Page 33

Arianna

When Arianna woke again, she wasn’t strapped to a cold metal table. Instead, she found herself seated in a plush armchair before a roaring fire, her skin aflame and her body entirely too warm. The hearth stretched along the entire length of the wall. At least she wasn’t shivering anymore.

Arianna let her eyes adjust to the dim lighting in the room. Tapestries hung on the walls around her, each depicting a different scene she couldn’t quite make out. Old leather-bound books lined the shelves built into the walls. She shivered at the memories they invoked, and studied the various trinkets that stood alongside them.

A thick rug covered the space beneath her feet, and Arianna noticed scorch marks in the maroon fibers.

She tilted her head, trying to work the tension from her shoulders. The fire popped, a spark shooting out into the room. Something moved to her right.

Not something. Someone.

Arianna let her gaze rise past the small, round table to her right, and her body went rigid at the sight of a male sitting in the chair across from her. He had one leg crossed over the other, his thick robes obscuring his legs, leaving only his boots visible.

Arianna noticed the runes along his robes first. Familiar symbols she couldn’t read but now knew all too well. His scent wafted toward her, carried by the cool breeze at her back. He smelled like an old library, like he’d been caged inside a room too long.

His face, though young and fair like all the Fae, carried evidence of a thousand wars. A hundred lifetimes. His light golden hair was pulled back on one side, twisted around so that it was out of his face. The other side of his head was bare. He carried thick scars along that half that dragged all the way down his face, as if a creature had tried to tear it off.

He was blind in one eye, though he didn’t wear any sort of patch to cover the cloudy opaqueness.

Even with his imperfections, there was something other-worldly about him. Something that seemed to draw her toward his presence. Or maybe that was just another of his illusions.

Vairik was a master of them, after all.

He didn’t speak. Instead, Vairik watched her, seeming to study everything from the way her chest rose and fell to where her eyes wandered. Arianna’s gaze traveled back to the table where she found a glass of water and chocolates arranged neatly on a plate.

She couldn’t help herself. Arianna lunged for the water, hearing the familiar rattle of chains as she did.

Arianna ignored the iron around her ankles as she let the liquid ease her parched throat. She knew it was likely laced with something, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. How long had it been?

Arianna’s eyes snapped to her wrist. The bracelets were gone, which meant she had no way of telling how much time had passed. Nothing had exploded yet though, which meant Conall and the others hadn’t enacted their plan. But … Did that mean the others had been caught as well? Had everyone failed?

Arianna looked back up to find Vairik still watching her. His gaze flicked between her wrist and eyes. She didn’t have to turn her hand over to know the rune was gone too. Niall or that mysterious female had probably gotten rid of it as soon as she’d been captured.

Arianna carefully set the glass back on the table, resisting the urge to fling it at Vairik’s face.

His voice was dark and silken when he spoke. “I’ll offer you more in a few moments. It wouldn’t do any good for you to vomit all over my clean floors.”

Her magic reacted to his voice so violently that Arianna audibly gasped and clutched her chest. It leapt behind her rips, as if it were trying to claw its way out. She couldn’t hold it back and Arianna leaned forward when the iron sent a pulse of electricity straight through her.

She tried coaxing it back into submission, begging the creature to calm down. Vairik was right in front of her. She needed to ask him questions and find a way out. Passing out on the floor wouldn’t exactly help her do that.

It took Arianna several moments to ease her racing heart and quiet the creature. It resorted to pacing back and forth.

Vairik was studying her, a sharp curiosity in his gaze. Then he turned to watch the flames dancing in the fireplace. He still sat with a relaxed posture, his hands neatly folded in his lap, long fingers interlaced.

“You’re the High Lord of Pádraigín.” Her voice cracked, throat raw and aching. Not that he deserved the title.

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, pulling at the scars along the left side of his face. “And you’re the sacred queen, our bringer of peace. Arianna, wasn’t it?”

Her magic jolted again, vibrating against her sternum as if growling from within. Arianna tried to swallow, but it did nothing to ease the fire in her throat. “That’s what everyone keeps telling me.”

Sharp eyes tilted toward her, penetrating down to her core as if he could see that raging creature within. “You don’t believe in your own destiny?”

Arianna opened her mouth to reply then closed it again. How was she supposed to respond? She’d done nothing but doubt herself from the beginning. “It’s complicated.”

His gaze turned back to the fire and he shifted slightly in his chair, as if an old pain were suddenly making itself known. “Most things centering around destiny are.”

Arianna waited for him to continue or to say something else. After a few minutes of silence she finally asked. “What have you done with everyone?” If he had her in his clutches, he had to have the others too.

His jaw ticked, the first sign of agitation. “Worried for your mate?”

Arianna recalled Connall’s words and the story he’d told about a male scorned by the female he’d loved.

Vairik spoke again before she could reply. “Tell me honestly, do you believe you would have fallen for such a male if it weren’t for the bond pulling you together?” Before she could reply, Vairik leaned across the table. She shrank away, but he only grabbed a pitcher she hadn’t seen a moment ago. He carefully refilled her glass then placed the pitcher back on the table. It disappeared again.

Arianna counted the seconds before reaching for the glass. Vairik interlaced his fingers again and leaned back, clearly waiting for her response.

Rion. Her mate. A male she’d die to protect. Would she have fallen for him without the bond? She’d been terrified of him in the beginning. She’d heard all the stories and she’d witnessed his ruthlessness first hand.

But despite all that, she’d still chosen to save him. She’d done that because of her mother’s teachings and because she couldn’t bear to see anyone suffer.

But when she’d run to the river, something had pulled her back. She’d felt a connection to Rion she couldn’t explain. The bond had stopped her from running. Without it, she would have dove into that water without a second thought.

“I don’t know.”

The male raised a brow. “He was a creature that swept across the land killing your own people and you don’t know?”

“It’s not like he would have done those things if it weren’t for you.”

The male chuckled, the sound mirthless. “Maybe. Or maybe it was always in his nature.” Silence stretched between them. “Conversation is a rarity for me these days, humor me with your answer.”

Arianna chewed the inside of her cheek. “I think it would have depended.”

“Oh what?”

“The situation. Fate. Circumstance.”

He smirked again. “You know what I think? I think without the bond, that male would have ripped you apart the moment he scented you were from Móirín. I think the bond is the only thing that stilled his hand. And yours.” Arianna met his gaze. “I know your story. I know his too.”

He leaned forward slightly, resting his chin on his hands. “I know you once cared deeply for another of your companions. I know he’s now plagued by the same bond. A perfectly good match ruined due to unnatural interference.” Arianna wasn’t sure if he were speaking to her or to himself.

“Talon is free to love who he wishes.”

“Is he?” Vairik’s brow lifted. “The gods have shackled him to another with a ruthless nature. A female who was supposed to end the life of his proclaimed best friend and yet he forgives her intention so easily. As do you. A complete stranger.”

“People can change.”

“Just like that? What if I decided, right here, right now, to give up my endeavors, would you forgive me?”

“You’re a monster.”

“By your definition, so are they.”

“What do you want me to say?” Her heart was racing with the truth of his words.

Vairik leaned back again. “Nothing I suppose. It wouldn’t matter either way.”

Arianna watched him for another long minute. She tried to picture this male in his youth, back before the scars of the world had hardened his heart. He’d loved once. And that love had betrayed him because of the bond.

He’d mentioned changing his mind. Was part of him aching for a reason to let go of his anger?

The creatures within her writhed again. Arianna tried to take a deep breath and quell it into submission.

“I think,” she said, trying to choose her words carefully. “Given the proper circumstance, I might have fallen in love with Rion without the bond.”

“Really? And what circumstances would those be?”

“A world without you. A world where he was never marked as a demon. One that saw him as the son of a High Lord instead of a creature of death and destruction.” Vairik snorted, but she kept going. “Our countries were allies, we would have met eventually. You manipulated his fate, just like you claim the gods manipulated the previous Divine away from you.”

A real smile slowly spread across his face. “My, how the tables turn. Who would have thought I might grow into the very thing I loathe.” He rested his chin on his right hand, one finger over his lips as if he’d suddenly become lost in thought. “Perhaps it’s no longer worth my time. Maybe peace is on the other side of moving forward.”

Arianna wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. “Moving forward how?”

His gaze roamed to hers. “You already know my plans, or did Conall not inform you?”

Her heart jolted at the name, but she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. “So your solution is to just kill everyone?”

“It would be the easiest at this point. I’ve spent plenty of time trying to change it.”

“You’re talking about murdering innocent people. It’s not their fault they have a mating bond.”

“It’s their fault for being complacent in it. It’s their fault for not rising up.”

“You want them to rebel against the gods who created them? The bond was a gift. The thing they feel for their bonded partner isn’t something bad. It feels real to them. It feels right.”

“Only the young can say such things. You’ve never come across someone unhappy with the bond, have you?” She didn’t respond. “I consider myself fortunate to have never experienced it. To not be shackled and forced to call it fate.”

Another beat of silence passed, then he stood and every cell in her body sprang to life. The creature inside her prepared itself, as if it weren’t held back by the iron shackles.

Vairik crossed the space and leaned down, placing his hands on either side of the armchair. Arianna shrank back into the old cushions, her heart beating wildly as that eye studied her. She could fight, shove him back, lift her legs and kick him across the room, but something told her it wouldn’t matter, that if she so much as shifted a muscle, his magic would lash out.

“I can smell her on you.” His gaze traveled down to Arianna’s chest, right over her sternum where her magic buzzed beneath her skin. “You’re still here, aren’t you dear Laoise?”

Arianna’s magic jolted at the name, flaring beneath her skin. The iron around her ankles sent a violent shockwave through Arianna’s body that had her arching off the chair. She gripped the edges, her fingers tearing into the fabric.

The creature within her beat against the cage over and over again, sending wave after wave of pain through Arianna’s body.

Stop , Arianna begged it. Please stop.

“It seems we’ve both been trapped in a hell of our own creation.”

“What—are you talking about?” Arianna breathed through the aftershocks racking her body.

He leaned impossibly closer. “Can you not feel her writhing within your bones, struggling to cleave her way into your world and set it on fire?”

“What?”

“The magic, dear girl. Do you think that fire in your soul is yours alone?” He smirked again, hanging his head and shaking it slightly. “And all this time I assumed you were in the afterlife with that bastard. It’s almost reassuring to know I haven’t been the only one suffering.”

“I have—she’s inside me?”

Vairik’s gaze returned to her. “Her essence is. It seems she’s defied the gods in her own way as well. I suppose that explains why my son made no progress with you. Laoise always was resistant where mind manipulation was concerned. No matter, I’ll take care of you myself.”

Cold fear trickled down her spine.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you. I want to play one final game before this ends.” He gaze twisted back to her chest. “Thank the gods they didn’t make you look like her, otherwise this would have been much harder.”

“Wha—” His hands moved fast and those slender fingers gripped her like a vice.

Blinding white hot pain seared through her mind and Arianna screamed all over again, feeling the seams of her reality split into a million pieces.

The creature, Laoise, fought, but even it wasn’t enough to stop Vairik’s invasion.

He dove deep into her mind. Swimming through it, tearing her apart as if he had barbs on every part of his mental body.

Vairik didn’t stop until he found the moment she and Rion first met. The day she’d knelt on the cold cabin floor with The Demon standing over her. Arianna relived the fear she’d experienced at that moment, then it wisped away into darkness, fading like smoke carried away by the wind.

Vairik shifted through her memories, flipping through them like the pages of a book until he found the moment she’d first made Rion soup, hoping to placate his anger with her cooking. That image dissolved too, the colors blending together until they were nothing but darkness.

He moved again, sifting until he found the memory where Rion had stumbled in injured. He let it play for a moment but jerked it away before she could offer Rion—what had she offered him?

Arianna found herself standing before a red-haired male in a cabin next, her hand glowing against his chest. Her own heart was heavy with emotions she didn’t understand. She tried to look up at his face and study it, but the image burned before her eyes, then the flames consumed her as well.

She loosed a silent scream as she fell into another image of a male being tormented by her father. Her body moved and she intervened, but Arianna couldn’t remember why she’d bothered. She’d screamed a word and had growled at her father. She never growled at her father. The word was lost. She didn’t resist when that one turned to ice and shattered into nothing.

Images of herself with the male, their bodies entwined blinked from existence. Pictures of her hand in his, the way he’d looked at her, the gentleness in his voice, it all flipped off, like a light switch, leaving her in a cold dark room.

There was still a light in the distance. Arianna ran toward it, trying to flee from oily hands chasing after her.

Arianna slammed open the thick door and dove inside a room that resembled a small temple. A golden braided rope sat within, reaching through the floor and ceiling. A tether to someone she couldn’t remember.

Hands beat against the door and Arianna pressed her body against it, fighting to keep the shadows from breaking through. They’d ruin it. They’d destroy this beautiful thing before her.

The shadows slithered in from beneath the door anyway. She tried to stomp them out, to use her magic to keep them at bay, but the magic wouldn’t answer her call. The creature within her was gone, locked away, hidden.

The shadows beat against the door again, splintering the wood.

Tears spilled down Arianna’s cheeks as she watched those shadows stretch toward the glowing rope. Dark fingers wrapped around the strands, digging at the edges until they frayed.

Pain lanced through Arianna’s chest and she dove forward. She clawed at the shadows, desperate to pull them away from the rope, to protect it at any cost. But they slipped through her fingers, continuing their assault.

Then the door burst open and those hands reached in, wrapping around the rope, pulling at it from both ends while the shadows slipped through the threads, digging, digging, digging.

No, no, no, no, no.

She began screaming the word, unsure why it mattered at all. Unsure why this room was so important.

The walls crumbled around her, the ceiling falling in great heaps around her body as she crumbled in on herself.

Then the rope snapped.

Her body was yanked from the room and Arianna covered her face with her hands as she plummeted into icy blackness, her chest raw and bleeding.

Something warm wrapped around her then. Something hot, nearly scolding. It stitched the fabric of her torn reality.

The pain eased little by little, stitch by stitch until it vanished entirely and she was left to hang, just like those old tapestries with fibers that were too old to mend.

Color returned, though the various shades seemed duller than before. Still, she reached for them, floating and clinging to things from her past.

Then her body and those colors drifted off to a land where her head didn’t pound. Where cold shackles didn’t hold her prisoner and she was finally safe at last.