Darkness Unmasked (DA 5) (36 page)

“
Working
is not quite the right term to use,” he replied. “Let’s just say we have a somewhat fluid agreement.”

I snorted. “Meaning you’re both doing your utmost to stab the other in the back.”

“It does add a degree of excitement to the proceedings,” he said, voice droll. “Much like fucking you, really.”

I snorted. “Only in that you’re betraying us both.”

“And fucking you both.”

I blinked. “The person who took the key was a man—”

“So? As I have said before, it is pleasure that matters, not source.”

“So you’re fooling around with
two
dark sorcerers?” I asked incredulously.

“Perhaps,” he replied. “Perhaps not. I am hardly likely to give you such information, my dear, when I still need cards to play if I am to survive this encounter.”

“And we both know you’re
not
going to survive; otherwise you wouldn’t have been such a busy little beaver trying to impregnate any woman you could get your grubby little paws on.”

“
That
was merely a precaution.” He glanced at his watch, and I suddenly remembered Ilianna.

Fuck, fuck,
fuck
! Had she been rescued, or had the whole thing gone ass up?

“A precaution?” I bit back, relief filling me when he didn’t immediately dig out his phone. We obviously still had some time left before he needed to make his next call. “Another lie. Aedh breed only when their death is imminent.”

“As your father only bred?” He shook his head. “Like him, I have a few years left before I am forced to leave this world permanently.”

Amaya’s steel was getting heavier in my hand, her hissing more strident in my mind. I hoped that meant the wall was weakening rather than her.

“Is the person who stole all the weapons out of that display case,” I growled, “the same person who stole the first key?”

He considered me for a moment, expression a mix of amusement and condescension. “It was.”

“And is that person a dark sorcerer who is also a shape-shifter?”

God, it felt like we were playing twenty questions. But this wasn’t a game, and I had to get as much information out of him as I could while I was still trapped, because there
wasn’t
going to be any talking once I was free. Not by me, anyway.

Amaya, on the other hand, was a whole different story.

“I believe that might also be correct.” The amusement got stronger. “You will never guess their identity, Risa, but you are most welcome to try for as long as you like. However, it will not get us that key back.”

“Is it even possible to get the key back, given what happened to the first one?”

“The difference that time and this,” he said, “is that it wasn’t only the key stolen, but rather a whole bunch of weapons in which the key is just one. Our thief has not the capability to find it himself and will need our help.”

Relief slipped through me. We may have momentarily lost the key, but it still was within the realms of possibility that it could be retrieved. That was something, at least.

“Our help, or yours? You can sense the key when you’re close, can’t you?”

“Yes, but I need you to pin down its location. Which is why I suggest an agreement would be in order—”

I snorted. “The only agreement you’re going to get from me is one at the end of a sword.”

He tsked again. “Now, let’s not forget Ilianna here. I would hate to have to kill her after all the effort I’ve put into snatching and seeding her.”

Amaya—

Close,
she growled.
Close
.

“What sort of agreement?” I spat. “And why the hell would you even expect me to believe you’d actually uphold your end of it?”

“I don’t expect trust,” he said. “But I do expect that you’ll remember I hold your friend’s life in my hands and that you’ll control not only your own need to kill me, but that of your reaper’s.”

“In exchange for what?” I spat.

“In exchange for the key, of course. What else matters?”

Indeed, what else did? For him, my father, the Raziq, and even Azriel, there
was
nothing else. And if Lucian thought I could control the actions of
any
of them, then he was seriously insane.

“I can speak only for myself and Azriel, but we both know there are other players in the mix who want the key just as much as you.”

Ready soon,
Amaya said.

Anger—and the need to kill, to rent and tear—surged, and I could almost taste his death on my tongue. And I knew that
this
time, it wasn’t Amaya’s need, but my own. I wanted his blood on my hands, wanted to feel his life slipping away, wanted to watch the realization of defeat dawn in his eyes.

“With the keys in my possession, neither your father nor the Raziq will be a problem,” he said. “Because they will not move against me until they are sure of the keys’ location.”

I pushed to my feet but made no other move to give away my readiness to react the minute I got the all clear from both Amaya and Uncle Quinn.
God, please, let him contact me soon.

“You’re overconfident, Lucian, and that’s never a good thing.”

“I have lived many lives in this world in that state, and I have always surpassed my own expectations.” He glanced at his watch again. “And now, I believe, a phone call is required.”

Amaya!

Through,
she screamed back.
Attack!

At the same time, Uncle Quinn’s lilting tones said,
We have her. She’s safe and well
.

As Lucian dug his phone out of his pocket, I launched myself. There was a brief flare of magic, a moment of resistance, and then I was free and running. He looked up and swore, the phone smashing to the stone floor as he brought his sword up. Steel clashed with steel, and Amaya screamed, the sound one of fury.

Magic,
she screamed.
Burns
.

I guess it was no surprise that Lucian had a weapon prepared against Amaya, given he was well aware I never went anywhere without her.

I pivoted and lashed out with a booted foot, hitting him square in the chest and forcing him backward. He laughed—laughed!—then brought the long knife down. I jumped back but not fast enough, and the knife slashed through my boot and into flesh. The warmth of blood began to flood my boot, but I ignored it, ducked under another blow, then thrust upward with Amaya. He twisted out of her way, but not fast enough, and her sharp steel skated along his ribs, instantly drawing blood.

More,
she screamed, her noise within my head and without.

Lucian’s eyebrows rose. “It talks?”

“Yeah,” I bit back, “and
she’s
eager to drink in your death.”

He avoided another blow, then lashed out with a clenched fist. I ducked but not fast enough. It skimmed my chin and rattled teeth, and I almost missed his follow-up. I jumped over the sweep of his legs, then raised my sword and brought her down hard. He twisted, so rather than splitting his head open as I’d intended, it hit his shoulder. A shudder ran through her steel; then blood sprayed and his arm was swinging uselessly from the few remaining bits of flesh and tendons that Amaya hadn’t severed.

And just like that, all his amusement was gone.

What remained was anger. Anger that was deep and dark and utterly,
utterly
inhuman.

“For that, you will wish you were dead.”

“You can’t kill me,” I retorted. “You can’t find the fucking keys without me, remember.”

“I never said I would kill you,” he replied softly. “I merely said you will
wish
for it.”

And with that, he attacked, a whirlwind of power and speed and sheer, bloody force. I weaved and dodged and blocked, using every skill, every instinct. Amaya was a blur in my hands, her flames sparking off every stone and her fury stinging the air itself.

But as fast as I was, as fast as
she
was, he was faster. He was also bigger and heavier, and his reach was twice that of mine.

It was inevitable that some of his blows would get through my defenses; one slashed my hip, another my thigh, but I was still upright, still mobile, after several minutes of heavy fighting. And he was hampered by his useless left arm and was now bleeding from wounds on his chest and legs. It enraged him further, as I’d hoped it would. I needed him reacting,
not
thinking. It was only through blind rage—his, not mine—that I truly had any hope of winning.

He came at me again, a blurring mass of muscle and sheer bloody anger. I spun and kicked. Lucian sucked in his gut, and my blow missed. Not so his knife. It sliced across my foot and sheared the end off my boot. Only quick reactions on my part stopped my toes from joining it on the stone. But it was the same foot that had previously encountered his blade, and without the boot to restrict it, blood began to flow more readily and pain surged.

I jumped back, limping now.

He laughed, the sound a weird mix of anger and amusement. “The first of many, dear Risa.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, Lucian,” I said, catching the edge of his blade with Amaya, holding it still as her flames leapt from her steel to his and she screamed blue murder. Nothing happened. The knife didn’t melt. Amaya’s flames died even as I added, “Because as an aunt of mine has been known to say, a condemned man should always enjoy his last meal.”

He merely laughed and attacked. Again and again. I dodged, attacking him when opportunities arose, taking more and more hits but unable to find a way through his defenses. In the end, I knew there was only one way I was going to get the upper hand.

Do what must,
Amaya said.

Do what must,
I repeated grimly, then lowered her steel and stepped into his next blow. His blade punched into the middle of my stomach and right out the other side. As his fist came to a rest against my skin, I swung Amaya low and hard. Her blade reverberated as she hit flesh, but then she was cutting, sawing, burning her way through his legs. He barely had time to open his mouth when he dropped, dragging his long knife from my stomach as his body went one way and his legs the other.

I swung Amaya again, removed his good arm, then dropped to my knees and pressed one hand over my stomach, vainly trying to stop the flow of blood and gore as I stared at the man I had all but beaten.

His expression was one of utter amazement. There was no pain, no sense of loss, just sheer disbelief I’d done what I’d done.

Kill!
Amaya screamed.
Finish!

Not you. Me
.

And with that, I released her, and with my now free hand, I dragged myself forward.

“You killed my mother,” I said softly. “You raped my friend; you worked with a dark sorceress to steal the keys and threatened the safety of this world. You betrayed me in more ways imaginable, and for all those crimes, you must die.”

And with that, I dredged up the last of my reserves, called to the Aedh, and forced it into my arm. Then I shoved my fist into his chest and blew him apart.

Just has he’d blown my mother apart.

Chapter 15

It was over. I’d done what I’d sworn to do—found my mother’s killer and dealt with him. Without help, on my own.

There should have been a sense of victory. Should have been a sense of relief. There wasn’t.

There was only an odd numbness.

It was almost as if I’d given all there was to give and there was nothing—absolutely nothing—left inside of me. I raised my re-formed, bloody hand and, as if from a great distance, watched the bits of flesh and blood dribble toward my elbow.

Then, without warning, my stomach heaved and I threw up. The pain hit seconds later, and I was shaking and crying and wanting nothing more than to just let it all go. The pain, the horror, the guilt, and the expectations of others, just let it all wash away and become someone else’s problem.

Can’t,
Amaya said sharply.
Finished not
.

Isn’t it? I wondered. I closed my eyes and fought the wash of weakness in my body, and yet I could not deny the allure of ending it all here and now. Why not let fate take whatever course she’d decided to take and no longer fight it?

Everyone would be better off without me.
Everyone
. No one could hold them hostage against my behavior; no one could kidnap and rape them, and—perhaps best of all—there would be no one to find the remaining keys and threaten the very safety of the world.

That alone was worth one life.

That alone was certainly worth
my
life.

Everyone not safe,
Amaya said.
I not. The life within not
.

A life that might well be Lucian’s. God, he’d murdered my mother—how on
earth
was I to survive looking at his child every day and being reminded of his deed? How was that fair to the child? Or to me?

I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

The death I’d seen so long ago wasn’t the truth. I wasn’t going to die in an automotive accident. I was going to die here, underground, all alone except for a nagging sword.

My arms collapsed underneath me, and I fell face-first onto the stone. For several minutes I simply lay there, my breathing becoming more and more labored and my life leaking out through various wounds in not-so-slow rivers.

And wondered, just for an instant, where Azriel was.

Magic,
Amaya spat.
Stops
.

It was a shame. I wouldn’t have minded seeing him just one more time . . .

No,
Amaya screamed.
Go not!

Must,
I replied, the roar in my mind going stronger.
It’s too late
.

Not!
she bit back; then she was in my hand. Power exploded around us, through us, merging steel and flesh with equal ferocity. It was a storm that tore my core apart, fiber by fiber, then pieced me back together, all within a matter of heartbeats.