Heart of Darkness (36 page)

He held out his hand for hers and she
hesitantly took it, as she did, her head turned backwards through
the still open doorway as though hoping and praying for Wolfe to be
there. He wasn't.

Trying not to lose faith, she kept her head
held high and focused on the altar as they walked towards it.

“Hand me your ring, Isabeau.”

She pursed her lips with displeasure as she
removed it then, rather than be grabbed by him, a seemingly
invisible tuft of air swept it from her fingers and the ring
traveled from the tip of her finger to the copper bowl. It dropped
with a clang.

She noticed that he did not attempt to touch
it with his hands--apparently, he'd learned a lesson yesterday!

Isabeau watched as Jaegar's hand went to a
pocket in his frock coat and he produced a plain band of dull
silver, which she took to be platinum for anything less for the son
of Duke seemed laudable, and he dropped that into the metal bowl
too.

“Copper is a fabulous conduit for power. Even
the weakest of Sidhe can channel through copper.”

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked with
a frown.

“Oh, I don't know, I thought perchance you
might be interested in the ceremony that will tie you to me...? How
foolish of me!”

“The longer I'm with you, Jaegar, the more I
understand how Wolfe's mother felt when your father tied her into a
marriage she did not want.”

He smiled, but it was more of a grimace that
had his teeth bared angrily at her.

“What is your strongest talent?”

If it would have done her any good, she would
have used her latest talent to stupefy him! But as they'd just
walked through a hall that had been laden with rough and tough men
at arms and who she would have to somehow slip through without
being seen, Isabeau knew that Jaegar was the only part of this
disastrous situation that kept her safe. Future wife of their
leader, she may be. But without the leader, Isabeau knew that
mass-rape was her fate.

Call her fussy, but that was not a prospect
she fancied.

Instead, she glared at him and said,
“Healing.”

“Press your finger to the bowl and charge it
with your magick as though you were trying to cure someone. We do
this at the same time, Isabeau,” he murmured and did as he'd bid
her and watched on as she complied as well.

She gasped when the bowl began to glow a
fiery red and her flesh began to burn from the heat the metal
emitted.

“Keep your hand there until the rings glow,”
he commented and she noticed that the strain of the burning pain
began to take its toll on himself as well.

Isabeau's eyes were glued to the rings and as
she watched and saw that they had yet to glow, she automatically
charged the strength of her talent. She gasped as she felt her
power began to drain and as soon as the metal indeed began to
shimmer with light, Isabeau dropped her hand away from the
bowl.

She shook her hand and took a step away from
the altar. Her knees began to tremble and she knew that she was one
step away from fainting.

Planting her hands on the altar, Isabeau
sucked in a deep breath and attempted to regain her composure, but
it was difficult as she could not remember exerting so much power
before. How she wished she could run away at this moment. For if
she felt this way, then he surely did. What a perfect time to
escape!

Almost as though he had caught her thoughts,
he looked at her pointedly for a moment, then commented, “If you
feel like doing the same to me as you did my men the night
before...” He paused and noted her narrowed glance with a smile. He
tugged at her hand then raised it to his face.

“Why can't I touch you?” she asked with a
frown.

“Because I can manipulate air,” was all he
said. “I'm protected from little things like stupefaction.”

“Yes, but I believe that metal slices through
air. No?”

The voice came from nowhere and both Jaegar
and she were shocked out of their intentness with one another and
into spinning around to face the orator.

Why, as soon as she'd heard the voice, she
hadn't realized that it was Wolfe, Isabeau would never know. But
she had to concede that as soon as she saw him, her heart began to
flutter with relief.

Either this particular room absorbed sound or
Wolfe had managed to defeat Jaegar's men at arms almost
silently!

Her eyes were so focused on Wolfe that until
Jaegar gasped and crumpled to the floor, she did not even see the
whistling, silver tipped bolt sail through the air with a deadly
accuracy that toppled Jaegar's arrogance and pierced his flesh.

“What have you done, you fool?” Jaegar gasped
and clutched at his stomach, wrenching the arrow out of himself
with a spurt of blood.

“Nothing you wouldn't have done in my place,”
Wolfe retorted and strode deeper into the chapel, his crossbow at
his side, notched with another bolt. “Isabeau, throw me your
ring.”

With a frown of confusion, she complied by
tossing him the piece of jewelry. He slipped it on the tip of his
finger, as far down the digit as its size would allow and showed no
signs of pain as had Jaegar.

Wolfe held up his hand and moved directly in
front of Jaegar, before wiggling his fingers in front of his
half-brother's face. “Permit me a moment of conjecture--the ring
burned you, Jaegar?” he asked and ignored his brother's gasp of
pain, by placing the ring against Jaegar's hand. “Don't answer,
conserve your strength, oh brother mine, for I have the truth.”

“You know not of what you speak, Wolfe,”
Jaegar gasped. “How did you even enter my home? My guards,
they're...”

“Injured, some dead,” Wolfe replied coldly.
“They should not have stood in the way of a Sidhe and his
mate.”

Isabeau looked on in horror as she saw a side
of Wolfe that she could not deny, had known existed, but the
bitterness he exuded hurt something inside her.

“Wolfe, it need not be this way,” she
inserted quickly. “Give me the ring and I can heal Jaegar.”

He looked up at her before his gaze slid down
to Jaegar. “Why should I?”

“Because, no matter what, he's your brother,
Wolfe.”

“Jaegar stopped being a brother, when
he planned our escape from the Milesians, Isabeau.
And
he stole my mate. Has he hurt
you?” he asked, his voice a hiss of fury.

“No. No!” she said hurriedly.

“Then that is a point in his favor. Do you
want to live, Jaegar?” he asked, his voice tinged with fury.

Jaegar's face had turned pinched and drawn.
His lips were a tight white and his jaw was clenched so tightly
that all of the sinews in his face and neck were prominently on
display.

“Of course, I want to win, Wolfe. You think I
want to die?” the injured man spat. Despite his obvious pain, there
was strength in his voice that was fueled by his anger.

“Perhaps I should have you sign some kind of
statement. One that ensures you leave my mate and I alone?!”

“I-I didn't know you were her mate.”

“Liar! Of course, you did! As soon as I
rubbed the ring against your hand, I knew that it wasn't the first
time you'd felt it. Yet you were still forcing her to marry you.
Why do you hate me so much? Hmm?” Wolfe asked interestedly, as
though he were asking a question about the garden and not one that
had caused a welter of pain.

Sudden footsteps sounded in the doorway to
the castle and Gerard, Wolfe's agent ran inside. He almost skidded
to a halt as he processed the scene in front of him and Isabeau
gulped at the amount of blood that covered his clothes. Wolfe had
obviously done the bare minimum to gain entry here and left his men
to fight those outside while he came after her.

Into the silent chapel, Gerard murmured,
“Jaegar's men have been secured, Wolfe.”

“Ah Gerard, old friend,” Jaegar gasped
mockingly.

“You turned my allegiance away, Jaegar. Don't
pretend otherwise!” Gerard spat. “Have you hurt her? Raped
her?”

Isabeau shrieked, frustrated. “Gerard! You're
making this worse!” She blew out a rough breath and murmured,
“Wolfe, having Jaegar's death on your hands won't make you feel any
better. I don't know what's happened between the two of you since
you escaped the Milesians, but I'm willing to guess that it has all
been blown out of proportion! Neither of you have to die for the
past to be resolved. Let me heal him, Wolfe.”

Wolfe shook his head and repeated Gerard;s
earlier question, “Has he raped you, Isabeau? Tell me
truthfully.”

“No! Do you think I'd be fighting to save
him?” she retorted, and crossed her fingers behind her back as she
had done as a child, when she had told an untruth.

Jaegar might not have raped her, but had she
been pregnant and had he succeeded in marrying her, he would have
done something equally as abhorrent by forcing her to lose the
child.

Regardless of the other man's intentions and
regardless of what Jaegar himself had intended, she could not let
him die. It was not in her nature.

Unfortunately, it appeared that Wolfe knew
her far better than she'd thought. “Yes. Of course, you would.
You're far too kind for your own good, Isabeau. This man has been a
thorn in my side for the last twelve years!”

“Is the tedium of being tested enough to
allow him to die?”

“The plans and paths I've taken to find you
were trebled in their difficulty, because of him. I could have
found you years ago! Could have found you when your parents were
alive and could have ensured their safety and yours, were it not
for this bastard. Do you know how many times I've almost found you?
Twenty times in the last two years alone! But each time I had to
double check and hide my path from this man and because of that,
I've suffered unnecessary time in the dark and you have lost your
parents! You have lost your security. You have been forced to
travel around this country as though you were some damned nomad,
and all because he is akin to a spoiled brat!”

“He didn't kill my parents, Wolfe,” she
murmured gently. “The Milesians did. They're your enemy, and
they're mine and
his
too.
Jaegar doesn't deserve to die.”

“Yes, listen to the woman, Wolfe,” Jaeger
said mockingly.

“Damn it to hell, Jaegar. Do you want to
die?” she cried. “Why incite him into doing what he wants
anyway?”

“Defiant to the end,” he replied cuttingly.
His insolence infuriated her.

“Wolfe! Give me your hand,” she demanded and
when he hesitated, glared at him. “You can't tell me that you want
to murder him. Tisn't in your nature, no matter what you'd like to
say or think. Let the bloody-minded bastard live and suffer from
what you've taken from him.” She paused to let that sink in, then
finished, “Me.”

When he still looked undecided and
unconvinced by her argument, Isabeau bent forward and grabbed his
hand and tugged at his fingers. She slapped his palm, when he tried
to pull free of her grip but she cried out, self-congratulatory, as
she managed to free the ring from his grip.

“Too many people have died, Wolfe. My parents
and yours. I could be pregnant--we need to focus on the living and
not on death.”

His lips pursed and his jaw was set and
appeared akin to granite.

“Let me heal him,” she pleaded, with her eyes
and tone of voice.

“Why is it so important to you? He abducted
you!”

She snorted. “What did you do? Should I kill
you because you abducted me too? You can't kill someone because
he's been a thorn in your side!”

Wolfe jumped to his feet at that and grunted,
“Heal him then, if you must!”

“As gracious as ever,” she teased and
managed, dear lord! To have his lips twitching. “You know I'm
right, Wolfe.”

“Perhaps I do, but that doesn't mean I have
to be content with your choice.”

“You'd best heal him, Isabeau. He's lost a
lot of blood,” Gerard pointed out.

Isabeau nodded and quickly dropped to her
knees. Her nose wrinkled at the stench of blood and the amount that
had escaped Jaegar's body and flooded the floor.

“Tis a stomach wound too. You almost had your
wish, my friend,” Gerard remarked.

Swiftly, Isabeau rested a hand on Jaegar's
damp forehead and then at the top of his breastbone. She winced as
she felt how the ritual had drained her power, but coaxed her
reserves to fill the empty channels of the onyx minerals and let it
power through him. Until she'd healed Wolfe, she had not known she
could do this but after fighting for Jaegar's life, she did not
intend to lose the battle now.

Perhaps she should have been equally as
blood-thirsty as Jaegar had been. Immoral and uncaring, but it was
not in her nature. As Wolfe had said, she could be too kind for her
own good but that was a failing she was content to have.

Slowly but surely, she felt her power begin
to recede from Jaegar's body, as though he were taking what he
needed to close the wound properly. He gasped when her power left
him and shot up from the waist to gulp in air as though he had not
taken a deep enough breath since he'd been struck.