Page 38 of Haunted

Drink her blood and see, the voice hisses. No truth can be hid if it is still inside her.

Flashes of a man. Of a child. Visions of people Mother Emrys has healed. Places she’s lived. Parts of Morvith I haven’t been to but know of.

The empress is searching for something, or someone.

Of course. Blood magic. No one I know practices this ancient power. The empress wishes to know information that Mother Siana refuses to tell her. I understand now why she didn’t want to do this. She didn’t want to hurt her mother. But she must.

He demands it.

Footsteps approach. I’m too weak to look up or rise to my feet to intercept the intruder. The swirl of the faintest light energy inside him tells me it’s Commander Meuric.

I don’t stop him.

I can’t stop him.

I don’t want to. I want him to stop the empress from hurting herself, from hurting her mother.

He scoffs at me curled on the floor but doesn’t break his stride as he pushes the cell door open.

“Rhianu, what are you doing?” His voice expresses complete horror. The sight in the room, what she did, is horrific. No other way to explain it. “Have you lost your mind?” He strides over to Siana. “Mother,” he whispers. “What has she done to you?” A few moments later and the commander has his mother unchained, wrapped in his cloak, and in his arms.

Siana moans as he carries her away.

The empress rasps for breath. My breathing is shallow, but I scrape around to face her. She is a bloody mess. I can’t tell where her hair ends and her bloodstained skin begins. The empress lifts her chin to look at me between strands plastered to her face.

A knowledge passes over her eyes. She knows I somehow felt her, that I saw through her, that I heard a voice in her head. A bond was forged between us. I should not have felt or experienced anything that went on in this room, and the empress knows it.

This will put my mission in jeopardy. Is it my fault? Have I become lax in my control and somehow let her in?

I do the only thing I can. I close my eyes to the empress, preparing to close my mind to her. This will keep her from having access to my thoughts, emotions, and sight through our bond.

I am the master of deception. She cannot feel me. I will not feel her—though my masochistic side wants to.

Mentally, I drop a black gate and shut off our connection. Only Emrys of Light share connections. Only dragons and riders share connections. How have the empress and I forged a bond when her soul is all darkness?

I must find out how to permanently sever it.

Rhianu! My soul cries. Damn you.

We achieved the impossible, but I can’t keep the bond even though I would give all my soul to possess the empress in such a way, the way two half-emrys who love each other share bonds.

But I don’t love her.

I swear I don’t.

Commander Meuric returns and lifts the empress by her elbows from the floor where she lies. She wheezes as she looks into his face. If the state of my throat is any indication of hers, then it is badly burned. She will need a healer.

I need a healer.

“Of all the things you’ve done…” Meuric says.

Her head rolls back in delirium. She’s barely conscious. Meuric’s slap bites her cheek. I don’t feel it since I’ve closed our connection, but I deserve to for letting this happen to her and Siana.

“Rhianu,” I whisper. Commander Meuric leaves me in the filth on the floor but carries his sister out of the dungeon.

31

I’m hours in recovery, hours until I can leave the dungeon. My healing will be on my own time, through my own light unless I seek out Nesta to speed the process up.

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