Shadow Reign (Shadow Puppeteer Book 2) (7 page)

Something here made me uneasy. Anxiety twisted in my stomach. I couldn’t tell why, not with my metaphysical shields in place. It was a creeping sensation that something was waiting in here that I wasn’t going to like.

Only two of the Callicantzaros’ entered the doorway, the others waited on the side making it a tight squeeze for me. We were in a room with cages holding a number of girls trying to stay as far away from us as possible.

“What? I’ll get locked up if I don’t behave?” It hurt to talk.

Kelaino stayed in the doorway with her arms crossed. “Look closer at the cages.”

Her soldiers kept to the side so I could move down the center. There were roughly three to four girls per holding cell. They were ragged and abused. Their fear spoke volumes and it pissed me off. I’d die angry before I died scared. I was grateful my shields were in place. My empathy would suck up their pain and make it eternal. I didn’t want to have an episode here in front of Kelaino, especially since I didn’t have anything to ease the focus, such as physical pain.

The girls stared back at me, weary and broken. What did Kelaino want me to see?

I stopped, ready to confront her again when a very small movement caught my attention. I couldn’t move fast enough to the next cell. Amber was alone in the smallest cage, bruised, beaten and discarded. Her eyes were sunken from stress and lack of sleep. My heart immediately went out to her.

Her wide eyes stared at me through parts in her greasy hair. She looked wild.

“Amber?”

She shook her head and pressed as far back as she could in her cell. Her voice shook. “You’re dead; dead. I saw it. You’re dead.”

“I’ll get you out of here,” I promised.

She turned away from me, burying her face in her arms as if that would make me go away. I wasn’t a nightmare. I wasn’t here to taunt her.

“It happened so fast,” she was whispering.

I wanted to get in there and comfort her, but the bars wouldn’t bend no matter how hard I shook them. She sunk further into her arms. I was losing her. She was afraid of me.

“I’m not dead. Look at me. I’m not dead. I’m here and I’m going to help you.”

Her mumbling was incoherent.

Anger consumed me. “I’m not a monster!”

“Of course you’re not.” Kelaino’s tone dripped with pleasure. “Shall we talk?”

It took a great deal of inner control to face Kelaino. Something keen of darkness crept through me, like a shadow taking over and I didn’t want to stop it. It was artic and made my entire body as cold as that small spot within my chest that pounded when spirits were near.

Utan frowned, stepping closer to Kelaino.

“She’s a wild card. She’s already proven herself untrustworthy. Some animals can never be trained, and will turn on their cage masters as soon as they get a chance,” he whispered.

Kelaino’s smile only forced my anger. Until now, my emotions were only unstable due to the empathy. As of now, I felt like I could tear her apart with my own hands and I liked the idea.

“She’s different from the others,” Kelaino said, as if that meant something. She stepped away from Utan, but kept her distance from me as well. “You do everything I say, learn the lessons taught and compete for the Prism of Shadow, and I’ll release your werewolves.”

She expected me to trust her intentions? Since there was nothing I could do, I was currently stuck.

“Fine, I agree to do this,” I said.

Kelaino would let her guard down again. It was Utan I’d have to be leery of.

“Since she has so much energy, take her to her next lesson,” Kelaino ordered.

My mind and body protested that statement.

I
couldn’t concentrate and when I shifted, trying to stay awake, the slightest movement reminded me how thoroughly Utan kicked my butt during training. I really missed Jose’s methods now. On the plus side, Utan didn’t say much. On the negative side, he already admitted he thought I should be destroyed.

“Pay attention!” Zephyr’s bark followed the hard whack of her staff on the back of my head.

Sparks of pain exploded in my vision; it cleared the haze that came from sitting too long. This constant abuse was wearing on my patience.

“We’ve been at this for hours. When can I sleep?”

I hated the whininess in my tone. Amber was suffering, who knew what they were doing to Rex and I was stuck in this small room that smelled like sulfur.

Zephyr stopped pacing behind me. “Focus, you stupid girl.”

I sat a little straighter, but my concentration was shot. I didn’t want Zephyr at my back, but facing her would result in another whack. All I had to do was what she asked; I just didn’t like what she wanted me to do.

At least she was behind me and I didn’t have to catch myself staring at her hunched back, or her white glass eye. I caught myself staring enough at her swollen finger joints that made her fingers curl and bend unnaturally. She didn’t have too many teeth left, but her frailness was just a front. I’d never met an old woman that could swing a stick as hard as she did.

“Make the puppet dance,” she said.

The puppet in question was a teenage boy at best. His brown hair clung in ringlets around his face, due to sweat and blood. Blood was caked along his forehead and down his temples. His jaw barely closed around the gag ball and the binds were so tight that it made his skin purple around it. The rope binding his wrists was red with his blood and his skin was so raw that I cringed in sympathy.

It was his eyes that really bothered me. Maybe it was how large and dark his pupils were against the gray of his irises. He reminded me so much of D and my stomach knotted. I couldn’t help him if Kelaino decided to kill me. I had to play her game, even though I wasn’t sure what that entailed.

“You’re a Shadow Puppeteer, own up to the greatness that follows your people,” she said.

“That doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t know what a Shadow Puppeteer is,” I said.

“You really are a stupid girl. Reach inside him. Make his spirit dance. It’s there for your command.”

He was a Free-String Walker. I knew it the minute the sith brought him into the room. He was outwardly damaged, but he had no bite marks, at least not where I could see them. I know his body was made with alien technology. These puppets were filling in as World Congress, but looking at him, he seemed so human.

“Reach in and feel the shadow that animates the body,” she said.

I didn’t want to reach in and do anything to him. His attention flicked to Zephyr and back to me. His large silvery eyes silently begged for pity and there was nothing I could do. I wasn’t even sure I knew what she wanted.

“I’ve never done this before. I don’t think it’s possible.”

Her stick whacked me harder this time. My head tingled with pain and possibly blood. I bit back the curse, not wanting to instigate this further. She would surely finish what Utan started if she kept hitting that same spot. It already felt concave.

The young man wasn’t resigned, and that’s what made this worse. There was still that ounce of hope in his eyes. I wasn’t going to do anything if I couldn’t get my metaphysical shield to lower. The light has never been so strong that it didn’t react to my will. Normally it was a matter of letting those strings of light go and they would lift.

I rolled the stiffness from my shoulders, aware how my clothes stuck to the dried blood. A deep breath in did nothing for clearing my headache. I focused on the light that swirled around me. I pictured myself the center of that energy. Every ring of light had its own signature vibration.

The more I focused on those lines, the louder their vibration became in my head. They weren’t alive, but it felt like that. They didn’t want to go down. With my head pulsing, I didn’t have the energy to force them.

No, that was an excuse. I couldn’t have an element of my personality that I couldn’t control. I refused to.

I grasped those lines and shoved outward. It wasn’t graceful. Those lines crackled as they shattered and fell away. With them gone, the world was far colder. There weren’t shadows of the dead, but something else resided and I felt its inky tentacles itching along my skin. I shuddered.

“You won’t make it here,” Zephyr said. She thought I was stalling, though I heard a hint of remorse in her tone.

I could feel the room through those inky tentacles. They were strands that made the air thick and hard to breath. They connected to life and throbbed around it. Because of this, I could feel where Zephyr stood behind me. I could even feel the victim in front of me. The darkness pulsed differently against them. It wanted to attach to me, but it couldn’t. I wasn’t sure that was a good sign.

“You feel it, don’t you?” Zephyr asked.

She didn’t move. In fact, I knew she was holding her breath because the tentacles changed their pulse. I didn’t answer her. I was too busy looking at what she was talking about. With the patch over my eye, I couldn’t see anyone’s aura, but from past knowledge, Free-String Walkers didn’t have auras. My empathy couldn’t pick up or sway their emotions either. What amazed me, however, was the tiny static pulse within his body.

The minute I was aware of his spirit, it was aware of me. I focused on that little bubble of light that churned with static. I imagined holding it in my hand and how it would flutter against my gently cupped fingers. As fragile as it felt, the pulse was warm and strong. It was tangible, but answered to my call. The young man’s face went blank and his body slack.

“You did it,” Zephyr murmured.

His power was mingling with mine. I grew invigorated by his energy.

Zephyr recited something in her language while rattling a wood instrument with nut shells attached to it. They clicked together rhythmically. The longer she carried on, the more aggressive that energy around us was becoming.

The inky tentacles in the room attached themselves to my body, turning my thoughts sour. The darker part of me, the empty cold cavity in my chest, filled with its own dark desire. His shadow was in my control and it felt so odd. I knew, if I closed my hand, if I tightened my hold on the trapped spirit within the Free-String Walker, he would suffer.

My concern was nearly overshadowed by my desire to kill the World Congress agent. I wanted to feel his essence fight against my hold and wither away. It was such a dark desire and yet it brought a great deal of gratification.

The young man’s eyes fogged with pain, but he couldn’t cry. His body wasn’t completely human and something about that look was chilling enough to push the tentacles free from my body. It left me feeling empty, but no less energized. The screams were back, haunting me from that night in the Ardent Asylum when I tried to protect the group from the onslaught of Free-String Walkers. It was self-defense, but I was so thorough. There was a line and I crossed it.

“Make him stand.”

It took a moment to realize Zephyr gave me that order in a language I could understand. Her instrument clicked away and my heart followed the tempo. Even my headache pulsed to that beat.

“Stand.”

“Connect with his spirit and silently give him the order.”

I could barely concentrate now. The shadow was losing its energy. Prolonged control would make it sputter completely out. I pushed the thought into that energy I held in my metaphysical hand. The young man stood. In the little he had on, I wondered if the Free-String Walker could feel the cold like I did. Starr sure complained about it a lot, but it could depend on the spirit in the body. I didn’t have the experience to tell between human souls and anything else.

“Make him go to the wall behind him,” she ordered.

The wall in question was full of harvest tools. My heart flip-flopped. I couldn’t kill someone in cold blood. His fingers twitched. I controlled his body, but not his mind. Did he want release from this world or just this hell? These spirits belonged somewhere other than earth.

I sent the message, it was easier now. His steps were slow and stiff as he tried to fight back. Part of me felt thrilled by this challenge. The better part of me sick by this excitement. He stopped a foot from the wall.

“Have him take a blade from the wall,” she said.

This was far enough for me. Not only were my lips dry, but my throat was dry too. I knew what she wanted. “Zephyr, I can’t.”

“You’re freeing him,” she said.

“Where will his spirit go when it’s not in the body anymore?” I asked.

“You’re wasting time. Kill him,” she ordered.

I killed enough people, but I didn’t want the weight of one more. His shoulders tensed, waiting for that order. It wasn’t going to come.

“Prove you have complete control over his shadow. Kill him.”

“I won’t do it.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Zephyr said.

“There’s always a choice.”

A blade cut through the air, slamming hard into the young man’s back. Our connection snapped. I attempted to regroup the part of myself that felt stunned by the sudden loss. He swayed on his feet than slammed into the floor.

Rose, covered in blood, stood in the doorway. She was submerged in Amber’s scent.

Panic seized me and my shields locked back into place. “What did you do?”

“You mean this?”

She pinched her shirt and pealed it from her skin so I could see how drenching wet it was. I couldn’t stop the nausea that pushed from my stomach with such force that I bent over and vomited. It burned the back of my throat and made my eyes water.

“I didn’t take you for being squeamish. You tore those Free-String Walkers apart back at the asylum with cold precision,” she said. She made a show of smelling the air. “It smells good, doesn’t it?”

I didn’t need a weapon. I was going to kill her with my bare hands. She grinned and fanned her shirt.

“She lost her faith in you, they both did. How does that feel knowing you’re a monster?” she teased.

I started forward and Zephyr was suddenly there. I was nine inches taller than her, yet she managed to block me. Her gnarled fingers caught my shirt and I couldn’t shake her free.

“Your battle isn’t here in my study,” Zephyr said.

Rose shrugged. “Whatever, old lady, like your hocus pocus ways are going to save her.”