Page 54

Kerainne

Two days after Lucian left for Luminista, the castle living quarters were dead silent for the first time since we relocated here.

Xochitl and Zareth were in the great hall, holding court.

The Lord vampires and their Brides were back on Earth attending to any last-minute business and enjoying a few last hours in their own beds.

Beau and Artavian were in Wurrakia, getting a report on the knights’ readiness for battle and feeling out whether or not Lord Aylmer, his heirs, or his bannermen were harboring any plans that would make them a liability instead of an asset in war.

Though vampires were still forbidden from the country, the Wurraks’ penchant for battle and glory made our request for them to join us in the war impossible to refuse.

However, they wouldn’t be informed about the portal to Qua’ al-fán until we were marching through it.

Their previous alliance with Zareth’s evil half-brother proved that they could be swayed to the wrong side.

The new luminite recruits were out in the village exploring Aisthanesthai.

Some of them were here for the first time.

I smiled when thinking of all the new and interesting delights they’d find.

Maybe I should meet some of them there and get to know them.

I didn’t know their culture as well as Lucian, but I was still one of them.

Though I hated going out into the cold, this idea was better than another day of moping around in the castle like a lovestruck helpless princess rather than the powerful queen I was.

So I bundled up in my best winter clothes, including my wolfskin cloak, and went outside.

Everything was damp and chilly, but the February air didn’t hurt my face.

In fact, the sun was peeking out from between the clouds.

Soon my daughter and I would watch the skies for returning geese, heralding the coming of spring.

Instead of transporting myself straight to the village, I decided to walk and enjoy this long-missed touch of sunlight. The black and white fluffy cat, which I’d nicknamed “Phantom” continued to follow me, as he had since he’d first appeared at the foot of Lucian’s bed.

Fates, I missed him so much. I knew I was being silly, as he’d promised he’d only allow his mother and great aunt to keep him there for five days, maximum, and we’d been apart for much longer periods throughout our courtship, but I couldn’t help it.

The dark memories of what had happened just before we were supposed to get married before haunted me.

I had an irrational worry that something horrible would happen to stop this one as well.

Before turning to the road that led to the village, I took a detour to the path leading to the King’s Forest. A luminite always returned to the place where they last died.

I knew my impatience would be ridiculously obvious if he did happen to return and find me waiting for him there.

But I was over withholding my feelings. I was absolutely, head-over-heels in love with Lucian Jagwolfe and completely shameless about it.

Lucian had also taken the death-by-vampire option, only instead of the courtyard, we’d gone to the forest so he could be buried beneath a new sapling in Jagwolfe tradition.

Watching him die wasn’t much easier than all the previous times, aside from the fact that he had more friends with him while I held his hand.

And, much as I hated to admit it, the sight of his nearly nude form sprawled out in the grasp of five handsome vampires with their mouths closed over most of his important pulse points had me feeling a raw, primal sensuality.

I even had a moment of wishing I was a vampire so I could taste him like that.

When I reached the place where we’d buried him, I froze at the mess before me. The muddy, partially thawing ground was torn up, the dormant spruce sapling completely uprooted and lying on its side. A thin layer of last night’s snow drifted across the ground.

Had wild animals smelled his body down there and tried for a meal before the last snowfall? I shuddered at the thought even though that was the balance of nature. Some luminite clans even made it tradition to feed their own corpses to the wildlife.

But this was a Jagwolfe and he was meant for the trees. Phantom yowled and pawed at the messy gravesite as if in agreement with my outrage.

I looked around and found a suitable stick to dig a fresh hole to replant the tree.

By the time I was done, my fingers were numb from the cold and damp. Still, I felt satisfied at righting a wrong.

Just as I was about to transport myself to the village, where I would hopefully find my fellow luminites somewhere warm, I heard a twig snap in the woods.

Phantom growled and moved in front of me, pressing his fluffy black flank to my shins. I chuckled lightly at his overexuberance in protecting me. It was probably a deer or maybe an elk. As the rut was over, I was in no danger.

But if it was, then I’d simply be killed and able to reunite with Lucian sooner.

When I heard another snap and rustle of the undergrowth coming closer, I tried to shoo the cat away. Most likely it was a young animal sensing my bond and coming to me for help, which happened often when I was in the woods.

Unfortunately, Phantom was an adult cat and I didn’t have my daughter’s bond to communicate more clearly. Even if I did, cats were willful creatures who did what they wanted. Not unlike Xochitl…or myself.

I conjured a fireball, letting it rest in my palm. If the approaching creature was a threat to the cat, I’d simply singe its fur so it would run away. The forest was wet enough that I wouldn’t even be risking a forest fire.

The sound of footsteps joined the snapping branches and rustling bushes. Whatever was coming was big. Phantom’s ears flattened against his head and he hissed.

I held my position, fireball at ready. Instead of the wolf, cougar, or bear I’d been expecting, the dim shape of a man came into view between the foggy trees.

I gritted my teeth. If the man wasn’t friendly, he would be singed as well.

And if his clothes caught on fire, I’d tell him to stop, drop, and roll.

As the man came closer, his broad shoulders, beloved features, and beautiful golden hair were revealed. I extinguished the fireball and rushed toward him, my heart leaping with joy.

“Lucian!” I shouted and threw myself into his arms.

He nearly stumbled, making me murmur an apology. Phantom continued to growl, and I chuckled lightly at the cat’s overprotectiveness. Lucian probably smelled a lot different, being freshly returned from Luminista and in a new body.

However… he smelled more like musty dampness, pine from the trees he’d passed through, and something else that wasn’t exactly pleasant.

“What were you doing in the woods?” I couldn’t help the scolding edge in my tone. “And you’re so cold. Let’s get back to the castle. We can take a hot shower together.” And wash those clothes , I added silently.

“Kerainne.” His voice was rough and gravelly, but not in the warm, sensual way I was used to.

A pang of alarm crawled up my spine.

“Yes?” Only then I noticed how pale he looked, and how distant his eyes were.

His lips curved in a wavering smile in a futile attempt to reassure me. “You must come with me. It’s important.”

“Come with you where?” I didn’t like this, not one bit.

He grabbed my gloved hand with force that hurt. “There’s no time. We must go.”

“Lucian, please!” My voice shook as he pulled me into the forest. “You can walk and talk at the same time. Tell me what’s going on?”

“I am your mate. You can trust me.” His tone had softened somewhat, but there was still a strange intensity to it that wasn’t at all like him.

He was speaking the truth, though. I did trust him. But Phantom didn’t, and continued to hiss and growl. Something was wrong.

I whispered a spell to dispel a glamour in case the man pulling me through the forest was someone else.

Lucian paused and blinked as the magic flowed over him, but he remained Lucian.

I didn’t know if I was relieved or disappointed.

He wasn’t acting like himself. He didn’t even ask why I’d worked a spell on him.

My boots crunched in the snow and I looked down to see Lucian’s tracks from when he’d been heading toward his burial place.

And that’s when I realized what else was wrong. There were no tracks coming from there, aside from the ones we were making. Sure, he could have gone in another direction when he returned, but somehow I didn’t think so. Which meant that he’d been back since at least last night. Maybe even longer.

“Lucian!” I shouted. “Stop!”

He shook his head and kept pulling me. “Can’t stop. I must bring you.”

“Bring me where?”

“To him.”

The cold chills on my flesh seeped into my blood and bones. Someone had bespelled him. “Listen to me! You don’t want to do this.”

“I must.” Though I dug in my heels, he was too strong. I slid along the wet forest floor until a root or stone sent me sprawling.

With cold indifference, Lucian dragged me along, leaving it up to me to scramble awkwardly on my feet.

“Fine.” I conjured a new fireball in my free hand. “I’m sorry, Lucian, but I must. And maybe it will wake you up.”

With that, I guided the fire to his arm. His sleeve caught ablaze. He didn’t respond at all. He just kept walking. The reek of burn hair and scorched fabric made my eyes water.

Regret and despair washed over me, peppered with worry that he’d burn to death. Quickly I called the water molecules in the air to come together and douse the arm.

We reached a clearing and my heart sank in dread.

A portal shimmered in a circle of stones and some sort of yellow powder.

A barren desert shifted in and out of focus.

There was only one desert that I knew of that was that lifeless and radiated evil.

Qua’ al-fán. Someone had put Lucian in some powerful thrall spell to bring me to Mephistopheles.

To bring both of us.

“Lucian, no!” I screamed, pulling harder against his grip. “Snap out of it!”

I muttered every counter spell and curse lift I could remember, but the ones most likely to work required time and supplies I didn’t have.

“I must bring you,” he repeated with that same blank stare.

Phantom yowled behind us in a broken, desperate voice. I prayed to the fates that he wouldn’t follow us into the portal.

Footsteps thundered behind us. My heart leaped with hope that someone had heard me and come to help, but I was unable to turn around and see.

A blade swung in a wide arc, the late winter sunlight glinting off its sharp edge. Lucian’s head glided off his body and I screamed at the awfulness, collapsing to my knees beside the rest of his body.

I had a moment to hope that returning to Luminista would break the spell before strong arms seized me.

“No!” I screamed. “Let me go!”

“Kerainne!” Lucian’s voice shouted in my ear before he turned me around.

He looked like himself again. His skin was warm and flushed from running, his eyes shone with the vitality and love that made him, well, himself. I started to embrace him, then stopped. “Careful! There’s someone else here! They cut off your head.”

“There’s no one else here.” He pulled me into his arms. His voice rumbled against my ear. “ I cut my head off.”

“What?” I lifted my head from his chest. Surely, I hadn’t heard right.

“Look.”

My eyes followed where he pointed. The sword lay in the snow, curiously bloodless for having just decapitated someone. And the body… My eyes squeezed shut, not wanting to see, but I forced them open.

“Oh shit,” I breathed.

The body was crawling toward me. And the head, lying several feet away, blinked at me with those unsettling vacant eyes. The mouth shaped words that it no longer had the vocal cords to speak.