Shadows of Darkness (13 page)

Deep possessiveness rolled through her, a need to protect Levi and defend him. "Don't touch him," she said, tightening her grip on his weapon. She could barely breathe through the horror that she had just tried to kill her parents to defend Levi. What kind of choice had that been? Was that the
sheva
bond, making her choose a man instead of her family? Her stomach turned, but she didn't lower the weapon. She
couldn't
lower the weapon. Levi was lying on the ground between her feet, rasping for breath, and there was no way on this earth she would step away from him and leave him to be killed. "Make it stop," she shouted at Merk, who was watching the whole thing with a smile on his face. "Save him."

"My dear, what would you give for me to save him?" Merk walked around in a leisurely circle, trailing his fingers over the heads of the wolves who had once been her parents. "A kingdom, perhaps? You have already given me that. Your servitude? Already claimed. Your body? At my mercy."

She saw the merciless cruelty in his eyes, and her stomach congealed. "My body wasn't part of the deal." She'd known he would try to take it, but it hadn't been part of the deal.

"You are mine," he said. "Mine, in any way I see fit." His gaze swept over her. "You will be begging for mercy before the night is out." He held up his arm, where a matching wristband glistened in the moonlight. "The moment I save your kingdom, you become mine. You have nothing left to bargain with."

Her mouth became dry with fear. "You endangered my kingdom. You sent the wolves after us. You created danger that I'm trying to save them from."

"Of course I did." Merk laughed caustically, a grating sound that felt like razor blades across her flesh. "It was my kingdom, and my brother stole it. It's mine, now, as will be his daughter."

She stared at him as his words sank in. "You're...my dad's brother?" Her father had always said his brother had died when they were young...but he hadn't?

Lord William nodded. "I'm the younger brother. Number two. Worth nothing in his eyes. Just like you."

Just like her? Number two? Worth nothing in her father's eyes? His words were so familiar, words she'd said and felt a thousand times. "I'm not like you," she whispered.

"No? I lost my inheritance to my brother, just like how you lost it to your sister. Were they worthy? No. You were the one who figured out how to save the kingdom, not any of them. You're the worthy one, just like me. I claimed the kingdom." He spat at the wolf beside him, and then clipped it on the head. It vanished beneath his touch, and reformed a few yards away, its red eyes still fixated on Maya. "And now it's mine, and so are you."

He was her uncle? Bile churned in her stomach, but she clenched her jaw, trying to work through all the implications. All her complaints about being the second born seemed so stupid now. She didn't want to be like him, consumed by the baggage of her birth order. She had to stop him. She had to find out how to save things. "How did you channel the wolves? How do you own them?"

He shrugged. "I harvested Levi's magic to create more assassins, but the power consumed them. I was left with a bunch of rotting corpses that were useless to me, until I realized how handy they were for assaulting my brother's kingdom. They're like Levi. I point them to a target, and they go. It's easy to convince them that the kingdom is under attack from the people, and they need to protect it. They're great warriors, but I have figured out how to distort their perception of reality. Each time they attack, they add to their numbers with victims, though it takes time for them to fully shift. That's why it's taken so damn long to make this happen. But soon, I'll have enough to take on targets that have actually figured out how to defend themselves, unlike the defenseless kingdom my brother ruled so pathetically."

Chills clenched her spine. Had he used the wolves against other targets? Had he sucked the life from other people? How many people would he try to destroy? "But the sunlight stops them, doesn't it?"

He nodded. "Shuts 'em down forever. I had to create something to control them, to teach them that I was in charge. And it's not sunlight. You're such a fool. You actually think I could harvest sunlight? It's magic, girl, just magic, encased in a stone." He smiled. "Ironically, I buried a stash of it at the castle. It's there, the secret to saving it all, and you never knew. I always enjoyed that little irony."

She felt sick. How could she have trusted this man? How could she possibly have bound herself to him? "You killed my parents," she whispered.

He made a sound of disgust. "I killed my brother. I wanted your mother for myself, but she went down with him." He swiped his fingers through the wolf that was her mother. "So, I tried for your sister, and she was too pathetic and weak. Now, it's just you." He smiled and held up his wrist. "And now you're mine."

She didn't need him anymore. The secret to protecting the kingdom was already at the castle. All she had to do was find it. "Where is the light? How do I find it?"

He laughed softly. "Wrong question, Maya. Wrong fucking question." He smiled, a haunting, horrific smile. "It's in the dungeon under the north tower, buried a hundred feet deep and encased in steel. Pull it out, and the wolves will stop."

Elation rushed through her. "I don't need you anymore—" She raised the axe to attack, and then, suddenly, the bracelet tightened around her wrist. It jerked her forward off her feet, and dragged her to her knees before him. "What?"

Merk grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. "When I told you where it was, I saved your kingdom from the wolves. I fulfilled my part of the bargain, and now you're mine." He dragged her to her feet, and she gasped in pain. She tried to swing the axe to cut him down, but it bounced off him. Horrified, she watched it dissolve from her hands. "You can't hurt me," he laughed. "You swore fealty to me. Fealty means you don't kill me." He fisted her hair even more aggressively, sending shards of pain through her. "It means you have nothing but utmost loyalty to me."

She gasped in pain. "The kingdom isn't safe yet. Just because you told me—"

"Of course it is. You're the queen. You have the information. Call your people. Tell them where to find it. The deal is done." His gaze dropped to her breasts. "And now, my brother's daughter is about to pay for his betrayal."

Bile churned through her stomach.
Levi! Wake up! I need you.
She'd gotten what she needed from Merk, but was it too late? Had she pushed it too far?
Levi!

There was a stirring behind her, and she twisted in Merk's grasp as Levi stumbled to his feet. His skin was still blackened and shriveled, but it was already filling out and healing. Relief rushed through her, until she saw his eyes.

His pupils were dilated, turning his eyes into black pits…except for the red glow emanating from them, just like her parents. He was staring at Merk like an automaton. His face was blank, as if the person within him was gone.

Merk pointed at Levi. "Elisabeth Brennan. Finish her off."

Her sister? He was sending Levi to kill her sister? "No!" She fought against his grip, gasping at the pain as he jerked her hair mercilessly. "Levi, no! Don't do this! Don't!"

An expression of raw hunger raked across Levi's face, and she realized now that Merk had given him a target, he was ready to feed on it. "No!" She slammed her elbow up and back toward Merk's throat, but he easily evaded her blow and shoved her face into the dirt.

She gagged on the dirt, trying to turn her head so she could breathe.
Levi!
How could he stand there and watch this? How could Merk's control of his mind be so tight on him that Levi wouldn't feel the need to protect her?
I'm your
sheva
, for God's sake! Your job is to save me!
For once in her life, she knew where she stood with someone. She
knew
she was Levi's priority.
Levi!

She turned her head enough to get her face out of the dirt. Levi was staring at her, as if trying to figure out who she was. She reached out with her mind to touch his, but there was none of his warmth left. No emotion. Just a raging hunger for death. He was gone.
Oh, God, Levi. What happened?
Tears bled down her cheeks as she opened her mind to him.
Please, Levi. I need you.

He stared at her blankly, not taking his gaze off her.

"Go," Merk snapped. "Now. Elisabeth needs to be dead before I turn the light back on in the kingdom."

Again, Levi didn't move. He just kept staring at her, as if willing her to do something. And then, she realized what it was. The bond wasn't complete. The connection wasn't strong enough yet to allow him to defeat Merk's hold on him. She had to finish it. The death stage was all that was left. Who could she kill? The bracelet kept her from killing Merk. She'd never kill Levi. All that were left were the two snarling wolves, her parents.

She stared at them in horror. How could she kill them? Her parents?

But even as she thought it, she could hear them, telling her that nothing was as important as saving the kingdom. It was her job to sacrifice herself to save it. If that meant killing her own parents, then so be it.

She saw Levi's hand, blackened from the dirt, and she knew that was her weapon to call. Not his axe. His hand. With his power, she could kill her parents, just like he'd killed the other wolves.

She looked up at Merk, and his hateful visage. So much death and destruction over a village? She'd lost her parents to that kingdom long before they'd died, as well as her sister. Would she lose them again by killing them? How much more was she willing to give for a village and for duty?

She looked at Levi, and the haunted look on his face, and she knew the cost that so many deaths had caused him. How could she let him live with the life he'd been thrust back into? Merk would be dead now, if she'd let Levi kill him when they'd first arrived. Merk would be dead, Levi would be free, and together maybe they would have figured out her uncle's plans and somehow saved the kingdom. The solution had been at the castle the whole time, and she'd been too blind to see it. Because of her foolishness, she'd forced Levi to relive his worst nightmare, she'd trapped herself with Merk, her sister was going to die, and Merk was going to claim the kingdom. Everything she'd fought against was lost, all because she'd been so blinded by trying to be worthy of her birthright.

She finally understood the enormity of the sacrifice she'd made for her kingdom, the same one her parents had made, the same ones her sister had made: sacrificing the people they loved for the kingdom. Was it never ending? Where was the line? What were the choices? Kill her parents for a village? When did it stop?

"Now, Levi," Merk commanded. "
Now!
"

With one final stare, Levi tore his gaze off her and turned away. He began to jog toward the trees, away from her, toward her kingdom, toward the world that had brought only grief. As he loped away, she heard his voice in her head, so faint, as if he could barely summon the words.
You promised.

Promised? What had she promised? Then she realized what he was saying. She'd promised to kill him. She'd promised not to let him go back to that life. The tattoo on his hip.

She looked back at Merk, who was grinning. She looked at her parents, sitting beside him, snarling with their red eyes and ghostly figure.

If she killed her parents, the
sheva
bond would be completed, giving Levi the strength to break Merk's hold, but then her parents would be dead, and Levi would be destined to go insane and destroy everything that mattered to her.

But if she killed Levi, he would die, she'd kill herself, and Merk would still be in control of her and her kingdom.

She couldn't kill Merk, no matter how hard she tried.

God, what was she supposed to do?

Levi leapt into the woods, and disappeared from sight, racing toward her sister to finish her off. Maya's heart seemed to congeal in her chest. "No!" She screamed in protest, and then his axe appeared in her hand. It was glowing with a black light, and she knew it was laced with his deadly magic, enough to kill the wolves.

She whirled around toward her parents, but just as she raised the axe, she knew there was no way she would ever strike a blow against them. To kill someone she loved would destroy her. She swung toward Merk. "I will
never
be like you."

He laughed, a ghostly, creepy cackle. "By doing nothing, you already are—"

"No!" She screamed the denial, and knew what she had to do. There was one more way to complete the bond and free Levi and her kingdom.
I love you, Levi.

And then, she turned the axe toward herself and plunged it into her stomach. She screamed with agony as the blade sunk into her abdomen, and fell to her knees as Merk shouted at her and grabbed her arms. The wolves howled with rage, and she laughed as she crumbled to the earth. "I win," she gasped. "
You lose."

Maya!
Levi's clear, anguished roar tore through her mind, and she smiled through her pain.

He was back.

She'd done it. Death had sealed their bond, and freed him. Everyone she loved would be safe. Finally, she'd done something right. The world began to spin as a black cloud began to take over her mind.
Kill Merk. The sunlight is buried under the west tower. I love you.
She vaguely recalled that the
sheva
bond required that Levi go insane and destroy everything that mattered, that he wasn't supposed to save her kingdom.

But he would.

She knew it.

He was just that stubborn.

Maya's pain tore through Levi like a tsunami, flooding him with emotions and terror, shattering the hold Merk had on his mind. Instant awareness illuminated his mind, and he whirled around, sprinted back toward where he'd left his woman.
Maya! Hang on! I'm coming for you!