Chapter 20 #2
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.
Even if you were, you still don’t deserve to rule.
Donovan does, because he lives to serve his people.
And you… You only serve yourself. You’re selfish, dishonest, cowardly, and manipulative.
And you’re not even good at being manipulative!
You keep trying to trick me, because you’re too stupid to realize I won’t fall for it.
You even wanted to provoke me into trying to break out of here so the mundane cops will have an excuse to lock me away for good.
Then, you won’t have to kill me. I’ll be out of your way.
Let me guess,” I said, arching my eyebrow.
“Your little wolf minion Striker is having trouble getting charges to stick, am I right?”
His face twisted.
I could feel my strength fading quickly; my muscles were already trembling with exertion.
Something dark whispered in my head. Kill him. Do it now. This is your chance—your chance to stop him for good.
My fingers flexed, tightening around his neck. I should do it. With Connor gone, all our problems would disappear with him.
Connor’s eyes bulged.
Phantoms screamed in my head, and darkness rushed in as a nightmare swallowed me. Bricks flying through the air. Blood on my bed sheets.
Susan, what the fuck are you doing? My sensible-brain reared up out of the darkness, frightened into action. You’re not a mindless killer. If you murder Connor now, you’ll be stuck in a police cell with the dead body. They’ll lock you away and throw away the key.
My fingers relaxed a fraction. I knew who I was. Sensible, thoughtful, rational.
Mostly rational, anyway. “I’m going to get out of here, Connor, and I’m going to get out of here soon. I belong to Donovan, and there’s no magic knife in the world that will break our bond. You already know?—”
Lights exploded in my brain. Something smashed into me, and electricity raked my body. I fell to the ground like a ragdoll, my feet juddering against the floor.
Pain. Pain.
It was too much. Too intense. I couldn’t think.
It felt like hours later that the agony receded. My body twitched. I blinked frantically, trying to clear the red from my vision and hear something, anything, beyond the ragged panting of my breath.
My eyes focused slowly. Detective Striker stood over me, a gun in one hand, the barrel aimed at my head.
In the other hand he held a taser. The prongs were still attached to the back of my jumpsuit; I could feel them digging into me. “Your Highness.” Striker’s flinty-sharp eyes flicked behind me. “Shall I finish her?”
I wished he would. My whole body thrummed with pain; it was bewildering.
“Not just yet, Striker.” Connor exhaled heavily and walked into my line of sight, massaging his neck and inhaling deeply through his nose.
“Her life still holds some value for me. Especially now that my brother is out of the way.” He paused for a second.
“I could still use her. I still have faith she will submit to me in the end.”
Striker squinted up at him. “You... You would share the throne with her?”
“Of course not,” Connor snapped back. “She is not destined for any throne. She is merely a tool, a key to be used. The One of Every Blood will grant me easy access to every realm in all the Worlds, so that I may conquer them. That is what the prophecy describes, Striker. She will be my servant.” He leaned over me, glaring.
I could see bruises on his throat in exactly the shape of my fingers.
Focus, Susan…
I panted, trying to find the spark of magic in my belly, but I could barely feel anything but pain and exhaustion. I couldn’t move. The edges of my vision swam.
Connor smoothed his hair back fussily, regaining control of himself.
He took a deep breath through his nose, and lowered himself into a crouch, squatting near my head.
“You know… it’s a shame,” he said idly. “The second I decide to actually kill my brother, he disappears somewhere I can’t catch him.
” His eyes roamed over my face, dipping to my body, still twitching and juddering with agony.
“I know what he’s trying to do, and it won’t work. ”
I knew what Donovan was trying to do, too. I’d watched him while I was asleep, while my unconscious mind was drifting through dreamland, wandering through the non-physical realm.
Donovan was in the Under. He’d gone there in his physical body, just like Connor had, and for almost exactly the same reason. Donovan was trying to find the place where my worst fears lived.
He was trying to break the curse.
Typical. Donovan, desperate to help and frantic to free me, had jumped head-first into the realm of dreams and nightmares.
He thought that if he could find all the dark thoughts and feelings I’d ever experienced, he could cut the curse-tie that held them to my physical body.
He thought he could stop them from haunting me here on the physical plane.
He was trying to save me.
“That’s interesting.” Connor curled his lip.
“I see you know where he is, too. Well, I suppose it is lucky that I didn’t try to sever your bond today; it’s too well-developed for what I had in mind.
The backlash might have killed me,” he said flippantly.
Then, his expression hardened. “He is a fool to go there. You should know that my brother is looking for your nightmares, but his own will find him and swallow him soon. You cannot escape them in the Under.” A flicker of unease crossed his expression; I caught it, just before his face hardened again.
What did that mean? What was Connor scared of? I couldn’t think straight enough to process it. I tried to form words, only managing a weak sob.
“Donovan was always brave, but he doesn’t use his brain,” Connor sighed.
“I was in the human Under for mere minutes looking for your nightmares, and it was nearly too long. The fae Under started to pull at me; I barely escaped with my faculties intact. If I had not consumed the sand stone, I would have lost myself quickly. The longer Donovan stays there, the more our own Underworld will pull at him. Soon, his own demons will come for him.” He smiled.
“And he will not be able to fight them while he is bound to his body.” He jerked his head towards Striker. “Bind her.”
“No.” I shook my head desperately as Striker roughly shoved me onto my stomach and wrenched my arms behind my body again. The darkness pressed down on me. Phantom voices screamed in my head.
“You will never see your lover again.” Connor’s voice drowned out the screams for a moment. “He’s lost in the Under. He’s gone for good. You will rot in a cell until your feeble brain realizes this, and then you will bond to me.”
The nightmare swallowed me.