Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Six
Sierra
The walls of the narrow staircase shook, and chunks of stone from above began falling on my head.
“Back down you go, you two,” the imposing silhouette said.
Phobius was gripping my hand so hard, I could swear he’d break my bones. He hesitated while I stood frozen, before turning around and pushing me to do the same.
“Wise choice, son.”
Our steps thudded, the air musty, and it felt like at any time the walls would implode around us.
Phobius picked up the pace, and when we were finally back into the dungeons proper, he stared at me intently. His head tilted just slightly, as if he were listening to something only he could hear.
Behind us, was escape. In front of us was evil. He gave me a pained expression, and I wondered what he was about to do.
I found out soon, however, as he disappeared. One moment he was standing before me, the next he was a blur of dark blue wings that flew up the stairs once it was clear.
Leaving me alone with this evil man, who laughed, the sound a beautiful, silky thing.
“Well then. Guess it’s just the two of us, hmm? Very well.”
“What do you want? And who are you?” I demanded, trying to tamp down my fear. I was both angry at Phobius for leaving me down here on my own and also relieved that he would go look for help. I hoped, anyway.
The handsome man bowed. “My name is Cael. It’s an honor to finally meet you in person.” He straightened, his magnificent black wings tucked tightly at his sides. “As to what I want…” His hand reached out and touched my cheek. His fingers were cool. Flinching away, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Well, let’s just say you have no need to worry your little Omega self. Besides, there is someone who has been waiting to get his hands on you for quite some time. If I allow it, that is. I still haven’t decided.”
Another boom rocked the Basilica.
“Seems the Ongahri aren’t playing nice.” He looked up, his expression composed, as if this was just an everyday thing down here, the dungeon imploding. “Such a pity that my son will have to lose you, though.”
“Son? What…”
He waved an elegant hand, as if my question was a gnat. With his other, he grabbed my elbow and pulled me to him. I flailed and tried to loosen his hold, but he was much too strong. Forward he marched, dragging me to Boriel’s cell.
With a flick of his fingers, the cell door popped open, and I could taste ozone in the air.
Boriel didn’t even raise her head at our presence. I thought maybe she was sleeping, but then I saw her hands clenching at her sides, her little wrists in the iron-like shackles taut.
“It’s time to go, little Boriel. As promised.” Cael pushed me into the cell, throwing me into the corner, and I fell to my knees, wincing at the impact. The floor was slimy and cold, stealing my breath.
I looked up and saw Cael squatting down. He wore a smirk on his handsome face, his eyes dancing as if he delighted in Boriel’s pain. The way he looked at her was hungry, obsessed, and it occurred to me that I was in no danger from him. That didn’t mean I wasn’t in danger, though. Whether he planned on locking me in this cell or not, by the sounds of it, the Basilica was coming down, and if I didn’t get out now, I’d be buried alive here.
Eyes on Boriel, Cael ignored everything but her. Could I simply just slink out?
“Easy now,” he told Boriel, his tone like that of a lover. “I’m going to release you, and then you and I… Oh, I think not, Sierra.” So much for ignoring me, I thought.
His hand went out, arresting me with its speed. I had tried to get to my feet, to escape, to run out of this horrible place. But whatever power he wielded stopped me. I was pressed against air as strong and forceful as a wall.
Satisfied I wasn’t going anywhere, he focused back on Boriel. His mouth moved silently, his eyes sweeping every inch of her. I could see his chest inhaling and exhaling in short bursts. He was actually excited! Arousal spun in the air like cloying incense. And it sickened me.
Fighting off nausea, I begged her to do something, but whatever force Cael had on me had taken my voice with it. All I could do was compel her to look at me.
She still hadn’t glanced up, her chin tucked down, that mass of fine hair a veil, hiding her. She made no sound as the click of the manacles released her.
“Easy, easy,” Cael told her. “Not long now, my pet.”
Movement in the corner of my eye had me turning my head. I was so confused by what I was seeing, couldn’t make sense out of it. A Servant tip-toed softly, slowly, toward Cael’s squatting form. A shiny metal pipe, thick, with a sharp opening, swung from the Servant’s raised arm, then swept down onto Cael’s head with a thunk.
Cael went down like a wilted flower. My mouth was hanging open, still trying to process what I was seeing. When Boriel stood, unfurling herself in an eye-defining movement, all I saw of her before she disappeared was an ice-blue sheen and glowing eyes that I swear could have burned me alive had she turned them on me.
And then she was gone. Cael was slumped over on the stone floor, a pool of dark crimson liquid flowing around him.
Move, Sierra, I said to myself. But I was frozen in shock. Run!
“Omega,” someone, a male, said.
The Servant. I had forgotten all about the Servant. I looked up at the robed man who seemed so familiar… and then panic swelled inside me, making me draw back. I couldn’t catch my breath.
“Thank the gods you are unharmed,” he said, coming closer. He went around Cael, tsking at him in what sounded like disgust. “Now that he’s not here to stop me, it’s just me and you.”
My thoughts slowed as I realized he had grabbed me by the hood, pulling me to him. His other hand went to his pocket, quickly pulling something out. Something shiny, like glass. The object came closer, and before I could get a good look at it, there was a pinch at my neck. For a moment I thought maybe I’d been bitten by a spider or stung by a bee.
“Let’s get you out of here, my beautiful.” I was lifted, held in his arms. My limbs were useless, heavy from whatever he’d injected me with. All I was now was a doll.
Useless.
The clanging sound of his foot hitting the pipe on the ground was the last thing I remembered before darkness took me.
My head felt enormous, a bolder of pain, encompassing my whole being. I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t. Alongside the pain was a dull throb of heat. In my bones. In the fine hairs of my arms. I must be sick, I thought. A fever. I wanted to ask for Mother, for Lucinda. I was so thirsty and would have done anything for a glass of cool water.
“Ah. I see you’re awake,” said someone that wasn’t either Mother nor my watcher.
The Basilica. I gasped, and even that hurt.
I felt cool hands on my forehead, and for a moment the sharp ache dulled. A scent like blood, like sticky body sweat filled my nostrils, and my stomach wrenched. Before I knew it, I was retching, my eyes tightly closed, the vise-like pain of my head squeezing for all its worth.
“Oh my poor pet. Yes, I know it is strong. Take your time,” the Servant said. And I knew it was a Servant. Servant Sarbo, to be exact. I remembered it all now. Cael, Boriel. Phobius leaving me in the dungeons.
Somewhere out there were my mates, Mari, the others.
I sat up, opened my eyes, my stomach settling but burning with acid, and I looked around me. I was in a white room, on the floor, lying on some kind of soft pallet. There were no windows; nothing but walls, Sarbo, and this pallet. A clean room, nothing like the dungeons.
What was this place?
Servant Sarbo was hovering over me. He was looking at me exactly as Cael had looked at Boriel, back in that cell. A man obsessed and lost to it.
Boriel. Cael. Gods, was she free now? And Cael, had Sarbo killed him?
“Where—where am I?” I croaked.
“Somewhere safe.” His hand glided down to my neck, seeming to hesitate on my osnat before moving down. When cold fingers fondled my breast, I scooted away, only to bump my head on the wall behind me. I tried to raise my arms, to push him away but they were too limp from this horrible fever that wracked through my body.
“I followed you, see.” He paid no attention to my discomfort and kept touching me. I realized with horror that I was naked. “I saw you and that other one walking through the garden, from my window. The Mother granted my wish. And now you are here, my darling. Such a treasure. The Great One had promised, but Prius had promised too!” At this, his face morphed into something hideous, maddening. “He promised me your— Well.” He calmed then, his dirty-brown eyes softening. “The Great One is gone, and Prius is dead. And here you are. Finally.”
The Great One? Did he mean Cael?
The fever had me breaking out in chills, had my teeth chattering. A haunting sound came from somewhere until I realized it was me who was making that gods-awful whimper.
“Oh, soon, my darling. Shh, you will enjoy this. Soon.”
The man was unhinged! There was no way in this world I’d let him have me. None.
Disgust had my stomach rising again. Sarbo sensed what was coming as I rolled onto my side. He pulled away as I dry heaved onto the floor.
“Omega, we are here. Hold on.”
Was that… Auria?
A thrumming shook the walls, escalating into a pounding. I leaned back, shaking like a leaf, my eyes swimming with hot tears from my retching. Sarbo frowned down at me, standing now. He was starting to fade at the edges of my vision, as if shrinking into a tunnel.
“There is no way they found—” he started to say, but the pounding stopped with a crash as a door I hadn’t seen tore off its hinges, showering the air with dust.
“Sierra!”
Fadon. The sound of his voice filled me with such relief, I shut my eyes. I heard Sarbo scream, and then nothing but voices. I was thankful I had closed my eyes.
Someone was lifting me, and I smelled the scent of Ander. I could hear Phobius, could scent Fadon. Something covered me, and I tried to open my eyes. Why couldn’t I open them?
It was then I realized they were open. I was blind. No wonder I couldn’t see.
“She’s burning up, Fadon.”
“He must have given her something.”
His voice, my mate’s scent flooded my senses. I was growing wet, hungry. Hot, twisted, restless. Wanting.
“Fadon,” I said in a husky tone.
“Shit,” Ander cursed at my ear.
“Here,” Phobius’ velvet voice commanded, “let me take her. Fadon, get back!” Phobius had me in his arms now. And although I couldn’t track a single trace of scent from him, his holding me seemed to settle me just enough to fully understand what was going on.
I reached out, bumping my hand against Phobius’ chin. “Cael! He’s still in the dungeon,” I said, willing my stupid vision to come back.
“Not anymore,” Phobius said. “Let’s go.”
Ihad no idea where we were, but when I felt warmth on my face, smelled fresh air with a hint of the sea, I knew we were outside. It was warm like a late spring day, and I knew then that Boriel was free.
Phobius set me down on something thick and soft, speaking to someone nearby.
“She’s gone into heat but she’s unhurt.”
“We’ll take it from here.”
I knew that voice. Esta.
Warm hands touched my brow, and a wispy sensation hummed in my body, cooling me. “Child of the Morn. Good to see you again.”
“Is it really?” I asked ruefully. “Last time I saw you, you had drugged me and sold me to the Owl.” My vision slowly returned, and I could make out the blurry gems of Esta’s headdress.
She shrugged and leaned back. We were under some kind of canopy. Behind her I could see a sky as blue as Demos’ eyes. “I did what I had to do. Do you really regret it?”
No, I didn’t.
She nodded, knowing already my answer. “How do you feel?”
“I feel… like I’ve been in a dream.” I sat up, and whatever was covering me slipped off to pool at my lap. Fresh air tickled my naked breasts, kissed my shoulders. “Um… have you anything…” I looked around for something to wear, but she handed me a gown. It was a rich crimson, its material soft as butter.
I quickly put it on and knotted up my hair, then got to my feet. “Where are we?”
Esta stood as well, and when she lifted a hand out to me, I took it without a thought. “Outside Elusian Fields.”
A place of myth, somewhere outside of time, outside of reality.
Esta led me out of the canopy. All around me were fields of green. We stood on a hilltop, and I could see the ocean down below, a sliver of silver under that powdery blue sky.
“Are you really Omega or was that a ruse to get me to trust you?” I had been wondering that ever since the Owl had me in that wagon.
“I was, once. Before.” She closed her eyes and lifted her delicate chin, a hint of a smile playing at her bow-like mouth. Her skin seemed to glow, and as I stared, her features sharpened, her dark hair and golden skin saturating with contrast. It reminded me of Auria, how she had done that very thing, like dropping a veil from her face and revealing what lay beyond, sleeping all this time.
“Why am I here?” I asked, breaking away from staring at her. Instead, my eyes went to the end of the hill, where that serene sea moved.
“You are our future, Sierra. A catalyst still. Soon, our purpose, mine and my sisters’, will be over, and it will be up to you to carry things to the next generation.”
“What does that mean?” Here we go, I thought, cryptic messages, meddling in my life again.
“It means that you will be making sure things are set to rights. That the Owl finds its true purpose again, that the leaders of the Ongahri and Titus work together. It means gentle encouragement for real leadership. For the future Omega to come. You have all that in you, a vision. Like your mate, Lucius Dega. You have a former Servant, who knows the Owl and knows the Old Ways. You have a captain of an Ongahri House army. You have the ear of his queen. You have two mates with a mighty king’s blood running through their veins. Your power lies in being a touchstone, a hub. We elementals were never meant to interfere with you and your fellow people of Titus. But it couldn’t be helped. We had to right a wrong, something we had done many moons ago. But now it is all up to you.”
Her words spoke to something inside me, a seed that shone like the dawn. There was nothing magical or dramatic about it. Nothing that would compromise who I was nor require me to do something outside what I already planned to do: live and make a difference.
“The prophecy,” I said, “I wasn’t much of a ‘White Queen.’ I did nothing.” I laughed now, self-deprecating that it was, feeling a little drunk, honestly. Was it really over? And what was happening back at the Basilica? I felt nothing through my bond with the others. I could only “feel” myself and the peaceful breeze billowing at my gown.
She smiled. “If it weren’t for you, Child of the Morn, you and I wouldn’t be standing here. Boriel wouldn’t be home, and…”
“Cae—”
“Shh. No need to name him.”
“Where—what happened to him?”
For the first time since we’d been talking, Esta’s face became a deadly mask. Her eyes hardened, and the air seemed to still as if afraid. “He is where he belongs.”