The Queen's Mark Page 14

  I slammed into it when he pushed me from behind, a roar in my throat at the solid force blasting into my shoulder.

  “This will be far easier if you just comply,” he said, kicking my feet apart with his bare feet and I didn’t question what he was about to do next. I just acted, ignoring everything Lucas insinuated about not using my power. He basically told me not to use it for him.

  But I controlled me.

  My scream alone caused Gabriel to stumble back and his eyes to radiate in horror as I full-on grabbed him, draining him in a way that felt so familiar.

  And made me the strongest I’d ever felt.

  My eyes burned as my arm blasted in wide light, my mark accepting his life force as I watched his golden skin change to pale white. I would have gone all the way, killed him as my fingers started to surge from the untapped energy, had he not let out that small sound, the mere squeak from his lips all he could manage to his men.

  Gabriel’s suits blasted open the door from behind me, causing me to fall and lose my focus. I let go of Gabriel in the shuffle and we were both on our knees until his men grabbed me.

  “Put her with him,” he gasped out, his skin the ashen gray of the dead and rigor mortis. He couldn’t even get up, his men having to help him. The last I saw of him was his finger pointing at me, as well as the absolute terror I instilled ringing his green eyes. I may have been the equivalent of an infant in regards to my use of magic.

  But it was still more powerful than him.

  Eighteen

  Arden

  The cuffs had been returned to my wrists by the time I was taken to a room far away from Gabriel’s. If I had to wager, he had placed me as far as he could away from himself and the sheer joy I got from that was sinful. I kicked his ass and he knew it, his men tossing me in a room thick with heat and the walls revealing why.

  Electrical waves of bright energy lined the walls and when the cuffs were removed any attempts I made to harness it went uneventful. Something about the room… like the cuffs, a restraint of some kind blocking my power. I was let go and I turned only long enough to see the men who brought me here flee from my sight. They shut a heavy metal door behind them, but any calls to them I made stopped at the sound of my name.

  “Arden…”

  Lucas’s face flooded in relief, but then he saw me. He saw me, half naked and my hair wild, and a rage hit his face I identified well. He displayed much of the same in earlier moments with Gabriel.

  Getting to his feet, Lucas had been sitting on some kind of bed.

  And he was covered in blood.

  It coated a shirt he had balled up and pressed against his side, his cringe apparent as he took a step and attempted to make his way toward me.

  I met him halfway, so happy to see him, and the moment he cradled my cheek, pushing his thumb across my skin I melted beneath his touch.

  Clearly awed at my presence, he took me in. That’s when the wild look took his blue eyes again.

  “He touched you?” He shook at the very words and I patted his chest, still frazzled by everything that happened. I shook myself and he mistook that for something else with the width of his eyes.

  “He didn’t. He didn’t,” I stated quickly, adamant, and only managed the words before he was gripping his massive arm around my body.

  “My God. I thought I lost you,” he said, bringing me oh so close.

  He moved his jaw against my temple and I buried myself in him, giving into the bond and comfort I felt at his sheer hold. I had never felt so safe.

  Maybe even loved.

  He held me for a while like this, a short eternity before he let go. His hand went down my shoulder and before I knew it, he was hobbling back to a bed he’d been sitting on, nothing more than a cot with no pillow or sheets. The rest of his clothes had been there and he got the jacket, putting it over my shoulders. He probably would have given me his shirt too had he not been using it to cover his wound. How he was even standing before me I didn’t know, but it must have been adrenaline because he’d barely gotten his coat on me before he collapsed at the knees.

  “Lucas!”

  He sagged against me and I guided him to sit on the cot, using all the strength I had with as large as he was. I managed and he reached up, pushing his hand along my cheek.

  “Poison,” he said, confirming my thoughts. Gabriel had mentioned it as such. His shirt had basically soaked through with blood and when his eyes rolled back, nothing short of panic hit my chest.

  “You can’t go to sleep, okay?” I said, trying not to fear what might happen if he did. “We have to lay you down. Can you help me?”

  He did, as well as he could. Together, we got him on his back and I attempted to take in the damage when I lifted the shirt a little. It gushed the moment air hit it and not wanting to take the chance, I covered it back up.

  “Dark magic,” he said, cringing when I pressed hard to the wound. “The humans aren’t capable. One of our own must have—”

  “Helped him?” I asked, my hand on his chest. How could one of our people do such a thing?

  Lucas grabbed my hand.

  “A weak witch or warlock,” he said. “And enough money could tempt the best. They probably didn’t know or care what he was going to use it for.”

  I closed my eyes, Lucas’s hand warm when he slid it up to my neck.

  “What happened?” he asked, taking in my clothing beneath his jacket. “He didn’t hurt you? Why are you dressed like this?”

  I’d been able to finally smile, cupping his hand despite my eyes filled with unshed tears.

  “I drained the life out of him,” I admitted laughing a little. I closed my eyes as he warmed my neck. “That’s why they put the cuffs back on me.”

  I got to see Lucas’s smile when I opened my eyes, and bringing my head down, he touched his forehead to mine.

  “You’re learning,” he breathed, his breath so rough I actually heard the labored sounds from his chest. He pushed his hand over my cheek, smiling. “I understand why you did, but next time don’t drain a host directly. It’s against our laws to hurt humans in this way, no draining of any living being. It goes against our principles.”

  Principles we had in regards to a man who did nothing short of rape me.

  “Why would our people promise me to him?” I asked, my tears finally falling. “He’s a monster.”

  Lucas’s expression fell as he watched me, pushing his hand down my shoulder.

  “They didn’t, Majesty,” he said, looking up at me. “You did.”

  The shock of my expression must have been apparent and I shook my head, my chest heavy.

  “I wouldn’t,” I said. “I’d never.”

  I obviously didn’t know myself then, but never would I have promised myself to someone with such cruelty, and beyond that, how could peace be formed with such alliances?

  I stared at Lucas, my gaze raking over his face. “How could I?”

  “He was different then,” was all Lucas said, pulling his hand through my hair. “He had to have been, or he never would have been chosen. I never met the man personally, but from what I understand, he was well valued by his people and seen as a suitable match for you. I don’t know, Arden… He had to have been different.”

  Then what had happened? How did Gabriel go from whatever he was in that time to the vile man he clearly was today? I had no answers for my internal questions, but watching Lucas choke a gasp and grip his side over my hand, had me shocked back to the present time.

  His face paled like Gabriel’s had when I drained him.

  “You gotta stay with me, okay?” I urged, his cringes apparent. Whatever pain he was experiencing was causing him to disorient, the poison rushing through his veins. Balling the shirt up, I pressed it harder to his side, and his skin so cold, I removed his jacket and used it to cover him, taking one step further when I lay on the cot and pressed my body against his.

  He received me in only a breath and his arms around me were like a sudden w
elcome home I wasn’t aware I needed. I’d put him in this position. I put us both in it with my denial of the truth and my distrust. He and the others had done nothing but protect me since I met them.

  I closed my eyes, choking back my emotion.

  “Will they come for us?” I asked him, listening as he battled to take in air. Whatever was going on in his body was making it hard for him to breathe. Every ounce of breath he took forced a rasp.

  His arms hugged tighter around me, his body cold as ice despite being so close to mine.

  “They don’t know where we are, Arden,” he admitted, pressing his forehead against mine. He cupped my shoulder blades. “But we can hope.”

  Nineteen

  Arden

  And so we waited. We waited, hours upon hours, with each passing moment Lucas growing weaker and colder in my arms. I changed his dressing three times, using pieces from the suit coat, as well as his pant legs, and even though the bleeding had eventually stopped, the wound on his side had turned black, the shredded skin from the initial stab looking angry and dead and the veins around it scaly with a dark onyx tone. It traveled up Lucas’s side to his neck and even within the strong confines of his biceps. The poison had seen fit to ravage his whole body and the timeline Gabriel told me flashed back to me with each moment Lucas grew colder and his breaths became nothing but lazy air. He said Lucas could have had an hour or even a week depending on the progression in which the poison spread, and even though my trust of his words had been limited, I relied on the latter, counting our passing meals as an attempt to form some semblance of time.

  We were fed three times a day, both of us, nothing but cold potatoes and a lifeless mound of mush that hinted at a possible protein, but I used those offerings as a way to count our days. We’d been given rations for over three days, the bulk of which I spent caring for Lucas or trying to figure out some way to get us out of the position I’d gotten us into. I thought about short-circuiting out the walls in some way or maybe negotiating with Gabriel. His people did feed us through a slot every day and I could get their attention before they left. I could do something, but both my bravery and my resolve dulled every minute I had to watch Lucas suffer. His condition had me in my head and unable to use skill and the cruelty of what Gabriel had done to him left me with no desire to even reach out to his people during meal times. I just let them feed us, taking an initial nibble off mine before giving the rest to Lucas. I noticed it did help him in some way, whatever scraps they were giving us doing something. He stopped me when I fed him one day, pushing it back to me.

  “You need it,” he said before closing his eyes, his strength completely dissipated and I’d been so terrified I did get up and head for the door that entrapped us.

  I pounded so hard until someone came, a woman I had seen before. She’d seem so docile and meek when I first met her, but her red heels and matching lipstick allowed me in to yet another ruse to this place and my captor who’d been so cruel to my guardian and me.

  The woman with the folders the day we’d been captured commanded several men to open the door, smiling at me through our meal slot. The men behind the door barked at me to back away and I did, my hands up as the woman in the heels was allowed in. Guards flanking her, she commented on the smell of the room first, shaking her head.

  “I suppose you want to be hosed down?” she asked, tilting her head at me. She nodded in the direction of Lucas. “Or is this a summons to dispose of the dead?”

  On his back, Lucas barely moved, but I knew him to be very much alive and so was I, biting back my tongue for the reason why I called her.

  “I want to see Gabriel,” I requested. “I want to negotiate. My friend’s hurt. He’s dying—”

  “And he was dying days ago,” she said traipsing into the room with a berth too close to both my guardian and me. She stopped right in front of him, clicking her tongue.

  “What a shame,” she said backing away. “I’d totally hit that.”

  I moved to strike her, but one of her men grabbed my arm.

  “Sarah?”

  “No,” she spoke to the man who held me, lifting her hand. She approached me, appraising me from my dirtied lingerie to my messy hair. I’d given the coat to Lucas long ago and I stood there, barefoot and vulnerable in the middle of a hot room with her and half a dozen of her guards. I was exposed, at her mercy.

  And she knew it.

  She stopped right in front of me, doing a little sniff before wrinkling her nose.

  “I have no idea why he wants you,” she said, sighing with her hands in front of herself. “But I’ll summon him to come down if you want. Might be too late for your friend, but it’ll at least keep you alive. I doubt your odds will fair once it’s been a few days without food.”

  She smirked with her insinuation of the last statement. I highly doubted her threats were idle, but even still, she said it might be too late for Lucas, not that it was.

  “Can he save him?” I asked her, glancing at Lucas and the woman shrugged.

  “Possibly. Though, I’m not sure Gabriel will be as open with you as he was before considering what you did to him.”

  I tilted my head like I didn’t know what she was referring to and she lifted her eyes.

  “The man is still in bed,” she admitted. “Barely with the strength to make it two feet without assistance. If you ask me, that was his fault for not restraining you, but I digress, what’s done is done. He’s still in recovery, but if you are serious about seeing him and working something out, you’d be best to anticipate punishment suitable for exactly what you put him through.”

  Closing the distance, she lifted her finger and I stiffened when her finger danced along my jawline and even pushed back into my hair.

  “And Gabriel is nothing but fair with his punishments,” she said, her gaze traveling the length of me. She shook my chin a little.

  Then patted my face with a sharp smack.

  The burn pressured words into my throat I kept away, choking them down.

  “I’ll go get him for you then,” she said smirking before turning around. She turned back when I called her name.

  She blinked when I spat directly in her face.

  “Pass that along to your prime minister,” I challenged, working my way out of her guards’ hands and going back to Lucas.

  Sarah could only watch me after the guards advised her from doing otherwise. Her jaw working, she turned, waving her hands. The guards opened the door for her, then followed after her when she charged her way out.

  I waited, my hand on Lucas’s arm but as soon as they closed the door I lay my head on his temple.

  The tears clumping in my eyelashes, I apologized to him.

  “I just couldn’t,” I said, then smiled when a hand pushed into my hair. I met his blue eyes when I lifted my head, still bright and luminous no matter how much strength he’d lost or how much pain his body was in. Bringing me in, he summoned me to lie down with him and his, “I never would’ve forgiven you if you did,” allowed me to finally let go for a little while. I closed my eyes for sleep.

  We both did.

  *

  I was rocked awake by labored breaths what seemed like almost moments later, Lucas gasping beside me and his hand on the cot like he was trying to stabilize it. He’d clearly been trying not to wake me up but with the cot being as small as it was, waking me was inevitable. He couldn’t breathe or was at least finding it hard to. I placed my hand on his chest.

  “Help us, please!” I tossed over my shoulder, but no one came. No one would come this time after what I’d done just. Panicking, I attempted to sit up, but Lucas grabbed me.

  “Arden? Arden?” he choked beneath breaths, trying to hold me down and keep me from panicking despite him being the one not able to breathe. “Arden, listen to me.”

  I shook my head, then called back to the door again.

  “Please!” I cried, actually crying now as the tears spilled down my cheeks. Lucas touched them and I wasn’t rea
dy to let go of him. I couldn’t.

  I wouldn’t.

  “Arden,” he breathed, his thumb pushing across the line of my tears. He smiled at me, a smile so distant I shredded from the inside out. His energy dulled above my trembling skin, his actual presence traveling away from me. I couldn’t let go and I held him, fastened myself to him so tight.

  “They’ll come for us,” I promised him, promised him things of what hadn’t been and probably wouldn’t. The guys hadn’t found us yet, so why would they now but I promised him anyway. I promised him time and things of value. I promised him dreams and of a future that consisted with us both. I said we’d pull through this and imagine my surprise when he promised me the same.

  “You will get through this,” he said, you as in me by myself.

  I shook my head. “We will.”

  He quieted me as I cried into his chest, cradling my head and telling me to listen to him.

  “You will, dear Arden,” he said to me, guiding me to lift my head. “And the others will come if you do what I say.”

  “Anything,” I retched, hard to see him through my blurry eyes but I managed. If he said the others would come they could find him too. We still had time.

  We had to have time.

  “Listen. Listen,” he urged, making me sober up and do just that. He gasped again. “The poison has made its way into my lungs.”

  I shook again but he stabilized me with two hands.

  “It’s not long before it shuts down those and my heart. Listen.” He held me, focusing hard on my eyes. “Once that happens you’re going to need to do something.”

  “No.”

  “You have to,” he said nodding. He swallowed. “There won’t be much time, but if you’re paying attention you can save yourself. You can use the bond for the others and they can find you.”

  My expression cringed, my eyes shut tight until he forced me to open them.