A Light in the Flame, page 41
“Do not strike first,” Nektas warned quietly. Thin, long fingers folded around the edge of the trunk, the color a muddy grayish-brown. The fingers curled, digging into the bark. Claws. I stiffened. A thin arm became visible, the skin appearing hard and craggy, like…bark. “They may allow us to pass without incident. Ride slowly. Stay alert.”
I watched that hand on the tree as I nudged Gala forward. “What are they?”
Nektas brought his horse closer to mine. “They’re nymphs, and they’re ancient. They were normally kind, benevolent creatures that lived in the forests and lakes throughout Iliseeum, tending to the land that fed them. Friends of the dragons and then the Primals and gods,” he said, and I zeroed in on the normally part of that statement and the past tense of the rest. “But they are now yet another repercussion of Kolis’s actions. When he stole Eythos’s embers, it corrupted them. Turned them into creatures of nightmares that now feed off pain and torture.”
“Oh,” I whispered. “They sound lovely.”
“They used to be one of the loveliest creatures you’d ever see in Iliseeum,” he returned.
I didn’t let myself feel the twinge of sadness that accompanied the knowledge that Kolis had tainted them. It would do me no favors if I did and they decided that they wouldn’t let us pass. “Were they here when we traveled to the Pillars?”
“They are always here.”
I thought about how both Nyktos and he had been eyeing the land. “Are they what drew Ehthawn away?”
“Probably.” Nektas’s hand rested on the sword strapped to his horse. “They don’t usually attack a Primal or their Consort. Anything and everything else is fair game. Neither draken fire nor eather does anything to them. The only way to stop them is to remove their heads.”
“Great,” I murmured as we passed the tree the one lurked behind. I caught sight of another behind a boulder. “How many do you think are here?”
“There could be hundreds,” he said, and my heart seized. “But I have seen only about a dozen near the road.”
“Must be that good draken eyesight because I’ve only seen two.”
“It is. I also know what to look for.”
We traveled several minutes in tense silence. I saw one more. This time, a little bit more of the nymph. A spindly leg. A foot latched into the bark.
The Rise came more into view, and I was just starting to be a little hopeful that they’d let us pass when Nektas muttered, “Shit.”
Then I saw it.
A nymph crouched in the center of the road, shoulders hunched and so small it had blended into the road itself.
It rose slowly, and I, honest to gods, really wanted to see one of these things before they changed because this creature truly was a thing of nightmares. Skin like bark, twisted and knobbed. Talons for fingers and toes. Facial features cracked and distorted. Skull hairless with a crown of jagged, exposed bone.
“I want to hear you scream,” the nymph hissed in a guttural, wet voice. “I want to see you bleed like a stream.” It lurched into motion, racing toward us.
Nektas withdrew a blade from the sleeve of his cloak. He threw the dagger, striking the creature between the eyes. Thrown back, the nymph howled, thrashing as it grabbed for the blade embedded in its head.
The air filled with hisses from both sides of the road. I cursed, swinging myself down as Nektas did the same. They were a blur, seeming to bleed out from the uneven basin, the trees, and the rocks.
“I’ll get this side,” Nektas advised, striding forward, swinging the shadowstone blade across the throat of the nymph on the road, removing its head. The creature shattered into glittering silver dust. “You got the other?”
I braced myself. “I was considering letting them do whatever, but I suppose so.”
He smirked from within the shadows of his hood as he turned to the right side of the road.
The nymphs converged on us. One was ahead of the others. “Need. Greed. Bleed,” it seethed, leaping.
Stepping forward, I swung the sword straight across as it landed, sweeping the blade through the nymph’s neck. As the creature broke apart, I spun, catching a second nymph. It too exploded.
Two crossed the road at once. “Hate,” one rasped.
“Fate,” another gurgled.
I twisted, kicking the first nymph in the knee. The creature’s leg cracked, splitting up the center. “Ew,” I whispered, driving the sword through the other’s neck and then the first’s as it hobbled toward me.
Glancing at the other side of the road, I saw Nektas methodically cutting through the nymphs. My head whipped as I darted to the side, narrowly avoiding a nymph’s claws.
“Dead. Bled. Red.” The nymph whirled.
“Do they always talk like this?” I yelled as I drew the blade across its neck. There appeared only to be a few left.
Nektas tossed a nymph as he slammed his sword through another. “If you consider rhyming nonsense to be talking, yes.”
The hum of embers in my chest was a whisper in my blood as I swung. A dry hand clawed at the air, inches from my face as I spun. Cursing, I jerked back and turned, thrusting the sword back. The blade struck the nymph’s chest. Dust puffed out, shimmery and thick. I drew the sword up, across its neck—
A horse neighed nervously, causing my heart to plummet. A nymph rushed the horses. “Fear is my spear,” it hissed. “Pain is your gain.”
“That doesn’t even make sense.” I shot after the nymph. “Oh, no, you don’t. You are not going to touch them.”
I clasped the nymph’s shoulder, the skin rough and dry beneath mine, just as it swiped out at Gala. I knew I wouldn’t be fast enough with the sword. The nymph would get its claws in the horse. Fury entrenched itself deep, stirring up the embers. Several things happened at once.
The embers vibrated wildly in my chest, heat flooded my veins, and silvery-white light crowded the corners of my vision as power built, ramping up inside me and charging the air. I gasped as eather sparked across my hand. I jerked back, but it was too late. The essence flowed over the nymph and seeped through the husk of its flesh. Light filled all the hundreds of tiny cracks all over its body, lighting it up from the inside and then from the outside. Eather poured from its open mouth and eyes.
The nymph exploded.
A wave of power blew back, so intense the burst of eather knocked me on my ass when it rolled into me.
“Holy shit,” I whispered, lifting the sword as a shadow fell over me. Nektas stared down at me. “I thought you said eather didn’t do anything to them?”
“It shouldn’t,” he said. “Only the Primal of Life can wield the kind of eather that can kill a nymph.” Nektas jerked his hood back. “It’s the same kind of power that can kill another Primal.”
Nektas said very little the remainder of the journey back to the palace, and that left me a bit uneasy.
I wasn’t a Primal, so I couldn’t understand how I could have the kind of eather in me that could kill another Primal. Or how the embers could be that strong.
And I had hit Nyktos with that eather. I could’ve…
Gods, I couldn’t even let myself finish that line of thought—a sure indicator of how much I’d changed. What I needed to do was work on controlling the embers until Nyktos removed them.
After giving Gala a quick brush down and some alfalfa, I parted ways with Nektas as I entered the palace, promising to go straight to Nyktos. Nektas left to return to Jadis, who was in the mountains I’d yet to see.
Figuring Nyktos must be in his office, I headed there and entered the hall. Within a few seconds, I grinned at the sensation of the embers wiggling in my chest. I stepped into the alcove, noting that the door was ajar as I pushed one side open—
I stopped, his name shriveling and dying on my lips before it could even become a whisper. I couldn’t understand what I saw. It was as if my mind couldn’t process what my eyes were telling me.
That it was Nyktos seated on the settee, one hand lax on the cushion beside him, the other clenching the arm in a white-knuckled grip. His body taut, head thrust back, and eyes closed, the striking lines of his face tense, and his skin paler than it should be.
Or that he wasn’t alone.
Nowhere close to that.
Someone was in his lap. A female—a thin, willowy female wearing a shimmery, violet gown was in his lap. Straddling him. Golden-blond ringlets fell against his chest and shielded her face as she clutched his shoulders, pale fingers digging into the dark shirt—as she moved against him. I couldn’t see her face, but I knew who it was.
Veses.
The Primal of Rites and Prosperity was in Nyktos’s lap. Touching him. Riding him. Feeding from his throat.
Chapter 29
My heart sped up and then slowed as my body flashed hot before turning icy. I felt utterly nothing as I stood there, staring at Nyktos. At Veses. At them. I tried to make sense of what I was seeing—why he was with anyone, let alone her, the one he’d called the worst sort.
It didn’t make sense.
It couldn’t.
Maybe I’d hit my head fighting the nymphs and was hallucinating because that seemed more plausible than this. Than her feeding from Nyktos. Than them together.
Because I’d told him that I wanted to be his Consort.
He’d called me liessa—someone he found beautiful. Someone he found powerful.
Someone who would become his Queen.
Then she moaned, the sound husky and sensual. The arm of the settee creaked under Nyktos’s tightening grasp, and the noise—the sounds—knocked me out of the shocked numbness.
My mind. My body. Every part of me processed what I was seeing. Emotions came in a rising tide, swamping me, and they were intense and sudden as Nyktos’s head jerked sluggishly. I shuddered under the hot, stifling weight of…of hurt. Raw, tangy agony drenched every pore. Suffocating, crushing hurt carved through muscles and bone. The crack in my chest shook as my skin prickled with heat.
With something else.
Veses’ golden head lifted at the sound of air wheezing from my parted lips. Two deep, angry puncture wounds marred the side of Nyktos’s throat. Thick, shiny hair slid back over one slender shoulder as the Primal looked at me. The pouty, blood-red mouth stood out grotesquely against the delicateness of her beauty. Surprise flickered over her features, then luminous silver eyes widened and then locked with mine as her pink tongue darted over her lower lip. She licked at the blood there. Nyktos’s blood.
Bitter bile crowded my throat. I choked on it, still rooted in place, unable to move as Veses looked me over. Sized me up. The twist of her lip told me she found what she saw lacking, and, gods, I felt that all the way to the bone as I stared at her. At them. Two beautiful, powerful Primals. Together.
Veses’ eyebrow rose. That scathing curl transformed into a painfully beautiful smile. “So, this is her?” she asked, speaking in that throaty voice I remembered before she giggled.
Nyktos’s head turned slowly. His eyes fluttered open, and that—that was all I could take.
There was no thought behind my actions. It was instinct. I stumbled back a step, bumping into the door. Heart thumping once more, I spun around.
Veses laughed.
And that blade-sharp laugh followed me as I walked from the office. It clung to my skin because I’d never felt so naïve, so foolish. That laugh stayed with me as the crack in my chest shuddered violently. But it was Nyktos’s words that haunted me as I broke into a run.
She’s very important to me.
I ran blindly, my throat constricting.
You are one of the strongest people I’ve ever met.
I threw open the door as the embers in my chest pulsated, joining the throbbing agony.
You were never a ghost to me.
Some unknown need drove me down the narrow, musty stairwell.
Liessa.
My boots slipped on the steps. I went down on my ass, the flare of dull pain nothing compared to the sorrow crushing me from the inside. I’d never felt anything like it before as I scrambled to my feet and kept going. Not even when my family left for the country estates, and I had been too young to understand why they’d left me behind. Not even the stinging slap my mother delivered the night of my seventeenth birthday had hurt this badly. Wasn’t as deep. Didn’t steal every too-short breath.
I hit the gap between the last step and the floor with a grunt, but I didn’t slow. I raced past the cells, trying to outrun what I saw. Outpace Nyktos’s words.
You are brave and strong.
The bars lining the cells were a blur as I passed them, reaching the end of the first hall. I went left as pressure clamped down on my chest.
You will be a Consort more than worthy of their swords and shields.
The shadowstone walls crowded me as I tried to escape myself.
My stupid heart.
My foolish ideas of him—of Nyktos. Of what I could mean to him. Of what he meant to me. There was no running away from them as I fell against the door at the end of the hall. Each breath I took hurt as I pressed my forehead against the wood, squeezing my eyes shut against the welling dampness. But it was too late. My cheeks were damp, even though I didn’t cry. I didn’t allow myself that.
I clamped my jaw shut as I slammed my palm against the door, searching for anger. For fury. But all I found was grief. Hurt. Disappointment. In him. In me.
I shouldn’t have made that deal with him. It was never pleasure for the sake of pleasure. I’d been lying to myself then. I could see that now. I wouldn’t have been so torn up over what my betrayal had done to him if it was only about that. I wouldn’t have wanted him and only him.
And for him to demand that I seek pleasure from no one else? How dare he?
Hands shaking, chest aching, I found the handle and yanked it open. I staggered into the dimly lit cavern of a chamber, closing the door behind me. I backed up, shoving my hands over my face as the pool trickled softly behind me. My fingers were wet, and I…I shouldn’t have allowed this.
“Oh, gods,” I whispered hoarsely, trembling.
I shouldn’t have let myself feel anything. I should’ve known better. I had been trained better than this. I was smart. Fierce. Empty. Cunning—
The image of Veses curled around Nyktos assaulted me, and I saw her moving against him. Feeding from him. And I remembered what his bite did to me. I couldn’t forget how shocking that pleasure had been. Had she made her bite hurt like Taric had with me? Or did she give him the same kind of pleasure Nyktos gave me? I saw his white-knuckled grip on the arm of the chair. She had his blood in her. Did she have anything else inside her? With her gown, I couldn’t—
Gagging, I spun around and bent, clasping my knees as the crack in my chest shook and shook. I straightened suddenly, staring straight ahead but seeing nothing of the pool’s dark beauty. His pool.
He’d told me there had been no one before me. And his supposed lack of experience? How I believed him to be a fast learner? I closed my eyes, but it didn’t stop me from seeing Veses again, so comfortable with touching him. I once more saw her in his lap, and I flinched.
I should’ve fucking known.
Nyktos couldn’t love. Maybe he could care, but whatever stopped someone from doing that had to come from the same place that love did. The same place attachments were held. Bonds that ran deeper than blood. I should’ve expected there would be no such loyalty to me.
I laughed, the sound shocking and strange. My eyes peeled open as I grew hot. Reaching for the clasp on my cloak, I tore it free, letting it float to the ground, where it trembled. I wouldn’t have given a damn if he’d slept with half the mortal realm and Iliseeum before me. But he had lied, and none of my lies made his sting any less. Because what I saw was today. Not before. He had her in his office, in his lap, and she had been feeding from him, doing the gods only knew what else. After me.
After he’d told me how brave and strong I was. How worthy I was. After he’d told me I had never been a ghost to him. After I’d felt safe with him. Slowly, I turned to the stone table and…I could see us there.
The anger finally came, pouring into me, filling my veins, and seeping through my bones. Rage flooded the crack in my chest, swallowing the vibrating embers, and what came rushing back felt as rotten and decayed as the nymphs. Fire swept through me, seizing my lungs as I stared at the stone table. Safe. I’d felt safe here with him. Safe enough to let myself want more. To feel. To live. To hope. Pressure built and built. Air charged around me and then stilled. The water stopped whispering. I trembled as I took a step forward, my mouth opening. The sound that came from me hurt my ears, and with it came a tidal wave of pain and fury and power—ancient, infinite power. Unleashed.
The stone table shattered into ashes.
Faint, flickering light and shadows danced against the now-bare wall. I looked down at my hands—at the widespread fingers lit from within. Silvery light pressed against the sleeves of my blouse as I shook, as dust drifted down, falling onto my wet cheeks. My blood and my lungs continued to burn. I kept shaking—no, it wasn’t me shaking. It was the walls and the high, sweeping ceiling.
Heart tripping, I turned to the pool. The water tossed and tumbled violently but made no sound. Dust fell in thicker sheets like snow. Panic blossomed as the cloak appeared to vibrate along the floor. Pain lit up my chest. Real pain. I wasn’t breathing. I was holding my breath.
I forced my mouth open to inhale, but my throat felt bumpy and scaled now. Only thin wisps of air got through as I desperately went through Holland’s technique, struggling to control myself.
A fissure cracked along the wall, startling me. Another formed in the floor, sounding like thunder.
Oh, gods. I was doing this.
I needed to breathe, but I needed to calm first. I frantically searched for the veil in my mind as I sank to my hands and knees. In the distant part of my brain, I knew I was breathing too fast. That was the problem, but I couldn’t find the emptiness, the blank canvas I hated so much. I couldn’t find myself in the calm because I wasn’t sure I would even recognize myself if I did. That I would even know who or what I was.
