at me, her gaze serious and calm. Lilia. Her eyes are dark blue, almost violet, and her delicate skin is tinged an unhealthy yellow.

  ‘Hi there little one,’ I murmur, bouncing her gently in my arms, holding her snug against me. I run my fingers over the dark fuzz of her hair. Gabriel squeezes my shoulder and I feel a sudden surge of power move through me.

  I close my eyes.

  In an instant, it’s like there is nobody and nothing around me. I’m back in the deep darkness of the cavern far under the earth. In the distance, the faintest light is glowing, so faint that I’m not even sure that it’s real. I blink a few times, expecting to see the daylight world returned around me, but the blinks don’t clear my vision. If anything, the darkness seeps deeper into my blood and bones.

  I walk towards the light. It’s pale, like moonlight refracted through fathoms of water. My breath catches in my chest. I recognise that tiny glow, though I couldn’t explain how in a million years. It’s the child’s life-force, something singular and unique, a flicker so delicate that the tiniest movement might put it out. I freeze, suddenly terrified that if I do something wrong, if I do anything at all, the light might fade into nothingness.

  Lana… Breathe… Alex’s thoughts reach me.

  I take a deep breath. As I let it out, the light grows a little, like a spark that is fanned into flame. I watch, cautious and uncertain. I’ve healed my men before – Gabriel, when I lay with him skin to skin after the attack on his home killed his familiar and almost claimed his life. Alex, unknowing and from a distance, through the powerful connection that joins us. This is different. I’m bonded to Alex and Gabriel by the deepest ties of magic. This child is a separate being to me. The magic that is at work now feels clearer, more purposeful, more con
trolled.

  I take another deep, lungful of air, raise my palms and then let the breath go. As I exhale, I feel the energy move through me, focused through my palms and pouring onto the tiny shimmer of light. I watch as it grows, feeling the warmth begin to fill the space around me. The brightness banishes the shadows.

  Once more, I think. Once more is all that it will take.

  I try again, measuring my effort this time, not wanting to release too much power, not wanting to fan the flame too fiercely. The glow strengthens and holds steady.

  It is done, Lana. I feel Alex reaching for me, his mind seeking mine in the darkness, and then it’s like I’ve tripped and fallen headlong back into the world of daylight. The woman has taken the baby from my arms. I look around, disorientated. People are watching me, their devotion has deepened into shocked awe. The child is crying. Not just crying, it’s bellowing. The sound is like a physical blow. I back away. I’m scared that I hurt her. I begin to apologise, but then I see the expression in the mother’s eyes as she looks up to me.

  ‘I always believed,’ she says, tears flooding down her cheeks. ‘Always. My life is yours, Izushi. Anything you ask, I will do. You have given me back my baby, my beloved…’

  The child screams and kicks. I take a breath, this time just to steady myself, then lean in closer to see. The eyes gazing up at me are clear and bright, the little cheeks flushed a healthy pink. As our eyes meet, the baby stops crying. A hush settles on the two of us, and spreads to the crowd of onlookers. For a moment it feels as though the forest itself has fallen still. No birds call, the breeze dies away to nothing. In that moment, I see Graciela remove the small bottle from her pocket and cast it into the ground. There is a sudden rush of movement as the air is filled with blue butterflies, wings beating and shimmering. They flutter around me and over the crowd. After a few moments they glitter, sparkling like starlight, and then fade back into nothing. Somebody sobs. I hear a man whisper the name of their goddess. Izushi. Exhaustion hits me like a truck. If I wasn’t sitting in a chair, I would have collapsed to the ground. I’ve never felt so tired. Whatever I managed to do in healing the child, I drew on something deep and vital within myself. There’s nothing left.

  ‘She needs to rest,’ Alex mutters urgently to Graciela, who raises her hands as though summoning power from the heavens above.

  ‘Izushi sees you. She hears your prayers. She knows your fears. She trusts in the strength of your devotion. It is now time for her meditation. She will return to you. Be patient. The prophecy will soon be fulfilled, and you will bear witness to the dawning of a new age.’ Graciela’s tone is certain and final.

  Grayson and Alex lift the chair again, and I grip the sides with my hands, trying to keep myself grounded, to stop myself from slipping into unconsciousness. I manage to hold my spine erect and my eyes open as the people of the village lower their foreheads to the ground, prostrating themselves before me as I am carried away, back up the hill. I cling to consciousness for few moments more and then the darkness takes me.

  6

  GRAYSON

  I watch Lana sleeping. I fear that she has been injured in some profound way by the actions of her mother. She seems very far away. Everything within me wants to touch her, to use the power I possess to bring her relief. If she hurts, I should hurt. If she suffers, I should feel her pain. But I do not sense pain in her right now; just a vast distance, as though she were sunk deep in the ocean, in some dark, cold place beyond my reach. I shiver and brush a single strand of brilliant blue hair from her forehead.

  Her hair is still pulled into a tight and intricate knot, and her skin pale from the paint that Irena applied. They made Lana into a beautiful stranger. Then they broke her. A cold rage fills me. Is there nothing this witch Graciela would not do?

  The door edges open, and Gabriel steps in.

  ‘How is she?’ he asks.

  ‘Exhausted.’

  ‘Come, I need to speak with you.’

  I look down at Lana again. I hate to leave her. She is defenceless and powerless.

  ‘Reuben will watch her,’ Gabriel assures me, and I nod.

  It has been hours since we returned from the village to the house. I do not know how long it will take for Lana to regain consciousness, but I know that what she most needs now is rest.

  I follow Gabriel out of the room and exchange a glance with Reuben as he enters. I watch as he looks to where Lana lies. His expression is fierce with pain and worry. Graciela should watch herself tonight, I think. The mating bond is raw and strong between Reuben and Lana, and to see her hurt will bring out his most aggressive wolf-instincts. Now that I think of it, I’m surprised that Reuben hadn’t beaten the door down hours ago to be with his mate.

  ‘He’s been occupied,’ Gabriel says obliquely, as if reading my thoughts. I follow him through the house and out onto the broad balcony that gives a view over the valley below. When I see what is there, I know exactly what Reuben has been occupied with.

  ‘I sent Reuben and Alex out on patrol,’ Gabriel says shortly. ‘I thought it was best to give them something to do, to get them out of the house. This was the result.’

  The bodies of three huge demons are laid out on the dirt just beyond the balcony. It is an incongruous sight, the beautiful greenery, delicate ferns, the winding passionfruit vine that climbs up a railing beside the house, and then these.

  ‘Soldiers,’ I say, narrowing my eyes. I was in no hurry to ever see those uniforms again once I left the demon prison. They’re dressed in black. The red bars on their shoulders show that they were part of an elite squadron of advance troops – those to be sent in first under stealth to scope out terrain and identify targets for later masses to attack. ‘How close to the village were they?’

  Gabriel shakes his head. ‘Too close.’

  ‘Do you think they know we’re here?’ I study him closely.

  I see Gabriel’s throat moving as he swallows. ‘I do not know. I fear…’ He trails off.

  This is bad. Lana is unconscious. We shouldn’t move her. If we were attacked now, we would have little opportunity to flee. We’d have to fight…

  ‘Where is the witch?’ I ask, frowning. ‘Does she know?’

  ‘Graciela is off on some errand. She didn’t deign to share the details.’ I hear wariness in Gabriel’s tone. This is the first time he’s sounded like he doubted Lana’s mother.

  I look around. ‘And Alex? Was he injured?’

  Alex and Reuben are capable of defending themselves, I know, and they clearly got the better of their opponents. But three elite demon soldiers wouldn’t have gone down without a fight.

  ‘We had the element of surprise on our side,’ Alex stands suddenly beside me, and I startle. I hate his vampire speed; it seems an unfair advantage when used against me, though I appreciate the edge it gives him in combat with our enemies. He grins. I know that look, I’ve seen it many times before. It’s the looks he gets when he’s on a post-battle high, when things have gone well.

  I approach the bodies and nudge one with my toe. Bitter hatred fills me.

  ‘We should burn them,’ Gabriel says.

  ‘Smoke will attract attention,’ I say. ‘Toss them off a cliff into a ravine and be done with it.’

  ‘You want to carry them back through the forest? We carried them here and I’m telling you, that shit was not fun,’ Alex says.

  There’s a moment of silence as we all regard the corpses.

  ‘I see you’ve collected some garden ornaments for me.’

  I turn at the sound of Graciela’s voice. She cocks an eyebrow as she looks down at the dead demons.

  ‘Where were you? They’re preparing to make their move,’ Gabriel says, his voice serious.

  ‘And we will do the same,’ Graciela replies.

  ‘Your daughter is unconscious,’ I cannot restrain the bitterness in my voice. ‘Did you know that would happen? That she’d access her power like that?’

  Graciela smiles. ‘Know? No. Hope? Of
course. What greater proof of her status as a goddess than to save a sickly baby? The village is worked up into a frenzy now. They will do anything she asks of them. Anything.’

  I knew Graciela was cold and determined, but the callousness of her tone startles even me. Does she feel nothing about what we are planning to do?

  ‘Once Lana is awake, her training must begin,’ she continues calmly. ‘We do not have long. I trust the four of you will manage most of it. The Binding will make it easier, I think. She is already absorbing some of your powers, as that little display today showed. So. Physical strength and endurance. I’m guessing Reuben will be the best to work with her on those?’

  Gabriel nods agreement. Graciela continues, turning to me next. ‘Grayson, you will tutor her in techniques of concentration and direction of thought. And Gabriel, you will be responsible for helping her learn to focus her energetic force on an object of her choosing. That will be essential to her completing the Barrier spell.’

  ‘And what do I do?’ Alex asks.

  Graciela turns and looks at Alex quizzically. ‘You? Just try to stay out of trouble for a while. Oh, and get rid of these. We don’t want to scare anyone unnecessarily.’ She frowns down at the dead demons on the grass.

  Alex sighs with exasperation but doesn’t argue.

  A sudden wave of fury washes through me. Graciela is acting as though events are not spiralling out of control, as though this is all part of her grand, perfect plan.

  ‘These demons are hunting for Lana,’ I say, turning on her. ‘And if they are this close, I can guarantee more will be here soon. There won’t be time for training if we’re fighting off demon hordes.’

  ‘I agree,’ Graciela says curtly. ‘And in all honesty, I do not know that any magic I can cast on my own will be strong enough to hold them off.’

  ‘Then what will we do? We can’t just sit here waiting for them to attack—’ I protest.

  Graciela turns to Gabriel. ‘Warlock, this is where I need your help. We must join our powers...’