Birthright (The Stone Legacy Series Book 5) (16 page)

“He’s going to kill her,” Zanya said.

Jayden snorted. “Good.”

She gagged again. “We need to go.” She clenched her stomach. “I forgot how rancid this place smelled.”

It wasn’t until that moment Zanya remembered her mother’s history with the underworld. In the past, after they traveled back in time and she bonded with the stone, her mother had been taken prisoner by Sarian and kept here—tortured—and possibly even raped. It was here her mother learned about Sarian’s darkest plans, and even who Arwan truly was.

No matter how she felt about her mother, returning to this realm was more of a sacrifice than she should have made—even for her own daughter.

“We need to find cover,” Renato said.

His voice must have caught Arwan’s attention. He froze and turned his head, staring at the group with blank eyes. He stood absolutely still while Contessa thrashed in his grasp, as if her attempts to break free didn’t faze him in the least.

Renato took Zanya’s arm. “Something is not right.”

“Yeah.” She shifted her weight. “I get that too. He doesn’t seem…normal.”

“That’s because he’s not normal,” her mother said. “Maybe now you get it. He belongs here.”

“That’s not true,” Zanya snapped. “He doesn’t belong here. He belongs with me, and I’m taking him home.”

She walked ahead, leaving the group at her back. The blood that had once stained the ground was no longer there, the faded marks now fully absorbed into the cooked soil. It was as if there had never been thousands of underworld captives, beating drums and cheering when a bloody sacrifice was made.

Now there was nothing except abandoned ruins, a few scattered boulders, and them.

Zanya shielded her eyes from the punishing sun of the damned realm and peered at Arwan’s face.

Renato was right. Something had changed in him. He was different now. Someone she didn’t recognize.

The closer she walked, the less sense it made.

Why was he not happy to see her? Why wasn’t he running to her?

Now only several yards away, Zanya stopped. He remained like a statue with Contessa still trapped in his grasp.

And his eyes.

His eyes were vacant of warmth—like empty, black coals.

“Help me,” Contessa screamed. She dug her nails into Arwan’s arm. He didn’t even flinch.

The others in the group flanked her on either side.

“Arwan.” She stepped toward him. He pulled away. Zanya reached out to him. “What’s happened to you?”

“He’s dangerous,” Contessa pleaded. “Help me and I’ll get you all out of here.”

“Shut up,” Zanya snapped. “You deserve everything you get.”

“Perhaps. But what will become of your comrades? He is no longer the man you once knew. You can see that for yourself. He is going to kill us all.”

“
Aye
,” Beigarth said in a soft tone. “I wouldn’t be one to agree with the
hoor
, but he isn’t the same lad, now, is he?”

“Arwan.” Zanya bit her lip. “I know you’re in there. I know you are. It’s just this place…”

“This is where he wants to be,” her mother said. “Don’t you get that?”

“No!” Tears stung her eyes. “I don’t believe that. I can’t.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Arwan

Arwan tried to focus, but it was nearly impossible with the storm raging inside him. Contessa was in his grasp, lying at his feet. He was going to end her here. Now. Just like he did Sarian. This time, he didn’t need to change into a beast to do it.

Then Zanya appeared and his entire world came undone.

Heat rose from the scalded ground, forming a distant mirage of the sea in the distance. Was
she
a mirage? Or perhaps Contessa had conjured her to break his focus.

Arwan glared and tightened his grip, making Contessa screech and coil into a ball. That was it. Zanya couldn’t be real. Not in this realm. There was no way for her to gain access without him when Jayden didn’t bleed. And the others…they couldn’t have made it.

“We should go,” her mother said. “We can’t stay here much longer. The heat.” She peered up at hell’s sun, trapped under the roots of Yaxche. “It’s too intense.”

Zanya shook her head, sending stray hairs to feather around her neck and cheeks. “Not without him.”

Her mother cringed away from the bright light above them. “He doesn’t want to come with us. We need to leave.”

“Zanya is right,” Renato said. “We cannot give up on him.”

Arwan stepped aside. Everyone in the group leapt back as if they were terrified of him. Maybe they were.

Everyone except Zanya.

Her feet were mounted in place, her gaze never wavering. “Come home with me.” She stretched her hand out. “We need you.” Her throat visibly tightened. “
I
need you.”

Arwan examined her hand. He’d seen it a thousand times—memorized the lines in her palm and the warmth of her touch.

But
his
Zanya would have touched him without hesitation.

They had to be an elaborate hoax.

“Yo, jungle boy.” Jayden’s voice was like a flute playing off key, scratching at his ears. “We’re here to break you out, but you have to make a choice.” He tried to shelter Eleuia from the full force of the sun. “And quick, because most of us won’t last long. We put ourselves in a shit-ton of risk to find you.”

“You’re not real.” Arwan glared. “None of you. You can’t be.” He yanked Contessa to her feet, pulling a scream from her lungs. “Make them go away.”

“It was not me who brought them here. It was you.”

“Liar.” He threw her back to the ground.

Contessa held her scalp. “No, my lord. Not this time.”

“
My lord?
” Zanya shifted toward her. “What the hell did you do to him?”

“I did nothing he did not desire.” Contessa’s body shook as she struggled to stand. “Do you not see, young guardian? Your love, your soul mate, he is mine now. The underworld has claimed him.”

Arwan cocked his head, admiring Zanya’s soft smile. Even though she wasn’t real, he would take this brief moment to enjoy her beauty, and remember the moments they had together—when he was still the man she fell in love with.

“He’s free to go where he wants,” Zanya said in a soft, gentle tone. “But no matter where he is,” she reached out and touched his cheek, “he’ll always be mine.”

A rush of breath escaped his lungs and his vision cleared of the violet fog. Her touch, her warmth—it brought him back to reality. She’d found his humanity for him, and brought it back.

He rested his hand over hers, splayed over his cheek. “Zanya. How…?”

She took his hand and led it to her belly. “It has its advantages.”

Arwan had nearly forgotten. Their baby.

Contessa was right. If it weren’t for him being there, Zanya never would have come after him He blinked, as if clearing cobwebs from his mind. “What am I doing here?”

“I don’t know, but it’s time to come home.”

Home.

His mother’s home, in the middleworld, with the ones he loved—and who loved him. That was where he truly belonged. Heat simmered and bubbled in his gut. “
You
.” He turned to Contessa. “You commanded the tree to force me here.”

“Perhaps.” She stood up straight and smoothed the creases in her dress. “But it is you who wanted to stay.”

“Can we just kill this bitch and get out of here?” Jayden shouted. “Please?” Jayden looked at the others. “Seriously. I’m okay since I’m already dead, but I don’t know how much longer they’ll last in this heat.”

Tiny, fluid-filled bubbles rose on Renato’s arms and forehead. Red and angry, his skin would begin to peel if he didn’t escape soon.

Arwan tilted his chin to the hole overhead that led to the middleworld. “The tree can take us back if I order it to do so. We can all go—”

Zanya’s scream sent a shockwave through the air. Arwan looked to see Contessa’s arm wrapped around her, holding a jagged rock to her throat. “You will not leave,” the witch spat.

Arwan stepped forward, the darkness flooding his veins once again. “Let her go.”

“Stay with me. Stay and I will allow her to leave with her life.”

Zanya’s eyes were wide as she stood perfectly still, gripping Contessa’s forearm with one hand and protecting her belly with the other.

Arwan scowled. “If you do not release her, I will
end you
.”

Contessa’s expression changed. The color drained from her face, leaving her like a pale doll.

He would tear the witch apart with his bare hands before he let her hurt Zanya. That was what it had come to. Arwan balled his fists. “As you wi—”

Before he could finish his sentence, Contessa pushed Zanya toward him and dropped the blade.

Zanya stumbled forward and clung to Arwan.

Contessa’s lips trembled with a smile. “My lord.” She bowed, spreading her dress, displaying a low curtsy.

Arwan growled. “Stop calling me that.”

“What makes you believe I am referring to you?”

A slither crawled through Arwan’s gut. He grabbed hold of Zanya and poised his mouth beside her ear. “Stay behind me. Do you understand?”

She nodded, terror streaked through her features.

Arwan turned to face the one man he despised more than anyone.

His father, King of the Underworld.

“After all these years.” The king stepped forward. “After all of my efforts. You are home.” He was a massive man with a dark, full beard and eyes burning like red embers. Hellhounds flanked him on either side. Muscular and bare of any fur, their jaws dripped with white froth. One dog growled and snapped at Jayden, who leapt back.

Zanya’s mother clung to Renato. Boils from hell’s sun had blemished her skin. Arwan had never seen this reaction to the underworld, but then, Zanya had the ability to heal, and he was native to that realm. Perhaps all Riyata were not immune to the severe conditions.

He’d be surprised if she stayed on her feet another minute.

It was a mistake for them to come.

They would all die.

The king examined the failing group, his sights stopping on Zanya. “Why have you come here?” His voice was baritone and rough. “What are you doing in my realm?” His royal cape dragged behind him, leaving flames streaked over the ground in his wake.

“He’s come to sabotage our mission,” Contessa said in a rush, hurrying to the king’s side. She wound her arm around his and took her place beside him, as if she belonged there.

As if she weren’t just trying to seduce Arwan into taking her as
his
queen.

Contessa locked eyes with him. “He’s come to overthrow you, my lord. I stopped him by holding his love—the Stone Guardian—captive beneath a blade.”

His father observed the group for a long, silent moment, then examined the rest of the realm—quiet and vacant of underworlders. “What has happened here? Why are there no damned souls in this realm?”

“You didn’t know,” Arwan said, almost under his breath.

Arwan stole a glance at Zanya, who seemed to be holding up well enough. The effect of the sun did little damage before her healing ability kicked in and mended her wounds. As for the others, they continued to fade.

The king turned his head and looked Contessa in the eyes. “Explain.”

Her hand shook as she pointed at Arwan. “Your son has traveled here to rob you of your crown. It is mutiny, my lord. He is desperate to save his pitiful comrades from our plot to seize the middleworld. He is here to put an end to our reign. You must destroy him.”

His father’s eyes moved to Arwan.

They never wavered.

Never faltered.

“Why are you really here?” The king let go of Contessa and walked toward him. The closer he was, the more heat radiated from his body.

Arwan examined his features. He had inherited the king’s sharp jawline.

“I was brought here,” Arwan said. “Your queen tried to seduce me and convince me to overthrow you.”

“Is that so?” He ran his hand over his beard while nodding.

“Lies, my lord. I would never do such a thing.”

“Says a damned whore,” the king snarled.

Contessa did not dare respond.

The king stopped in front of him, nearly toe to toe. Barely taller than Arwan, the raw power he possessed dwarfed him in comparison.

“You must act, my lord.” Contessa’s eyes rolled with violet magic. “Do not appear weak. Do something!”

The king tilted his head, examining Arwan. “All I have ever wanted is for you to return and claim your rightful place as my son, prince of this realm. Have you come to fulfill my wish?” His features turned to stone, and the heat around him flared with intensity. “Or have you come to die?”

The hellhounds bared their teeth and growled, sending strings of froth to the floor.

“I do not belong here.”

“You belong
only
here. This realm runs through your veins. This is your home.”

Arwan looked back at Zanya, who worked to heal the others from their burns.

Arwan shook his head. “No. I belong with her.”

When his father turned, Arwan used the moment of distraction and commanded the tree to take the group to safety. Roots exploded from the ground and coiled around their bodies. A collection of screams filled the air.

The king raised his hand, stopping the tree from moving any further. He turned back to Arwan. “You may be the rightful prince, but I am the king. Your word does not trump mine in my own realm.” He clenched his fists, and the roots tightened around each person.

Beigarth grabbed hold of the tree limb imprisoning him and turned it to stone. With one mighty blow of the Viking’s fists, the dead remains shattered and scattered to the ground.

The king grinned, as if amused by the show of strength. “A petrifier. How clever.”

“Not clever, ye bas.” Beigarth rolled up his sleeves. “The end of ye is what I am.”

“Beigarth!” Zanya screamed.

The king flicked his wrist, sending one of his hounds after its first target. Beigarth crouched and poised his hands like a football player. When the hound leapt, the impact took Beigarth down with a heavy thud.

With the king once again distracted, Arwan commanded the roots to bring the others to the safety of the middleworld.

“I’ll kill you! I’ll take everything!” Contessa’s shrill scream was the last thing he heard before a blade tore into his flesh.