21. Marius

The world flickered back to life. Marius spun, unsheathing his sword. Fully leafed oaks swayed in the breeze, and maples spread their branches along a well-set roadway of light stone.

They were not where they had been.

“What magic is this, spirit? Where are we?” He knew he shouldn’t have trusted that Trevain fellow.

“Where is Fara?” Tahlia asked.

Tahlia was panting and wide-eyed with anxiety. Marius longed to grab her and hold her tightly. But of course, he couldn’t or she would die. He remembered Ophelia’s words in painful detail.

“Be calm, my lady,” Trevain said, making Marius want to shake him. “Fara remains nearby, but not exposed to this dimension. You are in a version of my memory.”

He looked very pleased with himself that he had brought them there.

Marius glared. “Return us to our squire or suffer the consequences.”

“Time doesn’t pass in the living world while we are here. Calm yourselves,” Trevain said.

“So nothing is going to happen to Fara?” Tahlia asked, looking to Marius.

Marius gave her a shrug and focused on the spirit.

Trevain shook his head. “She must have some blood that isn’t heavily Mistgold.”

“Yes, she has a dash of human blood. Not like my level of the stuff, but a little,” Tahlia said.

Trevain raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. “I never thought to see anyone escape the varjuline alive. But no, nothing will pass while we are here. She will never even know we have left and the world there is frozen, so to say, while we visit my memory. Now, welcome to my home, the way it was before the dragon riders invaded.”

Marius blinked. “We are in the Kingdom of Spirits?”

“We are. About eight hundred years before the current period.”

Tahlia whistled. “It’s beautiful. Why did it turn into such a hellish place? What did the dragon riders do? Do you mean the Order of Mist Knights?”

“This was before they called themselves that, but in a way.” His gaze cut Marius as surely as a blade. “I speak of the same families that those of the order come from, yes.”

Marius kept his tongue. He had heard versions of this history, and in none of them did his predecessors seem innocent. No, indeed his people had forced their way into this land and he wasn’t proud of what had happened after. He didn’t blame Trevain for his glare or the sharp tone of his words. But that was all the more reason to wonder why the ghost was helping them. He hated the order. Why was he giving them aid?

The verdant forests and lush farmlands shimmered until the group stood on a high hill overlooking a walled city crafted of massive rectangular stones.

“This was our capital. The jewel of our land.” Trevain jabbed Marius with a scowl. “Your kind flew here and stripped our king and queen’s coffers of silver and gold. Then you moved on to our mines, our livestock, our wild animals, and so on. While you were pillaging and doing exactly as you pleased, you spread a terrible plague.”

Trevain lifted his ghostly fingers in a circular movement. Rubbish piled up along the city’s streets and rats ran from building to building. The city’s inhabitants and those traveling outside the walls were dotted with dark splotches. Their skin looked papery and rough.

“One of us decided to sacrifice all and raise a monster,” Trevain said. “Some say he accessed Unseelie power.”

The Unseelie Fae lived in another realm entirely. Though the current Unseelie king had ties to Marius’s king—Seelie Fae King Lysanael—the two civilizations never crossed. Only the royals visited one another and only rarely.

Trevain continued his tale. “Others claim the monster was a summoned demon. No one knows the truth. What we do know is that this male, a guild master from my neighborhood, killed his wife and slowly bled himself to death. In the wake of his offering, a giant climbed out of the earth.”

A three-story structure on the western edge of the city trembled, dust lifting from its walls and thatched roof. A dark gray-green hand exploded from the thatch, followed by a massive head and body. A giant stood up, the building crumbling to ruins around him while screams erupted from the diseased masses. The monster had glittering golden eyes and just the look of him turned Marius’s stomach. It wasn’t that he was hideous and frightening. He was, but the true horror came from the fact that the giant felt familiar somehow.

Why in all the hells would a monster feel familiar to him? He had never once seen this creature.

The giant stepped over the castle walls and grabbed a Green-flanked Terror and his rider. The dragon went limp and colorless. As the monster flung the rider to the ground, the rider’s scream went silent and golden boils popped up along his face and arms. These new boils were like a strange mimic of the black spots on the natives of the kingdom.

Trevain waved his hand and the kingdom faded into night. “The giant’s plague took revenge on the dragon riders who had invaded. None of those with mostly Mistgold blood survived. Once the giant succeeded in his champion’s task, the task set on him by the guild master, he returned to sleep beneath the ground.”

Tahlia grimaced. “High Captain, I believe you have seen the bones of this giant.”

“I have, yes.”

“Oh, wait.” Tahlia pointed at Marius. “Your hands were dirty after you woke up. Remember?”

“Yes.”

“I bet you returned to the bones while we were sleeping.”

“This damned curse.” Marius stilled. He had spoken of something roughly related to his curse. The curse hadn’t halted his tongue. “I am cursed.” He stared at Tahlia. “I can say it. I am cursed.”

“What do you mean?” Tahlia stepped closer.

He backed up, holding out his hands. “Stay away. If you touch me, you die. Ophelia set this curse on me and I haven’t been able to utter a word about it to you.”

His throat grew dry and tight and his heart pounded heavily in his chest like he was sick, but he was telling her. Finally!

“Marius…” Tahlia’s beautiful eyes glistened and she tilted her head. “I knew you wouldn’t just shut me out for no reason.”

“I didn’t realize this would affect your curse in this way,” Trevain said. “I guess because we are here and removed from the living world, you are temporarily free of the curse set on you by Katk’s new champion.”

Tahlia faced Trevain. “So Katk is the giant? What does champion even mean?”

“The one who raises him is his champion. Stories say that his champion may ask for one act of dark magic, but then Katk will feed on those with Mistgold blood until he is satiated or until he runs out of victims.”

“That means Ophelia is his champion. But how? The monster was never on Dragon Tail Peak,” Marius said. “We would have heard of that. My family and all of the riders’ families would have been killed by his plague. I wouldn’t be here if he had traveled into our region.”

Trevain continued. “The ritual can most likely work from far away. And the standing stones and their runes keep Katk trapped here. There is some mystery as to how my people persuaded him to sleep again, but it has to do with Mother Twilight.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Tahlia said. “I can only handle so much folklore and reminiscing for one afternoon. First, I want to hear more about Marius’s curse.”

Her gaze shot to his face, and her eyes held so much hope. Gods, he wanted to kiss her senseless. Breathing out, he focused on the problem at hand.

“So Ophelia truly raised the monster with dark magic.” He shook his head. Despite the topic, his face stretched into a smile and the sensation was odd. “It’s wonderful being able to speak about it. The curse held my tongue until now, it seems. But yes, Ophelia was in my rooms when I returned there after hearing about the commander’s death. She rose and touched my mouth with a bloody finger. She said if I touched you, you would die. Much of my time since that moment has been foggy and dreamlike.”

“More like a nightmare.”

“Indeed.”

“So you believe Ophelia had something to do with her father’s death? Like what I was getting at when I found you and spoke to you? Do you even remember that?”

“I don’t remember, but yes I do think she had something to do with the death. The ritual demanded blood and she used his.”

Trevain was nodding. “Katk will be drawn to Ophelia just as you, her victim, are likely drawn to Katk.”

Marius swallowed. His mind whirled with the cascading effects of the new commander of the order being the murderer of the previous. How could she bring herself to kill him? Madness. Such a mad tragedy. “I’m surprised Ragewing permitted this journey. He knew I wasn’t in my right mind.”

“Oh!” Tahlia smacked Marius’s shoulder, her excited eyes changing to show wide-eyed terror.

She dropped back and stared at her fingers, whatever she had been about to say apparently forgotten.

And she had touched him.

“No…” Marius couldn’t breathe. He turned to stare down Trevain. “How will the curse affect her? She only touched my clothing. Does that mean nothing will happen?” And that the love of his life wouldn’t die before his eyes? “Don’t even try your sarcasm or wry words with me right now, ghost, or I will find a way to end you.”

“Calm yourself, knight. I would do no such thing,” Trevain said to Marius. Then he turned toward Tahlia. “And you seem well enough.”

Trevain appeared completely unruffled, which, of course, ruffled Marius greatly.

Marius eyed Tahlia’s cheeks and bare forearms, watching for signs of anything deathlike. “Come now, spirit! You must know.”

“She would turn to ash most likely. That’s how most curses work, don’t they? How do you feel?” Trevain asked Tahlia.

“Fine.” She looked up at Marius and an ache spread across his chest. Reaching out her unscathed fingers, she said, “Should we try again? Skin to skin?”

Marius drew away, heart tapping madly. “Absolutely not. Are you a fool?”

“A fool for you.” Tahlia smiled, a twinkle in her beautiful eyes.

Trevain shrugged. “I don’t think you would suffer any foul consequences. Although, I will say, you two are using my traumatic memory realm for your selfish purposes. I can’t say that I appreciate it.”

“I don’t give a whit what you appreciate, spirit,” Marius spat out. “We must understand what rules to follow to beat Ophelia and her monster at their game.”

“Well, I suppose that does make sense,” Trevain said.

Tahlia was suddenly gripping Marius’s hand. He glared down at her, fear stabbing him repeatedly and making his eyes hot.

Please don’t take her from me, Old Ones. If you ever cared for this rider, please refrain.

“Are you, how do you, Tahlia, I…”

Tahlia grinned again and the stabbing terror halted. “I’m great!”

Marius crushed her in his arms and pressed his lips to hers. The feel of her soft mouth on his and the curve of her against him nearly had him throwing her to the ground to ravish her properly.

“Still here,” Trevain said.

“Still don’t care,” Marius said, taking a second away from Tahlia’s lower lip.

Tahlia laughed against his mouth and drew her tongue across his. His body jolted with a desire stronger than anything he’d felt in his entire life. He wanted to shelter this female, to destroy anyone who dared to threaten her, to join with her in every physical and spiritual way possible.

He smoothed a hand across her cheek and delighted in the way she shut her eyes and sighed.

“Tahlia, you are not my knight right now. You are you. I am me.”

Tahlia jumped up and wrapped her legs around him. He let out a surprised “Oof,” but he caught her neatly and secured her in his arms. Her warmth made him growl with want. Mine, mine, mine. His heart beat out the truth. She could be his mate if they both chose that path.

He kissed her hard, claiming her even though he wasn’t ready to ask her out loud about their future. He was cursed. Until they solved that problem, no future existed for them. Tahlia returned the kiss, her sweet tongue curling over his and her fingers digging into his upper arms, where the vest ended and his softer tunic began. She rolled her hips against him and he gritted his teeth as longing flowed through him, deep and sure and wild.

But the wind rushed around them. The memory world’s green forests and haze of long ago slipped away.

They were thrust back into the current world. An invisible force blasted Tahlia away from him. Marius tumbled, nearly ramming into Ragewing’s front talons. He sat up to see Tahlia on the ground beside Fara, Tahlia’s face slack with shock.

The memory world was gone and they had returned to the current state of things. Marius shook his head to clear it and adjusted his trousers. Tahlia seemed alive and well. Gods, he worried she’d be hurt. They never should have risked touching.

“I’m fine, Marius,” Tahlia said, standing up and brushing herself off.

Trevain was shouting nonsense and pointing.

“Gods, what is it, spirit? Must you shriek like a frightened hen?” Marius got to his feet.

“I saved Tahlia just now, so you can offer thanks, High Captain,” Trevain snapped. “Now, look to the East!”

Katk, the plague monster, walked across the old road, smashing trees and driving boulders into the earth.