The Shadow and The Draw, page 17
I feel him climb back over me, and he slides his cock into me easily, I’m so wet. His hand holds my face, and he thrusts into me, my stomach quivering against him, my climax still pulsating around him. I press my mouth up against his, and I can taste myself on his lips.
“Open your eyes, baby,” he murmurs against my mouth. He gazes at me, desire hooding his eyes. “You’re so fucking beautiful.”
I turn my face into his hand, nuzzling his palm, moaning into it as he drives himself into me. “Oh fuck,” he groans, his mouth against my neck. I wrap my legs around him, and he’s buried right inside me. I’m going to come again, he feels so fucking good. I arch under him, and the heat between my thighs breaks, sliding between us, throbbing so hard around Amryn’s cock my eyes roll back in my head.
Amryn groans loudly, his shoulders tensed over me, and then with a shudder, he comes inside me. He breathes heavily against my neck, his thumb stroking gently over my lips as I try to catch my breath and clear my head of the haze of euphoria.
His body jerks gently as he starts to laugh, and I turn to look at him. “Why are you laughing?”
He kisses me, and rolls off me, lying on his back. “Just thinking, what a way to get to know our family again.” He looks over at me grinning. “You, screaming in here like a banshee.”
I swat at his chest with the back of my hand. “Hey, you were making plenty of noise too.”
“Yes I was.” He gazes at the ceiling, moving his hand over to me, stroking my chest with the backs of his fingers. “It was fucking magical.”
“We should probably get ourselves presentable and go see everyone,” I say, rolling over under his arm, feeling his hot body against my skin.
He presses a kiss against my temple. “You’re right. I think it’s going to be a big day.” He tucks a hand behind his head, and sighs. “I can’t believe I have a brother.”
I prop myself up on my elbow and touch his cheek. “This must all be - I don’t even know.”
“All these years I thought I was alone, and -“ He exhales heavily, and gives me a small smile. “I mean, I wasn’t alone. But-“
“I know what you mean.” I assure him. “I know. It’s different. Instead of it just being you and me against all of them, it’s us and a family.” A family. The word almost feels strange to say, especially now I don’t even know if I can trust that Anya is my mother.
Amryn eyes me thoughtfully. “You OK?”
“Yeah,” I say with a shrug, “just preparing myself for finding out how much of my life has been a lie.”
Elise is sitting on her porch with a mug in her hand as we approach. She smiles wistfully at us. “Oh, you two,” she says, “seeing you both here, it makes my heart happy.”
“Good morning,” I say, “sorry we slept in.”
“Don’t be silly, honey,” she says, waving her hand dismissively. “You both needed a rest. For what you went through.“ She rises to her feet. “And for what’s still to come.”
Footsteps sound, and Tallesaign rounds the corner of the porch. His eyes settle on Amryn, and I see his brow crinkle for just a moment, a flash of pain in his eyes. He’s just as beautiful as Amryn, the same hazel eyes and silky black hair. But he has a weariness about him that makes my heart hurt. His eyes fix on the floor, and he clear his throat. “Hope you two slept well.” He says, putting his hands in his pockets.
“We did, thanks.” Amryn says.
“You can call me Tal, by the way.” Tal’s eyes look back up at us, and he gives me a crooked grin. “Tallesaign is a stupid name, it’s too long. That’s why -“ He straightens his shoulders, and shakes his head. “That’s why I picked a better name for you, brother.”
Amryn grips my hand a little harder. “You picked out my name?”
Tal leans against the post of the porch, and smiles. “Yeah. I got to do that. I was so -“ His voice cracks, and he shakes his head, heading past us into the cabin.
Elise watches him, and turns to us, sighing. “He’s struggling.” She puts a hand on our shoulders. “Give him time. Now come on, let’s go inside.”
Liall and Ebony are waiting for us as we walk in, sitting at the long kitchen table. Tal is standing by the fire, his hands still jammed in his pockets, and he doesn’t look up.
“Come and sit,” Liall says, gesturing to the chairs opposite them. “Can I get you some breakfast?”
“Uh no, thankyou.” I reply. “I’m feeling a little - I don’t know.”
Ebony nods. “Of course you are.” She leans back in her chair and throws her hands up, smiling. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
I clasp my hands in my lap, and remember Zadkiel’s words. “What happened to my father?”
Liall and Ebony look at each other.
“He was murdered by Lordain.” Tal says.
My blood runs cold. “What?”
Tal looks over his shoulder at me. “Your father, and your mother too.”
Amryn’s hand reaches over to take mine, and I struggle to breathe. I look at Ebony, and she nods. “It’s true.” She sucks in a breath. “Anya isn’t your mother.”
I want to ask questions, but I can’t. I can’t speak. I put my hand to my forehead. My mother. She’s not my mother. The woman who held me when I was sick, who comforted me when I was scared - she wasn’t my mother, even though she’s the only mother I remember.
“Sorry.” Tal says, moving to the end of the table. He looks down at me and shakes his head. “I probably shouldn’t have led with that.”
“No, no, it’s OK.” I assure him, clutching on to Amryn’s hand.
“Who was Anya then?” Amryn asks.
“Cora’s nanny.” Liall replies. “Her real mother was Astrid, Rodelth’s Draw.”
Elise sits down at the other end of the table and raises her hand for silence. “This is pointless, we need to start at the beginning.” She looks at me and sighs. “I’m sorry, but you need to understand everything, because it’s all connected.”
“It’s OK.” My voice is wavering. “Please, I want to know. Everything.”
Elise nods. “Before the clans divided, we were all one clan, united, under one leader.”
“The Shadow Queen.” Amryn says.
“Exactly.” Elise says, nodding. “She’s the conduit for the Old God to the Earth Realm, and without her presence the Earth fell into - well, it became choatic. Clans started to split off into their own groups, leaders declaring themselves Alphas, creating barbaric ceremonies to sate their need for power.”
“But how did they do that?” I ask. “The Old God, why didn’t he stop it?”
“When the angels cast us out of the Halls, their mutiny weakened him,” Liall tells me, leaning on his elbows. His brow furrows, the light from the lamp overhead casting shadows over his face, making him look older, and tired. “And that in turn weakened the Line, our connection to him, to each other. It made the Line vulnerable. And then the witches came.”
Amryn and I look at each other. “Morgan.” Amryn says. He looks over at Elise. “Morgan, Lordain’s wife, she’s one of them.”
Tal makes a sound like a growl, low in his throat, and I turn to look at him. He avoids my eyes, staring at the table.
“Yes, she is.” Elise says, pulling her long black braid over her shoulder, fidgeting with the end of it. “She’s evil.”
“The witches corrupted the old magic,” Ebony says. “They twisted the Line and gave the alphas power they shouldn’t have had. And the angels kept the Old God weak, because without him, they had supreme power over the Earth Realm.”
“Zadkiel, he was with the demons when they attacked Nilau.” I say. “But he said he’s on our side.”
Ebony nods, a small smile spreading across her lips. “Zadkiel is a tricky one, but he’s an ally. He hates the other archangels, ever since he saved that crazy man’s kid up on that mountain. They all make fun of him.” She shakes her head and sighs. “Zadkiel loves the Earth Realm, and he loves humans, and demons, though he’d never admit it.”
“So why did he ally himself with the Hjoldep clan?” Amryn asks, and his hand rubs over his chest, the spot where the dart hit him. My stomach lurches, and I grasp his hand tighter.
“He didn’t. It was a trick.” Liall tells us. “He needed to remove Cora from the clan in Nilau, without arousing suspicion. It had to look like he was working against her.”
Amryn shakes his head. “Yeah, and killing me sure was good cover.”
“It was the only way to break the spell, sweetie.” Elise says, and her eyes flash to Tal for a moment. “We were all terrified. We didn’t know if it would work, even though Zadkiel assured us the blood magic wouldn’t kill you, not permanently at least. We needed you both free of the spell, and we needed Cora to come into her power. The Ascension activated it, but because of the Line being corrupted, it will take more.”
My head is spinning, and I put my head down, taking a deep breath. “So why did Lordain kill my parents?”
“They knew you were the Shadow Queen, honey.” Ebony says. “They knew, the moment you were born, when they saw your white veins, they knew.”
“We all felt it.” Tal says suddenly, and I look up at him. “It was like - the air became heavier the day you were born. Something important had happened.”
“And the other clan leaders, they didn’t want that.” Liall shakes his head, running a hand through his hair. “Much like the angels, they now had reason to not want the Old God to regain his power. There was no way they would relinquish all the power they’d been granted, all the control they now had over what they called Fate.”
“There was a night,” Ebony says, clasping her hands together tightly, “where they sent assassins to kill you. You would have been no more than 3 years old.”
“Heath mentioned it to me when I was in Sfayder.” Even though I knew already, hearing it again sends nausea coursing through me.
“Tallesaign killed them.” Elise says, looking up at him.
My eyes flash to him, and Tal shifts on his feet. He gives me a brief smile. “You and Amryn were in there, I had to protect you both.”
“How old were you?” Amryn asks.
“Seventeen.” He replies, and his eyes go back to the table.
I can’t stand this. I jump out of my seat and put my arms around Tal, hugging him close to me. I feel him tense for a second, and then his arms go around me tentatively. He feels familiar, like Amryn, but different. I clench my eyes shut, and I remember something, faintly, a teenage boy watching me fly, laughing, waving.
I let him go and look up at him, and his hazel eyes gaze at me sadly. He raises a hand to my cheek. I feel a deep ache in my chest, an old and distant echo, and I know I loved him deeply as a child. The adoring big brother. The one who slept on the porch to protect us. The one who taught us how to fly.
Elise sobs quietly, and the sound tears me from my memories. Tal laughs softly, self-consciously, and takes a step back from me. “There’s - there’s a lot there.” He says to me.
Amryn looks at me as I sit down, and I can see the pain in his face. So much loss. So much time, gone. I put my hand back in his, and smile at him. He nods and pulls me close, putting an arm around me and pressing his lips to my forehead.
“So why did Lordain take us?” I ask. “Why didn’t they just kill us like the other clan leaders intended to?”
“Power.” Ebony replies.
“It was Roche’s idea,” Liall says, shaking his head. “There’d been a meeting, and the other clan leaders had heard about Cora, and about you, Amryn.”
“Me?” Amryn asks.
Liall nods. “They knew about the bond between the two of you. The Line had been corrupted, but the Witches couldn’t control everything. And the Line between the two of you, it was obvious, to everyone.”
Amryn scoffs, laughing bitterly. “He fucking knew.” He turns to me, his brow furrowed with pain. “When my Mom died, he said I would always be alone. That was years before the Council told us our Fate. He fucking -“ Amryn breaks off, his shoulders heaving. “He fucking knew.”
I hear Tal suck in a breath as I clutch Amryn to me. “I’m so sorry.” I murmur.
Amryn shakes his head. “OK, so what then? How did Lordain get the support of the other clans?”
Ebony shrugs. “He didn’t. He defied the other clan leaders and claimed you for himself. He’s a power hungry bastard. And he thought that if he abused you long enough, beat you both down, he’d be able to control you, to keep you for his own ends. To -“ She takes a deep breath, her hands balling into fists onto the table. “To - to breed Cora with his own useless offspring, to create some sort of private army.”
“They kidnapped half the clan, to increase their numbers, to make themselves the largest clan, to take our power for themselves.” Liall frowns for a moment. “They tore children from their parents, as many as they could take. Including -“ He looks at Ebony, who has gone pale, her eyes unfocused. “Including our girl.”
“I got back to the cabin, and Anya and Elspeth were gone,” Ebony says, and her shoulders heave for a moment, “and so were you kids.”
“I tried to stop them.” Tal says, and his face crumples. He sucks in a breath through gritted teeth. “Rodelth, and Astrid, and me and Dad. We tried to stop them. And then that fucking witch, she hit me with something, some blood magic, and I was frozen. All I could do was watch.” He looks at Amryn. “Dad took the first hit, shielding us. He died instantly.”
Amryn pushes himself away from the table, putting his hands on his knees, his eyes closed. “I - I remember. I remember - something. You calling out to me.”
Tal nods briefly. “Yeah. I was telling you to run. To fly. But you were so little, and you were scared. You and Cora and Ceili, you were crying.” He clears his throat, and walks back to the fireplace.
“Astrid fell next.” Ebony says to me, and she wipes a tear from her cheek. “She had the drop on the witch, had a knife to her throat. And then Lordain, he - he hit her with his flames. Your father -“ she raises her tear-filled eyes to me, “I’ve never heard anyone make a sound like that. I’ll never forget his face.”
My lips tremble, and I clasp my hands to my mouth. My mother. My father. They had tried to rescue us. Amryn gets out of his chair, and kneels beside me, holding me to him.
“And then Lordain killed Rodelth.” Liall says.
“How?” I ask. There’s silence, and I raise my head to look at them all. “How?”
“Honey,” Elise says hesitantly, “I don’t know if you want to hear this.“
“I’m going to kill him, and I want to know how to kill him when I do.” I say through my tears. “I want to make him suffer the way my father suffered.”
“He burned his head from his body.” Tal says. “He put his hands around his neck, and hit him with his flames, until -“ He turns around, walking back to the table, and leans on his balled fists, looking into my eyes. “I’ll be there when you kill him. We both will be, right, brother?”
Amryn looks at him and nods. “We sure fucking will.”
“We need to get ready to fight.” Tal says, looking around the table at our family.
Our family.
“Cora isn’t ready yet,” Liall says, “she needs to harness the Inera first.”
“The Inera?” I ask.
Liall nods. “The power you have, what killed Roche, and Ragnar’s son. That’s the Inera. Your core power. You’ll be able to flatten cities one day, if you want to. But you need to learn how to control it first.”
“How?” I ask. “I don’t even know how it starts, and -“ I shake my head. “I’m afraid of it.”
“We’ll find a way.” Amryn says to me.
Tal looks down at Amryn. “Her flames can’t hurt you, and neither can the Inera.” He gestures at me. “You’re her Draw.” He smirks and looks at me. “You can use him for target practice.”
We all chuckle, and the tension in the room dissipates. I look at Amryn, and he gives me a crooked grin. “We’ll figure it out. Then we’ll go back to Nilau, and we’ll fucking destroy them. And we’ll bring our clan back here, back home.”
15
Amryn
Iroll over again, punching my pillow for the fourteenth time, hoping that now it’ll be comfortable enough for me to drift off. But it’s no use.
Cora has been sleeping peacefully beside me for an hour, soft and warm, but every time I close my eyes, I see smoke and flames and I hear my brother calling out for me. I tried holding her, hoping her sweet scent would help unfurl the knots in my stomach, but I’m too tense. Maybe I should wake her up and fuck her to try and release what I’m feeling, but I roll my eyes at myself. Fucking juvenile.
I get up out of the bed, and pull my clothes on. I pause in the lounge room of the cabin, looking around, unsure of what to do. I can’t focus. I need to move. I need fresh air.
Out on the porch, the rain rings across the tin roof above me. I inhale deeply, and the rain smells different here. Warmer. Fresher. Maybe it’s just because this is home.
A light at the far end of the porch draws my attention, dim, glowing orange. As it dies away, I realise it’s a cigarette. My eyes adjust to the darkness, and I see it’s Tal standing there, leaning against the wall, his head down.
I approach him slowly, and his head stays down. “Hey.” I say quietly when I reach him, leaning against the wall beside him.
His hand moves out in front of me, and he’s offering me a cigarette. I accept it, and he raises his hand, a small orange flame coming from his palm, and I lean over it, lighting the cigarette. It doesn’t taste like regular tobacco, somehow sweeter, the smoke rising white in the darkness.
“I’m sorry.” Tal says.
“For what?” I ask.
“Not fighting harder to get you.” He flicks his cigarette, and shifts on his feet.
“You weren’t to blame, she hit you with blood magic, man. There’s no fighting that.”
Tal scoffs, and sucks on his cigarette, the orange glow illuminating his furrowed brow. “I’m still sorry. I thought about coming to get you, so many times, over the years. I could - I could feel that you were alone.” He looks over at me. “We had informants over the years, Aevens. Shifters, I guess you'd call them. They’d fly over Nilau in their crow form, and they’d report back to us.”
