The Soulstoy Inheritance (30 page)

“As I was saying,” he continued. “Mental bonds have always been… rather fascinating to me. I was always jealous of Nareon’s ability as a child. So I killed a man just like him. I honed the power, stretched it to its limits, and yet there are still those precious few out there who have managed to surpass me.”

He moved back to Hazen, dragging the blade across the length of the table as he went, gouging a long, crooked line.

“His power is strong. I can feel him inside your mind right now. He’s using you to stay alive, did you know that?” He knelt down beside Hazen and pressed the knife to his throat, angling it in a way that would surely do irreparable damage if he jerked his hand even an inch to the right.

I felt a wave of panic hit me, and I knew that it wasn’t just my own.

“Well?” Elias pressed, his hand inching infinitely closer.

“Yes,” I hastened. “He’s in my mind. He’s watching everything that you do.”

Elias’s face split into a smile, and I shuddered once again at what would have been a charming gesture on either of his brothers’ similar faces.

“Fascinating, truly. He must have a strong mind partner, that’s important you know. Mine was somewhat…” he glanced back at Grenlow, “…lacking. When he started to go mad, people began noticing. Nareon suspected, so I had to take over.”

“When?” croaked Ayleth from the corner of the room, surprising both of us.

She was almost as white as Hazen, her lips quivering, her eyes wide in horror, staring not at Elias or me. She was staring at Grenlow, her fingers clutching his arm.

Elias spun around slowly, the smile on his face falling away to sorrow. “Oh, my dear. I’m afraid it has been quite some time now. After your love child was conceived, but before your revenge was plotted. Your beloved Grenlow was loosing his mind quicker than I could have dared hope. I had to come up with a plan. It was my first time, taking over Grenlow’s body—I used him to kill his own child. He didn’t want to live after that, so I hid my own body in the jails of the human kingdom, where nobody would think to look for me, and I gave him what he wanted. I took over. I crushed his soul, until there was nothing left of him but a vessel for me to exist through. Nothing left of the guilt at what he had done under my control, nothing left of the fear he harboured. I saved him, don’t you see?”

Ayleth’s knees crumpled, and she turned her white face to Elias, her mouth slack with shock.

“It was you. It wasn’t Nareon. You only wanted me to turn on Nareon. You killed my son, you killed his father, you did it all just so that I would turn on Nareon. You convinced me to seduce him, to get as close to him as possible, you promised me a chance to avenge our son… but all along, it was you. It wasn’t Grenlow, it wasn’t Nareon, it was you.
IT WAS YOU!
”

She surged to her feet and ran at him, so quickly that Quick actually stepped up and jerked me backwards. Nobody noticed; they were all too busy staring at Ayleth, who was now slumped against Elias, gurgling. She slid down his torso and crumpled to the ground, his knife buried in her stomach.

“Yes,” he cooed. “It was me.” He crouched down to smooth the hair from her face. “I made him kill your baby, and then I made him lie to you about it. It was the perfect plan really. Such an act weakened his soul enough for me to take over completely, and gave me the perfect ammunition to manipulate you. I made him tell you that it was Nareon, that it was jealousy, because Nareon wanted you for himself. I made it all up, and then I stroked your face as I am doing now, do you remember?”

He bent down and kissed her forehead tenderly as she stared up at him in horror, bloodied hands clutching her stomach.

“Shhh…” he continued to smooth her hair as her body started to convulse. “Everything will be okay, my love. You will be okay. I will protect you.”

Chapter Twenty-One

The Spider’s Web

Elias stayed with Ayleth until her last breath, stroking her hair and staring lovingly into her eyes. I couldn’t watch, couldn’t bear to see the expression on her face, or to know what she had been through at the hands of the monster that was Elias Soulstoy. It didn’t matter that she had plotted against me, all I could see was a broken woman, a woman whose everything had been ripped from her. A woman whose life had been driven by revenge and whose death had been a bloated jest, a perfect end to the perfect game as far as Elias cared.

When it was over, he stood and let her head thump carelessly to the ground.

“Clean this up,” he muttered, gesturing to her. “I have business with the girl, and business can never be conducted with bodies on the floor. It’s unseemly.”

I wasn’t sure who he was actually talking to, but Cereen and Rohan jumped to do his bidding. They didn’t make eye contact with anyone, not even each other. They simply lifted Ayleth and carried her away, before returning silently to their posts beside the empty shell that was once Grenlow. Elias straightened his overcoat, moved to the round table before the fireplace and sat down in the chair directly beneath the giant banner that had originally caught my attention. He propped his elbow atop the table and delicately rested his chin in his palm, dead grey eyes travelling from Hazen to me.

“Sit,” he finally commanded. “We have things to discuss.”

I moved to the table, stepping gingerly over Hazen, and sat myself opposite the man who had existed as my greatest enemy, completely unbeknownst to me.

“You will tell the Hereditary Scroll to name me, and then you will die,” he said calmly, pulling a small wooden case from his pocket, and placing it upon the table.

He opened the lid and turned it to face me. The Hereditary Scroll was there, folded in upon itself neatly.

“No,” I said firmly. “You can kill me, but I won’t name you. I’ll not leave these people with you. I didn’t want them at first, but they are my people now. All of them, even those that wish me dead.”

I found myself standing, reaching for the Hereditary Scroll. “I am an unwilling Queen, but I am still the Queen.”

I threw the case at the window, cracking the glass, and then turned back to Elias and slammed my fist onto the table. “Stop hiding behind your perverted games! I will summon a wind to rip you into a million tiny pieces. Except that it won’t stop there. I am a
weapon
, Elias Soulstoy. The end of everything as we know it is constantly burning inside me. Storms that will pull castles from the ground and toss them into the sea, lightning that will ignite fire enough to burn fields for days, and rain to weep away the bodies until nothing and nobody is left!”

“Ah yes, what you say is true.” He countered my outburst calmly. “But I do not think that you are so hasty, child. You might be willing to end your own life to end mine. But will you sacrifice the lives of your loved ones as well? And what of your
people?
Is no life at all really better than the alternative?”

I fell back into my chair, anger still boiling within me.

“Don’t hide behind these,” I said, holding up my cuffs. “Let us see who is more powerful. Let us see who is the true ruler.”

He chuckled delightedly. “Oh, Beatrice, how you have changed. But you shall not goad me. There is no need to fight. I have everything in place, and you will do what I say.”

He waved his hand, and the Hereditary Scroll flew back onto the table. “Now, it is simple.” He withdrew a quill from an inner pocket of his coat, and handed it to me. “Sign my name on the scroll, and
mean it
, or else your Hazen will die.”

As if on cue, Hazen groaned. I jumped out of my chair and fell to him again. “Hazen?”

His eyes opened, dark, emotion-filled irises focusing on me, shrinking and contracting.

“Bea,” he croaked. “Sign it.”

I drew back in shock. Hazen would never say that, he would rather die than allow a man like Elias to win. He knew that the two kingdoms needed to stand united against the Valens, and he knew that it would never happen as long as Elias was king.

“Sign it,” he repeated. “Write his name on the scroll.”

I dropped his hand, falling back on my heels. His eyes followed me, the expression so inherently
him
that I couldn’t believe Elias might be controlling him.

Why?
I asked.

It’s the only way.

I fought the conflicting emotions threatening to pull me into halves, fought the sense of those words even as I tried to convince myself that Hazen would never ask that of me. Was it really the only way? I rested on my heels, buffeted by the waiting silence hanging heavily around the room. I wouldn’t let anyone die for me. My existence had been marked the moment Nareon fell in love with my mother, and doomed the moment my Force power claimed me as a child. Right from the start, I had been a means to an end for Nareon, and now my death would be Elias’s means to my kingdom’s downfall. I existed as personal pawn for the Soulstoys.

I tried to help Hazen into a sitting position, but he groaned again, so I set him back down and calmly approached the table. Elias watched me with a patient expression, as if he had all the time in the world to wait for me to hand my life over to him.

I took the quill that he still held out, pulled the scroll toward me, and began to scribble his name down. His hand shot out before I even finished the
E
, and he tittered.

“This isn’t an ordinary scroll. It can
feel
you. It must feel your intentions, else the name will not stay.”

I swallowed, shook his hand off and scrawled the rest of the name. Wet ink shone on the page for a moment, and then the letters dissolved into nothing. Elias waved his hand and Hazen’s body jolted from the ground, flying through the open door and slamming into something beyond. A few minutes later, booted feet approached and soldiers dragged his body back into the room, propping him against the wall beside the door before retreating again. His head lolled to the side, leaving a smear of blood behind it. Elias moved behind my chair and placed his hand on the back of my neck, thumb brushing beneath my left ear, fingers splaying along the side of my throat.

“Again,” he said coldly.

My hands were shaking this time, and a tear dripped from the bridge of my nose, landing next to the tip of the quill, quivering above the old parchment. I wrote his name again, trying my best to will the parchment to accept it, and waited with clenched fists as the letters stared back at me. After a few minutes, Elias reached beneath me and snatched the scroll away, tucking it into his coat.

“
Bring in the prisoners
!” he shouted, causing me to jump.

The wait was excruciating, and for a few full minutes, I had the luxury of savouring the shredded remains of my fading naivety… until almost every last person that I loved was marched into the room by soldiers. They were dressed in the now familiar silver, black and pearl colour scheme, and the person leading them hammered the final nail into my coffin.

Leif.

Tell me this isn’t real,
I projected to him, as something resembling a cry erupted from my throat. He didn’t answer me.

For a moment, I hung onto the trailing hope that Leif was only playing a part, but still remained loyal to me above Elias, as Quick did. That hope died when I heard the indrawn breath of shock, whispering over my neck from where Quick hovered behind me. Leif wasn’t just pretending.

Leif was a traitor.

Miriam, Cale, Rose, Gretal and Harbringer were all separated from their magic with silver cuffs. Ashen, Teddy and Sweet were nowhere to be seen, which—in light of how drastically things had changed—shouldn’t have mattered, but it did. Sweet should have been with Harbringer. Elias motioned for Cale to be brought to him first, as the others were restrained off to the side. Cale’s eyes went wide when he spotted Hazen, and then those frightened brown irises found mine.

“He’s alive,” I assured him, hating the joy that had been drained from him, and the fear that lurked in its place. It was not an expression I saw on him often.

Cale nodded, his fists tightening as he was marched closer to Elias. I ignored everyone but him, knowing that for now, at least, he was in the most danger. Would Elias drain him of energy and life as he had Hazen?

“Cale Sekron.” Elias was smiling. “You are mind partner to the Prince, yes?”

Cale looked like he didn’t want to answer, and shot Hazen another pain-filled glance. I wondered if he could feel what Hazen was feeling. Elias snapped his fingers, and Cale’s form crumpled, the soldiers on each of his arms needing to suddenly support his full weight. His mouth slackened, opened in a silent scream, and Elias breathed in deeply, his large chest swelling, his eyes rolling back.

“Very strong.” Elias exhaled, opening his eyes again, pupils dilated. “Very strong indeed. You have allowed the Prince’s power to grow infinitely, and you remain intact, sane even.”

Cale hunched over, retching dryly, before he managed to speak. “Death… you are… death.”

Elias grabbed his face, forcing Cale’s eyes to lift from the tiles. “You can tell even that? Interesting. It took Grenlow much longer to figure out that I was one of the Tainted.”

It wasn’t Cale who responded—but my own gasp, which drew every eye, including Elias’ deathly grey interest.

“Of course.” It seemed that nausea was now my constant companion. “You are a true Tainted Creature. You died long ago, but whoever killed you was not strong enough. Who was it, Elias, who killed you?”

Those grey eyes flashed with instant rage, burning in every shadow of his face, and he moved his hand to Cale’s neck, tightening his grip until my best friend was clawing at his arm, gasping for life. Elias never looked away from me, and by the time his fury had dimmed, Cale was slack. It took longer than expected for the fury and sorrow to descend upon me. Every person in the room seemed frozen in time, the soldiers holding Cale stepped back, and his body seemed to hang suspended in its fall to the ground.

Dark satisfaction glinted in the eyes of Elias Soulstoy as a piercing outcry assaulted us all.