Chapter 48 - Dark Flame
If I could have just stayed on Riyan’s chest at the peak of Nordingaard mountain for the rest of my eternity, I would have been happy.
But my happiness was not part of the bargain I made.
Out of the corner of my eye, the swirling water in the Man of the Mountain’s grave flared with white light. It was calling me.
I slowly pushed off Riyan and walked through the snow. I crossed my arms over my bare breasts as the chill raised the hairs on my skin. My toes stopped on the smooth stones at the edge of the well as the water gurgled, pushing something to the surface.
Bronze flashed through the rainbow light in the water and I could not help but laugh—the Hyton dagger had returned. I dipped my hand into the warm water and pulled it out by the hilt.
A dark lump followed it. I furrowed my brows as I pulled mounds of sopping fabric out of the well.
Riyan had followed me to the edge of the well and eyed the heavy fabric in my hands. “What is that?”
I commanded each tear dampening the fabric to dissipate into the air. The folds of grey, green, and brown dappled cloth were instantly dry. I picked through the cloth and held out a simple linen chemise and leather slippers that likely came from my wardrobe at Bloodstone Fortress.
I frowned at the familiar cloaks in my hands as I tossed them into the snow. Daigen could not earn back my trust with favors.
As I slipped on the chemise and the shoes, Riyan picked the green and brown cloak off the pile and let the thick fabric tumble down. “The Man of the Mountain is giving us presents?”
“No.” My voice was pinched, but Riyan’s hands throwing the cloak around my bare shoulders made me unclench.
“Ravenwood green.” Riyan said with a smile as he tapped me on the nose. “Now you look just like—”
He stopped himself, but I knew he meant I looked like my brothers.
I needed to tell him they were alive, but he would see them soon if Daigen kept his word…which I now doubted.
I bit down a scowl. Daigen wanted us dressed before he met with us on the other side of the pass, but what could he possibly say after he had betrayed me? Whatever it was, I did not want Riyan to hear.
I handed Riyan the grey and green cloak. “Do you trust me?”
“Does a bear shit in the woods?”
Not the time for jokes. I shot him a look and his smirk softened into a loving smile. “Of course I do.”
I turned my head toward the low-rolling fog in the rocks that led further down the mountain. “Daigen is here. Give me ten minutes to speak with him. Alone. I will call for you when we are done.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Call for me?”
“Through our bond.” I could not help but smile. “You will know when it happens.”
Riyan shook out his cloak as I turned away. I passed by the destroyed rune, taking in the image on the bottom half and mentally stitching it together with the broken top half—a woman with an outstretched arm and blank eyes.
And only because I had seen her did I understand who the rune depicted. Even though the chill of the wind stung my cheeks, my chest was warm as I stared at the destroyed rune—reminding me of what my bargain was for.
The totem we had shattered with our love was Death.
I held that warmth around my heart like an unbreakable promise as I stepped into the fog.
The rolling fog was warmer. The snow beneath my feet was softer. The darkness was less suffocating.
Only when the fog parted and I met violet eyes and white hair did ice stab me between my ribs. Daigen clasped his hands, his grey and white dappled cloak fluttering around his shoulders.
For a moment we merely exchanged looks as heavy as the towering boulders around us.
I would not break, so he spoke first. “If you want an apology, you won’t get one.”
The image of his purple face as Alastar the Conqueror strangled him flashed in my mind. He would have rather died than condemn Fraleigh, but he was more than willing to condemn me.
Blazing heat poured into my hands as they curled into fists at my side. The tears in the air and the snow quivered in fear as they waited for my orders.
My voice came out in a heavy whisper. “I trusted you.”
“And you still need to. This is not over.”
I held my breath as my heart punched my ribs. “I am through listening to you, you monster.”
Daigen smirked and all the delicious ways to torture him ran through my mind. Rope of fire around the throat. Ice shards in his stomach. A scream of frost and flame that would linger in his ears until the end of time.
“A monster, am I?” he said. “Do you really think your Riyan would be any different?”
I let out my breath and the tears in the air stopped shimmering. How dare he think Riyan was ever capable of such a horrible betrayal?
Daigen walked through the snow, punctuating his words with every step. “I begged. Sold my skills. Built a fucking palace. None of it was enough to free her.”
He stood in front of me, his eyes swimming with nearly five centuries of rage. “And then I switched tactics.”
Metal gleamed in the moonlight. He held his ancient knife in front of his heart. The tears in the air whispered its name against my ears. Reginbani. Reginbani.
And only because I had heard that ancient barbarian tongue in Fraleigh’s memories did my heart know the knife’s true meaning.
Reginbani —Duke slayer.
The blade flashed in Daigen’s hands and his gaze fell to the snow. “I started with the Conqueror’s sons. No Hyton sons, no bargain—but eight dead heirs did not persuade the Conqueror to release the collar.”
I stared down at the blade, picturing drops of blood rolling off its edge.
“Then when the fucker turned ninety, I thought drawing a quick line across his neck would have been the last of the Hytons…and that horrible deal would be over.” He scowled. “Imagine my surprise when a son, young and spry, appeared out of nowhere and claimed both the crown and my wife.”
The biting wind circled around him as he looked down at his blade. “Before I could strike, he stole our blood bond.” The wind twisted faster as his voice dropped. “It was ours, and the Alastar you call ‘the Good’ turned into a weapon against us. If I killed him, I took an innocent woman with him. I was stuck…”
His harsh voice broke through his teeth. “But I was still an ever-present threat. I haunted their days in their halls and then their nights in their dreams. The fifth Alastar bribed us with that damned golden palace to end the terror. I only stayed my hand because they tortured her less if she was away.”
His voice broke and I held my breath. Torture. An iron box underground. Chainmail blindfold. A perfectly-fitted iron gag.
All of it would soon be mine.
The blue-tipped flame wrapped around my heart, encasing my chest in a shield of ice. My panic pacified, but still my vision fogged with cold tears.
Daigen’s voice dropped but shook with rage. “This was the only way out. Hate me all you want, but you have to trust me. I can still kill that damn Alastar.”
“Sera?” Riyan called. “Are you all right?”
I sucked up my tears and turned. Riyan had emerged from the fog, the gifted cloak wrapped around his hips. He must have sensed my panic through our bond.
Daigen’s face smoothed into a smile. “Just taking you back to the fortress, big fellow. No need to break a boulder over my head or whatever it is your dear General taught you to do.”
Riyan’s brow hardened and his gaze turned deadly. I bit my tongue and turned to Daigen. He had hidden Reginbani away and held out his hand.
Even though I did not want to touch him, I could not change the terms of my bargain. I had to take his power too.
I leaned into the icy calmness of my blue flames and sent Riyan a message: “ Take Daigen’s hand and I will explain later. ”
Riyan’s eyes were still hard, but he stepped through the snow and grabbed Daigen’s wrist.
Magic dragged against my skin, but instead of the normal white light, dark purple flooded my vision. Screams of men and animals filled my ears. Violet flames twisted around my veins and slithered into my chest. The dark flame wrapped around the diamond in my heart and danced with its blue and white counterparts.
Daigen had just given me all his power.
My feet found grass. The air around me was warmer.
I let out a cool, easy breath and my vision returned. We were outside the Bloodstone Fortress gates, right where we had left. Daigen’s hand released mine and I turned.
If I had not known the dark violet eyes and white hair so well, I would have thought a stranger stood in front of me. The lavender glow from his skin was gone. The sharpened edges of his face had rounded.
Nothing but a mere nineteen-year-old alchemist’s apprentice stood before me.
Riyan jumped back as soon as he noticed Daigen’s smoother, more pallid appearance. “The fuck was that?” He looked around. “How did we get here?”
“And to think I will never get that reaction again.” Daigen may have looked younger, but his voice had the same seasoned edge.
“ Se-ra! ”
I turned my head and violet light from the dark flame coursed through my veins. A small black ripple burst through the trees, his outline barely visible against the night sky.
A smile tugged at my lips as I whispered, “Endre.”
Endre flew closer. “ Se-ra! ”
Riyan appeared at my side. “What did you just say?”
I spread my arms. I pictured messy hair, burn marks on fingertips, and whispered giggles across a nursery. The magic within the approaching bird lit up with sparkling light. The darkness disappeared. Death’s shroud lifted.
“Serafina, are you saying that raven is—?”
I closed my eyes. Come back to me, brother.
A chest crashed into mine, but arms wrapped around me before I could fall back. Laughter brighter than morning bells rang in my ears. Mint and fresh smoke filled my nose.
“Sera!” Not a croak, a voice.
He lifted me off my feet and spun me around. My laughter mixed with his. Only on the third rotation did he put me down.
I pushed off his chest and looked up. I met mossy eyes, black waves that hung to his shoulders, fewer freckles than I remembered, seven years of age added to his face, but…
Endre. It was Endre.
He gave me a big kiss on the cheek before breaking the hug. Riyan stood still, his face white.
“Riyan!” Endre called with a wide smile. “You shrank!”
Riyan’s eyes watered. “You were a raven this whole time?”
The drop in Riyan’s voice tugged on my heart, but Endre laughed. His dark green cape fluttered behind him as he ran up to Riyan and jabbed him in the neck with two fingers, pantomiming a bird’s beak. “I tried to tell you! Not my fault you were too thick to take the hint!”
Riyan’s smile banished his tears. He wrapped his strong arms around Endre and crushed him to his chest.
Endre laughed. “You could not bother to put on a shirt?”
Riyan chuckled back. “The cloak wouldn’t fit around my shoulders.”
“Show off.”
Chains clinked behind me. The fortress gate was rising for its Baron.
Endre broke away from Riyan and ran for me. “Rosaline and Evereon are behind me.” He grabbed my hand and we ran together toward the open gate. “Ev knows the way even in the dark, so I flew ahead as soon as I felt your magic at midnight.”
I held my chemise as I struggled to keep his pace through the courtyard. “Does that mean you know about my—?”
“Erik!” Endre shouted. “Get your feathered ass out here!”
We stopped at the bottom of the keep’s steps and soldiers flooded out of the keep to greet us. Then a woman taller than all the soldiers stepped into the moonlight. Brietta wore a crimson robe over her nightgown, her eyes shining as soon as she saw me.
My heart sank for only a moment—Annalisa had told her about my bargain.
But she did not know my eternal servitude was not with Ganora.
Brietta stood at the top of the steps and shouted back into the keep. Annalisa appeared, the hem of a lacy nightgown skating around her calves. A pink-beaked raven was perched on her shoulder.
Annalisa’s eyes brightened when she spotted us. She sprinted down the keep’s steps and Erik bobbed as she nudged her shoulder up. “Go, Bird Brain! Go!”
Erik quietly took to the air when Annalisa was in the middle of the steps. I extended a hand and lit up Erik from the inside.
I closed my eyes. The violet flames beneath my skin danced with the memories of a stern voice, charcoal-stained hands on top of drawing paper, and a soothing story during a storm.
I released the command with my breath.
“I do not approve of any of this,” said a deeper voice than I remembered.
I opened my eyes. Erik’s black eyes beneath his heavy brow stared down at me—eternally serious as always. I still smiled.
Endre shoved Erik’s shoulder. “You grump!” He splayed all ten fingers in front of Erik’s face. “We finally have hands! How can you be upset about this?”
Erik’s stern expression did not change. Annalisa ran to Erik and grabbed his arm. He nearly jumped out of his skin as she pulled him around to face her.
A shrieking cackle erupted from Annalisa’s lips and she pointed up at Erik’s face. His black eyes flashed with bewilderment, but my eyes followed Annalisa’s finger and I laughed too.
Erik’s large crooked nose was still bright pink.
Endre ran over to Annalisa and picked her up by the waist, even though they were the same height, and spun her while she giggled. “Seven years, and I can finally hold a beautiful girl again!”
Erik’s brow hardened. Annalisa laughed and pointed at him as her feet returned to the ground. “Oh, he is a mean Bird Brain. Sera, change him back!”
Riyan joined Endre and Annalisa. They exchanged bright introductions and re-introductions as Annalisa measured the top of her head to Riyan’s chin.
Brietta slowly descended the steps and joined us on the grass. Her brown eyes were still shining, but her smile had softened.
Erik turned to me. “Say nothing to Endre. This will go poorly if he believes the sorcerer tricked him when he said he was helping you.”
Erik knew about my fate? Daigen must have told him before we went up the mountain, but the Erik I had known would have never let me leave if he knew what the bargain was really going to be.
How wicked was Daigen’s mind that he could work around his inability to lie and trick all three of us?
Brietta pressed her hand over her heart. “What is he talking about, Serafina?”
A direct question I could not ignore. I let out a breath and looked only at Brietta. “The bargain for my eternal life was not with Ganora. When Derrick comes to the fortress, I have to go with him.” I held back tears but my voice still broke. “I am his.”
Brietta’s face fell. The flicker of flipping pages tickled the back of my mind as she searched for a way out, but she would not find one.
A life for a life given in love. Nothing could ever break that bargain.
Daigen’s voice cut through the night air. “If my calculations are correct—and if you’re smart, you’ll assume they are—, you have two sunrises left before the Alastar arrives at the fortress.”
Hushed murmurs blanketed the courtyard. Derrick would arrive to take me that soon?
My vision pulled like I was falling backward. My knees buckled. Only Riyan’s warm hand wrapping around mine kept me upright.
“Two sunrises left?” Riyan smiled. “Let’s make this next one count.”
Our new blood bond glowed around my heart as he took me in his arms and walked past the eyes of the crowd. His walk turned into a run as we crossed through the gate, then a sprint as he dodged the trees in the woods.
Even though I removed Ganora’s curse, I left the power she gave him. He was still the fastest man alive.
The stars were quieting. The night was hazy with the impending dawn. Despite the weight of my bargain tightening its hold around my neck, I still laughed into Riyan’s chest. He did not need to whisper into my mind for me to know where we were going.
He was taking me straight to the Bloodstone lilies.