When Silver Moons Rise (Lost Immortals Saga #2) (13 page)

“Do not look on me with pity.” Seth rolls his eyes and attempts to reach behind him. The torn wings look bloody and angry. I remember the way he used the leathery wonders to lift both him and Teulah that day at Oceania, the time when Faris let him go instead of taking him back to Nina. 

“Why don’t they just—just go back in?” I ask.

“You don’t listen very well, do you? My brother took my power. That means, I can’t create wings or make them disappear. Now take your blade and cut the one on the right side off. Then the stumps on both sides will go away.”

He lies down on the mattress and props his forehead on his folded arms. I move to the area behind him, dragging my sword across the floor.

You wanted to make him pay. What are you waiting for?

“I can hear your weak thoughts in my own head. Stop thinking and start moving. We don’t have all day,” he grumbles.

I wince and lift the damaged right wing. Lifting my blade, I position it directly underneath the leathery, smooth skin, and then hesitate.

“Just do it,” he orders through his clenched teeth.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” I say.

“You’ll do it, because it’ll make you feel good to cause me pain. You know it’s true. Now, get to it,” he orders, his face buried inside the mattress now.

“I’m not a sick asshole like you, Seth.”

He turns his head to the side, glancing up at me, his dark blue eyes full of mischief, his lips turned up in a smirk, ready to mutter something sarcastic, I’m sure. “Really? Well, just think about Muriel.”

Right away, heat rushes through me and my ears burn. He doesn’t stop with those words, though. “You say I murdered your little friend. Then do something about it.”

Okay, so, he’s going to regret his arrogant words.

No need to use my blade. I grit my teeth and pull the wing with all my strength. It detaches from his back. Seth buries his face in the mattress and growls into it, his body trembling furiously. Feeling a mixture of horror and disgust, I let the broken wing fall to the ground.

Unlike Seth, I’m not turned on by watching the agony of others. As soon as the wing fragment hits the floor, the leathery appendage dissolves until there’s nothing left but a small pile of dust. The two lumps dissolve back into his skin. Now, only two gaping holes are left in his back. Dark blood gushes over my hand, spilling onto the floor. He’s losing tons of it. I press down on the wound as hard as I can.

If he dies, then I won’t care, I keep telling myself.
Liar.
I’m about ready to panic, because I don’t have anything to stop the bleeding. Suddenly, Seth stops moving and his breathing evens out. The skin around the holes on his back melds together. The sight of the healing process fascinates me. Faint traces of tribal tattoos cover the left side of his body, reminding me of the Caducean side of his heritage.

Another set of silvery marks etched into the smooth skin on his back catches my eye. I lean over and run my fingers across them. Welts. Tracks made by something like a belt or maybe a whip.

“I owe you,” he mutters; but his eyes are still closed. A peaceful look crosses over his face.

I move back across the room and watch him snooze. In this state, he truly resembles an angel. Damn the part of me that keeps seeing Faris’s face on Seth’s while he sleeps. The two of them share many of the same features: long noble faces with sculpted cheek bones, lean bodies, tanned skin. But one brother is a murderer, and the other one is cursed by a thing that makes him believe he’s a monster. I can only imagine what rotten curse Rabia placed on their sister, Asa.

Chapter Fifteen

Alliances (Chela)

Seth calling out to someone in his sleep wakes me up. I must’ve dozed off while I sat there watching him. I move over to his side and stare at him. He lays on his back now and his head tosses from side to side. To see someone as tough as Seth having a nightmare holds my attention in a way that’s hard to explain. I’m curious about what he’s dreaming about.

His right hand trembles. I want to take it, to see what frightens a baddie like Seth Alton so much. If there’s truly a connection between us, then he’ll pull me into his dream the same way Faris is able to do. Temptation hitches inside my chest, and my will power begins to slip.

He’s Faris’s brother. That’s why you’re so curious.

Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself that. Eventually, you’ll start to believe it, Prizeon.

I lower my hand down to his open palm and lace my fingers with his. Right away, his hand closes tightly around mine, squeezing too hard. I wince and try to yank my hand out of his. The room pulses in and out around me; and the dark shapes, those creepy blobs of nothing that appear just before I black out, start moving across the ceiling, closing in on me.

Crap, he’s strong!
“Let go!” I cry out.

Too late. I’m pulled into Seth’s dream. I’m shocked. I didn’t think I could share dreams with someone I’m not bonded to.
Worry about that later. Right now, you need to concentrate on where you’re about to land.

I fall into a deep, dark hole. When I stop falling, I land inside of a small cabin surrounded by a forest. A younger version of Seth stands at the back of the small house. His arms are pinned behind him by a man covered in a strange silver armor. His terrified gaze is focused on the screaming woman who reaches for him as she’s dragged toward the door.

Soldiers lead a struggling Seth out behind a group of men holding the woman and tie him between two wooden posts. “Mother!” he cries out.

“Seth! Please don’t hurt my son,” she begs. One of the soldiers slams the hilt of his sword against his mother’s head. Her body goes limp. Seth’s entire body arches angrily toward the men, but he’s tied up and can barely move.

“Behave, young disciple, or your mother will suffer,” a familiar voice says. The man it belongs to steps in front of Seth. Something tugs at my chest as I listen to the way this man’s voice sounds. Camden Atrauser.

“Today, Seth, you leave the confines of boyish concerns to become a man. You will no longer live as a weak vagabond hacking his living out in the woods. Not you, Seth Alton. You are special. Unique. Because two celestial races live inside you.”

Seth’s gaze is focused on his mother. A hooded figure steps into the middle of the group. Since this person wears a dress, I know a girl hides underneath the cloak. Long white hair flows out from under the hood. She prances over to Seth’s mother, grabs a fistful of the woman’s long dark hair, and yanks her head back, forcing her mouth to open. 

“Get away from her, witch!” Seth growls. The girl turns toward him, her face still hidden from me, and removes a vial that reminds me of the ones kids in Castle Hayne use to take our ale medicine. She turns the vial up and pours a black liquid down Seth’s mother’s throat. The woman reacts at once, falling to the ground, her body jerking in spasms that I’m certain will cause her back to break.

Seth cries out and bucks against his restraints. After a few more spasms, his mother’s body goes still, her eyes staring off into space.

“Well done, my dear,” Camden says to the witch. He even has the nerve to kiss her in front of everybody. She moves away from Camden, steps over the woman’s body, and motions for a couple of burly men dressed in matching silver armor to lift her up on a flimsy looking cot.

Seth screams until his voice cracks and silences. Camden’s not done with him, though. “No need for sorrow. Your mother will be fine…eventually.” Camden stops at about a foot away from where Seth stands. “You belong to me now. A hybrid. Rare and young. A pet to train up in Bernael’s image. Someone who has both good and evil inside him. Dangerous, yet beautiful,” Camden says in measured words. “Only one side will be allowed to grow. The other side must be snuffed out like a tiny flame that wants to become a raging fire.”

Seth glances up, his eyes glaring out from under the wavy, dark bangs covering his forehead. And then he makes a hocking sound.
Crap! I know what he’s about to do.
A wad of spit flies out of his mouth, landing straight on Camden’s nose.

“So, you choose discipline over conversation,” Camden sneers and wipes the spit from his nose. Crossing his hands behind his back, he nods at the soldier standing beside Seth. The guard moves behind Seth and rips the back of his shirt open. “You will see things my way. Begin,” he blurts.

The guard pulls out a whip, rears back, and tears into Seth’s skin. An angry red welt erupts on his back. “I. Am. Not. Your. Pet,” Seth hisses.

“Continue,” Camden demands and steps back to watch. This time three lashes slap against Seth’s back, and he cries out. The trees around the area start to sway, and a hot wind rushes around us. Camden glances at Seth’s wind rustling through the forested area, his face lit up with excitement. “Now there’s what I know my boy can do. Keep going.”

Five more lashes. Seth cries out even louder. I can’t bear to watch anymore. I stand and move back toward the trees, but someone grabs me from behind.
What the freak?

Who’s holding on to me in Seth’s dream? I spin around and face something that resembles a girl with a pale white face and empty black sockets for her eyes and mouth. She screams and so do I.

That noise throws me out of Seth’s dream. He bolts straight up on the mattress. His hands blaze with fire, and he’s holding them directly over my head. The blank, but tortured expression on his face tells me he’s still halfway asleep. I’m about to be barbecued. “Seth, it’s me! It’s Chela. Please don’t burn me alive!” I scream, holding my hands up to shield me from the flames that radiate less than ten inches away from either side of my head. He blinks and focuses on me.

The inferno from his hands dies down. I close my eyes, sighing. Of course Seth has to go and say something, well, Seth-like to destroy the small amount of sadness I felt for him.

“Stop messing around in my head, or I will burn you alive next time,” he says and lifts his body up off the mattress. “We need to leave this place.”

I’m still too stunned to move, and curiosity nags at me. “Is that why you do such hateful things? Because of what happened to your mother?”

His body stiffens. “Where are you headed?” He gives me a hard look. No arrogant smile. No raised left eyebrow—just a wounded boy who a madman took and molded into a murderer. I decide to let my questions go for the moment. The connection he told me about is real. Rabia told me I had two Protectors. What am I supposed to do now that I know she’s right?

“Can you not talk? I asked where you’re headed?”

“Barrow,” I mutter. “You?”

“We already discussed that, didn’t we?” He doesn’t stare straight in my eyes the way he usually does. His gaze flicks away from mine when our eyes meet, something uncharacteristic of Seth Alton. “There’s a motorcycle I hid just outside the city. You can come along, or you can stay. Either way, I’m headed out of this drug-infested place.”

“At some point, you have to choose,” I say, because I can never keep the promises I make to myself.

His gaze does lock on mine this time. “There’s no choices left for me. I’m Tainted. A murderer. I made that decision long ago.”

“No, you didn’t.” I’m playing a dangerous game. If I move the wrong piece, I just might find myself barbecued for real this time. “I mean, you probably think you did. But, I—I don’t think you’ve fully made up your mind.”

“Do you think just because you took a romp around my head that I owe you some kind of explanation? No, I didn’t live a pampered or sheltered life like you and my brother. The truth of the matter is I love my power. I enjoy every ounce of what I am. Be it monster, a murderer, whatever in your eyes. I am Tainted, Chela. Don’t try to change me.”

“Your bitterness is like a disease. It’s carving a way through you. You told me once that you didn’t want to be a puppet, right? Then do something that no one expects you to do,” I say. He gives me a death glare. I’ve gotten so used to making him angry that I’ll feel strange if a day ever goes by without seeing this side of him.

“If you intend to ride with me, then you’ll keep quiet and stay that way. Understand?” he says. I nod, gather my things, and head out the door behind him. The silent alliance I form with my greatest enemy is now signed.

Chapter Sixteen

Tempting the Beast (Faris)

“I can tell you another way to save your lovely Asa,” Olivia purrs in my ear. “I know of a way to reach her without crossing the River of Sorrows. Be a good boy tonight, and I’ll share it with you.”

I stare straight ahead, keeping my eyes hard and without emotion. I can’t let her know how much her words affect me. I sit at the head of a white wooden dining table, my first time out of a dark cell in months. Chains made of galena metal bind my wrists. The thick links are attached to the arms of the chair, reminding me I’m still her prisoner.

Apparently, she has some special guest coming over, a person who specifically wants to meet me. I’ve been given the opportunity to take a bath and to put on fresh clothing, a white tunic and black pants. The scent of the steak, vegetables, fruit juices, and other delicacies I haven’t tasted in months teases both my nostrils, causing the hunger inside me to come alive. None of that matters though. I want to know what she means when she teases me about my sister. I can wait. I’ve mastered the art of patience.

Olivia moves behind me and massages my shoulders. “A choice, Prince. Stop the torture. Experience fine food, music, and drink like this every day. Or continue to wallow in pain if you like. The choice is up to you. Or, perhaps you like the idea of your dear Asa wasting her life away. Never to be seen, touched, or loved by anyone.”

“Olivia, I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you, right now,” I say with a smile as I stare into her cold eyes. This excites her. Her hands move up to my hairline. She gathers the hair that has grown past my shoulders over the last few months, up and away from my face. I grip the arms of the chair and try to hide the disgust I feel.