I slashed furiously at another tree branch as the gleeful cackling sounded again.
“What’s with the sad face, Kate?” the illusion of Craig chided, stomping along beside me. “You should be quite pleased with yourself.”
I didn’t answer and hacked at another branch in my way.
He’d shown up a few moments after I finally got myself going again, after seeing everyone I loved, beaten and blooded in that clearing.
At first, my heart had nearly leaped out of my chest, thinking he and Forrest had come for me after all.
But the second I reached him, and his smirk spread wider than should’ve been possible, I screamed in anger and tried to kill the illusion.
He always remained just out of reach.
And decided that tagging along with me was just too much fun.
It switched between him and Forrest. One or the other followed me like my own personal traveling hell.
“You know, you are fulfilling your destiny by coming here if you’re still worried about screwing e everything up.”
Setting my jaw, I whipped around with the blade ready to slice the illusion clean through, but it disappeared.
I heard a clicking of a tongue behind me and glared over my shoulder to find him there instead, leaning against a tree.
“Really, is that any way to treat your friend?”
“You are not my friend,” I growled and focused back on my path.
“Do you even know where you’re going? You sure this is the right way?”
Since seeing Allis in the clearing, I had gone from being mildly freaked out to scared, to downright pissed at what he was doing now. Toying with me. That’s all he was doing, playing his damned game to see if I’d snap, go insane, give up on my quest of finding the rest of the shield.
After the illusion of Craig disappeared the first time, I’d spent the last few hours with Forrest scolding me for giving into my emotions and not being a true dragon, not in his eyes.
I’d tried several times to take his head off with the sword, but the blade only passed through his body like it wasn’t there.
When his voice had finally disappeared, I thought I was free for a while, but then Craig was there to pick it right back up and had not shut up since.
“My destiny,” I snarled, unable to keep quiet, “is to kill your master.”
“Is it?” he asked. “You sure that’s what your destiny is?”
“What else would it be? I’m the Vindicar, remember.”
I hacked at another branch as he shrugged.
“What?” I demanded.
“Nothing, if that’s what you believe, who am I to argue with you.”
I yanked the sword free of the branch and pointed it at him. “Why else would I be here?”
Craig shrugged again, pacing around me in a circle. “Dunno, what made you come here in the first place? All alone, too when you know the only true way to defeat the darkness is with Craig and Forrest by your side?”
“I’m doing this to save them,” I said. “My care for them drove me here, that’s all.”
“You absolutely sure it wasn’t anything else? Something calling to you maybe? Something that has seen you lose control, seen you want to lash out and take your revenge against those who wronged your family?”
My fingers readjusted themselves on the hilt of the sword.
I should’ve said no, denied it flat out, but I couldn’t get the words to leave my mouth. Was that really what I wanted, revenge? There was a lot that played into why my parents were killed, but that moment when I nearly killed Kadin and Raghnall, that had not been me.
But I had enjoyed it, having that much power over my supposed enemies, knowing I could crush them in seconds if I wanted to.
A smile spread across my face before I could stop it and I caught Craig grinning at me knowingly.
Quickly, I made my face go blank and think of who had stopped me from killing those two. Forrest and Craig, the real ones. They were who I needed to focus on and remember why I had come here alone. To save them and save everyone else.
There was no room for revenge. I didn’t need it.
I pushed forward again, hoping Craig would poof away, but he stalked alongside me again, whistling obnoxiously loudly.
I gritted my teeth, but refused to say anything else to him. I just needed to get to the ruins, that was it.
“He doesn’t really care for you, you know,” Craig said suddenly, and I paused mid-swing.
“Who?”
His eyes narrowed as he leered. “Forrest, or Craig, to be honest. Neither one wants anything to do with you, not after all the shit you’ve dragged into their lives. You’re risking your life for them for nothing.”
“I didn’t start this!” I yelled, and poked him hard in the chest, nearly toppling over when my hand passed right through him, and he disappeared. “Gah! Get back here so I can kick your ass!”
“I’m simply trying to be helpful,” his voice said from above, and I saw him walking along a thick tree limb before he crouched down and watched me closely. “Saving your heart before it gets broken. They know what Celandine did to their past lives, you really think they want to die horrible deaths again? Do you?”
I gripped the sword hard enough for my fingers to cramp. “It’s not going to happen,” was all I managed to say before he burst out laughing in glee.
“If you weren’t the Vindicar, neither one would be with you. Why would they?”
I said nothing and slashed at another branch, trying to remember the last few times I was around Forrest and Craig, knowing the illusion stalking me from overhead lied.
Their feelings for me were just as strong as mine were for them.
Hell, I overheard them arguing about me enough times to know when this was all over, they would probably go back to bickering which was the better match for me.
“There’s not one damned special thing about you,” Craig persisted. “You’re just Kate if you take everything else away, an orphan, a little lost girl with no one to love her.”
“Just leave me alone,” I whispered hotly, remembering the last embrace I shared with Craig and Forrest. The last time they kissed me. “Just leave me alone.”
I raised the sword to cut another branch when suddenly Craig was there and this time, the sword bit right into his neck.
His eyes widened in panic and blood spurted from the wound as he gasped.
Panicking, I tried to pull the blade free as he collapsed in my arms, solid.
“No, no! Craig?”
It couldn’t be him, but the body in my arms was real and hard. He choked on his blood, lifting his hands to staunch the wound, but there was too much blood, and then his breathing stopped, and his eyes slid closed.
I shook my head, horrified as I stared at the dead body before me and the blood covering my hands. So much blood, glistening in the strange lighting of this world.
Tears pricked my eyes as I whispered no, over and over again.
The runes pulsed with power and I felt it threatening to overflow and lose control.
A hand clamped down on my shoulder, and I jerked, a wave of power bursting out from me and striking whoever stood behind me.
I whirled around, and my nightmare grew worse to see Forrest standing over me, his face blank as he glanced down at his body, slashed to ribbons from my outburst.
“You… you can’t be here! This isn’t real, it’s not!” I pleaded as tears streamed down my face. “No… no, it isn’t possible. I wouldn’t’!”
“Craig,” he rasped as he sank to his knees. “You killed him, Kate… you killed us both.”
Shaking, I tried to reach out for him, but he fell to the ground, and his eyes remained open, but glazed over as he stared back at me.
“Forrest… Forrest!”
I shook his shoulders, but he didn’t move again. Tears continued to run down my cheeks as I looked from him to Craig.
“This isn’t real, please, this can’t be real… I can’t… I wouldn’t have killed them. No, please just open your eyes, both of you!”
But neither moved, and my gut twisted in knots until I turned to the side and lost what little there was in my stomach. As I wiped my mouth on my arm, lost in the misery of what I’d just done, footsteps sounded behind me. I didn’t turn, didn’t care anymore to see who was there. Craig and Forrest were dead by my hands.
My heart shattered, and I was ready to give up, throw everything away… until Allis appeared before me, tilting his head as he studied me.
“What did you do, Kate?” he asked quietly. “What did you do?”
No words formed in my mouth, and I sucked in a deep breath, widening my eyes again as I stared at the dead bodies of the two people in my life who meant the most to me.
My soulmates, my destiny.
Allis crouched before me and reached out for my blood-soaked hands. His skin was cold to the touch, and I had no strength to fight as he held them up, clicking his tongue.
“What did I tell you? I said they would die because of you and look what happened.”
He nodded to Craig, with the blade still embedded in his neck, and then to Forrest, blood pooling on the ground beneath him.
I shook my head again, mumbling incoherently, but Allis kept a firm grip on my wrists, tugging hard on them so I was forced to look at him.
“You will never be the Vindicar, Kate. You will fail everyone, just as you failed the two young men who were willing to give their hearts to you.”
I sniffed hard, unable to deny the truth, when another pulse of light on my arm caught my eye.
Except this one was not coming from the runes.
I blinked, trying to clear away the tears, and watched the bracelet, willing it to happen again.
Allis was speaking, but I tuned him out completely, holding my breath and waiting… waiting… there!
My gaze slipped to Forrest’s wrist where a matching bracelet should have been pulsing, signifying they were close, but there was no bracelet.
A quick look at Craig told me the same thing, and I turned my sudden enraged glare to Allis, who had finally fallen silent.
“They are dead, Kate,” he insisted. “Dead and gone.”
I wasn’t sure what came over me, but the rage I’d felt in times past seemed to amplify, and my dragon roared to life.
The runes on my body gave off a blinding light of pure power of the Darrah clan as I threw my head back on a furious cackle that turned into a mighty roar.
My body shifted, and I pumped my massive wings, taking off into the sky before twisting and turning, my eyes narrowed on Allis, standing amongst the trees, no dead bodies in sight.
Another trick. Another horrible trick to make me think I murdered Craig and Forrest. Except now, he would pay with his life. He would not escape me a second time.
I opened my jaws, ready to unleash fire on him, but he hadn’t tried to run away, or shift into a dragon himself.
He crossed his arms over his chest and seemed content to watch me bearing down on him. If he wanted to be an easy target, that was fine by me.
My fury drove me on, and just as I felt the burning heat build in my chest, ready to explode and roast him alive, he snapped his fingers and a breathtaking pain shot through my body and I crashed to the ground in a heap.
Convulsing, I cursed against the pain and shifted.
I tried to go back, to let the dragon out, but whatever he just did prevented it from happening.
“We can’t have that now can we,” I heard him call out from close by, and rolled over to see him beaming at me.
Spitting leaves and dirt from my mouth, I snarled in rage, spotted the Executioner blade lying on the ground close by, and lunged for it.
Blinded by my anger and hatred for this plague and everything attached to it, I took off after Allis, screaming for his head.
I was going to kill him, I was going to kill him nice and slow and make him suffer! He made me think I killed Craig and Forrest.
His death would not be a nice one.
Branches slapped at my face and arms, scratching me, drawing blood, but I didn’t slow.
Celandine cautioned me, but my fierce growling drowned her out, and all I heard was Allis’ cackling as he sprinted on ahead of me.
I kept him just in my sights, but too far out of my reach to attack. I was going to tear him apart! I might not be able to turn into a dragon, but he was going to be nothing, but hunks of meat when I was finished with him. My lungs burned, and my heart felt like it was about to pound right out of my chest, but I never slowed.
“Allis!” I bellowed, and his answering cackle had me running faster.
I was catching up, barely a few yards behind him when the trees parted, and I staggered out into a familiar clearing with a set of ruins at the top of the sloping ground.
No, not ruins, not anymore.
I skidded to a surprised stop, mouth dropping open in shock when rough hands grabbed my upper arms and Allis was suddenly before me, wrenching the Executioner blade from my hands.
I fought to break free, but the two plagued dragons lifted me easily off my feet, and Allis whistled as he led the way towards the ruins Craig, Forrest, and I had seen only days ago.
But time passed differently here, and clearly whoever Allis’ master was had been busy at work.
The entire fortress was nearly rebuilt, missing just the outer walls and two towards the far side.
And everywhere I looked were plagued demons, dragons, and undead.
I tugged on my arms, kicking my feet, but their hold was too strong, and a voice in my head scolded me to keep what strength I could.
After my sprint through the woods, I barely had any left in me.
As we neared two iron front doors, they opened inwards, and Allis headed right on inside, the plagued carrying me through.
I tilted my head back and hated to admit the fortress was impressive.
How they did so much work in, so few days was incredible. I was still trying to see, mostly looking for ways out, when the plagued dropped me unceremoniously to the floor.
I winced when my knees cracked against the hard stone.
“Honey, I’m home,” Allis called out, and I sat up, making to stand until the plagued shoved me back down.
We were in what must have been the new throne room, and at the end was a massive stone seat.
A figure sat hunched in the chair, but as Allis approached, it lifted its head.
It was too far away for me to make out any details, but the fear prickled along the back of my neck even as I forced myself to sit up as tall as I could, when I finally came face to face with the evil behind all of this.
Zohar.
It had to be him.
“So,” a deep voice called out as the figure rose, clasped his hands behind his back, and stalked down from the dais, moving towards me.
The braziers’ trembling flames kept Zohar’s face in shadow as he moved closer. “It appears you have finally come home.”
“This is not my home,” I snapped. “Not in this world at least.”
His laughter was rough on my ears, making them itch. “I was not speaking to you, Katherine Darrah, Vindicar of the new age.”
I frowned, looking dramatically around. “No? I’m sorry, must be a mistake. I’ll go then.” I attempted to stand again, and the plagued shoved me down even harder. “Seriously? Is this how you treat all your guests?”
The man continued moving until he was only a few feet away. He lifted his head, but the face staring back at me was not the one of Zohar I saw on the scroll back at the sorcerers’ mansion.
It was younger, softer around the edges, but those eyes were pitch black, overflowing with evil intentions.
When he grinned, his fangs appeared, sharp and stained.
“You are not a guest, are you? As I said, you have come home.”
“This is not my home,” I seethed through clenched teeth as he glared down at me.
“Be silent, you insolent girl,” he snapped and thrust his hand out towards me.
Pain exploded in my head and chest as I gasped for air, my arms stiffening at my sides. My vision blurred, and I knew I was going to die, just like this, right here and now on this stone floor.
Something was clawing inside me.
I didn’t want to give this bastard the satisfaction of hearing me scream, but I couldn’t hold it back, and my mouth fell open. I screamed and cursed, waiting for the torment to end, but then my scream was joined by a second, a woman.
My eyes refused to open, and I worried who else was here being tortured with me when the pain cut off and I collapsed to the stone floor, sucking in air like a drowning person.
An echoing sound met my ears, and I turned. “What the hell?” I scrambled away as the woman did the same, glancing from me then up to the man in horror. “You… it can’t be!”
The man’s hand fell to his side as a wicked grin lit his lips, and he bowed his head to the woman. “As I said, you have finally returned home. It is very good to see you after all these years, my dear sister Celandine.”
The woman, wearing the outfit I saw Celandine die in, pulled herself to her feet, glowering at the man before us.
Her eyes narrowed in hate, and she curled her hands into fists at her sides. “Hello, brother.”
“Brother?” I snapped. “This is your brother?” I squinted at him and cursed, finally recognizing him as the man I saw from the vision of the attack in the throne room. The day Zohar had officially turned against his kin.
“Cassius Darrah, at your service,” the man said, bowing towards me, but it was far from friendly. “I must say, I have been looking forward to this day for a very long time.”
I could think of nothing to say as he stalked closer and I realized how screwed I was.