Ruins of Chaos Page 3

  We moved back onto the road, and I stopped dead in my tracks, staring at the sight before my eyes. Blood turned to ice in my veins as Killian lifted his gaze, his hands covered in blood. He lowered his eyes and bowed his head where bodies lay ready for burial. I remained frozen in place, unwilling to see who we’d lost.

  “Who fucking did this?” I demanded.

  “Witches,” he swallowed.

  “I’ll fucking kill Aria myself,” I growled.

  “I wouldn’t be too quick to kill Aria. I don’t think they intended her to live for long,” Killian stated. “She was fighting with us against them, but we got overpowered, and something prevented us from calling our creatures to the surface. My guess is magic. They dragged Aria into the forest as I stayed to defend Lore and Greer. She didn’t go willingly.”

  “Lore and Greer?” I asked, frozen in place.

  “Alive. They’re wounded but alive.”

  “How bad?” Brander asked, dismounting to walk toward the dead soldiers.

  I dismounted to join him until a noise started, stopping me in my tracks. The hair on my neck rose as I turned in the sound’s direction. My heart pounded against my ribs, painfully mirroring the need to rush blindly toward the noise.

  “What the fuck is that?” Brander groaned, his teeth pushing through his gums as his claws did the same.

  A quick glance toward Killian showed he’d fared no better. Everything within me demanded I go to it, that I follow the sorrowful howling coming from off in the distance. It was a broken wail, one that begged to be answered. My soul cried to go, and before I’d given the order, we all rushed toward our waiting mounts.

  “You feel that?” Killian asked as he turned his horse, facing the forest that loomed endlessly before us.

  “To my fucking soul,” I whispered. “It’s Aria. I know it is. I can feel her fear.”

  “It could be a trap,” Brander pointed out, and we all turned toward him.

  “It could be, but we’re ready for whatever they try to use against us,” I snarled, unable to fight the beast within me, demanding I rush to her.

  “Then why the fuck are we on horses?” Killian asked, and we dismounted, pulling magic to us as we became one with the jetstream.

  “Let’s go witch hunting, brothers.”

  Chapter Three

  Aria

  Someone dragged me into the forest and tossed me onto something hard and unforgiving. The dark bag over my head prevented me from seeing what was happening around me. My body lay prone, unmoving as I pretended to be beneath the witch’s spell. Grunting sounded, and the whinnying of horses filled the woods as the sound of steel meeting steel abated as if the fighting had ended.

  Pain echoed through my head while blood pumped through my veins, causing my ears to fill with the roar of it coursing through me. The wagon lurched forward quietly, and the sound of the wheels and horse’s hooves crunching over the forest floor filled the air. I assumed they were taking me north, to Ilsa, and the Kingdom of Vãkya instead of Norvalla.

  I could hear hushed grunts and words that flowed around me. Men talked in a strange language I couldn’t identify or understand. The witches within the caravan spoke the language taught to me since birth, uncaring that I would hear them if I woke, which meant they didn’t intend to keep me alive.

  Tears burned my eyes at the thought of Knox finding his brother and men slaughtered without a sign of me, and pain rocked through me. He’d assume I had helped murder them, and that would send him off the rails, hunting me down to end my existence. My heart lurched, tightening until a sob threatened to explode from me.

  Greer, Lore, and Killian couldn’t be dead. It wasn’t right for them to die on some road because witches wanted me dead. I’d rushed through the kingdom, leaving havoc and ruins in my wake of chaos, and now they were all dead because of my body count while showing Knox I wasn’t some child he could threaten and own.

  “Lord Andres had better hope he is present when we arrive. I am not willing to allow her to live much longer. Her death should prevent the king from finding her, with her sickly sweet breeding stench oozing from her. Lord Andres should have told us what she was so we could have had something to counter her aroma. I’m not even her species, and I can smell her reek.”

  I sniffed myself, frowning. Was I the only one who couldn’t smell my scent?

  “The bodies we left on the road will slow down the king. One is his brother, which means we should go before he arrives. If he shows up with an army, they will outnumber us, and not even you can match the King of Norvalla in strength.”

  “We won’t be here when he arrives. I only need to extract her scent and mirror her image. Once we have finished with that, I will appear like her, and the king won’t be able to tell the difference between Aria Hecate and myself.”

  I rolled my eyes at the woman’s reasoning and then frowned. Was it possible to duplicate someone and appear as them? Yes. Easily, but this was Knox. He’d figured out my replica within minutes of being close to me when I’d used it on him. Not that it would matter if I were dead.

  “Ditch the wagon. It’s slowing us down,” a woman ordered.

  Someone wrenched me up like a sack of potatoes and slammed me onto the back of a horse. I sucked in air, forcing no response to escape my lips or lungs. Beefy hands pushed into my spine, using me as a prop to get onto the horse’s back. Even the horse grunted beneath the heavyweight.

  We took off again, this time at a faster pace as if fear were rushing us away from the site where they’d murdered Knox’s brother and friends. Like that would prevent him from reaching us? For once, I was glad for the tattoo on my inner thigh, relieved that he would track us, drawn to the general vicinity in which they intended to murder me. Hopefully, he’d show up before they ended my life.

  Hours passed before we entered what sounded like a camp as metal clanged and voices spoke or argued. The moment we breached the hub of noise, silence reigned. The male that had ignored my existence, other than to grab my body when I started to fall, yanked me from the horse, and held me in his arms.

  “Bring her to the tent,” the witch ordered. “Is Lord Andres here?”

  “He is here, Mistress,” someone answered.

  “Good. Find the runner who failed to return and take her head.”

  The male took me into a tent and dropped me on the ground unceremoniously. I sucked in air, remaining limp as the sound of heavy breathing entered behind us.

  “I see you found the bitch,” Lord Andres snorted. “I trust you murdered Killian and Lore to stall the king from hunting her?”

  “Easily. It’s a pity that I couldn’t play with the king’s brother. He excited me. Had I more time, I’d have enjoyed cutting him into pieces to leave a trail back to Ilsa for King Karnavious to find,” the witch stated, her tone high and nasally.

  The witch ripped the hood from my head, and I lunged, slamming my face into hers before she could react. Lord Andres gripped my hair, pulling me upright as my muscles screamed in protest.

  “Stupid bitch,” he snarled, shaking me by my hair as my scalp screamed and rebelled.

  Lord Andres turned me to face the witch, and she slapped her hand against my cheek. Bone crunched as I took in the haggard face of the witch. Her lips pulled back over blackened teeth as she sneered at me, striking me again before cradling her hand to her chest, her fingers broken from hitting me.

  It was a bad sign she was so brittle, showing dark magic had tainted her for a prolonged time. Just like Asil, she was rotten from the inside out. I held her sightless black eyes, daring her to hit me again. Blood dripped from my broken nose as a smile broadened across my lips.

  “Aria Hecate, the High Queen of Witches, has sentenced you to death,” she crooned, reaching forward to run her fingers through my silver hair. “You downplayed her beauty, Andres. She’s gorgeous. It makes perfect sense why the King of Norvalla used her nightly in his bed.”

  “Indeed,” Andres chuckled, pulling me back to l
ick the side of my face with his putrid-scented mouth.

  “Do not mess up her face. I need it to be perfect for replicating,” she ordered.

  “She’s in heat,” Andres grunted, running a hand over my breast, squeezing it painfully.

  I whimpered at his touch, choking down memories of Garrett’s hands on me. Lord Andres jerked me back, handling me like a rag doll as he shoved me toward a stench-covered bed that caused my eyes to water. Rolling over on the mattress, I stared at the couple who watched me.

  “So, what’s your brilliant plan, Kristal?” Andres asked, moving toward the simple table where amber liquid sat in a glass carafe.

  “The same one I used when I created the king’s last lover. I will take her face and use it to become her. After that, I will replicate the scent of her womb to make him think I am her. It worked with the last one well enough. He never even realized she was one of us,” the witch chuckled coldly.

  “You can’t be that stupid, Kristal,” Andres snorted, downing the contents of the goblet before setting it back down. “It isn’t her face that draws him to her. It’s the scent of her womb and her pussy. He’s tasted her, which means you can’t replicate Aria. He’d figure you out before you ever entered his camp. One taste of you and you would be dead, woman. She’s rare, like the king’s own bloodline. Aria Hecate isn’t only a witch. She’s also the same as the king, or she’s close enough to it that he’s drawn to her. You could take her face and wear it, but you’d never be able to duplicate her sounds or her scent.”

  “We cannot allow her to live. You understand that, don’t you? She has left our witches in fear of her marching upon them with her undead army. They’re hiding, and witches of dark magic do not hide.”

  I snickered, drawing her wrath to me.

  “And when you find the one creature that can bring the king to his knees, you don’t kill it. You turn it into a weapon and send it back to him like a bomb, Kristal. Have Aria become like us and send her back to him.” Lord Andres turned, smiling coldly at me as his eyes glazed over to obsidian, but it wasn’t the same as when Knox’s eyes turned dark, allowing his creature to peek out at me.

  Whatever Lord Andres held within him, it was ancient magic and powerful. It was also evil. Pure, horrifying, dark magic slithered over my flesh as his hand grabbed my face. Pain filled my chin where he held me, pinching tightly as he tilted my head, forcing my jaw open so he could peer inside.

  When he released me, I backed up, but he grabbed my legs, yanking them apart before lowering his nose to my sex, inhaling it deeply. Andres’s hands left my thighs, pushing my body backward, and I fell, unable to stop myself from toppling over with my hands bound tightly behind my back. My eyes slid to the rising sun outside the tent, detaching myself from the situation as he pushed his fingers against my core, entering my body with one, then withdrawing it, making grotesque noises as he tasted his finger.

  “She’s in heat, which means the king is coming for her. Everything within him demands he doesn’t lose her during a cycle.”

  “King Karnavious can’t tell the difference between an actual heat cycle and a tonic induced cycle. We stick to the plan. She dies, and I replace her long enough to take his head,” Kristal snapped.

  “You’re not hearing me. The king has tasted her cunt, heard her noises, and knows her scent by heart. You cannot replicate Aria’s scent with magic like your mistress did to his other lover. We gave the tonic to the last one before he’d ever known her carnally.”

  Andres pushed his finger back into my sex, forcing it further into my body as I cried out, struggling to get away from his touch as he reached for something within my body. His other hand slapped me, and darkness danced in my vision as he snorted.

  “She isn’t pregnant, and his scent is weak on her,” Andres declared, pulling his finger up to his nose while smiling at me cruelly.

  “Then what do you suggest we do? She’s a bloodline Hecate witch with too much power to control, Andres. What the dark mistress did to us, I cannot do to Aria or her kind. She’s entirely too powerful to manage while alive. The last one was much weaker and altered at birth to fit her role as his lover. The king was drawn to her from the first scent he caught. We created her to play a role, and once everything unfolded as we’d planned, we freed her from his unwanted affection and touch.”

  “That sounds like your issue. If you can’t figure out a way to control Aria, I’ll keep the bitch and use her to build an army of monsters to go against the king. That,” Andres said, pointing at me, “is unheard of, and executing her is the last resort. No woman has rattled and purred in the last five hundred years. Not that history recorded, nor was it noted in the Library of Knowledge. Most can’t even do one or the other these days, and if she can breed children who can, that makes her worth a fortune. Your mistress wants to use her, but she doesn’t even realize what the little bitch is yet. So go converse with that evil bitch, Ilsa, because you’re not killing Aria.”

  “You’re not in charge here!” Kristal snarled. The magic she rushed through the tent sent bile pushing against the back of my throat.

  My entire body tightened, preparing for the assault that Kristal intended to unleash. Lord Andres snapped, pointed at me, and growled low from deep in his chest. “We can breed that bitch to create monsters. Her womb is fertile and can be filled often. You think of power, but that girl is raw power who can breed an entire army of monsters for your High Queen. Smell her womb, Kristal. That scent oozing from her lures beasts to breed with her, and I intend to do just that. Why do you think the King of Norvalla claimed her? Because he’s very aware of what she is and what she can do. Your queen would be foolish to waste this resource simply because she fears her. I refuse to allow that to happen!”

  Magic shot toward Lord Andres, who jerked back the moment it slithered over him. His hand moved forward, slashing through the air with his blade as Kristal snarled. Blood splattered my face as she howled, shooting dark magic toward me. I rolled before it could slam into my body, groaning as pain burned in my bound wrists, secured behind my back.

  The tent became smothered in magic as Kristal returned her focus on Andres, and he swung his blade wide, cutting deep into her throat. I shivered, gagging on the taste of copper that filled the air, mingling with dark, oily magic. Kristal’s hands lifted, and she sent a powerful wave of magic rushing through the tent, sending us flying in separate directions.

  I peered at the sky, whimpering as I slid onto my side, staring through the bedlam ensuing through the camp. The power in the air was stifling as witches’ battled warriors. Slowly, I lifted onto my knees, searching the area for a direction in which to escape. Men were slaughtering witches while magic rushed through the air, creating plumes of pink mist that had once been warriors.

  Once I’d got to my feet, magic shot toward me, sending my body careening down an embankment. I cried out, forcing myself to get back on my feet once more. I glanced around, listening to the fighting ongoing above me. Exhaling, I closed my eyes to hear what was near me, discovering rushing water.

  Without waiting to see if they’d give chase, I moved toward the sound with my arms screaming in pain. Shouting sounded from the top of the ridge, and I spun in a tight circle, fighting past nausea that burned my throat. My eyes watered from the magic used, causing my mind to lose focus. I gasped as yet another wave of power rushed through the forest, forcing me to choose a path.

  “Find her!” Lord Andres shouted, and I bolted, heading into the thickening forest toward the water to cover my scent.

  My heart pounded, and fear spiked through me, causing the blood to move through my veins like thunder, echoing in my ears deafeningly. Sweat covered my brow, giving them a scent trail on which to follow me. I skated to a halt by the raging river, staring at the other side with despair.

  Turning, I listened as boots crunched over debris, and my adrenaline spiked. Chewing my lip to ignore the morning’s crisp breeze, I moved into the water with my hands still bound behind my ba
ck. They had secured them far enough up that I couldn’t reach to sever the rope binding them. My foot slid over slick rock, and I gasped as I went down, shooting back to the surface, coughing icy water from my lungs.

  I pushed through the current and finally made it to the other side of the river. I landed on the bank, gasping at the frosty chill that settled into my bones. My wet dress felt like lead as I struggled back onto my feet. Shouts sounded from the other side of the fast-moving water, and I hurried into the foliage.

  “She’s here! Find the little bitch!” Lord Andres yelled.

  I trembled, fighting the chattering of my teeth as everything inside of me scrambled to control my body temperature. Hiding in the undergrowth, I watched the men follow my trail to the river’s edge, turning to call out before they pushed into the water. I struggled to my feet as they shouted out my location. I dashed deeper into the woods on burning, aching legs that screamed in pain.

  Chapter Four

  I’d been running for what felt like hours with men shouting behind me. My entire body shook violently from the need to survive. I grew lethargic from the chill in the morning air and the wet dress that clung to me. The shouts were steadily getting closer as exhaustion filled my mind and my body. Pausing, I listened to the thundering sound of rushing water I could see in the distance, vanishing over the edge of what appeared to be a cliff.

  Moving to the ledge, I looked over its side, unable to judge the distance to the falls’ bottom. Shouting sounded behind me, and I turned, shuddering as men rushed forward. Tears pricked my eyes, burning them as I stepped back while gathering strength to leap into the rapids.

  “You’ve nowhere to go,” Lord Andres scoffed as he moved near me, his mouth curling into a cruel smile.

  I sent a silent prayer to the Goddess of Mercy, swallowing bile as his yellowing teeth appeared from his victorious smirk. Going over a cliff with Knox was one thing. Going over one with my hands bound behind my back was suicide. I wished for Knox to appear and end this nightmare. Even if he took my life, it would be better than what Andres had planned for me.