Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3) (13 page)

I smiled.

Then I dove into the void,
taking the placid girl with me. I materialised deep in the woods.
By that time, I was beginning to try and re-exert control, but too
late. I snapped Jessica’s neck, letting her fall to the ground. And
then it was gone and I was in control again.

“
Avery,” I said
again.

He tore his gaze away from
Jessica and stared at me, his expression blank, but I caught a hint
of his thoughts before he shielded them.

Intense hatred. That’s
what saturated his mind. Hatred toward me?

I stared at him and lunged
for his thoughts, pushing aggressively against the mental wall he
put up.

He went rigid and his eyes
widened almost imperceptibly.

A sudden burst of knowing
told me his mental barrier had never really been a defence against
me and I could have broken through at any time.

“
She’s dead, Dallas,”
Avery said abruptly, his alarm rising even as he forced his
expression into one of scorn. “Now you can have the bracelet you
liked so much.”

His words pummelled into
me and I immediately broke off from trying to grasp for his
thoughts.

I got to my feet and just
stared at him. His expression softened, but he was still tense. He
ran his hand through his hair.

“
Dallas, I—”

I turned and ran away from
him.

“
Dallas!”

I leapt into the void, not
caring where I went as long as I was far away from the dead girl
and Avery.

I found myself miles away
from those woods, alone in a bayou, the hum of nocturnal life
around me the background noise to my tortured thoughts. Watery
shadows cast by the tupelo trees shimmered on the bayou’s surface
beneath a distant moon. I pulled out my cell phone and called
Mallory.

I poured out all that had
happened and the dead girl I had left lying in the dirt amidst the
trees.

She let me talk, only
interrupting to tell me Avery had just called Shadrach and was
searching for me.

“
Go on back to the
mansion,” Mallory said. “I’ll be back home—”

“
No, Mallory!” I fought
back tears. It seemed all I had done since I got to the mansion was
cry. Tears were not going to bring the girl I had murdered back to
life. “You can’t. I can’t trust myself around you. I can’t trust
myself around any human. I’m scared, Mallory. I’ve never been
scared like this before.”

When she spoke again, she
sounded on the verge of tears herself.

“
I’ll be back home
tomorrow. We’ll talk more then, okay?”

“
Okay,” I said and hung
up.

I remained sitting by the
bayou for a while longer thinking about everything that had
happened, especially Avery’s cruel words as he stared down at me,
the dead girl lying just inches away.

I also thought about his
reaction when I arrived at the mansion. I had seen more than horror
and surprise at the fact I was a vampire. I had seen intense fear
and an almost paralysing dread. I also thought about that hatred I
had sensed. I knew I irritated and exasperated Avery, but even
though it sure felt like it at times, I’m sure he didn’t hate
me.

The hatred I had seen in
his mind hadn’t been directed at me, it had been directed at
someone else.

I had to go and talk to
Avery, find out what he was keeping from me.

I got to my feet, my body
singing with the girl’s blood. Tears pricked my eyes, but I
swallowed them back. There was plenty of time for me to mourn
her—an eternity, in fact. I had to keep her out of my mind until I
had spoken to Avery.

When I returned to the
mansion it was deserted, a dense silence permeating its empty
rooms. I desperately missed the sound of Mallory’s heels echoing
through the mansion and it was an effort not to call and ask her to
come home. Instead I made my way to Avery’s bedroom and lay down on
his bed. I could not get the image of the dead girl out of my mind,
her empty eyes staring beyond me to the leaf-screened sky. Tears
filled my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. I meant to close my eyes
just for a few minutes to try and force the images out of my mind.
But I found myself falling into a deep sleep where more dreams
awaited.

Akan

In the gloomy temple, the
child made an effort to try and listen to the proceedings, her gaze
returning to Akan whenever she could tear her eyes away from the
food. She kept staring at his scars, her mouth twisting as if in
perceived pain whenever she looked at the deep gouges and the
thick, puckered flesh along his arms and chest. Finally Mutata
finished his speech and moved to stand between the rows of seated
men.

“
Goddess,” Mutata said.
“In celebration of your coming, and for choosing to honour the Enwa
people by living your mortal life here among us, I would like to
offer you a sacrifice of fifty maidens.”

Akan looked away, his
mouth setting in anger at the thought of such gratuitous
slaughter.

“
No.” The child’s voice
rang out clear and pure in the temple.

Akan looked up at her,
surprise in his eyes. She was staring at him.

“
No,” she said again, her
gaze still on Akan. “No sacrifices.”

“
No?” Mutata’s fleshy lips
curved into a condescending smile even as anger sharpened his
tone.

The child glanced at
Mutata briefly before her gaze returned to Akan.

“
No sacrifice,” she
repeated, her eyes beseeching Akan as if seeking approval. “I am
happy with my people. No sacrifice.”

Her lips turned upward in
a small smile. Akan’s heart sank, and perhaps she gleaned his
displeasure for her smile wavered. She turned her gaze to Mutata
and her expression fell even further.

Mutata glared at her for a
few long moments, his face turning a deep crimson. Then he hid his
anger behind a mask of acquiescence.

He bowed. “Of course. Our
beloved, benevolent goddess has decided to spare the lives of her
devotees.”

The smile crept back onto
the child’s lips and her gaze returned to the food.

“
So I assume you will
perform the ekniwa in place of the sacrifice?” Mutata
added.

A quiver of dread touched
Akan’s heart.

“
Yes,” she said without
hesitation, a tinkling laugh escaping her, her eager gaze moving to
another tray of food that had been brought into the
temple.

Mutata smiled. “The thirty
day fast, along with the nightmarish visions the ekniwa brings, can
of course kill a grown man and many have succumbed to it. But the
ekniwa is of course mere child’s play to a goddess.”

Her gaze was torn away
from the food to Mutata, her eyes wide in her small
face.

“
Fast?”

“
It begins now. The first
stage of the ekniwa will be performed tonight.”

She merely looked at
Mutata for a few moments before she glanced at Akan, her words
seemingly directed at him.

“
Of course, the ekniwa is
nothing for a goddess if it spares the lives of fifty
maidens.”

Akan kept his face as
still as the surface of a lake. Inwardly he cursed himself for
having shown disapproval at the mention of sacrifices.

There was barely concealed
glee in Mutata’s voice when he spoke next, gesturing to one of the
temple attendants.

“
Jow, take all the food
away.”

Mutata’s lips curled into
a smile as the child hungrily watched the trays being carried
away.

“
We will leave you to
prepare yourself for the ritual tonight,” Mutata said.

All the men gathered rose
and made their way to the temple doors. Akan followed, his gaze
lowered, his face devoid of expression. He could feel the eyes of
the child on him. When he had almost reached the temple door, he
came to a halt. The temple was almost empty save for the goddess
and the attendants that were by her side twenty-four hours a day.
He walked back to the altar.

“
I have something for the
goddess, a small gift from my son.”

Mutata had been lingering
at the temple door. The smirk that had been on his lips since he
announced the goddess would perform the ekniwa increased when he
saw the small wooden toy in Akan’s hand. He clearly thought it was
a pitiful gift to give someone who was surrounded by gold and every
conceivable item of value the villagers had to give. Mutata exited
the temple then.

He did not see the big
smile that fell across the child’s face at the gift.

Akan moved within feet of
her, much closer than was allowed, and knelt before her, his head
bowed, his hand outstretched. She reached for the gift. Her fingers
had closed around it when he clasped her tiny soft hand, his head
still bowed.

“
Tonight, tell them that
I, only I, must perform the ceremony, as a reward for winning so
many battles in your name. Do you understand?”

Her fingers tightened
around his thumb briefly in assent. He released the gift, along
with her hand, and stood. He moved to the temple doors. He glanced
back at her just before he exited the temple to see her surrounded
by gold, smiling softly at the small gift in her hand.

Ever since Akan saw the
real goddess of the moon many years ago, he had asked himself why
she had appeared to him. Now he wondered if the child sitting in
the gloomy temple was his answer. He had known Mutata had lied
about finding the goddess, but he had not known Mutata would choose
someone who was unaware of the deception. The child thought she was
the earthly incarnation of the goddess the Enwa people believed
could save them.

Akan had awoken that day
with a snake nestled around his heart, not knowing it was a two
headed snake, one head filled with acidic anger, the other with the
poison of electrifying fear. He also had not known the false
goddess would be a child, or that he would have to save her
life.

I awoke a few hours later
to find Avery sitting on the edge of the bed peering down at me,
his eyes dark and anxious. He had lit a candle and soft, amber
light danced with the shadows in the room. His voice was little
more than a whisper when he spoke.

“
Dallas, where were you?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I searched everywhere for
you.”

He reached out to place a
hand against my cheek, but I moved away from him and off the bed.
He withdrew his hand, his expression deepening to distress. He
quickly hid it and just stared at the ground. A tense silence hung
in the room for a long moment before I broke it.

“
I want to know what
you’re not telling me, Avery.” I placed a hand on my
hip.

He glanced up at me and
was completely still for a few moments. Then his gaze turned as
cool as a frozen lake.

“
It will be light soon,
Dallas, so you may as well go to your room. I need to think. This
isn’t the time for your—”

“
Don’t, Avery.” I strode
up to stand before him. “Tell me what you know. Tell me what’s
happening to me.”

He stared at me intently
for a few moments before he stood and moved to the window. Already
I could feel the seductive call of the night retreating as dawn
prepared to move into being in a dance of light. Avery was silent
for the longest moment before he spoke, his back still to
me.

“
What do you think
happened to Rose, Emily, Clara and all the others? All those women
from your family murdered over the years or who died
in...accidents. What do you think happened to them,
Dallas?”

“
How the hell would I
know?”
He’s starting to scare me. Why
would he bring that up now? Did he have something to do with
their—?

“
No, Dallas, I did not.”
He faced me. Sadness along with weariness in his eyes, his
shoulders slumped as if he felt defeated. “But you’ve read Luna’s
journal now, so what do you think happened to all those women? And
why do you think I let Luna, the love of my life—the woman I spent
half a century waiting for—why do you think I let her go and marry
someone else?”

“
I told you, I don’t
know!”

He grasped my arm in a
hard grip. “You don’t know? What do you think happened to the
spirit Luna’s mother woke up all those centuries ago? Do you think
it just went away?”

“
That’s what’s been
killing people in my family for this long? How could it and
why?”

“
For the same reason it
tried to take over Luna’s mother. It wants a way into this world.
It couldn’t through Luna or Mama Akosua because they were too
strong, but it didn’t go away. It’s been haunting your family all
these years, preying on the most gifted witches among you. And
whenever they try and fight it off it has used their own powers to
kill them and I’ve never been able to do anything to save
them.”

“
You think it’s trying to
kill me?”