Shadow Reign (Shadow Puppeteer Book 2) (3 page)

Rose! Just the mention of her name sent my nerves aflame. She was the one that wanted to leave me in the sinking building. I should have known she was with the Reincarta. The clues were there.

Rose had no sympathy for the guards. Even though we were in a kill or be killed situation, the way the guards screamed, cut me like a knife. I didn’t want to take mass lives like that, but people kept putting me in that situation, like now. Where were the shadows when I needed them?

“Speaking of which,” Rose slid from an adjoining mouth cave, probably waiting for her name to be mentioned. “Is there a date set on when I’ll be sent on my mission?”

“Rose,” I hissed.

I barely recognized the tone my voice took. It was almost like something within me growled.

“Good, you can speak. I was worried you became mute after the accident,” Kelaino said.

Accident? Was that what she was calling it?

Rose winked at me, way too perky. Her curly black hair rode high on her head like a cheerleader, though I doubt she was the type to go out for squad. Her dark caramel skin and the exotic almond shape of her eyes made everything fall into place.

“You look just like your mother. By the way, Sonja’s looking for you,” I said.

Rose’s face fell. “She’s not my mother.

There was pleasure in seeing how red she got in the face. “I think you both look a lot alike.”

“You have no right speaking to me like that, fledgling.”

“Why don’t you come over here and show me my place,” I bluffed.

It was stupid urging her on, but anger fueled me. Reason was a very small voice in the back of my head saying play nice. She was the only one that knew where Rex, Amber and D were. She was my connection to the outside world, but I could barely think past the rage.

Rose dropped her fur coat, exposing the numerous blades on her body. “Looks like kitty wants to play.”

I dropped my hand from my eye, ready to jump at her, but the minute I did so, the pain was intense. It felt like a blade slid right through the socket and into my brain. I hissed, clamping my hand over my eye again. For that one brief second, I saw her aura and it was the same plum purple hue as my metaphysical shields.

“Rose.”

Coming from the lady sitting in the bone chair high on a dais, that one word held a great deal of warning. Rose grinned at me with her hands resting on the handles of her blades.

Rose sent me an air kiss. “Maybe next time.”

It was a promise. The only thing I’d get from her was lies. It’s better not to ask about them and let everyone know where my weaknesses lay.

Caution wasn’t my strongest suit. “Am I a guest or prisoner here?”

“That is the question of the hour,” the woman said.

It wasn’t wise to turn my back on Rose, but I did. The way the woman watched me, I had a feeling I was well guarded. “I’m not going to call you mistress or master.”

She cocked a pointed eyebrow and laughed. It sounded fairly human, but in the cold cave, I knew otherwise. I was already chilled to the bone and without a coat, she should be cold too. With my shields in place, I couldn’t sense her emotions and at the moment, I couldn’t see her aura or even Utan’s, though I saw it out in the woods and it had something to do with my painful right eye. I felt off guard by all this.

She raised her eyebrow in thought. “I give you permission to call me Kelaino.”

She offered something to Utan and he took it before descending the steps. When I realized he was heading towards me, I took a step back. I didn’t want him near, but retreating would look weak. It took what remained of my will-power to stay put. He stopped a few feet from me and offered me a plain black eye patch. I didn’t want to take anything from him.

He nearly growled. “Take it.”

She stood from her chair, but I gave her a passing glance over his shoulder before my attention went back to him. He was taller than he appeared in bird form and his pale gray skin looked rubbery to the touch. I haven’t been around vampires, but this was how I pictured a corpse.

She came up behind him, smiling like a waiting crocodile. “He won’t bite, unless you ask him too.”

Her fingers snaked along his pale skin as she shoved him down on one leg. He readily obeyed that command, going demure within seconds, but resentment gleamed within his eyes. I couldn’t stand watching this, so I took the patch from him, noticing how very cold his skin was. I fought the inward shiver, but I really wanted to burn my clothes and check my shoulders for infection.

Could I get infections? The one I got from a doppelganger ended up turning my skin a weird porcelain shade.

Kelaino was gauging my reaction, so I hoped my face was stony as I pulled the patch over my eye. I expected pain, but the patch covered well enough. With some of my discomfort eased, my body started to unwind, but it was going to take a hot bath and food to clear my head. I wanted weapons and a chance to check my wounds. I was growing agitated just standing around.

“You must be starved after your slumber. Come, I’ll fix you right up,” she said.

She withdrew her nails from his skin where she gripped him and dark blood rolled down his bare chest. I was again struck with the notion of infection. The vampires didn’t react to this new blood spillage, but they watched my slightest movement. I definitely needed weapons, but weapons were useless until I had control over my shivering body.

I didn’t follow and she stopped to look back at me.

“Please, Belen, don’t make me put a collar on my own daughter,” she said.

“Until the ritual is complete, it’s not proven that she’s your daughter,” Rose said.

“That’s true.” Kelaino’s grin was malicious.

By default, I had no energy to be stubborn. There was nowhere to go and I just wanted the food.

Kelaino snapped her fingers and the will-o-wasps grew brighter. Utan rose from the floor, moving down one of the many corridors I could now see in the light. In turn, a female approached me with a coat much like Rose’s. I didn’t want fur to touch my skin, but right now, I was too cold to argue.

I reached for it and she stepped out of my grasp, but left it open and inviting. Fine, I would play these stupid games. I stepped into it, allowing her to pull it over me. The warmth wasn’t immediate. My body was incapable of filling that space with warmth. My jaw was stiff, but my teeth continued to chatter.

“Come, child, so we can talk about your greater importance,” she said.

It was a wonder I could even move.

I
tucked my hands into the coat pockets, needing the extra warmth and finding a bit of comfort in the way the long coat brushed along the ankles of my boots as I followed her down a tunnel. With the patch over my right eye, I couldn’t see the minerals within the wall glow. It was pitch black, but luckily, a little pink will-o-wasp followed us.

“I didn’t want World Congress raising my child.”

There she goes again, assuming we’re related. My hair was in my face, but my fingers ached too badly to try brushing it back. With the will-o-wasp hanging between us, I noticed that Kelaino didn’t have hair. It was wispy and from a distance looked like hair, but the way it swayed, light as feathers, though even these feathers were a little greasy.

“You’re back to being silent again,” she mused.

When I didn’t answer, she sighed. It was too human an expression. Her heart couldn’t feel nearly as heavy as mine did. At least with her talking, I didn’t have to hear the echoes of the past reverberating through my skull. Where were Rex and Amber? Was D okay? What happened to the spirits I released from the Free-String Walkers’ bodies?

If I survived this, I had no home to return too. I wanted to leave Ardent for years, but now, I just wanted to return to something familiar. My heart ached at the thought of Abigail Sable, my foster parent. It was my fault she was murdered.

We entered an alcove with a polished wood table and two chairs sitting over a circle etched into the center of the room. Three long, narrow strips of an obsidian mirror covered the largest wall and incense vases hung from numerous spots on the ceiling. The room had a vibe to it that pressed against my shields. I was glad they were in place, but that energy still seeped through, making my skin crawl. I sunk into the fur coat as if that would make a difference.

“You feel it, don’t you? The power is right here in this room,” Kelaino said.

If that was supposed to encourage me to come further in, it wasn’t doing the job. The will-o-wasp gave light, but it wasn’t bright enough to reflect in the obsidian mirrors. The air here was dense and surprisingly warmer, despite the lack of a fireplace.

Kelaino took a spot behind one of the chairs. “You’re one of the few sensitive enough to feel the gates of the Underworld.”

I spun when I caught movement just behind me. It was the Baobhan Sith coming in with baskets of food. The smell of fresh bread lured me to the table where they sat the baskets down. Kelaino clucked, but it barely registered over my hunger.

The minute I stepped over the circle’s threshold, the energy dove into me. For a second, I couldn’t breathe past the arctic freeze that squeezed through my body. I gripped the chair to keep from doubling over.

“Something wrong?” Kelaino’s voice pierced the roar of blood racing through my ears.

The pain lessened, until finally lifting. Cold sweat gripped my body. I pulled the chair out from under the table and sat down, grateful to have something under me. The dizziness didn’t quite lift and I didn’t want to faint.

“That’s a blood circle,” I said.

I only knew this because it had an empty pulse to it, like the shadows. Many people died here and this was where she chose to eat. My stomach still longed for the food, but my throat ached at the very thought of eating here. A quick glance over the table, I noticed there wasn’t any silverware; nothing I could use as a weapon.

“Been to a few rituals?” Her approval was clear.

I wasn’t raised like that, but I wasn’t offering her any details to my life. I almost missed those weird foster families, because they were a lot more familiar than this situation.

“You look ill. Your transition isn’t going as quickly as expected,” she said.

I held my comment as a sith filled my mug with hot chocolate. The smell alone was distracting, but more than anything, I craved the heat. I reached for the mug, noticing the bloody, dirty state of my fingers, but I craved the warmth. It was so hot against my hands that I had to leave it on the table and hold my hands near the sides.

“If I’m not who you think, then what?” I asked.

Doubt lined the edge of Kelaino’s eyes. She wasn’t completely convinced I was her daughter.

“I have a good feeling about this,” she said.

The mug’s heat warmed my fingers enough that I could bend them. I clutched the cup and sipped it. The thick chocolate was warm all the way down my throat, leaving a heat trail to my empty stomach. Heat blossomed through the rest of me, stretching through my limbs and easing some of the aches. Now that the chocolate was in my system, I wanted real food too.

“It looks like Rose doesn’t share your sentiments,” I said.

Her left eyebrow twitched, before her careful mask fell back into place. She was hiding something. I didn’t comment on it as I reached for a bread roll. It was warm in my hand and gratifying to bite. The warm bread gave way to my teeth and though it was dry, it was the best thing I’ve tasted.

“She’s young.”

I might be overstepping my boundaries, but at the moment, I didn’t care. “How does someone like you lose her child?”

Strands of her feathery black hair drifted upward. “I’m a creature of wind and ice, a creature that lives in the Underworld. I’ve done Hades biding for centuries, then one day he’s gone and the doorway is open.” She waved her hand towards the obsidian strips on the wall. “It wasn’t just Hades missing. All the Gods were disappearing.”

Nothing I haven’t heard already. With everyone telling the story, it made it easier to find the truth. I sipped at the chocolate and nibbled another bread roll as she talked. I was in the Reincarta’s domain and I was still alive. Like it or not, I was part of this war. No one was going to leave me alone until I chose a side.

“I was visited by Hecate, the Moon Goddess, with a mission. She was sending a portion of her spirit to earth. It would take solid form through birth and would push World Congress off our land. She would start a new order; a better order.”

On that note, I tried to roll the stiffness from my shoulders, but was met with pain. I really needed to look at the wounds.

“You still didn’t answer my question. How did you lose your baby?”

She frowned and the lines aged her face. She looked vulnerable, but she had it masked under anger. “The werewolf that I mated with ran off with her. They both just disappeared.”

“If Hecate could save herself, why did she only send a portion of her soul? Why not send her entire spirit?”

“It wouldn’t work.” Annoyance peppered her tone.

“Why?”

Her brows furrowed, making her face ugly in the limited pink light. “Because it’s the way of the gods. If she sent too much of herself out, World Congress could hone in on her energy and pull her back. She’d be in the same situation all the other gods are in.”

Kelaino leaned forward, staring hard at me. I wanted to turn away from her dark eyes, but I was too proud.

“Where did you get so many scars? Are they from battles or something else?” she asked.

The change of subject threw me for a moment. If she wanted a story, she was in for disappointment. Seventy percent of the scars were from my own hand, trying to quiet my mind with pain. I was an open line for empathy and people’s emotions drained into me rather quickly. Sometimes it got the best of me. I learned how to use the metaphysical shields to block others emotions, but strong emotions overpowered my shields. A razor came in handy. Physical pain stopped the mental chaos.

The rest of my scars, well, children didn’t always play nice, but neither do some adults. I wasn’t one to dwell, but I didn’t forgive and forget either.