THE STRONGHOLD STOOD IN THE DISTANCE, and we waited out of firing range of any cannons, as Aiko advised.
It had taken us two long days to get from the city to this point. The void in the Chasm had been strange to pass through. Nearly a hundred strides long, it was disconcerting to feel as though I had no senses. I knew I had put it there, but the magic didn’t even allow me to penetrate it.
Aiko and I led the company through and out the other side into East S’Kir. There were dozens of vampire warriors standing on the other side, but none of them moved.
Creepy.
Even creepier because they were vampires.
Roran rode up next to Aiko. “My lord?”
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head in anticipation of the question. “Something has happened at the Stronghold if they are not attacking.”
Rilen looked at him. “Good something or bad something?”
Aiko pursed his lips. “When your king is insane, there’s no possible way to know that.”
I nodded. “That is the truth.”
All through our day, it seemed the vampires were lining the entire road. Thousands upon thousands.
“It’s an illusion,” Aiko stated at lunch.
As the last of our battalion passed the end of the vampire ranks, they ran ahead and reformed their lines. Over and over, league after league. Through the whole day. And when we stopped for camp that night, they surrounded us. Two deep and a constant vigil.
Savion was a bastard.
It was mid-afternoon by the time the Stronghold came into view. The vampires lined the rest of the road to the front door.
“The arch is disgusting,” I stated. “It’s bones and sinew and just… beyond anything I could ever think to do with bodies of the dead.”
“Smells too,” Aiko added. “There’s always a festering body somewhere.”
“Sounds like quite the welcome,” Roran grumbled.
I raised an eyebrow. “Wait until you see the fountain.”
The brothers traded looks and decided not to ask.
I was glad I didn’t have to explain.
We stared at the building in the distance, and I glanced back at the battalion behind us.
I shrugged. “Do we rush in? Do we surround the building?”
Rilen motioned up four people behind us, and their horses trotted forward. “What do you think, captains?”
The four of them traded a look with one another, and then glanced at Aiko and me.
A tall woman on a horse nearly as red as her hair cocked her head. “We don’t know the layout of the building, and from what you’ve said, it’s a maze, filled with psychotic torture toys.
The captain next to her nodded. “Captain Sareesa is right. From what we know of our soldiers, they are not ready for such a scene. They will fight, but they aren’t ready for the innocents he tortures.”
The man on the end also nodded, his hand on a wicked looking scimitar blade handle. “It would be best if we surrounded the Stronghold or occupied the courtyard while a select few walked in.”
“I agree,” the other female captain said. “Surround and blockade.”
“Lord Aiko?” Rilen asked.
“Agreed. There are two entrances to the courtyard and one to the palace proper.” He inclined his head to the side. “There is also a secret entrance in the stables. It would be conceivable to send a small platoon in that way. For reinforcements.”
“The stables. They have access to the whole building from there.” A grin spread across my face. “That would be brilliant to have our people in the walls inside.”
“In the walls?” Rilen asked.
“Passages that the rebels have built over the years,” Aiko explained.
“Excellent.” Roran grinned.
A tremendous explosion shattered the quiet of the day, and the entire battalion turned to see where the noise had come from.
A puff of smoke rose near the top of the right turret, and a whistling sound grew louder and closer.
“They shouldn’t be able to fire this far.” Aiko breathed. “Cannonshot!”
It was another few heartbeats before we could see the tiny ball hurtling through the air. There was no way to tell where that cannonball was going to hit.
“Scatter!” Rilen screamed back at the troops. “Off the road!”
Another boom sounded from the left turret.
Two cannon balls.
“Stop them,” Roran hissed.
Time seemed to stop.
I was the Breaker of the Spine.
Bright Sword.
The only child of a vampire and a druid, ever.
I had moved the magic from the Chasm, broken the Spine, set our magic alight.
A cannonball?
Child’s play.
Time released, and I reached out with the magic and touched the cannonball.
It was lead.
It would not be influenced directly.
Gathering the air—not even realizing I was mimicking my magic with my hands—I slammed it into the lead ball and knocked it out into the fields far beyond us to the right.
I quickly switched directions and slammed the same air into the other one, hurling it in the opposite direction.
There were more explosions from the stronghold, and I wouldn’t be able to keep batting the shots away.
“Shield, Kimber!” Rilen yelled as he rode back toward the soldiers, trying to get them back on the dirt.
“Shield the road.” Aiko nodded.
The words I can’t were on the tip of my tongue, and I stopped them.
I could.
I had to.
Shoving my power into the earth below us, I reached and heaved the magic up out of the earth. I dropped all my shields and just let everything S’Kir had to give me flow up and out of my fingertips.
The colors of all the magic danced and blended, they stiffened and flex and formed a dome overhead. The blended white spun into pillars at each corner of the dome, and I pulled the leading edge of the shield to the ground in front of me.
The magic leapt up and held the shield in place.
The cannonshot bounced right off.
Carefully, I withdrew my power, and the magic stayed there, hovering.
“Mistress…”
I turned toward the twinned voices and found Rilen and Roran astride their horses, staring at me. Complete shock and awe written on their faces, they took the next moment to stare up at the magic dome I had created.
“Holy Mother of Sacred S’Kir,” Roran breathed.
“It’s staying,” Rilen whispered.
They glanced back at me.
I smirked. “I am the Breaker, after all. And now, I have my full measure of magic.” I wiggled my fingers, and the sparks danced from fingertip to fingertip.
“Sareesa,” Rilen called behind him, “make sure the soldiers stay on the road, under the shield.”
“I’m not sure where the shield ends,” Sareesa answered.
“Let me try,” Roran said, “since Kimber linked us to the magic as well.”
Wiggling his fingertips at the dome—he and Rilen could clearly see it—a small roil of fog, a misty waterfall, appeared, clearly showing the edge of the protection.
“Amazing,” Rilen whispered.
I looked at them and gave a grin. “Let’s go get Dorian back, shall we? Aiko, you’re with us.”
I turned my horse toward the Stronghold and kicked her into a gallop. Passing through the shield was like a warm caress. Once out the other side, the horse took off as if she had vampire speed.
The gallop up the road was enlightening. I had only been vaguely aware when we raced away in my mostly-dead state.
The Road of Light, leading through the Arch of Life, was nothing of the sort. The fanciful names were something that Savion had dreamed up in his madness.
The road was lined with bones.
Thousands and thousands of long bones from the vampire dead.
Femur, tibia, fibula, humerus, ulna, radius, stacked and held in place with rocks and plaster. Finger bones and toe bones filled in some holes. They were decorated with pelvis and spine.
It was utterly perverse until we got to the columns and the Arch of Life. Composed entirely of ribs and skulls, and held together with sinew, I wanted nothing more than to vomit. This didn’t need to exist. No one needed to know their death.
I wove a little more magic through the bones and sinew and grabbed hold.
I pulled.
The entire arch collapsed, but instead of falling and blocking the road, it all just disappeared as it fell.
The three men behind me exchanged looks, and Aiko chuckled.
“I get the feeling she likes her new strength.”
Twisting in the saddle, I grinned back at them, and then rode on.
At the door were dozens more bodies, piled and rotting. Older at the bottom, newest—a lot of newest—at the top.
The smell was horrendous.
Rilen and Roran were trying not to gag.
I was right there with them.
No wonder those front doors had always been shut.
“How do we get in?” Roran managed to gasp between gags.
Aiko shook his head. “Savion will not open the doors.”
“Then I will.” I smiled while, at the same time, I grabbed the magic with my power and threw a wedge between the closed doors. A hard yank and the doors not only opened but actually ripped off the top hinges.
Oops.
Rilen smirked as we all kicked our horses into motion. Riding through the doors, we pranced to a halt just inside.
There were a dozen bodies over the fountain, some freshly dripping, some gray and drained. The heads were all lined up in front.
Billan was still there, rotting. Another of the guards who had helped me as well.
Sick, sick bastard.
“Welcome back, Mistress Breaker.”
My eyes shot to the balcony.
Savion stood there looking regal, angry and insane. He tipped his head and grinned the grin of a madman.
“Where is Dorian?” I demanded.
“Oh, now come, Mistress Breaker. Don’t you at least want to give your father a hug?”
I gathered magic around me, and I could feel it snapping. “Where. Is. Master. Dorian.”
“Master?” His chuckle had absolutely no mirth in it. “Master. Of course, the coward went into hiding. There is no Master Dorian here.”
Savion extended a finger to the middle of the room and pointed toward the people hanging inverted and headless. “There is, however, a king.”
My eyes snapped up.
Dorian was hanging there.
He still had his head.
“Wake up, your majesty,” Savion taunted. He picked up a small rock—no, bone, from the railing and threw it at Dorian. “Wake up. Mistress Breaker has come to rescue you.”
Naked, bruised, and scored with a hunting knife to make him bleed, Dorian barely stirred at Savion’s taunts. He almost flinched when the bone hit him.
“Come on, Dorian, play along!” Choosing a bigger projectile this time, Savion hit him in a massive bleeding bruise on the shoulder.
“Stop it!” I screamed.
“Let him down!” Roran barked and leapt off his horse.
There were six guns all pointed at Roran in the next moment.
“Come up here, daughter. Say hello to your father.” Savion cooed the words. “Come up here, or the lead goes right into your lover’s brain. And no one survives that.”
I took a deep breath, glancing at Roran, then Rilen. They could handle themselves. I knew they could.
But I had to get Dorian down. He was tranquilized, probably with the same crap they had used weeks before. Savion had probably used it over and over.
The chain that held him was probably made with lead as well.
“Kimber…” Rilen whispered.
“Trust me,” I hissed as I walked by him.
I walked up the stairs I had been thrown down and nearly murdered on. Savion, my father, was waiting halfway across the balcony, watching me.
“Well, well. You survived, I see.”
I paused. “Fuck off.”
Savion threw his head back and laughed, long and hard. “Just as spirited.”
“Let Dorian down.”
“No, my decoration stays.”
I stole a quick glance at him. “How did you manage that? He’s the strongest druid…”
“Strongest druid.” His voice was mocking. “First you tell me you have no idea he’s king, and now…” The chuckle was derisive. “He came through those doors much the way you did, my dear. I offered a story about you being my prisoner. A lovely little tale I spun about you dying if he tried to escape me.”
He walked closer and put a finger under my chin to study me.
“I had him convinced you were at the end of the sword. He had his blade at my neck, and because I told him you would die if I did, he put it down. Three thousand years, one swing away from carrying out the death sentence he judged me to… and he couldn’t because of you. He was so convinced I would kill you.”
He’d given up the feud to save me. I could feel Roran and Rilen’s relief below.
I pulled my chin away. “Release him.”
“No.”
“Release him.”
“Do you not understand ‘no’? He’s mine, and I’ll make him suffer. What do you think he was planning on doing with me?”
“Nothing less than you deserve.”
He yanked his sword off his belt and held it at my neck. “Why do you say things like that? Daughter or no, I’ll have your head.”
I held my chin up. “Take it. I dare you.”
He tried to casually flick my head off.
My sword stopped his blade, and I cocked an eyebrow.
Savion laughed and circled as I held his sword immobile. “You really think you can best me?”
“I don’t care to think about it. I’d rather see if you can get my head off my shoulders.”
He smiled.
I smiled back.
Two could play that game.
I shoved the sword away from my blade and whirled back, meeting his again on the other side.
He advanced, swinging wildly against mine. I also had no idea why he wasn’t fighting me at speed. He would have had me down—even with his predictable patterns—in seconds. But he didn’t use it.
Slamming his sword down on the railing, I pulled close. “Let him down.”
Savion snarled. “You’re as thick as he is.”
I grinned. “He is thick, you’re right.”
Pure hatred raced through Savion. It was almost physical. “You fucked him?”
“Why do you think he’d give up your feud? For some random woman?” I let the blade up and danced back. “Oh, no, Father, not at all. You see, I love him. I fucked him. And I plan to continue doing both.”
“NO!” He stomped his foot like a petulant child. “No! No! No child of mine will sleep with Dorian Ni’aba! None!”
“Well, that’s fine,” I said, stepping to my left, circling him. “You don’t have a daughter anyway.”
“You are my blood!”
“I am your spawn. I am nothing to you.” I spun the sword so he could see the whole blade and handle. “I was born of Celine Stormbreaker. My parents were Willow and Dixon Raven. My father—”
“No!” Savion’s voice was terrified. “No!”
I heard Dorian chuckle and glanced up. He was smiling at me, grimacing from the pain.
“Shut up!” Savion yelled over his shoulder.
A bare whisper in the room, Dorian managed a few words “…the raven’s blade in the hands of the storm…”
“No! No!” he screamed and came at me again with the sword. In a desperate move, he tried to hit the cross guard to break the blade.
I spun it away. “Let him down.”
“I said no! I will watch him suffer! I will make him bleed! I will drain him again and again!”
Savion was in front of me in a heartbeat—vampire speed right into my face. There it was. “And I will kill you, dear daughter because you were fucked by that demon.”
“What did he do to you?” I asked, quietly.
“He judged me guilty!” the words were roared. “He would have put me to death when there was no death penalty in S’Kir. He would have me killed just like his wife!”
Roran spoke from the stairs. “He had Stone Castle prison built for both of you.”
I maneuvered our swords so I could see the top of the stairs. I didn’t know how they did it, but the twins waited there.
Aiko was below, leading a handful of soldiers.
Vampire soldiers.
Savion pointed to Roran. “S’Kir has no death penalty!”
“That’s why he built Stone Castle!” Rilen answered.
“Then why did he kill Violet?!”
Dorian growled. “…selling children…”
I gasped and stared at Savion. Selling children.
“He hadn’t realized you all were stealing and selling the children into slavery,” Rilen finished. “None of you were innocent.”
“Violet and Niallan only brought me the children!”
Roran was suddenly in his face in a burst of speed. “And you turned the girls into sex slaves.”
My breath rushed out of my lungs. “Oh, my gods…”
Rilen quirked an eyebrow. “Do you really think they didn’t know that?”
“You can’t sentence someone to death when there is no penalty like that!”
It hit me like a rock—he didn’t deny what he did.
He and two other people had stolen children and sold them into sex slavery.
Savion was arguing a technicality.
He sold children.
I roared and shot forward. “You stole my mother! You kept her for your own perversions!”
He was barely able to stop my sword. I was driving the blade at him, over and over, mindless and pissed.
He was laughing at me.
Why was he laughing? I was going to kill him.
Savion’s blade sliced my side.
“Kimber!” Four voices.
If you wish to exact a win, you must be exact in your control.
How many times had my father—the man who raised me—drilled that into me?
I was not exact. I was being ruled by emotion and disorganization.
This vampire was going to win because I wasn’t exact.
I snapped back to myself and slammed his blade against the wall again. I needed one more moment to get myself completely under control.
Holding him there, I glanced at Roran and Rilen behind him. I shot a look at Dorian, who was starting to come around. I even took a quick glance at Aiko.
That was where I found my exact.
The scrape of metal on metal drew me back to my present situation.
Savion freed his sword from mine and swung again.
I parried. He swung, and I countered. Over and over again, back and forth.
Each and every blow was form perfect. High, low, parry, counter-parry—I had never met anyone with such perfect form.
And his perfection was his imperfection.
His weakness.
I put a hand to the slice he’d dealt me, starting to feel pain from it.
“You’re dead, girl. You’re dead. No crazy prophecy is going to determine my fate. I’ll kill you, and I’ll kill your demon lover, and I will take his crown and rule S’Kir forever!”
“Madman,” I whispered to him.
“I am not mad!”
“Only the insane never question their sanity.” I was apparently in the mood to poke the kraken today.
He didn’t answer, but instead, came at me again, still following all the rules of swordplay perfectly.
I sidestepped as he was about to try another perfect form, and slipped the blade between his ribs, and pushed through his body.
With a crunching tear that I would not forget for the rest of my life, I pulled the sword sideways, out under his arm.
Savion crumbled to his knees, staring at the gaping hole in his chest.
“No…” He looked up at me. “No…”
“You destroyed my mother. You’ve murdered thousands of people. You’ve ruined the vampires of S’Kir.”
“I am the… king…”
I leaned into him, holding my sword at my side. “I am the Princess Kimber Raven of the House Stormbreaker, Breaker of the Spine and the Bright Sword, Keeper of the Scar.”
His breath sawed in and out, and the blood gushed from the wound I had made. He grew pale and was sweating and shaking.
It didn’t mean he was dying, though.
It meant he needed blood to heal.
It meant I had to finish this.
All of this.
His voice was wavering, but his eyes held all the hate he had ever felt as he watched me. “You need to die with your demon lover!”
“Even the devil finds love,” I hissed.
Savion never saw my sword move.
His head rolled to a stop at the twins’ feet.