Courting Darkness (17 page)

Shade and I reached the driveway. “Smoky absolutely worships the ground you walk on. The thought of anyone hurting you drives him into a frenzy. He is dragon . . . it is the way.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I think I’m beginning to understand that. It’s easy to forget I’m not dealing with just a man—a gorgeous, strong, stubborn man. But he
is
a dragon. He’s not a human in a dragon suit. Not even a Fae in a dragon suit.”

“Exactly. Now, would you like me to walk with you? I will if you want, but it might not be wise should he come to find you and discover another dragon at your side . . . even though I’m only half. Hell, I’m not even going to hug you, though I think you need a hug. My smell on you? It would be suicide.” Shade laughed then, and I smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever.

“No, I’ll be fine. We have the wards up. Delilah will come find me if something happens. I could use a little time to myself . . . to think.”

“Then I’ll pop out and go look for Vanzir. I’ll try to help him sort out what to do now. Maybe we can pull everyone through this without a problem.”

“Delilah sure found a keeper, that’s for certain.” I waved as he vanished into the shadows and popped out of sight. Thank gods for levelheaded men. Or at least as levelheaded as they were going to get. And on that note, I also sent a mental kiss toward Trillian. Maybe Smoky would listen to him. Maybe Trillian could calm him down.

After Shade left, I turned toward the trail leading to Birchwater Pond. Delilah had been right. A walk would do me good. I decided that, come rain or shine, I’d manage to get out every day for a quiet stroll. The snow had stopped falling and now a patch of sky was glimmering from between the clouds. Another hour and the stars would come creeping out.

The familiar footpath was welcoming, and my boots left soft impressions in the snow. I sucked in a deep breath, letting the chill fill my lungs as I strolled toward the pond. It had been a long time since I’d taken a walk by myself. Even during the full moons, I was in the sky, running with the Moon Mother on the Hunt, along with a passel of warriors and other witches who followed the Lady of the Hunt.

No, I needed more time by myself.

Up ahead was a bend in the trail, one fork leading deeper into the woods, the other leading to Birchwater Pond, where we often held rituals for the holidays. Where I’d married Smoky and Morio.

As I came closer, I saw a tall form in the trees, clad in a white cloak. His long hair floated on the breeze.

Smoky! Smoky had come to find me! I hurried to meet him. Trillian must have gotten through to him. Thank gods. Now we could get on with taking care of this and figuring out some compromise to keep Vanzir alive and my husband happy. My heart skipped a beat, and the worry and heartache began to ease.

As I rounded the fir tree standing between us, I held out my arms, wanting only to feel his embrace, his kiss. To beg his forgiveness for not trusting him enough to tell him when everything had first happened.

“Smoky, please, please don’t be angry at me—”

But my words fell away as I stared at the man who towered over me. He gave me a slow, lecherous smile.

Taller than Smoky, his hair, almost as long as Smoky’s, was pure white instead of spun silver—now that I was close enough, I could see the difference. He looked somewhat older, though it would be hard to place his age, but I knew he was ancient . . . dangerous and ruthless.

My heart began to race as I turned to run, but his hair reached out to grab me and he dragged me to him.

“No! No! Let me go, let me go . . . please, please let me go.”

I wanted to wake up. To wake screaming to find it had all been a dream. But I was here, facing my worst nightmare.

Clenching his arm around my waist, he pulled me up to stare into his eyes, leaning his head against mine as I struggled to free myself. He pressed his mouth against mine, forcing his way between my lips. I choked as he deep-throated me. I tried to bite his tongue, but a strand of his hair caught me around the neck and squeezed until I stopped.

“What’s the matter, Camille? You aren’t being very friendly. That’s no way to greet a relative, is it? After all, aren’t you glad to see your
father-in-law
?”

And then, as Hyto laughed, I began to scream.

Hyto held tight, the strand of hair still around my throat. “At any moment, I could break your neck. Suffocate you. Rip your head off your shoulders. So I suggest you quit screaming.”

I shut my mouth and waited for death—I knew that was why he was here. But instead, he reached up with another tendril of hair and caressed my cheek.

My stomach lurched. “The wards will have gone off. Smoky will be out here, searching for me.” I struggled to talk against the restraint, my throat hurting.

“I don’t think my son will be doing any such thing.” He motioned, and out from behind a towering evergreen stepped the man Giselle had described. He bowed briefly to Hyto. “Meet Asheré, my snow monkey. He negated your wards with a blink of the eye. So nobody’s going to know anything.”

Panic set in.
Oh Great Mother, he’s going to kill me here, and I’ll never have a chance to say good-bye to my loved ones.

I was about to beg him—
Just let me go and I won’t say a word
—when the words died on my lips. Hyto was beyond reason. He wouldn’t listen to me. He hated me. And I didn’t beg. My sisters in danger? My friends’ lives on the line? I’d be groveling on the floor. But I would never grovel for my own life.

“Nothing to say? No protestations? No begging for your life?” He looked at me quizzically, then let out a snort. “Well, no matter. But I can’t go without leaving a calling card. Asheré—prepare the girl.” He threw me to the ground and I stumbled.

Asheré grabbed me by my arms and I opened my mouth to scream again, but with a single word from the monk, my voice fell into silence and I could no longer speak. I struggled but another word from him and I couldn’t move, standing still as night.

We stood there, watching Hyto as he moved to the side. I felt like I was in a dream—as frozen as one of the icicles on the house. Images of my sisters flashed through my mind—they would carry on, but I would miss them so much.

And Smoky, Trillian . . . Morio . . . who would find my remains? I prayed it wouldn’t be one of them—or my sisters. Let it be someone who wouldn’t hurt as bad. My cousin . . . Chase . . . anybody but my family.

Would they mourn for me? I thought of Maggie and tears began to roll down my cheeks. And Iris—at least I knew she would be happy now. Even in the midst of this war, she would have a glimmer of hope.

My thoughts leaped to my father. Would he regret cutting me off? Would he see my soul statue shatter? Would he hold the remains in his hands, wondering what had happened to his little girl? Or would he sweep them away, his heart still as hardened as it had become?

Moon Mother,
I thought,
please, let my end be easy. Let me go quickly. Let me wander the night with your Hunt, let me find my way to the Land of the Silver Falls and reunite with my mother.

And then Hyto caught my attention. He focused on one tree near the beginning of the trail and, with a loud roar that echoed from deep within his throat, he let forth a stream of flame from his mouth, setting one side of the fir on fire. As it lit up the night, he ripped my cape off my shoulders and tossed it on the ground near the tree.

What the hell?
He could just leave my charred body here as a message to Smoky. That would do more than the cape.

Hyto caught the question in my eyes. A deep rumble echoed from his gut. His laugh was like a sledgehammer.

“A calling card, my dear. Simply a calling card. Because you are only half of the equation. I want my son to know I
own
you. I want to crush him with the knowledge that you belong to
me
now.”

No . . . no . . .
As I realized what Hyto was saying, I frantically tried to move, tried to break the spell, but I couldn’t budge.

He leaned down to stare me in the eyes. “Remember? I promised you when we first met,
Anything my son owns is mine, to use or abuse as I see fit
. When Iampaatar comes to my dreyerie to rescue you, I will have shattered you so far, so hard, that there will be only little shards of your life left for him to pick up. And then, and only then, will I destroy him.”

I began to shut my mind down as I realized that Hyto really
didn’t
mean to kill me. Not yet. No, he meant to take me and break me and tear me to shreds. As the panic started to build, he gathered me in his arms and we began to turn, slowly at first, then faster and faster until the world became a blur and I lost consciousness.

 

I came to on a pallet. The first thing I felt was sharp hay poking into my side. The next, a scratchy blanket covering me. My clothes were still on—a good sign. I wasn’t paralyzed anymore, but I forced myself to stay still. In the past, I’d learned that it was better to play dumb until I knew what was going on. Keeping my eyes closed, I strained to hear every sound I could.

The wind. I could hear the wind howling. It echoed, like it was outside blowing past an entrance. A building high on a mountain? A cave? The air felt thin, too—and that would back up my guess that we were at a higher elevation.

Shivering, I realized that I was cold, even beneath the blanket. The chill was icy, far colder than it had been in my backyard. In fact, the scent of the air . . .

I knew where I was—at least the general region. I was somewhere in the Northlands. There was no mistaking that icy haze that hung in the air, filled with magic and the energy of the ice and mists.
Hell.
Hyto had meant it when he said he was going to carry me off.

I listened for any movement but couldn’t sense anyone else near me, so I slowly opened my eyes and looked around.
Cavern.
I was in a cave, near a fire that burned brightly. I scooted over to it and rubbed my hands in the heat, then warmed my face near the flames, trying to avoid the stray sparks.

After a moment, I noticed a pot of liquid hanging over it and I found myself incredibly thirsty, but I knew better than to taste it without knowing what it was. For all I knew, it could be a death potion. Gingerly, I stood, pulling the scratchy blanket around my shoulders for warmth. My body hurt, and my head was foggy. I realized that we’d come through the Ionyc Seas. Hyto would be able to travel through them because he was a white dragon.

A ring of stones had been sheltering me from a larger part of the cavern and I hesitantly stepped beyond them, moving into the shadow near the cavern walls. Maybe I could get away. Maybe I’d luck out and there’d be an inn nearby? But I couldn’t stay if there was one. Hyto would figure it out and burn the place to the ground. No, I had to manage to grab supplies and run. Run . . .
where
. . . ?

Irritated with my own logic, longing to run willy-nilly out of the cave, to put distance between myself and the freak-ass pervert waiting somewhere around here to pick his teeth with my rib bones, I crept through the shadows over to the mouth of the cave and peeked out.

Outside the entrance, a narrow ledge covered in ice and snow wound down the mountain. Narrow, as in so thin I’d be lucky not to topple over the edge the minute I tried to make a run for it. And we were at high altitude. I could see the peaks of other mountains.

I gazed over the panorama spreading out before me. If I weren’t being held captive, it would be beautiful—a swath of white that linked glacier to glacier to . . . glacier . . .
Wait a minute. Could it be?
I squinted. In the far distance, I saw something against the side of the mountain that looked vaguely familiar.

Could that be the Skirts of Hel? We’d been there with Iris. Granted, if it was, it was still at least a day down the mountain, and then a good stretch of harsh walking from here. And no doubt, the path would be fraught with crevasses and avalanche danger. But if it was the glacial ice field, it was the one glimmer of hope I could cling to. Because near the Skirts of Hel Howl, the Great Winter Wolf Spirit, made his home. And he was an Elemental Lord. He could go up against a dragon, being one of the true Immortals.

A noise made me jump. Someone was coming. I hurried back to the fire, managing to lie back down before they entered the room. I had positioned myself so that I could see who it was through slitted eyes.

Hyto.
Hell and double hell. From what he’d said, I had the feeling he was planning on leaving me alive until Smoky got here, but what shape I’d be in was up for debate. I wondered whether it would be best to continue playing asleep or prepare myself in advance in case he decided to kick me or something. I wouldn’t put it past him. In the end, I chose to roll up into a squatting crouch from which I could either run or jump away.