Lure of Lightning, page 21
I stare back up at them, unable to even blink my eyes.
“Demon venom,” Thorne says. “Look at her shoulders. Puncture wounds.”
“Shit!” Beaufort mutters, making my heart and my lungs – the only things that still seem to be working – beat and expand all the more quickly.
“Just relax, sweetheart,” Beaufort says, sweeping me up into his arms.
“The demons are retreating,” Drays says, from somewhere beside us. “I think the dragon spooked them.”
“Then let’s get her inside the fort,” Beaufort says. “I have an idea of how we can keep the demons out and us safe.”
“Safe?” Dray scoffs. “Bardin could be in there.”
“No, if Bardin was nearby, she’d be out here fighting alongside the demons. She wouldn’t want to miss her opportunity to annihilate Briony.”
“What about the dragon?” Thorne asks.
Beaufort spins on the spot and, although I can’t move a muscle in my face, I can move my eyeballs. I roll them to the side and can just make out the form of Blaze several feet away.
“Come on, boy,” Beaufort calls to him. “She’s going to be okay. You come with us.”
Then Beaufort is racing us further up the hill and to the entrance of the crumbling fort. From what I can see, it’s just one rectangular-shaped tower, with some remaining turrets running along its top.
Thorne uses his shadow magic to tear open the large decaying wooden door that blocks the entrance – an entrance big enough to let a dragon pass through. Next, he lets his shadows race inside, checking for danger. His face is drawn in concentration but then suddenly his brows shoot up his forehead in surprise.
“There’s someone in there!”
My heart leaps with hope.
“Tudor?” Dray asks, speaking the word I can’t.
“I can’t tell.” Thorne frowns again. “They’re injured though, weakened. So whether they’re friend or foe, I don’t think they’re any threat to us.”
He leads the way inside cautiously, Beaufort following next, then Dray and finally Blaze, the giant door slamming shut behind us.
It’s dark inside, and Dray uses his magic to light our way.
We find ourselves in one large entrance room, several much smaller doorways leading off it. A rough ceiling rests above our heads and a staircase weaves away to the upper floors.
“We need to seal this place with our magic,” Beaufort says, lowering me carefully to the hard floor.
“We need to remove the fucking venom!” Dray says with a snarl.
“And risk being attacked by another swarm of demons in the meantime?!” Beaufort shakes his head. “No, we ensure this place is secure first. Then we see to Briony.”
Thorne nods his agreement and Dray, outvoted, pouts but raises his arms along with his bond brothers and lets his shadows race away. All three of them close their eyes, whispering the old language and the old walls of the fort seem to creak and groan in response.
After a moment, they all drop their arms and open their eyes in unison, then Dray and Beaufort are lowering to their knees either side of me, rolling up their sleeves as they do so.
Thorne stands a little away from us, but his eyes are trained on me, never flinching away.
“Okay, sweetheart,” Beaufort tells me, resting his hand against my cheek, “seems we’re back here and unfortunately, once again, I can’t pretend this is going to be pleasant, but once it’s done, you’re going to feel a lot better than you do now.”
My eyes flick to Dray.
“It’s gonna hurt,” he confirms.
If I could move or speak, I’d sigh dramatically. Of course, it’s going to hurt.
Beaufort tears away my clothing – I hear the material ripping – exposing the puncture marks the demon made with its talons.
“I’m going to touch these wounds now, Briony,” he tells me, but I don’t feel anything. My skin is completely numb. “They’re deep,” he mutters to Dray.
“Can you feel the venom?” Dray asks.
Beaufort’s brow furrows. I hear a squelching noise and try not to think about what it could be.
“Ahhh, yes!” Beaufort says.
“How much is there?” Dray asks.
Beaufort’s gaze flicks my way, meeting mine. “A fair bit. I’m going to need your help, Dray.”
What they do next surprises me. Beaufort holds out his hands above my body and Dray takes them in his. Their shadows rush from their palms, twisting and twining around one another in tight cables, then they dive towards me with intent and if I could speak or move I’d be squealing and darting away.
“Stay with us,” Beaufort says to me.
At first I feel nothing at all. Then a slight warmth in my shoulders, exactly where the demon gripped me. To begin with, it’s actually quite pleasant and I wonder if these shadow weavers were exaggerating. That pleasant feeling doesn’t last long, though. Soon my skin is heating rapidly, burning me and soaring from my shoulders up my throat, down my stomach until it’s engulfing the whole of my body. I feel like I’m on fire, like someone has placed me in an oven and is roasting me alive – from the inside out.
“Briony!” Beaufort growls, seeing the agony in my eyes. “Fight it, don’t let it consume you.”
I try to do what he says, fighting back against the heat, but it’s so hot, too hot, I’m going to burn to death.
Then suddenly my muscles release. I can move.
Immediately, I’m wriggling, flailing on the ground, trying to claw myself away.
“Thorne!” Beaufort snaps. “Don’t just stand there – we need your help. You need to hold her down or we won’t be able to wrestle the venom out of her.”
“I can’t–” Thorne begins.
“Don’t be a dick,” Dray growls through gritted teeth. “You have no choice.”
Thorne falls to his knees, hovering over me. For a moment he hesitates, gaze flicking over me as I scream and thrash about in agony. Then, he drops forward, his hands landing on my arms and pinning me in place. Almost exactly at the moment his skin connects with me, his shadows come roaring from his body and swirl above us like a menacing whirlpool.
“Beaufort!” I cry out, my face wet with tears. “Beaufort, make it stop!”
“Nearly there, sweetheart,” he says through gritted teeth, “nearly there!”
I scream as the heat sears through my body and Thorne holds me down. It lasts several never-ending agonizing seconds before both Dray and Beaufort tumble backwards, groaning and swearing and the heat stops – just like that.
My body goes limp in relief. However, Thorne doesn’t let me go. His shadows roar in the air around us, fierce and violent, and his face is all scrunched up in concentration. Sweat swims across his brow, his shoulders rise and fall quickly, and he’s trembling, his fingers digging into my flesh.
“Thorne!” I cry out. “Thorne!”
His eyes are screwed tightly shut. He seems lost in his own world.
“Beaufort! Dray!” I call out, not knowing what to do. Should I fight my way free? Try to reach him.
It’s Blaze who comes to my rescue, bellowing at the shadow weaver and then knocking him off me with his snout.
Immediately, I scramble upward and Blaze is slurping his tongue over my face.
I look around towards Thorne. He’s hunched in a ball, every muscle in his body rigid, his shadows soaring angrily about him.
Beaufort and Dray stumble up onto their feet and come to stand beside me.
“What’s going on?” I ask them in alarm.
“He’s fighting to regain control of his shadows,” Beaufort says, arms raised as if he half expects to have to intervene. Or is it to protect me?
He doesn’t need to, though, because Thorne’s shadows come hurtling back into his body and he collapses forward in relief.
“Thorne,” I whisper, about to rush forward to him. Dray stops me.
“Give him a minute.”
I do, watching as he slowly catches his breath, swiping his arm around his brow. Finally, he lurches back to his feet.
“Briony,” he says, his voice all scratchy, not quite able to meet my eyes, “are you okay?”
“I’m perfectly fine,” I say, managing a smile. “Very glad I can move again.”
“Demon venom is the worst,” Dray says, shaking his head.
“I definitely don’t fancy repeating the experience.”
I step towards Thorne, but he backs away.
“Thorne,” I say, “what happened?”
Thorne looks away. His shoulders rise and fall. Then he turns his head back to me.
“Holding you down like that … my shadows … they …”
“Oh,” I say, my cheeks heating as I understand his meaning.
Dray cackles beside me. “Dirty fucking bastards.”
“I nearly lost control, Briony. I’m sorry.” I wish he’d stop apologizing for things that aren’t his fault, but at least he’s making eye-contact with me this time and isn’t clamming up.
I take a decided step towards him, and this time he stays in place.
“Did it ever occur to you that maybe I’d like them to lose control?” I say.
Thorne’s jaw tightens and his hands curl into fists. “Briony,” he warns.
But I refuse to back down, holding his mesmerizing dark gaze in mine.
“Be careful what you wish for, Nini,” he growls and I can feel his shadows crackling to break free.
“How about we all take a breath for a moment,” Beaufort says, interrupting the moment and the tension. “The last thing we need right now is Thorne’s shadows running out of control. We need them to keep you safe, Briony.”
I sincerely consider sticking my tongue out at him for ruining our moment, but I suppose he is right.
“Why don’t you and I go look for whoever is in here?” Beaufort says to Thorne.
“I want to come,” I say. It could be Fox – it has to be, doesn’t it?
“No, you stay here,” he says, “look after Dray and the dragon–”
“Hey, I don’t need babysitting,” Dray says.
“You don’t?” Beaufort says. “Then what the hell was that all about out there? Charging off without us.”
“It’s the full moon,” Dray explains. “I can’t help it.”
“Exactly!” Beaufort says with a smug grin.
“Exactly,” Dray repeats, “so if you leave me alone with our mate, when it’s the full moon, don’t complain if I fuck her senseless.”
“Blaze,” Beaufort says addressing the dragon, “if he tries anything on with Briony, you have my permission to torch him.”
Blaze huffs as if he approves of this plan.
Beaufort and Thorne move off towards the first door.
“If it’s Fox–” I start.
“If it’s Fox, we will tell you immediately,” Thorne says. “You have my word.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Beaufort
Once we’ve passed out of the vast entrance hall and into one of the smaller rooms that leads off it, I turn to my bond brother and ask him,
“Be honest with me, Thorne, are you back in control?”
He scowls at me. “If I wasn’t, you know I wouldn’t be here. I’d never put her in danger.” Then he scowls harder. “You made me hold her down.”
“We didn’t have a choice. You know what happens if you fail to remove the venom once the spell has started.”
He nods. “I’ve never seen it fight like that.”
“Yeah.” I drag my fingers through my hair. “For a moment …” I don’t finish my thought. The gloom of this place is infectious; it will drag you down and take your mind if you let it. Dwelling on how close we came to losing Briony just then is not worth it. “Where was this person?”
Thorne points above his head and together we climb the stairs.
The rooms on the next floor are smaller and more decayed. The walls are crumbling away to the ground and, in some places, the ceiling has caved in. We make our way through each room, one at a time, until we hear something. A scratching or a scrabbling?
“It could be a creature?” I venture.
Thorne shakes his head. He’s certain about this.
I extinguish the light and we raise our hands, then, quietly, we creep through into the next room. It’s even darker here and it takes our eyes several minutes to adjust.
The room stinks of decay and something more rancid.
Thorne never said if the person was dead or alive.
I sweep my gaze around the tight room, finding a bundle of gray blankets in one corner. Thorne spots it too and nods.
I send my shadows racing across the room, poking at the bundle. It makes a faint pitiful sound.
“Hello?” I say. But there’s no response, just another groan.
I use my magic to draw back the blanket and what I see doesn’t quite compute in my head.
Not Fox, the face that peeks through is much older, weathered and withered. For a split second, I think it must be a corpse. But it moans a third time and shifts slightly.
I exchange looks with Thorne. He’s clearly as confused as I am. Cautiously, we make our way closer, almost a foot away from the body, when Briony comes shooting past us.
“Fox?” she cries out as Dray comes hurrying after her.
“I tried to stop her,” he mumbles.
Briony halts by the figure and her body, alive with anticipation a moment ago, signals her disappointment in the next, her shoulders dropping and her chin falling down.
“You’re not Fox,” she says, “who are you?”
She’s peering down into the old face, a man’s face, a long white beard hanging limply from his chin.
The man opens his mouth and tries to speak but no words come out.
Briony crouches down beside him, despite the hand I place on her shoulder in warning.
“Are you hurt?” she asks him. He says nothing, staring up at us with milky eyes. “Water. He needs some water.”
Dray hurries from the room and returns with one of our rucksacks. He digs around inside and pulls out one of our water bottles, handing it to Briony.
“Should we be wasting our supplies?” I caution. “We don’t know who this is.”
“It’s not wasting,” Briony says, scowling at me and unscrewing the lid. “Help him up.”
This man could be cursed, or dangerous. This feeble act could be a trap, one we’re walking into.
I go to point all this out, but Dray’s already crouched down too, sliding his arms under the man’s shoulders and gently lifting him slightly. Briony brings the rim of the bottle to the man’s lips and pours the water into his mouth. At first he splutters, and chokes but then he finally manages to swallow a few mouthfuls.
Briony tips the bottle away, and Dray lays him back down.
“Th-thank you,” he says, his voice scratchy like he hasn’t used it in a long time.
“Who are you?” Briony repeats.
“It’s been so long,” the old man says, “I’m not sure I remember.”
“What are you doing here, Sir?” I ask him.
“Where is here?” he says, his features scrunching up in confusion.
“The Demon Realm, Sir,” I tell him.
The old man’s body shudders. “Ahhh, yes the demons.” His gaze floats around the room, as if he’s looking for them. “Are you demons?”
“No, we’re shadow weavers,” I tell him. “And Briony is a lumomancer.”
“A lumomancer,” he says. “There hasn’t been one of those in many, many years. You must be special. Who brought you here? Was it her?”
“Who?” I say, suddenly more alert to his words.
“Huh?” he says.
“You asked if it was her? Who do you mean?”
He stares up at us in even more confusion.
“Why are you here?” he asks us.
“We’re looking for a friend,” Briony tells him.
“The Empress has sent us on a mission,” I correct
Briony ignores my interruption. “A man. Have you seen him?”
“You’re the first I’ve seen in many, many years.” Something catches in his throat, and he coughs, his old eyes watering. “Water,” he croaks.
Dray lifts him again and Briony offers him more of the liquid.
“Do you want food?” Briony asks, but he shakes his head. “Do you know where the man – our friend – could be?”
“You must be very good friends,” he mumbles, his eyes drifting shut, “no one has come for me in all this time.”
His eyes remain shut and it’s clear he’s fallen asleep.
I pull Briony up to her feet and take her to one side, the others following us.
“This makes no sense,” I say, “he can’t really have been here all that long. He wouldn’t have survived.”
“He must be a prisoner. Like Fox,” Briony says. “What are we going to do with him?”
“Do?” Dray says.
“We can’t just leave him here,” she says, placing her hands on her hips.
I sigh, leaving him was exactly what I had planned to do. “We can’t take him with us. It’s dangerous enough out there as it is. He can’t sit, let alone walk, let alone defend himself.”
“We could send him back to safety on the back of Blaze,” Briony suggests.
“We don’t even know if we can trust him,” I point out.
She scowls at me.
“Look,” I say, “we’re not going any further right now. We’ve sealed this place up. Our protection spells should last a good few hours. Time enough for us to get some rest, catch up on some sleep.” I lower my voice. “We can talk to him some more, work out who he really is and make our decision.”
Briony chews her lip, then nods her head. “I’m going to check on Blaze,” she says, walking away. Dray glances towards me, I nod and he follows her.
“Who do you think he is?” Thorne asks,
“I don’t know,” I whisper. The only men or women who have strayed out here into the demon realm in the last few decades have either been fleeing or banished. Either way, they have been enemies of the Empress, enemies of the realm. Which means, in theory, they are our enemies too. He may look like a sweet old man to Briony, but I very much doubt we can trust him.
