Chosen Darkness (Chosen Series) (21 page)

“Ah, I see we are getting somewhere at last!” the oldest of the group said, clapping his hands together.

“Don’t assume too much, Harold!” another member warned him.

“Bah, you have so much doubt why do I need to burden myself with any?” Harold asked.

Falyn took a seat at the end of the table, as far from the Court leaders as she could, but she didn’t lose her shadow. Daniel stood behind her.

“Have you come to see this is the best place for you?” the female member asked.

“Have you agreed you should let me go?” Falyn asked, crossing her arms in front of her.

“Your life is in danger, Falyn. Do you not understand the risk you take by being outside of the Court? You are a full-blood Lycan and you belong amongst your own kind.” This came from the doubting Thomas.

“I am only half Lycan. The other half is shape shifter mixed with my Druid bloodline, and a good reason why you should be taking orders from me, if I recall,” Falyn told them coldly.

“Clearly she had no reasoning, Simone, just as I told you!” Doubting Thomas obviously didn’t know how to keep his opinions to himself.

“You still need to learn how to use your gift from the Druid bloodline and I am well aware you are not trained to fight. I can sense the Alpha in you but you are poorly adapted to use it defending yourself, let alone the Lycan race,” Simone said sternly.

“I will never be able to test my power if I’m kept caged like an animal by people who are only seeking the special ability my bloodline gives me!”

“You lack the knowledge to focus your power, judging from your mishap in the Immortal world. You thought you had the ability then and you nearly got your entire party killed. You got yourself captured by the very evil you were trying to avoid!”

Harold was now standing too, his hands on the table and his eyes boring into hers. He was using the tone one might use with a naughty child.

“One mistake while under the influence of some mind control magic and everyone thinks I can’t make my own choices?” Falyn demanded.

“Among other things, I assure you. Even the vampire seemed to think you are better off here. How could a Lycan who breaks the law by consorting with a vampire be fit to bring the Lycan race together?” Once more Simone was hitting low.

Yet Falyn did have to pause for a moment and think over her words. Were these reasons they gave justification for her to be locked up till everyone but her thought she was ready to lead a nation? Falyn had her doubts.

“I am starting to wonder if you’re stalling. Is it really because I lack knowledge and training, or, when I accomplish those, will you suddenly have another reason to hold me here? Are you sure you’re not letting your pride at being full blood Lycan stop you from wanting to unite all Lycan behind me?”

Falyn thought she must have hit it on the head because each member looked flushed. She waited for them to deny it, but she was not ready for when they didn’t.

“We have some reservations about the source of your claim the Lycan need to be united under one leader. You say the last of the Wiccans told you it was your fate and that this world depended upon this union, but how do you know this was the truth?” Doubting Thomas, of course, would be the one to bring this up.

“Are you saying I’m lying or that I can’t be trusted?” Falyn asked softly.

“We are not saying any such thing, we only wish to see how your training goes. We wish to see if the Mystics here in this world pick up anything clearer. They see you’re the last Druid of Light and we recognize this gives you the right to rule all Lycan, but that right only comes with the necessary power, which you do not seem to have,” Harold told her.

“I see. So you have no wish for the Lycan bloodlines to be united because you have lived here in the Court, in this realm, believing yourself above all the other wolfs. Solely because you are pure blood, yet you made each and every bloodline!”

Falyn felt defeated once more. The value of her Druid gift was the reason she was being held captive. Every single Immortal wanted to use her gift to either hang on to their own power or add to it. The Lycan Court, while not as insane and evil as her father, still only wanted to use her to keep themselves as the powerful heads of their race. They did not want to follow Falyn or give her leadership of the Lycan packs. No, they hoped to figure out how to either manipulate or steal the force of the Light Druid!

The Elders didn’t actually say this but her instinct was telling her to read between the lines. The Lycan Court clearly believed if they could control her then her threat to them was not an issue. Each member of the Lycan Court was an Alpha and a pure blood. They saw themselves as noble and the rest of their kind as their subjects. Each of those was put in a class based on their bloodline. Any hope she might have had, no matter how small, had been put to rest. The Leaders of the Court would not join behind her unless they were forced. But who
could
force them?

“It is the way things are in the Immortal world, Falyn. Your bloodline determines your place in it. We have ruled like this since the Lycan King, since the first werewolf, was appointed, yet you think to change the Immortal Code?” challenged Harold.

“If your bloodline is what gives you rule over another, then having the blood of the highest power gives me the right to change what I wish.” Falyn’s words were quiet but firm.

“Take Falyn back to her room. In the morning she will start her training as a Royal Lycan and she will work with our Mystic, who will search every scroll and every book that holds anything on the Power of the Druids,” Simone told Daniel.

He rose from his chair, followed by the others. Once they had left the room, Falyn turned to Daniel.

“You agree with them, Daniel?”

“I am but a minor member of the Court. I do not make the rules, but I do follow them.” Daniel smiled, showing two dimples.

“That isn’t what I asked,” Falyn mumbled.

Daniel didn’t say anything else on the subject; he merely led her back to her room. But before he left he told her, “I will be the one who will train you in fighting.”

Falyn just nodded, not trusting herself to speak because she was close to breaking down.

“One more thing… this is for you.” Daniel placed a folded piece of paper in her hand.

She unfolded the paper slowly, not knowing what it held. When she saw it was a letter from Alex she let out a gasp. She looked up to ask Daniel how he got it, but he had already gone.

Falyn was not sure she wanted to know what Alex had to say. Would it matter if he had done this out of worry for her? She thought of tossing it, but she had to know what it said, so she sat down and read.

Falyn,

I can’t say how much I wanted to tell you goodbye but the Court would not allow me to see you and have also banned me from going near you. I would be dead if not for Lark. Yet that’s another story and maybe you already know it. But I wanted you to know I only meant to protect you, to keep you safe, and the Lycan Court is the safest place I could think of. However, no matter how right I think my actions were, I do wish I could have told you my plan. Please try and see things my way.

Always, Alex

Falyn closed her eyes trying to block the tears from spilling out. Alex had wanted to say goodbye – it made her anger lessen a little. Yet he still did not understand her fate was her own: not his, not the Court’s, not her father’s! She was chosen to unite the Lycan. She was chosen to change the Immortal Code because fate had picked her.

How dare any of them think they had the right to choose for her! Alex should have known better. He had taken it upon himself once before to take her choice away, and that hadn’t worked out well. Didn’t he know her well enough by now to realize she would not like having her mind made up for her?

More angry tears ran down her face. How would she get out of this place? She could not walk out the door and Alex could not come here – not unless the Court brought him. Did he think Daniel would risk it all and sneak her out? Sure, he’d given her the note, but that was hardly testing his loyalty to the Court.

Falyn cried till she had no more tears and then she pushed aside her pain and her anger and started to sort through her thoughts.

If Daniel could get a note to Alex saying she wanted to leave, would he get her out? And once she was out, what would stop anyone else from locking her up? What she needed was access to the Druid magic, and if it took training then she would need to find a teacher. The Lycan offered a Mystic to aid her, and while they had no plans of letting her take over for them, they did need her magic just as much as everyone else. Maybe the key to unlocking her magic was here? She should try to find out before planning to escape.

She would write Alex a note, but it would not be asking for help. It would tell him she would stay here at Court while she worked on her power. If he learned anything, he should tell her. And this is all it would say! She would not give him anything more. She would not ease his mind about his betrayal.

Falyn had thought Alex might be the one for her, but your soul mate did not betray you at every chance just because things got hard. They did not think only of themselves. Maybe Alex was not her mate and she would have to face her fate utterly alone. But she would do it, with or without him.

Chapter Twenty-four: Shadow

Falyn leaned against the marble pillar, her heart thumping wildly. The voices that carried to her from the other side of her hiding place in the archives were those of the Court leaders. For the last few weeks she had spent her time between sparring with Daniel and looking over scrolls and books in the Lycan Court’s library. She was somehow able to sweet talk her baby sitter into giving her the key to this place and letting her roam it at her leisure.

“Can’t we just kill her and take the gift?” one of the Elders asked.

“You want to commit murder!”

“We will not kill her, Harold. The gift has to be given willingly. Killing her will end any chance of us getting the power,” the female Court leader, Simone, told them.

“How precisely do you plan to get the gift from her willingly?” came the first voice again. “She doesn’t trust us as it is. Do you really think she will hand it over, just like that!”

“No… but there are ways of getting her to co-operate,” Simone told them.

Falyn pictured her smiling as she said this.

“So, what magic will put Falyn under our control?” Harold asked Simone.

“I can think of only one form that will keep her loyal to the Court and won’t fade, like most magic does”.

“The Dark Sickness, is this what you’re hinting at?” another voice, unknown to Falyn, asked.

“That is madness! Do you know what would happen if that sickness spread through the Court?!” Harold cried, his voice shaking.

“We are only selectively giving it to Falyn, not the whole Court, Harold. One dose. The chances of anyone else catching it are miniscule. But it will mean Falyn’s reasoning will be left impressionable and we will convince her the Court is better at controlling the gift then she is,” Simone announced.

“The only ones who have this kind of magic are the Dark Druids. Do you really think they are going to hand it over to you when we all know they want Falyn for themselves?” Harold demanded.

“I have some of the virus. I got a sample from a vampire years ago when the Dark sickness first started to work its way through the Immortal clans in this world. He was selling a vial of it to whoever was willing to pay his price. We don’t need to seek aid from the Druids,” Simone assured Harold.

“You’re only now sharing this with the rest of us, Simone?” Harold asked accusingly.

“Let’s not lose focus on the issue at hand. If we want to keep Falyn at our Court and possess the power of the Light Druids, then we do what we must.” Simone defended her actions.

“Then we are in agreement?” asked an Elder.

“Aye!” came echoing back to Falyn.

The choice had been made: the Court was going to give her the Dark Sickness and take her power! Falyn clutched the key to the archive room to her chest, her mind rolling in turmoil over what she must do next. Daniel had proved to be a useful ally. He’d gotten this key for her and helped her find more information on the Druids of Light.

Now, though, time had run out. If she wanted to make it out of this place with her mind still her own, she had to do it soon. Very soon.

Falyn waited for the Lycan Court leaders to leave before she moved. Once she was sure she was alone, she hurried across toward the large bookshelves. There was a book about the rituals of the Light Druids and how their powers worked. She had all but glanced through it last time, worried at being found out, and had kept her reading periods short. Now, though, she planned to take the book back to her room with her.

The other book she’d found and now needed to ‘borrow’ was on the history of vampires and werewolves. What she’d read in the first few pages was enough to prove the two races were linked by the same bloodline. The Moon Goddess herself had a hand in making both races.

Yet these recordings were more than a history lesson. The accounts were written by the Lycan Royals, and, down through their reigns to what was now the Lycan Court, it was an exposé of one dirty deed after another. The werewolves might be split but the full-blooded ones had come together and stood as one to keep the power in their own bloodline.

For many centuries the two races had been at peace, ruling over what was now Europe together, and yes, they even mixed their bloodlines. It was not till one union led to bloodshed – the murder of a Lycan girl on her wedding night by a vampire – that all hell broke loose among the two races and the Great War started.

The night of the wedding between two of the more important families of the two races had been a merry event. The Lycan king, however, had had a different agenda for the marriage so he’d ordered a member of his guard to kill the bride, making it look like the vampire groom had done it. He wanted a war because it would stop the vampires from mixing their bloodlines with his ever again. He wanted only the pure blooded wolves to have a claim in the House of the Lycan.
Basically a Hitler of the Immortal world
, Falyn thought.