Born of Silence (41 page)

Syn put the oxygen mask back over his face. “Just breathe. Slow and easy.”

Darling went completely limp.

As she panicked in concern for Darling, Syn held his hand up
to her. “It’s all right. I knocked him out again. He doesn’t need to be coughing like that right now. He’s likely to do more damage.”

Hauk glared from his post on the opposite side of the room. “I want the balls of the cowardly bastard responsible for this.”

“You?” Zarya asked, meeting his bloodlust head on. “I want them for earrings.”

The Andarion smiled at her. “I really like you.”

“Thanks.” But her smile faded as she met Syn’s grimace. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m just wondering which of us is going to be the one to tell Darling that
you’re
the reason he was attacked.”

A pall covered Zarya all day as Syn and Hauk came and went from Darling’s room while she and Maris watched over him. Syn’s words hung heavy in her heart, and by the way Syn tended Darling, she could tell that Darling was in a lot worse shape than Syn was letting them know.

Please don’t die.
The one thing all of this had taught her was how much Darling meant to her. The thought of living without him…

How could she have forgotten how agonizing those weeks of not knowing where Kere was had been?

And now that she really knew him… his face, his past… it was so much worse. He was no longer her mythical, larger than life lover. Now he was human, and he’d carved an even deeper place into her heart.

What pained her most was the knowledge that this
was
all her fault. The Resistant members Darling had spared were trying to liberate her from his “custody.” After his attack, they’d sent over a demand for her release.

I’m going to be the death of him.
No matter how hard she tried to argue it, she kept coming back to that one basic fact. So long as she was with him, he was in danger.

But she couldn’t stand the thought of leaving him. Especially not in the condition he was in.

Yet if she stayed, her allies—his enemies, would kill him.

“Maybe I should leave.”

“Are you serious?”

Zarya hadn’t realized she’d spoken out loud until Mari’s question startled her. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she met his gaze on the other side of the bed. “How can I stay when I endanger him?”

Maris shot to his feet and closed the distance between them. “You can’t go, Zarya. You can’t. Do you not understand what it would do to him? He wasn’t human until you came.”

But she didn’t believe that. “He was human.”

Maris’s face paled and when he spoke, it was in the sincerest tone she’d ever heard. “No, he wasn’t. He was not the man you know.” He pulled Darling’s computer off the nightstand and turned it on.

After a few minutes, he handed it to her.

Scowling, she focused her attention on the video he’d pulled up. It took her a second to realize it was Darling she was looking at—something that filled her with dread. Whatever Maris intended to show her couldn’t be good and she wasn’t sure she wanted to see it.

Yet, she couldn’t take her eyes off the screen.

Dressed in a long flowing cloak over a black battlesuit, Darling had the cowl pulled up over his head. His gold mask glowed in the dim exterior light as he headed across the back gardens, into the barracks where the royal guard took up quarters when they were on duty.

None of them bowed at his entrance. That, in and of itself, was an act of defiance and treason that was punishable by death, according to their laws. Each of those soldiers had sworn a blood oath to lay down their lives for their governor and his family.

But there was no loyalty on their faces that night. Several even spat at the ground near Darling’s booted feet.

With a calmness she couldn’t fathom, Darling swept his gaze around the room.

“What are you doing here?” their commander challenged Darling in a tone that would have had any aristo calling out for the pleb’s arrest.

When Darling spoke, the most terrifying part was how calm and in control he appeared to be. “It’s the Day of Reckoning. I’m here solely for those who have assaulted me. The rest of you can leave.”

By the expression on the commander’s face, it was obvious he was one of the culprits, and that he didn’t see a threat in Darling’s words. “We don’t listen to you,
kieratun
.”

Zarya sucked her breath in sharply at the insult that accused Darling of having slept with his father.

The commander lifted his chin arrogantly. “We stand together and intend to support whoever comes forward to dethrone
you
.”

Darling slowly nodded his head. “Fine. Make sure you give Kere my best when you slide into hell.” Faster than she could blink, Darling pulled out two League assassin short swords.

The commander drew his blaster and aimed it for Darling. Before the man could pull the trigger, Darling cut through him with an ease that was as swift as it was brutal.

Total chaos erupted as the guard corps finally realized that Darling was more than capable of delivering his justice by his own hands. And that that was what he fully intended to do.

They scrambled for weapons and the braver ones attacked him. With the same precise skillful moves she’d seen him use as Kere against the League, he tore his attackers to pieces. As they came for him, they learned what she’d known for years.

Nothing rattled Darling in battle. He
was
Kere—the god of death—and no one could stop him.

When it was finally over, Darling was wounded, but standing in the middle of several dozen bodies. With his head lowered like a feral predator, he scanned the area to make sure there were no more threats to him.

Once he assured he’d killed them all, he cleaned his swords off on his own sleeve and then returned them to the sheaths that were beneath his cloak. With the back of his hand, he wiped the blood from his exposed chin, and nonchalantly stepped over the bodies on his way out the door.

Darling didn’t stop until he’d returned to the palace and met Maris in the back gallery hallway.

“You’re hurt.” There was no missing the concern in Maris’s tone.

Darling didn’t answer. Rather, he walked past Maris and entered the reception room so that he could open the bar and yank a bottle of Tondarion Fire off the shelf. He removed the top with his teeth, before he poured the searing alcohol over the wound on his arm. Then he took a deep draught of it.

Maris headed toward him. “Dar—”

Darling cut his words off with the point of a sword that he aimed at Maris’s heart. He’d pulled it out so fast that her vision hadn’t even registered his movements. It was almost as if Darling was a Trisani who’d manifested his weapon into his hand with his thoughts.

Maris froze while Darling drank half the bottle in a matter of seconds. “You can’t keep this up, Darling. No one is going to let you live if you continue to slaughter everyone who’s ever wronged you.”

“Let them try and I’ll burn it all to the ground and take as many of them with me as I can.”

“This isn’t a game.”

Darling sneered. “It’s never been a game, Maris. And I’m
through talking.” He smiled then, but it was filled with bitterness and hatred. He said something to Maris that she couldn’t understand before he lowered his sword and walked away.

Maris turned the video off and returned Darling’s computer to the nightstand. “
That
was what we were dealing with before you came here.”

“What did he say to you at the end?”

A tic started in Maris’s jaw. “ ‘I won’t forgive. I won’t forget. Let hell open and rain my wrath down on them all. I will not be stopped and I have no mercy left inside me. I am death and I revel in the killing of my enemies. Bring me them all until I’m drunk on their blood.’ ”

Yeah, that was extreme, and that was the same man who’d overturned his desk in a fit of rage the night Maris had brought her here. “Weren’t you afraid of him?”

“Honestly? I was at times. Afraid for me, but mostly for Darling.” He glanced to where Darling slept on the bed. “If you leave, Zarya, he won’t come back again. I know it. He’ll be destroyed.”

And if she stayed, her allies would do everything they could to kill him.

“Where is that rank little bastard!”

Her eyes widened at the sound of a shrieking female voice outside in the hallway. A second later, the doors to Darling’s bedroom flew open to reveal a tall, auburn-haired goddess.

Zarya’s jaw went slack at the sight. The pictures she’d seen didn’t do Annalise justice. The woman was frighteningly beautiful.

And she was fiercely pissed.

Lise swept the room with an imperious glare before she stormed toward Darling with a furious snarl.

Zarya put herself between Darling and his sister. Not sure of Lise’s plans or the source of her anger, she wasn’t about to let the girl hurt him.

Just as Zarya thought she’d be attacked, Lise ran at Maris and punched him so hard in the jaw that his head snapped back.

“How could you? You sorry son of a bitch! I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!”

Completely dumbfounded, Zarya was frozen in total shock as the girl continued to assault Maris until he wrapped himself around her and held her tight against his body. Still, she fought, shrieking so loudly that it echoed through the room.

“Sh, Lise,” Maris breathed soothingly in her ear. “It’s okay.”

Lise sobbed hysterically as she fought against Maris’s hold.

Never had Zarya seen anything like this. Was there some kind of madness that infected Darling’s entire family she needed to know about?

What had Maris done to Lise to cause this?

Syn came rushing in with an injector.

When he went to sedate her, Maris stopped him with a fierce shake of his head. “She’ll be all right.” He tightened his hold on Lise’s body. “Breathe, little sister. Just breathe.”

Tears flowed down her cheeks as her lips quivered. “I hate you!”

“I’m so sorry.”

“No, you’re not! You asshole!” She tried to hit him again, but he held her fast. Instead, she reared her head back, smashing it into Maris’s face.

Somehow, he maintained his grip on her.

Lise shrieked again in frustration. “Do you know what it’s like to hear that your brother’s dead on a fucking news broadcast? Do you? Why didn’t one of you call me, you sons of whores!”

Maris’s patience with her never wavered. When he spoke, his tone was calm and soothing in spite of the bruises that were already forming on his face. “He’s not dead, Lise. He’s not. I swear it, sweetie.”

Finally, Annalise started calming down. “W-what?”

As Hauk came into the room to check on the commotion, Maris dragged her toward the bed. “He’s sleeping. See…” He led her hand to touch Darling’s upper lip so that she could feel his breath against her skin.

Her tears fell even harder. The immense relief on her face once she realized her brother wasn’t dead made Zarya’s own eyes water.

Maris released her.

Lise turned on him and slapped him. “If you ever do that to me again, I swear I will gut you for it!”

Still, Maris didn’t react to her blow. “I’m extremely sorry. It was a thoughtless thing to do, but I was more worried about Darling than calling you with the news, especially since he wasn’t killed. I didn’t think about the media reporting it, never mind them getting it wrong, and you finding out about the attack that way. It won’t ever happen again. I promise.”

Lise finally pulled Maris against her and held him close. She buried her face in his neck. “I’m so sorry, Mari. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was so scared. I thought he was gone and that I’d be left alone. He’s all I have, you know?”

“Yes, I do, baby. He’s all I have, too.”

Sniffing, Lise squeezed him tight. “I love you. You still love me?”

“Not at the moment. I’m rather in pain. But after it fades, I’ll probably be dumb enough to forgive you for it. Just don’t do it again.”

She kissed his cheek that was red from her punch. Laying her hand over it, she smiled at him. “What are you bitching about, anyway? You’re from a warrior culture. Phrixians live to fight and clobber each other.”

He arched a regal brow that said she was insane and wrong. “Hello? Gay man, here. I don’t like the brutality, hence why I surrendered my commission.” He turned her to face Hauk. “Next time, slap
him
. I think he actually gets off on it.”

Hauk smirked. “Thanks, Mar. I will remember that.”

“Am I wrong?” Maris challenged.

“No, but you don’t have to tell everyone. You make me sound like I’m sick or something.”

Smiling at their teasing, Lise wiped the tears from her face before she went to Hauk and gave him a hug, too. “How are you, D?”

“Better than you. You going to make it, little sis?”

“Maybe. I don’t like being scared like this. You could have called, too, you know?”

“I’m pleading the Maris defense. I didn’t even think about it. Sorry.”