THE BAZAAR (The Devany Miller Series) (21 page)

The Skriven pressed his forearm into Zech's neck and he gagged and coughed, his face mottled from his struggle to breathe.

“
Kill him and I'll kill myself before I let you get your hands on my power.” 

Yarnell glanced at me as if reminded again of my presence. “You wouldn't dare.”

“Try me.” Behind him a small crowd had gathered, old, young, rich, poor. All of them in the market to purchase body parts. “And in front of your customers. That wouldn't make for a good buying experience, would it?”

He hissed something at the Skriven. When he didn't comply, Yarnell shouted at him.

With that eerie quickness Tytan had, Cambion released Zech, appearing too close to me for comfort. Zech fell, coughing and gasping to the floor.

"Interesting. Not all human. Part Midian, part ... dare I say it? Skriven?"

“Get the hell away from me.” I stepped back, wanting to help Zech stand up but unable to do so without taking my eyes off the demon.

"Maybe it's because I'm Archaeon Tezrya to Tytan," I said. I wanted to invoke his name and push them in the wrong direction. They didn't know about the heart and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as possible. At least until they cut me open and found it in my corpse.

Cambion laughed, a harsh sound that made me grind my teeth. "You? No wonder he's fallen so far from favor."

Insulted, I opened my mouth to respond but shut it when Adamante returned. He carried Liam and another man held Bethany. They dumped the bodies of my children at my feet. I cried when I saw they were both breathing, breathing, thank all that was good. But they didn't look right—hundreds of spidery veins glowed under their skin, which looked as fragile and thin as paper.

"I suggest Zech take them through the hook before the magic destroys them." Yarnell gazed at them with a wistful smile, as if he wished he could watch them die.

"He can't carry them both," I said, cutting into his sick little fantasy with satisfaction.

Yarnell jerked his head and the man who'd carried Bethany picked her up. Zech took Liam. I kissed both kids, my tears tasting bitter as I followed the men back down the hallway, wanting to watch them go safely through the hook. I also didn't want to expose the captives to what I planned to do next. My heart ached as I watched Liam and Bethany disappear through the hook to safety.

They're alive, I told myself. They're alive. Alive.

Now it was my turn to survive. To stay alive at the hands of the enemy. To live long enough to see my kids again. 

A heavy weight lifted from me, leaving me humming with energy. Though I was scared, my head was clear. I centered my concentration on the heart. 'I'll need all the help you can throw me,' I said to Arsinua and Neutria. 

As soon as the man stepped back through the hook, the one who'd carried Bethy through, I opened up the heart full bore.

TWENTY-FIVE

"S
he's calling power," yelled the Skriven. 

Arsinua chanted, weaving spells with her words. I didn't have time to create. I needed to destroy them before they returned the favor. I pulled Skriven magic and aimed it at the man nearest me. He disintegrated.

Someone hit me from behind. Spinning, I pictured a deadly ball of energy in my hand and I flung it at him, along with my hate. Adamante. He cursed as it hit him in in the chest, flinging him backward into a wall. Corpse-flesh wind washed over me, rasping over my skin like acid. I screamed, stumbled back, and another barrage hit me. The man who'd carried Bethany jumped on me, finishing physically what they'd started magically.

I grunted when his elbow jammed hard into my gut. He pushed into me, his legs over my left arm, his hands holding my right. I bit at him but couldn't reach anything but his pants. I shut my eyes and pulled again, this time igniting the air around me. The man screamed as his clothes caught on fire. I shoved him off me and scrambled to my feet, running for the hook. I didn't have the energy to make one. I had to get through the one already there. My feet skidded on the floor as an awful thought occurred to me. I'd lead them right to my children.

Adamante ran into my back, knocking me down again. I stayed on all fours, panting, crying, snot dripping. I didn’t have any energy to wipe it away.

Someone kicked me in the gut, sending me over in a wave of pain. A booted foot appeared in front of me. Yarnell. "Big bang, poor finish. You're like a child. You know nothing about how to use the magic, you fling it around, wasting it." He considered. "It was spectacular what you did to Peter. I'll give you that." His boots disappeared from my sight as he said, "Get her secured. We have two weeks until the Council votes. We need her power to be ours by then."

"Tytan won't stand by to see his Archaeon Tezrya killed," the Skriven said.

"You said he was occupied."

I looked at the monster. Both of them. Cambion's lips split into a grin. "Ravana wants her. She's keeping him from saving her. But the Originators aren't known for their long attention spans. She gets distracted, he'll be here, and you'll wish you weren't."

I didn't get to hear anymore. Hands grabbed at me and dragged me away. I had a little hope. Tytan hadn't come to me because he couldn't. If Ravana let him go, I might get away with my skin. If she didn't? I might never have answers to my burning questions: What did she mean when she said she wanted me? Why did keeping Tytan from me help her get me?

If he's not here to help you, and if you keep pulling Skriven magic, she will own your soul. Once she owns that, Tytan won't have anyone to help, now will he?

I nodded, my lids drooping. Fuck. I still hadn't figured out how to use the heart without draining myself.

They dragged me through a doorway and let go. I fell to the floor, scraping my elbow but catching myself before I cracked my chin. My eyes flew open, touched on the drain, the rack, the dark maroon stains on the floor that were Zech's blood. Then I passed out. Didn't stay that way for long. Slapped in the face. Once, twice. I blinked, wincing at the light. I could see sky, not pretty sky—Slip sky. Tytan had found me. I was too trashed to leap up and hug him, but I smiled.

Smiled until I saw who it was.

This time there weren't shadows. She'd wrapped light around her and with her dark skin glowing and her white-light hair and shimmering dress, someone who didn't know what she was might think her an angel.

Hot wax wrapped around me, singeing my already tender skin. "You impudent witch. How you steal. Pull, pull, pull, like a greedy baby at my tit. Yet what do you give Mummy in return? Hmm?" She tsk'd, walking around and around me, making me dizzy with her movement, with the light that burned. 

On her third circle around me, I stopped watching and that's when I saw Tytan. He was stripped naked, a collar around his neck, his face brittle with anger. A thin gold chain draped from a ring on the collar to the angel circling, circling. "My spawn offered himself in your place. Interesting, that. Skriven don't act nobly." She jabbed me with her toe and I groaned with the pain. Even that nudge burned with a heat of a sun. I've never touched the sun, but maybe the sun had touched me.

"So I took Tytan to me, as is my right as Originator. And I took you. For the moment. Though I might give you back to the boy and Cambion."

My head ached. I fought to stay awake, knowing it was crucial, but the struggle was a titanic one. "Let go Ty. I mean," My thick tongue strangled up my words. I tried to swallow, and then started again. "Let Ty go. Take me. Me." I lost consciousness. 

A moment later, someone slapped me again. I cursed, tried to push the hand away but didn't have the strength to lift my arm. Someone pulled my lips apart and dribbled a foul liquid into my mouth. I coughed, choked, gagged, but it slid down my throat. A sluggish rush of energy hit me. Not enough to get up and run around, but it did enable me to keep my eyes open. I guess it was good to be awake for my inevitable torture and death.

Ravana tapped a finger on my broken nose and that, combined with the touch of her flesh made me scream. She tore something from me, something so precious I couldn't comprehend it. Again, the agony lasted an eon, but she didn't give me time to wallow. "For what you've taken I want more. You can give me your soul or deliver another to me. If you do that, you can consider yourself the first unspawned Skriven."

I looked at Tytan. He shook his head, once only, his jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscles jumping. "Which would mean what?"

"You would answer to me. My pet. Unless and until you unmake me."

Unmake her. I glared at Tytan.  “You said you couldn't die."

Ravana blocked Ty from my sight. "We can't. Unmaking is a more difficult process. I don't recommend you try it." She knelt beside me, the light she wrapped herself in making my eyes water it was so bright. "Tytan won't tell me what makes you so special. Naughty boy." She leaned even closer and I cringed away, horrified, thinking she might be about to kiss me or something equally awful. "I like that about him. The ones that follow the rules piss me off."

Then she was walking again. One moment so close I could have spit on her, the next pacing around me again. My head fell back against the spongy ground. I pictured Liam and Bethy in my mind. Panting, sickly, but alive. I also reminded myself that there was always hope. Hard to see the glimmer of it in hell, but damn it I had to try. "What about Tytan? Would I still be his, whatever?" My brain hurt too much to come up with the word. I expected him to argue, but still he remained silent. I frowned at him. "You don't want to participate in this conversation?"

Ravana laughed. "He can't speak. I won't allow it. And he won't risk it. I know where Cyres is."

Cyres. Nex had said I would help Tytan find Cyres. Whoever she was. Of course, Nex had never said whether that was a good thing or bad thing. Once again I was playing a game without any idea of the rules. "Your pet. Means what?"

"My beck. My call." Her face held tortures I couldn't even imagine. "Bring me souls." One slender, dark shoulder lifted. "I might even allow you to remain Tytan's Archaeon Tezrya."

"I'm not killing people," I said automatically, thinking of the man who'd disintegrated. I'd done that. But perhaps he wasn't dead. Perhaps I'd merely sent him to another universe, another reality.

Perhaps I was dreaming this and any moment I would wake in my bed, Tom sleeping beside me, the cheating, the hook, the heart: a dream. "My kids. I have to still be with my children."

Her smile glittered. "I can wait. Let them grow. Train with me in the Slip when I wish it. Join me in the Slip when I call." I didn't like how she said join her. I had no idea what she was into and had no desire to find out.

'Arsinua?' But of course, she didn't answer. 'Neutria?"

Power always good. More power better.

Yeah, she would be in favor of it. "No more taking bits of my soul?" Already I felt hollow, empty in parts of me that used to be full. It wasn't easy to comprehend, even for me to whom it had happened. I was missing parts of my essence. It didn't feel good.

"Bring me souls to replace what you steal from me in magic. Learn to control the power inside you."

"Don't," Tytan said.

Ravana whipped around. His head snapped back and slammed against the wall. If the wall hadn't been there, his body would've flown back a few hundred feet. 

And I'd thought Tytan was strong.

"Okay. Okay!" Okay. Shit. Why did it feel like the equivalent of selling my soul to Satan? If Satan were a dark skinned, glowing female with astoundingly original fashion sense. "My kids will be safe. If you can guarantee that, I'll be the most loyal—Archaeon Tezrya—you've ever seen."

Her laughter, hot, fetid, swept over me. As with Tytan when I'd first become his Archaeon Tezrya, a power swelled inside me for a moment and then a feeling of completion settled into me. I'd done it. Whatever it was. "My kids?"

"You have my guarantee they are safe. Now."

Now. Which meant that they hadn't been safe moments earlier? Of course, she must have been talking about their capture at the hands of Yarnell. She came at me and I cringed, but I couldn't avoid her hand as she gripped my arm and pulled me to my feet.

"So I can go home?” Her hand seared me. I tried to yank free but couldn’t. Colors splashed in front of my eyes.

"Back. You owe me souls."

"Back?" But she'd already sent me back. Back to the room where Yarnell had sent me with his goons, where Zech had been tortured. "No, no, no. Damn it!" I was on the floor again, in the same spot as if I'd never left it. The men ignored my yells as they pulled me to the rack that had held Zech and manacled me to it. Manacles. Funny word, that.

"How the hell am I supposed to help you, you silly bitch!" I rattled the chains as if she were watching. Hello? I'm manacled. Fucking manacled.

The men looked at each other, exchanging the 'Yeah, she's insane,' look. I cursed at them and then searched for the heart. It was there but I still didn't have the energy to use it. The drink she'd given me left me awake but not strong enough to escape. Great. I'd be awake and aware for my torture. 

'I wish I'd never met you,' I snarled at Arsinua.

Witch hiding. 

If I hadn't been strapped down I would have slapped my forehead. 'Can you change? I'll pull from Ravana. Hell, I'm an unspawned Skriven now. Whatever the fuck that means.'

The spider assassin stretched in answer to my question. Bones cracked, skin split. This time I didn't retreat. I changed with her, came with her as she formed into her true self. The power surged in me, a power that didn't come from the heart or the Slip; it was the power in Neutria's own body, in her confidence and arrogance.

The men weren't expecting the spider that pounced at them. Neutria's—my—fangs sunk into the first man. The other flung a burst of energy at Neutria, but as with Arsinua’s attacks, the magic hurt her but didn’t slow her down. She claimed that kill too, injecting her poison deep into the man's chest. His screams didn't last long. 

Neutria crawled through the doorway back up a long hallway to the main room. Yarnell saw us first. He yelled for Cambion, who ran at us. Neutria jumped high and we hit the wall, clinging with the sticky pads on her feet. Cambion hissed, whipping around in midair. Before he could fly at us again he vanished.

Called home? 

I grinned inside Neutria as we watched Yarnell. He muttered a thick, black curse that he hurled at us. Instead of a ball of energy like the others, this one branched and split like lightning. Neutria fell straight down but snapped to a stop before hitting the floor with the silk she'd attached to the wall.  

Yarnell dashed from the room. As he did, he split himself and his copies hid his escape. Neutria caught one and it crumbled at her touch.

Damn. A door slammed. Then another, quieter noise, a ratcheting sound. She skittered up the wall, settling in a shadow to wait. We didn't wait long. A woman lurched into view, her hair lank, and her face blank. She looked like a zombie, moved like a zombie.

Neutria screamed, though it wasn't a scream of anxiety. It was a challenge.

The zombie woman began to split in a horrifyingly familiar way, black hairy legs sprouting from the woman's head. Who had she been before the chythraul had taken her? Then Neutria screamed her challenge again and dropped.

'No! He's getting away. We don't have time for this.'

Challenge. Must kill rival.

'We don't have time. Neutria, please.' I started to stretch, to change but her next words stopped me.

You change now you die. 

I assessed the spider. About the same size as Neutria, but the large furry mounds under her eyes were a bright red. Neutria's were blue and they splayed as she showed off her six-inch fangs underneath.

The other spider responded. Smaller. 'We can take her. Easy.'

Yes. Now shut up. Let me win.

I shut up.