Page 47 of Haunted

“As much as I know this turns you on, no.”

I pull the empress down until her ear is next to my mouth. I whisper the words. She repeats them, softly, coyly, like a purring kitten. The third time, she pops into existence.

She rounds her lips, as if she means to kiss me. I lift my head to meet her mouth. I’m not prepared when she slams my head against the rug. “Stay out of my mind.”

I groan when she leaves me lying exactly where she found me.

If this bond is truly from the Dark Master, Neifion says, it should break when you release her.

I almost had too much fun to want that. Then I think of a proper bond between two half-emrys of light. It wouldn’t hurt like this.

Someday I could only hope to have such a bond.

If she ever returns to the light.

35

Nightfall. I don’t say goodbye to the empress. I never do when I leave. At the evening meal, I remind her I’m returning to Elidyr. She glares at me but says nothing more.

I follow Siana’s directions to the entrance at Uffern, which is a few hours away by dragon flight and more or less to the southwest of Caer. If the empress learns where I am, she doesn’t have to go far to stop me.

I must act tonight. I can’t risk the chance of her seducing me again. Every moment in her arms is a moment my control could shatter and more than that one gate might open. The dam will eventually burst; it’s only a matter of time in her commanding presence. Even though I hate to admit it, she knows exactly what she’s doing to me. Everything she does is calculated.

As I think about the blistering drive that tears through her with our intimacy, I know she feels something other than pleasure. She hasn’t opened her gates. Once I free her, I will tell her exactly how I feel about her. No doubt she will hate me, but she must understand.

I want her to be mine.

I would die for her.

Neifion lands on a volcanic slope full of black obsidian shards. There’s an outcrop on the volcano that juts upward, leaving enough space for a cavelike entrance just wide enough for one person to enter Uffern. There’s a crude stone door blocking my way, but it shouldn’t be locked. The difficulty won’t be passing through that doorway; it will be facing the trials within the mountain.

I slide off Neifion and land with a tinkling of glass as shards shift under my feet. I place my steps carefully. Should I fall, my skin will be shredded on the obsidian. Neifion does not complain. The pads of his feet are thick.

As I open myself to our connection, the sensation is nothing but that of bare feet on a rough woven rug. Prickly, but not painful.

Neifion, you should hide while I’m in Uffern. I scan the surroundings. Nowhere to hide, except on the other side of the volcano, which would leave him susceptible to riders approaching from that side. I have this. I send the words to Neifion for the concealment spell. He repeats them three times and disappears. Don’t let anyone hear you. Find a place to sit and stay there.

I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me, Neifion replies.

Mother Siana says it will take hours to navigate the paths. I’ll call you once I emerge.

Safe travels, Caedryn.

Thank you, my brother.

I push aside the stone door with the spreading of my fingers and a burst of power. The dark energy inside me does the heavy moving. After I enter, I seal the door shut and move down the path in the dark.

This is for you, my empress.

36

I am in complete darkness. There is no torch on the wall, so I pulse my light until enough of it forms a glowing orb in my palm.

The moment I flick the light into the sky to make a hovering lantern to see by, a dull thump falls. The light snuffs out, and I’m thrown backward. I land hard on my backside. The cave entrance has fewer obsidian shards than outside, but one of them still finds my palm and slices deeply.

I curse quietly to myself. I try sending light to the cut, but instead of coursing toward the injury to begin the healing, my light retreats and regroups in my heart-center. “What’s going on?”

I roll my fingers and try to snap another light into existence. Nothing happens. My light won’t work. It seems the Dark Master doesn’t want light to enter his prison. “So I’m not to heal any faster than a mortal,” I mutter to myself. Injured and vulnerable. I rip off a strip of cloth from the hem of my shirt and bind my palm.

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