Demon Untamed (37 page)

“With this.” Sebastian held out a glowing auburn stone. “Portia gave it to me before we left. It glows brighter the closer we get. Once we pass through her wards, the ship should appear.”

Moments later, the air around them shivered with magic. They paused, awed by the sight of
Marada
emerging at their front as if from a billowing, grey mist. A few mercenaries stood guard, not trusting of the witchling’s powers. One of them called out after spotting the group, bringing the others to attention. In the next instant, recognition put them at ease and they went back to scanning the woodland.

Sonya wasted no time climbing the ramp into the ship, while the others lingered to watch the final sunset.

Ethan moved to follow, but Kyra stopped him. “I’d like to return tomorrow and speak with Azule about joining us. I’d appreciated it if you accompanied me, since you knew him from before?”

Cale took a step closer to Kyra, silently indicating that he would be there as well. Kyra glanced at him and gave a tight nod, seeming to understand the unspoken proposition. Ethan felt a twinge of jealousy for their natural synchronicity. Meanwhile, he had no idea what was running through Sonya’s head, his magic proving useless at the moment.

“Of course,” Ethan replied. “But we were not exactly close associates back then. He’d been but a fresh trainee, recently inducted into the guard.”

“You may not have known
him
, but I’d be surprised if he hadn’t known you. There’s a reason why Father chose you, Ethan. You were a legend among our people.”

Though he covered it well, Ethan was taken aback by the sudden praise.

“Still are, it seems,” she continued. “Those Faieara were just as eager to get a glimpse of you as they were any of us.”

He hadn’t noticed, too distracted by his capricious demoness. Cale caught it when Ethan’s gaze slipped to where Sonya had disappeared, and when Kyra moved away, he pulled Ethan aside. “I’ve no right to offer advice, pirate, but I’m going to anyway. There’s not a lot in this universe that frightens my sister—”

“I’ve noticed.”

“But if what she saw in that nightmare was anything like what I saw…” Cale shook his head and slanted a telling glance in Kyra’s direction. “It’s not hard to imagine what she’s feeling right now.”

“It isn’t?” Ethan replied.

Cale offered a pitying grin. “Not for me. I’ve lost one mate already, and there’s nothing worse.”

Ethan raised a brow at his words. “
One
mate?” Does he believe he had a chance at a second? Had Cale accepted Kyra as his? “What about your magic theory?”

Something like regret flashed across Cale’s face. “The witch confirmed otherwise. And…so did Nadua.”

Ethan cocked his head, encouraging him to continue.

“She had witnessed something from Sonya’s past, something Sonya was far too young to remember, or even comprehend. But she had been there when our mother and Velicia, my mate, plotted to trick me into a matebond using some kind of elixir I hadn’t even known existed. I’ve told no one of this,” Cale added with emphasis. “It would only hurt them to know that it had been used on our father as well.”

Ethan digested the information before commenting, “You had said pirates killed your father?”

“Aye, but I’ll say no more on the subject. Sonya would go ballistic on me.”

Ethan had no doubt on that score. “I understand, but had he found out about this elixir?”

“I’ve wondered that myself. Knowing my mother…as I do now,” he growled, “she wouldn’t have wanted this information discovered. She might have had him murdered to keep her secret.” Cale paused, as if taking a moment to mourn the loss, or perhaps to berate himself for being duped by his mother. Finally, he continued, “The Serakian informed me she can do nothing to break my bond with Velicia, but I won’t let her treachery keep me from what I want, bond or not.”

The stalwart intent behind Cale’s words slammed into Ethan, and in that moment, they were connected by a similar resolve.

“And your advice?” Ethan prompted.

Cale smiled.

* * *

Sonya yanked open the drawers of her reading desk and dug through its contents. Next she went to the floor and attacked the adjacent trunk, rummaging through some of her most treasured items of memorabilia, tossing them away as if possessed.

She sat back with a curse when the trunk was emptied and she hadn’t found what she sought. She glanced hopelessly at her effects now scattered around her.

Tendrils of the Edge were finally beginning to wane, her emotions settling, only to be replaced by a frantic need to locate her father’s talisman. She’d made sure to always keep it with her, buried somewhere in her belongings. Usually out of sight.

Where did I put it?

She stood and crossed the room, throwing open her closet doors to sift through every pocket of her wardrobe.

It must be here!

She knew it was a silly adolescent superstition. A hunk of metal, nothing more. But still…

She retrieved a small music box stowed near the back and lifted the lid. “Ah, ha!” She hooked her fingers under the chain and lifted the talisman. It was heavier than she recalled, but then, she hadn’t allowed herself to feel its weight in so long.

The chain was thick, made for a male. Along the flat coin-like pendant, the raised symbolic flourishes gleamed against a dark backdrop.

She whirled around as Ethan barged into her room, a slew of emotions contorting his features. Apprehension, anger, determination. But it was only the concern that affected her, reminding her that, in some form or another, her nightmare could yet come to fruition. If the chance arose, he would die for her, she knew it. Dammit, he had already tried once! And every time she thought of that day, she wanted to kill Ivan’s cohort all over again.

“Ethan—”

“Don’t!” he yelled, his tone harsher than she had ever heard it. “Don’t you dare order me away. You’re stuck with me, so you had damn well better get used to it!”

At hearing Cale’s words through Ethan’s lips, her mouth curled. “Is that a threat?”

He cocked a perplexed brow. “Uh, yes?”

She crossed to him and threw her arms around his neck. “Good. I’m going to hold you to that.”

He seemed dumfounded for a moment, even as his arm hooked around her waist. “One of us is addled, and I can’t determine which.”

She laughed and pulled back. “Let me know when you decide.”

“You. Definitely you.”

“Then what would you do to ease this addled mind?”

“Anything.” He turned wary. “What do you have in mind?”

Handing him the talisman, she replied, “Two things. Wear this.”

He studied the symbol for a moment, and she imagined he knew what it meant. “Very well. What else?”

“If I am ever in danger, you must promise not to risk yourself for me.”

He scoffed. “I will wear your charm.”

“Do you have any idea what would happen to me if I lost you?” She tried to cover her desperation as best she could.

He wrapped his palm around the back of her neck and brought their foreheads together. “Yes, because the same would happen to me.”

She shook her head, but did not respond.

“
Vietta
,” he whispered, sounding almost pained. “You are all that matters.”

“No. You could move on. I…”

“What do you think I witnessed in that illusion spell?” he said. “My people eradicated? My world destroyed? No, none of that. Nothing but you, taken from me every which way.”

She met his gaze, her eyes dampening; his darkening to that deep blue only seen in the darkest depths of a fathomless ocean.

“I’ll never leave you, no matter how much you demand it.”

Molding herself against his body, she hid her face in the crook of his neck, lost for words as tears began to stream down her cheeks. Strong fingers laced through her hair, cupping the back of her head as she fell apart in his arms. All the while, he murmured loving oaths, making her throat tighten all the more, like a sweet torture. 

The lovemaking that followed was just as sweet, both of them a little desperate for the other as they stripped off their clothing, haphazardly landing on the bed. As their limbs tangled in fitful passion, Sonya’s fangs throbbed and it no longer embarrassed her. She didn’t hide them. In fact, Ethan seemed to enjoy the sight. His eyes darkened with unmitigated lust as he drove into her with maddening slow movements.

She cried out from searing pleasure as her orgasm barreled through her. Two more quaked, delving her into exquisite bliss, before Ethan shuddered with his own release.

He rolled to the side, pulling her across his chest. She curled into him, feeling the rise and fall of his heavy breaths and running her palm along the delicious planes of his chest.

After a moment, she said, “You haven’t asked me what I saw.”

“Because I know you wouldn’t tell me. But I think I’ve gathered the gist of it.”

“Is that so?”

“Mm.” He sounded drowsy. “I think I have you all figured out.”

“Oh, please do enlighten me.”

“You’re extraordinarily surly when you’re upset. You were eager to get that pendant on me. And you tried to finagle an impossible promise from me. What’s not to get?”

“Guess you’ve got it all figured out then, don’t you?”

“Indeed.” He hesitated. “Your aversion with pirates, for instance, is not exclusive to you alone. Your brothers have also displayed a dislike for them, but your rage runs deeper.”

Sonya’s body tensed, but he pressed on. “Your father was murdered in your presence.” He waited to see if she would respond. Deny or confirm. She did neither. “I can only assume a pirate was the culprit, or perhaps a hired assassin that resembled one.”

Sonya remained quiet for long moments. It was a small success that she wasn’t rushing away from him as fast as her nimble feet could take her. Perhaps she couldn’t tell him exactly what had happened, but his guessing might be enough to thin down her walls. Any interest in the details had left him some time ago. He merely wished for her to trust him enough to confide in him.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could have been there to spare you that pain.”

Her head snapped up, something like dread bursting through her expression. When her lip quivered, he thought his soul might shatter.

“Why would that hurt you?”

“I…you
were
there…in the vision, I mean. You…died. They killed you too, and I couldn’t…” Her throat worked furiously.

“They who?” He sensed her reluctance, and added in a soft tone, “You don’t have to tell me.”

“The ones who killed my father. There were three. Father hid me as if he knew they were coming. At first everything had played out like I remember, until everyone else I love showed up and I couldn’t do anything…” She swallowed hard.

He pulled her flush against him, understanding. “Shh. It’s alright. It wasn’t real.”

“But the helplessness was. The fear. I lived it.”

“It sounds to me like you were very young at the time, correct?”

She responded with a minuscule nod.

“Then you can’t blame yourself.”

“You can say that a thousand times over, just like everyone else has. And a part of me knows you’re right, but words can’t erase guilt so easily.”

Idly, Ethan trailed his fingers over the soft flesh of her arm, wishing it were otherwise, but her point was hard to dispute. The worst kind of guilt, the kind laced by grief, often stuck like a twisted black sludge.

“So this is why I had to work so hard,” he mused. Little did she know he would have worked thrice as had to get half as far where she was concerned. Her awkward half-shrug sparked his intuition. “Is there more?” He was ecstatic that she was finally opening up to him.

“You—at least in the beginning—reminded me of them. Well, the leader, anyway.”

He frowned as her words sank in. “How do you mean?”

“Clothes, hair, build. Almost everything about you, to be honest.”

His brows furrowed. “So, when you look at me, you see your father’s killer?”

Her lips pursed, but she didn’t reply.

Ethan let his head drop back. No wonder why she hated him. With his visage tied to such a traumatic scar? How could they ever get past something like that?

Chapter 32

The morning hike back to the guild seemed shorter than the day before. And while dealing with Cale’s considerable questions about the land, accompanied by his obsessive protectiveness over Kyra, Ethan had little time to reflect on Sonya’s disturbing revelation.

When Kyra had leaned against a tree trunk choked by ivy, Cale had remarked, “Tell me that ivy’s not poisonous.”

Kyra had rolled her eyes. “Do you think I’d be touching it if it were?”

Apparently, Kyra had informed him of the dangerous plant life—most of which resided near bogs and other swampy areas—in order to relieve his anxiety about the wildlife that often popped out to observe them. Her plan had clearly backfired. Cale now ignored the pack of three-tailed Nax and the flying lizards, instead pointing out each offending leaf, “What about that?”