Chapter 64
We arrive to absolute chaos and no sign of Tiernan anywhere. “Where is Tiernan?” I ask Winnie. I hate for it to be my first words to her after everything, but I’m certain more Zenith members will be after us soon. We need to get Tiernan and get out of here before it’s too late.
Winnie mutters something, but she’s looking away while she says it.
I tilt my head to try and catch the movement of her lips, but she’s lost in her thoughts. “Please, look at me,” I say. She turns back to me, her brows furrowed. I point to my ears. “I can’t hear, but I can read lips.”
Surprise washes over her face through evident pain and exhaustion. “Apologies,” she says. “He’s been taken by the sovereign’s enforcer. I don’t know where to.”
“Where was he last?”
“The brig.” Her eyes dart down to my hand that’s trembling from the use of my powers.
Ava sheaths her sword and glares at Winnie and her friend.
Winnie glances around, her eyes homing in on a dead body in a uniform like hers.
She holds her hand out and something flies through the darkness and into her hand.
“I can take you to the brig,” she says to me.
She opens her palm, a vanishing ring resting atop it.
“But I need one of your friends to get my friend out of here.”
The blond begins to speak, but Winnie shushes her.
Ava squints at the duo. I don’t know what exactly happened here, but I’m sure reinforcements are coming. We need to move. “Alright,” I say. “Your friend can go with Ava and Chiyo.”
“No!” Ava says firmly.
“Ava, please. Take her friend to safety, get the others, and we’ll meet up with you.”
“I cannot just leave you.”
“I’ll stay,” Chiyo signs. “We’ll be fine.” She gives Ava’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
I remove the ring from my finger and hand it to Chiyo who slips it into Ava’s palm.
As she closes Ava’s fingers around it, so much emotion fills Ava’s eyes that I’m not sure if she’ll cry or rage.
Instead, she yanks Chiyo close, her lips practically crashing against Chiyo’s.
As quickly as she kisses her, she releases her.
“I hate this,” Ava says, her face contorting. Her jaw clenches as she shoves the ring onto her finger. “I hate every bit of this. You all better make it out of here alive, or I’ll find you in the Underworld just to kill you again.”
She grabs the blond’s arm and they disappear.
Winnie dries her face on her upper arm before offering me her hand. “Ready?” she asks.
Chiyo blinks, still stunned, but I grab her hand.
“Ready.” As soon as I clasp Winnie’s hand, we hurtle through the shadows and touch down inside a cold, damp place.
Guards rush at us, but Winnie stomps and they stumble over a newly made fissure in the ground.
One guard draws a sword, slashing wildly, and I summon a shield of darkness before I send out a whip of shadows.
I grab on to whatever memories I can find.
A cut of a blade, a death in the family, and I force all the feelings upon them, pulling them down until they’re overcome with grief and pain.
Until they’re lying on the ground, writhing, useless, then unconscious.
Pain arcs through my head. I squint through my spotting vision as Winnie steps forward. Her fists close around the bars of the cell, muscular arms quivering as she slowly pulls the bars apart.
Within the cell, a figure cloaked in red holds Tiernan firmly against their front. There isn’t a weapon of any kind visible, but one arm is wrapped around his neck. The other is somewhere behind him. Winnie looks at me and says, “She has a dagger against his back.”
My heart is ready to split in two as I look at Tiernan’s ghostly face.
Beneath copious amounts of blood and dirt are deep gashes.
One of his eyes is swollen shut, and his teeth glisten red as he grits them against the pain.
His shirt is in tatters, the grey fabric darkening from the blood seeping around his midsection.
Tears streak down Chiyo’s face as she levels an arrow in her brother’s direction.
The figure behind him has a crimson cape drawn over her body, but her legs and feet are bare.
Frizzy blond hair spills over her shoulders and across a face marred with angry red welts and puckered skin.
The damage is concentrated to both her cheeks and her disfigured nose, but burn scars continue over her chin and down her neck.
“Take one more step and he becomes one with my pretty new dagger,” she says. Her bright green eyes are wild and frantic, her pupils tiny—animalistic.
My breath catches as recognition sinks into me. “Eefa?”
She tilts her head then smiles crookedly, her warped skin pulling taut as her pupils expand again. “Well, hello, Miss Durvla. You have missed quite a lot since you left Paramount. Let’s see, where do I start?”
Anger bubbles in my veins. “You can start by releasing Tiernan.”
If Eefa had eyebrows, they would’ve risen. Surprise blooms on her face. “Oooh, how bold you’ve gotten.” Her eyes flick to Chiyo. “Tell your friend to lower her weapon.”
“You first.”
She pulls Tiernan tighter, and his heavy-lidded eyes settle on me. He isn’t fighting her and his breathing is too rapid. I’m certain he can feel the dagger against his back.
She has the upper hand; if I strike, she can still stab him. Unleashing my shadows would be too obvious and give her a chance to make a move. My pulse thunders, my breath growing short. “Lower your arrow,” I say to Chiyo, feeling my voice crack.
I wish Winnie knew sign language. I wish I was the Mimic right now. But there’s no magic to fall back on, and my wits seem scattered. Maybe Ava was right. I have no mind for combat. How am I going to get us all out of this in one piece?
“Do you have the stone, gorgeous?” Eefa asks, looking at Winnie.
Winnie’s lips remain sealed, but her eyes dart to me. I nod very subtly to her, and she reaches into her pocket.
Eefa repositions the dagger, pulling it out from behind Tiernan’s back and pressing it against his side. The blade is black as obsidian, a vein of glowing purple running through it. It’s a very loud threat although Eefa doesn’t say a word. Chiyo’s hand flies to her mouth.
I have to think fast. “Eefa,” I say, gently. “Tiernan has done nothing to you. If you can just … release him, we’ll be out of your hair.”
A scornful grin crawls across her lips before she says, “So, so very clever. But no.”
Tiernan’s eyes are glassy and unfocused as he tries to settle his gaze on me.
He’s trembling so much that I fear he’ll inadvertently get himself stabbed regardless.
The familiar nudge of his powers against me is such a warm welcome—I drop my shields.
His voice in my mind is so faint, so distant.
“She’ll kill me rather than lose. Get everyone out of here and don’t look back. ”
I keep my face as stoic as I can though my chest lurches painfully. “I can’t—”
“Listen to me, love …” His voice is fading, the sound wavering in and out. Cold sweat coats my skin, my breath growing shorter. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you … I’m … just … stay alive for me …”
I step forward and icy cold races from my scalp down to the soles of my feet.
Just outside the cell, a blast of fire fills the space.
Winnie jumps, grabbing Chiyo’s hand and starting to run toward me.
A tall man in a Zenith uniform materializes before my eyes, towering over me, blocking my path to Winnie and Chiyo.
My stomach tumbles out of my body, my heart threatening to do the same. Frozen in place, I gawk up at the man’s eyes. They’re the deepest blue I’ve ever seen, but inky black swirls around in them before receding. Gasping, I step back, but his hand whips out, only to rest heavily on my shoulder.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asks, tilting his head.
I don’t move a muscle, but my gaze flicks sidelong to where Tiernan and Eefa stood.
They’re gone. My pulse hammers in my throat and temples as Chiyo and Winnie are dragged out from behind the strange man into my field of vision.
“I’ve been looking for you,” says the man as Winnie and Chiyo thrash in their captor’s grip. Chiyo’s jaw is set stubbornly though tears brim in her eyes. Winnie’s gaze is almost pensive, her lips pressed tightly together.
“Please let them go,” I say.
“Let them go?” He laughs. “Pendry here is one of my own.”
Winnie bites her lip, her brows furrowed, and fists clenched.
“She will be tried … fairly, of course. And this other spitfire would make the perfect candidate for transference.”
I frown at him, desperately trying to think of a way to get us out of this. “Transference?” I ask, hoping to buy time.
To my dismay, he doesn’t take the bait. My gaze flicks back and forth between my friends and this monster.
There has to be something I can do. They gave into this plan all because of me.
I can’t let Winnie go under trial or Chiyo go through whatever transference means.
I’ve seen Winnie’s strength. Chiyo is intuitive and quick-thinking.
I just need to give them the perfect opportunity—the perfect distraction—to get away. After that … gods, I don’t even know.
“Come with me,” says the man, extending his open palm to me. “We have much to discuss.”
I step back and stare at Chiyo as I sign, “Do not wait for me.” Then I inhale deeply and sweep my arms outward, releasing as much of my shadows as I can.
The cell plunges into darkness. I hold my shadows for as long as possible, dark mist swirling through the room.
The ground shakes once, twice, then something latches onto my upper arms, yanking me forward.
My shadows fall away, and inky eyes fill my vision as the room brightens again.
A mixture of relief and dread fills me; Chiyo and Winnie are gone.
As I try to tug away from the man, a strange force presses in on my head, morphing from pressure into agony.
My mind tumbles through darkness, my body weightless—almost nonexistent.
A disembodied voice echoes eerily in my head within the swirling chaos. Agony rushes in, sharper than an attack of my ailment. I clench my jaw, blinking, trying to find where I am in the room. But there’s nothing to see. Emptiness.
Void.
Darkness calls to Chaos, the dissonant voice booms. The sound is warped, Otherworldly. Searing pain rakes down my back, an icy sensation following. Balance requires sacrifice. You will run to me sooner than later, Daughter of Dusk.
The strange man’s face surfaces in my mind, wavering as though I’m looking at it in the reflection of a dark loch.
The old gods cannot help you, mortal. The old gods are dead. My vessel is not yet ready, but when he is, my reign will begin. You and the Daughter of Embers will join me. Mark my words.
I shudder.
Tread carefully, Nightmare Maker …
The presence subsides, leaving behind the whisper of a name: Caiolair.
With all the power I have left, I fight to regain my own mind. My lungs burn, as does my throat, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t catch my breath. The memory of the disembodied voice continues to rake over my skin like ghostly hands.
Except it’s the man’s hand that’s closed around my throat, squeezing.
His eyes fly wide, the darkness receding from them again.
He staggers back, disoriented. Pain bursts through my wrists and knees as I drop to the stony floor and cough until tears spring to my eyes. I wheeze, greedily gulping down air.
I need to think. But my thoughts feel sluggish, my body exhausted.
I’m being hauled to my feet, passed from the man to one of the Zenith soldiers.
What are they going to do with me? Will I be tortured the way Carys was?
Can I somehow get to Tiernan? I lower my shields, desperately searching for any sign of him, desperate to feel even a whisper of his presence. But I’m met with silence.
Silence and nothingness.
A sob catches in my throat as the man says, “Get a dampener on her and throw her in a cell until she’s ready to talk.”
Panic flows through my body, calling my powers to my fingers. Black mist bursts from me, scattering across the room. One of the men tightens his grip on me, impossible heat sinking into my arm, blistering, burning. I shriek and retreat into myself.
Memories come unbidden to me: Tiernan telling me to go on without him, Osheen betraying me, being branded, taken from my home, my most recent wound, the years of headaches and vertigo.
I breathe in and unleash every negative feeling, all the pain and anger and grief.
The man’s grip on me falters, then falls.
Through bleary eyes, I watch as the soldiers contort and bow over in pain.
Darkness floods in, and I plead with all the gods to get me out of this. I imagine myself in safety, far away from these soldiers. Away from Paramount, from the disembodied voice. I imagine away all the hurt and betrayal. My body is pulled and twisted, nausea rolling through me.
It seems to go on and on, until I’m certain that I’ll lose consciousness. Until I think I’ll never regain any semblance of life again.
Then everything goes still, dull pain slamming into my hip.
When I open my eyes, I’m on the floor. Bright stars dapple my vision, the world around me a blur of oblivion.
My muscles tremble, feeling like water, my stomach churns, and my skull threatens to split open.
Dark tendrils of vapor cover my hands, reluctant to withdraw.
Shadows creep into the edges of my vision, pressing in on me.
I blink again and again, trying to see anything. I don’t know where I am. I cannot tell if I’m alive or dead. I don’t know if Tiernan is alive or dead. Or even Ava, Chiyo, Winnie, her friend. I’ve failed. We’ve all failed.
Ice shudders through my body as I keep trying to think warm thoughts. As I fight to retract the shadows. But they persist.
Is this how it ends? Is this how the dark magic is going to overtake me?
Something warm and comforting rests on my shoulder, but I cannot seem to open my eyes. A familiar sensation coaxes into me, over me, and my shadows withdraw. It’s swift and abrupt, leaving my body drained. Consciousness is already slipping out from under me. As much as I try to hold on, I can’t.
A different kind of darkness swallows me whole before I can grasp anything.