Drake of Tanith (Chosen Soul) (12 page)

Lord Darken was now outlined by the flames that flickered in the hearth against the wall of his throne room. It was a strange fire; in place of red, orange, and yellow, its glow was composed of shades of gray. It also gave off no heat, though the sound was like that of a normal fire. It crackled and popped and shed just enough light to give Astriel a better idea of what Darken looked like.

What he saw took Astriel’s breath away. In fact, he barely believed his eyes.

“And you want me to abduct her,” Darken continued, his stark, silver gaze flashing.

It wasn’t a question. It was simply a statement of disbelief, spoken with such calm and cold demeanor, it was impossible to tell whether Lord Darken was amused or was just trying to get the facts straight.

“Such a thing could cause a war, prince.”

“
Tanith
?” Astriel breathed, his brow furrowed, his eyes wide.

Darken remained motionless, partially hidden by the halo of gray firelight and shadows surrounding him. And then, very slowly, he stepped forward and close enough that Astriel was now looking fully into his all too familiar face.

It was impossible what he was seeing. But it was there, plain as day.

Drake of Tanith was Lord Darken, king of Phlegathos, the seventh circle of Abaddon.

“No,” Darken whispered, and in that small word, Astriel heard the difference he hadn’t noticed before. Then Darken’s silver eyes narrowed, and Astriel could
see
the difference as well. There was no give in his gaze. Tanith was a man torn between honor and duty. But Darken’s eyes brooked no kindness, revealed no war between wrong and right. There was only cruelty, cold, calculating and quiet.

“Not anymore,” Darken finished. And then he smiled, flashing the fangs that Drake of Tanith almost never allowed himself to bare. “Not for a very, very long time.”

Chapter Eleven

The sun had been up for an hour when Raven awoke to the sound of hissing and the smell of smoke. She blinked and sat up to see that Drake had begun packing things back up and dousing the fire.

Raven watched him and felt exhausted. Clearly, he wanted to get moving, but she had no idea why. She had no idea where they were going. She’d barely gotten over her wounds, eaten a meal, and stolen a quick cat nap. They had yet to talk about what had happened or what he was doing there with her and her brother.

“Before your brother wakes up,” he added, with a glance at Loki’s still-sleeping form. Then he offered her his hand. “Come with me.”

Raven looked down at his hand and then back up at him. Smoke from the bonfire outlined his form. The rising sun blurred her vision, and her body desperately craved more sleep. He looked so much more powerful than she felt in that moment, every instinct she possessed was telling her to stay where she was.

But then Drake lowered his hand. Suddenly he was kneeling in front of her. She inhaled sharply, but managed to stay where she was and not retreat. Not that she’d have gotten far. She was sitting flat on her bottom and her legs were still tangled in her cloak.

“I know you’re overwhelmed,” he said softly, almost whispering the words. “And I don’t blame you if you don’t trust me, Raven.” His metal eyes seemed to melt for a moment, softening into the liquid mercury that so defined him. “But believe me when I tell you that you need to hear this – and you don’t want your brother to.”

Raven heard her heart beating in her ear drums. Drake of Tanith was inches away from her, his eyes boring into hers. It was the stuff of both nightmares and very good dreams. Her stomach tightened, and when his gaze flicked to her lips, a flush of warmth spread across her chest, hardening her nipples.

Look away,
she thought.

With some effort, Raven pulled her eyes from his and glanced over at her brother and the ork who lay a few feet from him. They slept deeply. How was it that they didn’t notice the movement and noise around them? She’d always been a light sleeper. And Drake, being who and what he was, had never gone to sleep in the first place.

Raven felt Drake’s sudden touch like a brand on her skin. He gently took her chin in his hand and turned her head back around to face him, and Raven fought the desire to close her eyes. He wasn’t wearing his gloves; his skin was hot and sent waves of electric warmth radiating across her skin.

Her lips parted as he stared long and hard into her eyes. “Please come with me, Raven. Right now.”

The bounty hunter of Tanith was saying “please.” It was not something he was known for doing. Raven had to appreciate that, despite the determination in his molten gaze and the wary, watchful way with which he regarded her. She had to give him credit for trying.

And anyway, she
wanted
to go with him just then. Maybe she was just exhausted, and maybe it was downright stupid, but the look of him, the scent of him, and the way he made her feel when he touched her were all getting to her. Deep down.

She felt weak inside. Her will was dissolving where it came to Drake.

She thought of this as she finally nodded and he released her chin. He stood, gracefully and smoothly, and once more offered her his hand. This time she took it, all the while wondering whether she had become a fool through and through to trust a man like Tanith.

*****

“Sit down,” he told her once they’d moved far enough away from the other two that they couldn’t be overheard. The waves crashed against the beach and black rocks nearby. Sea gulls cried overhead. A slight breeze played with Raven’s hair; it caressed her cheek as she looked from Drake to the rock he gestured toward.

“Why?”

“Because I told you to?” Drake said, clearly running out of patience. Raven assumed it was a lack of sleep. She sighed and sat down, then she waited as Drake leaned against another large boulder and placed his hands flat against the stones’ pockmarked surface.

He looked down at the sand and his hands flexed and un-flexed where they rested on the rock. “I told you before that you were in danger,” he said, his voice very quiet. A wave washed up onto the shore, hissed and sizzled, and then slowly retreated. “I meant it,” he continued. “But you don’t know the half of it.” He looked up now, and his silver eyes seemed so stark, they were almost poignant. He swallowed hard, and she could see it slide down the muscles in his throat. “My father has given me an ultimatum. I am to become king of Nisse and lose my soul,” he told her, “or….” He broke off, swallowed again, and his brow furrowed.

Now his expression looked downright pained. Raven’s heart was hammering with the idea of Drake taking over Abaddon’s ninth circle. It would be no different than spiritual suicide. But the look on his face was kicking her fear up several more notches still. She straightened on the rock, her chest feeling tight and her legs wobbly. “Or what?” she asked. Her voice sounded strained.

Drake’s fingers curled into the rock tightly now. Raven felt a brush of his power, as if it was leaking from him, slipping from his control. He stilled, frozen as he undoubtedly prepared to say what he was about to say. The universe hushed. “Or he will take you as his queen.”

Another wave crashed onto the shore. This time, as it pulled back out to sea, it took with it all sound and motion. The world stopped turning. Raven’s heart thudded painfully and then seemed to grow numb in her chest. Her entire body felt strange. Her ears rang. Her mind reeled. She felt dizzy, and braced herself with her hands on either side of her on the boulder. Drake’s eyes bored into her as she breathed in and out. In and out.

“You’re lying,” she said. She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, it was just that what he had just told her was unbelievable – so much so, that she couldn’t process it, and the words had just slipped out.

“You have no idea how badly I wish that were true.”

Raven shook her head. “But why?” she asked, not at all understanding. What would Asmodeus want with her? Why on the Terran Realms and in all of Abaddon would he focus on
her
? How did he even know she existed?

“That you can even ask that bewilders me, Raven,” Drake told her.

Raven pulled her gaze from the sand where she’d been staring at nothing and looked up at the bounty hunter. His expression was one of stark frustration. “There is no woman in any realm more suited to the position than you,” he said. Suddenly he was pushing of the rock and moving toward her. Raven tensed as he reached her in two quick strides and crouched down so they were on eye level.

Quicksilver
, she thought, swallowing hard.

“You are a complete idiot if you still can’t see how special you are,” he told her, almost hissing the words. She recoiled from the acid in his tone, moving back across the rock on which she sat, but his hand was as quick as the metal in his eyes, and she found herself held immobile by his fist in her hair as he leaned in to whisper his next words. “Are you truly that stupid, or are you truly that innocent, Raven Grey?”

“Let me go,” she hissed back, at once on the defensive. She could feel a thrum of tension running through him and into his grip on her. His power was leaking badly now, and in the course of seconds, it had become stifling. A thread of warning unraveled within her. This kind of power was something she didn’t want to test.

Instead, she tried something she hadn’t yet tried with the bounty hunter. “I’ve done nothing to earn your anger, Drake,” she said softly, forcing her features into an expression of reason. She would have shaken her head had she been able to move it, but he held her fast. “Nothing at all,” she finished.

Drake’s eyes flashed. And then he frowned – and blinked.

At once, he released her and stood, taking a quick step back. He seemed shaken suddenly. Uncertain. It was a new look for him.

“What will you do?” Raven asked him tentatively, as she rubbed her head where he’d held her and slowly came to her feet. She wanted to be on even footing with him at that moment. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking – what he was about to do. It scared her.

But she wanted to know. She wanted to know what his real feelings were. They’d known each other for such a short while…. Did he care enough about her to make the sacrifice he would be making by taking his father’s place in Nisse? And if he did – was it something she was willing to let happen? What exactly was it that they shared? Raven’s body felt too heavy, her head too light. She realized just then that she couldn’t expect a straightforward answer from Drake about how he felt, because she had no idea how she felt herself.

“I would take his place,” Drake suddenly said.

Raven’s eyes shot up to his. His gaze was steady. His face was pale and his hair was too dark and there was a reddish glow to the center of his pupils, but he stood firm, and his tone was laced with firm resolve. “In a heartbeat, Raven,” he continued. “If it meant you would be spared.”

By the gods
, she thought.
Why
? Certainly they were linked, she and Drake. She was the princess of Caina – he the heir of Nisse. In her heart, Raven knew they were bound in a way that was inescapable. But that was part of the problem.
Everything
was inescapable when it came to Drake. From the ropes that the emblem on his armor warned he could tie so tight, to the pull of the blood that ran through his veins, and even to the indomitable power of his father. It was all do or die, fight and lose, defy – and surrender anyway in the end.

Raven valued her freedom. It was something she’d fought for since the moment she’d unwittingly defended herself against her attackers in Aster Hollow over a month ago. And everyone seemed to want to take that freedom from her. Even Asmodeus.

She and Drake were oil and water. It would never work. How could he want to give up so much for her?

Because I love you, Raven.

Raven blinked. Had she imagined the voice? The words? She frowned as she gazed long and hard into Drake of Tanith’s mesmerizing eyes. She hadn’t taken his blood. They possessed no link at the moment that would allow him to speak into her mind. Her imagination was running away from her… to places far more lovely and satisfying than the world she knew as real.

“But knowing Asmodeus, you wouldn’t be safe even if I did. So I’m going to take you to Magus,” Drake said, his tone solemn. “He can hide you,” he continued. “I’m not willing to lose you to my father.” Drake pushed off of the rock he’d been leaning against, paced a few steps away, and ran a hand through his pitch black hair. It was a nervous gesture and one that she had never before seen him use. “I’m not willing to lose you to anyone.”

What makes you think I’m yours to lose?
the defiant part of Raven wondered. It was a ridiculous thing to wonder, what with everything else he’d just told her – especially the Magus part.

As if he could hear her thoughts, Drake turned and speared her with a hard look. It went right through her, pinning her to the rock beneath her.

“You want to ask a god for help?” Raven’s voice shook. Magus was the god of Magic. Most magic users refrained from so much as whispering his name, lest he hear them and turn to gaze upon them. That was the thing about the mage god. Unless you spoke his name, he would not see you, not ever.

It was said that Magus’ attention could bring wonderful things – or horrible things. If you spoke his name, gained his attention and he approved of you and your magic, the rewards were innumerable. Spells you’d never dreamed of might suddenly be there within your reach. However, if he did not approve, if he thought you were squandering your magic or using it for the wrong reasons – he could take your magic away.

Raven didn’t know what to think or feel in that moment. To even say the mage god’s name as Drake just had was brave. It was almost as if she could now feel Magus’s gaze upon her. It was a weight, whether imagined or real, and it made Raven want to hide.