Page 44 of Claimed By Night

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CAMBION

The Raven Forest,

Shadow Realm

I feel the bones in my cheek break under Dragan’s knuckles. There’s instant pain and I see him wince as his knuckles shatter in turn. Before I can take another breath, he’s on top of me, pounding me incessantly with his broken fists. I can’t see anything, and the only thing I can feel is pain echoing through my body as my ribs snap beneath his fury.

I’m not sure how it happens, but Thoradin dives between us and pulls the fucking barbarian away from me. I’m on all fours, watching the blood dripping from my broken nose and sinking into the black earth beneath me.

“You fucker,” Dragan seethes at me.

I ignore him and reach into myself, into the light that’s fading the longer we spend in this fucking forest. But the light is still there all the same and when I call it, it answers. I can feel my bones mending as my magic spins a healing web throughout my body. Another few seconds and I’m returned to myself, sans any pain.

That’s when I turn to face the man whom I once called friend. But those days were long ago, and now, he’s my enemy.

Dragan, too, is bleeding. Luckily, I was able to produce a few choice blows myself and, with Thoradin still restraining him, I watch as his Arcane Magic heals him just as my Light Magic did the same for me.

“You’ve gotten your answers,” Dragan says as he pushes Thoradin away and stands up straight. He walks over to the angel, then crouches beside her. The sprite is still standing there, with his hands still on her. The girl’s eyes are closed but she’s breathing.

“I got no answers,” I correct him. All I have now are more questions—namely, what did the girl mean when she admitted to beingmorethan an angel?

“She’s an angel, you have to accept that now,” Dragan says, his gaze fixed on her. “And you’d better start treating her with the respect she deserves.”

I can’t argue with him. Even though I didn’t find out much, at least I know she wasn’t lying about what she is. When I walk over to them, he glares up at me, snarling as if to warn me not to come any closer to her.

“She needs healing,” I announce as I look down at her pale face.

Dragan nods and allows me to approach the beautiful girl. I place my hands on her naked shoulders and close my eyes, calling up the light that still remains inside me. I’m exhausted already. The energy it took just to heal myself is going to take a few days to replenish, at least. And that’s only if I get out of this fucking shadow forest.

I feel the crackle of electricity as it fans out through my fingers and enters the angel, lighting her from within. As she begins to glow, I watch her inhale deeply and continue to pump my life force into her until I grow so weak, I have to pull away.

“It will have to do,” I confess as I roll over and sit down, needing to catch my breath. I close my eyes and will the dizziness away. “I have nothing left to give.”

“We need to leave this forest,” Dragan says.

That’s when I realize there’s no escape, now. If I return to the Fae Realm, Variant will know I’ve been gone and I’ll be in a whole world of trouble for not immediately turning Dragan, Thoradin, Flumph, and the angel over when they first entered my realm.

I could stretch the truth, yes, perhaps play up the events leading to my capture. I could say Dragan threatened me, toldme he’d kill me if I didn’t save her. Then, when it was over, he took me as his prisoner. But I know Variant would never believe it—even though parts of it are true. Variant knows Dragan as well as I do, and he knows the bounds of Dragan’s sense of honor. He would know I’m here because I agreed to help.

To be fair, I haven’t been entirely honest with Dragan. When I told him I had no desire to leave Geldingstock, it was a lie. Geldingstock is a comfortable prison, but a prison nonetheless. And I’m not accustomed to the role of prisoner. Dragan and I are immortal beings, protectors at one time of the realms of light and dark. We were kings of the highest order, elected by the Midnight Queen herself to serve the three realms and all within them. We were given magic of the highest order—power that no other creatures possessed. Over time, that power has faded and weakened, especially while we’re subject to realms that aren’t our own. But we’re still highly capable, all the same.

To go from Seelie King—Lord over the fae, eldest and most venerable among my people—to a lowly servant of a former equal, forced now to view him as my sovereign? It may be comfortable banishment, but to lie and say it suits me is a disservice to all beings of light. The truth is, that imprisonment is worse than any hell. It’s done nothing but make me despise the chains of my immortality.

Had I the choice, I would now jump at the opportunity to end my existence and dissolve into the nothingness of death. Numerous times have I envied Baron his death, envied the fact that he doesn’t have to face the agony of another day in a calendar chock-full of neverending days.

Variant destroyed everything when he took power; he destroyed the balance we’d been so careful about preserving. Dragan and I were forced to watch as stability and prosperity were stripped from our respective lands. And, forced into exile,we had no choice but to allow Variant to rule us, because we knew what would happen if we rebelled…

The same thing that happened to Baron more than a century ago.

I hate Variant as much as I hate the city of Grimreap: both are unnatural, vile, ill-omened. But defy Variant and what good are we? We’d find ourselves walking the same path as Baron, winding up six feet underground with worms feasting on our carcasses.

But now I wonder if I’d rather be alive and subservient than dead and free?

***

FLUMPH

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