Lunaria (A Soulmark Series Finale), page 16
The three sorcerers share a look, knowing smirks proudly presented on their faces that keep my anger kindled.
"But you." Master Blight lets out a wistful sigh that makes Adrian's hand clench upon my thigh. "You're quite a different specimen, aren't you? An enhancer."
"A cultivator," I correct with a strained voice.
"Yes, yes," he deigns with a condescending air. "And would you care to explain in detail as to why you do not believe our plan will work?"
The room waits for my response.
"I do not know what you speak of. What plan?"
But I do. The moment the words slip past my lips a phantom of doubt creeps into my bloodstream, churning it faster and faster as my heart acknowledges the implication that my head ignores.
Mr. Blight's gray brows slant downward. "The siphon, you imbecile. You claimed you would not be able to take on the crystal's power with our siphon, though it has already proved successful on multiple occasions. Why should it not for you?"
I go numb.
"I am a cultivator," I say back, finding my speech heavy and slow. Mr. Blight's eyebrows pitch downward further. His sneer revealing yellow-stained teeth.
"Now, now, Blight, she means no disrespect," Carrie gracefully intervenes. She bats her eyelashes in languid fashion. "What I believe our little fairy friend is attempting to reiterate is that she is only capable of enhancing. It is not within her means to absorb power, but rather render it. That is her purpose, as is the crystal. Isn't that right, Lunaria?"
I wear my shock without thought. Carrie is right, or, at the very least, she has accurately guessed my own assumption.
The she-wolf's delight is palpable. Her fingers lightly stroke the wine glass stem in her hand, while Noah studies her with narrowed eyes.
"It's what I’ve touted on about, and why I must insist you try on Master Ferris' new charm, Lunaria. It will be a well of collected power by the time we need to use it. It’s far more capable of holding large amounts of energy, unlike the siphon which must transfer the collected energy immediately."
The use of his title makes Ferris's chest puff up. His entourage leans in around him, their excited murmurs earning mixed reactions from the lycans at the other end of the table. Carrie maintains her proud demeanor, while Noah wears a mask of indifference as he whispers something into Carrie's ear.
Tension mounts between the two groups.
I cast my sights to Adrian. He avoids my probing stare, and my heart quivers with betrayal. The sorcerer's knowledge of my doubt of the siphon can come from only one source.
My heart aches as I stare down my heart's content. Did these new clothes cost him the words I said to him in private? Or was it the food?
"Remember, trust no one here."
"Even you?"
The color plunges from his face—he is stricken at the very suggestion. "I am your heart's content," he says at last, his voice hoarse. "All I do is for your safety and future happiness."
The alpha withdraws slowly from Carrie's side. His face is grim. "Bring them in."
Chapter 9
I’m taken over by a brief moment of paralysis, stuck on the words spoken.
Bring them in...
Yet, just as swift as the loss of mobilization takes me, I’m released. I pitch my body forward to see who will be brought in, panic running havoc on my nervous system. Them? Would it be Jax and Keenan, or my friends from the Hollow Woods? My fingers clutch the chair's arms for support. Or would they bring in some other innocent whose blood they’d threaten to spill on my behalf?
Several pairs of footsteps sound from the other room. They scuffle and scrape along the floor. My nails pierce the protective coating of the chair's arms.
My name is hissed near my ear. A warning is inherent in its pitch, but I ignore it. Adrian's hand tightens on my thigh.
Tears cloud my vision the instant they walk through the door. "Jax!"
Two men drag him through the dining room's arched entryway. He is shirtless, head bowed and feet struggling to protest his forced journey. They lead him to the far end of the room where the sorcerers congregate once more and toss him to his knees. Jax lands with a thud, his hands shooting forward to catch his fall with a heavy grunt.
My mouth goes dry at the sight.
Jax lifts his head to take account of the room's occupants. His eye does not linger for long on any one person, though I cannot say if it is for lack of interest or sheer exhaustion. His chin sinks, as much as it can, to his collarbone once he’s through with his brief examination. I catch sight of his neck, where red and black veins creep out behind the silver metal to show off the evidence of his torture.
How many times have they used the cursed shackle on him?
A fission of hurt splits my heart in two at the sight of him bowed submissively, but then my eyes catch upon something unexpected. On his bicep is a small but distinctive mark made in black. It is a triangle of sorts, with each end tied up in neat, little loops. A wild surge of emotions assails me.
He'd had a soulmark all along...
"The amulet works far better than expected, though its absorption rate is slower than we would like," Ferris announces as he joins the men who entered. Without a trace of remorse, he grabs Jax by the hair and yanks his head up for the room to inspect his ruined face. The bandage covering his left eye remains and makes my gut clench uncomfortably. "We imagine it would work better if the bimetallic choker, or as you call it, the subjugation collar, were out of the equation but—"
"What have you done to him?" I ask, voice hoarse.
I am unable to tear my eyes away from the grimace spread out in fine lines across Jax's face. I move to stand, but Adrian's hold is far greater than I expect. The glare I turn his way cuts, but my heart's content is unmoved. He betrayed me.
And you used him, a soft voice whispers to me. My glare doesn’t lessen.
Adrian meets my hostile regard boldly with one of his own. He leans forward to speak to me in some semblance of privacy. "Calm down. You'll only make it worse for him."
His short delivery is flat but not without its merits. I force myself to sit back, the claws of despair sinking greedily into the pit of my stomach. The pressure of Ferris's beady glower rankles, but I refuse to take my sights from my friend.
"There are protocols my clan observes when handling captured turncoats. First and foremost, we make certain the turncoat is kept alive... until every last member of our clan is satisfied with his reparations. Our clan is separated currently, and so we must make the most of this rare opportunity of prolonged possession," Ferris boasts with a hand splayed comfortably across his ample belly. "There's no telling how many secrets Jax keeps about the Dark Court and his family of leeches. Rumor has it he's climbed quite high in their ranks... but you are not so high and mighty now, old friend." Ferris stuffs his nose up high in the air and glances at his comrades. "Tell them what you've learned, men."
I wait with bated breath for their smug voices to fill the air, but the pause dawdles on far too long. I grace them with a cursory look, noting the squeamish fidgeting they succumb to under their master's orders.
"Well?" Hostility resounds in the single syllable word. I'm tempted to garner the rest of the room's reactions, but I'm too taken by the growing smirk on Jax's face.
"You see, there isn't much to tell," one of the sorcerers starts.
"That is to say," the other elaborates. "He's been somewhat tight-lipped—"
"Tight-lipped!" Ferris roars. He's red, from neck to ears, a scowl so fierce you'd think someone had eaten the last bit of food off his plate. "You mean to tell me you went through the trouble of taking the bastard's eye, and you have yet to derive any satisfactory information from him?"
The two men lower their eyes, faces’ aflame with humiliation, and say nothing more. Jax fills their silence with a morose chuckle that grows into a hacking laugh.
"How's it feel to know, Ferris, that even at my lowest I'm still better than your pathetic lot of magicians."
Jax must know his comment would earn some form of physical rebuke, for when Ferris's hand strikes him, Jax's smile remains steadfast.
A small choked noise jumps from my throat at his unflinching resolve. Jax straightens from the blow, then peers about the room's occupants and spits a measure of blood out on the ground.
The smile he presents next is one of mad satisfaction, and within his remaining eye, there is a lazing hatred that cannot be denied. My eyes steal toward the clot of blood clinging to his bottom lip. Arrested, I follow its descent, undaunted by the dark chill that encompasses me.
"Leave him alone."
I'm surprised, as is the rest of the room, to hear my voice. Meek though it is, the trembling vibrato I produce is sincere in its severity. Carrie's dark snicker sets the room off into a jeering contest. Their laughter flays my skin and demands the surrender of my pointless efforts.
"Don't, Luna," Adrian urges me under his breath. "You're giving them exactly what they want."
Jax's hazel eye finds me. His jaw is clamped viselike. The mocking smile on his face is gone. Though the tendons strain in his neck, a strength I can only hope to find somewhere inside of me bleeds through his one-eyed gaze. My muscles tense.
The hand on my leg can no longer stop me. I stand, my chair bursting back at the action. Its raucous toppling is second only in sound to my hands slapping down on the table.
"I said, leave him alone!"
A silent thanks is passed to me by Jax. The slight quiver of his chin is a tell-tale sign of his gratitude, though he is quick to quell it lest anyone catch his slip.
"You heard the girl," Carrie says as the room holds its breath. "Besides, we didn't have you bring him here to show off your lack of progress. We're here to see how the amulet takes to the girl."
My eyes, still glued to Jax's pale and tense figure, glide down to his chest. In my initial inspection of him, I missed the delicate golden chain hanging from his neck. At the chain's end, is a slender, nondescript amulet. The token can be no more than an inch in length and—
Ferris moves.
He retrieves and dons a pair of white gloves from his dinner jacket, then approaches Jax. My friend relinquishes a belated cry as soon as the necklace leaves his skin. His eye rolsl back as Ferris slips the necklace past his head, and a moment later, Jax slumps forward unconscious.
I jam a fist to my mouth to stifle my answering cry. The two men who hauled Jax in, carry him back out, their faces red with the effort. I cannot take my eyes off the horrible scene and watch them exit white-faced.
What little food I have in my body rebels, burning a trail up the back of my throat and threatening to spill across the table.
An inkling of foreboding whispers across the back of my neck right before Adrian growls. I turn widened eyes in the rokama's direction, watching with apprehension as he bares the tips of his teeth and launches another of his rumbled warnings. The approaching sorcerer freezes. The necklace in his gloved hands swaying in his heedful care. Ferris's eyes dart to the alphas, a plea given in his pinched brow and sudden pallor.
"What are you waiting for? An invitation?" Carrie asks in a droll manner.
Blotchy patches erupt across Ferris's cheekbones. "He—" The sorcerer's objection cuts short as Adrian snarls. His back hunches, shoulder blades protruding along with the stumps of his wings, and his fingers stretch across the tabletop. Adrian is the picture of violence, on the verge of a riot.
I thank whatever gods there are that his wrath is not directed at me, but the sorcerer who lurks behind us.
"He can smell your fear." Carrie's commentary wipes the flush of color from Ferris's face. "So can we."
Ferris imitates a cough to cover his discomfort. "Can you blame me?" He all but hisses back, stuck at a crossroad of fear and dissent. I do not know what look is passed from the alphas to the sorcerer, but he recovers quickly by ducking his head submissively.
"No need to fret, my friend. Give the amulet to Adrian, and he shall put it on his prize's neck," Noah announces.
"No."
The firm rebuttal is met with displeasure from the majority, but Noah withstands Adrian's fearsome glower without a flinch.
"So defensive." Noah's voice is low and needle-sharp as his hazel eyes narrow. "The next time you disobey, it will be the fairy, who suffers the consequences of your actions." Adrian's posture goes rigid. "Do keep in mind, I have several things in mind for our favorite girl here that I’m eager to try... now, take the necklace and put it on her."
Noah's tone is deceptively soft, though every muscle in his body is held taut in anticipation of Adrian's rebuttal. Then his hazel eyes ditch their standoff with Adrian to stare me down. I flinch back.
"Do it," I whisper as a deep chill crawls its way across my bones. Adrian's heated glare drills into my cheek in the next instant, but I do not dare take my eyes off Noah.
"Noah is far worse than Carrie."
Deval's somber reminder rings in my head. I cannot bear to imagine what devious ideas simmer in the alphas head.
"Do it," I repeat, and look to Adrian, begging him to understand. He swallows and starts to tremble as he turns to Ferris, one hand begrudgingly outstretched. The sorcerer hands him the amulet, his beady eyes taking on a new light as he drapes the chain over Adrian's open palm.
Adrian's hissed inhalation echoes in the room. He bumps into the table as he turns back to me, his chest heaving as he glares at the object in his possession.
"Adrian?" Tremors of dread lambast me, and not just my own.
"She's not strong enough," he says, rolling back his shoulders and standing tall. "I'll wear it."
Noah's smile is patient as if he's savoring the larger man's small act of defiance.
"I am," I protest before Noah can respond. "Put it on me." I reach out to take the necklace from Adrian, but he recoils from my efforts. I look at him beseechingly. "It cannot be worse than whatever he has in mind for me if I do not... please."
The transfer is achingly slow and made more terrible as Adrian takes hold of the necklace with both hands. Pain ripples over his features. I wait anxiously—pulse thundering through my veins—as he crowns me with the jewelry.
I buckle the second the gold touches my skin. Adrian's arm loops around my middle and tugs me to his chest. The act is all that keeps me from crumbling down.
A deep and poignant stabbing pain emanates from where the amulet rests below my sternum. It pulls at the very essence of me. My magic... and something that resides far deeper. I whimper through the haze of my wracking paralysis as Adrian's concern calls on my deaf ears.
How did Jax withstand this torture?
"I told you." Adrian's voice is rolling thunder above me. "She isn't strong enough."
A part of me wishes to deny his words, but Adrian is not wrong. Throughout my body, a dark presence reaches out with its gnarled roots to drain me of my energy and more.
I teeter on the brink of unconsciousness, each breath that passes through my lungs driving the darkness deeper. Where is the promised strength of our entwining now? Or is my meager consciousness the sign of it?
"Remove the amulet."
I do not know who issues the order but snarling erupts from somewhere nearby.
"Take it off her," Adrian snaps. My body goes limp as he spins me around. The world blurs before me. Seconds later, the malevolent presence vanishes. "Luna? Luna, can you hear me? Please, say something?"
How I wish to respond—how I try.
"Take her away," Noah's orders, "and bring her to me in the morning."
++
Night comes and goes in the blink of an eye with sleep evading me. Though my fatigued body finds relief in the firm mattress of Adrian's bed, my mind denies me rest.
I am hollow; a mere cavity that houses nothing inside of it.
Deep chunks of my being are absent from me, and though I search for what I’ve lost, I do not prevail. The reservoir of my magic and energy cannot be compelled to replenish by my will alone. Whatever scant fragments do come forward to replenish me are not enough nor fast enough.
I am no longer myself.
My hands do not leave the bracing cold of the metal at my neck. If the collar were gone, the earth would lift me up and fill in every crevice and nook left bare. Of this, I am sure.
"You need to eat, ov thera." My heart.
Adrian pushes a plate of toast and scrambled eggs closer to my docile position on the bed. Even the scintillating scent of butter cannot rouse me from my semi-comatose state.
"I'm not—"
"You are," he cuts in with passion simmering beneath the surface. I shut my heavy-lidded eyes, a soft rush of air passing my lips. Adrian continues with more diplomacy, "I didn't feel the full effects of the amulet, but from my short handling, I could feel what it was capable of. You'll never recover if you don't eat or get up and move." Rough fingertips caress my cheek and draw my eyes open. "Don't let them see you like this. Show them how resilient you are. How strong I know you can be. You faced off with a rokama in the Forest of Dan Furth and beat him in a race, didn’t you? You survived in the human realm without knowing a soul, didn’t you? You’re strong, Luna."
At this last plea, I sit upright. Adrian places the plate in my lap before I am settled. His hovering is more insistent than when the aunts and Gran tended me back to full health after the attack of the hellspawn last summer.
The food is bland, though clearly seasoned and generously coated in glossy butter. Its flavor falls flat between my mechanical chewing and swallowing. Adrian's roughened voice displaces the silence that wishes to lay between us. I don't take in a single word, as I forfeit practical thinking to melancholy musings.
How had Jax survived the cursed amulet?
Even Adrian had faltered under its greedy touch, and I all but fell apart. My eyes drift to Adrian's collar. The skin about it looks completely healed now from his punishment in the boxing ring after saving me. How did he recover at such a rapid rate while the rest of us suffered our injuries days on end?
