Chapter 11 Dianna
DIANNA
Flames blazed in the fireplace, licking at the hearth, the aroma of embers and burnt logs filling Samkiel’s study.
I folded my arms tighter around myself and huddled closer to the fire, some heat finally returning to my skin.
I’d still been so damn cold when we got back to the castle that Samkiel had put me into a hot shower.
Steam had filled the bathroom like fog, and I scrubbed my body until Samkiel took the sponge away from me, pulled me out, and wrapped me in a towel.
Once I had dressed and warmed up enough to speak, Samkiel brought me here, and I’d told him, Cameron, and Reggie everything Gathrriel had said, everything he had done, everything I had seen. Now, I stared into the flames as they spoke in low tones behind me.
My mind still reeled. I’d had no control, trapped in the steel cage of my mind, watching everything unfold before me, powerless and weak.
My gaze flicked to the floor, imagining the dungeon deep in the palace and wondering if that was how Logan, Neverra, and the rest of The Hand felt.
Were they trapped, alone, and screaming?
Were they fighting and clawing to get free, struggling to stop what they were being forced to do?
Oh gods, I would never stop trying to free them, and if I ever believed there was no hope, I would give them mercy.
A log popped, bringing me back to the present. I rubbed my hands against my baggy, dark lounge pants and watched a shower of sparks float up the chimney. Absently listening to the conversation behind me, I anchored myself in the sound of Samkiel’s voice.
“… a general …” I heard Cameron say.
“… history, of course, rewritten. But to fit whose narrative?” Samkiel said.
“… asking the wrong questions,” Reggie said.
My body ached. Every nerve throbbed like it had been scoured with sandpaper, and my flesh felt burned from frostbite, but my mind was starting to calm until I heard his name.
“Gathrriel,” someone said, and I whipped around to face them.
“How could this happen?” Samkiel asked.
“You’d know if you had been there,” I snapped. All three turned to look at me, and I was glad Miska had stayed with Enya and a few of her other friends tonight. “Where were you?”
Reggie opened his mouth, probably to defend Samkiel, but Samkiel spoke first.
“I was taking care of some things in preparation for your birthday.”
My shoulders relaxed, relieved that after everything that had happened, he didn’t feel he needed to lie or hide things from me, even a sweet surprise. The surge of amusement surprised me, and I let out a snort of laughter. My husband had left me in the middle of the night to organize my birthday.
“My birthday is weeks away,” I said down our bond.
“I like to be prepared.”
I managed a weak smile, his sweet tone extinguishing the fire in my anger.
I wasn’t mad at him, anyway. This whole situation sucked, and I was angry about it, but my rage was rooted in the complete violation of what Gathrriel had done to me.
After being Kaden’s bitch for so long, I refused to let anyone use me like that again.
Never again would anyone make me weak and controllable. Never.
“So, he waited until Samkiel was away before he finally made his big move,” Cameron said, completely unaware of the conversation between Samkiel and me.
“It appears so,” Reggie agreed.
“I still don’t understand why,” Samkiel said, putting his hands on his hips and turning back to them. “Dianna and I have been apart numerous times since he began haunting her. So why now?”
“You’ve never left me while I was asleep,” I said, and all eyes turned toward me.
The heat of the fire warmed my back as I continued.
“He said he hadn’t been able to get to me while I slept, but whatever had blocked him wasn’t near last night.
That’s Samkiel. So, my best guess is that he’s afraid of him? ” I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“Or,” Reggie started, and we all looked at him, “and this is a hypothesis at best, but possession, even through the realms, is very, very limited. Cursed creatures of the Otherworld can sometimes compel others but not fully possess them. Possession requires an emptiness for them to fill and wear like a shell. They would need an uninhabited body.”
“Like a zombie?” Cameron asked, folding his arms and leaning on the edge of the desk.
“Necromancy is not possession,” Samkiel added.
“He was able to get in because of my soul,” I said. “Or lack thereof.”
Reggie nodded. “You’d be the perfect host for another to inhabit.”
“I don’t want to be inhabited.” My fists clenched, the thought alone revolting. I felt so … violated.
“You won’t be,” Samkiel said, his voice resonating with the power that lived just under the surface of his skin.
He meant it. I’d felt his fear become a living flame when he’d found me in that clearing.
I knew exactly what memory plagued him, and he was terrified of me being taken from him again.
Only it wouldn’t be monsters dragging me back to Kaden, but an ancient, pissed-off Ig’Morruthen intent on revenge-possessing my body.
Cameron’s brows rose, and he let out a slow breath.
“Okay, so Gathrriel wants Dianna’s body to fulfill some ancient vengeance?
Who, in all the realms, could be his enemy?
Even if the texts lied, all those who reigned with him are dead.
Trust me. I know. Imogen made me study with her when she was trying to pass her entrance exam to be an emissary. ”
Samkiel rubbed the bridge of his nose, weariness radiating from him. “I am unsure. Maybe being dead this long has warped whatever brain he has left. Perhaps he thinks it is a different time?”
“I don’t care what he thinks,” I said. “He tries to take me again, and I will burn whatever soul Vvive gave him.”
Samkiel chewed the inside of his cheek. “We need to work on a way to keep you awake. In the—”
“I do not think so,” Reggie interjected.
“Gathrriel said he couldn’t get to Dianna while she slept until last night.
As long as you two remain inseparable, you should be fine.
There have been no incidents previously.
You both assumed it was because you were with her, but perhaps there is another reason.
It is just a theory since my visions have evaded me, especially concerning this matter, but I don’t think sleep is the issue. ”
Concern bit at my gut. His visions had been sporadic and completely absent for periods of time since he saved me from Nismera.
The Jade City healers had supposedly healed whatever damage Nismera had done when she blasted him, but he was changed, and I feared he was still changing.
There simply was not enough known of the fates and their physiology for anyone to understand what was happening to him, much less fix him.
I didn’t know what was happening to him, and I hated it. Reggie had to be okay.
“Inseparable from Dianna is not a problem for me,” Samkiel said, his eyes cutting a path to me. “Never has been.”
I smiled, knowing that was more than the truth. Even while on my rage-filled, vengeance warpath, I couldn’t get rid of him, and I refused to ever again.
“Aw,” Cameron said, snapping us back to the others in the room.
“Sorry, I feel like I ruined the moment.” He scratched at the back of his ear with a wide, apologetic grin.
“So, even if we aren’t sure, it seems like the best plan is for Samkiel not to leave Dianna while she sleeps.
Even if it is something else and he can get to her, he bolted when Samkiel showed up.
He obviously doesn’t want to face him for some reason, so we should be good. ”
“Not even close to good,” Samkiel said with a sigh.
He looked at me, his eyes filled with such love it warmed me more than the fire.
“I need to do some research and find out more about possessions. It’s unacceptable that he thinks he has a foothold here and a right to my wife.
I need to see if anyone left in this realm knows how to take out a spirit. ”
Reggie nodded.
“And then what?” Cameron asked.
Samkiel smiled wickedly. “And then I’m going to kill him.”
“You’re going to kill a ghost? Okay.” Cameron shrugged. “I’d expect no less, honestly. So where do we start looking? Who would know how to take this guy out?”
The room fell silent, and I turned back to face the fire.
The flames had reduced the remaining logs to embers.
Samkiel brushed across our bond, checking on me.
I didn’t want him to know just how dark and worried my thoughts were, so I sent something else back instead.
I had an idea where we might find answers, given that Nismera had culled these realms to her liking.
When we needed information on Onuna, we usually went to those willing to risk it all.
Those unafraid of breaking laws and rules usually had answers.
There was only one realm left where we might find someone we could even ask.
“It may be risky,” he said.
“We have no other choice,” I replied, my tone a bit snappy. “I refuse to allow him to take me again.”
A wave of possessiveness hit the walls of my mind. Samkiel hated even the thought. He hated that anyone would dare touch me, physical or not.
“Simple,” I said, staring into the fireplace. “We go to the Otherworld.”
Cameron let out a small laugh of disbelief, but no one else said anything.
“Wait,” Cameron said. “You’re serious? All of you?”
“It may be the only choice,” Samkiel said, and I turned toward them again.
“I concur,” Reggie agreed.
“In case everyone forgot,” Cameron started. “Not you, Dianna, but the Otherworld isn’t a place you just go. Last I recall, the seven princes still ruled, and last I recall, everyone there hates you.”