UNVEILING THE TRUTH
28
- MALAKAI -
T he floor beneath us shakes. Carrying Alanis back through the corridor in my arms, Kailu and her brother follow close behind with weapons drawn. Just as we reach the vestibule, the sound of footsteps echo through the stone hallway. We need to get down that hall to the portal, but I carry Alanis down the far left hallway instead, Kailu and Elion protecting my back. Footsteps sound from this way, too.
We are boxed in.
I quickly duck through a doorway on the right of the hall, unsure of what lies inside or where it leads, but it’s the only way to avoid confrontation. We all stand quietly, not even willing to breathe while the footsteps thunder past. When silence greets us, I realize the room we’re in seems to be a bedroom—at least until I see what lays in the bed. I swallow down the gasp. Alanis starts to shift in my arms, her ice blue eyes slowly opening and locking onto me.
“Mal,” she whispers, her voice hoarse.
I give her a smile and press a hard kiss to her head. “I got you, firecracker.”
“Where are we? Where’s Elion?”
“I’m here, sis,” he says, gently brushing a hand over her hair. “And I’m not quite sure where we are exactly. Nowhere good, I can tell you that much.”
Her brows pinch in confusion and she wiggles, as if to free herself, so I help her carefully down to her feet, her legs trembling. “Kai,” she whispers as she launches into Kailu’s arms.
Kailu’s eyes soften as he grasps her tightly to his chest. Anyone else and I would be jealous, but not with him. That has to mean something.
Alanis turns to examine the room with a sharp eye. I know the exact moment she sees what we all see. Her face pales.
“Is that…?”
Kailu answers her unasked question. “Paliri.”
Once the Queen of the Primal Realm, now bones and rot. Her body lays in repose at an advanced stage of decay.
“He kidnapped the queen and held her hostage?” Alanis breathes. “How did no one know this?”
Kailu shrugs. “There was so much upheaval when the Gods left and Iclas began his sacrifices. Paliri stayed out of the public eye after her father went missing, and she and her husband rarely left the castle. No one knew why. She ruled for a short while, but then resigned and passed her reign to her brother, Malakai’s father. No one saw her after that. After a hundred years, word of her and her husband’s death circulated. An accident up in the Rorane Mountains.”
Alanis’s eyes widen. “Oh my Gods. Iclas said he was in the Rorane Mountains.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
Alanis takes a deep breath and tells us what was in the journal entry she found. All about Iclas and Paliri’s mating bond and how she turned her back on it because of her father’s wishes.
“That would explain why the Lost King was in the well,” Kailu mutters. “Iclas used him as the sacrifice to keep the portal open.”
Alanis nods. “When Iclas was going on in his ceaseless monologue, he mentioned he went to the Rorane Mountains, and that’s where he found Odessa. He felt a tugging sensation.” She looks at Elion and his paling face says more than words could.
Alanis is well-versed in those fateful tugs.
“How long would you say she’s been dead by the decomposition of her body?” Elion asks, scrunching his nose at the putrid stench of rot.
Kailu approaches on cautious feet to examine the body, as if expecting it to suddenly leap up and attack him.
“With how cold it is in this subterranean room,” he begins, “the body seems better preserved than if it would have been at a warmer temperature. She isn’t all bones yet. I mean, she’s mostly bones, but her hair is still there, and some flesh. I would say she has been dead for about a year.”
Elion sucks in a breath. “She died at the same time we came to the realm?”
If I thought Alanis was pale before, it’s nothing compared to now.
“He kept her hostage for twenty-three years,” she says, “and then killed her when he realized the key to the prophecy was back in the realm. He killed her because of me.”
I grab her shoulders and turn her to me. “It is not your fault. She probably welcomed death when it came. Iclas is deranged, so there’s no telling what she went through while captive here.”
Her exhale trembles. “You’re right. It’s just a lot to take in.”
I nod in understanding and softly kiss her lips.
Alanis approaches the door, pressing her ear against it. “I think it’s all clear. Maybe we should see wherever this leads. We might find others who have gone missing.”
“I think we should head back to the portal,” I say. “Get back to Percius, gain more information, and get help. Your brother needs a healer. You should see a healer.”
“Of course. I’m sorry, Elion. I wasn’t thinking.”
I join her at the door and listen for any sounds, my Fae hearing picking up a noise a level above us, but none on this level that I can tell. Slowly I open the door, flinching at the eerie silence that greets us in the corridor. I grab Alanis’s hand and begin to slowly work our way back to the center. There are no signs of anyone being here.
It’s almost too easy. My senses stay on high alert, unsure of what exactly it is, but something feels off.
As a group we walk through the back hall and I see the opening that the soldier told us about. The width looks just big enough for a grown male to squeeze through. The stones cracked and loose in some places, as if this hole was forcibly put here and not part of the original design. I peer out and the churning ocean greets me. Rough waves crash against the jagged rocks below, splashing me with mist.
We could easily climb down to the rocks, but the current would push us right back into them. Leaning out of the opening, I peer upwards.
“Oh fuck.”
“What? Malakai, what’s wrong?” Alanis’s worried question lets me know that I did in fact voice my thoughts unintentionally.
I look at the group. “I know where we are.”
They all stare at me, waiting expectantly. Alanis, impatient as hell, snaps, “Malakai, I could really do without the drawn-out theatrics.”
Unable to help myself, I smirk at the fire inside her. That fire is what first drew me to her. The pushback she gave Kailu, the fight she puts up with everyone.
“Oh firecracker, careful there with that sass.”
She puts her hand on her hip. “Or what, my dear prince?”
I grab her by the back of the neck, yanking her to me. “Or I might just have to take you over my knee to teach you some manners,” I whisper in her ear before giving it a nip. Goosebumps break out across her skin, making my smile turn devious.
Kailu groans, clearly enjoying our little tiff, and Alanis practically melts in my arms.
Oh yeah, once we get out of this mess we are going to have some fun.
I lock eyes with Elion, who looks wholly uncomfortable.
“We’re on the Isle of Rimoldi,” I say.
“Shit,” Kailu says, taking my place to peer out the gap.
Elion looks confused. “All right?”
Alanis speaks first. “We will fill you in about the history of this cursed place later, Elion. I don’t get what the big deal is, though. We already discussed we had to come here. We should try to find the throne!”
Kailu mumbles, “Doesn’t mean I wanted to come here.”
Alanis pokes him in the stomach. “Don’t be a baby.”
Elion has a perplexed expression plastered on his face. “What curse?”
I shrug in a nonchalant way. “First off, we can’t risk being captured to find the throne. We need backup for that. The curse is a different story. The only ones who know the truth are dead now, save for Iclas himself. Basically, everyone who was cursed was trapped here and eventually died shortly after the curse was laid upon them. From the history texts, the Gods unleashed the Nuckelavee onto the land as part of the curse.”
Alanis squeezes my hand. “The what?”
“The best way I can describe the Nuckelavee is…evil incarnate. A demon that spreads disease. Its breath alone passes infection to animals and plants, which cut off their food source. It dwells in the sea, so the Isle of Rimoldi was always cautious about this demon, but he never bothered them—not until the Gods themselves dragged him from the abyss for their reckoning.”
“Would he come back here?” Elion asks in a quiet voice, as if scared the Nuckelavee himself might hear. “If things get bad again, would the Gods send him back?”
“I’m not sure. You will know immediately who he is if you ever see him, though. He’s a type of water horse, the rider a part of him, as if sewn on. Both are skeletal in nature, with sharp teeth and hollowed out eyes. The rider carries a long, jagged sword. Shipping merchants call him ‘the devil of the sea.’”
Alanis shudders. “Well, let’s hope we never have a run-in with that creature. But to conclude, the island has remained abandoned, or at least presumed abandoned. Obviously Iclas and his growing army have been living here.”
“Makes sense, but what doesn’t is how he survived the Nuckelavee when no one else did,” Elion murmurs. He reminds me so much of Alanis. They may not be blood relatives, but their bond is one that can’t be broken.
“Iclas ran with whoever remained in his family before the Gods ever got there. No one knows where he went, but everyone thought him dead, even the Gods. From what I hear, his family is all dead. Now that I know more, I would say he used his own family as sacrifices.
“He waited and when it was safe, he summoned the Hell Gods. There is a record of him being seen with them. Best guess, he sold his soul in exchange to live. The Hell Gods love to wreak havoc. They also tie their bargains into tattoos. That would explain his heavily tattooed face. I would guess his entire body has markings from his deals with them. It also makes sense that he’s the reason no one has returned from this Isle.”
“What kind of deals do you think he made? Besides surviving the curse,” Alanis asks.
It’s Kailu who answers. “He survived the curse, but the Hell Gods couldn’t remove it fully. You said he was still trapped here, unable to leave for long periods of time. I would think he made sacrifices and deals for power, strengthening what he already possessed as Fae. It helped him control creatures and humans alike to make his army, things like that. Unless the Nuckelavee’s infections wore off the land, there would be no food here, so he leaves for food and things.” He pauses. “Or I suppose the Hell Gods could have made him into something immortal.”
“Immortal?” Alanis says in a shaky voice.
“We saw him briefly in the vestibule. He was gaunt and pale, his canines a tad sharper than a normal Fae’s.”
“What is he?” she asks, fear dripping from her words.
“I think when he sold his soul to Hell,” I say, slowly, “he also managed to convince them to make him into one of the undead. I think that’s why he is able to control the ghouls—he’s one of them, but more powerful. I’d bet anything one of his tattoos depicts the bargain. I’d say he’s closer to a ghoul now than a Fae.”
“How do we beat someone who is already dead?” Alanis asks. “How do we fight the ghouls and him, especially if he is as powerful as you think?”
“You can kill a ghoul by decapitation, so maybe killing Iclas would work the same way.”
Alanis’s thoughts play across her face, her thoughts ringing loud in my head, jarring me. She is terrified that, no matter what we do, someone she loves is going to die. I hear my name and Kailu’s infiltrate her thoughts. I feel her pain and pull her into me, hugging her as tightly as I can without hurting her. I’ve never heard her thoughts before. I thought maybe I would once we solidified the bond. Could her intense fear push her thoughts to me anyway?
“We will make it through this. You and I have so much left to do.” I hold her face gently in my hands, gazing into her eyes. “We will go to the ends of this world to keep you safe. I know you don’t need us to, but we have your back no matter what. And then, firecracker, we are going to travel the world. We’re going to take you to every city and explore every spot of your body.” I kiss her, slipping my tongue into her mouth, losing myself to the taste of her. I run my hand up her neck, holding her throat with slight pressure. I pull back, her eyes darkening with lust. “I’m going to make you scream my name so everyone knows who you belong to.”
Elion clears his throat, breaking the sexual tension. I shoot daggers at him with my eyes, though he doesn’t see them, considering his gaze is on the ceiling.
“Maybe we can pick this back up when we are in a safer location,” Alanis says, laughter evident in her tone.
We turn towards the sewage-filled pit a few steps away from where we stand and grimace.
“Ugh, this is going to suck.”
The disgusted look on Alanis’s face makes me chuckle. “What’s wrong, firecracker? I thought you liked getting a little dirty.”
I wink at her and she punches me, only making me laugh harder. Kailu chuckles under his breath and she throws him a death glare. Elion continues to look uncomfortable as hell.
“On the count of three,” I say, looking at the group. “One.”
I grab Alanis’s hand.
“Two,” she says, looking into my eyes.
“Three,” Kailu whispers.
“Yippee,” Elion sighs.
We all take the plunge into the sewage pit and land in the well, piled atop each other. The crash of steel hitting steel, shouts of pain and fury, and the heavy pounding of hooves beating into the ground above draw our attention.
We quietly scale the wall only to be greeted with war.