As he fought with his convictions and doubt, another female came, and then another, all the same...
His fist balled ready to fight the haunts before him. The leader flicked on the light, and when her eyes hit Talon’s, a flood of too many emotions washed over him.
So much pain...
“You’re hers,” he rasped not bothering to look at the others. “Do you know how much fucking grief you have given your mother?”
If he didn’t sound like an old fuck, he didn’t know what one sounded like. He couldn’t help it though; this little witch had stood as an excuse and source of true misery since the day Talon had first landed his shadowy stare on Saige’s beauty.
Skylynn— her hair more lavender than blond, with an image so close to her aunt and mother— stood before him, and relaxed her shoulders. “Not as much as you.”
Talon should’ve raged out at this witchling. He should’ve told her that it was her fault Saige didn’t come to him when he arrived on the stage of her life. It was her fault that Saige forced him on Reveca. It was her fault that each of the Sons were created and now would die because the magic that bore them was no more.
“She was allowed to love me, allowed to show the world how much she loved me with her sorrow,” Skylynn said stepping as boldly and confidently forward as Reveca always had. “She didn’t grieve for me. I was always with her. I saw the tears she spilled for you. I came to her in dreams and sent her to you each time you lost sight of your promise to her.”
Talon’s callous glare flicked to the girls flanking her, more fucking twins! They were Jamison’s daughters. One of them Talon was sure was fucking around with Dagen. “Where is your boy?” he demanded as his eyes fell on River.
“Guarding your perimeter,” River said with a dare in her eyes to push her for info.
Fucking liar, Talon’s expression screamed. Dagen wasn’t anywhere close to Talon, that much he knew. Suddenly, the emotions of River rocked into him, so pure and clear that he was almost sure he could see her recent past.
This female had freed Skylynn from death, or at least she had thrown the first stone to make it all happen. In the wake of her deed, she found where she belonged, who she belonged with.
How fucking sweet, Talon’s thoughts mocked. He wanted to give this chick a lesson, tell her there were no such things as ever afters. Who was he to fuck it up for her? No one. She’d figure it out on her own just like Talon was right then and there.
Talon drew in the sweet scent of fire, the mark of a phoenix, the same one that had haunted his spirit. Maybe it was that fuck who needed a one on one speech from Talon. Living and dying over and over was a curse, not a gift.
“I see you’ve upgraded.” What else could he call it? River had dumped a dark angel for a fiery phoenix. The latter, Talon could trust to always be true to their nature; the former were turning out to be asshats by nature.
River smirked as she and her twin shared a quick glance.
“I’ll be going now,” Talon said as he rose. He had to get out of there, away from this side of the game. This was the innocence Saige and Jamison had protected as Reveca and Talon fought the nasties over the years. They were the reason for so much pain. The reason for so much sacrifice.
Some fucks have all the luck.
Yeah, he had to get away and now before he schooled these females on every drop of blood that had been shed for them before he told them the power they felt swelling inside of them was as seductive as the devil. How it would nudge them to take a little more, then more, and as they did it would consume them and leave them facing an untimely death. The death Reveca Beauregard had suffered.
The next thing he knew, he was seated again. Only this time it felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders, literally. Fucking witches!
“You can not leave the swamp,” Skylynn said in the same fucking calm tone her mother always used with him. A tone rich with comfort and just enough seduction to make him feel hypnotized.
“Let me go, or regret this day for all of your existence.”
It was a cold threat, but one Talon knew held weight. The flare of fear in each of the girls told him as much. He vanished from their hold, then appeared on the front steps and was halfway to the invisible barrier when Skylynn appeared before him. “You leave, and she has no chance.”
Talon furrowed his brow and then glanced back at the cabin, the few steps he had taken had all but slapped Saige. He could hear her cries, feel a new pain in her soul. “No chance of what?”
“Redemption.”
Talon narrowed his stare on the witchling before him who was the perfect mix of Reveca and Saige in all ways. God help the fuck strapped to her— it wouldn’t be an easy road—Talon would testify to as much any day of the week.
“Look here,” he said to Skylynn. “While you were out fucking with magic your mother told you to leave alone—magic that got you snatched just like she told you it would, I was here. While you were lurking in dreams and lost between one place and another, I was here. I was here living when I should have been worm food twice over. There is no redemption for the life I’ve led. There is no balance to it. If there fucking was, Reveca would’ve found it. Now look, the last laugh is echoing through this swamp, and it ain’t Reveca cackling.” He winced feeling Saige’s pain. “Your mother is going to grieve. She will feel this pain. Me stayin’ or leavin’ isn’t going to help either one of us.”
Staying had never been an option in the past. Every time one of these sisters met tragedy, and their powers or emotions were assaulted, they sent him away. They did whatever they do, and when the time was right, he came back ‘round. Rinse, repeat.
Skylynn stepped forward taking him in like he was one of the seven wonders of the world. “Nothing happened the way it was supposed to happen tonight.”
“Ok, Captain Obvious.”
Skylynn’s glance landed over her shoulder then back at him. “Fate has its free will. One exit door after another pops up. They are tests. We fail them, we pass them. Either way, the course is adjusted, and we’re molded into the beings who will either face our tomorrows or merely exist. The strong fail twice as many times as the weak.”
“I’ve failed two females tonight, short stuff. I’ve failed them constantly, on purpose, and by accident. It would be best for you to get outta my way and stop droppin’ guilt. I don’t care what you saw of Saige and me when you were wherever you were. Nobody gets us but us.”
“You leave the swamp, and the spell ends,” Skylynn insisted.” You and Mom are the only ones left. That was the play, put an irrevocable emotion in the hands of empaths and watch them flee.”
“Fucking flee? Is that what you think I’m doing?”
She stared up at him as she crossed her arms.
“I’m going on a hunt, princess. We’re having fried angel wings for dinner, bring your appetite.”
“You blame King?” she asked, her voice filled with astonishment. She was completely blindsided by Talon’s remark.
“Do I blame him? Do I blame the asshat who fucking floated above my family now and again and got Reveca riled enough to do stupid shit that would come back an’ cap her ass tonight? Fuck yes. Do I blame him for showing up and fucking with her head? Fuck. Yes. Do I blame him for all the silent threats he gave me, for the promise that if I didn’t turn Reveca free, we’d all die? What do you fucking think?”
Talon roared in frustration, then turned and lurched back to stand in front of her. “It would’ve helped if your mother stepped up. If she had come to me and said, ‘Hey, we got this. This is what we were waiting on, let me tie up a few loose ends right quick, and all will be well,” I would’ve let Reveca go. I would’ve looked her in the eye and told her that real love between us wasn’t meant to happen, and if she had a shot, she should take it.
“But no, your mother never said a word after she sent Reveca after King. Not even when I went to her playing the role she forced me into. She gave me the we’re done with you now loo
k. Like I was some fucking outsider to this freak show!”
Talon pulled back and tried to find his calm, but it was impossible when he could feel how destroyed Saige was just feet behind him inside the house.
“I acted out of anger and pain when I forced Reveca to break up with me. I was slapping both Saige and Reveca with my big fat I don’t give a fuck attitude. And you know what they did? Let me suffer for it. They let that Ambrosia bitch swallow me whole! My fucking daughter needed me, and I had never been weaker. All of this, every fucking part of my fucked life began when King let himself get taken by a dark god. I wasn’t even born yet! But it was my problem all along – I was to sit and wait for this fuck to come ‘round and handle his woman. A job I was given.”
“It fit you,” Skylynn retorted.
“Oh, no. I’m not playing a misery card. You think I hated it all? You think Reveca didn’t make me feel alive as we raced across the line of right and wrong. Do you think she is not the best fucking friend I have ever had? You’re fucking wrong. There was something real and fucked up right there the entire time. That’s why it hurt. That’s why it fucked my mind over. That is why it was so easy to look at your mother and think maybe she was fucking right; maybe she knew all along I wasn’t good enough for her. I was a little too dirty, a little too un-noble for her ass. Unlike your father.”
Skylynn leaned her head back as a sly grin came to her.
“You can wipe that look off your face. Reveca has overused it, and your mother has played with it enough on her own. I don’t care what it means. I don’t care what you think you know or what you want me to think that you know. I went through all this shit, and that fuck King and all his legions in his Faction didn’t show. They let her die. They made me watch! They made me hold her and see and feel a fear what no one should have to feel.”
He cursed as he punched the air and turned, so close, far too close to storming out from behind the barrier he was behind. He had to do something, kill something. There had to be an outlet for this.
“I told you, nothing happened as it should tonight. Akan played on reactions he knew would come. When you leave, you break the seal. There will be no reconciling this night. He will win.”
“Win what? My fucked up life? The control of Black on the streets? Will he snag a few territories? Do you think I have not lost and won too many fucking times not to know what is what? I have time to deal with my shit, and handle my people. And if we are still standing when the heavens decide that they are through fucking with us, I will hunt that slimy fuck and get back every ounce of pain he has lodged at me tonight.”
“He will demolish you. There will be no standing Throngs, but one man with the power they once had. One man who has unbreakable barters with the dark gods.”
“This is about you, isn’t it? Yeah, it is. Your mother told me you were going to rise, she told me what you were meant for. Now you’re back, got your man, some power jingling in your pocket. But guess what? No one is in the mood to clear the fucking path for your rise, least of all us homemade heathens.”
Skylynn gave him that same fucking grin all over again. “Heathens. You mean souls created from the magic of the Dominarum coven, from ancient blood that is so powerful that Gods deny it exists. You mean souls that are lead and inspired by a warrior in the last Throng. Those heathens?”
“Do not act as if you have honor for my men. I have heard, witnessed and felt the prejudice your coven has slandered my people with.”
“You heard what was meant to be heard. You felt a divide that was meant to be felt.”
Talon glared in response. He hated this witchy shit! Reveca never pulled this crap on him, even when she came close he could see right through it. He’d fought too many battles at her side to not know her, to understand how, why, and when she attacked.
“This is a shock to you?” Skylynn asked. “The man who loved one woman and ruled with another. Who stood one way in public, and a different place when the true essence of his soul churned to the surface?”
“You’re not fucking with my head right now. I’m out. Saige is here, whoever is playing this game will still have a player on the board, and if they are lucky, I will sling the remains of King back in here before the sun rises.”
“You leave, she leaves. You are one.”
“Your mother is in not in the condition to follow me anywhere. Instead of preaching to me, you need to get in there and help her through this shit.”
“I can’t.”
“What the fuck do you mean you can’t?”
“I mean I can’t. Even if she stays right there, your exit from this swamp still ends it all.”
“Why fucking me?”
“The two of you state a protest in the magic, the two of you state it is not over but in progress.”
“What is not over?” Talon said easing toward her. “What are you saying, girl? This was an illusion? I can get her back.”
“You want her back?”
The million-dollar question right there. A life changing, soul-affirming question. Did he want Reveca back? Did he? The question should give him zero pause, not a single one. So why was he seeing the faces of her murderers, not as they were tonight but who they were in life. Why did they feel their misery so richly?
The darkest of moments with Reveca, the cold ones, the bloody ones, the ones where there never seemed to be a way out as he held her as she trembled with regret welled within him. Did he want her back? Or did he want her to have peace?
She was so fucking close! If those bastards had held off for just a few more minutes, even seconds before they delivered their final blow, Talon was sure he could’ve reached her. Sure, if she looked long and deep enough into his eyes she would’ve found a warrior’s peace and died knowing her work was done.
He didn’t want her back, but he didn’t want her soul to be tormented for all of time. He didn’t want his family to die with her magic.
“I want peace.”
“Then stay.”
Talon tightened his hands, feeling Reveca’s drying blood he’d yet to wash away cutting into his flesh.
“I won’t stay blindly. I won’t stay not knowing what the fuck any of you are up to. My men are out there. Innocent people are out there.”
Skylynn carefully looked at his stern expression. “I told you none of this happened as it was recorded it would. This night was days away. Everyone involved was in a position to grow and rise before then. Akan couldn’t do much to stop this, too many moments in time have been locked, protected from anyone changing the milestones made. However, it only takes the slightest change to move the world. Every spell with the magnitude of black and white magic has a window. Nothing meant to be can be undone, only the reactions. The reaction will state where the power goes.”
“What fucking power?”
“The power in your Throng. Right now, you are aimed at King, and when you can’t find him, because you won’t, you’ll shift your blame. You will remember seeing Scorpio, Toril, and Zosime. You won’t care they didn’t strike first. Revenge is what you will want. Your revenge assures Akan’s win.”
“So says your little book of fate, eh? The one that was wrong about tonight?” He leaned forward. “You don’t know shit.”
“No one needs a book to follow this chain of cause and effect.”
“I have to speak to my men.”
“They are hunting now. They are following your orders.”
“They know what happened?” he rasped.
“Do they?”
“Quit fucking with my head, witchling!”
“When the sun rises, if you still want to go, so be it. I think you owe my family one night of pause.”
“Oh, I do?”
Skylynn slanted her head. “You are even more magnificent than promised.”
Talon narrowed his eyes on the girl then stormed off into the fog. He was still behind that fucking barrier, but he was in his own space. It was a compromise he could handle for a few hours. From
where he stood he could see the battle in his mind’s eye, he knew who was where and what their next move was. His thoughts made him sneer. If only the rest of his life were as easy to understand as the simple laws of war.
Chapter Two
Pure exhaustion ripped Scorpio from the vortex of his spell. There was nothing left. He’d waited too long and knew the split second that he felt himself sucked back to the cavern it would all be tragically over soon enough. He could barely breathe, much less hold Toril’s body above his the way they were when this spell began. She’d fall onto him, and in those precious few seconds before the dark gods answered the taunt of the two primordials touching flesh to flesh, he’d breath her all in, and not the memories of their past.
Those memories were now shrouded in doubt. He would not die doubting how he felt about this female.
When he forced his eyes open wondering why he had not felt the soft fall of her frame onto him, he saw scared eyes staring down at him. Her eyes were full of apprehension and fear, wonder and confusion. As he held her, he recognized his son had her eyes.
Scorpio gave a weak nod, and Dust pulled her away. The ache in Dust’s expression as he laid Toril down and rolled his shoulders told Scorpio it had been longer than a few seconds Dust had held her there, confirming the worst of his fears—this wasn’t over yet.
Scorpio’s mind grappled to focus on what had happened, on how far they had gotten, what was left to do, how the fuck he was going to end this. The struggle pulled him into an unwilling sleep. In the absence of consciousness, his soul rushed back to when he had the same look Dust had just now in his eyes. As a child, Scorpio knew nothing, understood nothing, and because he didn’t, he always held hope there was another way. Even as he ran for his life as his home tumbled around him, he never doubted that something would turn the tide.
He needed a dream filled with those rich emotions; he needed to feel the power of his heritage—a reason to hope. When he rose from the dream in a panic, sweat coated his flesh and he was out of breath, his breath close enough to grasp but not hold.