The Song of Eloh Saga (101 page)

“Then why the hell didn’t you stop my mother before any of this went on?”

“What? You wanted me to kill a woman who’d done nothing?”

“She hadn’t, but you knew she was going to. Isn’t that enough?”

“No, Lianne, it’s not.”

It should have been. I knew. I had time. I could have killed her when I walked into Sebrina’s room. Instead of talking to her, I should have just ripped her heart out, thrown it on the ground, and stomped on it until all the blood pooled on the hard stone floor. I had killed before to save someone. I should have done it again.

Should have.

But I didn’t.

I looked down at Bryden again. His red hair laid on my black dress. I ran my fingers through it, remembering how much that turned him on.

Used to turn him on.

His lips on mine. His hands on my hips, running up and down my back. Those were things I’d never feel again. I couldn’t tell him I loved him. Couldn’t tell him I was sorry.

Couldn’t save him.

He died for me.

But what did he leave behind? An empty mound, with a fire bubbling inside, ready to explode at any second. The girl he’d loved was gone. When my mother ripped my magic from my body, some integral part of who I was disappeared with it. Something poured back into me, but I still hadn’t figure out what it was.

All I knew was that I was irrevocably changed.

“Lianne, please,” Chase said again. “I have to get you out of here.”

“I won’t leave Bryden.”

“I swear to you, I will send someone for him. But we have to leave. I need to get you into hiding again.”

I ripped my eyes from Bryden’s lifeless eyelids. “You absolutely will not. I will never hide from anyone again. I’m not a coward.”

“They’ll capture you and force you to breed for their army. If you won’t, they’ll kill you.”

“Do you think I care if I die?”

“Right now you don’t care. I understand that. But someday you’ll be grateful to be alive.”

I laid my hands gently on the sides of Bryden’s head, moving his head to the floor. I watched his body carefully, hoping for a twitch, anything that might tell me there was a chance of saving him.

Nothing.

I gathered my skirt and stood up.

“Are the Malborn here?” I asked.

Chase nodded. “The first wave of their army arrived not long after you were brought here. Their army is stationed outside the castle. As far as I know, they haven’t made a move yet.”

“I’m going to end this by turning myself in. No more bloodshed.”

Chase grabbed my arm. “You will do no such thing.”

I jerked my arm away. “You don’t get to make decisions for me anymore.”

“Then let him make the decision.” He pointed down at Bryden.

My heart lurched again at the sight of his dead, inert body, lifeless on the dirt-covered ground.

“He sacrificed his life to protect you. What do you think he’d say if he could hear you now? If turning yourself over to the Malborn was the right thing to do, why would he even bother trying to save you? Do you really think he’d send you into Kellan’s arms to be raped until you can produce a child with magic?”

I slapped Chase, but his face didn’t move. It was almost as if he’d expected it. My hand stung. My arm throbbed. My full strength still hadn’t returned yet. I fingered the dagger hanging on my waist, wondering how it would feel to embed it in Chase’s chest.

I recoiled, shocked at my own thoughts. How could I even consider doing to Chase what my mother had just done to Bryden? My hand flew to my chest. My heart beat solidly inside my rib cage, reminding me that I was alive. I didn’t die with Bryden, even though, deep down, that’s what I wanted.

“I’m sorry,” I said, lightly touching Chase’s red cheek.

“I baited you into it,” he said. “You’re thinking a bit more clearly now, aren’t you?”

I nodded. “I was the hysterical one. You should have slapped me.”

“Do you really think I’d do that?”

I didn’t have to answer. We both knew he’d never raise a hand to me.

I slid back to the ground and took Bryden’s hand in mine. “What now?”

“I’ll leave you here with him for a few minutes while I find someone to help me retrieve his body. We’ll treat him to a proper burial, Lianne, I promise.”

“I don’t want him buried here,” I said. “Take him to your homeland. It’s peaceful there, right?”

Chase nodded. “I know my family would welcome him.”

“That’s perfect. He has no family here. Just me. No one loved him like I did. I can’t stand the thought of him being buried here, among the people who hated him so much. They treated him like he was an outcast.”

“I’ll be back with Ace in a few minutes. Are you going to be okay alone?”

I didn’t answer. He left in silence, leaving me alone to face my past, my present, and my future.

“What am I going to do without you?” I asked Bryden, tracing his forehead with my thumb. “I won’t give in to the Malborn, but I can’t run anymore. You taught me to always do what’s right, even though it’s hard. You never gave up fighting for me. Not once.”

I kissed his forehead. He’d already begun to cool. I fought back the tears threatening to overflow. I wouldn’t cry on him or over him. He wouldn’t want me to. Bryden would want me to move forward.

“I will find a way to end this war so no one else will ever have to fight just to live their life. I swear, Bryden, I will find a way.”

A light flickered in the cave and Chase, Ace, and another man I’d never met entered the cave. They carried a stretcher.

“I’m ready,” I said to them. I wasn’t really. I never would be.

“Ace and my father will take Bryden back,” Chase said.

“Your father?” I spun around in surprise. The man who wasn’t Ace, the man with only one hand, saluted me. “Thank you, sir,” I said, not sure how to address him. I knew he was royalty of some sort from Chase’s stories.

“I’m so sorry for your loss, Lianne. Chase explained you’d like Bryden buried in Serenia. We’re happy to accommodate you,” his father said. “You can call me Mark.”

“Thank you, Mark.” I flew into his arms, burying my head in his shoulder. More than anything, I needed a hug. I just wasn’t sure it was right to ask for one from Chase considering his feelings for me. His father didn’t hesitate, not even for a moment. He wrapped his arms around me, letting me leave myself vulnerable for a few seconds.

I backed out of his embrace. When I turned around, Bryden was already on the stretcher. I walked over to his side and kissed his cheek one last time.

“I love you too,” I whispered in his ear.

Mark lifted his hand, taking over the end of the stretcher from Chase. Using magic, he held it up on the other side. Ace nodded to me. I dipped my chin back to him as they walked through the portal with Bryden.

“You first,” Chase said, gesturing toward the portal.

“No,” I said. “I have one stop to make first. Will you come with me so you can open a portal to Serenia when I’m done?”

Chase nodded. I held out my hand and he took it in his. Then I flicked my wrist, opening a portal to a place I knew well. We stepped through, coming out on the far side of the castle, smack in the middle of the cemetery. The wind blew my gown and my hair to the west. The moon stood proud in the sky, illuminating the army camped just beyond the castle and town. Light rain fell around me, but I didn’t put my hood up. A raven flew past. Even that harbinger of death was comforting.

“Will you come with me to Serenia and hide there?” Chase asked. “There’s too many men out there. You can’t take them all.”

I spun around to face him. “And then what? They conquer the Dalagans, kill the Fithians enslaved or imprisoned by my people. Who dies next?” I sighed. “It needs to stop, Chase. It has to.”

“You can’t do it on your own,” he said.

The flames erupted inside me. I felt them stronger than ever, coursing through my veins, becoming a part of me. Reaching inside, I harnessed the source of the fire.

“You can’t bring Bryden back by destroying all of them.”

The tears I’d tried so hard to keep inside exploded. Droplets of ash poured from my eyes as the flames licked all around me. The grass behind me crunched, sounding farther away with every step. Good. Chase had been too close for what I was about to unleash.

I lifted my arms in the air, allowing the rain to cool them. I raised my fingers toward the army camped down the hill. With a small release of my breath, I sent death upon them.

I spiraled my magic upward, into the clouds. The rain turned to fire. Small flames fell on the army, setting their tents ablaze. My tears increased, flowing down my cheeks like a tumultuous river breaking through a dam. I cried out for Bryden, for the life we could have had, for everyone who’d ever been hurt by the magic given to us by those mythical gods Chase’s people worshipped.

The screams of the Malborn being burned alive filled the evening air. The merciless warriors couldn’t defend themselves against the actions of one girl. Their pain fed my soul.

“If there are any among them who are innocent, spare them. Do you hear me?” I screamed it into the sky. “If the gods are out there, only deliver my punishment on the guilty!”

My arms dropped to my sides, spent.

“Lianne!” Chase called from me behind me. I waved my arm at him, hoping he’d stay away. Within moments, his arm encircled my shoulders. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said, not sure whether or not it was true. I rubbed the dried tears from my face.

“You’ve changed.”

“My magic is stronger. Something happened down in the cave.”

“That’s not all.” He lifted a section of my hair on his finger, dangling it in front of my face. But it wasn’t my hair. It was curly and long, like my hair, but it wasn’t red. I’d been a redhead my whole life.

Instead, he held a lock of silver hair, so shiny it almost sparkled in the night sky. One week ago, even one day ago, I would have been horrified, possibly even frightened. Not anymore.

“I think the fire is completely inside me now,” I said.

“And your eyes.” Chase held my chin between his fingers. “They’re different. Changing.”

I shrugged. I didn’t care anymore.

The sky rumbled with thunder. Lightning illuminated the sky, showing anyone nearby exactly what kind of wrath I could exact on the Malborn. It was meant as a warning. The first strike against the enemy.

My people would discover soon enough, though, that they were my enemy too.

“Let them bring war to the Malborn,” I said, my voice as dead as my heart. “They will soon find out that the girl they were seeking has died and been reborn as their worst nightmare.”

I wouldn’t rest until I could find a way to block all access to the magic ripping us apart.

-end-

The Sundering

Megg Jensen

Prologue

Everyone dies. Those of us left behind are supposed to focus on the good times we had with our departed loved ones. I’m having trouble remembering anything good now that I know the truth. Bryden died because of the decisions I made. As far as I was concerned, I died that day too.

Chase tells me I’m still alive. He tells me that because he loves me, not because he believes it’s true. It’s the right answer to give. Unfortunately, for the last six months, everything about me was wrong. I saw the way he looked at me, unsure whether or not I’m the girl from his visions. The beautiful redhead now replaced by the hollow shell I became after Bryden’s death. I didn’t belong to either of their worlds anymore. I floated somewhere in between life and death.

The war that forced the wedge between us stalled. The Malborn retreated, promising to return when they were ready to defeat me. The Dalagans continued to hold the Fithians under their thumb. Without magic, the people who adopted me were useless to fight against those who gave birth to me. It felt as if the entire world was at a standstill. So I escaped into my own tiny existence, ignoring everyone while the emotional wounds of Bryden’s death festered inside me.

I wished for death when dusk touched the world, enveloping us in near darkness.

I lay in bed, wrapped in a blanket of my own sweat and nerves, asking anything that would listen to take me while I slept. Drifting off to sleep, never to awaken again. It would be the easiest way out. Despite everything, I was too scared to do it myself. A coward crouched, hidden deep in my soul.

I loved the one who died, but the one who lived still loved me. If I was given the choice, I’d join Bryden in death. If I had Chase’s belief in his goddess and the afterlife she promised, then I would have killed myself to be with him.

But I didn’t believe. All I knew was the pain of this world. It was hard for me to believe in the promise of rebirth in another. Why be so wasteful? If Chase’s goddess loved us so much, then why not make the life we know joyful instead of forcing us to endure tragedy before attaining a so-called paradise?

It wasn’t the type of goddess I would worship. I’d told her as much the first night she visited my dreams. The night of Bryden’s death, I couldn’t sleep. Johna offered me a draught, sure to let me slumber without nightmares.

That was when Eloh slipped into my subconscious. She whispered in my ear all night, telling me the wondrous things I could accomplish with her help. I woke up the next morning and informed Chase I’d been plagued by nightmares, that Johna’s concoction didn’t work.

Eloh entered my dreams every night after.

Three nights ago, I told her I’d only believe in her if she helped me change the world for the better.

I haven’t heard from her since.

Chapter One

I rolled over, only to find myself nose-to-nose with Chase. Every night I told him to go away. Every morning I found him curled up next to me on the floor. He held true to his promise and never tried to kiss me, but he had greater reasons for being so close.

He was afraid I would hurt myself. Even though I thought about it, I wouldn’t actually do it. But he didn’t believe me. Sometimes I wondered if he’d had a vision of me slicing my wrists.