Desire, page 26
“Are they supposed to be glowing?” he asked.
“No.” Tom approached it carefully, his aura shimmering with light blue light. “Someone messed with it. Trying to open it.”
Alana stepped closer, but Tom lifted his hand. “Don’t.” He glanced at Kylan. “Just ignore its calling. Both of you.”
Alana stepped back like her feet were on fire and Kylan narrowed his eyes. Both of them? He knew the story behind this portal. This was the one where Donovan and Faelyn Whitestone had been killed and the portals were locked by Madelyn Cloven, using blood from three bloodlines. One of them was his, the others were Madelyn herself, and James Nolan.
He shook his head. No. It couldn’t be.
He watched Tom as he handled what seemed like an enormous amount of magic with ease, then his gaze traveled to Alana. It couldn’t be. They couldn’t be the people he was looking for. The Rune emerged inside him, calling for him to be used again stronger than it had been in the past few weeks. It was too much. The guilt, the sense of betrayal. How could he give Alana to his father when he loved her so much and for so long? Love. It was there again. The death of his duty, a weakness. Without it, he wouldn’t hesitate to deliver the news to his father, because this was as much proof as he’d get without asking questions.
Ethan. He could use him instead of Alana. And sending Lady Darina to her death with that decision. There was no way out of this mess.
“Kylan?” Alana’s voice was worried. “Are you alright?”
He looked at her, realizing that his body was tensed up, his knuckles white from the force he fisted his fingers. “Yes.”
“Your chest lit up a few times.” She searched his face, placing a hand above his heart. “You figured it out, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
Alana nodded slowly, understanding showing in her eyes. “You have to decide where to go from here, Kylan.”
He nodded, not sure what else to do. It was really time for him to pick a side, a future.
Tom joined them, the magic slowly leaving his body, his eyes returning to their normal shade.
“Did you find anything?” he asked.
“We’re in trouble.” Tom glanced back. “The sacrifices in Ugresh are connected to the portal’s magic. I don’t know how. Yet.”
Kylan frowned. “Anything you can do now?”
Tom shook his head. “Its magic is more powerful than anything in this world. The only thing we can do is to make sure it won’t be opened.”
“Then let’s get out of here.” Kylan glanced at the pillar one last time, then turned to go back to their camp.
They walked back in silence, Kylan dictating a fast pace to get to safety as soon as possible. His thoughts were raging. So far, he’d been only focusing on a possible war. But he had more to lose if he stayed. Who’d look after Aiden? What would happen to his concubines? Those were questions he couldn’t answer alone, and he found himself longing for a lecture, or just a conversation with his grandfather. He sighed. One of those heart to heart chit-chats would come handy right now.
Just a few minutes away from the camp, a shiver ran down on Kylan’s spine, covering his back and arms with goosebumps.
“Oh, fuck.” His hand moved to his sword.
“What?” Tom asked.
“I think…” A pack of lynx-demons jumped out from the bushes. “Nevermind.”
He pulled out his sword and drew fire around his left hand. He stepped aside and, with Alana’s help, he ignited the ground between them and the demons. They kept the fire low, so Tom could aim, but the creatures couldn’t jump over it without getting burned.
Kylan waited as arrows flew with deadly speed towards the demon, but as soon as one dropped dead, the others attacked. His training kicked in, pushing everything else into the back of his mind. When a lynx-demon leaped over, he lifted the fire, burning it alive.
Two lynxes managed to get through the chaos. Alana jumped at one of them and sliced its throat. The other pushed itself from the ground, attacking Tom. Kylan pulled out one of his knives and threw it. He missed its skull by inches, but the blade drilled into its shoulder, knocking it down. A second later, one of Tom’s arrows replaced its eye.
As fast as the attack had come, it was over. At least for now. Kylan put out the flames and helped collect the arrows from the bodies.
The direction of the wind changed, and the faint scent of humanoid demons reached him.
He handed the last few arrows to Tom. “Get ready.”
Tom nodded, the air vibrated around him and his eyes glowed with magic again. “Time to choose a side, Whitestone.”
“Don’t I know it,” he muttered as he turned to look around.
Noises came from everywhere and a queasy feeling in Kylan grew stronger. Looking around with the lion’s eyes, he saw dog-demons approaching from their left, and more lynx-demons coming from their right. A bird’s scream echoed around them. He looked up, just to see about two dozen hawk-demons jumping from branch to branch and owl-demons resting amongst the leaves.
“Do you believe me now?”
Alana didn’t answer, but covered her blades with fire.
“Any plans?” Tom asked.
“Don’t die,” Kylan answered.
“Good plan.”
The dog-and lynx-demons jumped around them at the same time. Kylan counted at least twenty dog-demons.
“I’ll deal with the lynxes,” Alana said and walked behind Tom to cover him.
He turned to the dogs, once again covering his left arm with fire.
When the demons attacked, he released a flood of fire. Without forming it or holding back its full potential, the flames burst out of his hand, wild and hot.
He dodged from a jumping demon and cut it open with his sword, leaving himself vulnerable for a split second. It was enough for one of the demons to get close and leap. At the last moment, he lifted his arm to block the attack, the dicralux blunting the bite, protecting his arm from the bone breaking force.
The creature screamed as its jaw closed on the flames on his arm. Kylan shot fire into the dog’s mouth, burning it from the inside. He shook off the body off his forearm, just to find himself surrounded by five more demons.
Alana’s situation wasn’t much better and Tom had shot almost all of his arrows.
The young man was surrounded by dead demons from the trees. But even with Tom’s skills, there were too many. At least ten more creatures than the number of arrows in his quiver, attacked from above. They needed a miracle to get out of this situation alive. And he was pretty sure he was short on miracles.
The demons attacked again, way too synchronized for such creatures, but there wasn’t time to ponder it. Tom and Alana moved like a well-oiled machine, the years of training together showing in their moves. Kylan tried to fill the gaps but his style, his training was different, so he mostly did what he’d always done—fighting alone, counting only on himself.
He stabbed, sliced, and dodged. Nothing else existed, just the next victim. His blood pounded in his ears, a wave of tiredness ran down in his arms and his moves slowed.
The warmth of magic entered his body, giving him more strength and speed. Kylan glanced back at Tom, who just finished with his spell and pulled out his stilettos with a wink.
With the strength Tom’s spell gave him, Kylan attacked again.
Diving his sword into a demon’s skull, he kicked back to push another away, shooting fire from his foot.
He leaned to the right, but the demon reached him, leaving a claw mark on his neck. He hissed and swung his sword, cutting the creature’s head off.
Another attack knocked him from his feet, and he dropped his sword. He managed to stop the creature before it smashed into his skull. He reached for one of his knives and stabbed it into the demon’s heart.
The smell of burned fur, skin, and blood filled the air, and the demons froze in place. The ground shook and a cracking noise came closer.
Dropping the body aside, he stood and lifted his sword from the ground. Just in time to face the bear-demons. Six bears surrounded them. All of them were covered with stone hard black skin and all of them were twice as big as a normal bear. Kylan swallowed.
The knot he felt inside his chest grew when four wolf-demons stalked forward. Their white fur was yellow around their mouth from the venom in their saliva. The ground around them fumed as the poison leaked from their claws.
Kylan turned to the others. Tom’s face was pale, but his grip on his weapons stayed steady. A wound closed on Alana’s face, and terror filled her eyes. Wolf-demon poison was deadly, even for a healer. It slowed down the healing process and didn’t let the blood clot.
“Leave the wolves to me,” Kylan told Alana.
Kylan sheathed his sword and shifted. He needed the strength and speed of the lion to kill these demons.
He jumped and tore open the first wolf’s throat. He threw the body onto a lynx-demon and cracked open the next wolf-demon’s skull with his paw.
Before he could move, a bear-demon’s foot hit him. He flew and spun in the air until a tree stopped him. From the strength of the impact, the air was knocked out of his lungs, leaving him defenseless. He tried to stand but collapsed back onto the ground. Kylan shook his head to clear his vision.
A dog jumped on his back and sharp pain bit into his arm, where the creature’s teeth dived into his flesh. He shook off the dog and smashed its ribs into tiny pieces with his paws.
Kylan dodged from the next wolf-demon’s attack and shoved it aside. Right into a bear-demon’s claw. The wolf screamed in agony before it went limp.
Changing back into human, Kylan ran for the last wolf before it reached Alana.
Alana spun away from a lynx-demon, as she shot fire at a bear-demon, leaving her back defenseless. The wolf jumped and sliced into Alana’s back, tearing open the dicralux.
Alana screamed as she collapsed onto her knees.
Kylan couldn’t move, as fear tore into his heart. He couldn’t lose her. Not again. Not like this.
The wolf attacked her again, and Kylan shot a fireball, hoping it would push it away from her. With a few large steps, he was next to Alana, just in time to stab his dagger into the wolf’s skull.
Heart racing in his throat, his senses blunted by the freezing fear in his veins, he crouched next to her, examining her wound. Alana’s healing ability fought with the poison and tried to close the wound, but it was too deep to heal. They had two hours to get her out of here and make the potion that could neutralize the poison. If Tom knew how to do it and he had all the ingredients with him. Kylan shook his head, focusing on getting out alive before panicking about the what ifs.
He felt a wave of magic as Tom drew a protection spell around the two of them. The moment he finished the spell, a bear-demon threw him through the air.
Fuck.
Kylan jumped to his feet, rushing to Tom, confident in the knowledge that Alana was as safe as she could be right now. A lynx-demon leaped at Alana, bouncing off the protection spell, proving Kylan’s thoughts.
He reached Tom, summoning a dome of fire around them for protection. He was breathing. The tremor in his hand was back, but other than a small trickle of blood at his temple, Kylan didn’t see anything serious.
“Can you stand?”
Tom’s eyes fluttered open. “Do you think I’d be sitting here if I could?”
The muscles in Kylan’s jaw tensed. They didn’t have time for this. “Your back?”
Tom shook his head, and Kylan sighed in relief.
“Leg.” Tom reached for Kylan’s hand. “Help me up.”
Kylan took his hand and dragged him to his feet. Between his own injuries and the energy drain to keep the fire around them, exhaustion was quickly overtaking him. He wrapped Tom’s arm around his shoulders to give him more support as they limped to the safety of his spell.
It took them more effort to get back to Alana, and the moment Kylan let go of Tom, he collapsed onto the ground.
“I don’t know how long my spell could keep them away. This isn’t my best work.”
Alana put her hand on Kylan’s. “Take him back to the camp.”
“I won’t leave you.”
“I can keep them occupied while you get to safety.”
Kylan shook his head. “You are hurt. You can’t fight all these demons alone. I’ll stay. You go back with Tom.”
“We both know I’m the stronger mage. I have a better chance of surviving.” A weak smile crossed her lips. “And I won’t be alone.”
Kylan frowned, then realization settled. She wanted to use her link to Ethan. “Are you sure?”
Alana nodded. “If you shift, you can make a run for it.”
Kylan snorted. “I’m not a horse.”
“And he can’t walk. Either you put aside your pride and take him back or we all die here.”
He kissed her forehead. “I’ll come back for you.” He turned to Tom. “If you pull my mane, I’ll shake you off and you can walk back alone.”
As an answer, Tom rolled his eyes but nodded.
Kylan shifted and lay next to Tom. Even with Alana’s help, the process of him getting onto his back wasn’t anything remotely graceful.
Once Tom was seated, Kylan stood with some effort. All his injuries screamed at him to stop, but that wasn’t an option. He looked at Alana to make sure she was fine with this.
“Go,” she said.
Kylan took off, running through the swarm of demons, as fast as he could, as fast as his wounds let him. His muscles resisted, his ribs shooting bolts of agony with every breath, but he kept his pace. The faster he got Tom to safety, the sooner he could go back to aid Alana.
At the edge of the glade, a tiny Thinker demon grinned at them, and three haw-demons blocked their way. Kylan halted, not sure what to do next. The animal-demons were commanded by the fluffy humanoid. It wouldn’t be hard to kill the Thinker, but with Tom on his back, he wasn’t fast enough.
The sharp sensation of a mental invasion punctured his mind, and he tried to resist the command to shake Tom off and rip his throat open. The demon’s saucer eyes narrowed and images of Kylan’s past surfaced; killing, torture, pain, grief.
“One more doesn’t matter.” The demon’s voice sounded like creaking metal in his head. “You’ll fail him like you failed everyone else.”
His broken promises surfaced. The face of his mother, his brother, his grandfather, and even his childhood friend filled his mind. All of them disappointed, broken, turning away from him.
“You’re a monster.”
His will to fight off the invasion loosened. What was the point? The demon was right. He was a killing machine, a sword in the night, and not some hero who sacrificed his own life for others.
The demon pushed in more, showing him images of the past as Alana had faced his father, and he just stood there, looking away from the inevitable. But it wasn’t right. That hadn’t happened. He’d fought his father for her. The image shifted before he could shake off the invasion. A pack of dog-demons attacking Alana, slicing open her arm as she stumbled across the garden.
“Everyone you love ends up dead.”
The next image was his mother, dead on her bed, the red of the sheets making a sharp contrast against her pale face. Then it was Finn’s lifeless body in the sand.
“They’ll die too.”
The images shifted again, to events that had yet to come. Alana’s chest ripped open, a wolf-demon’s bloody mouth digging out her heart. Tom’s lifeless eyes staring at him as the taste of blood filled his mouth.
Kylan couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe as reality sunk in. He’d kill them. It would be his fault again, and only because he cared, because he opened his heart again and believed he could be better. He couldn’t escape his past, the darkness within. He’d only cause pain.
He reached for the Rune to sink back into the numbing emotionless state and the Thinker smiled, anticipation gleaming in his eyes, like he wanted him to use it.
As the spell activated inside him, the mental connection to the demon strengthened, and he lost control over his body. He shook Tom off and turned, caging the man beneath him, growling like the monster he was.
“Kylan.” Tom’s voice was calm, steady, even though his eyes were filled with dread. He dragged himself to his feet. “Don’t do this.”
He didn’t want to, but he had no choice. It wasn’t him who controlled his actions. Not anymore.
“You can fight it.” Tom’s eyes lit up with magic again and he moved to touch Kylan’s chest when the Thinker commanded him to attack.
Tom dodged to the side, Kylan’s claws slicing through the dicralux, tearing open the right side of Tom’s hip.
Tom screamed but pressed his palm against his fur above his heart, squeezing out one word, “Feel.”
His magic entered Kylan’s body, filling him with a warmth he hadn’t felt before. The spell reached under the Rune, magnifying his love for Alana, for his grandfather, for his mother.
He shook Tom’s hand off, still under the Thinker’s command, and attacked again, but Tom rolled away.
“It’s using the Rune.” Tom crawled back, his magic still swirling between them. “The only way to get rid of it is to feel.”
Kylan shook his head. But it wasn’t enough. He didn’t know what kind of spell Tom cast had, but it wasn’t enough. He wasn’t enough.
Tom fished a throwing star from his belt and looked into Kylan’s eyes. “You’re a Whitestone.”
This time, Tom didn’t use his name as an insult. It was a way to encourage him. Yes, he was a Whitestone, and he wouldn’t bend under a filthy demon’s influence. Love wasn’t a sign of weakness. He clung to the phrase Egon had told him a hundred times, and for the first time in his life, he believed it.
Kylan roared as he fought the mental invasion, forcing himself out of the Rune. The moment his feelings surfaced, the connection between him and the demon cracked like a dry twig, and he leaped over Tom, attacking the hawk-demons.
