Soulless (Maiden of Time Book 2) (5 page)

Seven

Hazy

Alexia couldn’t breathe. Eternal misery sped toward her, and all she could think about was the fulfillment promised in their hungry eyes.

Bellezza cursed behind her. Fog billowed up around them, solid mist. The world, Alexia’s friends, everything disappeared behind a wall of white. Fingers latched about her arm. She tried to jerk free, but the grip tightened, her captor lost in the haze. Her body lifted off the ground like a feather caught on the wind. She swung her legs, seeking a solid perch, and met only air.

A tempest screeched across her ears and whirled her skirts, whipping her hair free. Damp white particles crawled down her arms, raising the flesh—the probing touch of a self-aware element. They plumed about her like a great living cloud. She covered her mouth and nose, keeping them out. 

Bellezza. It had to be. She’d whisked Alexia somewhere within the mist once before.

The airstream died down. Fog melted away. Darkness and the rustle of leaves trembled about her, vapor retreating into a ghostly silhouette. Her knees crushed into blanketing moss, full weight returning, but the solid hand of her near-murderess remained about her arm.

Bellezza released her.

Alexia twirled. Giant sable trees drooped over her, ancient branches dangling with lacy vines and closed blossoms. Two of them wrapped about one another at the center of the grove like a lovers embrace. Swaths of light littered the moss like tiny stars, the reverse of the heavens hidden behind the canopy.

Alexia scrambled to her feet, tilting with the unexpected weight in her aching head. She stumbled and steadied.

“Did the ride addle your brain?” Bellezza gave her a wicked wink.

Alexia shivered and leaned on a tree. She shoved the heels of her hands into her eyes. “Take me back.” She stepped toward Bellezza. “We need to go back for
him
.”

“Naïve infant.” The girl rolled her eyes. “Who do you think sent us away?”

Of course he sent her away. She was too weak to battle the Soulless, and people were suffering and about to be taken by the enemy. Kiren didn’t need her there to distract him.

Alexia deflated. “You should return and help him.”

Bellezza snorted. “And risk his wrath for leaving you?” She tapped a finger to her chin. “Hm. That sounds like fun, now that you suggest it.”

Alexia smiled, despite herself. “Why do you enjoy tormenting others?”

“Why do you enjoy breathing?”

She crossed her arms.

The girl huffed. “I like your ring.” Her lip twitched, threatening to break into a scowl. “Although it would look better on me.”

Alexia glanced down at her diamonds. They were the cause of so much turmoil. If she’d turned Kiren away, her existence would still be a secret. The Passionate would not be at war.

She eyed Bellezza. Or perhaps they would, but she wouldn’t be around to cripple their leader and expose his weaknesses. Again she studied the diamonds and whispered, “I am not certain you would like its weight.”

“Too true.” Bellezza sat on a stump, skirt wide, arms clasped in her lap. “I will never be like you, Alexia, promised to a
good man
,” she growled the words as if they hurt her to utter, “or happily settled in marriage.”

“Clearly—as you are too busy sending the Passionate to their doom.” She couldn’t keep the bitterness from her tone.

“I am a tool of vengeance.” The girl lifted her chin with dignity. “What I do is evil, but it must be done for the betterment of our kind.”

Alexia’s muscles stiffened. “Like destroying Sarah?”

Bellezza waved a hand. “She chose that path the moment she married one of the Soulless.”

“And you had to bury her in it?” She was shaking, ready to launch herself at the girl the same way Bellezza had attacked Lester but moments ago.

Bellezza’s lips twitched upward. “Ah, you do understand.”

Losing control was exactly what the demon child wanted, a viable excuse to defend herself and possibly terminate Alexia in the process. She bit down on the sides of her tongue.

“That pain you are experiencing?” Bellezza trilled, “Magnify it a hundredfold. Allow it to simmer for a decade and you will recognize the gift I have given you.”

“Rage?” Alexia couldn’t believe she was rising to the bait. “A lack of control like the way you attacked Lester?”

The girl growled. “
Lester
deserves the ladle as badly as Galedrew ever did.”

Alexia stiffened. She’d spent two years trying to forget the night Kiren stole Bellezza away to rot in that terrible prison for her crimes. Alexia could still see Baron Galedrew’s blank eyes as he lay in the grand entry of his estate, blood seeping around the ladle thrust through his chest by a vicious child.

“I have always liked you, Alexia.” H
H
er nose wrinkled. “But as no one else seems capable, allow me to tell you the truth.”

The last time Bellezza had said those words, she’d destroyed Alexia’s world by revealing she was one of the Passionate. Part of her wanted to hear every word Bellezza would utter, all the secret truths Kiren withheld, while another part ached to stop the girl and keep what little innocence remained.

“Do you know what the baron did to me?” The girl’s voice shook, but not with fury. A tear streaked down her porcelain skin.

Alexia shook her head, too shocked to speak, not wanting to know.

Bellezza’s eyes squeezed, her mouth tightening at the corners. “He belonged to a
gentleman’s club
, an elite group of acquirers.”

“Acquirers?”

“Humans who seek and then imprison our kind.” She pulled absently at the folds of her skirt, flattening them in random swirls. “I had just found my freedom when he discovered me.”

“Your freedom from what?”

Bellezza’s eyebrows lowered. “Iron shackles. He put me in iron shackles.”

Alexia had never experience the burn that made pure blood run chill—because she was half human—but it had scarred others, charred their flesh permanently.

“And that was the least of his crimes,”Bellezza hissed between her teeth. “Do you know why these gentlemen collect their prizes?”

Alexia shook her head.

“Because they can
bond
one of our kind to them and command their slave’s loyalty forever.”

She was going to be sick.

Bellezza smirked and studied the ground. “For years I rotted in his cellar, unable to escape my burning chains, unable to do anything but ache for him to violate me again.”

Alexia opened her mouth to refute the story. She had known the baron and he’d always been a kind old man. He couldn’t possibly...

“And yet after all that,
Mister Almighty
throws me in another prison!” Bellezza’s shoulders trembled. “He promised it would be for my good. He said I was needed in the upcoming war, and look at us!” She leapt to her feet. “We sit in the woods playing at life, hiding from the world, cowering because he does not have the courage to seize our true potential!”

Alexia pressed into rough bark.

Bellezza raised a fist. “I will not be controlled by another spineless male.” She threw her fist down. “He would rather delude himself into thinking everything is fine, paint his portraits, tend to his flowers, pretend at love.” A scathing look passed over Alexia. “He allows those about him to suffer rather than taking a stand.”

Alexia stepped forward. “And what would you have him do? Go to war with the Soulless
and
the humans?”

A single laugh escaped Bellezza. “Apparently he is incapable of either. Thus the reason he needs me.”

Alexia’s mouth flapped.

“A warning to you: he desires this war, but he is too noble to admit it.”

“He wants peace.”

“Is that what he told you, or what you believe?” Bellezza sneered. “You cannot climb inside his head. He does not let anyone in. Never has, never will. You
will
see.”

Alexia shook her head, but an inner part of her was shriveling. Even while professing his love, Kiren withheld so much—truths about their kind, about his own origin, about his plans for their future.

“He is a coward!” Bellezza spat, leaning forward. “Like all men. Like the Passionate
fisherman
, a pathetic nothing, who
chanced
upon my mother in a vulnerable state.”

Alexia half-listened, the quandary of Kiren’s silence staying her tongue.

“And of course she died in childbirth—not that it matters.” The girl shook. “She would have killed us both the instant she realized what a disappointment...” Her mouth froze, knuckles white and quivering, eyes burning. “He was a coward. The kind of coward who...who defiles his own flesh!” A new tear spilled over her wide cheeks. 

Alexia wanted to back away, but she couldn’t move under Bellezza’s stare.

“Do you know why I am trapped like this—” She outlined her youthful figure. “—forever? Has he explained that to you?”

Goosebumps sprouted over Alexia’s flesh.

“Of course not,” Bellezza said. “Nothing so vile should enter the ears of his precious
Alexia
.”

Alexia forced her eyelids closed, unable to battle the mixture of pity and loathing swelling through her chest, unable to dim those odium-rich eyes, and desperate to escape this trance. Hairs stood up on her arms.

“When Passionate are
touched
prematurely—” The whisper originated within inches of her ear. “—they stop growing.”

Alexia choked on the news. “Stop growing?”

Bellezza rolled her eyes. “We are preserved in our ‘
most desirable
’ state, only precious little morsels like you don’t get forced into daddy’s bed at thirteen, do they?”

Alexia covered her mouth, shaking in horror.

“It is the highest crime to force another.” Bellezza thumped away. “For once
taken
, you will always desire the one who did the taking.” She snorted. “Unless that someone is dead.”

Dead. Her father was dead. She killed her own father who had... Alexia’s stomach clenched.

The girl straightened as though a great burden had been lifted. “And now you know.” She twirled away on a single foot, skirts swirling like the wings of a freed raven. “Men are weak. They are driven by their lusts.” She planted her other foot, facing Alexia, brows low, fabric curtaining around her like a folded flower. “I would save you from him if I could, but I know.” She nodded. “Yes, I know what it is to
desire
even when it means losing everything you love, even when it makes your skin crawl like it’s covered in maggots, even when it means damning your future!”

“But if your partner is killed—”

Bellezza bobbed back onto her toes and spun, twirling her arms overhead. “Then you are set free!”

“No, if your partner is killed, you die.”

“Not if you are the one who does the killing.” Bellezza’s lips lifted, pleating wickedly. “It is also our right under the law to break an eternal contract if it is not...by choice.”

Alexia swallowed. “You killed...?”

“My father? Yes.” She curtsied. “The baron? Yes.” Again she dipped. “Several others?” Both hands came together in front of her, a picture of innocence, but darkness curled the corners of her mouth. “We are as powerful as we allow ourselves to become.”

Alexia hugged herself. “I am so sorry, Bel—”

“Do not feel sorry for me!” A finger flew forward. “Don’t you dare!” Her lips pulled back, teeth exposed. “Feel sorry for yourself, and when you look back twenty years from now and wonder if it was worth it, when you see the web of deception and propaganda, when you realize all you have sacrificed is for a lie—!” She huffed and backed away, nodding. “When that happens, you will understand why I came tonight. When that happens you too will break free. When that happens you will not pity
me
.”