Page 12 of This Vicious Dream (Kingdom of Death #1)

Madinia

The sudden shock of frigid water hits me like a slap, the cold slicing into my skin like shards of ice. I let my body sink and then twist, arrowing down into the depths of the lake.

The sunlight fades as I dive, kicking my legs as my heartbeat pounds in my ears, frantic and insistent.

How long can Calysian last without air? My own lungs are already screaming at me, but I push deeper, scanning the murky gloom.

There.

Calysian’s hulking form is a dark shadow, drifting below me. His limbs hang limp, his head tilted back as though in surrender. Panic claws at my chest. He’s too still.

I kick harder, straining to reach him. When my hands find his shoulder, the solid feel of his muscle is almost startling.

I grab at the front of his tunic, my fingers numb and clumsy as I shake him.

He doesn’t move.

I tighten my grip, my nails digging into the fabric as I pull him toward me, twisting my body to face the surface. The effort is brutal. His weight drags at me, pulling me down, even as I kick with everything I have.

The cold seeps deeper, turning my limbs sluggish. My lungs are on fire, each second stretching unbearably as I clamp down on the urge to inhale. The surface is footspans away, impossibly far, unreachable.

Grinding my teeth, I kick harder.

The light grows brighter, fracturing into ribbons as I stretch toward the surface. My face breaks through and I gasp, my chest heaving as sweet, cool air floods my lungs. Hauling Calysian up, I turn him onto his back as his head lolls against my shoulder, his face pale and slack, his lips tinged blue.

“Wake up,” I choke out.

“There!” A voice calls, and cold terror shudders through me. Kyldare’s soldiers are on their way.

“Calysian!” I swallow lake water, my arms screaming, every muscle in my body trembling as I half-drag, half-push his massive body toward the shoreline. The overhang looms above our heads, and I let the current carry us sideways toward a narrow stretch of muddy ground. My knees hit mud, and I stagger to my feet, pulling Calysian onto the shore.

Dropping to my knees, I press my lips to his, pushing air into his lungs. I can feel Kyldare’s eyes on me, can sense his soldiers clambering over the rocks between us.

I could have escaped. And instead, I attempted to save this unconscious brute.

This stubborn , infuriating man who won’t wake up.

A dark flame lights in the center of Calysian’s chest, spreading throughout his body until he’s surrounded by a shadow. The shadow curls toward me invitingly, and I jolt backwards. It freezes, and I get the strangest feeling that I’ve rejected something important.

Eammon lands next to me. “His chest.”

“I know. Something is happening with his power.”

“No. His chest is rising . He’s breathing.”

Relief shudders through me, until I’m light headed. But the soldiers are almost here. I need to get Calysian on his horse.

No. There’s no time.

Already, I can hear the first soldier’s boots pounding as they charge up the bank.

“He wouldn’t have wanted you to jump in after him,” Eamonn says.

“He’s used to me denying him the things he wants.”

Calysian’s eyes slowly open, dazed and filled with pain. But his gaze drops to my mouth. “She speaks the truth.”

He shifts his attention to my hands. I’ve begun trembling. The cold. That’s all it is. My clothes are heavy, sodden with frigid lake water.

“I need you to get up.” Panic leeches into my voice and Calysian’s eyes immediately sharpen. When he sits, his face turns gray, his huge body swaying.

“Your eyes,” he murmurs. “They’re glowing again.”

“You need to focus.”

He studies me, and I can practically see him creating a plan. “I know what to do. But I need you to trust me.”

I hesitate, my skin prickling, and one side of his mouth kicks up. “I know. You’ll have to suppress all of your instincts. But it’s our only chance.”

“Fine.”

With sheer force of will, Calysian manages to make it to his feet. The soldiers are less than fifty footspans away.

“Hand over the woman, and we’ll let you live.” Kyldare’s voice is silky, his tone oh-so-reasonable as his words curl around our heads. It’s as if he’s standing a footspan from us. Another trick from his witch.

They don’t know who Calysian is. They can’t. If they knew the dark god was standing in front of them, they wouldn’t be attempting to bargain with him.

Not when he is all that truly stands between Vicana and the grimoire.

“You’ve been up to no good, Madinia,” Kyldare smiles at me, and I barely hide a flinch.

Calysian glances between me and the soldiers.

He could give me to them right now. I’m sure if he keeps traveling west, he’ll eventually sense the grimoire.

The world turns fuzzy at the edges, my heart slamming into my ribs. But I won’t let any of these men see my terror.

“You want her?” Calysian asks, and my stomach sinks. “Come and take her from me.”

Wait, what?

He casts me a disappointed look. “Do you really think I’ll hand you over? Just moments ago, you agreed to trust me.”

“We’ll talk about this later.”

“You bet your pert little arse we will.”

Kyldare snaps something, and the regiment attacks.

My heart jumps into my throat, but I don’t have time to linger on my terror. Because Calysian grabs my hand and pulls.

I instinctively pull back, but it’s not my body he’s pulling. It’s the dark power within me. The power that has been rising to the surface over the past two days.

I gasp, attempting to free my hand, but Calysian holds tighter. His eyes darken, turning black, his expression suddenly remote.

Another yank at the power within me, and my own power jumps to my other hand, reacting to the threat. Calysian steps forward, pulling me with him. His lips curl in a humorless smile as he strides toward Kyldare’s men, and a chill ripples through me. Power lashes from him, and black smoke pours down the throats of the closest soldiers, until they’re clawing at their necks, choking and seizing. They slump to their knees, and I flick my own power toward them.

My flame is so hot, it’s blue . When I pull my power back, the soldiers are gone. Only ashes remain.

Calysian laughs.

With a wave of his hand, he sweeps out with more of that black smoke. Several arrows slice through the air toward us, and Calysian’s ward surrounds us.

It’s no longer silver.

No, now it’s obsidian, speckled with silver filaments.

My heart kicks in my chest as more bolts hit the ward.

I feel the fae iron, but there’s also something new. Something dangerous. Something that slices into me. Still, they don’t break through Calysian’s ward. This time, it protects us, the bolts dropping harmlessly to the ground.

Several soldiers turn and run, but Kyldare cuts them down before turning his attention back to us.

“This might hurt,” Calysian muses absently. His voice is distant, and he doesn’t look at me. For the first time, I’m truly afraid. Of him.

He’s himself…but not. His head tilts in a way that’s not even remotely human, his blackened eyes are narrowed as if considering whether he will squash the bugs moving toward us. He’s cold, predatory…amused.

It does hurt.

He pulls more power. Dizziness swamps me and I use my other hand to claw at his forearm. Still, he ignores my struggles. Dark smoke pours from him, a haze that fills my vision until it’s all I can see.

Screams. Terrible, agonizing screams.

My limbs tremble, my knees buckling, and I tug harder, but his grip is unyielding.

“Calysian!”

I shove my own power at him, and this time, my flames dance up his arm, burning his tunic. It’s a warning, and he slowly turns his head, his eyes pinning me in place.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” I rasp.

My heart stutters once. Twice.

Calysian’s brow furrows, as if he hears the missed beats. Horror flickers over his face, and he releases my hand. The smoke disappears.

The soldiers are gone. Nothing but weapons remaining.

Occasional piles of ash mark the places where a few of them once stood.

Kyldare watches us from behind his witch’s ward.

Bridin has turned gray, her face lined, as if holding her own ward against Calysian’s power has drained the life from her.

Good.

Kyldare’s eyes meet mine, and there’s something I don’t recognize within them. His hateful voice crawls over my skin.

“Ah. So Calpharos walks this world once more. Whoring yourself to the dark god won’t save you, Madinia Farrow. I’ll take you back. And when I do, you’ll wish for the days when you were left alone in your tower.”

Calysian snarls. Fear flashes across Kyldare’s face, and he gestures to his witch. Her ward remains high, and they disappear into the forest.

My head spins, my body breaking out into chills.

“Coward,” Calysian hisses, before dropping to his knees in front of me. “Are you hurt?”

Kyldare’s words echo through my head, over and over again. “I’ll take you back. And when I do, you’ll wish for the days when you were left alone in your tower.”

“Madinia.”

A flap of wings. “What did you do?” Eamonn demands. “I could barely see through all your smoke.”

I’m shuddering, vision narrowing as my entire body breaks out in chills. “I won’t be taken back.” My lips are numb, but the words come out anyway, repeating on a loop. “I’ll never go back.”

My heart pounds like a drum, echoing in my ears until it’s all I can hear. Calysian’s lips move, but there’s…nothing.

Just as there was nothing for three years.

Sometimes…sometimes I would almost look forward to Kyldare’s visits. Because I could feel my mind cracking. And despite his viciousness, despite his torture, at least for the short time when he was there, I was allowed to move. To talk.

“I’ll slit my own throat before I go back,” I choke out.

Calysian’s hands move to my shoulders, and he gives me a gentle shake.

Our eyes meet.

“He will never take you,” he vows. “If ever such a thing was to happen, I would come for you. And I would kill him.”

I let out a shuddery breath. “Why?” My voice is hoarse.

“Because this universe has laws. I know this in my bones. And one of those laws is that Madinia Farrow is no one’s captive. She is no one’s victim. You know this, despite your terror telling you otherwise.”

Shoving his hands away, I stumble to my feet. “ You tried to make me a captive.”

He sighs. “A temporary captive. One I would have left with unspeakable wealth.”

I curl my lip at him, and amusement flickers across his face. “There you are.” His hand cups my face, and amusement turns to a strange kind of tenderness.

Slowly, he leans down. I can see his intention in his eyes. I have more than enough time to push him away. To turn my head.

But I don’t.

His mouth is a gentle, warm caress. He teases my lips open, stroking with his tongue, and I sigh against him.

No.

I don’t want gentle from this man.

I nip at his lower lip, and he stiffens. One of his huge hands is suddenly buried in my hair, holding me steady for him as his tongue strokes mine, exploring every inch of my mouth. His hard body crowds mine, walking me backward until my back meets the unyielding trunk of a tree.

My core clenches, demanding more. Demanding everything .

Calysian’s hand slides to my waist, one thumb brushing my ribs in a gentle caress. I shiver, the tenderness so at odds with the way he’s plundering my mouth.

Just that thought is enough to seep into my awareness, and I let out a yelp, the sound muffled against his mouth. I slam my hands against his chest, wrenching my face away. “This isn’t happening.”

Calysian raises his head, giving me a slow smile filled with dark promise. “Oh, it’s happening.”

The satisfaction in his eyes sets my teeth on edge and I shove at him again.

His smile widens and he steps back, allowing me to pass. “You never should have let me taste you. Now I’ll stop at nothing to make you mine.”

I let out a low groan. What was I thinking?

Turning toward where we left the horses, I stumble. Calysian is immediately there, his hand gripping my elbow as he steadies me.

“You’re dizzy.” The heat in his eyes is gone, along with the teasing note in his voice. If not for the way his gaze lingers on my lips, I’d think it had never happened.

“I’m…drained. Exhausted. What did you do when you…”

When he took my hand. When he turned into someone I didn’t recognize.

His expression tightens and he releases me. “You have access to the grimoire’s power. Don’t you?”

I hesitate, but there’s no point lying about it when he can see the evidence. “Yes.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. It might be because I used it once before. It might be because I spent so much time with the grimoire pressed against me as I hid it in my cloak while traveling to this continent.”

His eyes gleam with something that might be realization.

“The last time I saw you, I felt a sudden urge to chase you. It was an instinct I couldn’t ignore.”

I frown. “When?”

“You were boarding a ship in the hybrid kingdom. You had my grimoire then, didn’t you?”

My stomach churns. I never saw him.

“Yes.”

“So you took the grimoire, hid it, and then you somehow used that power— my power —to kill any who attempted to enter your tower. And to escape.”

I nod, my mouth dry. “At first…at first I couldn’t use it. There was just…nothing. And then one day after Kyldare visited, I was filled with such burning rage, I could feel the power calling to me. In my madness, I didn’t understand what it was. Didn’t understand it was the grimoire until later. In that moment, I just knew I could use it to find freedom.”

Calysian studies me. And I get the feeling he sees more than I would like him to.

“For some reason, I cannot access that power myself,” he says. “But I could sense it within you. So I used you as a conduit to the grimoire.”

And he’d nearly killed me. I can see the knowledge in his eyes. The horror had flickered across his face when my flames startled him back into himself.

“You told me to trust you, but you didn’t trust me enough to let me know what you were doing.”

He takes a step back, gazing at me thoughtfully. “You’re right.” He turns away, and then almost immediately whirls to face me once more. “You saved my life. Why?”

I stalk toward the shore. “You likely would have lived.”

He catches up to me easily, his long stride worth two of mine. “Not if they’d cut off my head while I was unconscious. The power that makes me invulnerable to mortals is still out of my reach.”

I flick a glance to Eamonn, who lingers in a branch above us, pretending to mind his own business.

“Your pet bird wouldn’t stop squawking.”

Eamonn swoops to the ground at our feet, and in the blink of an eye, I’m staring at a jaguar. When it lets out a low snarl, I go still.

Calysian eyes him. “Where was that form when the soldiers were attacking, hmm?”

Eamonn merely yawns, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth.

But Calysian turns his attention back to me. “You should have left me. If such a thing happens again, you will run.”

I sneer at him, and he takes a step closer, his face carved into hard lines. “You will do as I say.”

Clearly, he’s feeling the leftover traces of the power he drained from me. There can be no other explanation for why he would think he can intimidate me into falling in line.

When I don’t deign to reply, he throws up his hands. “Who do I think I’m talking to? You reject any plans you haven’t chosen. You probably wonder to yourself ‘what would Calysian prefer for me to do,’ and then you do the exact opposite.”

I raise one eyebrow, because there’s something so fucking reassuring about seeing him hot-blooded and furious after the way he just became something so other .

“Bold of you to assume I consider you at all while making my decisions. Will these hysterics last long? We need to leave this place.”

He snarls.

More relief shudders through me. In this moment he couldn’t be further from the cruel, emotionless god I caught a glimpse of during Kyldare’s attack.

“Children.” Eamonn steps between us, his furry body pressed against my leg. “We have more important things to discuss. Such as how that bolt could take Calysian down.”

It’s a good question, the answer important enough that we spend precious minutes searching for it. It’s Calysian who eventually finds it buried low in the trunk of a tree.

“Perhaps you shouldn’t touch it,” I murmur.

Ripping his tunic from his body, he wraps it around his hand and pulls the bolt free, making the motion look easy. I carefully avoid looking at his wide shoulders. At the way his muscles shift along his back. At the expanse of smooth skin covering those muscles.

“Madinia?”

“Hmm?” He raises one eyebrow and I ignore the amused knowledge in those eyes. “What is that black oil sticking to the iron?”

Calysian holds my gaze for one more long moment, his lips curving.

“Smells like a dead body,” Eamonn says, prowling between us.

He’s right. Calysian raises the bolt between us, and I don’t need to lean forward to scent the cloying reek of rot.

“What is it?”

He shrugs, and I raise a hand, pressing against his cheek to angle his face away from me. He goes still, allowing my touch, and I force myself to focus on the scrape across his neck and not the prickle of scruff beneath my fingers or the hard line of his jaw.

“Your wound is still bleeding. It’s as if your body managed to cleanse the wound with your own blood, rejecting this oily substance.”

I remove my hand, and Eamonn nudges closer to Calysian. “Show me.”

Calysian sighs but lowers himself to his knees, and Eamonn sniffs at the wound, his ears twitching.

“Madinia is right. The wound is clean, but the surrounding skin is covered with that same black poison. Vicana must have created something powerful enough to kill a god.”

It makes sense. Kyldare hadn’t been prepared to come across Calpharos. But his witch was more than prepared. Whatever filth she created, the bolt had struck true. Which means we can’t rely on his wards to protect us.

And now that Kyldare knows who—and what—he’s dealing with. He’ll only be more dangerous.

Calysian shrugs one shoulder, wrapping the arrow entirely in his tunic as he moves toward the horses.

“We’ll see if they can still weaken me with this once I have my grimoire.”