Blood Before Sunrise

“Nooooo!” My voice exploded out of me, breaking whatever magical barrier that kept it silent. I swooned from the effort it took to exert the one word, the sound dragging out to a keening cry as Raif’s hand fell limp and his head listed to the side.

Fallon stood, his steel gray eyes flashing silver. He cocked his head toward the gaping doorway and then swung his attention back to me, urgency flashing across his cruel face for the briefest of moments. Blood streamed from Raif’s stomach; his breath seemed to still in his lungs. Dying? How? Not the quick-healing warrior I’d grown to love like a brother. I refused to believe what my eyes beheld. He couldn’t die. Please. God. No.

My mind clouded with the force of Fallon’s influence. Against my will, I turned my eyes from Raif’s unmoving form and watched instead as that sonofabitch took the emerald from his pocket and held it aloft. I plucked it from his waiting fingers, holding it before me just as he wanted me to. The room blurred in my peripheral vision, the emerald glowing bright as it became the focus of my entire existence. Seconds-time that never left me-slowed to a standstill, and I realized what Fallon wanted me to do. Only when the emerald consumed me so completely could I travel to O Anel. And he’d known it all along. No longer patient, through with playing games, he pulled me close-so close our bodies contoured to each other. His hand snaked around my neck, burying itself in the curls of my hair and winding the locks into his fist. With a cruel jerk, he forced me to look past the glowing emerald and into his cold silver eyes.

“You should have left him out of our business, Darian. He’d still be alive. But won’t Delilah be pleased,” he mused. “She finally got her revenge.”

“Fuck you!” I shrieked, desperate to dig my nails into his smirking face. “I am going to kill you, Fallon. Do you hear me? I’m going to kill you!”

His face drew close to mine, and I felt my knees go weak. Again, my mind filled with a foggy haze, and I blinked to clear my vision. What had happened here? The door was gone off its hinges, and someone lay on the floor, blood pooling around his body and soaking into the carpet. Who was he?

Fallon squeezed my cheeks in his hand so hard that tears sprang to my eyes. Somehow, I felt that I deserved his treatment and that I needed to be punished for something I’d done. “Since you’re a curious little chit, haven’t you wondered how I can manipulate you with such ease?”

My mind cleared, no doubt because he willed it so, and the pain of the moment crashed over me again. Raif lay on the floor, bleeding to death, and I couldn’t do a damned thing about it. Eyes narrowed in hatred, I was bound and determined to send Fallon to the hereafter once and for all. One wish was all I needed, and I could laugh while Tyler handed this bastard his ass. The words rose up, hovering on my lips before something gray and evil swirled in my head to swallow them up.

“You’ve never asked how you came to this end. Why? Don’t you want to know when it really happened? When you were chosen by Fate to serve this purpose?” He dropped his gaze to the emerald for the briefest moment before turning his attention back to me. “You weren’t the first Guardian to give a blood sacrifice to the Enphigmale. Your predecessor died during the last ritual.” The words sounded as if they’d been wrenched from his chest and ended in a vicious snarl. “And the one before him, and the one before her as well.

“Guardians are chosen for their character, their desire to protect, and strength of will. When a Guardian dies, the next in line is called to serve. Transformation is inevitable. As you moved higher in the ranks of the chosen, Fate prepared you. You became a Shaede because a shadow had been cast on your soul in your human life. And when you found love”-a look of jealousy crossed his face-“you took the light of the sun into your heart, making you even more powerful. The Oracle was my key to freedom. She collected the Guardians and performed the blood rituals. None of the others were strong enough to release us. You were hidden until you grew into the protector you were meant to be. But you didn’t hide well enough. Maybe if that Shaede King hadn’t paraded you around like some sort of concubine, you’d still be safe. No one can interfere now.” The wild tone of fanaticism crept back into his voice. “And you’re nowhere near strong enough to stop me.”

I couldn’t look away, no matter how the emerald screamed for my attention. It glowed so bright, casting a green shadow on Fallon’s face as if pleading for me to fight. Helpless, I stared into his eyes, the silver swirls consuming his irises, no longer gray but shining silver orbs. Something reflected in their depths-a great beast-a gargoyle running through the woods in escape. A voice from my dreams haunted me, the familiarity now clear. “I’ve had your blood,” the Enphigmale said. “And you will obey me.”

My heart pounded, threatening to break right out of my goddamned rib cage. It was impossible. He couldn’t be. But how could I deny what Fallon had all but admitted. “What are you?” I whispered, desperate for his words to prove me wrong.

“I am Faolan, the Wolf of Badb, and one of the nine. The first Guardian. Banished. Cursed. Forgotten. And you”-he licked his lips, hungrily-“belong to me.”

Chapter 23

I stared at him in stunned silence. Never in my wildest imaginings would I have guessed that the lunatic holding me prisoner by force of will had been the Enphigmale I’d failed to kill on the island those many months ago. Isn’t it great the way life can pull the rug right out from under you every now and then?

Delilah tried to tell me in her strange, circular way. But I hadn’t listened. Just like everything in my life, I turned a blind eye and a deaf ear while being beaten over the head with the truth. Even Reaver, though he’d let me steal the hourglass while he watched, had tried to warn me. And Moira, I now realized, had every right to kill me, and probably should have.

“Darian,” Faolan whispered in my ear. I almost laughed. His true name suited him much better. Somehow the long “a” sounded more sinister. The gentle tone of his voice sent chills across my skin, and I shuddered. “Take me to O Anel.”

I couldn’t resist the command. Through my blood, he controlled me, and it must have been an ancient, potent form of magic. It prevented me from resisting the compulsion to do exactly what he wanted me to do. Fight him, damn it! If I could just break free, get some distance between us, maybe I could form a coherent thought. But he had a death grip on my hair, and when I tried to shake free of him, he held me tighter, crushing me in his embrace. My thoughts clouded, the haze sticky and thick like being bound with cotton candy, and as if I’d planned it all along, I gazed into the emerald with no other thought than going back to that grass-covered knoll.

“I’ll take you,” I said, my voice sounding thick with sleep, “but you’re going to die, Faolan. Believe it.”

The emerald called to me, with endless green and beautiful light. The calm spread through me, warm and pleasant like soaking in a hot tub filled to overflowing. Time-the ceaseless cadence that plagued me-slowed again to near silence, and my body went limp in Faolan’s arms. Infinity beckoned, and I gave myself over to the euphoric calm. Don’t you die, Raif. I found your daughter, and damn it, I’m bringing her back to you. I resisted Faolan’s influence, holding on to every last coherent thought. My heart sank as the emerald called to me and the haze of confusion pushed farther into my mind. I fought for one last oath, and I was sure as hell going to follow through on it. Tyler, wait for me, I thought. I promise I’m coming back to you.

I closed my eyes as tight as I could, and in turn, Faolan pulled me even closer. I’m going to kill you. I repeated the thought over and over, drilling it into my mind. No matter what, I had to make sure he didn’t get his hands on Raif’s daughter-not while the responsibility to protect her rested on my shoulders.

A pulse rocked me backward, and Faolan’s body relaxed, his grip no longer squeezing the air from me. As if a breeze had cleansed the fog from my mind, coherent thought returned; only then did I open my eyes, though I dreaded to do so. A blanket of green surrounded us as far as I could see. There was no sign of Brakae. At least something had gone right for me in this never-ending string of bullshit. My Enphigmale companion dropped to his knees and wept, kissing the ground and running his fingers through the grass. I expected him to shuck his clothes and roll around naked for all of his weepy dramatics.

From the moment I’d opened my eyes, I began to count the minutes. Each one that passed helped to guarantee I’d return home to a lonely, changed Seattle-one without Tyler. My accuracy wasn’t great-the sound of