82. Clash of Stone and Steel #2
“Bressen, don’t!” Samhail’s voice was pleading.
Talyn knew she was nothing to Bressen, and she didn’t doubt he’d sacrifice her to take Morland out, but Samhail, it seemed, wasn’t willing to do the same.
There was a short pause before Bressen spoke. “Let her go, Morland. There’s no way out of this for you.”
Talyn couldn’t see Bressen from the way her head was angled, but she imagined a look must’ve passed between Bressen and Samhail.
Whatever response Morland might’ve made was drowned out by Bressen’s voice in her mind.
Can you fight his hold on you? the lord asked her. I can try to help. He doesn’t know I’m in your mind yet, but I’m not sure how long I can stay hidden before he feels me here and tries to kill you.
I…don’t…know, Talyn thought back. The pain wasn’t as bad as when Bressen himself had taken over her mind, but it was still enough that she was having trouble focusing.
Try, Bressen said, and there was resignation in his voice. We can’t let Morland go, so if you can’t get control of your mind back from him…
Bressen let the thought hang in the air, but Talyn understood. If she couldn’t save herself, he’d sacrifice her, regardless of Samhail’s plea.
She began to fight.
Morland’s hold was like a snake slowly constricting around her mind.
The first thing she did was try to slip mental fingers between herself and him so she could pull him away.
She felt Bressen’s mind ease the way for her by subtly loosening the coils, and she forced her way through.
The coils of Morland’s mind squeezed harder in answer, and Talyn’s mind blurred, but she had a hold now, and she pushed against his pressure.
I can give you five more seconds, Bressen warned. Five…
Talyn struggled to bring the world back into focus. She heard Samhail’s voice faintly, as if he were somewhere off in the distance, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying.
Four…
The coils of Morland’s mind slipped a bit as she felt Bressen’s power help her fight. She had the sense he was disguising his presence to make it seem as though only Talyn herself was fighting back.
Three…
Talyn yanked at the coils of Morland’s power, but for every bit of room she gained, he took a little back.
Two…
There was still a chance Bressen could break through Morland’s mind before Morland could kill her, but she wasn’t willing to take that chance. She needed to free herself, needed to throw off Morland’s control…Needed to kill him.
One.
Talyn broke free of Morland’s mind control only half a second before Bressen himself crashed through Morland’s own mind shield. She ported just as Morland tried to drive the dagger up into her jaw, and the blade met with empty air.
Her other dagger, however, did not.
Talyn appeared behind Morland and drove her dagger down as hard as she could into his spine at the base of his neck. She felt bone crunch, and Morland’s scream of pain was drowned in the gurgle of blood as it filled his throat.
She didn’t stop there, though. Talyn pulled the dagger from his spine – yanking it hard to dislodge it from bone – and stabbed it into Morland’s brain through his ear as she’d planned.
Adrenaline surged through her, and she pulled the blade free again only to slash it quickly across his neck for a third and final stroke, just to be sure.
Talyn felt the blood fleck her face with each attack, but – far from being warm – it was cold on her skin, like a chilly Autumn rain.
She pushed Morland’s corpse forward into the ground and fell backward away from it, breathing heavily.
Hard muscled arms wrapped around her shoulders and waist from behind, and she instinctively jerked her dagger toward whoever was trying to grab her. A large hand clamped down on her wrist, staying the dagger, and she was about to port when the now-familiar sent of leather and earth hit her nose.
“Are you hurt?” Samhail asked against her ear, and the whisper of his breath across her skin instantly quelled her panic.
When had his presence begun to soothe her?
“I’m…fine,” Talyn said, still trying to catch her breath.
She let herself relax against Samhail as she tried to slow her heart, which beat a rapid pace in her chest.
“Is he…?” Talyn asked as she looked at Morland’s body, its blood seeping into the earth.
“He’s very dead,” Bressen said, also looking at the body. “At least his body is.”
Bressen and Samhail looked at each other, and they both seemed to have the same thought. Samhail moved faster. He let go of Talyn and surged forward so suddenly that she fell backward, and then his large hand was wrapped around Bressen’s neck.
“What was the first thing I said to you when we met at the training camp?” Samhail asked Bressen, his voice a snarl.
The lord’s eyes bulged as his air was cut off, but then he choked out a laugh.
“You mean after our standoff the first time we sparred?” Bressen croaked out. “You told me I was almost too pretty to hit, then you punched me.”
Samhail let go of Bressen’s neck, but a second later he growled in pain and grabbed his head with both hands.
Talyn didn’t hear Bressen say anything, but the lord must’ve asked Samhail a question into his mind, because Bressen chuckled a second later and said, “I did do that, didn’t I.”
Then they both looked at Talyn.
“He’s not in me!” she hurried to assure them as she held up a hand to ward them both off. “And if you attack me,” she said to Samhail, “I’ll tell everyone exactly what happened that first night I goaded you into getting into that jail cell with me.”
Samhail paused, and Bressen looked at him.
“It’s her,” Samhail told the lord, who nodded and moved quickly to check on Cyra.
Samhail and Talyn looked to Aidan, who was just beginning to stir as Jasper cradled the man in his arms.
“Bressen, check them,” Samhail said quickly.
Aidan, Jasper, Maziren, and the twins all winced as Bressen seized their minds at the same time, but their faces eased as he released them a moment later.
“Welcome back, Aidan,” Bressen said. “It’s good to see you in control of yourself again.”
“It’s good to be in control again,” the lord said as he sat up, and Jasper buried his head in his husband’s shoulder. “That’s a living nightmare I hope to never again experience.”
Aidan looked at Talyn, and she tried to remind herself there was no longer a monster inside him.
“Thank you for not killing me,” he said to her. “I’m sorry for anything I did or said to you while under Morland’s control.”
Talyn swallowed, but she couldn’t bring herself to answer. She only nodded. It was definitely going to take some time to disassociate Morland from the real Lord Aidan.
Cyra finally stirred then, and Bressen clutched her to his chest.
“Thank the gods,” he said.
Cyra moaned softly, and Bressen gave Samhail a quick nod, presumably confirmation that Morland hadn’t taken over Cyra either.
“Is he really gone?” Jasper asked, lifting his head from Aidan.
“It looks that way,” Bressen said. He slipped one arm under Cyra’s legs and one around her back to pick her up. The lord and lady looked at each other, and Talyn assumed unspoken words passed between them.
Everyone turned to Talyn as one then, and she felt the weight of their stares as she considered what she must look like splattered in Morland’s blood. She looked down at the dripping dagger she still held in her hand and fought down a wave of nausea.
“Did it help?” Bressen asked her, his tone gentler than she’d come to expect from him.
She considered for a moment. Like Samhail, the man she’d thought she’d killed had resurfaced years later to haunt her.
The same man, in fact. She suspected Samhail would always have the lingering fear in the back of his mind that Morland could still return one day, and she was sure she’d always have it as well, but for now, a small weight had lifted.
“A bit,” she said.
Knowing Julia’s murderer was finally dead would help, but only a little. Julia was still dead, and unlike Morland, she wasn’t coming back.
Bressen nodded. “I’m taking Cyra up to rest,” he said to the group at large as he turned to carry her back into the building. The twins followed them, then so did Jasper, Aidan, and Maziren, leaving Talyn and Samhail alone in the training yard.
Talyn felt Samhail’s gaze burn into her, and she finally turned to look at him when they were alone.
He took a step toward her, but she took an answering step back and held up a hand. She knew he was feeling something similar to what she was, but she couldn’t worry about him right now.
“I need to be alone for a while,” she said. “I’m going to ask Lord Bressen if he can spare another room for me tonight.”
She couldn’t tell what emotion crossed his face in the split-second before he mastered himself, but he nodded.
“Follow me,” he said. “I can show you to your own room.”
He turned and strode toward the house. Talyn’s stomach twisted at the stiff set of his back, but she was as grateful he hadn’t tried to fight her on this as she was surprised by it.
She exhaled heavily as she followed him. It was time to start extricating him from her life. She’d grown too comfortable around him, too accustomed to letting him watch her back. She was too used to having him to talk to, to train with, to make her smile.
She was too consumed by his kisses and the feel of his body above her as he satiated a hunger she’d never felt until him.
…Too willing to surrender herself to his touch, to give in to his desires, to make those desires her own.
…Too dependent on his strong arms around her as he pulled her close at night and whispered how she was his when he thought she was asleep.
She had to leave. She’d stay in her own room and rest another day before she was on her way. If Bressen let her go, of course.
Yes, she’d stay away from Samhail tonight and maybe – just maybe – by tomorrow the idea of leaving him might not feel so much like she was ripping herself in two.