Fatal Alignment Ch. 03

Raised together from birth, Eoin had been Killian's companion since early childhood. Side by side, they'd had lessons together, practiced sparring and sword fighting together, learned the intricacies of holding court, welcoming delegates from foreign lands, the politics of running a kingdom. Jax hadn't always been mad, and before his mind began to degenerate, he'd passed on important lessons to his son and his son's companion, even going so far as to arranging advantageous and beneficial marriages for them both.

Eva and Ivana. Highborn daughters of the court, the four had known each other for years prior to the marriage agreement. Her father had accepted a contract from a group of political adversaries, furious at the changes Killian was attempting to make that would give village leaders more independence from the crown, placing power back into the hands of the people and taking wealth and influence away from those with a stranglehold on their own giant swaths of territory. With Killian left devastated and properly put in his place by the death of his betrothed, this group thought to correct the felt errors of the young Prince's sympathetic ways.

And her father had ensured that Killian and Eoin had good cause for devastation.

All of this terrible history, the graphic and bloodstained descriptions of what Venlen had done, was entirely too much for her to process. Her father, the man who had raised her, taught her to fight and defend herself, loved and cared for her with fierce and protective affection, had inflicted such terrible cruelty, such wicked agony. The mental images washed through her, flooding her consciousness, replacing everything else with shocked anguish. There was grief, for the father she had never truly known; heartbreak for his victims; and guilt. She was guilty of loving the monster Eoin defined in merciless detail. Of not being able to reconcile the man who had raised her with the villain he had been before. Because even after all she had heard, even after the shock of truth, she knew she'd be unable to revoke that love.

By the time Killian caught up to them at midday, she had become numb to his words. Numb to his tortuous hands. Numb to everything, in fact. There was a commotion; Killian's deep, venomous voice ripping through the cool autumn air; but she didn't hear the individual words. She was liberated from the leather straps biting into her skin and jostled around, placed on the ground where she promptly sat down, unfeeling. Violence erupted beside her, the sound of flesh hitting bone registering in some disconnected part of her brain. Then she was being jostled again, hoisted up, tied down once more. Arms were surrounding her, hands brushing across her face, around her neck, tender purple skin prodded with a gentle touch. Killian's voice echoed in her ear, but she wouldn't listen. Wouldn't answer. Couldn't, even if she'd wanted to. Eoin had driven Adrika deep into a dark corner of her consciousness, and something else, something... Other, had rushed forth to protect and defend.

The bracelet burned the skin on her wrist. She felt part of herself slip the noose of whatever power was keeping her Green away from her. The Other had fully surfaced now, staring out from behind her midnight eyes, plotting and planning.

This Other let the fire from the bracelet spread across her skin, smirking when the male at her back grunted in pain and released his hold. They stopped, and she was untied. Unhindered, she swung her legs over the beast and jumped the considerable distance, landing lightly on her feet. The male was shouting at her, asking her more questions, making more demands, but the Other was not interested in the meaningless nothings spewing from traitorous lips. Ignoring the irritating male to walk free, verdant webs of light sprouted from her feet every time they touched the ground as the Other absorbed all the Green that had been taken from her, from them.

Leather bindings were wrapped around her chest and waist, constricting her movements. The Other snarled but didn't fight. It had gotten what it wanted and offered little resistance as it was led to a towering redwood and tied down. She rested her head against the smooth bark, connecting with the gentle giant, listening to all it had to say. Content and sated, the Other slivered back down, the noose of the bracelet once again tightening around her Green, cutting her off, and bringing the halfling girl back into the world. By the time the Other had completely coiled back into where it had been hiding, Adrika was sleeping deeply and soundly, and nothing the male did could shake her awake. The Other smiled, deep in the dark, and settled down to wait once more...

..............................................

"What the FUCK did you do?!" Killian roared, advancing once again on his already battered friend.

Eoin flinched back, holding his hands up in surrender. "I don't know! I swear, I don't know how it happened! I didn't fucking touchthe bracelet!"

Killian leveled a look at his second that would have killed a lesser man. "You disobeyed me, went against my wishes, and almost fucked everything up! I should kill you for treason, you SON OF A BITCH!"

The sorrowful, regretful look on Eoin's face did nothing but disgust Killian. He was furious, but he wouldn't kill his friend. He had beat the man nearly to death, waited impatiently as Eoin healed himself before letting loose a second round of unforgiving blows.

He turned back to the girl, raking a hand through his tousled hair. "What the fuck just happened?" he asked, a rhetorical question, mostly to himself. She was so silent and still that he would have thought her dead, had he not been checking every few minutes to make sure she was still breathing. She was totally unresponsive. Nothing he did would wake her up, and he had tried, and tried hard. They were in a dangerous spot, on the edge of another patch of dead land, but he didn't dare move her until she woke up. If she woke up. He began pacing in front of her, his heart plummeting at the thought.

Whatever had happened had scared the absolute fuck out of him. She'd been catatonic when he reached them, his rage exploding when he caught sight of her bruised wrists where Eoin had strapped her down too tight and the ring of purple around her neck. After he'd released his fury on his second until he was someone sated, he'd secured her back onto his Mortolf, where she belonged. Nothing he said got through to her. She was a limp rag doll, her limbs swaying back and forth with no resistance. And then, then, somehow, she had taken back partial control of her power, had singed him where they'd touched.

Her normally midnight dark eyes, swimming with flecks of viridian, had been glowing a bright, iridescent green when she'd simply walked away, ignoring the commands he sent through the bracelet. She'd stared straight past him, as if he didn't exist, not stopping until he'd used the leather riding straps to halt her steps so as to avoid her still-scorching skin.

What. The. Fuck.

He didn't at all understand how it could have happened. As far as he knew, the Miridyan bracelet provided absolute control. He had never heard of someone escaping the confines of the spell woven into the metal band. It should have been impossible. Her mother had been trapped by the same spell, woven into a collar instead of a bracelet. Laiyla had been released, but she'd been unable to do what the girl had just done.

He crouched down in front of the little halfling, brushing strands of hair away from her face. She was curled up on her side, her hands tucked under her head. Once again, he held his hand in front of her mouth, feeling for the warm puffs of breath that assured him she was still alive.

"What happened to you, little monster?" he murmured, stroking his thumb across her forehead. "Where did you go?"

Darkness fell, whispers swirling through the sleeping giants, warning them away from the rift where she slept. Killian stood sentry, moving her onto the bedroll she had left behind, refusing to leave her until she was awake, despite the ghosts urging him to leave.

He had the strangest feeling that the same spirits warning him away, were somehow protecting her.

Finally, just as dawn approached, the girl stirred. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, and he was relieved to find familiar emerald speckled midnight blinking up at him. "Welcome back," he said, gruffly, not wanting to betray all the fucking worry she had caused him.

She looked around, confused, then back up at him. "Uh, thanks," she said, uncertainly, pulling herself up to sit with her back against the redwood she'd been tied to. Her eyes found Eoin, standing a safe distance away, and for a second, he could have sworn the green flecks of her eyes flashed bright as her expression turned guarded and defensive. "What happened?" she demanded, looking back up at him. He crouched down until they were eye level.

"You passed out. Do you feel okay?" he searched her face, looking for any hint as to what she was feeling, what she was thinking.

"No..." she answered slowly, looking down at the bracelet, eyeing it like it was a dangerous animal she'd somehow managed to collar but was still nervous of. "I feel good, actually."

He grunted as his eyes swept down her body, noting how her riding attire clung to her curves, how a soft blush worked its way from her neck to her cheeks under his gaze, how her skin seemed to glow, her dark eyes pulling him under. She did indeed look refreshed, healthy. "Get up, then. We'll eat on the way." He pulled her to her feet, ignoring her attempts to brush him off. She wasn't going to take a single step away from him today.

True to his word, once they began riding, Killian cut an apple into thin slices, handing them to her one by one. They ate the fruit in silence, followed by a small portion of an olive loaf.

"Eoin took you with him against my wishes," he told her once they were done eating. "He's been reprimanded, and it won't happen again. You will always ride with me."

"Always," she repeated quietly. "Right."

He grimaced, snaking one arm around her waist, another across her chest, pulling her closer to him. No flames touched him where their bodies met. Whatever had happened yesterday was over, his little monster back to normal.

It was then, when relief swept through him, and he was soaking up the strange warmth that came over him whenever he had his arms around her, that he realized how right Eoin really was. She slowly relaxed into him, resting the back of her head against his chest, and Killian knew that he was well and truly fucked.

................................................

"She's alive."

There had been a flash of something powerful and foreign, but Laiyla knew it had come from Adrika. She had sensed it once before, something buried deep down inside of her daughter, and remembered a time she had given the life growing in her belly a bright iridescent ribbon of green energy. A gift, from the forest. It had kept her alive then.

That same, protective energy was keeping her alive now. She had felt it.

Laiyla paced impatiently in front of the fireplace, glancing every now and then at the two men standing at the table, readying their armor and strapping weapons onto their massive bodies. Pure, destructive rage had been emanating off Venlen since Adrika had gone missing. The guards who had lost her had only escaped with their lives because of Laiyla's pleas on their behalf, but they had suffered all the same.

She had known this day would come eventually. Adrika was like a bright light, a beacon calling out to those around her, drawing danger in like a moth to a flame. Killian was not the first to attempt to hurt her, but he'd been the only successful one. Venlen's Defenders had slowly dismembered the men who came before him, all looking to shackle the last remaining, unbound Seeker.

Venlen's Defenders, once known as the Army of Night, as ridiculous as it sounded, had quickly figured out who had taken her, and how she had been overpowered. Despite their collective efforts to give her the ability to defend herself, the bastard had cheated, had cut her daughter off with something similar to the collar that Damien had once kept around her neck. The thought both enraged and terrified her. She remembered what had happened when she fell under Damien's control. If Killian was anything like Damien...

Venlen looked up then, as if sensing her thoughts. "We will find her, keonai mouv."

She stopped pacing and faced him. "You promised," she snarled, advancing on a man twice as big as her and armed with half a dozen blades. "You promised you would protect her!" She pounded her fists against his chest, flashing her teeth when he grabbed her wrists and held her to him.

"I did promise, and I will bring her home." He wrapped a strong arm around her waist, keeping her pinned to him. "There is nothing I won't do, keonai mouv.Hush now."

She would not be placated. "This is your fault," she seethed. Once they knew who had taken her, she'd learned of Venlen's awful role in all this. How he had once been an assassin for hire, trained by the monster Matteo to inflict the maximum amount of suffering on his victims before he'd struck out on his own. A fucking freelanced killer. What he had done to Killian, how he had taken his betrothed from him, and what had been done to her, had made her sick to her stomach. "You caused it. They took her to get to you. You WILL fix this!" she hissed angrily, twisting in his grip.

Venlen's face hardened, and after a long moment, he let her go, stepping back to adjust the straps across his chest. "We have to go," he said quietly. "My men are waiting."

"I'm going with you," she declared, stalking to the door to put on her boots. She had already put on her riding leathers, preparing herself for an argument and absolutely unwilling to back down.

After a quiet, tension filled moment, when her boots had been laced up, she stood, squaring off with her mate, hands obstinately resting on her hips. He nodded once, and opened the door for her, signaling for Amlen to leave first. She gaped, shocked. She was sure he would fight her on this.

"We're stronger together," he said softly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear when she approached. "But you will do as I say." His tone turned severe. "If I tell you to run, you will run. If I tell you to hide, you will hide. And if it comes down to your death or mine, keonai mouv, it will always be mine." His dark eyes bore into her, drowning her in endless pools of midnight. His rigid posture threatened violence, and for the first time in a long, long while, she glimpsed the monster beneath the surface.

She swallowed. This was the man who terrified her. The man who had, at one time, stopped at nothingto find and keep her. The man who would burn entire worlds to get their daughter back.

Venlen cupped her jaw and raised her head to his. His mouth came down on hers, possessive and dominating, his tongue demanding entrance, thrusting into her mouth when she parted her lips. He pulled the very breath from her lungs, reminding her of their first months together, when he had owned her so completely. He pulled away, his dark eyes hungry and predatory, as he ran his thumb over her swollen lower lip.

"You know what I might have to do," he murmured, leaning down to brush the tip of his nose against her jaw.

"Yes," she breathed. Something clenched uncomfortably in her chest.

"And you won't interfere."

She made a choked sound, swallowing thickly. Not trusting herself, she managed to shake her head. No, she wouldn't interfere. Not if it meant getting her daughter back.

"Verina cuvale, keonai mouv." Laced with ancient magic, the Oden words were binding and powerful. Sighing, she rested her forehead against the stone wall of his chest.

"I love you too," she whispered.