Soulless (Maiden of Time Book 2) (27 page)

Fifty-Four

Powerless

Alexia buckled Slayer onto her hip. Even broken, it would prove valuable as a last resort.

Chatter from the great room pulled her out of Mae’s chamber. Ethel stood in the room, the cloth wrapped medallion lifted in one fist. Mournful faces crowded the mist maiden, uttering their subdued congratulations, although it would make little difference. 

She was too late.

A shiver of hope streaked down Alexia’s spine. What if she could take the necklace with her through time?

Dana climbed to her feet as Alexia arrived in the absence of time. Dana lifted her chin regally. “You have decided.”

“Can I save him?” Alexia asked.

Her mother’s hands clasped before her, eyes dropping as she gave a single nod. “Remember, there will be consequences, and only you will recall the reality that is no more.”

“It is a sacrifice that must be made.”

Dana smiled sadly. “Remember that when faced with the penalties.”

Alexia bowed her head in gratitude.

Ethel placed the wrapped pendant in Alexia’s hand. “It can only be wielded by the Master’s bloodline.”

“Thank you, Ethel.” She tucked it into a secret pocket in her skirt, and prayed it would remain with her through a jump.

“Alexia?” Miles touched her arm. She nodded at him. It was time. She followed him out the back of the building and down the steps. He caught her in a hug. “Save him.”

“I will.”

Energy surged up from her toes, firing through her muscles like bursting stars as she stepped over the boundary. She reached into the past, feeling for two days back. Her mental fingers clasped around a moment, like seizing a single grain of wheat in a flood of granules. She hoped that was right.

Alexia pulled it toward her.

Blackness engulfed her—tar. She forced her eyes open and couldn’t breathe. It was as though she’d stepped away from reality, and reality was the only place air existed. Her muscles contracted. The world around her reared in blurry lines. She was going to die!

Be calm,
she told herself.
Welcome the change.

She placed a palm over her chest and focused on the slowed beating of her heart, her fingers gripping the hilt at her hip. She stilled. Her fears washed away in a rainbow ray of hope. She would save Kiren, and no amount of time, no travel, no obstacle would keep her from doing it. She inhaled. Her airways expanded. Cool night air rushed in.

She dropped to her knees, limbs trembling. A tear slipped free, a silent prayer of gratitude she still lived, that she hadn’t destroyed herself by jumping too far. She was not alone in this. He was out there somewhere, alive.

Kiren
, she whispered mentally, searching deeper. His sunlight surrounded her heart, his assuring life essence.

Alexia rose. Her legs shook, every muscle weak as though she’d been running for an hour. She froze.

Clouds obscured the navy sky.

It was night. The moonless night.

She’d meant to arrive at least half a day sooner. Was she already too late?

Sarah’s scream echoed into the night. Alexia paused and turned back toward the inn, but she her aunt would be well. She had so little time!

Alexia ran for the barn and threw the door open, Slayer smacking her thigh as she moved. She searched her pocket, heart leaping when her fingers curled around the linen wrapped charm. At least it had arrived with her.

She halted in the doorway. She didn’t know how to saddle a horse—and it wouldn’t matter. Kiren and Miles had the only two. Cursing herself for the oversight, she pulled back her skirts and ran.

Rocks bit into the soles of her shoes, but she sprinted on.

Her muscles burned from the effort. Alexia didn’t stop.

The road passed beneath her feet, and she clutched Slayer in a fist to keep it from bruising her leg.

The inn disappeared behind her. The landscape slowly changed into rolling hills.

Her lungs burned. A cramp seized her side, but she kept going.

How much time had passed—an hour, two? Was she already too late? Sweat trickled down her back and plastered the curls about her face. She ignored them.

She knew the spot when it appeared, the wide open field. No smoke blackened the sky, and she thanked the Lord. Wheat stalks tickled at her elbows as she waded through them, pollens suffusing the air with richness. Clouds shrouded the heavens, the field silent except for the whisper of wind across the grain and her labored rasping. Two meager willows stretched above the stalks, spiny wood hard for her to imagine becoming the crater that had occupied the space.

Strange
.

Like the weight in her pocket. She slipped the linen-wrapped pendant out of her skirt, peeling the covering back. Cold metal gleamed up at her, somewhere between a pentagram and triangle, with a Z whose bottom lip curled back like the swirl of a seashell. A short line crossed its center, the arms of a headless character. Small rune-like impressions circled the central shape, a continuous ring of indecipherable script. She swirled her hand above the face, its heavy chain slipping free and dangling over the sides of her palm, separated only by the cloth.

A distant rumble pulled her around. Dust billowed up.

She caught her breath.

His silvery stallion streaked into view, escorted by the brown Miles always rode. Alexia could have cried for relief. She stood on her toes and waved.

They sped past.

She let out an indignant grunt. 

Kiren pulled to a stop. He turned. Even across the distance, his gaze sent lightning zipping through her soul as though she’d dived into a glacial pool the first day of spring.

He spoke to Miles whose head shook. Kiren slapped the brown’s flank and sent Miles charging away. He bent over his own beast and galloped straight for her. She bit back the tears, so thankful for his beating heart she could burst into a ray of sunlight.

He leapt from the animal and came to a halt only a step away from her, confusion crunching his brows down.

Her heart thundered. Here he stood, the man she never thought she’d see again, and he was whole. He was hers!

She threw her arms around him and kissed his neck.

Kiren lifted her away, shaking her shoulders. “What are you doing here?”

She scowled. Couldn’t he at least allow her an instant of relief? “I do not think you appreciate what I have been through.” She swiped wet hair away from her face. Over his shoulder, blackness swooped toward them, a continuous stripe of death. She hefted his necklace, the links clinking.

Kiren’s eyes widened. He lifted it over his head, pausing. “How did you...?”

She crossed her arms.

He smirked, shaking his head at his own question. He dropped the chain around his neck, eyes closing like a boy who had found his way home after days of being lost. She’d only once seen such relief in the slight pucker of his lips—the night he’d discovered her in Ethel’s cottage after months of searching.

His brow quirked.

“What is wrong?” She touched his cheek.

“I...” His head shook. “Nothing.”

A chorus of hisses hit her ears. Kiren slid a protective arm around her, twirling to take in the ring of dark cloaks. They were completely surrounded.

Kiren frowned down at her. She was squeezing him, her fingers cutting into his ribs. She loosened her grip.

The wind died.

Kiren pressed her tighter.

She peeked around him, gripping Slayer. A line of dark shrouds fenced them in, each at arms’ length from one another. Brilliant red eyes speared into her. Her heart raced.

“They cannot hurt us,” she reminded herself. He had his medallion and all was right again.

Kiren slid the pendant free in one graceful movement. It glimmered, dull metal, a molten angry thing. He sucked in a breath and lifted the charm.

She shaded her eyes, ready for the brilliant light to take away their enemies. His muscles stiffened against her. They trembled. He lifted the pendant higher, his back as hard as stone.

She glanced up. What was he waiting for?

He panted. Sweat glistened down his neck, seeping into his collar.

“Kiren?” she whispered.

He dropped the pendant and gripped her fingers. Words shot through her mind in his voice:
It’s not working
.

She gasped and squeezed.

Screams pierced her ears, hungry wails. Clawed fingers lifted as the entire ring surged forward.

Fifty-Five

Obliterate

NO!

Everything stopped.

Alexia looked about the circle of blazing red pupils and sucked in the stagnant air. It smarted against her tongue. Death. She could taste the death.

She glanced up at Kiren, his jaw set, shoulders bent slightly forward, bracing for the onslaught. His eyes blazed with defiance.

He was the very essence of everything contrary to the Soulless: life, light, strength. 

She lifted a hand to his cheek and traced the stone-like skin. She would not let them take him.

Not now.

Not ever.

No matter the cost.

Releasing the moments slowly, she tore Slayer out of her belt, slipping free from Kiren’s grasp.

The circle closed in slow motion. She twisted the weapon, as long as her forearm, pointing the jagged blade at the nearest enemy.

Her heart sped, palms sweaty.

The creatures’ cloaks floated on the suspended air, almost translucent. She squinted closer. Particles darkened the space around them, but no cloth moved like that. What were they wrapped in? 

Skinless bones reached for her face.

The heart. She had to aim for the heart.

But how? Between the ribs? From below? What if she missed?

Her hand trembled as she lifted the blade. It halted at the wraith’s chest cavity. With a shove, it cut in from below, splitting the skin like butter.

She gagged.

Up she thrust, horrified but unable to look away as the weapon slid in, one excruciating inch after another. She could stop this. She could pull away now before it was too late, before she’d taken a life.

Everything inside her faded to ash.

No. This had to be done.

The weapon disappeared up to its hilt and jolted to a stop.

It was done.

The creature swiped at her. She ducked, pulling the blade free. The blackness wrapping the demon’s arm grazed her face, liquid ice: darkness embodied. The emptiness stole her breath.

She leapt back.

Murk oozed from the wraith’s wound.

Her insides turned to slush.

Gray slush.

The creature’s eyes pierced hers as it dropped to the ground, squeezed in confusion; innocent questions harbored in them.

Why? How?

Her stomach roiled.

Tears burned at Alexia’s eyes. She blinked them away and faced the next victim.

The world blanked into one black mass after another. She thrust, pulled the weapon free, and thrust again.

Bodies tumbled before her. How many, she didn’t know. They just kept coming. She wiped tears away between stabbing, pulling back only to find another target, and stopping time completely when one of them grew too close. Kiren remained behind her as she whirled, dispatching each of the mindless attackers.

The minutes weighed on her. Her neck ached from the forming headache. How long had she been at it? It felt like hours, but she didn’t stop. One after another after another after another...

Stab.

Pull free.

Don’t think.

Next.

Her brain was an anvil.

She didn’t stop.

Her arms didn’t want to work anymore.

She didn’t stop.

Her vision fogged.

Stab.

Pull free.

Next.

Alexia collapsed to her knees, landing in a pile of limp bodies. No more darkness streaked toward her. It bled across the ground in dizzying circles.

She released time. Kiren caught her before she toppled over on her side, weapon slipping from her fingers. His eyes stretched wide, mouth open.

Alexia ran her hand over his cheek and gave him a weak smile. They would not hurt him, not ever again.

No matter what.