The hunted, p.13
The Hunted, page 13
Forever.
Now I knew who he was, and forever didn’t sound long enough. Just like in that dream, I followed him into the kiss, just like I would follow him into the pits of Hades, into death itself, into everything dark and cold he’d been trying desperately to shield me from since the beginning. He held me to him as I moved my lips against his, as I grew hungrier for him.
Soon, there was no one and nothing but us.
He pulled back, and I was breathless. “Would you like to dance?” he asked.
“Yes.”
We approached the main wooden deck, where everyone was still moving to the rich fiddle melodies or just talking and laughing. This was pure happiness. This was belonging. It was everything sweet and golden, rich and all-consuming, where I could feel only everything good in the world and within myself.
The harmonizing melody shifted into something rich and soulful, notes floating out over the crowd in deep, resonant shades of earthy green and ocean blue.
“This is a human waltz,” I said. “Midnight on the Water.”
I remembered hearing it at the local pub in our Northern Irish village, played by an older Irish gentleman who was always playing his fiddle there, day or night. This was possibly the only song I remembered by name, because I’d begged my mothers to ask him for it. He’d smiled so wide the first time I approached him and requested he play it. He’d told me the song was from the faraway land of Texas. He played it for me from then on, every time he saw me.
Now Prairie and Jesco were slowing it down, improvising and driving deeper into the soul of the tune. I’d never heard anything so beautiful.
Tears pricked my eyes as they played, and Daelon’s hands found my waist. We moved slowly at first as the melody built.
“I’ve been waiting so long to dance with you,” Daelon said. He leaned in close. “This is nothing like our first dance.”
I winced, remembering the frenzy of enchanted witches the night of Lucius’s ball, when I’d been forced to watch him with Renata, and he’d been stuck watching me with Sebastian.
“No. It’s not,” I agreed.
I knew we were both thinking about the same thing. I could nearly taste the red-hot jealousy bleeding through his shield. It stirred something in my core that had me moving closer to him as his grip on me tightened.
The tune crested and picked up its pace, and soon everyone was clapping along or tapping their feet to the beat.
“I’m going to be honest with you, though,” Daelon said. “When I’m not enchanted into it, I have absolutely no idea how to dance.”
I laughed, pulling back from him as it became apparent our slow dancing was no longer on beat. “Me either.”
We joined in on the clapping, letting those who did know how to dance take center stage. Which, of course, included Alejandro and Meredith. Alejandro, predictably, was eating up the attention, effortlessly moving his feet and guiding Mer this way and that. Skye backtracked toward us, tiny beads of sweat on his forehead.
“They wear me out,” he said over the music.
Now that I thought about it, I realized that no one had so much as looked my way once since the gathering began. Glances, sure. But no one was staring, and there were no red flashes of jealousy, fear, or distrust. They were all immersed in each other.
We finished out our night walking home with our newfound friend group, who were all just as relieved as I was that Ruth had come around. Light from the stars and the moon above watched over us and lit our way.
As I listened to Prairie talk about fiddle tunes, Alejandro flirt with everyone, and Meredith rattle off several fun facts, I held onto Daelon’s arm and leaned in close. The smell of pine and fire wafted through the air.
The nights here weren’t so dark.
In fact, they weren’t dark at all.
Chapter 12
It had been a few days since the talk with Ruth and the impromptu party. Prairie, Susie Lynn, Mer, Ali, and Skye now knew the details about my conversation with Ruth, and I expected us to get serious about strategizing in the coming days. Daelon and I were waiting on them to give us the okay for training to begin, as they were still wrangling together supporters. I was beyond eager to take our next steps in the ensuing revolution against the Kingdom.
Many witches had anonymously lent their power and wisdom in getting us here, but they had been hesitant to go behind Ruth’s back so openly. We had to carefully toe the line—getting the word out to people who might already be supportive without proselytizing to win allies over like I’d promised Ruth.
I’d also been gently nudging Daelon to go see the healer, and he was becoming more receptive. He hadn’t mentioned it, but I suspected he was still having nightmares. The coloring under his eyes was darker than usual, and I often caught him yawning or nodding off when we were reading or cuddling by the fire.
Tonight, we’d gone to bed early. I was lost in a peaceful, dreamless state until I awoke to a nagging feeling in my gut that something wasn’t right. I raised my hand out from under the duvet, making sure there was no silvery blue glow outside my skin. Daelon was stiff as a plank next to me, and the room was quiet and still.
Then Daelon jerked.
I rolled onto my side to face him. His features were tight and strained, nothing like the peaceful innocence they usually revealed in his slumber. I lifted a hand to the sharp curve of his jaw, channeling soothing energy and gathering it in my fingertips.
His skin was feverish. He jerked again.
“She would never,” he mumbled, his face contorting in pain.
I took hold of his hand. I wasn’t sure who I was asking, but I held tight to the purple frequency of dreams and subconscious journeys as I whispered, “Take me to him.”
Power moved through me, and soon I was lost in trance. I was pulled from my body backward this time—down below the bed, below the second story floor, and below the house’s foundation. I was sucked deeper into the dirt and earth, passing through faster now as if I were an asteroid on a collision course.
Then the darkness gave way to light, and I landed in a cavernous underground. It was like the dungeons, but there were no masses of witches screaming and crawling over top of each other. It was empty and barren, just a dank cave that slowly curved downward. Chained to the far cave wall was Daelon. His arms were spread wide, his ankles bound below. There was a metal clasp around his neck. Facing him was a woman wearing a tall, feminine golden crown that rested perfectly on her loose copper waves of hair. She was standing very close to a black-haired man dressed in black and gold, a crown perched on his head that matched hers. Behind them was a pile of dead bodies.
The couple turned when I hit the ground, and I was face to face with… me. And Lucius.
The other me took a step back, her eyes widening in surprise. Her makeup was flawless, her full, golden and blush-colored dress impeccably crafted, and her poise that of a queen. I looked down, horrified to find that I was back in that lacy black slip that just barely covered my panties.
I met my own eyes, and my stomach sunk. They were so empty, so hollow.
“You’re not me,” I whispered. I looked to Daelon, who lifted his head for the first time since I’d arrived. “She’s not me,” I told him.
“Hello, Áine. I’m so glad you decided to join us,” Lucius said.
By the way his skin glowed faintly blue, I knew he wasn’t a manifestation of Daelon’s subconscious. His consciousness was really here, pulling Daelon into a demented dreamworld to torture him.
“And you’re right,” he said, crossing his arms and looking at the other Áine with eyes that judged and calculated. “She’s not you. I can never get you just right, you see,” he said. With a snap of his fingers, she disappeared.
“You’re just dreaming,” I assured Daelon, who continued to struggle against his chains. “He’s messing with you. You’re in bed with me right now, somewhere he will never find us.”
Daelon’s eyes met mine, confusion rolling through his features in waves.
Lucius bristled at my words, turning fully away from Daelon to face me. He casually gestured to the pile of bodies. “What do you think this is?”
Anger boiled in my blood, my power roaring to life. I raised my palms, letting the heat travel through my veins and pool there, sparking fiery balls of spitting flames.
“Please control yourself, little witch,” Lucius mocked, his tone making the fire in my hands grow taller. He grinned. “Though it does please me to know I rile you into a burning passion this easily.”
“Get the fuck out of his head,”
He tsked. “Language,” he scolded. “As I was saying. This mountain of corpses is a representation of the death Daelon is directly responsible for. Today he was stronger in his arguments to the contrary. Typically, he comes around to the truth about himself quite easily. I had to get a bit theatrical, but usually all those very real memories are enough to remind him who he really is. I don’t even have to conjure them. He plays them on a loop all night all on his own.”
“You have no idea who he really is,” I spat, edging closer as the flames grew taller and wilder, now shooting up across the entire lengths of my arms.
“Why does your subconscious put you in that enticing little outfit, Áine?” he asked, an infuriating amused glint in his eyes as he held his smile. When I refused to answer, still stalking him, he continued. “This time I wanted to show him who you really are. All that Amos has seen in his visions of your destiny.”
“You’re a liar,” I said, shooting a ball of cracking flames at his head.
He caught it in front of him. His smile grew as he redirected it toward Daelon. I fumbled, quickly extinguishing all of my fire so I could catch the ball and disperse it into smoke and steam.
Daelon watched us warily, still silent and defeated.
“What do you think it says about you that you can excuse all of this death?” Lucius asked. “Do you really believe that everything he ever did was justified? That your life was more valuable than all of theirs?” He gestured toward the bodies, various witches who were limp, lifeless, and rotting. Nausea churned in my stomach.
I looked away, back at him. “It’s not about my life. It’s about my role in restoring Aradia, in saving countless others, and in ending you before you can destroy us all.”
I was done with this. Done with him. I quickly moved to Daelon, but just before I could reach him to remove the chains from his body and wake him up, icy black magick reached for me.
“Ah ah ah.” Lucius clicked his tongue, and suddenly, I was immobile. “You’re in my dream. My rules,” he said. “It’s very rude to turn your back on someone in the middle of a conversation, especially your King.”
My body turned unwillingly back to face him as I fought to break through this magickal bondage. “You are not my king,” I said through gritted teeth.
He sighed. “That will change. You need me, Áine,” he said.
“Are you sure it isn’t you who needs me?” I asked. I found my footing just as Lucius tightened his icy grip around my body.
“Can’t we need each other?” he asked with a pouted lip.
Are you okay? I asked Daelon, but I received no response. It’s just a dream. We will be out of it soon. I just have to find my—
Lucius tugged me forward. “You are being quite insolent indeed. I do not understand your childish fascination with my weak, double-crossing brother. I would think it doesn’t bode well for the Savior-Goddess image you’re presenting to the backward heretic clans.”
I staggered forward even as I fought, and soon I was directly in front of him. Exactly where he wanted me.
“Don’t get me wrong, I really do admire the ambition and showmanship of it all. If you were actually capable of pulling it all off, I would imagine you’d have a great many witches believing in your divinity. And the heretics would be eternally grateful, so of course they’d support your rule.” He looked down at me, his eyes lingering everywhere they shouldn’t. “It could work. Especially since you’re so convincing in your declarations that you’re acting out of altruism, and that you have no interest in ruling anything at all. It’s all very clever; even I have to admit. Though it is personally inconvenient to me, the scheme has actually been what’s endeared me to you the most.”
“Are you truly as delusional as you sound? Is repeating false narratives and lies over and over again the only way you can cope with reality?” I shot back. “I’ve just always wondered if you truly believe your version of events, or if deep down, you know exactly who I am. And that’s why you will stop at nothing to destroy all that I have.”
He frowned, his palm rising and then falling back to his side as if he wanted to touch me but thought better of it. “I don’t want to destroy anything about you. I want to make you stronger. I often find myself wondering that exact same thing about you,” he said, his lips sliding back into an easy smile. “I think it keeps things rather interesting, doesn’t it? Truth isn’t set in stone, dear Áine. Especially not with you and me. I think we’ll find out soon enough who is lying to whom.”
He was so close to me now that I could feel his cool breath, smell the faint notes of dark, woodsy cologne. His shadows were all around us, taunting and whispering as I was held immobile.
He leaned down, his lips at my ear. “Goodbye, Áine. Thank you for wearing the clothing I gave you. I’ll be thinking of ways to reward you for the gesture when we can finally be together outside of our dreams.”
As soon as I regained control of my body, I moved to shove him away from me, but my hands met nothing but air. He was gone, and he’d taken the whole dreamworld with him.
Daelon and I each woke with an audible intake of air. I reached for him, but he shrugged away from my touch and moved to sit on the edge of the bed with his head in his hands. He took in breaths slowly, and each time the inhale came in shaky, my heart sunk.
“I just need a moment,” he said. There was nothing strong or assured in his voice.
I needed to be the anchor this time.
I crawled over to sit next to him. I didn’t speak or touch him. I waited for him to come back to himself, to remember that he was safe.
After a couple minutes he lifted his head and stared straight forward. His refusal to look at me had my stomach churning. Had he heard all of what Lucius said to me? It was obvious to both of us that it was all delusional nonsense, right?
That I would never purposely wear lingerie for the man who hunted us…
I didn’t need to say that aloud, did I? I felt disgusting, like Lucius really had touched me. Like I had invited all of this somehow, and I’d hurt Daelon on purpose.
Tears streamed down my face before I could stop them, and I hurried to brush them away.
Daelon took notice immediately, his head snapping to look at me. His face flickered through too many emotions to count.
“Come here,” he said, shifting to sit back against the headboard. “Please.”
I crawled into his arms, my head on his chest as he held me. “I’m so sorry,” I said.
He caught my hand as it reached to wipe away more tears, guiding it back down before brushing them away with his own fingers. His touch was so gentle that it had the opposite effect, and more tears arose in their place. He kissed my forehead.
“Why are you sorry?” he asked. “You did nothing wrong.”
“I should’ve been able to free you so easily, to wake us both up the moment I found you there. If I had built up defenses, and not let him rope me into his asinine, futile, circular conversations…” I took in a breath, steadying myself. This wasn’t about me; this was about Daelon. “He acted like he’d been doing this to you for days now, and you never told me,” I said. “We said we weren’t going to keep things from each other anymore.”
Daelon exhaled, eyes focused straight ahead. “I didn’t want to say what I saw aloud. None of it. I didn’t want to give that darkness any power over us, not when we’ve been so happy since we left the castle. And I didn’t actually know they weren’t all dreams until today. I had no idea that he was interfering. It was usually just flashbacks, all the dirty work my shadow self did on Lucius’s behalf. It was only sometimes manipulated, like when you were suddenly there in the memory where Lucius was elixir-high and ripping people’s throats out like an animal.” His body was still and rigid. “When you were there, you weren’t just in danger. You were his Queen, like tonight. You two were… together.”
The anger turned hot in my blood, just like in Lucius’s nightmare. I clung to the soothing, neutralizing energy of Daelon’s shield. I didn’t want to set us both on fire.
I reached into my ocean, tapping into the same intuition I’d used to win over Ruth. This was a more subtle side of my power that I was only just beginning to understand. All these threads of knowledge and wisdom from covens past, the witches and entities still guiding me from higher realms—it wasn’t all just fireballs and conjured locusts. There was truth in this magick, its roots still connected to the Akashic and the land beneath our feet.
I connected myself to Daelon on a deeper level than even his shield could deny, and when the words left my lips, I knew they were akin to Hecate’s torch—the light that illuminated the darkness and sent us on the right path.
“You’re still connected to him. You’ve been letting him in,” I said, and he finally met my eyes. “Not on purpose,” I quickly added. “But regardless of your true self and origins, you were his brother for twenty years. Your shadow was fully integrated into his power. That connected you to him, just as much as your friendship. Repeating lies enough times will make them true, on some level. And I think the side that you only continue to hide and repress is still beholden to him. How else would he have been able to so easily live in your mind each night?”
Daelon was speechless. His brows drew together as he looked at me with wide eyes.
