Page 27

Damon

T he dull roar of tearing metal echoed in my ears. Just over it, I heard Kit saying my name.

I focused on the latter and grabbed onto her arms, onto the here and now.

Her hands tangled in the front of my shirt and she shook me.

“Damon, are you with me?”

A cold, clammy sweat slicked me from head to toe and my blood pounded in my ears.

But I wasn’t caught in that time loop again so I met her eyes. “I’m here.”

She swore and grabbed hold of my face, hauling me down to her level.

Her mouth crushed against mine and I breathed her in, welcoming the fury of the kiss, the taste of her, the frustration. When she bit my lower lip, I welcomed that, too, not bothered at all by the bite of blood that flavored the kiss.

She grounded me, reminding me where we were—who I was, who I’d become.

Nene was a thing of the past—I’d loved her. Perhaps I’d failed her. But I’d been a boy, facing people who’d been training and fighting for longer than I’d been alive.

They’d killed her to torture me.

I wouldn’t fail Kit.

Breathless, we broke apart and her green eyes bore into mine.

“That’s Nene,” she finally said, the words staccato.

“Yes.” I squeezed my eyes closed and had to force myself to meet her gaze. “They kidnapped her and when I went looking, they laid a trap. It was Reshi. Her and some troops… probably the guards you love so much.” I looked around the cell. “I spent weeks in here.”

“They held both of you trapped here.” Horror filled her eyes. Her hands tightened convulsively on my face.

Gently, I curled my fingers around her wrists, turning my head so I could press a kiss into her palms, one, then the other.

“How much have you remembered?”

The curtain of fog that had hovered in the back of my head seemed all but gone now, but I couldn’t be certain. Something else remained beyond it—not much. But something. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know.

“I don’t know.” Meeting her gaze, I said, “Aren’t we a fucking pair, baby girl? You have a bad dream and get your memories stripped away. The first part of my entire life was a bad dream and I had the same thing happen.”

“Well, the first part of my life wasn’t a picnic for me, either.” She offered a sad smile and tugged a hand free, reaching up to trace my lips with a roughened fingertip. “Although I’m starting to understand why Chang…did what he did.”

Considering everything I’d remembered so far, and whatever it was still waiting behind that veil, I wasn’t so sure I could blame him, either.

“When we come for Volund, we’ll take her away from here, too. Take her back to her homeland.” I wondered why Chang hadn’t already done that. He had to have found me here, right? Otherwise, how did I get away? That piece of information continued to elude me, but for now, it didn’t matter.

Kit curled her hand around my wrist and said, “We’ll take care of all of them. Nobody should be left down here in the cold. We’ll make sure everybody is laid to rest.”

Cutting around her, I went to gather Rana in my arms but a sudden change in the air caught my attention—the cloying scent of rot. Fuck . Not now.

“Kitasa.”

We both stiffened at the urgent, harsh voice that came from behind us, although Kit relaxed, her mouth pinching in an annoyed frown as she turned to look at the lemera.

The revenant wore her sepulchral appearance, skin rotting away and thinning hair blowing in the breeze…save for her eyes.

Her eyes looked almost normal. They burned, though.

They burned with a feverish intensity as she strode toward us.

Kit turned to face her and the lemera reached out.

“ Kitasa !” Rana tried to shove to her feet, cried out in pain as she jarred her injured side.

The air around Lemeraties rippled and in a blink, her appearance was normal.

“What…” Rana was still trying to get upright and her pain-fogged eyes met mine. “Get her away from here, cat. Now .”

“It’s fine,” I told her, moving to help ease Rana so her back was to the tunnel way. “Can you stay on your feet?”

“It’s not fine !” Panic flooded her gaze. “You don’t know what that thing is.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“No, you…” Her words trailed off as she looked back at Kit.

Kit and Lemeraties stood face to face, the specter’s hands on Kit’s shoulders.

“I’ve been looking for you. The other one…” Lemeraties scowled and shook her head. “The female warrior—the one not like us—she says something is happening. She senses a black, awful magic.”

“What do you mean?” I demanded.

She shot a look at me, frustration in her eyes.

“I do not know ,” Lemeraties said. “I do not know her magic, or her abilities. But something has her quiet and scared. And…”

Abruptly, she stopped. Her hands fell away from Kit’s shoulders and she shuddered, looking around with stark, haunted eyes.

“I know this place.” Her gaze landed on Rana and she froze. “I’ve seen you. She tried to take you. Over and over.”

“What is going on?” Rana whispered.

“ She called me back into the world here . She made me…” Her face twisted and if she’d been alive, I would have sworn she was trying not to vomit. “She…no.”

Lemeraties backed away from us, although her eyes were on the cell across the narrow corridor and there was horror and fury in her eyes. “There was a girl there. Young…I’d already been glutted with blood from the bloody gauntlet she so loved. I was aware. Too aware.”

“What are you…” The rest of the words faded.

A girl.

Nene.

And the thing standing across from me was the monster who lived in the mountains—one controlled by Fanis.

Rage exploded inside. Blind and hungry, it sought release and I lunged forward.

I came up against Kit as she flung her arms around my neck.

“ No ,” she said.

“Let me go,” I panted, eyes only on Lemeraties.

“I remember her,” the specter said, not even noticing us. Head tilted to the side, she stared at Nene’s remains, her gaze locked on the horrors of a shared past. “They tried to make me feed. But I don’t feed on children. Not when I have some semblance of control.” She shook her head again. With a snarl, she smacked the heel of her hand against her temple. “There were screams…snarls. Another child—a boy.”

I shoved against Kit, hauling her up against me. If she wouldn’t get out of the way—

Lemeraties turned slowly.

Our eyes met.

The rest of the fog fell away.

Then

There was a woman in the cell with Nene—I’d seen her before but not often. Usually, it was the tall, thin blond with a hard face. If it wasn’t her, it was the other female, the one who wore a golden diadem.

Something about her wasn’t right. She looked like the others, even smelled like them, usually. But when she looked at me, something else peered out at me. Something ancient. Part of me even recognized it, but I couldn’t explain how.

She was their queen and they both feared and hated her, even as they sought to please her. Sometimes, they all came together and the younger two would do their best to amuse the queen while torturing Nene—and sometimes me—but usually, the queen didn’t come with them.

They had no trouble torturing either of us without an audience, and their preferred way of making me suffer was by hurting Nene.

They’d found a new way to make us both suffer now.

Some… thing had emerged from the dirt as if it was made from it, crawling forward until it rose to stand in front of the blonde where she waited by Nene.

Swearing, struggling against my chains, I tried not to think about what was happening.

Nene’s pained whimper cut through me like a blade.

Then I smelled the blood.

Nene’s blood .

I jerked my gaze up in time to the see the corpse-like creature flinch away, shaking its head so hard, the wispy, colorless hair on its head whipped around in stringy, tangled clumps.

The blonde spoke to it and pointed to Nene.

The thing hissed and glared at the blonde, blood painting a macabre mask on its mouth.

The desiccated creature backed away from Nene with a hiss, shaking its head and snapping its teeth in warning when the woman with the blade gestured to Nene again.

The female didn’t like that and she barked out an order. Language barrier or no, the sound of an order is universal.

The thing just backed up another step.

Magic toxic and vile rose in the air. It aimed itself at the corpse-like monster. I couldn’t see the magic but I felt it. The thing staggered but steadied after a moment and it spoke .

I couldn’t make out the words.

It almost sounded familiar, but I couldn’t understand it.

The other woman didn’t have that same problem.

She jerked back, face twisting in shock. Raising the knife between them like some sort of talisman, she spoke again, the same words, but the impact of the magic was less and the corpse-thing didn’t so much as flinch.

The air around it twisted and blurred and then it was standing in front of the woman, one hand locked around her neck as she jerked her into the air.

Bone broke as the thing crushed the woman’s neck.

I jerked against my chains.

“Nene…”

Air shifted around the creature again and it faded.

I strained and twisted, numbed to the burn of silver after so much time. I had to get free—had to—

It popped into existence in front of me. Startled, I twisted away as much as I could, gagging at the smell of rotting blood and flesh—gore covered it. Some of the stink was fresher. Whatever it was feeding on, it had eaten recently.

The sight of the blood staining its mouth made my stomach curl up into a ball while the fury pumped and pulsed inside. Adrenaline surged within and the leopard inside, suppressed from weeks of torture, starvation and medication, flexed his claws.

The beast all but exploded out of me and the pain I’d thought I’d grown numb to bit into my skin, cutting deep. One of the chains worked its way up to my throat and I gasped for air.

The creature moved out of sight.

And then the chains went slack and I plummeted face first to the ground, hands flying out to catch myself a breath before I would have crashed into the ground.

Slowly, I slid into a crouch and studied the creature as it circled around me.

The air shimmered, energy rippling, and then her features smoothed out, showing me what I’d missed before.

A woman.

Dead, yes, but still female.

Her clothing was like what the others had worn, as were her features.

But there was sadness in her eyes.

It shouldn’t have mattered.

There was still blood on her mouth.

But I saw the sadness.

As I watched, she bent to the ground and grabbed the chain, eyes still on me. She mimed breaking it, then pointed across the passageway to Nene.

Was she…?

She disappeared and I shoved to my feet, startled.

But when I looked around for her, she was waiting on the other side of my cell, holding a finger to her lips.

She wanted me to be quiet.

Warily, I nodded.

She faded from sight and I moved to the bars of the cage, searching for her. Somehow, I knew before it happened that she’d appear inside the other cell. And she did. Just a few feet from Nene. Looking over her shoulder, she searched for me and nodded when she saw I was waiting by the bars.

Nene…

The slim, frail body of the woman I loved didn’t stir as the blonde moved around, stepping over the still form of my captor as if she was just a piece of refuse to be avoided.

Breathe, I thought, hoping, praying.

I was so focused on it, I didn’t hear the soft, barely detectable sound of another person’s breathing as they sidled down the corridor until it was too late. It was the harsh, sudden gasp that jerked me out of my stupor and by that time, the woman had already lifted the bow and arrow.

I had her throat in my hand the next second, snarling in fury.

A bone-curdling wail rose in the air and the blonde I thought must be an ancestral spirit of some sort flowed forward.

But it was too late.

The arrow buried itself in Nene’s throat.

“ No !”

Mindless, I hauled the female against the bars so hard, her skull caved in. I had some vague awareness of her heart stuttering to a halt but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but getting to Nene. Silver bars burned my hands. I wrenched and pulled and something gave.

I threw myself out of the cell and against the bars of the cage opposite me. They shuddered and gave, made of a far weaker material.

A cold wind brushed my shoulder as I ran for Nene.

Pain lanced my calf, driven by something cold and sharp.

It was followed by another pain, this one from my lower back, driving all the way through to my belly.

There was another.

And another.

I stumbled as something punched through my back, coming perilously close to my heart.

I didn’t care.

What did it matter?

Stumbling to Nene, I cradled her face.

“My love…”

Her eyes stared vacantly into mine.

“And you’re to be the mighty king,” a low, mocking voice said from behind me.

It was her .

The queen.

The anger inside flickered, but died even as another arrow pierced my gut.

“ Look at me, boy ,” she said scathingly.

Instead, I looked at Nene, stroked her hair back from her face. “I’ll be with you soon.”

Chang would understand, wouldn’t he?

“…Nuh… No .”

The word was cold . Cold and hollow, like the speaker said it from some great distance. I didn’t recognize the voice. I didn’t care . Stroking Nene’s hair back from her face, I pressed a kiss to her brow.

“Soon,” I said again. The pain in my gut didn’t burn anymore. It had started to ache and I couldn’t feel my legs.

“ No .”

The voice was louder this time and a hand seized my wrist.

I tried to jerk away but the strength in that icy cold grip was unbreakable. I had no memory of looking away from Nene. But somehow, I was caught in a gaze of dead, milky white and I saw the corpse-like monster in front of me again. Her lipless mouth moved and she spoke again, this time, in English. “ No .”

She jerked me away from Nene and to the doors.

The queen laughed.

“Bring him to me, Lemeraties.”

The creature screamed .

We crashed into the cell door. Pain blinded me. Blood pumped out of me. The queen reached for me and I swung out with a clawed hand, using the last of my strength to do it. Blood spurted from her throat but she jerked backward—not a killing blow.

“Let me go !”

“ No !” the creature said as she plunged forward— away from the queen.

“ Stop him !”

There was another burning pain, this time piercing my neck.

The world blinked out of existence.