Eternity of Darkness (Divisa Huntress Book 3) Page 20

  My head snapped up, and I brushed at my face, quickly smearing away the streaks of salty tears. “Hello?” I called out as I sniffled, scanning the other cells in the dingy chamber.

  Only one torch with a cold black flame flickered at the stairwell that led to the Fortress. The long corridor lined with cells went farther into the dungeon, so deep that it eventually tapered to just a black speck, but I knew I wasn’t alone down here. Had known from the moment I woke. Many things lived in the Court of Darkness dungeons. Demons. Humans. And other creatures that caused the hairs on my arms and the demon inside me to prickle with awareness.

  A shadow moved in the cell across from mine. “The Prince of Darkness’s mate. Or is it the King of Envy now? We meet again.” Something dragged across the floor as the shadow drew closer to the cell door.

  I stayed curled in the corner, content to remain in the dark. “Can’t seem to stay away,” I muttered, my voice a bit steadier. Surprisingly the tears had stopped leaking from my eyes.

  “At least you got out for a little while.” There was a sad wistfulness to his tone.

  Click, click, click. It was a sound I remembered but was also tied to a time I wanted to forget. I never thought I would see the creature who was forced to sire Soren again. Twice I’d been sobbing in Kali’s dungeons and this unusual, neglected, yet somehow beautiful prisoner had come out of his concealment, lured by my tears.

  “Ngah, right?” Pity. I pitied this thing. Whatever it was.

  “You remember.” The blue glow of firelight highlighted the side of his face now, making him somewhat visible. His silver skin still shimmered like it had been dusted in diamond, his clothes as dirty and tattered as before, yet no shame shone in his gleaming green eyes. It was a wonder that after being trapped down here for longer than I could fathom, the Ngah still had pride. I found him inspiring but also frightening. The Queen of Darkness had her reasons for keeping this creature locked away, why she chose him to sire her son.

  “How could I forget?” I whispered.

  My conversation with the Ngah had been my first with a creature from another world. He had told me that my tears fueled the bones of the dungeon. I hadn’t thought about it much at the time, but was it possible that there was a kind of magic that fortified the structure of these stone walls from sadness?

  After everything I’d witnessed, I had to believe there was.

  “You’re still here,” I said, mesmerized by him. He had a face that was so different from human and yet similar at the same time. I had the urge to reach out and touch him, but my hand wouldn’t be able to reach him. Was his skin as smooth and soft as it looked? It was impolite to stare, but I couldn’t help myself. I was fascinated by him but also wary because I was a smart girl.

  “I have nowhere else to go,” he replied, glancing at the bars that held him with an air of mystery, as if they were a puzzle he still hadn’t been able to crack after many, many years.

  Much like the nightmare I’d had not that long ago, I was chained to a wall, but instead of being suspended from it with my family and friends pinned to the stones alongside me, the chain allowed me to walk around my demon-proofed cage. They rattled as I scooted across the floor, but they weren’t heavy, not like real metal would have been. These were made of something else, something able to resist both strength and magic like the bars. “If you did have somewhere to go, a way to escape, would you leave?”

  “I’ve never thought about it.”

  Blinking, I wondered what the hell he had thought about for the eons of years he had been a prisoner. As I studied the being across from me, my fingers twiddling with the chain attached to my ankle, another thought occurred, one I had seen coming, but once it took root in my mind, I seemed to fixate on it.

  The Ngah hadn’t been part of my plan, but maybe we could help each other. God knew I could use a friend, an ally in my solo battle against the queen. If we couldn’t bring an army to her doorstep, then the only option, I was beginning to realize, was one-on-one. The queen against me. Of course, it didn’t hurt to have a trick up my sleeve.

  “You’ve come back with a purpose.” He angled his head to the side, examining me in a similar manner to my own analysis. “Yet you lost your way for a spell.”

  The Ngah had an eerie perception. That had been true the first time we met as well.

  I nodded. “I did. Loneliness and failure can be a bitch.”

  He flashed a row of sharp teeth. “You are neither. Fate gives us trials and tribulations to make us stronger, to prepare us for what is to come in our lives, not to make it harder.”

  An interesting outlook, and one I never considered before. “Do you see fate? Is that one of your gifts?” I inquired, interested in what was so special about him. What could he do that even the queen feared?

  The creature chuckled, if you could call what came out of his pale lips humor. “No one has ever called my abilities gifts before.” He seemed genuinely amused by the idea.

  I sucked in my lower lip and crossed my legs into a pretzel at my cell door. “Are you evil?”

  “In what sense? Like my son?”

  My blood went cold at the mention of Soren. He hadn’t willingly given the queen a child. Did he despise Soren? Did he feel any love at all for the child who shared his blood, his DNA? “Are you trying to say that evil is in the eye of the beholder or some other philosophical bullshit?”

  “I don’t know much about the philosophy of your world,” he admitted. “But in mine, evil isn’t so cut-and-dried. There are various degrees, and not all of them are deemed bad.”

  My curiosity about the world he hailed from expanded. “I might like your world more than mine,” I mumbled, thinking about the numerous times I’d been called degrees of evil.

  An almost wistful smile spread on his lips as he pressed his back into the side wall of his cell. “My people would have liked you, demon huntress.”

  “My chance of ever seeing your world is gone.” I blew out a breath. “War is brewing outside these cells.”

  Sliding down the wall, he rested his head against the stones. “I’ve heard the whispers.”

  I continued to fiddle with the links connected to my ankle. “Since you seem to know an awful lot for a guy who’s been locked up for decades, do we stand a chance at stopping her?” I inquired. He had an insight that intrigued me. It had been because of the Ngah that I found out Ashor was my mate.

  He wrinkled his not-so-different nose, in the sense that I could tell it was where he breathed like me. “I never said I knew the future.”

  “But you do know things,” I insisted, pressing.

  “Perhaps,” he conceded, but not necessarily willingly. He wasn’t comfortable giving up information about himself, though for some reason unbeknownst to me, he opened up to me. Well, in tiny doses. Just enough to keep me intrigued by him.

  Was that part of his game?

  I shouldn’t trust this creature, but my instincts were telling me he was the lesser of two evils when pitted against the Queen of Darkness.

  A door squeaked open, the bottom of it dragging over the floor on the level above us just as I opened my mouth to ask for more details. I snapped it shut.

  “Someone’s coming,” he whispered, slinking back into the shadows and disappearing.

  I leaned forward, a request for him to stay on the tip of my tongue, but I bit it back. The Ngah couldn’t protect me from Soren or his mother. The only demon who could do that wasn’t here.

  I had left him.

  15

  Click, clack, click, clack.

  The unmistakable sound of heels tapping on stone floors echoing from the stairwell caused my throat to go dry. It seemed the Queen of Darkness had finally decided to pay me a visit, and although I’d been waiting for the moment to look into her eyes again, I still trembled inside.

  I would have liked more time to collect myself after collapsing in the corner and losing myself to the tears. Although I had needed to free myself of the mounting emot
ions, it also left me feeling drained and weak. Two things I didn’t need the queen to think I was. Or perhaps having her see me as nothing but a frail, useless human was exactly what I wanted. It might work in my favor.

  My mind was clearer now thanks to the cry fest. Something good had to come from it; I took that second and braced myself.

  The stairway wasn’t long, yet it took forever for the wicked witch herself to appear. First, it was the heels. Black. Glittery. Spiky. Expensive. And for someone who majored in designer shoes, the enthusiast in me drooled. I wanted to ram the end of those glamorous shoes in each of her eyeballs… once I saw them.

  Taking a breath, I steeled myself, knowing the rest of her would follow. Long legs, swaying hips, slim waist, her body draped in midnight silk dazzled with crystals that sparkled like a million diamonds. The material fit tight on her torso but swished around milky white legs that could use a touch of sun.

  Click, clack, click, clack.

  Exposed moon-white shoulders, strands of ebony hair spilling over each one. The column of her slender neck was covered in intricate demon marks. Curled bloodred lips taunting me. A familiar-shaped nose. Ashor’s nose. He hadn’t inherited many traits from his mother, but the hair and the nose were Kali’s. And perhaps some of the arrogance.

  I swallowed, standing tall in my cell, the chains pooling at my feet.

  “My dear,” Kali crooned, the embodiment of night. “You’ve returned home.” A cold smile graced her lips.

  I wanted to gag. “This is not my home. Ashor is my home,” I gritted out between my teeth. Hold it together, I told myself.

  She peered at me through my cell bars with dancing crimson eyes. “How is my firstborn son?”

  “You tell me. You saw him last.” He had come looking for me while Soren tortured me.

  She brushed the hair off one shoulder, a cool scent of a winter’s night clinging to the air surrounding her. “He was in quite the rage. I haven’t seen him throw a fit of that magnitude since he was two.” And she loved it, turning Ashor inside out and the chaos he created in his wake.

  She thrived on turmoil.

  “How long ago was that exactly?” I asked, hungry for some information on my mate, and it would give me a timeline after days or weeks of being captive. If it hadn’t been for the visions, I’d have no idea what was happening outside this cage. Soren had kept me under darkness for too long.

  “Seems like yesterday,” she mused, her lips twitching.

  I snorted. “I’m having a hard time picturing you giving a shit.” It took more than just giving birth to a child to make you a mother. “Why did you have them at all? I can’t figure it out. What purpose do they serve you?”

  She wrapped her long fingers around my cell bars as she stepped closer, a coy smile on her lips. “You want to know why I didn’t run like your mother? I’m a queen, not a coward.”

  Oh, this bitch knew how to push my buttons. I wasn’t overly protective of Kira, but right then, I wanted to slap the queen for disrespecting her. I curled my fists at my sides, nails jabbing into my palms. “I’d rather have a coward for a mother than a bitch like you,” I hissed, letting my anger loose. I didn’t bother to disguise my hatred. What was the point?

  Darkness swirled at the queen’s fingertips as she pulled her hand back from the prison bars. “I see,” she said softly, controlled, regardless that her eyes flared brighter. “Would you have been a coward too if your mother hadn’t abandoned you? I rather like the fighting spirit you possess. It’s much like my own. Your skills will be wasted in the Court of Envy. Nothing but sex and seduction. You might be the daughter of a succubus, but you have the heart of a warrior. You belong to my court.” Her eyes lifted just slightly to the top of my head. “My son must think so too, seeing as you still wear his crown.”

  “Then why not let him rule? You’re past your prime. Isn’t it time you stepped down and let him govern the kingdom rightfully his?”

  She had a tougher shell, not easily cracked, and my efforts to do so seemed fruitless. “It’s true that I’ve lived a long time, and I always intended for my son to take my crown. No other demon is worthy, but then he met you, and now he can’t seem to remember our purpose here.”

  “And what is your purpose, Queen Kali?”

  No hesitation. “Greatness.”

  “Ashor doesn’t need you to be great.” I angled my head to the side. “But you need him. Don’t you? Without Ashor, your kingdom isn’t as strong as you portray to the other kings.” I was more or less grasping at straws, and I expected her to call my bluff.

  “Don’t presume anything about my court, half-breed,” she sneered, and her narrowing eyes made me feel as if I’d just scored a point against the toughest opponent in the underworld. “You don’t think I can be merciful,” she said, producing a vial out of curling smoke. She twirled it around in her fingers. “Let me show you just how gracious my mercy extends. I’ll give you two choices.” Holding the tiny vial between her index and thumb, she lifted it for me to see. Inside, clouds of silver swirled in black liquid like a mini galaxy.

  I eyed the contents warily, already not liking where this was headed. Trepidation iced the nape of my neck. Did I want to know what was inside the vial? What kind of potion did it contain? Did she plan to shove it down my throat? I’d only force myself to throw its contents back up.

  “Drink this. It will make everything better,” she purred, tempting me with the lull of her voice. “You’ll go back to your life, to your family. Isn’t that what you want?” she asked, dangling the mysterious potion from her fingertips like it was the last piece of chocolate cake in the universe.

  I was so damned hungry if I could think of cake at a time like this.

  Licking my dry lips, I pulled my gaze from the bottle. “Not without Ashor,” I refused. As tempted as I was by the offer of my old life and my family, it hadn’t been a fulfilling life. I had been missing a vital piece. Ashor—my soul mate. “Besides, what’s the point of going back to my world if you’re just going to destroy it?”

  She pursed her lips. “Hmm. A deal, then? I will exempt your family from my rule.”

  Demon deals never benefited the other person, only the demon striking them. “How is that a fair deal?” I countered, crossing my arms for multiple reasons. Not only did it make me seem tough and indifferent, but it also kept my hands from trembling. “My world will still be shit.”

  Her smile flickered, not happy with my rejection. “What you ask for is a high price, but I might be willing to negotiate.”

  “I’m not,” I retorted forcefully.

  She shrugged. “It makes no difference to me.” Her fingers closed around the vial, something akin to victory tugging at the corners of her lips.

  “You lie. Why offer me a deal at all? What will really happen if I drink it?”

  She blinked. “It would have spared you this.” Her power leaped upon my mind, ensnaring me into a dark web of lies, betrayal, pain, and unbearable agony.

  WTF.

  I had no time to defend myself, barely a second to grasp what happened before I was on my knees. The cracking of bone on stone didn’t register, not as her claws sank deeper. What did she think she would find within me? I wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but the darkness probed so deep, I swear it touched my soul, as if she were hunting for the thread that tied me to her son.

  The thought had me gasping. Was that possible?

  And if so, what would she do if she located it? She wouldn’t hurt him, right?

  I couldn’t be sure, but she would hurt me to get to him. If he knew she had me, had my mind and was using me to manipulate him…

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  Unrestrained fear pitched inside me.

  I had to stop her. Quickly, before she pinpointed our mating ribbon and her darkness crawled to the very person I wanted to protect. I couldn’t let the bitch sink her claws into him. She had done enough damage, and if Ashor and I were ever going to have any kind of future, his mot
her had to be stopped.

  Fuck. I had never imagined that I could be a direct link to the very thing she wanted.

  “No!” I screamed, fisting my hands on either side of my head. “No!” I said again. Lower. Stronger. Less manic as I dug down into myself and summoned my power, only a kernel of the darkness that Kali possessed. I didn’t think for a second that it was enough to stop her, but I had to try something.

  Anything to get her out of my head.

  The queen bared her teeth. “I got my point across.” She tapped the vial against the prison bars. “You’re my pawn, halfling. You will help me get my son back, and together Hell will be ours.”

  So, she didn’t plan to kill him but control him? Either way was a different shade of death.

  “What about your other son?” I asked, the words rasping against my dry throat like I was swallowing a Brillo pad.

  “He has his uses. He brought me you, didn’t he?”

  Only because I let the bastard take me, a tidbit I kept to myself.

  “But Ashor,” she said, rolling her tongue, “has a crown.” Regardless that she had been vile to him, called him a traitor, and more or less banned him from the Court of Darkness, she sounded proud of his accomplishments.

  The queen gave me whiplash. I couldn't keep up with her moods. “He only killed Verena to keep the kingdom from falling to your rule. Don’t you see that?”

  “He’s lost his way. Everyone drifts at least once in life. I’m here to help him come home. To save him from you,” she threw at me like a dagger.

  I shook my head. “You might have given birth to him—a fact I still can’t wrap my head around, how someone like him came from someone as horrid as you—but he does have some redeemable qualities, and he is mine. He will always choose me.”

  “What do you think would happen if you no longer lived?” she proposed. “Males who lose their mates are known to become animals. Wild. Wolfish. Heartless. Would he continue to harness his darkness while suffering pain worse than death? Or would he release it into the world, blindly striking out in an attempt to relieve himself of his suffering? Would he choose the demon or the man?”