Benton cringed at the playful nickname but peeked back over her shoulder, an eyebrow lifting at Dylan. “No one told me the way out, and they haven’t let me out of this hall since I started. Just here and the guard’s quarters. If you can call the tiny hole in the wall with mats on the floor anything but a crap hole.”
“We need to rendezvous with Ursad and Camulus, they’re our way out now.”
Shade’s face darkened at the mention of her old friends. “Where are they?”
“Right now, I don’t know, but we have to head back to where we’re supposed to meet up.”
Shade nodded, still feeling unsure about their allies. Once betrayed, trust was always hard to earn back. “Okay. Let’s go.”
They ran down the halls, keeping their pace brisk but slow enough to not sound like a herd of rampaging elephants. But it wasn’t going to be easy making their way back; something was wrong. There were walls where there weren’t just minutes before.
“Benton, you’ve been here a few days, why can’t we find the same tunnel back?”
“The walls, they move.” He waved his hand around, as if it was old knowledge. “I got lost the first few hours here, but they do take you where you need to go eventually.”
“Crap. Does that mean they know we’re here, then?”
Dylan stopped to listen, his sword ready to strike anything coming around the corners. “I don’t think so. It’d be much louder than it is now if they were sending the cavalry after us.” He touched the moisture-laden walls, examining the tiny cracks and moss-streaked bricks. He was searching for something, but from the determination etched in his face, Shade was sure he didn’t know what he was looking at. Following his lead, Shade reached out to feel the walls, too.
“I feel something.” Her eyes widened as she sucked in a breath. Fear… whispers… death….
Dylan paused and turned toward her, following her arm to the wall.
“The Withering Palace is not just a castle… it’s alive,” Shade whispered, pulling her fingers away from the wall as if it’d burnt her skin. “Like the forests, it speaks, but I can’t really hear what it’s saying, like it’s murky and hard to focus on.”
“What?” Benton intruded. He spun around, watching the wall behind them quietly slide by, closing off the space behind them. “Shit! The walls just cut us off! How do we get out if we’re stuck in a labyrinth?”
Shade gulped, rubbing her fingers together in hope that the friction would take away the eerie feeling the palace had transferred onto her skin. It hummed and sighed like an entity’s heartbeat underneath her fingertips but left her chilled even more than The Great Divide ice palace had. “This place is full of evil. I can hear it whispering curses at us. It’ll alert the queen soon, I’m sure. I don’t know how it does that, but it speaks in an old faerie language. Lana’s going berserk in my head.”
Shade rubbed her temples. Her grandmother’s frantic ranting felt disembodied, as if she was hollering at her through the roar of a waterfall.
Rowan slammed her hand onto the wall next to Shade, making her jump. “Don’t speak to it. It will ensnare your mind, human,” she hissed. She placed her other hand on the wall, alongside the other, and closed her eyes. She whispered in the same language as the walls, a language which was still swirling around in Shade’s head.
Shade shook it off, feeling cold and vulnerable, like someone had just raked their fingers across her brain, making it ache with a low throb. A soft, warm hand rubbed her shoulder, but she still flinched at her love’s touch.
“You okay?” Dylan slipped his fingers into hers and tugged her away from the Ancient as Rowan finished speaking.
“Yeah, fine.” Shade shook the last of the darkness away but still felt cold inside. She summoned her fire element, and it soothed the frigidness away. “Rowan? What are you doing?”
“Shh….” The Ancient turned back to her and let go of the wall. “I told it ta shut the ’ell up. No speakin’ when she’s not told to.” She waved an index finger at the wall like it was a disobedient child and marched ahead, right past Benton, who eyed her suspiciously.
“Come on.” Shade tugged Dylan behind her, and they reached a set of stairs leading out onto a wide landing filled with more stairs, some curving up into other floors and some down into the darkness below.
It reminded Shade of a movie she’d seen long ago, and she confirmed her suspicions as she stared up at the ceiling where there were stairs leading to nowhere and platforms which had no access. She watched as they also moved, silently crawling across the ceiling as they repositioned themselves, and another wall or staircase took flight. She gulped and hoped this was just another trick from the palace itself.
“Benton, keep an eye out,” Dylan whispered. “We need to get to the other side of this floor. Can you see the hall directly across from us? That’s where we rendezvous with Ursad….”
A yelp from behind Shade and Dylan made them turn around just in time to see the ground under Benton and Rowan spin, taking them with it as the wall also turned like a spinning door. It sealed itself with a rush of stale air and left them staring at a now empty wall. Shade dashed toward it, smacking her fist against the dirty bricks over and over again.
“Benton!” she screamed and shoved at the stones to no avail. It wouldn’t budge. “Benton… are you there?”
“Yeah, we’re both here. Keep it down, you’ll wake the damn trolls!” Her brother’s urgent whisper echoed through a hole in the grout, between stones. She slipped down to her knees where she peeked through the sliver of light leaking from it. Her brother’s large brown eyes were on the other side.
“What happened? Can you get back here?”
She heard shuffling and Benton’s voice asking Rowan the same thing. A soft murmur followed before he answered her. “No. This lady you brought with you says there is never a way back. Only forward. Damn fucking riddles. Does she ever speak in straight sentences?”
A curse behind him made him groan before he whispered hurriedly through the wall once more. “Gotta go. We’ll get out of here. You get yourself out, Sis.” There was another rustle of steps padding on the floor, followed by a silence that filled Shade with overwhelming terror for her sibling.
“They’re gone.” She stood up, blinking back the tears that threatened to pour down her dirty face. She stared at Dylan, trying hard not to lose her mind over the worry gnawing on her thoughts now. “He’ll get them out. He said to get ourselves out.” Why did she feel she was just trying to convince herself?
“Are you sure? We can see if we can get through. There has to be a way.” Dylan pawed the wall, searching for the activating mechanism.
Shade shook her head, tugging on his arm. “No. Rowan said there’s no going back, only forward. This place is alive, remember? It’ll never let us rejoin them. We have to find our own way. I have a feeling it’s watching us, probably leading us into a trap. Come on.” She headed down the hall, searching for the turn to take them to the hall Dylan had pointed out earlier, toward the rendezvous point.
Rounding the corner, she came to a screeching halt, finding a staircase surrounded by walls, going up, higher and deeper into the castle, instead of more stretching hallway.
“What’s this?” Dylan hopped up a few stairs and scanned the way up. Returning swiftly to her, he shook his head. “This wasn’t here before. We have to follow it, I guess.”
Shade’s head began to throb even more, an alarm ringing inside as she stepped closer to the stairs. “No. Wait!” She dropped to her knees, grabbing her arm, which had just begun stinging. She shoved her sleeve back to find the black mark of the Darkling’s kiss pulsating in a pattern of rays that were stretching out over her inner forearm. “It’s hurting again. I think it’s trying to warn me, or it’s… it’s….” Her voice cracked.
“Shade, look at me.” Dylan cupped her chin, bringing her eyes up to meet his. Hers were straining, tears leaking from them as the pain dug into her, effectively numbing her senses. ?
??What is it?”
“Another Darkling.” She pressed her eyelids closed, the stream of tears spilling over her cheeks. “It’s coming for us.”
His eyes widened, and he stood up, sword in hand. He shed his glamour, letting the full aura of blue flames and electricity flicker across his skin, covering every square inch. It lit the stairway with an eerie azure glow. Shade felt the pain receding, as if it retreated from the light in pure, utter terror. “It doesn’t like the light, Dylan. Burn brighter, keep us in the light.”
He obeyed her words and let his fire blaze out like a blue sun, blinding even Shade. She closed her eyes and felt Dylan touch her cheek. “Hold on to my shirt. Don’t look too much at me, though. I’ll turn it down if we get attacked so you can fight. Keep your ears and senses alert.”
“Okay. I trust you.” She meant it. They moved up the stairs, slower than if she’d been able to see, but she’d rather take it slow than have a Darkling attempt to attack them again.
As they made their way up and up, she kept one hand on Dylan’s tunic and one tightly gripping the sword. She bumped her knuckles occasionally against the rough bricks of the walls, just to catch her bearings. The icky, ancient magic slithered through the bricks and licked at her aura like a hungry lion ready to devour its prey. She shook it off and concentrated on listening for any soldiers trying to ambush them. The darkness toyed at her from beyond the boundaries of Dylan’s light, aching to overtake her brain again.
Stupid castle! It lives off the life force of others, like a cancer sucking our power away. No wonder I was so weak here before, thought Shade. But those were memories which should never resurface, so she pushed them down, back to the place inside where even faeries would fear to tread.
Dylan’s came to a standstill, and she risked a peek through her eyelids. She couldn’t see, but her magical senses madly whispered the details of what surrounded them. Unseelie soldiers and at least two Darklings loomed ahead, snarling and rushing in their direction.
“Now, Shade! Get ready, go back some….” Dylan sliced the air with his sword, hitting two soldiers without any effort. Shade gripped her sword and spun around to face down the army crawling up the stairs behind them.
“We’re surrounded here.” Shade lunged toward the first soldier who reached her, a goblin with chainmail armor tainted with dirt and grime from never being cleaned, and a helmet fashioned to look like a stag with broken horns. It’s black and red eyes stared her down as it flashed its dirty, sharp teeth at her. Green skin, dark and thick as leather, surrounded that mouth, and she swung her sword toward him as he reached out to grab at her arm.
She managed to slice the hand off and shove him hard enough with her foot to make him lose his balance, sending three others tumbling backward down the stairs as his screech followed them. They were replaced almost immediately with more demonic figures and fallen faeries, all marked by evil with blackened tongues and dark, deceptive beauty. She sliced though one soldier’s wings, his scream deafening over the hollers of the crowd, making her want to hold her head to block out the noise. It was disorientating, but she fought against the murkiness and continued to fight the horde of Unseelie hungering to destroy them.
Soon, the crowd of soldiers thinned enough for Dylan and Shade to make it farther up the staircase, sending the main fight spilling onto a large platform. More replaced the dead, and exhaustion began to overtake the adrenaline pumping through Shade’s veins. But she wouldn’t stop now. Not now, when their lives were on a knife’s edge. The Unseelie would have to kill them to bring an end to the death and destruction she and Dylan were causing. And that was not something she would ever let happen.
“Well, well. Brother of mine and my mistress, Shade. You’ve returned to me at last.”
A sickening voice dropped Shade’s stomach to her knees as the crowd suddenly silenced and began edging away from them, a unified look of fear and disgust filling their dark faces. The voice was familiar and was always a part of her deepest, darkest nightmares.
“Why are they backing away?” Dylan hadn’t heard it as clearly as she had, so she grabbed his arm to show him who was now smirking delightfully at their battered bodies. Horror formed on his face as his eyes met with his brother’s and it drained the color from his face.
Darren.
Chapter Twenty
Poisoned Darkness
“FRIENDS…SO GOOD to see you again.” Darren clapped his hands and sent the horde of orcs, goblins and demonic faeries back several meters before they stopped, sneering and grinning their devious smiles as they gave him a wide berth. “We must welcome our guests. My brother and my sweet, dear, long lost Shade have finally come to join me once again.” He squealed like a five year old getting a lollipop, making Shade’s horror morph into sheer hatred.
“Darren. You dare come near her, I’ll kill you.” Dylan held the sword up as his brother approached. Darren stopped in his steps, mere inches from the threatening tip of the blade pointed at his neck.
“Brother. That’s no way to greet family.”
“You’re not my brother.” Dylan’s furrowed brow surrounded the daggered look he threw his brother.
Darren’s smile faded somewhat, his eyes darkening. As he narrowed them, it wasn’t hard to see how very similar yet how very different they were in almost every single way. Where Dylan was full of life, warmth and strength, Darren was nothing but empty and frigid.
“Let’s be civil, my dear blood. I know you are not as hard as you make out to be. Surely, Shade wouldn’t love you so much if you were.” He sneered and stepped forward until the tip of the sword was squarely on his neck, drawing a tiny pinprick of blood from its razor’s edge. “Do we not still share the same blood… Brother?”
Dylan’s sword didn’t sway, but Shade could feel an ocean of sadness floating off him as he faced his worst nightmare. Would he really kill his own brother? How long had he prepared for such a moment? Shade followed his stare over to his brother and back again. Would she be able to do the same if it was her own brother?
No. It would be impossible to imagine herself and Benton in such a situation. She hoped she’d never have to look at Benton the way Dylan was looking at Darren.
Yes, this weasel was the most twisted, vile creature she’d ever met, but was it worth Dylan losing his own soul to kill his brother? A sickening twist jolted her out of her stunned observation, and she sucked in a breath as she watched it all play out before her eyes, looking for the moment when she could intervene.
“We may share the same blood, but we are not brothers. You made sure of that.” Dylan’s voice came out unnaturally cold and unfeeling, something that sent Shade’s blood turning to ice. “Every step you took, you severed our ties. So help me, our mother rolls over in her grave, but I cannot say that you’re my brother anymore.” Dylan swung the sword, aiming to slice Darren’s head off, but it slammed against a metal cuff on Darren’s forearm. It gave Darren enough time to pull out a short sword from his side and block the next swing from Dylan’s sword.
“I’m not as stupid as you think I am, big brother. I’m quite capable of killing you, too, even if I wasn’t favored in the Teleen Guard, as you always were.” Darren gritted his teeth, the strain of the combat beginning to show on his face.
He buckled under another strike from Dylan and crashed down onto his knees but still held the sword back, his face reddening.
“You never cared about guarding our people. You only cared about hurting others and playing your childish tricks.” Out of breath, Dylan didn’t show any signs of defeat. Instead, he pushed down on the sword, smirking at his brother as all the years of pain took their toll.
“Well said… mostly true. If you’d only let me have Evangeline and had got Jack out of the way, things might’ve been different. But you had to let them escape. You wouldn’t let me have her!”
“She was never yours to begin with. It’s forbidden to force someone to love you.”
Darren laughed. His sweat poured dow
n his face, and his veins popped out along his temples, pulsating with effort as his energy waned away. “You may be right, but not all of us are destined for a mate. Not all of us are so lucky, as you were. Some of us face eternity alone. Would you have me so alone for eternity? I doubt you’d keep your sanity either with such a dire fate,” he hissed.
Darren yanked out a dagger from his belt and swiped at Dylan’s thigh, sending him stumbling back. He wobbled, grabbing his thigh with a surprised look on his face. Shade ran to him, keeping a watch out for the horde of Unseelie who were still watching the scene hungrily, waiting for their turn to brawl. The knowing smiles on their faces as they snickered made Shade turn back toward Dylan, a sickly dread growing inside her.
“Dylan? What’s wrong?”
His twisted features were filled with agony. He collapsed to the ground, holding his leg where dark red blood oozed from between his fingers, mixed with a black taint. It wasn’t a deep wound, but he weakened before her eyes, and she grabbed onto him as his body shook from the pain, right before a prickling stab of agony smacked into her thigh, too.
“What’s happening?” She clenches her jaw tight, sweating as whatever happened to Dylan began to work across their bond and share his injuries with her.
“It’s poisoned, Shade.” He strained to stay upright but swayed dangerously.
“Darklings come with many advantages for the Unseelie. You see, I’ve learned much in my time here, Brother.” Darren’s snarky voice was full of sadistic satisfaction. Shade peered up at him, but his eyes were filled with nothing but a vacant insanity. “First of all, their touch is quite deadly,” he continued. “It is the perfect poison, and its abundance here lets me have all I want. It’s not hard to extract their poison once they touch another. I just drain some blood from their victim before they die and coat my weapons with it. Not quite as potent as a direct touch from one, but it’s just as lethal.”
His wicked smile infuriated her. Wouldn’t it be fitting to wipe it off his face with her own Darkling blood shoved straight down his throat?