Chapter 4 #3
“Let go of me,” she growled. She didn’t see the male she once loved right now, she only saw the prick who stood in her way. She was tempted to drive her knee into his groin.
“Kill him.” Varlett added fuel to the fire.
“Think for a moment. He knows where the Sword of Truth is.”
“Kill him,” Varlett said again.
Thane snapped his head in her direction. “Shut up! This has nothing to do with you.”
“It has everything to do with me.”
“Let go of me,” Valeen jerked.
Thane gripped her forearm tighter. “When you gain composure, I will.”
“Don’t tell me what to do. You will release me, Thane.”
They stared into each other’s faces, a battle of wills.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a dark shadow moving closer—Hel.
“You have three seconds before this turns into something more than it needs to be, cousin. Let her go.” All Mother, if Thane were anyone else Hel would have lost it by now. He would have snapped his neck.
Thane was the first to break eye contact and slowly his fingers uncurled.
Valeen jerked away. Without looking at the others, she turned and dropped off the edge of the ravine and onto the ground.
Smoke from a fire rolled out of the only walls left standing.
It was her former throne room. She recognized the placement of it.
“Valeen, wait!” Presco shouted down at her. With shadow trailing behind her, she ignored him. Midnight lilies popped and blossomed along her path. She had one thing on her mind and nothing would interfere.
Someone had to pay for this.
Something had to take the brunt of the sorrow keeping her from falling to the ground and never getting up.
“Wait for us!” Piper added. “You don’t know what’s in there!”
Her boots crunched over pebbles and stone, pieces that were once her home. A gentle wind carried the smell of burning wood and… flesh. Whoever was inside those walls roasted meat. A second pair of steps joined hers until a dark cloak appeared in her side view.
“You scared the shit out of your sister.” Hel sounded irritated. “She doesn’t know who to trust right now and you were about to fight War, someone you told her she could trust.”
She marched on, gripping Zythara tighter. Why did he have to be right?
“What are you planning to do now? There is nothing to take back. Let it be.”
She snarled at him. “It’s our home !” She took off into a sprint, bounding up the large stones toward the black hole that led inside her old throne room.
The cries and hollers of what sounded like wild animals drifted out.
Before she could step through the dark threshold, she was grabbed and shoved against the wall.
Hel gripped her arms, keeping her pinned.
He was deadly calm and fiercely strong. “Get yourself together right now. There are at least a hundred goblins in there, maybe more and who knows what else. Now, I will go in there with you and kill anything that moves but get your emotions under control. You never go into a fight with blind rage, it leaves you open to danger all around. You know better. That’s how you die. ”
“I am not afraid.”
“Like that wasn’t obvious, but you should be cautious.”
“I don’t fear goblins, and I certainly don’t fear the dark.” Her heart pounded and her breath came sharp and uneven. Sometimes the most serene people snapped when pushed, and she was far from that. She was a night terror, born in darkness before there was ever light.
“Listen, little rabbit.”
“ Don’t call me that.”
“Little rabbit.” He drug his tongue across his lower lip, egging her on.
Oh, she wanted to punch that smug look right off his face. “Say it one more fucking time.”
“And you’ll do what? I can’t wait to hear it.
” His smirk almost put her over the edge.
Then his lips crashed hard on her mouth.
She wanted to claw and spit at him, but he knew exactly what to do to get her mind clear.
Her breathing slowed, as did her heart rate.
The sounds all around them came back into focus, as did his hands on her body, the feel of his lips and tongue on hers.
Once he pulled his kiss, he studied her face.
“Can I let you go now or are you going to keep up this attitude?”
“You really just know how to rile me up. Let me go.”
He did. “What do you gain by going in there and killing these goblins?”
“I want to see what is left. I have to go in there. I just…” Hot tears pricked her eyes.
A lump rose in her throat. “They’ve taken everything from me.
What is a queen without a throne, without her people?
What is a goddess without her immortality?
Synick is right, I have nothing.” Those tears slipped down her cheeks, spilling on the ruins of her old life.
She should have expected this, should have prepared for this outcome but she’d hoped.
Hope was one thing that kept her going in perilous times and it was shattered like a stone to a mirror.
What was there to even fight for anymore?
“You have me, and you have people who love you and will do anything for you.” He cupped her face. “I will get it all back for you and more. I promise.”
“This is my fault. I should have never left you. I should have trusted you. All of House of Night is gone. Your people most certainly are too. Presco pointed out the signs, but I refused to see it. The people of Villhara are probably slaves or dead because of me. All those people… Gods, I let Varlett fool me, and now it’s fucked up.
It’s all gone.” Anger turned to panic. She struggled to pull air into her lungs; her throat was closing up.
“Shh.” He wiped her tears with his thumbs. “Baby, listen to me. None of that matters anymore. It doesn’t, alright. What matters is that we’re together now. We can get it back.”
“I can’t breathe,” she gasped, clutching at her chest.
He swept her up into his arms, and they were pulled through a blink of darkness and came out at the base of a large oak tree.
He set her on her feet but held her around the waist. His hold was the only thing keeping her from falling.
“Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Come on, deep breaths.” He sounded muffled and far away, as if she were under water.
A ringing in her ears intensified. She gripped the edges of his cloak and focused on his moving lips.
“Breathe, love. If our people are slaves, we will free them. It isn’t your fault.
It’s the assholes on the council, not yours.
They did this. And they would have come for you for Soulender no matter what Varlett did. None of this is on you.”
His voice slowly came back into focus, but she still couldn’t breathe.
The ground seemed to tip and tilt, it was as if she stood on a ship.
“Why did any of this happen?” She sobbed, gripping him harder.
He was the only thing keeping her from falling.
From lying on the ground and succumbing to a hopeless pit of despair.
“Maybe there isn’t a reason, maybe there will never be understanding, but we can’t give up. We have been brought back together, love. It is a gift from your All Mother that we are standing here together now. Your sister is alive . It is not over.”
She focused on his calming voice, on the steady beat of his heart.
Air came in easier; her lungs and throat opened back up.
She lifted her chin and looked into his garnet eyes.
For someone who hated all the world, he had more faith than anyone.
“A gift? We have been forgetting each other for thousands of years.”
“I’d do it a thousand times and a thousand more after that if it meant I got to be with you even for a moment.
Nothing will ever keep you from me.” His soft lips met hers.
“Anyone who stands in my way should wish they were never born. Our enemies will beg for forgiveness and not get it, and they will ask for mercy and will be shown none. You will get your immortality even if I have to cut theirs out of them to give to you, and you will get your throne and castle if that means I build it from their skulls and broken bones.”
His promises were beautiful, poetic even. “We have nothing, Hel. How can we ever beat them?”
“You are underestimating the lengths I would go for you. How can you doubt so much when you are a primordial? Have you forgotten that dragons fall to their knees before you? You were once worshiped by mortals from every facet of the realms. Have you forgotten you turned the god of mischief from your enemy into your lover not once, but twice?”
Valeen coughed out a half-sob, half-laugh.
“You have your sister back, your friends, and we have the god of war on our side, and no one is better at war than him. I wouldn’t say we have nothing.” He smiled. “And we have an army of cursed elves waiting to be commanded. This is a disappointment, not an ending.”
Her chin quivered and more tears welled in her eyes.
“Even with the pale ones we will be outnumbered by thousands. The council has eleven members, that’s eleven armies, eleven gods and territories, and they will have other allies.
This wall was our only chance of winning and it’s gone.
We don’t even have one stronghold. Who here would side with us when they’ve been poisoned against us for two thousand years?
And if we go back to Palenor they would destroy it.
If we go to Ryvengaard, the Drakonans are still looking for us.
They’re the wealthiest, most influential dragon family in all the realms. They will fight against us for killing Caliban and breaking into their treasury.
When I said we have nothing, that is what I meant. We have no one.”
He wiped another tear off her cheek. “I see things differently. I haven’t been plotting my revenge for so long to be deterred by one setback.
It is a tragedy, but I didn’t plan for the walls around House of Night to be standing after all this time.
We will go back to Palenor where my army waits, where War is king.
We will be ready for them when they come.
” He gripped her chin and raised it. “And you, my love, will show them why you are the queen of the night.”