Shadowborn (21 page)

Parthalan abased himself at my feet.

I scrambled to stand and shuffled along the wall, but he crawled toward me using the tips of his wings as extra appendages. Black scorch marks painted his back, one side of his bare butt and some along the side of his throat.

“Please,” he whimpered, “I’ve done all he has asked of me, and still he won’t allow me the dignity of cloth. He takes pleasure in doing … terrible things.” A pale hand pawed at my sneaker. “Whoever you are, please, don’t leave me here.”

Clearly, I’d shielded my thoughts from him better than I’d expected. He didn’t even know my name unless it was some sick joke he played.

Unable to reconcile the Parthalan I knew with the trembling creature before me, my conscience screamed at me. “Bain didn’t send me, all right?” I shoved at him with my foot. “Get up, for Goddess’s sake. You’re making a damn fool of yourself.”

The desire that usually consumed me in his presence took another form, one that made my arms itch to hold the too thin figure and take away his pain. To save him from the Lord of the Sluagh. I shoved my hands into my pockets so I wouldn’t touch him.
Get a fucking grip. This is Parthalan, you idiot!

“Bain?” An all too familiar face tilted up, but I found no twisted amusement there. A frightened child afraid of a monster had taken his place. “Bain is no more. Is that why you have come, Goddess? To punish me for what I’ve done?”

“I’m not a Goddess.” I snorted at the notion but sobered when I processed what he’d said. I pinned him under a glare. “What do you mean Bain is no more? If you mean to say you killed him, then that would mean you’re the new … Lord.”
I had to go and tell him that little tidbit.

Parthalan climbed to his feet, once again wrapping his feathers to obscure his ghostly white form. “No, mistress. The new Lord is the one who bid me touch the one called Bain.” He whirled, and the heaving of his shoulders let me know he was about to break down. “He told me to wish death upon Lord Bain. I didn’t want to do it. He said do it, and I would be free to leave the city, to find the one who haunted my thoughts. He said I could go to her, and she would be mine.” Glittering eyes peered over his shoulder. “Are you mine, mistress?”

“Hell, no, I am not yours.” I swallowed hard to keep from gagging.

Parthalan drew in a hissing breath. “By my hand, Bain’s body turned to mush and gore.” An audible sob heaved out of him. “What sort of vile creature am I? Is this Hell?” Silver, mercury-like tears dripped from the corners of his eyes.

I blinked at his back, scratching my head. “Back up for a second.” I resisted the urge to shake him and make him stop crying like a baby, and walked around to face him. “Who told you to kill Bain? Who’s the new Lord of the Host?” Thankfully I remembered the Sluagh hated to be called that by anyone but themselves. Apparently, even the undead had their political correctness.

As I stared at the char marks all over Parthalan, my heart dropped to my feet. “No fucking way.”

He dropped his head forward as a tremble shook his body. “My Lord calls himself Rourke.”

So Bain did steal that psycho’s body and raise it as Sluagh. Did he remember his previous life? Something told me he did. Maybe because Parthalan was in the midst of transforming from his wolf form back to fae, it had somehow scrambled his memory?

The image of Parthalan taking all that Rourke dished out should have pleased me to no end, but it only tightened a fist around my guts and squeezed hard. It had to be the bond, my built-in need to protect him, talking. He deserved none of my concern or pity, and he’d get none of it.

Memories stirred to remind me of what Parthalan had done to me, my family’s screams as he killed them, everything he did to Liam, to Garret and my father. In a sudden black rage, I let out a wail and forced my thoughts into Parthalan.

“You wanted to know why I hate you, you piece of shit? See what you did to them! Watch every detail as I do every time I close my eyes!” I let my lashes fall and forced my visions to him, a tortured collage of red and pain.

Arms thrown around his head, Parthalan fell to the floor, screaming. “Stop! I beg you. Make it stop!”

With a snarl, I turned to face the wall and planted my palms against it. The gentle thrumming from the shifter’s heartbeat helped me rein in my fury.

“Tell me it isn’t true,” he whispered between gasps, the small sound echoing back from the top of the tower.

Working to control my breathing, I rested my forehead against the cool stone. “You must recognize your
cumhacht
, Parthalan. You used it to kill Bain.”
He’s lying. He’s playing you!
I shook my head and continued my efforts to connect what I wanted to believe with what I felt through our link.

A long silence lingered. If the shadow of his turbulent emotions didn’t transcend our bond, I might have thought he’d hightailed it back up the stairs. Curiosity got the better of me and urged me to turn to him again.

“No wonder the Goddess has forsaken me.” He lay on the floor facing away, his knees drawn up, wings wrapped around all but his feet and feather hair. “No wonder you hate me with such ferocity. How did I come to such a vile state of being, to have done such things?”

“You let your dark Unseelie power seduce you. The Goddess hasn’t forsaken you, you walked out of her Light a long time ago, the minute you tortured your first fae.” I opened my mouth to scream at him again, but he cut me off.

“Then I deserve the Hell I’ve come to know, don’t I?”

My mouth closed.
Mustn’t have heard that right.
“Damn right you do.”

“I am your servant, Goddess.” He raised glowing, ice-blue eyes to me above the curve of his wing. “I’m yours to command until our divine Mother sees fit to allow me final death.”

I stared at him, my lips parted. If his power didn’t lick at my skin, or if I hadn’t recognized those eyes even past the glow, I’d have thought I’d made a mistake, and the one before me wasn’t Parthalan. The link never lied.

“You really don’t remember me, or what you were before. You’re not faking.”

He blinked and turned from me. “I awoke in the earth, choking. Only you were there, in my head. I didn’t know until now that there was anything before.”

The implications of that sent my mind reeling. Whoever he’d become didn’t hold a trace of the malignancy that had consumed his previous life. All that remained of the one I hated with every corner of my soul existed only within me.

Another thought stabbed into the relief that had begun to unknot my muscles. Did the elves have another reason for sending me to face Parthalan? They said I had to accept my bond with him or find a way to destroy it. The ball of fear I’d almost choked on before arriving there had almost gone away. Although a tiny bit of attraction remained to his energy, instead of lust, pity dominated my emotions—an almost motherly need to protect him from his monsters. I compromised with myself to accept my bond with him until I found a way to destroy it. More, maybe he had a part to play in shutting down the Shadowborn. I needed to tread lightly and learn everything I could before igniting the dynamite under that slime ball Rourke.

“Did your Lord Rourke hire the Shadowborn to kill me?”

Parthalan jacked his head left, an oddly birdlike gesture. “He spoke of them once in haste. He called back the Host to Cargun, the ones he sent into the human world to find his enemy. When they returned, we had a celebration of blood and flesh. Lord Rourke said he had discovered the Old Ones had hired the Shadowborn to gather her soul for them and offered the Unseelie king’s to them as worthy payment.”

“Oh, fuck. The Shadowborn don’t want me for themselves?” My fingers snarled into my hair, connecting that tidbit with something Alastair had hinted at earlier. “Who are the Old Ones? The Magi? Why do they want me?” If Alastair touched Liam, he’d wish he’d never blinked into existence. Fists curled, I let out a hateful growl.

Parthalan’s eyes peeked out again. “You. You are Rourke’s enemy.” He jumped at me, touched my face with his icy fingers. “If my Lord trusts another to destroy you, he will succeed. Take me away from here. I’ll keep you from harm. I swear it.”

I stared at him with what must have been a hammer-to-the-forehead look.
Who the hell is this guy?
“There’s a way you can help me, but you have to stay here to do it.”

His crystal eyes beseeched, remnants of tears clinging to his lacy lashes. “He’ll destroy me.”

“No, listen to me now. He who has the strength to kill the Lord of the Host inherits his army.” I grabbed Parthalan’s feathers and yanked them aside to expose his face. “You are the rightful Lord of this realm. If you lead them, they can help the fae destroy the Shadowborn, or at least stop them from taking any more human souls for their army. You obviously remember the Goddess. This is what she’d want you to do.”

Another blink and tilt of his head. “I … am Lord?”

“It’s your right to kill Rourke. One last time, Parthalan, and I’ll never ask you to use your powers again.” I shook him when he looked away. “You owe me, dammit.”

His answer came in the form of a strained whisper. “I will obey, Mistress. By blood, death or power, if I can aid you, I will do it.” He pulled out of my grasp, rubbing his arm where I’d touched him. “Your touch brings life to my dead skin.” A shadow of a smile arched his lips. “Thank you.”

Feathers sprouted along his arms as Parthalan started up the stairs—echoes of the sensation prickling my skin—his voice growing louder as he ascended. “Go now, before my Lord comes looking for me. I’ll succeed in my task, or fall trying.”

When I stopped gaping like an idiot after the stranger in the Parthalan suit, I sped down the stairs to the base of the tower with a spark of hope riding my pulse. The tunnel had reopened back to the Black City where I hoped Liam had gone.

And wasn’t waiting to throttle me at the other end.

18

I ran full tilt toward the Black City through the blood-red walls of the shifters. All thought bent on the Old Ones so I wouldn’t think about the vicious tongue-lashing and guilt trip I would no doubt be slapped with upon exit.

What could anyone want with my soul? Or did they want all of me? I’d learned since discovering my fae heritage that someone out there would know something. I only had to figure out which of the otherworldies to ask. The elves? Some of the witches Liam spoke of? I had to find out more. If what Liam said about the Magi were true, that they’d disappeared off the face of the earth, then they wouldn’t be easy to track down—if they were the right ones to begin with.

Once I reached the last shifter in the chain of tunnels, I stopped at the bottom of the stairs before ascending back to the ground level. My heart punched against my ribs, more from what I’d put Liam through than the run.

“Stop being such a fucking pussy and get it over with.” I steeled myself for his reaction and climbed the stairs.

The instant my head made it above the floor level, Liam’s roars slammed into me, not from within the room but from beyond the door.

“Burn it down,” he bellowed.

What? No!

A softer voice uttered something I couldn’t hear.

“I don’t give a fuck about my oath. The shifters delivered her to the Sluagh.”

A glow from outside painted the window eyes orange. I leapt up the last few steps and burst out the door. “Don’t you dare, Liam Kane!”

Cas stood in front of Liam with his arms held wide, his back to me. A few other guards stood behind him, lit torches in their hands. One of them produced fire from his own palms.

Liam’s head tipped forward. The rigidity left his stance. “Where the hell have you been?”

I stepped onto the cobblestone street. “I know you’re angry with me,” I said to his snarling face. “The elves gave me some homework, and if I’d told you what it was, you’d never have let me go.”

Liam pushed Cas aside, grabbed me and thrust me against the wall. “What the fuck, Lila? I lead you through my city, and then you just throw me aside when we get to Cargun?”

“Let. Go. Of. Me.”

His face went blank. A glance over his shoulder sent the guards scrambling away. All but Cas. Liam dropped his hands for only a moment before he threw them around me and damn near crushed me to death. “Do you have any idea what’s been going through my mind?”

I sighed and held him back. “Yeah, I can probably guess.”

“I thought one of them was killing you, or this bond you still have with that psycho, Parthalan somehow took over, and you were over there—” His tremor shook us both.

“I was over there doing what, Liam?” I pushed him away, scowling. “You’re taking a queen tomorrow night. You have no moral legs to stand on, even if I had gone to Cargun and gotten it on with a Sluagh.” I rubbed at the pain twisting my stomach. “Do you really think so little of me that I’d get naked with an undead birdman?” That wasn’t fair. He knew as well as I did how Unseelie energy could affect a fae.

The tightness around his eyes eased. His bared teeth disappeared behind his lips. He reached for me but withdrew again. “I was just … out of my mind. Forgive me.”

I relented, taking in the T-shirt he’d put on. Cas’s by the tight fit across Liam’s broad chest. “I know, and I’m sorry I worried you, but I had to face him like Alogason told me to. When I tell you what happened while I was in Cargun, I hope you won’t be so mad at me.”

Over his shoulder, Liam uttered an apology to Cas, who nodded his acceptance. Liam pulled the door of the shifter open and guided me inside. “Did you talk to Bain, then?” He shut us in, giving us some much needed privacy.

I rubbed my sweaty palms against my jeans. “Bain’s … kind of … dead.”

He cracked a nasty laugh. “That’s a shame.” Sarcasm dripped from the words.

“Don’t get too excited.” I sighed and took a step back to allow room for Liam’s inevitable reaction. “Rourke took his place.”

“What?” Liam grabbed fistfuls of his hair and strode around the room like a runaway train looking for a place to crash. “How is that even possible? Rourke isn’t more powerful or even remotely cleverer than Bain.”