Maleen (The Damorleia Chronicles #3)

CHAPTER ONE

“HELLO SON. Finally, you have brought us the Queen's daughter, just like I told you to. And look, you’ve brought...friends,” he sneers, standing even taller against the hunched and frail frame of the Queen.

I freeze my expression, only my gaze bouncing between Tal, my mother and the bastard who destroyed everything: Lord Craven.

His words sear my brain in horror as they repeat in my mind, but my feet stay rooted to the spot.

Did Talyn betray us? Could he have known this would happen, and brought us here to be captured or even killed?

My thoughts race as I try to think back over every interaction we’ve had, if anything even remotely hinted at him double-crossing us.

“He wouldn’t betray us, Little Beastie,” Jesper’s voice whispers through my mind, colored by a sort of unhinged rage.

I can sense him longing to reach for one of the many blades I know he keeps hidden on him.

“He opened his mind for me and he’s in just a much shock as what we are all feeling, but there’s—”

The ground rumbles and I nearly tilt sideways as vines burst through the ground, wrapping us all tightly, restraining our limbs from moving even an inch.

Lord Craven grins, patting his son’s face a little too aggressively for my liking. “Good job, Talyn—finally something I can be proud of. Millie, prepare the wine and tell my transport I’ll have need of him once this is dealt with.” The small brownie scurries off to do what she was told.

Talyn snarls, “I didn’t do anything you wanted. We found you all on our own.” His voice wobbles near the end like he’s questioning his own sanity, as if he’s unsure of his own actions, but he shakes his head, refocusing on the situation. “How in the fucking Fates do you have the Queen?”

My eyes dart to the female I called mother, her once luscious blonde hair now dull and drab, devoid of the much needed nutrients it would need to be healthy.

The frame of her body is near skeletal, bones protruding under her skin so starkly that it must be painful.

When I meet her gaze my heart cracks. Even with her face sunken in malnutrition, her eyes show her horror and awe as she stares back at me—pink eyes that once used to be full of life and mischief; the fierceness of a mother and Queen now gone and shattered like a living husk.

Defeated.

A rage boils inside me unlike anything I’ve felt before. Magick crackles at my finger tips and I slowly turn my head back to the male ‘Lord’. My head cocks to the side, and almost animalistically and without hesitation my Szellemi magick rises to the surface like a dragon, ready to strike.

Nero bristles on my shoulder as if he can feel the amount of power brewing under my skin but doesn’t say anything, and I swear I hear a titter of dark laughter come from Jesper, but my mind is only focused on one thing.

Breaking the deranged male in front of me.

Breaking him like he did my family.

Like my mates.

Like so many other families.

I lash out, shattering through his mental shields like they are made of nothing but decaying fall leaves, crumbling to dust under my touch.

Scenes and memories flash before my eyes as I dig deeper and deeper before something dark and void-like pushes back against me and I’m forcefully shoved out.

My breath hitches and Lord Craven stumbles back, his face stricken with what I can only assume is fear before he lashes out with fire magick. Not aimed at me, but at my mother.

With my well of magick already primed for use I take hold of the plant life and release us from it while throwing my hands up to create a barrier of hardened air, just barely stopping the flames from reaching her.

“Ravina! Watch out!” Talyn bellows before I’m tackled to the ground by him and white hot flames shoot over his back. The heat is scorching, even from being buried under the weight of Talyn before he rolls off of me.

“Aemon, get my mother out of here now,” I order, hopping to my feet. Nero perches back on my shoulder as Killian joins me at my side. “Craven dies today, but I need her safe.”

“I’m not leaving you here, Ravina,” he snaps as he and Jesper flank me.

Talyn’s lip is split, most likely from tackling me to the ground, but he’s barely holding on against his father and I need to help.

This space is too small for both my magick and the Queen, though—I won’t risk anyone we love getting hurt if I unleash the full extent of my powers.

But we can end this all right now if I do.

I know things, things I’ll tell the others once we are all out of here and safe, but for now I need Aemon to listen to me.

There’s no time for his overprotective side.

“Don’t make me order you as Princess of the realm.” Now that I know my mother is alive it doesn’t feel right to take her title as Queen. Keeping her protected is all that matters. “Now, Aemon!”

I feel his resolve crumble. “You two keep her fucking safe, do you hear me?” Aemon snaps at Kill and Jesper. “I’ll be back as soon as I get the Queen away from here.” And then he pulls the shadows and blinks to my mother and then they’re both gone.

Craven bellows in rage. “I should have killed you instead of leaving you to live in that decrepit village,” he spits.

“Calanthia is mine! Bring her back! Now!” His eyes are wild and unhinged as he lashes out with unrestrained and unnatural power—like even his magick is rotten—and the bunker rattles.

Dust sprinkles from the ceiling as cracks begin to form.

“And you, dear son. Where is that bitch you call a sister?”

Talyn wipes the blood from his split lip on the sleeve of his tunic, smirking. “My sister is safe, and you will never get your hands on her again.”

A sort of maniacal laughter roars from Lord Craven’s lips. “Oh, is that what you think now? That I won’t find her, my own mate’s daughter?”

“Do yourself a favor and forget her. It’s not like you care about her anyway.”

Lord Craven’s blackened gaze darts quickly to me.

“I care about all of my tools, like any good craftsman. But my craft is the only one that matters: the fate of this realm. My realm. She is a tool for when my mate was no longer useful. Just like it seems you only have one use left to you, acting as my tool, since left to your own devices you’re still playing fledgling games and missing half the pieces. ”

“Rav,” Nero croaks. “Get his eyeballs,” he growls.

I need no more encouragement—I pull on the lingering shadows and snap towards him, but before I can reach him he flings a blade at Talyn, his grin dripping with malice, and the realm seems to slow.

No. Please don’t take him from me. Please, I beg to the Fates, as I redirect my shadows to try to snatch the blade from mid-air, but it’s too slow, I won’t make it!

A small form flies in front of him and crumbles to the ground.

“Millie!” Talyn shouts, his voice breaking with a pain I heard in my own voice not even an hour ago.

The need to run to him courses through me but I need to kill Craven first. I reach out for my shadows and lash out again toward the evil bastard, but he doesn’t move.

Just a slimy grin stretches across his face, a grin that promises nothing but pain and destruction before a disturbance in the shadows seeps through and a male appears, grabbing Lord Craven and whisking him away.

“No! You motherfucker! Come back here and fight!” I scream.

Nothing but silence and Talyn’s cries answer me. The sound pulls me back to the present and I rush toward him.

He’s sitting on the ground, cradling the brownie in his arms rocking back and forth as he tries to stop the bleeding. “Millie. Please,” he begs. “Don’t die on me. Don’t let him take you from me too.”

My knees crack against the cold stone as I kneel in front of Talyn, and I feel Jesper and Killian behind me standing guard in case this isn’t over just yet.

The blade meant for Talyn lays impaling her small form and she shakes, blood dribbling from her mouth.

“I told you not to come here,” Millie croaks.

“But I suppose you never were good at doing what you’re told.

” She gasps in agony and whispers. “This is my choice… Not… your… fault.” She breathes out the last word and her tiny hand drops from his face.

His cries pierce my heart as he clutches her close.

“Tal,” I whisper. “We need to go, we need—” my own breath hitches in my throat as I remember Mel, lying ashen in the foliage. “We need to tend to the injured and gather Mel…” Her name tastes like ash on my tongue, like it still can’t be true, yet I know it is.

Nero nuzzles my cheek, silent though his own pain is just as strong within our bond.

Aemon’s voice seeps through our connection. “Your mother is safe. We need to go; I’m heading back down to retrieve you.” That’s all the warning I get before the shadows pulse and my mate appears. His face is stoic yet soft and full of pain as he takes in the scene before us.

Jesper kisses the top of my head quickly before addressing him. “Craven vanished. There’s someone from Vathia working with him.”

Killian growls. “Not here, Jesper. We don’t know if he left any listening ears. We need to leave. Now.” He steps around me and hoists Talyn up and onto his feet as he clutches Millie to his chest. “Are you injured or do you need me to carry you?”

Talyn gently removes himself from Killian’s grip.

“I can walk. Let’s go. I won’t have Millie stay here any longer.

” His golden eyes meet mine, and behind the grief there’s worry.

“You should lock me up when we get back. Something isn’t right.

” He spins and heads towards the tunnel leading back up to the cabin to where the others are waiting for us and we follow.

My friends, I realize. Nero’s wings spread as he jumps off my shoulder as I take off, running towards the others waiting outside for us. I need to know they are safe, that no one got to them while we were down here.

I hear Killian curse as they rush to keep up with me.

My boots hitting the flattened earth become one with the anxiety that is my beating heart. The fear of something else going wrong tonight pierces my gut. We lost Mel, we couldn’t get the Soul Stone, and Talyn…

I shake my head. One thing at a time. As I breach the door, the first thing to greet me is the crisp mountain air of the Gratandi Mountains, and the next is a slightly taller yet slim body slamming into me.

Ember’s arms wrap around me, and then Roz’s. “She’s really gone.” Her voice cracks and I see Lennox lying beside the corpse of his twin.

I stumble out of their grasp and stagger towards Lennox, dropping beside him and wrapping him up in my arms. “I’m so sorry,” I gasp, squeezing him tighter.

His body shakes with grief. “I feel like half my soul has been ripped out of my chest.” His whisper is one of shattered breath.

Sometimes with death all you can do is be there, because words will never be enough to ease the crushing pain. So I sit there with him, holding him, and feel Ember and Roz wrap around us.

A rustle causes my eyes to draw to Mel. Someone has closed her eyes, though that isn’t what caused me to look.

It’s the sound of the foliage now growing through the snow.

Bright green vines, with blooming blue flowers that match Lennox’s hair ,wrap around her, cocooning her in Mel’s favourite element.

My eyes meet Talyn’s again and grief beyond his years, pain and regret are relayed with just a momentary expression before he pulls his hand away from the ground and lays Millie next to Mel before doing the same for her body.

“Little Dream,” Aemon whispers through our bond. “Don’t be alarmed, but I’m going to blink us back to the encampment. Our dragons are losing their minds, and I don’t think we can keep them at bay any longer. Also Vasari is demanding you open your mind to her.”

I wince, not realizing that with everything I blocked her out, not wanting her to feel our failure or my pain and come burning the thick forest down to get to me. Opening the bond, I feel the rush of her awareness.

“I would not have burned it down, but being able to comfort my rider is something I could have done,” she states, sounding worried and hurt. “I’m sorry for your loss, Lost One, but she is with the Fates now, cradled in their loving arms. You will see her again one day.”

A sob pierces my chest as my mate’s shadows wrap around us all like a cool hug, plunging us into darkness.