Page 18

No. Not there. You can’t see her.

“Never rest, Everest.”

“No!” I screamed, panic jarring through me as my mother’s face brightened before my eyes. The sweetness of seeing her after so long was fractured into a thousand pieces as blood pooled from her lips and the life shuddered out of her body.

Kaiser’s possession pushed against me more ferociously, his Order form soaking in my fear and feeding the well of his magic as a low growl of satisfaction left him.

I could feel the closeness of him, sense his breath upon my face and all the while he trapped me in this nightmare, feeding on my despair.

That mysterious power I possessed rose like an ocean, stirring in offering and I drowned myself in its strength, somehow pulling it forward and directing it right at my enemy.

At once, the tide changed. Kaiser tried to rip his possession from my head, but in the process, he somehow turned it upon himself. I glimpsed a flash of snarling teeth and the echo of a bloodcurdling scream. I was thrown into a well of terror that was fuelled by death.

Ice. Teeth. Screams. Blood.

Kaiser worked to force me out as his fear clouded my thoughts, and I tried to see more, reaching for those snippets of memory that were being passed from my mind to his, wanting to hurt him as he had hurt me.

The snarling of dogs.

The scream of a child.

A mental barrier slammed shut between us and my eyes flew open to find I was no longer standing before Kaiser but cradled in his arms on the grey couch.

His hand was hooked around my bare knees while his other fisted in the material at my back.

He was staring down at me, his lips a hair’s breadth from mine and his eyes ablaze with something I never would have thought he could feel. Pure, wild terror.

I was left reeling from the mental attack, my body exhausted by what his Order form had put me through and for all the world, I wanted to reach for the blade on my thigh and slice his throat while he looked so vulnerable.

But I couldn’t tear my eyes from his, the burning pit of them scoring through me as magic crackled between us, the power of the Fearsire trying to reel our souls together.

“I had forgotten how it felt…” he rasped, a crease forming on his brow. “How is it possible to forget such fear? Such pain? Such loss?”

I tried to get up, needing to escape the burning hot cage of his body but his hands hardened on me, his muscles tensing in warning.

“Do not leave,” he growled, the command weakened by the quiet desperation lacing those words. “Without you, I will return to that vacant place, that hellish nothing .”

I fought my way free of him, standing up and taking a measured step back. He stared at me, confused, broken, and I tried to smile, to find joy in his misery, but my lips wouldn’t rise.

The anguish in his eyes flickered out like a snuffed candle, and my fingers flexed for the dagger on my thigh, but the Nightfire made short work of stopping me.

Kaiser blinked, frowned, then carved a hand over his face, appearing hollow once more.

He was right. Something about me, or more likely that unusual power I possessed, affected him. But what specifically it was doing to the Fury, I wasn’t sure.

“I’m going back to my room,” I said firmly.

He nodded vaguely, then waved his hand at me in dismissal, lost in thought.

I glanced back at my enemy on that couch, his expression calculated now, like he was weighing up each part of what had happened and deliberating its meaning.

I jerked my head back to face the window, then shoved it wide, stiffening as Calcifiend landed lightly on my shoulder with a welcoming chirrup.

“Scram, traitor,” I hissed at him.

He nuzzled my cheek, clicking his tongue, and I pursed my lips at the small lizard.

“You may accompany her, Calcifiend,” Kaiser muttered and the Sayer Dragon chirruped excitedly.

“I don’t want his company,” I clipped, reaching for the creature on my shoulder, but he took flight and landed on my other one instead. “Fast little beastie, aren’t you?”

I grabbed for him again, but this time he hovered above me out of reach and I gave up, climbing out the window and heading for freedom.

Although, there was little of that to be secured while this Fury magic chained me to Kaiser Brimtheon.

Still, I had found something of a weakness in him tonight, and though I wasn’t sure how to play it to my advantage, I had time yet.

As it turned out, even monsters had demons. I just had to unleash them and maybe they would devour him for me.

Just when I thought the screams in the night were no longer my bane to bear, they started again.

It must have been close to dawn when they woke me and I was certain the dark power I possessed was awake too.

Perhaps it was linked to why I could hear them and no one else ever seemed to.

If only I could unlock it fully, maybe I’d understand it more.

I rubbed the sleep from eyes, my back aching from another uncomfortable slumber on my thin mattress. If there was an easy way to carry an entire bed from Wandershire to here, I’d be extremely tempted to make that my next purchase when Mavus returned to shore.

Another bone-chilling scream echoed around me through the pipes in this dank chamber and a shiver rolled down my spine. It sounded like a man. The poor bastard was down there in the pits of this Keep with no one to hear his screams but me. For all the good I could do him.

Calcifiend rolled over on my pillow, his wings splayed out beneath him and his little feet kicking as he continued to dream, clearly undisturbed by the screams. He’d kept close to me ever since Kaiser had allowed him to follow me, and despite his traitorous qualities, I was starting to grow used to his company again and the assurance that I wasn’t alone down in the dank underworld of the Keep.

I had him, if no one else, and there was something comforting about his soft snores at night.

Though I’d never admit it out loud, he even kept some of my nightmares at bay.

For all I knew, Calcifiend was a prisoner of Kaiser himself – but I was pretty sure I only told myself that to excuse how easily I found myself forgiving him.

“You’re lucky you’re cute, dragon thing.” I stroked my finger over his forehead, and he let out a trilling purr in his sleep.

I shook my head at him and moved to stoke the embers of the fire, opening the heavy iron grate to do so.

Beside the fireplace, my new weapons were lined up ready and waiting to be seized by Mavus in return for all the wares my heart could desire, along with the items of clothing I had been working on to surprise him.

Between my training, my forging, my clothes-making and the oppressive weight of the soul-tie, sleep was rare and time to think was even rarer.

I was pushing myself hard, perhaps too hard.

But graduation was only a couple more months away, and though I was starting to show my prowess during my instructed sessions, there were always areas where I failed.

No matter how much I practised, any magic that required two hands to cast proficiently was hardly improving.

A thick, stubborn lump in my throat told me I was never going to give up, and that one day I would damn well be as good as any other Fae at those casts.

But the knot in my gut was starting to grow bigger, the truth always there, hovering at the edges of my mind.

For all the will of the stars, I might never be able to master certain spells. But my pride refused to acknowledge that because if I wrote myself off, then I would validate every star-damned Fae in this world who had written me off too. And fuck them. Fuck all of them.

I thought of Kaiser and how he had caused this injury of mine.

This scarred hand that weakened me. My hate for him was ingrained because of the murder of my mother, but I rarely gave weight to how much he had damaged me too.

Probably because I desperately wanted to refuse the trouble my hand caused me.

I had planned to overcome this injury during my time here, and in ways, I had, in others, I really fucking hadn’t.

A well of concern rose in my chest as I considered the possibility of not passing my graduation trials. I’d have to return to Cascada as a failure. My father would force me to take up a role as a Provider, and he’d be a smug asshole about it too.

I clenched my teeth, refusing that fate.

No, I just had to keep practising. Put in more hours. Whittle myself down to the bone if I had to.

But right now… five more minutes.

I went back to bed and laid my head on the pillow, Calcifiend’s steady breaths lulling me quickly toward sleep. Four hours of rest wasn’t nearly enough. But four hours and five minutes would definitely make a difference.

My eyes had barely fluttered shut when a deep growl sounded beyond my door. I bolted upright, a dagger pulled from under my pillow and magic crackling in my right hand.

Another growl. Softer this time, then the sound of padding paws.

I shoved to my feet, silent as I approached the door, pressing my ear to it and listening.

Quiet as a mouse, I took hold of the handle with my right hand while keeping my blade aloft in my left. Whatever or whoever was out there was not going to catch me unawares.

Slowly, I twisted it, then pushed, springing out into the corridor beyond.

A swish of a blood-red tail disappeared up the stairway and I glared after it in confusion.

Kaiser’s hound. The Fury had been here. But why?

I took for the stairs, my bare feet absorbing the icy chill of the stone floor as I prepared to confront him.