Captive of Darkness (Heart of Darkness Book 1) Read online

  “Could it make a difference to us when we leave here?”

  “Goodness, yes.”

  “Then please. Tell me.”

  She fiddled with the stick for a moment, as if considering, and then nodded. “This is Veles’s domain, and now that he has his memories back, he will be an asset to you. He knows the hidden paths and the thinnings from one point to another. This is, after all, his world.”

  His domain. Death’s domain. I rubbed my arms to smooth out the gooseflesh pebbling it.

  “However,” she said, “the further from the glade he wanders, the more memories will slip from his mind like water through a sieve. Who he is, what he can do, what this place is, it will all be gone. The further he wanders from a haven, the more he will lose himself to the hunger which has us all in its thrall.” She sighed. “This is not a journey he should make. If he does, I am afraid he will be lost. But … Veles is a man of his word.”

  My stomach felt hollow. Could I force him to honor his word if it could ultimately destroy him? There he was, laughing with the wild ones by the river. He was whole, he was beautiful, and he’d saved my life. Finn was my responsibility, and this place was Veles’s responsibility. I couldn’t take him away from it. I couldn’t be the reason he’d lose himself. I’d find a way solo. I’d have to.

  With one last look at Veles, I tore my gaze away. “Help me slip away without him seeing.”

  “You’d leave without him?”

  I nodded. “I won’t be the reason for him losing himself. Finn is my quest, and I’ll do it alone.”

  Her smile was wide and beatific. “No, Wynter. You won’t be alone.” She reached up to cup my face. “You’ll be taking a part of the glade with you.” And then her lips descended on mine. I froze and then tried to pull away, but her grip was unyielding as she pushed her tongue past my lips, sweet, oh, so sweet. My lips closed around it, sucking almost involuntarily. She chuckled into my mouth and then heat pierced me, shooting across the roof of my mouth and settling at the back of my throat. The urge to kiss her back dissipated immediately, and I pulled away, neck heating.

  My fingers hovered at my lips. “What was that for?”

  “A gift. A piece of the glade for you to carry. Give it to Veles if he begins to slip. If he begins to forget.”

  “Why couldn’t you just give it to him?”

  “Maybe I could have a long time ago, but my heart lies elsewhere now and so does Veles’s.”

  What did that mean? Was she implying that … “No, you’re wrong. It isn’t like that between us. We barely know each other.”

  “Maybe you do, and maybe you just don’t remember.”

  “What does that mean?”

  But Veles was walking toward us, and Narina pulled herself to her feet. “I’ll pack you some supplies.”

  Veles inclined his head, his golden eyes filled with warmth for Narina. “Take care of the glade. I will return soon.”

  Narina smiled, but there was a sadness in her eyes. “I hope so, Veles. I truly do.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Veles walked straighter now, through a forest that, although creepy and dark, no longer held the menace of the black forest infected by Berstuk’s taint. The beastly hunch was gone from his shoulders, as if remembering had brought back some semblance of humanity. No. Not humanity, because he wasn’t human, he was Death. He was a god.

  I was walking alongside a god.

  “Stop it.” His tone was light, vaguely amused.

  “Stop what?” I affected the same tone.

  “Stop overthinking things.” There was a smile in his voice. “I am what I am, and you are what you are, and this place will swallow us whole if we dwell too much on the consequences of our existence.”

  “But this place … It’s your home, isn’t it?”

  “I suppose it was once, a long time ago. Now it’s turned on me. Its goal is to strip me of who I am.” The look he gave me was somber.

  Even when he turned his attention to the twisted path ahead, the one bordered in pretty, thorny flowers, the one speckled by moonlight, my gaze lingered on his profile, on the aquiline slope of his nose, the proud horns jutting up from his forehead, and the silken tresses cascading around the base of them to frame his face.

  He shot me an enquiring glance.

  I cleared my throat. “You have no inkling what could have caused this?”

  He snorted indelicately. “If only I did. It would be a starting point.”

  “And the shimmer? What lies beyond? Have you never thought of stepping through?”

  “There is no stepping through. The shimmer is death.”

  “I thought you were Death.”

  He froze and fell into a crouch. “Hush.”

  I joined him, body low to the ground, not knowing what it was we were hiding from but trusting his senses and his instincts. He canted his head and closed his eyes, listening intently, and then a gentle smile curled his lips.

  “I hear you,” he said, whisper-soft.

  “I don’t hear anything.”

  He opened his eyes, golden honey sweeping over me. “The threads are humming, Wynter.” He stood and held out a hand to me. “We can ride them from here to the castle ruins.”

  I slipped my hand into his large, warm palm and allowed him to haul me up. He didn’t let go of me, though.

  “You must hold on tight,” he warned.

  He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around my waist but didn’t pull me to him. He was waiting. Allowing me to take that step. So different from the man of a few hours ago, the one who had pushed me up against the bark of a tree and claimed my mouth. My stomach flipped wantonly at the memory.

  He closed his eyes and inhaled. “Stop. Don’t. I can hear your heart racing, your blood pounding through your veins. It isn’t fear, it’s something worse.” His lips brushed my forehead. “Is it the beast you want, Wynter? Do you want him between your thighs? Do you want his mouth pressed to your throbbing place?”

  My knees trembled, and I gripped his biceps to remain upright. He hauled me against his chest, crushing me to him, and in that moment, the beast was there, looking at me from beneath the veneer of civility, craving me just as I—No. I pulled away.

  “No. No, Veles. I just want to find Finn.”

  He blinked sharply, and the beast retreated. “I’m sorry. This place …”

  “It’s all right.” I tentatively bridged the gap between us and wound my arms around his neck, making sure to fix my gaze on his cheek, on his ear, on anything but his luscious mouth. “I’m all right.”

  The heat of his chest seeped into my torso, and I ignored the fullness of my breasts where they pressed against him and the ache and throb the contact evoked.

  “Liar …” he whispered into the shell of my ear. His grip on me tightened, leaving nothing to the imagination as his body molded to mine. “Hold on.”

  There was barely time to oblige before the world was spinning and there was nothing but the stars.

  The stars merged into one and bloomed to amber, and then I was tumbling into Veles’s honey gaze.

  “Wynter, Wynter, say something? Are you all right?”

  Was I? Fingers, toes, and all the bits in between. “Yes. Yes, I’m fine.” My voice sounded reedy to my ears.

  He was still holding on to me, and my hands were tangled in the hair at his nape. I relaxed my grip, allowing the silken strands to slip from between my fingers. He released me and stepped back.

  We were in a meadow bathed in silver. Rolling hills stretched as far as the eye could see. No, wait. There in the distance was a dark shadow.

  “The threads aren’t what they used to be,” Veles said. “Too many fractures. I was forced to exit early, or we may have been spun back to the beginning, back into Berstuk’s domain.”

  I suppressed a shudder. “No, this is good. How far are the ruins?”

  He began to walk toward the shadow. “Not far if we walk fast.”

  “They look so close.”
>
  “I know.”

  I jogged to catch up to him, and he slowed his pace to allow me to keep up. We walked in silence for several minutes. The air here was sweet and crisp and free of the crackling tension and weight of the black forest. What had it looked like bathed in the sun?

  “What will you do once you find him?” Veles asked abruptly.

  I hadn’t thought that far ahead. The goal had been to save Finn, but this place … this godawful place was a trap that wouldn’t relinquish us easily.

  “We can figure that out once I have him. Narina mentioned cracks … maybe we can find one.”

  “Tell me about him.”

  The question caused my brain to stutter. It wasn’t one I’d ever been asked before, and it took a moment to order my thoughts and pull out the relevant memories that would shape my answer.

  “He’s loyal and kind and caring. When Father took him in, he was angry and scared, but he never took it out on me. He was always gentle and considerate with me, even though it was he that needed the consideration.”

  “Why did you have to take him in?”

  “He had no parents.” I shot Veles a sharp look. “One was taken by the Silver Riders and the other died. In Justice Falls, when a child is orphaned, another family has to take them in. If no one volunteers, there’s a lottery to pick someone. Resources are scarce, and so it’s not often that volunteers come forward; another mouth to feed isn’t exactly appealing.”

  “And your father won Finn in a lottery.”

  “Yes.” I smiled. “And it was the best thing to ever happen to us.”

  “You’re in love with him.”

  My cheeks flamed and blood rushed in my ears. “I don’t know what I am.”

  Why? Why had I said that? Of course I was in love with Finn. I’d loved him for years, but if I was in love with Finn then how was it that Veles could set me on fire with a single touch.

  “Love comes in many forms,” Veles said. “It comes in many intensities. I know Yav-born to be obsessed with the concept of soul mates, but there is no one soul mate. There are many potential mates for each soul, and each connection is different. Whether you find them or not is a matter of luck, and sometimes you may come across two or even three in a mortal lifetime. The poor souls who do cross paths with more than one soul mate are riddled with guilt and self-doubt when forced to choose. It is human convention that produces the stress and angst. Here in Nawia, we have no such constraints. Love is fluid and open and free … or at least it was.”

  Soul mate, yes. Finn was my soul mate. A deep part of me had known as soon as I’d laid eyes on him, but it was as we’d grown together that the knowledge had bloomed and hovered at the back of my mind.

  I needed to know more. “How does it work? How are soul mates created?”

  “They’re not created, they are born.” Veles flicked his amber gaze my way. “Do you expect me to explain the cosmos to you?”

  “Could you?”

  He sighed. “Maybe at one time I could have, but those memories are buried beneath eons of living.”

  Something or someone had done this to him and to this place. His words, his explanations, were stirring up some pretty frightening thoughts.

  “Veles?”

  “Yes, Wynter.”

  “Are the number of souls finite?”

  He came to a standstill and turned to face me. A breeze brushed the back of my neck, and I suppressed a shiver.

  “That question … You’re wise for your years,” he said.

  My heart was pounding hard now with the consequences of this revelation. “People who die come here.”

  “Yes, Wynter, they do.”

  “And Narina explained that at one time they would move on to Pav or back to Yav to be reborn, but now many are trapped here, only a fraction of them finding their way through the cracks back to Yav to be reborn. She said the cracks were narrowing and soon no souls would be able to return.”

  A low moan filled the air, urging me on, urging me to continue.

  I had to say it, had to complete the train of thought. “If souls can’t return, then …”

  His face was etched with sorrow. “There will be no more births. No new life in Yav. Yes.”

  “Humanity would grow old, die, and become extinct.”

  “Yes,” Veles said softly.

  “We have to do something.”

  “Don’t you think we’ve tried? Narina and I and …” He frowned. “Others, there were others … When the shimmer appeared, we convened. We tried to determine what it was we were up against. But it’s impossible to solve a problem when you don’t have all the facts. Even then, this place was stealing our memories. Even as we sat in … In… There was a tower.” His face scrunched in annoyance.

  “It’s okay, go on.”

  He sighed. “Even as we talked, trying to piece together what had happened to us, whatever had taken over this place was leaching off us.”

  A howl drifted up to the east.

  Veles picked up the pace. “We need to move faster.”

  “What is it?”

  “Baku. Berstuk’s minions. They roam Nawia. They’re his eyes and ears and sometimes they act as his maw.”

  The creatures that had been tracking us. Great. I broke into a jog to keep up with Veles. There was no place to hide, no cover. But the ruins were up ahead, so close that I could make out the turrets and the dark gray brickwork.

  Another howl, closer now, accompanied by shadows streaking toward us from the left—huge and hulking. Veles grabbed my hand and in the next moment we were full out sprinting toward the ruins, but my short legs and my pathetic speed messed up the rhythm. My feet tangled, and I went down hard. Veles hauled me back up. His gaze was frantic as he glanced behind us, and then he cupped my face hard between his palms, eyes boring into mine.

  “You love Finn,” he said.

  “Yes.” The word exploded from my lips.

  His throat bobbed. “Then run. Run like his life—not yours—depends on it. Run and don’t look back. Not for anything. Go!”

  He shoved me hard enough to kick-start my run, and I broke into a sprint. The world flew past in a blur that was taking me closer to Finn, closer to the ruins where he had to be. Closer.

  A roar ripped the air behind me.

  Veles?

  He wasn’t to my left. He wasn’t to my right.

  Veles! I ground to a halt and spun to look back. No. Oh, God. No!

  Shadows pounced and slashed and snarled, and in the midst was Veles, no weapon except his claws and his fangs—useless against these beasts, these huge, hulking, canine creatures that looked like wolves, except they had porcupine quills decorating their backs.

  They leapt at Veles, swiping and nipping and then retreating. They were playing with him and he was allowing them to. He was using his body as bait to allow me time to escape.

  I glanced over my shoulder at the ruins, so close. Flames? Was there a fire lit inside?

  Finn. It had to be him.

  I took half a step toward the castle.

  Veles’s cry of pain sliced through my heart, rooting me to the spot. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t just leave him. My hand went to the jagged bone he’d given me. A weapon, it was a weapon. With a final look at the inviting flames, I turned and ran back toward Veles.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Finn

  The Silver Riders were stationary, with their backs to us. Around me, the other humans had given in to exhaustion and fallen asleep, and honestly, my eyes were beginning to ache with the effort of remaining open. With the flames flickering hypnotically and the pleasant heat from the fire, held in by the crumbling walls of this place, it was easy to buy into the delusion of safety, but my gut told me that if I missed the opportunity then I’d regret it. That this might be my last chance to get away.

  Away.

  Wherever that may take me.

  “You’re going to make a run for it, aren’t you?”

  I glanced up, sta
rtled by the voice. A young woman with golden hair and bluer-than-blue eyes was studying me intensely. How had I missed her?

  “I think this is our last chance,” she said softly. “I think … I think after this stop, there’ll be no others.”

  She wanted me to take her with me, and the gentleman in me was ready to agree, but she was small and thin and looked like she’d keel over if a brisk wind blew at her. If I ran, the riders would follow, and even if I made it away from them, the monsters that seemed to roam this place would come out to play. On my own, I might be able to get away, to survive, somehow … maybe. But with another body to take care of …

  The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Would you leave me behind if I was Wynter?”

  I blinked at her in surprise. “How do you know me?”

  She huffed. “Everyone knows you two. The brother and sister who wish they were more.”

  “She’s not my sister.”

  “No, she isn’t. So, tell me, have you fucked her yet?” There was something snide and too intimate in that tone, and her eyes … had they been that slanted before. “Do you climb into her bed at night to slip it to her, give it the old rogering? Is her cunny sweet? Tell me, huh? Tell me, boy. What do her juices taste like on your tongue?”

  Her voice … what was wrong with her voice, all raspy and phlegmy. Needles of ice pricked at my skin. “Who are you?”

  She smiled, too wide, teeth too jagged. “Who am I? Who am I? What am I? What am I?” She leaned toward me, the firelight playing across her features suddenly gaunt and aged, skin stretched too tight over bone. “What am I, boy … What am I? I’ll tell you if you take me with you. Take me … take me.”

  My throat seized up as her face collapsed in on itself and her body crumbled to ash, drifting into the flames and gone.

  What … what the hell?

  The riders were stirring. No. Had I missed my chance?

  A howl in the distance. The caw of a raven. Laughter on the wind and then metal hands were reaching for us, lifting us up.

  This was it. This was my chance. I had to make it so. My rider was by his horse, his back still to me. The others were intent on their charges. I stood slowly, eyeing the exit to my left, the gap the riders had left in their defenses. We were in the bowels of this place with crumbling rooms and staircases that went nowhere beyond. I’d paid attention. I knew the way out, but running into the open would make it easy for them to find me. But if I ran deep into the bowels of this maze-like ruin, maybe I’d have a chance to hide.