FOREVER KNIGHTS: #13 Salvaging Souls

“So why haven’t I seen this Radix?”

“He’s been intruding in your dreams pretending to be me. And he’s had Worthington making all the moves for him.”

“Worthington?” She cried in disbelief.

“He’s Cimmerii.”

“How can I trust you! You tricked me!” She looked over her shoulder to keep him in view. Blonde hair sweeping her back as she moved.

“You want to know who I am?”

She was breathing raggedly in fear.

“I needed to be someone you wouldn’t see as a threat. Someone you could befriend. I needed you somewhere safe. You don’t trust easily Nora.”

“I can’t fathom why!” She spat. Drawing a fast breath when his façade completely melted away. Hair darkening to raven’s black and curling slightly. Growing out to reach his collar where it curled around it. Blue eyes intensifying. Remaining pock marks smoothing. His jaw crunched as it jutted at sharper angles, widening. His shirt whispering as the fabric stretched over broadening shoulders and hanging over his slimmer waist.

“What are you?” Covering her mouth she took a step back.

“Bast.” Deragan called without taking his eyes off her. “Leave us.”

“Directly, Captain.” Lowering his head Bast exited the room.

A moment ago he’d been still as a statue. She’d thought he too was frozen.

No. Just awaiting orders.

“Who are you?” She cried. When he didn’t answer, she pressed on. “What do you want?”

“What all men want.”

“Stop saying that! I don’t know what it means!”

He was circling again. Eying her meaningfully.

“Coin?” She swallowed nervously.

No.

“A woman.” He stared at her pointedly. Stepping toward her and pursuing when she backed away. His tone was the deep velvet of her phantom. “Every man wants a woman, one woman above all others. You are her…”

Staring at him wide-eyed she couldn’t speak.

Leaning to be so close his breath was on her cheek, he continued. “Throughout time I’ve sought you, unable to care for another. Like wolves you and I are one. Unable to accept any other in our stead.”

Covering her ears, she shook her head adamantly. “You know nothing about me!”

Catching her wrists lightly he gently pulled them away. “I know everything about you.”

When she tried to retreat further, his grip held her in place.

“We’ve much to discuss, you and I.” His voice filled with sorrow.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She badly wants to retreat. Not now. Not yet.

If I let her go now, she’ll never listen. His dark brows drew together.

“You’d lie to me?” He was surprised.

“You’ve done nothing but tell me the truth!”

He straightened as if she’d slapped him. “You’re correct. But I’ve desired all the while, nothing more than to tell you the truth. Are you going to let me?”

“Why now?”

“Because we’re running out of time. Cimmerii are strengthening.”

Chills poured over her skin. Her jaw moved but no sound emerged. “You’re dangerous. Every fiber of me can feel what you are.”

“Yet still, you’re drawn. Why do you suppose that is?”

Remember. He willed her. Gifting images of them together into her mind.

Looking into irresistible eyes, she was pulled to another time, another place. Remembering the ballroom and hanging on the arm of a man. A man she couldn’t see in her dream before. Now she could. And here he was. Her stranger. Her phantom.

“You’re not crazy. You never were. Your mother wasn’t either. She just sensed things others couldn’t understand.”

Another plane.

She recognized Nonis.

“But-what?” Nora struggled to make sense of it.

“You’re the Fallen.” His tone softened. “My wife.”

“No, I’m not! We’ve never!”

He leaned down and kissed her. Stealing her air and sending her head reeling.

The room heated to lava temperatures.

His hand wound into her hair and the other flattened her lower back to press her tighter to him.

Mind swirling, she remembered long-fingered brown hands caressing her body. Satin lips trailing her neck, heat enveloping her at his every touch. Snapping her eyes open she drew back and met those hauntingly familiar blue ones.

“How can this all be true?”

“How can it not be? You’ve felt it. You already know…” He murmured. “They’re coming to help you this time. I’ve seen your stars.”

“Stars?” She shook her head and tried to pull away but he lifted both her wrists between them.

Capturing them near his chest in one hand, he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear with the other. “The Watchers have been falling to protect you. The guardians they built for you, the Bringers of Dawn, may already be here.” He urged.

Staring at her for an eternal moment. He abruptly released her and strode around her and out the door. Boots creaking over the floorboards. A wave of his hands freed her brothers who began shifting in their seats and eating as though nothing had ever happened.

They don’t remember. Deragan knew they would not.

Breathing heavily and struggling for words, Nora hesitantly followed on numbed feet. But as she stepped through the doorway she met Bast’s gold stare, from right next to the door.

He was leaned against the wall. His profile stark in the shadows. Seeing her, he pushed off the wall. “You think you’re crazy? Understandably.” He sighed. “But we don’t have time for you to suss it out this time.”

“What are you saying!” She burst out. “Stop talking in riddles.”

One thing she hates about Bast. When he’s unclear. Deragan watched from atop the stairwell.

“Forever Knights are dying!” He said severely. “You have to wake up. Read the damn book!” He emphasized the last sentence.

“I have been!”

“Read it all! Now.” He barked.

Deragan’s low snarl drew Bast’s attention to the dark hall above the stairs. Catching my warning.

Don’t talk to her that way.

Giving her his back, Bast too walked away. Tossing over his shoulder. “That’s what you wrote it for!”

Stunned she stared at his back before shouting. “What do you mean ‘what I wrote it for’?”