Chapter 1 Maura #2
Honey rounded the corner and David came into view. Tall, blonde, bow drawn. Behind him, a shorter, muscular man stood pressed close, sensually trailing a hand down his chest.
Honey barked an awkward cough, his cheeks going rosy.
“Maura!” David’s eyes went wide, and for a moment, something in his face shifted. He rushed over, pulling her into a hug.
The embrace had her pulling in a sharp breath. David didn’t miss it.
“Did I hurt you?” His brows drew together in alarm, searching. He took one look at her cheek and his voice turned to ice. “Wyatt, we’re done training for tonight.”
“Yes, your grace,” the man shot out. He bowed, quickly glancing once at Maura before disappearing.
Honey fluttered up, reaching with fingers aglow, but Maura gently swatted him away.
“No. Thank you, but no,” she said, voice grim and haunted. “There’ll be more hell to pay if I’m healed.”
David carefully grazed his fingertips down the side of her face, inspecting.
“Who. Did. This?” Although it was a question, the dark threat of blood payment was easy to hear.
Grief, heartbreak, abuse, fear, and worst of all, hope—had all been locked away inside her for months now, trying to claw its way out, and Maura pushed them down to keep them together.
But here with David, the dam was breaking.
The final crack fragmented, bursting open, flooding out in hot tears that spilled down Maura’s face.
No mental barriers or cells could contain her pain now.
It crashed over David in a wave, no doubt overwhelming his Heartseer abilities. He instantly paled, dropping to his knees at the weight of her emotions. Maura fell with him, holding onto him for dear life as her soul cracked wide open before him.
A soft whimper escaped Honey, his bottom lip quivering.
“You will tell me everything,” David sharply whispered, hardly forming the words.
A long agonizing silence passed between them. Then, Maura untangled herself from David’s arms, and told him everything . . .
“Fucking bastard!” David’s fists clenched, veins bulging as if they’d explode in a fury as well. “He’s fucking dead! I don’t care what it costs. I will find a way to kill him!” He stalked back and forth in the garden.
Honey followed, pacing in the air like an angry hummingbird.
Maura’s face slumped into her hands, defeated.
“You can’t,” she said, voice a shallow rasp. “He’s too powerful and only getting stronger each day. I—I don’t know how, but he is.” She let out a heavy sigh. “I didn’t come here for you to serve justice on my behalf. I came because I need your help. I don’t have much time left, David.”
A dark shadow flashed across David’s face as his eyes snapped to Maura when her words sunk in.
“Maura, you can’t go back!” His arms outstretched wide in desperate plea. “I won’t allow—”
“Shhh!” Maura cut him off. She faced the moon, soaking in its cool light as if it could somehow heal her cruel destiny.
“It’s my fate, David.” Her eyes glistened with the tears of an apology she wouldn’t speak aloud. “It’s written.”
David shut his eyes. The one ember of hope snuffed out.
“So that’s it?” he breathed, pausing. “You’re just going to give up?”
Maura’s fate may have been tragically sealed, but her future child’s wasn’t. At least not yet.
“No, I’m not,” she said, stronger now. “I think there’s another way.”
“How?” David shook his head in disbelief.
Her cheeks flushed, anticipating the awkwardness of what was to come next.
“I need you to do me a favor.” She darted her eyes away. “And you’re not going to like it.”
David’s brows furrowed as he stepped forward, sensing the turmoil inside her.
“Whatever it is,” David vowed, straightening, “consider it done.”
The two of them were soul-connected, kindred souls, forever intertwined. They’d known that the moment they met, the feeling of old friends meeting for the first time. And for her—for his greatest friend—David would do anything.
“I killed someone.” Maura cringed at the words. “The Skells will be on high alert.”
Honey turned, a wicked grin spreading across his adorable face.
Maura huffed a laugh. “Of course you’d be impressed, you little devil!”
A chuckle escaped the Cherub’s plump mouth as he opened a velvet bag, pulling out a violet gemstone ring. Slowly, he slipped it onto Maura’s finger.
“It’s beautiful.” Maura rubbed her thumb over it, then raised an eyebrow at him.
Honey tapped the ring, then pointed to himself, waiting.
“Oh.” She paused, understanding. “A Semita Stone? You’ll always be able to find me.”
Honey winked.
“Thank you,” Maura said, squeezing the Cherub’s hand. “I’ll never take it off.”
He squeezed back, then rifted her to Hallow Land.
A ragged scream broke the air from the dungeons and echoed through the stairwell.
“Throw the bitch in and be done with it!” The dark voice growled before fading.
Maura knew she should’ve left, should’ve ran before they caught her, but something froze her in place.
She opened the dungeon door, moving like a ghost. The outline of a fragile woman in a cell appeared—thin, wrinkled fingers and a pale gaunt face.
Realization struck Maura like a dagger through the heart, piercing her soul.
Tabitha. The woman who’d kept her sane, who’d taught her to control her ability, now lay dying inside the dungeons.
Maura kneeled at the bars, knuckles flushing white as she gripped the cold steel.
“Tabitha!”
“Maura?” Tabitha’s voice was raw, hollow.
“I need to get you out of here!” Maura whispered, despair clogging her throat.
Tabitha’s clouded eyes warily searched down the hallway.
“No,” she wheezed, each breath a struggle. “I’ve chosen my path. I don’t regret walking it.” Her eyes were firm, pleading with Maura.
“Please,” Maura rasped. “I can’t leave you here! He’ll—”
“Listen to me.” Tabitha’s voice strengthened, cutting in. “There are things you don’t know,” Tabitha continued. “I was born . . . a Soul Wielder.”
Souls be damned. A wielder?
Maura’s mouth went agape. Soul Wielders were thought to have been myth, or an ability that died out ages ago. Speaking to souls was one thing, but to control them entirely, that was unfathomable power.
“Albeit a weak one, I kept it hidden. Until the King found me, wanting me to rip out a soul.” Tabitha’s forehead creased. “The Vinter King’s soul.”
A hefty weight dropped in Maura’s stomach.
“The Vinter King is in some kind of never-ending sleep. No weapon, not even the King’s shadows, could pierce him.
They’ve been trying to kill him to no avail.
That’s why they needed me—told me to remove his soul.
” A sly smile suddenly spread across her weathered face.
“So I did. But the Skell King never specified to where. I imagine they’ll be back shortly when they realize—”
A roar from the depths of hell rumbled the floor.
Tabitha’s head snapped down the hall, then back to Maura. Her eyes shared secrets that weren’t spoken aloud.
“Go! Do not worry for me, child. I am not afraid! As I know you will not be either.”
Tabitha was weak, broken, and torn, but her soul was unwavering in the face of death.
With one last loving squeeze of her hands, Maura bolted back to the stairwell.
A deep darkness swept through the corridor and violently swirled in front of the cell. Then—the Skell King appeared.
The skeletal pattern on his body flared to life. His arm shot out, grabbing Tabitha by the throat, slamming her against the bars.
“I will singe the skin off your bones. Peel back each layer to revel in your screams and when your body is utterly broken, I will ensure your soul is lost forever!” the King screeched, shadows constricting.
“You will never know peace. Only pain. Only suffering!” His teeth cracked, clenching.
“Answer me now, hag! Why does the body still live?”
Guttural sounds left Tabitha’s throat—the King’s wrath had his control slipping.
Tabitha’s shoulders shook. Not in fear, but in laughter. Hysterical laughter.
“You . . . are . . . a . . . cunt!” she wheezed.
The Skells behind the King shot each other looks. They knew exactly what happened when the King was so gravely disrespected.
Crack! The sound speared through the dungeons. Other unnatural popping sounds followed.
Maura’s brain dissociated, turning to fog as she stumbled up the staircase.
Tabitha. Memories of their most cherished moments sparked in her mind like a warm fire stroking her cheek.
When the click of the door shut behind her, she fell to her knees and retched. Over and over, until darkness.