Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
V aelor remained in that spot long after Lanzin disappeared. The rain poured down, revealing the sorrow and devastation that my demon lord dared not show. After a time, he blurred and reappeared in the room. He wasn’t wet at all.
“He’s gone,” he rumbled. He faced the fire, his back to me. “You need to leave. Now.”
“How can I leave you like this?”
He spun to face me, agony and pain etched into every line of his face.
“Do you see what I am? Do you see what I bring? You must go. You must leave me. Make me lose you, Denara… make me lose you for good, and maybe you won’t die.
Promise me you’ll never come back.” He took an agitated step toward me before stopping.
“Vaelor, please.” I reached out to him. How could he turn me away in this state? Didn’t he see how much he needed me?
“Leave!” he roared. “Or so help me. I will possess you and take you back. I will make Erlinen tie you to a tree and promise not to loose you until I am long gone.”
His jaw squared, and he moved closer to me, his wings spread, as if he’d do just that.
I lifted my chin, my fingers gripping the bone in my pocket. “You may find I am not so easily taken over when I don’t wish to be.”
He seemed a bit surprised, but it didn’t stop him. “Then I will carry you and wait until someone comes to check the boundary. It does not matter to me.”
I fell back a step only because I knew he spoke the truth, and it would work. “Fine, Vaelor. I’ll go if that is what you want.”
“It’s the only way.” This time his gaze turned pleading.
“No, it’s not.” My eyes stung and my chest ached. “But I will go because I can’t force you to let me stay.”
I stepped outside the door and shut it behind me. I felt his presence on the other side and heard his soft whisper: “Goodbye, Denara.”
I walked down the steps and out of the inn. The first raindrop struck my face, cold against my skin, and slipped down my cheek like a tear. I drew the hood of my cloak over my head and crossed the yard toward the stables through the growing rain.
Once mounted, I turned my horse back the way I had come and rode into the storm. The rain soaked through my cloak, blurring the road ahead. I pressed a hand against my chest as a sob escaped me, sharp and broken in the dark.
This time I was leaving, but the pain struck me with a similar intensity. Another instance where I wasn’t enough. And even though part of me understood why, Vaelor’s pain was still crushing both of us.
I’m not sure how long I rode like that, my tears mixing with the rain.
Eventually, the downpour turned into a drizzle and the gusts of wind that whipped up my cloak sent a chilling air that numbed me inside and out.
I followed the stream back to where I began and hopped down, empty and defeated.
My sword hung next to my saddle, and I pulled it out slightly to cut my finger.
I walked over to the tree to add my blood and make my promises.
Vaelor wasn’t my family by blood, and yet he felt like it.
There weren’t many in this world that I claimed as mine, but somehow he’d become that to me.
Mine—and I didn’t know what to do about it.
Before I could utter the words to reveal the town, tendrils of mist slipped out from the darkness of the trees. A shiver ran down my spine that had nothing to do with the breeze ruffling my wet cloak. The lines of mist curled forward, moving closer inch by inch.
“Vaelor?” I whispered through freezing lips.
I searched the forest as the mist thickened and rose to my waist. Blood dripped from my finger into the dirt. My horse snorted and stepped uneasily.
Three sets of orange glowing eyes appeared in the darkness. They took form as they stepped from between the trees. Tricken and the two other winged demons all stared at me with bloodthirsty eyes.
“We’ve found you,” Tricken snarled, his beady eyes taking me in with hate and hunger.
Shit.
I shoved my unwounded hand into my pocket and gripped the bone, picturing the hedge surrounding me, growing strong and impenetrable. Gods, I hoped this worked.
Tricken licked his lips, and the demons moved in. Tricken’s icy hand gripped my shoulder. “This is going to be fun.” And he faded to mist as he tried to enter me.
I staggered as his force pressed toward me, and I focused hard on the hedge in my mind, picturing it turning sturdy and dense, keeping everything out.
Tricken coalesced in front of me, eyes wide. “How…” His hand tightened painfully on my shoulder. “You’ve learned a new trick. No matter. We can still kill you.”
I tried to twist from his grasp, but he held on strong. The thick mist obscured most of their forms, leaving only deadly smiles and ravenous glowing eyes hungry for revenge.
Oh gods, despite my new trick, I was no match for them. I was never a match for these demons.
I was about to die.
A figure dropped out of the sky, disturbing the mist. It spun and swirled, but parted briefly enough to make out the red hair, the glowing eyes, the wings spread to their fullest length. Vaelor gripped Tricken’s hand, a deadly wrath filling his entire face.
“Don’t touch my mate,” he growled and crushed Tricken’s hand in his fist, the bones snapping as easily as twigs.
Tricken howled, falling back and gripping his hand.
I stared at Vaelor in disbelief, a rushing in my ears. What the hell had he called me?
Large warm hands came around my waist and yanked me back with such force that my head snapped forward. “Now, what do we have here?” a deep voice said.
He spun me around, and I stiffened. Lanzin held me, his solid, corporeal body too real for comfort. And yet something was wrong.
His eyes were flooded with an orange light.
A deadly grin leered across his face. “I told you that I’d find you and finish what I started.”
My stomach sank. Raxus was possessing Lanzin.
“It appears you are trying to access a hidden place.” He took in my bleeding hand, and the tree marked with my blood. “You know it has been long said that there are entire towns hidden here. Might we be near one?”
If things could get worse, they just had. “How?—”
“Your scent was somehow masked. But luckily, this body knows your scent and could track you easily.”
Vaelor turned, snarling to face Lanzin. “You dare to possess a noble son of Aeria?”
Raxus laughed in Lanzin’s deep, smooth voice.
“Would you believe he let me? He knew he was at a disadvantage going up against you, and I made a bargain with him. Let me finish her off.” He gripped my hair and yanked back my head, allowing him to glare into my face with his malicious eyes.
“And I’d see that Spiritu Malignos made the deal that he so desired. ”
It was why Raxus hadn’t simply killed Lanzin and taken his body. Doing so would have negated any deal with the awaiting Aeria army—a deal that could bring Raxus position and prestige in Spiritu Malignos.
Vaelor drew the sword off the saddle of my horse. He faded, and I shut my eyes, willing my hedge to drop. For him.
Vaelor slid the cool metal of the sword into my hand, and he pressed into me.
I let him in and we melded together with the same readiness that a drop of water became part of the sea.
We lifted the sword, and Raxus let go of me. A cruel smile curled on Lanzin’s lips.
“You want to fight?” He pulled the sword at his waist. “Let us fight.”
Our swords clanged together, and the force of it rattled my whole body. We stumbled back.
He’s too strong, Vaelor thought, and I sensed his intentions. We needed to be careful about a full-on frontal attack, or he might knock us off our feet.
We had to let the blow push us—give with the strike until we saw an opening.
With each clash of the blades, we fell back.
Each time our blades met it vibrated through my entire body—my arms sore, my body too weak.
Though Vaelor controlled my movements, he could do nothing about my lack of physical strength.
Raxus lunged, and we dove to the side, landing hard against the roots of a tree, breathing hard.
I need to get you out of here. Vaelor’s worry settled upon me as if it were my own.
Raxus suspects about Derand and knows about Lanzin’s plans to attack Misophae.
We can worry about that later. There is nothing to be done about that now.
Ice-cold sweat rolled off my body, and my limbs shook from fatigue, but Vaelor forced me to rise and round the tree.
Raxus was there. We raised the sword, but we were too slow. Raxus hit the blade from our grasp, and it fell to the ground.
Vaelor’s frustration soared.
Raxus reached out and clamped his hand around our throat and squeezed. “Poor little human body, no matter who is possessing you, did you really think a creature so weak could defeat me?”
He squeezed tighter, and I had almost no air.
Then Vaelor left me.
Panic surged, clutching my aching chest tightly. I fought for breath, to cry out, to tell him to wait.
He left me on the verge of death.
I kicked and dug my fingers into Lanzin’s hand as Raxus watched me with delight through Vaelor’s brother’s eyes.
“Ah good, I want you to be fully aware while I kill you.” He motioned for Tricken and the other demons to come. “Come, my brothers, we will share her.”
Vaelor coalesced behind Lanzin’s body, sword in hand, fear and deadly intent in his gaze. Vaelor lunged and suddenly Lanzin stiffened, surprise coming to his face as Vaelor drove the sword from his back through his chest.
The hold on my throat loosened as Lanzin’s body stumbled, blood coming to his lips. He dropped me, and I landed on the ground, gasping for breath and holding my bruised throat.
The spirits stood back, watching in shock.
Lanzin fell to his knees as blood soaked through his shirt, more dripping from his mouth.
Vaelor stared at his dying brother, rage and agony fighting for dominance in his expression as Lanzin dropped to the ground, fighting for one more breath before the life drained from his eyes.
I lay collapsed, wheezing, my throat on fire, when the realization struck me as though a sword had pierced my own heart.
Vaelor had killed his own brother.
For me.
Raxus faded out of the dead body, no longer able to continue possessing it. “I’m surprised you had the guts to do that. And now that you have used up your time on this plane killing your brother, you have no way to stop me from finishing what I came to do.”
He spun, his deadly gaze landing on me. I staggered to my feet, my hand landing on the bone in my dress pocket. I brought the hedge back up in my mind and tried to run. I had only taken a couple of steps when Raxus’s huge troll form landed on top of me. Pressing me to the ground. I cried out.
He slammed a fist into my right leg, and I heard the sickly crack. I screamed, my bone shattering under his force. “No more running away for you, possessed or not.”
The agony in my leg felt like a thousand fires, but I saw Raxus’s evil gaze as he stood and moved to the side.
“Have at her, brothers.” Shit. I saw their ugly, hungry faces close in.
They reached for me. They might not be able to touch me long, but it would be enough to rip my helpless body apart.
Demons didn’t need long to break a weak human body like mine.
Tricken leaned in, almost salivating with his desire to get his fill. “I have been waiting for this.”
The point of a glowing blue sword went straight through his head. His eyes bulged and his mouth opened in a silent scream that never came.
He dissipated into nothing.
I blinked hard, trying to concentrate through the pain radiating up from my snapped leg. Lanzin stood over me, shoulders tense, sword in hand. Except it wasn’t Lanzin. Black lines snaked over his arms and neck. And his eyes—I recognized those orange glowing eyes.
Vaelor.
He’d bonded with his brother’s body.
One of the flying demons behind Tricken pulled back, terror on his face. “He’s bonded with a body! He’s—” Vaelor swung again, and this demon ended his words in a scream as he too, evaporated. The third tried to get away, but it was too late, and Vaelor soon disposed of him as well.
Raxus stumbled back with a snarl as Vaelor turned on him.
“Enjoy it while it lasts. You won’t be the only one with a bonded body for much longer,” Raxus snapped. His hateful gaze landed on me. “And then I will get what I came for.”
Vaelor spread his brother’s wings and lunged, but Raxus disappeared into the mist before Vaelor’s strike landed. The mist that was Raxus swept off into the trees.
I gripped my leg. The pain raged so hard I worried I’d pass out.
Vaelor, controlling Lanzin’s body, swore when he saw my leg. He dropped the sword and grabbed two fallen branches and approached me.
“I’m going to immobilize your leg,” he said in Lanzin’s voice.
I merely nodded, sweat pouring from my face and wishing the damn agony would stop.
He tore my dress, creating two strips.
“Vaelor, I—” I screamed as he adjusted my leg to get the branches in place.
“Don’t speak. This will be quick.”
No. I needed to tell him how sorry I was that he had to kill his brother for me. And not only that, but he’d be reminded of that every single day he woke up or looked in the mirror. What could be worth that? Nothing. He had to hate me. Resent me.
He tied the bandage around my leg, and all words left me as tears came to my eyes.
Some of the pain eased once he had it tied off.
He picked up his sword and sheathed it. Now that the spirits were gone, it no longer glowed blue.
He grabbed my bag off the horse and slung it over a shoulder before he came back over to me.
He lifted me into his arms. I released a cry and blackness edged in.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you,” Vaelor said. The wings of his brother’s body spread. “But we cannot stay here.”
He glanced at me—Lanzin’s face framed by his warrior braid, Lanzin’s hands that were rough and calloused. But Vaelor’s eyes. I read the question in them.
I grasped him, holding on tight, and nodded. He took off into the sky, and the world faded to black.