Hereditary (13 page)

“What a beautiful dress,” I breathed, surprising even myself.

Miriam clucked her approval and they seemed to finish with my hair, spinning me around to face them as they both sighed dramatically.

“I wish we could lock you up here forever,” Miriam said wistfully.

“Mum, that was just creepy,” Rose admonished, though she actually looked like she agreed.

They helped me up and over to the mirror, which showed me a view of the way they had manipulated my hair into some elaborate braid down my back that wasn’t quite a braid. There were a few wisps of dark red hair that had escaped to frame my face, and the violet tint of my eyes seemed to be much more pronounced with the colour of the dress.

“Well, I’ve got matters that need attending to,” Miriam said, giving me one last, longing look. “I’ll send a servant up to help you walk, though I’d prefer it if you didn’t leave the castle grounds.”

She waited until I nodded my assent, and then she left, dropping a kiss atop Rose’s head as she moved past. The servant arrived moments before Cale and Hazen returned, and was sent away almost as soon as they did, with Cale declaring that he was more used to seeing me ‘all dressed up’, and therefore less likely to drop me in shock. We went down to the same garden that Hazen, Cale and I had been having our Elven Elementals sessions in, and retreated to our usual corner.

Chapter Nine

Hurt me with Humanity

As soon as we sat down, I began itching to open the connection, and I could tell that after weeks without me, the garden was as desperate for my power as I was to feel its energy healing me. But Rose was still with us, and I didn’t want to test our new friendship, especially not after all that she had done for me.

Unfortunately, Cale and Hazen both knew what it was that I wanted to do, maybe even needed to do, and it put somewhat of a stopper on our usual banter, until finally Rose sighed and threw up her hands.

“Alright,
now
what’s going on?”

Cale smiled at her, obviously amused, but Hazen looked to me, and for the first time since he had helped me control myself back at the Academy in front of Kaylee, I heard his voice in my mind.

You can trust her
.

I started, shocked at the intrusion, and nodded at him, which was all the permission he needed.

“Rose, Bea has… a unique ability. Like Cale’s and my own, but different again. She needs to use it now, we think that it might help to speed up the healing process.”

“Then why hasn’t she done it already?” Rose looked more annoyed than frightened, and she turned to me.

“I’ll show you,” I said, before letting my eyes slide shut and opening myself to the connection.

I should have been more careful, should have done it gradually, or even waited until I was stronger, because as soon as I opened my barriers, the sudden rush of pent-up energy knocked me straight backwards. I jerked in shock, even as I felt myself physically flying off the garden chair, but it was too late, and my mind exploded in a kaleidoscope of colours. I heard the sound of feet running towards me, and felt a hand slip beneath my head, Hazen’s voice floating through to me as though from far away.

“I’ve never seen this before, I don’t understand what’s happening, I can’t stop it.”

And then there was the darkness, the dreaded darkness, though in an attempt to keep it from flowing through the wide-open connection, I hauled it to me, trying to assimilate it right into myself as the swirling attack of power continued to block my mind from Hazen. I knew that I had succeeded in erasing the darkness, when it disappeared as an
emotion
, and suddenly manifested in the form of physical pain.

“Oh no,” someone said as a broken moan slipped from my throat. “It’s happening again.”

I felt a hand over my mouth then, cutting off the scream that was seconds away from tearing through my throat, and heard Rose sobbing for someone to release her, because she needed to get the Healer.

“Rose, Rose, calm down, it’s not what you think. Please, calm down, I’ll tell you everything, but we need to keep her quiet, we can’t alert the others.” It was Cale’s voice talking, and I realised that it must have been Hazen’s hand over my mouth, which explained how the hand had known that I was going to scream.

My back arched then, as the intense pain began ripping down my spine, and I almost blacked out, but a familiar silky voice had me momentarily clinging onto consciousness.

“I can help her.”

For a moment, nobody answered, and then Hazen finally spoke, his voice hard.

“You do anything else, and I’ll rip you apart from the inside out, you hear?”

“Very well. Move aside,” said Nareon.

Hazen’s touch disappeared instantly, to be replaced by another.

“Don’t scream.” The words were soft, and accompanied by a wave of strong compulsion that cut my next scream off before it even began.

Cale made a disgusted sound as my scream melted into a choking, breathless sort of sob, but Nareon passed his hand over my forehead, pushing the hair from my face.

“Drop your glamor, Spitfire.”

Are you crazy
? I wanted to scream, but another wave of pain had me fighting consciousness again instead.

“Drop it now,” he urged. “You don’t have a lot of time left.”

I can’t
, I tried to say, but the words didn’t leave my mouth.

“She can’t, she’s trying,” Hazen said, his voice close.

Nareon swore, and I felt another wave of compulsion sweeping over me.

Remember
, it told me
.
And I did, my mind automatically retrieved the memory of his mouth on mine, his desire leaking into my blood, boiling in my veins, pushing me to a hunger that I didn’t understand. And then, for some reason, the memory shimmered and it wasn’t Nareon’s desire that I was feeding on, it was Hazen’s, as his dark eyes stared down at me. And just like that, the pain melted away, and my eyes snapped open.

“Don’t move,” Nareon immediately commanded, and I thought it strange that the words were followed by an even stronger wave of compulsion until I felt my muscles suddenly tense, and the hunger burn in my chest. My gaze zeroed in on Hazen, my mind focused on the desire that my mind remembered, and strangely, my throat burned, my whole being filled with a need to taste it.

Oh my god
.

“What have you done?” I tore my eyes off Hazen, directing the question to Nareon.

“It’s a
synfee
inheritance, Bea, it’s rebelling against your glamor. If you want it to stop ripping you apart, you have to show that you’re synfee.”

“No way in hell,” I spat, even though I realised that Nareon’s compulsion was actually the only thing stopping me from attacking Hazen.

Nareon narrowed his grey gaze, that misleading light disappearing to make room for something harder.

“Don’t believe the fairytales, Spitfire. We feed off energy, not flesh. And you’re going to take mine, not theirs.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, and Nareon turned to Rose and Cale.

“Go back into the castle, take the Prince with you. You have my word that she won’t be harmed, but I don’t want her losing control while she can still sense any of you. Make sure nobody else comes out here, or they may very well regret it.”

Cale looked as if he would protest, but it was Hazen who finally stood, moving around to take his arm and lead the way back into the castle. Nareon watched until they were out of sight, and then he looked back to me, trapping me under the weight of his hard stare.

“I’m going to lift the compulsion now, but you need to control yourself, Bea. If you take too much, I could hurt you.”

I had no idea what he meant, until the compulsion lifted, and my body stiffened, filling me with a sudden need that almost bowled me over. My gaze narrowed on Nareon, and I realised that he had backed off a little, still crouched but braced as if readying for a fight. And then his scent caught me, and I drew in an abrupt, vicious breath. My eyes flashed as I pushed into a sitting position, and then slowly, I crawled the two steps it would take to reach him. It surprised me, when I grabbed the collar of his jacket and pulled his face to mine, crushing my lips to his, but he was prepared. He tried to temper the kiss, but when I pushed him backwards and slid over his lap to straddle him, his hands moulded to my waist, jerking me hard against him.

I felt the aching ease, even as the burning hunger increased, and I suddenly felt very, very strong. My connection was still open, which seemed to be heightening my feelings from the last time that Nareon had kissed me, and I couldn’t help the breathless sound that escaped my throat as he deepened it, his hands flexing where he held me, tightening almost painfully before he tore his mouth away from mine.

“Dammit…” he muttered, as I slowly returned to myself. “That was too close, but you did well.”

He set me away from him, and he was on his feet in a blur of movement too fast for me to follow, running a hand through his hair as he looked down at me. Some of the emotion drained away from me, and I realised that the seemingly inherent urge to kiss him had, in fact, been a product of his compulsion.

“How do you feel now?” he asked.

“Good,” I said, disbelieving. “Really good.”

“When you don’t feed, your power will cripple you, so don’t go so long next time,” he warned. He looked as if he wanted to leave, but he bent and helped me to my feet.

“Also,” he shot a look to the castle. “Don’t feed on the humans. They’re not as strong as we are. They’ll die, and you’ll never be able to live with yourself. I need you pure. Understood?”

I think I nodded, and he wound a hand around the nape of my neck, pulling my mouth up to his again. His compulsion filled me again, but he cut the kiss off just as quickly, his eyes flashed before he turned and disappeared. I stared at the spot where he had been standing, wondering where the hell he had even gone, and then slowly, my attention turned to the garden. The ground was covered in petals, apples and leaves of all different colours, from the green of summer, to the brown of autumn. Seeing the destruction, I immediately urged my glamor back into place and slammed the connection shut, tears beginning to spill from my eyes. I turned my back on the mess, striding back to the castle.

The others were waiting just inside the doors, and when I opened them, Rose immediately flew into my arms.

“They told me everything,” she gasped, drawing back enough to see my tears. “Did he hurt you? Are you okay? You’re walking!”

I swallowed, unable to answer her questions, and Cale stepped up as if he too would hug me, until his eyes were distracted by something over my shoulder. 

“It’s just a garden,” Hazen whispered. “They’re
plants
,
Bea.”

Cale’s eyes swung to Hazen, and then back to me. “Wait, you’re crying because of the
garden
?”

I didn’t want to look at it again, but it suddenly occurred to me that I couldn’t leave it like that, or else the servants would start asking questions.

“You don’t understand. I must have pushed them though several seasons, that means I stole their life.”

“Actually, you only accelerated it. You didn’t even steal Nareon’s life, only his energy,” Hazen corrected.

“Really?”

“Yeah, but don’t feel bad, he regenerated it almost immediately.”

“Why did I need to steal his, then? Why don’t I just regenerate, too?”

“You’re not the same as them.”

I was suddenly jolted back to a memory of my mother, trying to explain to me that she was dying, and that she was happy about it.

“
Humanity is a choice I don’t regret
,” I found myself whispering, though I wasn’t sure if I were only repeating my mother, or if I had now taken on her mentality.

“I can’t believe you’re crying about the
garden
,” Cale repeated.

I quickly swiped my tears away and spun around to face the mess again. “I better clean this up.”

“How?” asked Rose, following me back to the grass.

“Not sure,” I answered honestly.

I closed my eyes and reached for the connection again, though this time I did it carefully, and soon the energy was once again buzzing through me normally. I sighed, and sank to the stairs that led down to the garden, feeling for the debris that littered the ground. It was strange to feel the ebbing of life that still clung to each thing that my mind touched upon. Hit by a sudden idea, I thought about the energy that I had apparently drawn from Nareon and then, after a moment’s hesitation, I dropped my glamor. It was surprisingly easy, compared to the other times, but I didn’t dwell on that, instead reaching for the life that I sensed still briefly clinging to the wreckage that spread around me. The burning feeling started to well in me, which meant that I was drawing it inwards, which was not what I had intended, and I half-raised my barrier, hoping to stop the flow back into myself.

It seemed to work, as the burning hunger ebbed a little, and I urged the excess energy back into the trees, the flowers, even the grass and
the
soil beneath my feet. It was a painfully long process, as I was terrified that my power would seep into the connection with the life force and further speed-up the life that I had already accelerated. But eventually, there was nothing left to draw from, and I forced my glamor back up, closing off the connection. The others were sitting on the steps with me, and the garden now looked exactly the same as it had when we entered it, though I was significantly weaker.

“I have a feeling your synfee friend is going to be pissed,” Hazen said, once the world dulled back to its normal colours.

“Probably.” I yawned, cringing at the sudden exhaustion filling me. “But I don’t answer to him, or them.”

“He did help today,” offered Cale, a little hesitantly.

“And he’s hot,” added Rose.

I shot a look at them both.

“Not to be trusted,” I said, emphasising each word, and then struggled to my feet.