Darkness Possessed (Order of the Blade) (37 page)

Bitch. The word grated through her mind. The degrading, horrible word that the man who purported to be her protector used on her. A word that she'd had to live with for so long. A word that had become a part of her soul. Until now. Until Zach had flooded her with kindness and warmth. Until Zach had looked at her like she was worth everything the world had to offer. Resistance flooded her, battling against the consuming power of José stripping her will.

José suddenly screamed, and she raised her head to look at him. Zach's flaming bonds had turned purple, and smoke from José's body filled the air. He fought against them, and black flames tangled with Zach's, fighting for supremacy.
Save me, Rhiannon. Now! I command you.

"I love you, Rhiannon." Zach's words were accentuated by a gasp as her tree slammed into his chest, piercing his ribs and impaling his heart.

Her hands still buried in the dirt, she looked at Zach. She looked at José. Both men on the verge of death. Her hand would be the final blow in one of their deaths. José, with his brutal voice pounding in her head, hammering at her, compelling her. Zach, with his calm intensity, his utter faith, and his absolute conviction that she could choose her own path despite the brands pulsing on her arms, owning her.

The wind howled around them, whipping the flames into a frenzy. Slowly, fighting for every inch, she raised her palm toward Zach. She wrapped her mind around the tree that was buried in his chest. She felt José's command to drive it home, and her muscles shook as his power flooded her.

Zach didn't even look at her. He was entirely focused on holding José with his bonds of fire. His eyes were pitch black, and his face was pale as blood dripped down his neck, minutes away from being strangled or decapitated. But his hands were out, and flames were pouring from his palms, streaking at José, hitting him again and again and again. He wasn't trying to save himself. He was letting himself die, using every last vestige of his strength to try to kill José so she would be free.

Not to save his friend, because killing José risked killing Thano.

Not to save his friend, because if Zach died, he would not be able to wield José's staff.

Not to save himself, because he wasn't even bothering to address the tree lodged in his chest and vines about to rip off his head.

No, in the face of everything he was enduring, his only focus was to kill José for one reason: to free
her.

He wasn't sacrificing everything that mattered to him because of a
sheva
bond, but simply because he loved her. Just love. Unconditional love, even though she was trying to kill him.

That
was love.

That
was worth dying for.

That
was worth living for.

With a roar of power, she whirled toward José. "It's over," she shouted. "It's over!" She leapt to her feet and flung her hands out to the sides, palms raised toward the sky. "Come on," she shouted. "Help me!" The jungle surged to life in a chorus of music more beautiful than she had ever heard it sound before. The tree impaled in Zach's chest turned into a white flower that spread healing life through his body. The vines slithered away from him, and streaked across the ground toward José.

I command you to save me! Kill Zach! You are mine!
José's power thrust into her mind, and she didn't care. She didn't feel it. It was a sound that hammered at her from a distance, like a hurricane banging on the outside of a secure building protecting her: loud, dangerous, but unable to penetrate.

"No!" She called forth trees, vines, plants, and even the earth itself, the wind whipping around them as the jungle attacked. They converged upon him, ripping at his defenses, plunging through the fire he was trying to burn them with. Zach moved up beside her, and took her hand, the white flower still resting in the middle of his chest.

Electricity surged between them, and the fire erupted from Zach's palms, like the sun itself had exploded from him. At the same moment, a massive, twelve-inch coil of vine shot out of the ground and wrapped itself around José's neck. He screamed and tried to burn it off him, but Zach hit him too hard with fireball after fireball, holding him trapped as the vine tightened and tightened and then—

"No—" José let out a high-pitched shriek of terror, and then the vine finished its job, severing his head from his burning body. His head bounced on the ground, then rolled to a stop at their feet, already consumed by flames so it was nothing more than a raging fireball.

Rhiannon waved her hands, and the vines shot past his head, opening a crevice in the earth like the one that they'd escaped through before. José's head toppled into the pit, and then the vines dragged what was left of his burning body into the earth. The dirt closed over him instantly, cutting him off from her jungle forever.

The moment he was gone, a huge weight seemed to vanish from her mind. Her legs collapsed, and she fell to her knees, gasping in relief as a decade of pressure on her dissipated.

Zach knelt beside her, and she fell into his arms. He locked her in his embrace, his own body trembling against hers as they clung to each other. She couldn't seem to get her breath, and Zach was breathing just as heavily, but it felt so amazing. She felt so free, as if she could leap to her feet and skip all the way to the moon and back. There was no anguish or torment streaming through her because her soul mate was dead. Just relief. She knew it was because she had severed the bond with him while he was still alive, so that his death could not affect her. With Zach's help, she had freed herself.

"I knew you could do it." Zach pressed a kiss to her temple, and she pulled back to look at him.

Although he was covered in soot, burning embers, and his own blood, he was grinning, showcasing dimples she didn't even know he had. "Dimples," she touched his cheek. "The man can bring down an entire jungle with fire, and he has dimples." It felt completely ridiculous to be talking about dimples after all they had just been through, but after all the weight she'd been enduring over so many years, dimples were such a silly, nonsensical thing to think about, that it felt perfect to have the luxury to focus on something so minute. The thought of dimples on Zach made her want to laugh. She hadn't wanted to laugh in a really long time, so dimples were perfect.

His smile widened. "I don't have dimples. They're fire pits of hell that I use to channel my destructive tendencies upon deserving enemies."

She laughed, and touched his left cheek. "They're dimples." Her smile faded. "You killed him for me, even though you were supposed to keep him alive for Thano."

"Yeah, I did." His face became serious. "That
sheva
destiny can't hold a candle to love that's built upon real emotion. I will give my life to protect you, Rhiannon. A thousand times if I have to, and this time, I won't screw it up."

Her heart tightened. "How could you screw it up?"

"Last time—"

"No." She put her finger over his lips. "You are a good man, Zach. Your wife, stepdaughter, and Madeline were lucky to have you, just as I am so fortunate to have you, too. You saved my life, Zach. You called your fire for me. You're amazing."

His eyes glistened, and he pulled her close, burying his face in her hair. There were no words, but she felt the depth of his emotion in the desperation of his embrace, and she knew that the failures of his past would always be a part of him. She, like him, had once failed the people she loved. Sent into the jungle to destroy José, she'd bonded with him instead, and freed him to eradicate her tribe.

But he's dead now.
Zach's voice caressed her mind, and she looked at him sharply, startled by the feel of him in her head.
You finally saved your jungle, Rhiannon. You fulfilled your destiny. You did it.

Rhiannon stiffened. "How come I can hear you in my mind?" Suddenly, scared, she looked down at her arms, half-expecting to see his marks on her flesh, but all she saw were the vines and plants she'd had tattooed there after she'd left the jungle.

I still have my wards.
He held out his arm to her, showing her the marks on his flesh.
It's just because we're connected in our souls, sweetheart. That's all it is.
He pulled her close, and kissed her.
Try it. I'm here. I'll hear you.

She shook her head. "No." Although a part of her longed for that kind of connection with Zach, she knew she would never cross that line. Never would she let a man that far into her mind again, not even Zach. It had been such a horrific nightmare not to be able to shut out José, and now that he was gone, she didn't want to go back there, not ever again. In some ways, talking to Zach in her mind was even more of an emotional hurdle than making love had been. Her mind was all she'd had, and in the end, José had almost taken that as well. "I can't."

Zach nodded. "I understand." He brushed her hair back from her face, his eyes gentle. "It's okay, sweetheart. It really is." He kissed her again, and tears burned in her eyes.

How could she not trust this man? How could she not give him everything she had after what he'd done for her? "I want to, but—"

The night suddenly shook, and they both looked up as a dark cloud formed above their heads. It wasn't smoke. It looked more like a thick net descending over the jungle. "What's that?"

Zach went still beside her. "Holy shit. That's the webbing that Rohan called out to trap Thano. It's coming for him. We gotta go!" Zach leapt to his feet. "We need to get back!" He spun around, then swore. "Where's the staff?"

Rhiannon leapt to her feet, urgency coursing through her. "What do you mean?" Even as she asked the question, she saw that the staff was no longer on the ground beside where José had been lying.

Oh, God. No, she couldn't let this happen, not after Zach had risked everything to save her. She fell to her knees, frantically feeling through the leaves for the hard, metal staff, but it wasn't there. "It's gone!"

Desperation rushed through Zach as the night grew thicker, and an unearthly scream filled the air, resonating from the cloud of webbing taking shape above their heads. Son of a bitch. He couldn't let Thano down now. They were so close. "Where the hell is it?"

He scanned the jungle, searching for the staff, but it was nowhere. Frantic, he tried to remember if José had been holding it when Rhiannon's vines had yanked him into the dirt, but he didn't remember seeing it. But where else would it be? Or maybe José had simply reclaimed it? Calydon weapons vanished when not being touched by their owners. What if the staff was like that? What if it had returned to José? Or what if José had taken it with him?

He spun to Rhiannon. "Send your vines after him," he commanded. "Drag his body back up. He must still have it with him!"

She instantly called out her vines, and the wind began to howl again, but it wasn't loud enough to drown out the increasing crescendo of shrieks coming from the webbing that was getting thicker and thicker above their heads. The vines plunged into the earth, and her eyes widened. "I can sense it! It's not with José." She spun around, holding out her hands as she sent the vines in another direction, away from where José had been.

They had no time for her to be wrong. They had one shot at it. He put his hands on her shoulders, his body taut. "Come on, Rhiannon. Find it for me."

The earth seemed to erupt beneath their feet, and the vines suddenly plunged straight down into the earth, ten yards away. Rhiannon went down on her knees, her eyes closed as she thrust her energy into the earth. The air hummed with her power, but she shook her head. 'I need your help," she shouted. "I need fire and plants. The staff is fueled by both, so we need both!"

"I'm on it." Instantly, he crouched behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and drawing her into the shield of his body. He rested his chin on her shoulder, offering her his strength.

She took it, and he was suddenly swept into her mind. He could feel the power of the plants, and the damp warmth of the earth. He could hear the sounds of leaves breathing. He could smell the beauty of each plant around them. He realized he was not only in Rhiannon's mind, but he was merged with her completely, his spirit and energy entangled with hers.

She was completely vulnerable to him, drawing him into the very depths of who she was, not protecting herself against him at all. His throat tightened with the magnitude of the trust she was giving him, and he wrapped his arms more tightly around her. He opened his fire to her, and it slid through her body, becoming a part of her instead of harming her. She swept it up, until their worlds became a tangle of orange flames and the pulsating vibrancy of the plants. His fire rode her vines, sending the burning vegetation through the earth.

Then he felt it. A distant pulse deep below the earth's surface, thick with the vibrations of Calydon energy...not just Calydon. The Order.
The staff
.

I know,
she said.
Stay with me.
Together, they sent their merged energies deep beneath the ground, hurtling along the path the staff had taken. Closer, and closer, until suddenly the vines made contact. The jolt of energy was electric, and Rhiannon jumped in his arms. But he held tight, fueling her vines with his flames as the plants wrapped around the staff—-

But then they slid right through it, as if it wasn't really there. "It's fading," Rhiannon shouted. "You have to give it fire!"

His flames surged into the staff, and he ignited it. For a split second, it didn't hold, and then he took what was left of José's fire that he'd absorbed into his body, and he merged it with his own. This time, the flame caught, and power surged through the staff, turning it corporeal again.

"Now!" Rhiannon shouted, and the vines recoiled with stunning swiftness, dragging the staff back toward them, faster and faster. It erupted from the earth in a cascade of dirt. Zach snatched it out of the air. The metal was hot and solid beneath his hand, but he could feel that it was fighting him, trying to fade, as Calydon weapons did when their masters died. Her vines were twisted around it, and he saw that her leaves were aligned perfectly with the etchings of vines on the staff, and his own flames matched the carvings of fire. Plants and fire. That was how it was done. "No wonder he needed you."