Dark Throne, The (35 page)

“
I was never all that good at human
biology
. Physics, yeah, I
understood that, but if I miss your heart that nasty concoction I
just dipped the blade into will make sure you die. And I hope it’s
horrible, you bastard. You killing, murdering bastard.”

Tears littered her eyes and rained down her cheeks as she
urged her arm upwards and then plunged it down
.

As the knife to
re
flesh away from flesh, she gasped. Her stomach contents making
themselves known as she actively ended someone’s life. Blood gushed
from the wound and out of Calder’s nose and mouth as she forced all
of her waning strength into her arm and continued to press down
into the wound.

It was harder than she’d thought it would
be
. The movies made everything
look easy and her arm was aching with the strength required to
plunge through muscle and blood vessels and tissue and flesh. Her
aim wasn’t true and she hit bone, she angled the knife and forced
the blade between his ribs so that the knife pierced both sides of
his body and while she felt sick, she was glad the man was awake to
experience this.

When the knife was buried to the hilt, she realized she was
covered in blood
. This time,
she was sick. She threw up beside the dying man’s corpse and
clambered away before anymore of his bodily fluids could touch
her.

The taking of a life was a huge deal but Heather didn’t
have it in her to feel remorse, not after what he’d done to her
mother
. And for him to have
murdered her so easily, Setta wasn’t the first.

She had her revenge, but it didn’t bring her mother back to
life
.

More tears flooded her eyes and she slumped, her back half
resting against the bed and half curved over so that her chin was
almost touching her chest
. She
knew she had options now that bastard was dead. It had been so
easy, so easy to liberate herself from this man’s clutches. While
she knew she had choices to make, she wasn’t sure what they were.
Her brain refused to function, even her thoughts were
sluggish.

She sucked in a breath and the cooling essence of the
lavender from the sheets filled her nostrils
. Somehow, it cleared the lethargy a way. Just a tad,
so that she could think about her next plan of action.

She didn’t want to look at the now-dead Calder, whose eyes
were open and were dimmed with pain even in
death
. But she let her eyes
glance off his ears. They were Elfen. She knew from Fade that
hoonans shared this realm with the Elfen and that there were often
disputes between the two factions.

At least she knew she was in Elfen territory and not
hoonan, who were an apparently blood-thirsty lot
.

But just because she was in an Elfen dwelling didn’t mean
she was safe
. Jender had
enemies as did Haden. She wasn’t safe anywhere, especially without
her mate. Tears poured down her cheeks as her heart began to feel
the loss of her other half. Where was he? Did he know she’d gone
missing? Or did he think that she’d rejected him like every other
being in his life?

Her sobs, this time of self-pity, resurfaced and she let
herself weep
. She didn’t dare
leave these rooms and find herself in enemy Elfen territory. That
meant she had to use the doorknobs and only God knew where she’d
end up.

Her terror at this prospect was worse than the idea of
walking into a hall full of enemy soldiers
. She knew Fade would rail at her for not using the
doorknobs to flee, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t leave him.
Couldn’t lose him, couldn’t do without him. She needed him so badly
and not in a way that made her feel pathetic. Like a wimpy woman
who relied on her man for everything, from decision making to
fixing the car… Her heart needed him like it needed oxygenated
blood. It was as intrinsic as the most basic of her body’s
functions.

Without him, she was lost
.

The very idea cleared her thoughts and she made the
resolution not to use the knobs
.

That left leaving the rooms and determining where she
was
.

Her father had shown her the emblems of the royal houses,
to which each house was aligned
. If she could just see which house this owed its
allegiance, then she’d know if she was safe, because he’d also
taught her to recognize those that hated Jender.

She needed to get away from the scent of
death
. From the stench
emanating from Calder’s form. She’d been in the presence of death
before, but she’d never known anything like this. Heather assumed
it was the poison at work and wrinkled her nose as burning flesh
combined with urine and feces. It overpowered her senses but jolted
her from the stasis the
sleckil
had
induced.

She clambered on to hands and knees and began to crawl away
from the body and towards the only door that the room
contained
. She passed the
captives and longed to help them but didn’t have the energy. They
were still in a stupor, but their eyes were awake and she muttered,
“I’m so sorry. I have to get help. Then they’ll free you. I haven’t
the energy to do both.”

Her words were slurred as her tongue felt heavy in her
mouth
. Even that was
difficult. Dragging herself forward, she made it to the door
relatively safe and sound. The only problem had stemmed from the
few steps and she’d practically fallen down them, her body slamming
into the floor with a force that seemed exaggerated considering the
height of the drop. But she’d made it and was relieved that the
doorknob was in her hand and that she was a few dragging steps from
escaping the odd stench that was pervading the entire
room.

Heather managed to turn the knob and suddenly the sounds of
fire overtook the room
. As she
opened the door and a gush of wind shot through the way, she turned
her head and screamed.

Calder was no longer on the floor
. He was dangling in the air. Like a marionette doll,
he seemed to be suspended by the nape of his neck. But rather than
making those strange, wooden movements as was the case with a
puppet, Heather watched on in horror as fire overtook each limb.
The ferocity of the flames had lifted him into a standing position.
It ate every part of his skin, devoured muscle and sinew and
cartilage. Encompassing him in an elongated ball of flame that left
nothing behind. Not even dust.

She didn’t even realize she’d been screaming until she
heard guards storming in the hallway, t
heir footsteps thundering as their boots stomped
against the stone floors.

One of them crouched before her and shook her roughly by
the shoulders
. “Wench, cease
that screaming. Stop it.” the man shouted at her, continuing to
drag her back and forth until she ceased her screams.

She stared at him and whispered, “Fire
. Fire.”

He scowled at her and peered into the room, his eyes
finding nothing amiss in the chamber save the poor Elfen tied up on
the floor
.

“
She’s mad
. Only Mother
knows where Calder is or what he’s done to the poor bastards on the
floor.” The soldier pointed to one of his men and said, “Till we
learn more about her, take her to the dungeons.”

Heather said nothing as she was lifted from the floor and
hefted into a man’s arms
. She
would have been offended by his grunt after he accepted her weight,
but she didn’t have the energy. Once she’d seen the emblem on the
men of arms’ uniforms, she’d recognized that she was
safe.

Haden.

She was in Fade’s land
. She’d understood the term dungeon and knew she was about
to be confined to a cell, but it didn’t matter.

He’d find her
. She’d
be back with him and that was all that mattered.

Chapter
Sixteen

The minute the
sleckil
sounded, Fade
was both relieved and terrified. He’d made the Elder connect
Heather’s
sleckil
with a unit he wore that lacked the
same pitching tone, instead it flashed on his wrist. Informing him
that Heather was, for the moment, safe.

Fade’s
sleckil
was different to Heather’s in that
his possessed a little map of Mearth and its kingdoms. The Elder
who had crafted their pair had informed Fade that the blood that
flowed through both their veins and as such, touched the
sleckil
, would act as a way for Fade to track her.

Without a second’s hesitation, he sliced one of his
ceremonial knives attached to the uniform he’d intended to wear
while wedding himself to Heather, along his palm and held the
quickly drenched palm above the receptacle of his
sleckil.
The mechanism collected his blood and Fade waited,
nausea churning in his gut as the magical device did its
job.

It seemed a lifetime before his own kingdom appeared on the
map
. The blood had flowed
behind Haden and that point of the map was now the scarlet of his
life-essence.

He scowled at the knowledge and wondered what the hell
and
who
had been the mother fucker to take his bride to
his land. Haden and Jender had their enemies, but he hadn’t
expected this.

Rather than wait for the army to follow him, he allowed his
wings to spread wide and he took to the sky
. The longer Heather was out of his sights, the more
uneasy he grew. This was a part and parcel of the mate bond, but he
wasn’t used to this sense of loss. It was almost as though one of
his arms had decided not to work.

The mate bond and the ceremony behind it were
rare
, unheard of almost. But
even so, the bond was famous for its power and its strength. It had
a tendency to overtake all other relationships, even those between
parent and child. This was due to the fact that more than just the
heart was shared with the other, it was everything. From the soul
to the gush of blood that surged through the veins and
arteries.

At this very moment, he felt as though he were
maneuvering with an
injury.

His wings relished the exercise as they were
pummeled by the wind. Instincts had
him surging with the gusts and gliding with the slow vents as he
headed towards the place that had always been his resting place and
was now the site of the creature that would always be his
home.

For the first time in his life, he was grateful for his
wings
. They were the fastest
mode of travel on Mearth and he could only now appreciate that.
Every second he spent away from his mate was too much.

His eyes watched the rolling land that surged beneath
him
, his keen sight spotting
things few men could. The warrior in him noted the formation of men
huddling behind the Caparchian Mountain range. The house emblem
belonged to Setta’s old house and they’d obviously sneaked into
Jender for the reason of… Fade wasn’t certain. He’d send a missive
to Henrik with the information as soon as he reached the central
keep and the site of the Dark Throne. Whatever mischief they
intended to make, he didn’t really care. He was focused, entirely,
on Heather. On returning her to his side.

He wasn’t certain how informative the
sleckil
would be. If it would offer more information about
Heather’s location the closer he neared her. He could only hope so,
for while he was the King of this country, even he would find it
difficult to narrow down his mate’s position.

His wings fought the headwinds as he crossed the mountain
range
. The chill breeze cooled
his flushed form as his body fought to fly faster, to reach Heather
as soon as he physically could.

By the time he reached his keep and the seat of his power,
he was both exhausted and fully fuelled with an adrenaline rush
that had him striding through the keep and astounding all of the
castle’s inhabitants
. As soon
as he appeared, the lords and ladies of the court bowed and
curtsied. The soldiers stood to attention and they were the ones
who caught his eye. Before he strode over to one of his men, he
checked his
sleckil
and his entire form reared back as
the small map had a small dot of blood over this
landmark.

His mate was in this
castle?

“
Have there been any
disturbances in the keep?” he bit out.

If it was possible, the man grew even
more rigid at having been selected by his king to talk.

“
Earlier, sir
. Yes,
your highness.”

Fade narrowed his eyes and noticed that his body wasn’t
feeling as disabled as it had been
. She was close. Near. His eyes almost closed in
thankfulness.

“
What happened?”

“
Sir Calder, your highness
. He’s missing but we found some captives in his chambers.
A female has been taken to the dungeon.”