Shatter - Sins of the Sidhe (40 page)

“Aye, my dear. Lorcan enjoys a good bloodbath – it’s what he thrives on. Make no mistake he will want to add us to his wall of trophies.” Adam pointed to the wall on his left. The wall was covered in spikes, each one with a body impaled to it. Some were fresh deaths, while others were showing various degrees of rot.

Rowan tried to not scream. Devlin sent her a wave of love. Without speaking, she looked at him and he shook his head, “Dinna let this rattle your nerves
a ghrá,
ye must be steady and focused for what lies ahead.”

She nodded and started walking up to the cages that were packed with frightened souls. Devlin followed her and was able to break the binding spells while Rowan smothered the herbs. Once they released the crying, fearful souls from their cages, Adam walked over to the wall of chains. Hacking his blade into the manacles, he freed each one. They dropped to the ground gagging and sputtering.

Word spread fast that their saviors had come. Some were still too scared to move, but others wanted to fight for their justice.

“Where is Lorcan?” Rowan looked around, eyes wild as anxiety started sinking in. This was too easy. If something is too good to be true, then it’s too good and it ain’t true. “This is too easy. He wouldn’t just leave here and not have this place guarded. And where is Brinley?”

Seamus came up to Ro’s left side and poked her ribs. She wasn’t expecting the jab and she let out a yip as she grabbed a blade from her side, ready to fight. She felt guilty when she saw it was only the boy and then listened closely to what he was trying to say. He was weak and frightened, his energy was spent, and it was hard to hear him. He pointed to a room over to the right and shook his head for her to walk that way. Rowan looked at the two Sidhe warriors and they nodded as well. If Brinley was in there, then there was a very real chance that Lorcan was too.

Ducking into the shadows, Rowan crouched low and scurried against the wall to the entrance. Flames shot up, blocking her entry, and she jumped back. A shove from behind pushed her through the flames and sent her into a panic as she went into the blaze.

“No!” Devlin let out a yell as he tried to grab her, but Rowan was engulfed in the flames before he had a chance. Fear and despair washed over him and he whirled around to the boy who’d pushed her in.

Seamus backed away, trying to explain. “She is safe. She will not get burned by the fire. ‘Tis like the last time she went through that door.”

Devlin didn’t understand at first, but the images of her last time here started creeping into his mind again. His head whipped back to the flames and he stared into the wall of fire. Devlin was furious and panicked, the heat from the fire was very real and his face burned from the blaze even at this distance.

“What room is that?” Devlin knew the answer before he heard it.

“The master’s bedchamber.”

By Danu, Devlin didn’t want her to go in there alone. He was to protect her. Intent on jumping through the fires himself, the boy held up his hand for him to stop before he got burned.
“Stop! You can’t go into the fire without being burned.”

Devlin let out a scream of frustration, the blaze scorching the hairs on his arms as he tried to push through. “How can Rowan go in and not be burned? Why do the flames not hurt her?”

“She will not burn because she
is
the fire. She is the spark who lights the darkest of nights.”

Aye, that she was, and Devlin was not the only moth to her flame.

Rowan fell forward into the blaze. She came out just fine. It was like the last time she was forced through them, but Ro didn’t have time to think on it further. She was back in Lorcan’s bedroom. Panic flared and fogged her mind with that much déjà vu. She wanted to retreat and run out of there fast. Sidhe-style fast. But there was no turning back for her now.

She looked around for signs of tall, dark and deadly, but didn’t see him anywhere. Walking across the room, Rowan heard a faint mewing from the bed. Running closer to the sound, she didn’t see anything on top of the black sheets. A chain rattled from behind the bed and she ran around to the back of the oversized piece of furniture.

There, chained up against the back of the headboard, were two fragile looking arms dangling down from spiked manacles. The prisoner’s body was crumpled, bloody and battered, her blonde hair matted with blood and other fluids.

“Oh no, Brinley!” Rowan pulled out one of her smaller daggers and pried away at the chains to free her friend. Manacles still cutting into her wrists, but chains broken free from their mounts, the blonde collapsed onto the floor and Rowan rolled her over to see her face.

Sorrow poured off of Rowan like a typhoon. Devlin pushed at her mind but her thoughts and emotions were so jumbled she didn’t have the sense to respond. Rowan was in danger of slipping into that zone inside herself, the place she went in her head when things are out of her control. That secret and glorious dead zone.

Wiping the hair away from her best friend’s face, Rowan cried while she held her best friend’s limp body in her arms. “Brinley, Brin, please wake up. Don’t die on me. Not here. Not like this. Please, wake up.” She was whispering her pleas, fear and anxiety coiling like a threatened snake in her gut. She kissed her friend’s forehead, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Please wake up.”

The blonde’s eyes fluttered and a moan escaped her lips.

“We’re going to get you out of this place, I swear it.” Rowan looked around for something, anything that was going to help get Brinley through those flames and out of this hell.

Looking back down at her friend, Ro watched her eyes flutter open and shine a brilliant blue. Rowan gasped. Brinley didn’t have blue eyes. Brinley’s were brown, like coffee with a little bit of cream. The eyes looking up at her now were as blue as the sea that flashed to violet when they recognized who was holding her… only one woman had eyes like that.

“Ava?” Confused and anxious, Rowan didn’t hear what Ava had said and asked for a repeat.

Ava’s violet eyes peeled back as she yelled once more, “Behind you!”

Rowan didn’t have time to turn around. Burning hands hoisted her up and dragged her out to the middle of the bedchamber. Two demons had hard grips on her arms and pulled Ro onto the bed. Rowan was kicking, twisting and screaming with everything she had. She stopped dead, shock taking over, as she looked at the Sidhe standing in front of her. He was watching her struggle and fight like it was a pleasure to see.

Lorcan stood before her proud and glorious. His magnificence was too much and her mind was having trouble adjusting to what her eyes were beholding. Skin golden and shimmering, eyes that icy blue you only find in the coldest depths of the world. His wings stretched tall and wide like a giant raven, and his muscles bunched and moved like a dangerous predator while he stalked closer to the woman he’d been longing for. He only had eyes for her.

By Danu, his plan had worked out better than he anticipated. Just look at her crouched on his bed. Rowan had come to him so fast and full of fury. She glared at him in terror and hate.

This was exactly what he’d been longing for: Rowan coiled in his sheets, smelling of fear and anger. Lorcan inhaled long and slow. Her scent was exquisite.

The demons let go of her arms and Ro fell onto the bed with a grunt. Not wasting a minute, she tried to right herself and focus on what was coming towards her. Lorcan moved with purpose, not wanting to waste another minute before he could get his hungry hands on her. Fear overpowered all other instincts and Rowan let out a scream that cracked the mirror hanging above them.

Devlin and Adam were still on the other side of the fire fighting off the last of the demons that were attacking them. Every soul had been set free, every shadow unchained, and the enemies on this side of the flames were slaughtered. As the last demon turned to ash, they heard a cry of pure terror coming from Rowan’s lungs. Devlin whirled around when he heard his wife’s terrified screams from inside the room barred by scorching flames.

His worst fear was now a reality: Lorcan was in there and Devlin was not.

Neither hesitated to take their next course of action - fire was not a wall that would stop them from getting to what was beyond those flames. Devlin jumped, sword in hand, and let out a battle cry as he ran into the flames. With Adam by his side, the two warriors charged through the blaze. Steam hissed on their skin and armor when they reached the other side of that fire. Both warriors had teeth barred and were bloodthirsty. They were prepared for this battle; they had been ready for a long time. But they were not prepared for the site that was before them.

It was their worst nightmare come to life: Lorcan was indeed a full Sidhe once again. Power rolled off of his large frame as if he’d never been gone a day from the Faelands. Rowan was on the large bed, crouched like a snarling tiger and fighting the bastard that had a hold on her. Adam looked around, scanning the room for other potential threats; they saw a few demons in the corner and a small bloodied leg on the floor behind the bed. Adam’s eyes flashed when he saw the appendage and realized it must be Brinley’s.

Devlin let out a growl that matched the nastiest of wolves, “Ye will take your hands off of my wife.”

Lorcan didn’t break his stare away from Rowan as he smiled and backed away a few inches from the little fury in the bed. Greed for her touch was as strong as his greed for a good bloodbath and power gorge.

“Your wife is she? This creature belongs to me.” Lorcan grabbed her then and tried to kiss her, claim her for his own. He would eat away at the hold that this other man had on her, and replace it with a chokehold of his own.

Rowan freed up a dagger from her hip and stabbed him in the side with it as hard as she could. Letting out a snarl, he back handed her and sent her body sailing backwards. She was knocked out cold.

Pulling the dagger out of his side, his wound bled out for a couple seconds and then started to mend before their eyes. By the time he’d stalked over to the two warriors, he was completely healed and spoiling for more bloodshed. Grabbing his own sword that he’d not fought with for so many centuries, Lorcan was ready to fight. Ready to kill. Ready to conquer.

War raged with the speed of light but felt like it was all slow motion: Devlin bared his fangs and charged at the Sidhe with hate and vengeance pumping through his veins and Lorcan had but a second to block the blow. Swords clashed and clanged while the men fought like angry Warlords.

Two against one, they still struggled to keep up with Lorcan. He was fierce and deadly having gorged on so much blood and power. It had been too long since Lorcan had a good fight with a worthy opponent and he was in his glory now. The vibrations in his sword with every thrash against his enemy’s blade sent a thrill down his spine and his power surged with hunger for more. His strength reached well beyond what Adam’s did now. Unlike Lorcan’s gluttony for blood and power, Adam had denied himself such sustenance. Adam hadn’t fed off of another in decades and was now at a serious disadvantage. The weakness showed with every block and blow that came from their swords.

Lorcan laughed when he recognized the look of shame on Adam’s face. “Aye, you always were weaker Adam. All brains and heart, you never had what it took to be a ruthless killer. Warriors are made for violence and bloodshed, not beauty and peace.” He lunged at Adam with his sword, but Adam feinted and was only nicked in the leg.

Devlin took the opportunity to strike at the Sidhe from behind, but Lorcan spun fast and escaped the blow. Letting out a yell, Lorcan raised his free hand up and demons came falling from the ceiling. Two dozen of the ugliest creatures this side of Hell descended down upon them. They pulled at Adam, bit and clawed him, trying to eat him alive. They dragged his body away and left Devlin and Lorcan to finish what was started.

“Ah, so you are the one who has tried to take my Rowan from me. I’ll have your name before I kill you and feast on your entrails boy.” His fangs gleamed in the firelight and eyes shined with bloodlust. Lorcan’s wings beat fast and the
whoosh
of the wind they made caused the flames to tremble around them.

Devlin parried and circled around his enemy. “My name is Death, and it’s what I’ll bring to ye this night, ye fucking bastard.”

Lorcan smiled while studying the man so hell-bent on killing him. He was strong and fierce, obviously a skilled warrior, but not one he’d fought before. “Do I know you?” He could have sworn he’d seen this man somewhere. Something about his eyes… they looked familiar.