Beguiled (Book 2 Immortal Essence series) (13 page)

Zaren
returned to my side, but shouted,
“Dervinias!”

“What?”

“You and Palmo work out
the
riddle. We need to get the door opened.”

“Will do.”

“Venus,” Zaren spun
me toward him. “You’re going to be fine. We’re going to be fine. I’ll be right here beside you. Okay?”

I felt frozen
, helpless against the rising water.

It is just water, Venus. It is just water. I repeated the phrase over and over in my mind
, sea
rching for the angry resolve I
possessed moments ago.

Tortevia came to my rescue with a roar in my ears.
Push away your fears, child.

She was right. This was not the time to
panic
.

“Zaren, I’m
good
.”

He nodded, planting a kiss on my cheek. “
Excellent
.”

But, w
hen Palamina’s body reassembled itself, a pang of doubt filled my heart.

11.
Never Said

“Are you ready for a rematch?” the female
soldier asked.

“Don’t you know it,” I answered, deflecting her blade with mine.
We traded blows, the sound
of metal biting metal echoing around the room. It was hard to hear anything except the falling water, and the
clang
of
our swords
.
The other two soldiers
went after me, but Zaren blocked their weapons.
I noted the swords
they swung looked like the
revered Formytian’s Ostwallow blade
s
and I wondered if they truly were.

I didn’t have to
speculate
long though because the female soldier’s blade caught me
on
my bicep, and
filleted my flesh.
Celestrum
leaked from the wound
.

“
Awwww
,” I
cried
. “Zaren their swords are Ostwallow. Be careful.”
Even as I said the words, I marveled at the po
ssibility. Ostwallow blades cho
se their guardians. They were the only weapons on Kelari
able to
kill a kelvieri, their death song as unique as the guardian
the
blade chose
.

“
I noticed. Be careful, and go for their eyes.
Cutting them out is
what destroys them,”
Zaren said, his words
huffing
at my back
.

With Zaren so close, the female soldier fixated on him
. She pushed me into
another
soldier.
I heard the she-leopard
, Palamina,
roar and lunge for Zaren.
This time Zaren
was prepared, and
met her blow for blow.

I went after the other
soldier’s
eyes. He was strong, s
tealthy. His only sounds were
grunt
s
every once in a while as he blocked or launched a particularly strong blow.

“Dervinias,” I shouted, noticing the water reached my knees.
“Figured out
the
riddle?”

“Yeah. Yeah. We’re working on it.”

I let out a howl. Stepping forward, I shoved my elbow upward, into the soldier
’
s nose. He
stumbled
backward. As he fell, I sliced off his
sword-bearing
arm.
It landed in the water with a splash the same time
his
body did. Ignoring the
black
blood
bruising
the water, and the look of suffering on the soldier
’
s face, I jabbed the edge of my blade into each eye. When I finished
,
the body shuddered and vanished.

Shaken, I turned to see if Zaren needed any help. Highly unlikely, but I wanted to
make sure
. His face was a mask of determination.
Palamina
mocked him.

“Do you remember that night under the
layatha
tree, the night you first told me you love me?”
she asked, her voice laced with condemnation.

“
Don’t talk like her
,” he growled.

“Zaren?” I whispered
, afraid
.

He heard me and tur
ned slightly. “Venus, don’t worry.
”
He gave me a quick smile. “Love you,” he mouthed.

It was as though everything
went into slow motion
. Zaren blinked and a droplet of water rolled off his long, dark lashes. He flexed his sword-bearing arm as he prepared
to face
Palamina. The muscles in his abdomen
and along his waist tightened
.

Before he had a chance to defend himself, Palamina
used his d
istraction—me—to her advantage.
I knew what she intended as she proceeded to step
behind Zaren
. The water splashed against her boots, and thighs. A great sadness overtook her face, but didn’t slow her down
. She brought up her sword and
drove it through his ribs,
directly into his
epsis
. A look of
disbelief
passed o
ver Zaren’s face, followed by
softness, and then peace.

“What? No.” It was like
I watched a movie in slow motion. One where I knew the way it ended. Knew the good guys conquered all, and the hero would win. The guy and girl would triumph and be together forever. But
the
ending
had
suddenly changed
.
The hero died and evil won
.
No happily ever after. No love conquering all.
Not even close.
My feet
wouldn’t move.
I cursed myself as I watched
Zaren fa
ll into the water. The soldier
—Palamina—caught
him before
he
went under, cupping his head in
her
hand.
She
lowered
herself
so their noses were
only
inches apart.

This was
all wrong.
I wanted to scream. But nothing came.

“Palamina,” Zaren whispered.

“I’m so sorry,
Zar-Zar
.
Forgive me, darling.”

What the
cret
? In this ending, the guy loved another girl
, and that girl called him
Zar-Zar
. I suddenly wondered if I had died and this was my
own
personal hell.

“Only if you
can
forgive me,
my Mina,
”
Zaren
choked out, a smile splayed over his lips.

A smile! I was so confused.

Zaren
closed his eyes.

The soldi
er lightly touched his lips with
hers. “I have,” she whispered, and then
she
let out a huge
,
mournful roar.

I matched hers with one of my own. Crashing through the water, I raged toward
her. She stood, lifting Zaren’s body over
her shoulder.

“
Palamina, is it?” I seethed.

“Yes.”

“
By the gods,
if you don’t put him down, I will
destroy
you.” My words trembled with a fury hard to contain.

“Sweet, Venus. I’m already dead. This body is one
Ramien gave me. I am a
Kyonshi
.
”

I couldn’t help but pause. The
K
yonshi
were better known as the Warriors of the Dead. But they were the demons of fairy tales. Make believe.
“You-you killed him
,” I stated matter-of-factly because I felt too numb to do anything else.

She dropped her sword, and nodded. “
Only his body.
Consider
that.
Stay strong, Venus.” With her words, she and Zaren vanished.

12.
Barely Breathing

“I think
we’ve figured it out,” Palmo said
.

He sounded like he was far away, at the other end of long tunnel.

“Ve
nus?
”

I was being shaken, but
couldn’t snap out of it. I kept seeing Zaren
drop
, hearing him whisper
to the
Kyonshi
, watching him die
. My guardian.
My personal Formytian.
My
Zaren.

Gone!

A storm brewed. Lightning struck, burning my
immortal heart,
ripping it to sh
reds. Tears pressed against
my eyes.
Trapped by a barrier
, they grew higher and higher, the pressure getting stronger and stronger. I wanted to burst.

“Venus, the water!”

I snapped out of it. The water
was at
my chest.
My clothes clung to my body, the way my grief clung to my insides. “Have you figured out
the
riddle
yet?”
I asked, breathless.
If I wanted to save the others I needed to concentrate.

“Almost.
So far it says
: T
o open the
door
.
”
He shrugged.

“
Well
,
hurry up.” I tread
the water, moving closer to Dervinias, Chev and Palmo. Something bumped into my leg. Chev screamed.

“There’s something in the water,” Dervinias yelled. At the same moment he
raised
a writhing green snake.
It reached back and tried to bite his hand, but its teeth couldn’t penetrate his kelvieri skin. I breathed a sigh of relief.
The
snakes couldn’t harm me either.
But they could harm Palmo. And Chev.

“I hate snakes,” Palmo shouted.

Chev went under
. Dervinias grabbed her, and yanked
her
up. She coughed and
gasped
. “One bit my ankle,” she cried.
The water around her turned red, sending the unseen snakes into
a frenzy
. It looked like the water boiled.

“
Cret
,” I swore, slashing at the snakes with my sword.

“I’ve got
the answer
,” Palmo yelled, batting at the water. He didn’t have a weapon and he wasn’t old enough to have gone through the transformation
so the snakes were having a hey-day with his body
.

“Tell me,” I yelled.

“To open the door
,
use your—”
He suddenly went under
.

“Use what?” I moved as quickly as
I could through
water that
had risen to
my shoulders.

H
e didn’t answer.

“Palmo,” I hollered, searching frantically for him. Slithering bright green snakes were everywhere. Th
e water changed from dark
to an orange red. The snakes were eating Palmo alive. “
Cret
.
Cret
.
Cret
. Dervinias, what should I do?” He didn’t answer and I figured
his hands were
full trying to keep the snakes away from Chev.

I
searched
the water.
Palmo
had to be close.
I ducked my head underwater. Eyes opened, I searched. The water was thick with blood, and snakes. One came right at me, its mouth opened, revealing its fangs. Its jaws clamped down on my nose, but it couldn’t break through. I
yanked
it
away. A
slight movement straight ahead
caught my attention
.