Shadow Reaper (Shadowlands Series) (29 page)

“Don’t apologise for me!” I dropped the end of the whip and stood up, making sure to pull myself to my full height, making sure I looked down on her.

“How dare you interrupt my entertainment!” Brialla yelled.

“How dare you be such a bitch,” I said.

A collective gasp filled the air and Brialla’s already pale skin went even paler. Bernie audibly groaned, and I think I heard Daemon swear. By this time, I knew I’d taken a huge leap over the etiquette line, left it far behind in the dust, actually. Clay’s voice was screaming inside my head, telling me to backtrack, save the situation, but my pulse was racing, and the rage was pressing up behind my eyeballs. I couldn’t think straight. My mouth seemed to have a mind of its own.

“You’d think creatures who call themselves nobles would be able to find more sophisticated, intellectual pastimes, rather than revelling in someone else’s pain. You’d think they’d have more pressing things on their agenda than mutilation. You’d think they’d be more concerned with the desperate state of their Aether mines than how much they can make a Hellion bleed.”

“Our mines are none of you concern.”

“No. They aren’t. I have a good mind to walk out of here and leave you in the shit, ’cos once those mines are gone, so is your leverage over the other realms.”

“You speak as if you have a solution, human,” a noble man with dark eyes and even darker hair said.

“I do.”

“Pfft! A mere ploy to escape my wrath,” Brialla said. “Guards!”

Hellions appeared out of nowhere, surrounding us. They kept their gazes fixed on me, never looking down at the battered body of their brethren.

“Brialla, wait! Hear her out,” Bernie said.

“You do not get to speak to me, Bernie. We accepted you as one of our own as a courtesy to Valla. We allowed you a seat on the council—”

“Now hang on a second, you didn’t allow me anything, you’re not even on the council!” And just like that, there she was, my Bernie. I caught sight of her in the flare of the new Bernie’s nostrils, in the flash of his eyes. How could I ever have thought she was lost to me?

“I may not be on the council, but I could have raised objection to Valla’s will if I’d so been inclined.”

“And you would have been ignored,” the dark-eyed noble said. He stepped forward, cutting Brialla off and blocking her from view. He towered over me by a good two feet. “Tell us your solution, human. If you have one.”

This was it, the moment to make my trade. I raised my arms and winced as something latched onto my leg. I looked down to see Daemon’s hand wrapped around my calf.

“Ashling.” He didn’t raise his head, but his warning was clear. Fear fluttered behind my ribcage, but I had to do this. I couldn’t leave Daemon and Bernie had promised his protection. I just had to hope he’d follow through.

I took a breath and ripped off the gloves, exposing my markings.

The silence that followed was interrupted only by another colourful curse from Daemon.

Brialla dropped the whip and Bernie crossed the room to stand beside me. The dark-eyed noble’s eyes lit up, and then he covered his spark of interest with a nonchalant expression.

“I assume you want something in return?”

I nodded and pointed at Daemon. “I want him.”

“No!” Brialla said.

I raised my brows. “No? Seriously? You’d rather keep him than free your mines?”

Brialla opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. It was Dark Eyes that answered for her.

“You may have the abomination in payment for your services.”

“What?” Brialla turned on him. “You have no right!”

He looked down his nose at her. “I had thought you had matured enough to take a council seat, Brialla, but I see now that I was sadly mistaken.”

Brialla did that going pale thing again, her hand coming up to hover at her throat.

“Bastion, please, of course, I’m merely overcome. I . . . Daemon was one of my favourites, and to have him home and then taken away again . . . surely you can appreciate my devastation.”

“No more than the devastation of every noble in this realm should the mines cease to be accessible.”

I wanted to applaud, but it probably wasn’t the best idea, so I made fists with my hands instead.

Brialla swallowed, her evil eyes calculating her next move. I caught the exact moment she figured out her next ploy—the tiny quirk of her pouty lips. “I’m simply astounded that we’ve resorted to trading with humans. They are so beneath us. It seems dirty somehow. Of course, her ability will come in useful, but why trade for it? Why not just force her to work for us?”

Shit, this is exactly what Daemon had been afraid of. This was where Bernie came in. I glanced in his direction, but his gaze was fixed on the ground, his brow furrowed.

I could see the scales tipping in Brialla’s favour. If Bernie didn’t follow through on his promise of protection soon, I’d probably be spending the rest of my life in a cage.

It wasn’t Bernie who saved me, however, it was Daemon. His voice raw and gravelly, a mere husk of its usual rich self. “It doesn’t work that way, Brialla. You can’t make her consume the Shadows. It has to be voluntary. You can’t control what she is. I should know. I spent the better part of a century doing what she can now do. Take the offer. It’s Inferna’s only hope.”

“You would say that! You’d say anything to escape me!” Brialla lunged toward him, but Dark Eyes, who I now knew was called Bastion, cut her off with a well-placed arm.

Brialla’s chest heaved as she struggled to regain her composure. She smoothed back her hair and painted a smile on her luscious lips. “You were a Dream Eater, you and the other two chosen. You consumed dreams, not Shadows, and it took three of you to do it. Not to mention, you aren’t human.”

“The Shadows were once dreams,” Daemon said.

“Yes, so everyone keeps saying.” Brialla sniffed. “I don’t hold with that theory, but let’s say, for argument’s sake, that they are. It took three of you to keep the Shadowlands safe before, what assurance can you give that your little human will be able to clear a whole mine of Shadows all by her lonesome?”

Her words struck a chord within me. I mean, she had a point. So far, I’d managed to consume two Shadows. Two. That was the extent of my experience, and here I was offering to walk into a mine filled with god knew how many.

Some of what I was thinking must have shown on my face because Brialla’s eyes lit up with glee.

Bitch.

The council members began to murmur in their own language, and I could feel the scales tipping in her favour again. I had to do something!

“I know I can do it. Besides, what have you got to lose by letting me try, aside from an abomination that only one of you actually want?”

The nobles broke into chatter again, and I really wished I could understand what the hell they were saying.

Bastion held up his hand. “Enough, the council will convene to reach a decision.” He turned his attention to me. “In the meantime, please remain here. I’ll have someone bring up some refreshment.”

“What about Daemon?”

Bastion tilted his chin at one of the Hellion guards; a seven-foot crimson male, wearing shimmering scalelike armour. He approached, and I realised it wasn’t armour but actual scales that covered his body. “Take the abomination and get him cleaned up.”

Shit happened quick from then on. The room emptied out until it was just me and a male Hellion guard. Brialla pissed off in a huff, Bernie went off with the council, and Daemon was taken to get “cleaned up.” I hoped that ‘cleaned up’ wasn’t code for sliced and diced.

A female Hellion brought me a plate of finger foods and a goblet of something that smelled yummy, but my stomach was doing a nervous jig. I couldn’t think about eating. Instead, I took in my surroundings, looking for routes of escape. There were some huge drapes on the far wall I assumed were covering an equally huge window. Plush sofas and thick rugs, interesting colourful paintings in gilded frames decorated the wall, and fancy-looking jugs stood in the corner of the room as some kind of strange ornamentation.

I really needed a pee, and if the Hellion hadn’t been standing there, then one of those jugs would have come in very handy. Instead, I mentally crossed my legs and wandered over to the drapes. Maybe they hid some doors onto a lawn? We were still on the ground floor. We hadn’t climbed any stairs. Possible escape route, perhaps, if things went south. I pulled back the drapes and froze.

The moon stared at me, hanging large in the sky. The world was way down below me, a landscape of grey and silver hills, plains, and rivers and all that kind of stuff. How the hell had we gotten so high up?

A breeze slapped me in the face. I gulped in a huge gust and then screamed as something huge and scaly flew past the window. I stumbled back into the room and stood there, trembling.

“What the hell was that?” I asked the Hellion.

His mouth twitched but he stayed silent.

“Oh, come on. There’s no one here. Please?”

He pressed his lips together.

“Fine, be like that. We could be stuck in here for ages. A little conversation would make time go by so much quicker, don’t you think?”

Still nothing.

I sighed. “Fine, if you’re not gonna talk, then I’ll speak for the both of us, but don’t blame me if you come off sounding really stupid.”

Silence.

“Fine, well, let’s see. My name’s Ashling, Ash to my friends. I have a twin brother named Clay, who thinks I’m dead. People I care about are starving, while so far everyone I have encountered on this side of the Horizon is spoilt for choice when it comes to meals.”

I put on a deep voice, something Hellionish. “Seems like only the humans got shafted by the big catastrophe that befell our realms.”

“Yeah, funny isn’t it?” I said in my normal voice.

“For us, yes, not so much for your people.”

“Wow! That’s just mean.”

The Hellion’s eyes shifted to lock on me, his brow furrowed slightly. I could tell he really wanted to engage but was probably under strict orders not to do so.

“Yep, makes me wonder why you call it a catastrophe. Aside from your Shadow problem, you guys seem fine. My people are stuck in a dying world, unable to move over here because your people would simply add them to your menu. We’re just cattle to you, prey to be hunted, traded, and used.” An idea was forming in my mind. My heart rate kicked up as a wonderful possibility unfurled in my head, a way to stop the suffering without endangering my people.

The door the council party and Bernie had vanished through earlier opened. Bernie stepped through, his expression solemn.

“Seriously? What is there to deliberate? I thought they needed the Aether,” I said.

Bernie shot a quick sideways glance toward the Hellion before moving in closer. He leaned in so his lips were close to my ear. “It’s not your abilities that are in question, it’s whether there’s a way to coerce you to work with them for free.”

“Blackmail?”

“Something like that. Infernans don’t like to give unless they absolutely have to.”

“And what could they possibly use to blackmail me with?”

“Daemon’s life.”

Fuck. Would I risk my freedom for Daemon’s life?

Don’t be stupid, of course you wouldn’t. He is
not
your problem.

This was a new voice, one that sounded very much like my own.

Yes, you would. He risked his life coming here to help you, the least you can do is return the favour.

Ah, there he was: good old Clay.

Seriously? You’d let them enslave you like that? What about your people? What about home?

I was torn. I knew what the moral thing to do would be, but my feet just wanted to run. I decided the best course of action was to call their bluff and take it from there.

“Look, I barely know the guy. I felt bad ’cos he brought me here, and I didn’t just want to leave him, but he knew what he was getting into when he escorted me here so . . .” I shrugged. “If they push me, I’m out. When it comes to the bigger picture, Daemon is not my problem.”

A shift in the air alerted me to another presence, and I glanced to my left to see Daemon standing there; clean and dressed, healed but still shackled. His eyes were fixed on the ground at his feet, but the wry twist of his lips told me he’d heard every word.

I wanted to take them back, to explain that I was . . . what? Hoping to bluff my way out of this? Was I really? Or was I telling myself that to justify my escape should they call
my
bluff?

I tore my gaze away from Daemon and met Bernie’s. There was a strange light in those hazel depths. Triumph? Satisfaction? I wasn’t so sure.

He smiled. “I’ll relay your message.”

“Oh, and there’s something else.” This was it, my big idea. “Tell them if they agree to provide regular food supplies to the human realm, I’ll work for them whenever needed.”

Bernie went very still. “You’d come whenever called, whenever needed?”

“Yes. Who knows when the Shadows may strike again, or what trade route may need clearing.” I was winging it, but the calculating look in his eye told me I was nailing it.

He moved so close I had to lift my chin to look up into his face. “A long-term, mutually beneficial agreement . . . that may work.” His breath fanned across my forehead. His words, although innocuous enough, were delivered in a suggestive tone that sent a shiver of doubt through me. I told myself I was imagining things, that I had no reason to doubt one of my oldest friends.

I cleared my throat. “Just tell them. There won’t be any need for coercion.”

Bernie reached up to brush a strand of my hair off my face. “I’ll take them your revised terms.” He stepped back, his eyes sliding over Daemon dismissively before settling on the Hellion. “Take the human out to the grounds, some fresh air will do her good. You will be summoned when the council has reached a decision. Do not let her out of your sight.”

“And me?” Daemon spoke for the first time. His voice like a rough caress.

Bernie shrugged. “Accompany her if you wish.” His eyes fell to the shackles on Daemon’s wrists. “If you try to run, you won’t get far.”