Page 68 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion (Tales of a Monstrous Heart, #2)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Kat

The dark ones hold no form. Cannot be contained nor chained.

Those golden beasts didn’t believe our tales. So they made their own.

Poisoned that darkness with their own might, then brought the world crashing down on the innocents who had no choice in their blood.

The blessed saviours who watched it burn and concealed the blood of their own crimes in rivers of gold.

Compendium of the Lost, 1536

Serus? A strange small voice called as the world was torn apart and put back together in a smear of colour and wisps of darkness until reality lurched back towards me.

A maze of bookshelves with tall ladders leaning against the intricately carved shelves, showing depictions of a forest and the woodland beasts that dwelled there.

Every piece of furniture in the room was piled with texts, the hearth roaring, the comforting scent of books and old magic dragged into my lungs with every short panicked breath.

Blackthorn Manor.

Home. We were home.

‘Emrys,’ I panted, spinning in a circle.

Trying to right my unsteady legs as I stumbled into my own desk, as if I was on a ship in a storm.

Gideon was across from me doing the same as he clung to the door frame.

I could only see William’s boots from between the bookshelves, a retching sound reaching my ears.

We’d been thrown too quickly from one place to the next.

Whisps of darkness remained in the air as white dots marred my vision.

Emrys had ported us. With nothing but his magic.

A power I couldn’t even comprehend. Void creatures were rare, none having been seen in centuries.

Yet an Old God would have that power – or a child of their blood.

The house released a weary groan, the doorway Gideon clung to sagging and beginning to quake.

Then I saw where the darkness curled in the centre of the room.

How shadowed and cold it grew in an instant.

How the dark form of Emrys braced his hands on the floor, head bowed, his fingers digging into the wood as if it was nothing but paper.

How easily it splintered between his touch.

His head twitched, limbs tensing as shudders rolled through him.

That dark summoning beneath his skin twisting and pressing against his flesh, forming strange runes like those that had appeared by the cracked earth.

To summon such darkness is to be consumed by its hunger.

‘Emrys,’ I whispered.

He shook his head as if trying to get free of something, curling forwards as he pulled at his hair.

Almost convulsing as the shadows deepened.

Then, in a moment, he was gone, in a flare of dark smoke.

The hearth flickered, light coming back to the room the same moment a crash came from above us, reminding me of those cursed bones in the Greymark house.

‘What on earth is—’ Alma called, rushing into the room with her robe around her, wet hair stuck to her cheeks as she dripped water onto the floor. She was here. She was safe. Only there wasn’t a moment for that relief to soothe me. Not as another crash came from above.

‘Emrys,’ I moved for the doorway, stumbling sideways. My knees still unstable from the shock of the magnitude of the magic I didn’t understand. The house creaking in distress as all the cupboards and drawers rattled.

Magic had a price and I was fearful of what it would make Emrys pay.

‘Kat!’ Gideon grabbed my arm, turning me towards him as we both panted wildly on the stairs, holding onto the banister for dear life.

‘He’s dangerous like this, Kat,’ he warned, a wild panic in those words that made dread claw at my insides.

‘I’m not leaving him like that.’ Not as something he didn’t wish to be.

I’m wrong, Kat. The gutting desperation in his voice as I remembered those words from Emrys’s lips.

He’d done this to protect us and I hated that most of all. Gideon grabbed my hand, hesitation flashing in his features, his jaw set as if he was going to protest again as another crash came from above. ‘I don’t think—’

‘Help me, Gideon.’ I begged. To find something. I knew Emrys would listen to me. No matter what consumed him. He’d told me that.

‘Why is William vomiting?!’ Alma half shrieked from the study. Only to go quiet as another boom followed, the house practically whining.

‘Fuck’s sake,’ Gideon snapped, grabbing my arm and half dragging me up the stairs after him, following the ominous noises and the distress of the house. The clatter of doors and the rattle of the windows.

The hallway above was plunged into darkness, our breath misting before us.

‘Emrys?’ Gideon called into the abyss. Moving forwards with no hesitation. Towards the faintest glow of light coming from the end of the hall.

The doorway creaking as we entered Emrys’s bedroom. He stood by the fireplace, illuminated by the dying embers. His hands were braced against the wall, head bowed, his fingers digging into the plaster. A hole gaped in the brick as if he’d struck it. Over and over.

His leathers were gone, dark summoning rippling from his skin, leeching free to tangle around his legs and waist as if he was half consumed by shadow. His muscles twitched, tensing as shudders rolled through him. There was a slight shake to his head again. Something was in there. Speaking to him.

Some nights I can hear them. He’d told me that. I’d seen it with my own eyes.

I stepped towards him only for Gideon to pull me back, words sharp and instant.

‘Get the remains of that fiend off you. It’ll make him worse.’

I looked down, realising I had strange grey dust all over my leathers – I’d been the closest to that fiend. He pushed me towards the bathroom. I went numbly.

I undressed quickly. Grabbing a towel, I scrubbed at my face and shook out my hair. Another bang and horrid creaks echoed from the room beyond. The calm tones of Gideon’s voice.

I took my nightgown from the back of the door and pulled it on. I should have been worried about the indecency. The thin cotton did nothing to combat the icy chill consuming the space, breath clouding before me as gooseflesh covered my legs.

‘Emrys?’ Gideon called, aether glowing between his fingers to illuminate the space. Emrys didn’t respond, continued to shake and convulse in agony. Gideon let out a frustrated sound before he moved to the desk, ransacking the drawers. ‘Where did you put it, you hoarding little bastard?’

I ignored Gideon’s rummaging, my focus solely on Emrys as I let my magic flare, warming me ever so slightly. Taking the barest step closer to him.

His dark form stilled, his head turning predatorily, considering me over the bulk of his shoulder. He felt it. Felt the barest flare of my flame.

I heard you too. He’d given me that. Reminded me of the power I’d given him. To call to me just as I called to him. Then I saw the gold glinting on the darkness of his hand.

Where my father’s hilt remained wrapped around his finger.

To wield a Kysillian blade was to be bound to its master, to be trusted the same . My blade trusted him. My magic trusted him – and so did my heart. Even in this strange form.

I didn’t hesitate in my approach, calm and gentle as I pressed my lips to his shoulder blade.

Right over those dark marks. Let my hands rest on his ribs.

Felt him shudder. Heard the unsteady nature to his breath.

That darkness curling beneath his skin. His magic sharper than I’d ever felt it.

Almost feral as it streaked across his pale scarred flesh towards my touch.

‘Emrys,’ I breathed against his skin.

His dark-tipped fingers grasped my hand desperately. Painfully, as if it was a tether. Pressing more harshly against his skin. I let my nails bite, and my magic too. Anything for him to focus on me. To focus on my voice.

The house trembled as that darkness seeped like smoke from his skin. His breath was laboured, the darkness becoming more lethal in its dance. Another tremor took him as a strange, pained noise rumbled up his throat.

Did you think you could keep him, Tauria? The darkness in my mind seemed to mock.

He recoiled from me as if he heard it too, forcing me away.

Gideon was suddenly there to steady me. Emrys stumbled slightly, shaking his head as he fell to his knees, fingers curling into his hair, bending forwards with a silent scream on his lips.

The house was groaning around us, cabinets and drawers rattling with worry.

‘He needs to stay still.’ Gideon said, his voice breaking as if he couldn’t bare it.

‘Emrys.’ I dropped to the rug before him until our knees touched. Pressing my hands against his bare thighs. Only for his skin to become nothing but black smoke beneath my touch. Warping and changing, slipping between my fingers as if desperate to hold on.

My breath was tight with panic as I clutched uselessly at him. The bite of his magic was frantic. I could feel him flinch and tremble. His head shook again as if refusing to listen to the voice in his head.

A voice I’d heard too.

The fury of my fire bit into my bones, straightening my spine and hardening my will.

Yes, I could keep him … because he was mine. He’d given me that vow.

Gideon moved around to his back, resting an arm across his shoulder, almost holding him up. Not caring for any of the darkness consuming him, nor how it bit and twisted. ‘Don’t listen to them, Emrys. You’re home.’

Emrys began to shake, his fingers like claws digging into his own temples.

‘Keep him still, Kat,’ Gideon ordered.

I cupped his face so gently between my palms, thumbs running over his cheekbones, over that scar that pulled painfully, as his skin became shadows and strange demon fire between my hands, but I didn’t let him go. Couldn’t.

I’d promised him I wouldn’t.

‘Serus,’ I called softly, startling Gideon. His eyes burnt bright blue with witch fire and warning.

Emry went still beneath my touch, eyes opening. Nothing but darkness answered. No recognition, just that strange stillness.