Blood Before Sunrise (30 page)

Silence answered us. A dead silence made all the more dramatic for the promise inherent in Faolán’s
words. He’d kill me and not even bat an eyelash. I’d brought him to Brakae, making me as good as expendable. “Perhaps she thinks I’m bluffing,” he said more to himself than to me. “I’m sorry, Darian, but I’m going to have to prove to the Time Keeper just how dire your situation is.”

Sure, he warned me, but that didn’t mean I was close to prepared when he brought his arm down in one forceful, sweeping motion. He drew the dagger across my skin from my collarbone to my sternum, opening a deep gash in my flesh. Screams pierced the still air.
Shut the fuck up!
I thought, until I realized I was the one screaming. Liquid fire seared from the wound, spreading through my body like poison.

His laughter fueled my rage, and I snarled like a wounded animal, working my broken jaw, despite the hurt it caused me, to toss out a string of curses. Holy shit, I was in some serious pain. My body could start with the healing…anytime now…. Come
on
, damn it.
Heal
. “Faolán!” I shrieked. “I’m going to enjoy watching you die!”

“Quiet.” The command stalled my mind, numbed my pain, and stilled my body. Our surroundings blurred in my vision, leaving only the two of us alone in a sea of gray nothing. Faolán towered above me, looking too far away to be so close. “I’m going to kill her!” he shouted again. “Just like the others! Do you think your father will weep for her? Will he relive the pain of losing his child? Would you be the one to deliver that agony upon him for the second time? I.
Will
. Kill. Her!” His words rent the still air, ragged and strained with his rage. He looked down, his eyebrow cocked, and he whispered the last words for me alone. “Believe it.”

Something in the distance stole his focus from the business of sending me to my death. Lucidity returned, and with it an excruciating pain that made me want to retreat back into my mind, anywhere but the present moment. My breath came in shallow pants—all I could manage with Faolán’s hand squeezing my throat. Above
me the dagger hovered in his fist, dripping my own blood onto my body. He leaned back, his grip slackened, and I resisted the urge to turn my head and look. But when I noticed the half-crazed expression creep onto his face, my heart sank into my stomach.
Stupid girl
. She’d done just what I would’ve done in her situation.

Brakae had surrendered.

Chapter 24

F
aolán eased himself up from the ground, dismissing me like an insect beneath his boot. I could have just closed my eyes and drifted away right there in the fragrant grass for all the attention he paid. He stumbled backward, his eyes glued to the figure standing barely beyond my line of sight. Hate, jealousy, and—could it be?—love twisted his features into something even more otherworldly than he already was.

The longer we’d been in this strange place, the more his Fae glamour slid away, as if he couldn’t spare the concentration to keep the guise intact. And I focused on those things: his face, the way his body trembled in Brakae’s presence, the slight shifting of his eyes, how they’d become rounder and brighter. Because if I didn’t, I’d succumb to my fear and pain, and I’d be damned if Faolán saw me weakened by anything he’d done.

Grass rustled in the distance, and with it came a stirring breeze and the fragrant scent of Shaede, though there was something foreign about it that my senses could not identify. I closed my eyes, the hairs standing on my arms as I felt her presence beside me. She knelt and gathered my head in her hands, cradling it on her lap.
Don’t open your eyes,
I thought as she combed her fingers through my hair, sweeping it away from my temple.
Just lie here and sleep
.

“Faolán, my love.” Brakae’s words jump-started my heart as if I’d been struck by lightning. “What have you done?”

I’d heard her wrong. Of course, she’d said, “Faolán, you
low-life piece of shit
, what have you done?”

But, no, just like all of the lovely surprises in my life, I’d heard her plain as day. “My hand has been forced.” The longing in his voice was unmistakable. “You helped them imprison me. And why? For the pestilence known as humanity? I loved you. I love you still; yet you would rather see
me
dead than a race so disgustingly fragile their lives are nothing more than a flash of lightning against a black sky.”

Here I was, sliced open and bleeding to death in a realm where time flew by at a blurring pace, with Brakae and Faolán positioned on either side of my battered body having a bittersweet lovers’ reunion. Wasn’t this just fan-fucking-tastic? Brakae continued to stroke my hair—did the whole of the supernatural community have an affinity for petting?—as Faolán paced back and forth, as agitated as I’d ever seen him.

“This is an old argument,” Brakae said. “Too old for us to revisit. Life,
all life
, is precious, and there is not one of us who deserves a higher place above another. I will not reopen healed wounds by entertaining your madness again.”

Hello? Anyone remember the bleeding girl here?
And why the
hell
was I still not healing? God, I wanted to pass out from the pain. Yet the little
Days of Our Lives
moment unfolding at my head and feet kept me nice and conscious. “I hate to interrupt,” I said, struggling to lean up at least on one elbow. “But, Brakae, this should be the part where you stand up and run the fuck away!”

“Shhh.” She cupped the side of my face Faolán hadn’t managed to break. “Don’t worry. I trust you.”

You trust me?
What the hell kind of thing was that to say at a moment like this? Good Lord, I was beginning to wish Faolán would hurry up and kill me, just to give me a reprieve from all of their cryptic talk and strange behavior.

“Get up,” Faolán commanded, and I felt my world go
fuzzy and gray. “I don’t have time for idle discussions. Brakae, take us to the glass.”

I looked up at Raif’s daughter, the deadly smile on her face an exact replica of his. How had I not recognized it the moment I’d met her? A light of calculation gleamed in her sapphire eyes. Maybe she wasn’t as harmless as I’d thought. “Yes,” she said as she placed her hands under my arms, easing me to a sitting position. “It’s time to go.”

“Why is my body not healing?” I asked close to her ear. Confusion swirled in my mind from Faolán’s influence, countered by the cleansing effects of Brakae’s close proximity. A war was being waged within my mind, and I didn’t like it one damned bit. “I’m not going to be much use to you beat up and bleeding. Not to mention weaponless.”

“A Fae dagger,” Brakae murmured. “It has been forged with magic,” she said. “You’ll heal, but not quickly. If he’d wanted you dead, he would have driven the blade through your heart.”

Son of a bitch. For once Azriel hadn’t been a complete liar. He’d told me once only a magic blade could kill me. The asshole knew about the blade, and about what I would eventually become. Who would have thought his lies had been woven with the truth? “He’s controlling me,” I said. “I may not be able to fight him.”

“Darian, you’re talking too much again.” Faolán pulled me away from Brakae, tucking me safely behind him. “Now be quiet and move along.”

Brakae remained stoic but pleasant as she led us from the circle of stones down a winding path as if we had nothing better to do than take a leisurely stroll in an enchanted forest. Blood trickled down my chest, soaking my shirt. If I ever got out of this mess, I’d ceremoniously burn this particular outfit. I ignored the lush green forest, the brilliant blue sky peppered with dragonflies and other buzzing creatures too strange to be mere insects. I felt the presence of magic all around me and other creatures
watching from their hiding places. But none of this mattered or held me rapt. My mind dwelled on one thing and one thing only: Tyler, and the fact that I would more than likely never see him again.

“You’re not really thinking of handing your half of the hourglass over to Faolán, are you?” At least I could use impending death and disaster to get my mind off Tyler. “I mean, you do realize he’s not planning to bring peace to the world or anything like that.”

“No,” Brakae said. “I plan on handing it over to you.”

Was everyone out of their fucking minds? I was the last person on the face of the earth who should have that glass. “I don’t know how well you’ve thought this through, Brakae, but I would advise against that.”

She looked back and flashed me a very Raif-like smile. “I trust you.”

Fantastic
.

I worked my jaw back and forth, thankful it had finally begun to heal. The swelling in my eye had gone down, and I traced the cut on my cheek, now scabbed over. It wasn’t my usual speedy recovery, though it was better than human. My chest still felt like I’d been gored with a red-hot poker, but the blood no longer flowed. A gentle twist of my shoulders sent a violent spasm of pain clear through to my spine. Bleeding or not, I was still pretty worked over.

“Darian, my father?” Through the strength, I could sense the sadness in her words. “Is he well?”

How was I supposed to answer that? “I don’t know,” I said as I walked behind Faolán. The last time I saw my mentor, his daughter’s ex was driving a knife into his gut. Honestly, I didn’t think it would help our situation if I told her Raif might very well be dead. “But he’d better be all right.” I lowered my voice for Faolán alone and fixed him with an accusatory glare.

I had to believe Raif had survived Faolán’s attack. He was one of the strongest people I knew. There was no way a stab to the stomach would kill him—even if it was
with a Fae blade. My mentor was too damned tough for that.

I wondered if she knew about all that had happened since her disappearance. Her mother had died trying to find her, for Christ’s sake. How could I possibly break the news that her mother had been dead for centuries? And that her father might have died because I’d dragged him into this mess. “Brakae—” I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and started again. “You’ve been gone a long time.” Shit, this was hard. I didn’t often break bad news to people. “Your mother…”

“Moira told me,” she answered before I could continue. “She brings me news of my loved ones. You can’t imagine how frustrating it is to be here, unable to communicate.”

Moira. That devious bitch. “She’s known you were here—talks to you even—and she
never
told Raif you were alive?” Death was too good for her. When I got my hands on her, I’d make sure her torture was slow and painful.

“It’s not like that,” Brakae said. “You shouldn’t think ill of her. It is not her place to speak for me. She’s not a Guardian of this realm, and the natural order must be protected at all cost.”

Oh good. More cryptic explanations. Someone was going to give me a straight answer for once, damn it. “Oh yeah, well, what about—”

“Darian, silence.” Faolán’s voice cut through my mind, effectively stifling my voice and putting an end to any questions I might be tempted to ask.

As we continued to walk, I abandoned trying to speak through Faolán’s absolute control.
O Anel
became my sole focus, the Faerie Realm and all its wonders pressing in on me. In the human world, I sensed the energy of the supernatural like an assault on my body. Bones humming, skin crawling, breath stalling…I felt it all. But here, the energy of every being, every tree, every blade of grass mingled and became one. And the way it wove
around me, permeated my senses, gave me peace instead of pause. Fear did not exist in this place—nor common sense, apparently. But despite my circumstances, the wounds that healed too slowly, and the thoughts of never seeing Tyler again, I was not afraid.

We walked for a good hour before Brakae stopped at the face of a large granite rock. At least fifteen feet tall and draped with moss and clinging vines, a gaping maw of an opening invited us to enter. An ethereal golden light emanated from its dark depths, warm and pulsing with magic. “Brakae,” I said, my voice finally coming through, thick and sleepy, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

She answered with a soft glowing smile, though the gleam in her eyes screamed of steel-hard strength. This woman was one hundred percent Raif’s daughter, and I realized, as she stepped through the curtain of vines and moss, that
I
trusted
her
.

At Faolán’s urging, I stepped through the curtain behind Brakae, my breath catching at the sight of her. No longer the poised woman, Raif’s daughter stood before me, the child I’d first met in my dreams. Time had no rules here. And wondrous magic ran rampant. I was
so
out of my league.

“Come here, Darian.” Her tiny voice urged me forward. “I’ll show you what you’ve come so far to fetch.”

Her soft little hand twined around mine, leading me deeper into the cave, which defied the laws of physics with the scope of its size. Like Reaver’s basement, this place sprawled out before us, lush grass, a pool of water—and holy shit!—gigantic trees. Brakae padded in front of me, Faolán pressed close at my back. Both were fighting for control of me in one capacity or another. And I walked helpless between them, unable to act to the benefit of either while they played their tug-of-war.

“Stop,” Faolán said, winding his arm around my waist. His dagger pressed into the flesh at my neck. “Brakae, my dear, I think it best you stay with me and let Darian retrieve the glass for you.”

She shrugged, her tiny shoulders thrown back, posture straight as a little soldier. “If that’s what you want, Faolán.”

“Yes,” he said, beckoning her with a finger. “That is what I want.”

She came to me, squeezed my fingers in her hand, and smiled. “As a Guardian, you may retrieve the glass for me. You and no one else.”

“Do it.” Faolán shoved me forward, his command overtaking any hope of lucid thought.

Brakae’s half of the hourglass sat nestled in a tree trunk. The main body of the tree had broken off long ago, and graying spears of splintered wood jutted up around the hourglass, encasing it like sharp, pointed teeth. But for all its menacing appearance, I plucked the glass from its perch with ease, just as I had with Reaver’s half. The supernatural world had its mysteries, but it didn’t know shit about security. Go figure.