Into the Darkness Read online

  “She is my wife,” I tried to explain.

  “That is a Basilisk,” Mary growled, pointing at Brynn. “They eat their lovers, after sex, routinely. We need to burn her! Now.”

  “She has been charming you with her venom and gaze,” Taesa added.

  My whole body felt weak and sore like I had run a marathon, backward, in a crab-walk stance.

  “Bazal needs water and rest,” Mary decided.

  “And, sex,” Taesa insisted.

  Then… the two women looked at one another and smiled.

  I glanced from one of them to another, then I looked at Brynn.

  She looked… guilty.

  “She has been charming you with her venom and gaze.”

  Taesa’s words revolved around in my head, tearing at my soul.

  Did I only marry her because she stole my ability to choose?

  Had Brynn… Tamed me?

  Was that why I had stayed when Justin had left?

  NO wonder I married her without a fight.

  Brynn had taken away my ability to choose. All I had wanted to do was… please her.

  Oh, Fuck!

  “Did you tame me?” I rasped, looking at Brynn, as I remembered the spider webs falling away from my face.

  Webs that felt surprising like a charm spell.

  She looked away.

  My fucking wife… turned away.

  “Was it all a lie?” I asked, focusing on Brynn.

  She sighed.

  “It’s complicated,” Gavin said, making him complicit in whatever she had done.

  Someone began banging on the door behind me, making my headache even worse.

  “We need to leave,” Gavin insisted. “Then, we can discuss family matters.”

  I wanted to tell them both to fuck off, but Brynn had stood up and retrieved Abigail.

  The baby didn’t deserve to die for her mother’s sins.

  - 19 -

  “Mistress!” a feminine voice shouted on the other side of the door. “Are you alright?”

  Mary stood up and strode to the door before I could stop her. She threw it open and stared at the person on the other side. I could still see blood dripping down the back of her head.

  Now, that sight made me feel a bit… uncomfortable.

  “Why are you bothering me?” Mary said in a voice that felt ice cold.

  “I heard noises,” a young woman stuttered.

  Mary leaned closer to her, and I suddenly realized that I was hearing the conversation from Mary’s ears without even trying.

  My vision suddenly twisted, and I could see a young woman in black robes standing in front of her. She had blonde hair and terrible ache, but her eyes were gorgeous.

  Hana Butler.

  Her name whispered through Mary’s mind, answering my unspoken question. She was nothing but an acolyte who hadn’t even taken her oath yet.

  A pimple-faced twat that was good for nothing.

  Mary’s evaluation of the girl poured through my mind.

  Stupid.

  Useless.

  Not even fuckable.

  Hana shivered in terror, mortified that she had irritated her mistress. I could see the unhappiness in her eyes. She just wanted to make Mary happy. So, she would take Mary’s bloody, horrible oath and slaughter innocents in her name. Just so that someone--anyone--would appreciate her.

  I didn’t want Hana to take that oath.

  No one should bind their soul to evil in the name of religion.

  “Come in, my dear,” Mary said before I could stop her. Mary had felt my interest and had acted on it without thinking.

  Dammit.

  Mary shut the door behind Hana as she propelled the girl into the room.

  “Mistress?” Hana protested when she saw us.

  “Hana… meet, My Love,” Mary whispered, as she put herself between the door and Hana.

  Hana looked from her, and then back to us.

  My brain still throbbed terribly, and I felt like throwing up again. How was I going to deal with this too?

  “You will obey him, as you obey me,” Mary instructed. “Get on your knees.”

  Hana instantly dropped to the floor. Then, she looked down. I could see her trembling.

  “Crap,” Gavin whispered to Brynn.

  This was becoming a major shit show.

  Mary smiled and cracked her knuckles. Then, black tentacles slithered out of the sleeves of her robe. They wrapped around Hana’s throat and squeezed. The poor girl tried to scream, but only gasps of pain slipped out of her mouth. She pawed at the tentacles, but couldn’t make them let go.

  “May I kill her?” Mary asked, looking right at me.

  The Goblin side of me screamed... Yes, but fuck her first.

  Hana’s panicking eyes bored into mine.

  I had lived with humans for too long.

  “Let her live,” I decreed.

  Mary was already loosening her chokehold, but she hadn’t let go yet.

  “If we let her live,” Mary mused, as she ran her fingers through the girl’s hair. “She will tattle on us. Hana is just too stupid to have a brain of her own. She does everything the cult tells her to do. Don’t you, my dear?”

  Hana gripped the tentacles tightly, still struggling to breathe, but she did nod at Mary. Admitting that she followed other people without thinking bothered her, though. I could see the shame in her eyes.

  “I want to please you,” Hana rasped out, as she continued to wheeze.

  What the fuck should I do with this mess?

  We needed to get out of here before the slaughter began. I’d love to save everyone, but there was no possible way. The building and the grounds were covered in Wendigo and black-robed cultists.

  I glanced at Taesa. She looked… hungry.

  Dammit. All I wanted to do was lie down and sleep. Everything hurt.

  “How do we get out of here?” I asked Mary.

  She laughed. “There is no way that the five of you will be able to walk out of here without being eaten, or molested by my subjects.”

  That confirmed what I thought as well.

  “Airship,” Hana wheezed.

  Mary smiled. “Yes, that’s a good girl,” she murmured, touching her acolyte’s cheek. I would have felt sorry for Hana, but the girl literally had blood on her hands. It was caked on, up to her elbows. Fuck, even the hem of her black robes was soaking wet with the blood of her victims.

  Hana wasn’t innocent, not by a long shot.

  “That’s correct, My Love,” Mary murmured. “Hana here likes killing… don’t you?”

  Hana looked embarrassed, but I could see that Mary was correct. Hana enjoyed having power over other people.

  Power corrupts.

  Then, I had a thought.

  “Where is the airship?” I asked Mary.

  “On the roof,” she answered with a smile. “I think that we could get to it without any issues. Most of my cultists are going outside, right about now.”

  “Alright,” I said. “You bring her.”

  It was either bring her or kill her. And, murdering a young woman… just didn’t sit well with me. I’d do it--if I had to--but I didn’t want to.

  “We need plausible deniability if someone sees us,” Gavin pointed out.

  “Chains,” Hana wheezed, still trying to survive.

  I smiled and nodded.

  - 20 -

  “Alright,” I said. “Mary, you will lead us to the airship. Gavin will follow behind you in chains, followed by Hana, and me. Brynn will bring up the rear, wearing Hana’s robes.”

  Hana wheezed and whimpered, not at all happy with that plan. I knelt down by here. “You either come with us, dressed as a slave, or Mary kills you now. Which plan do you prefer?”

  Mary squeezed with the tentacles.

  Damn. I did not want to find out where those came from under that robe.

  Hana nodded vigorously.

  “Stand up,” I ordered.

  I unbuttoned her robes and
handed them to my wife. Brynn refused to look at me as she slipped them on.

  Gavin clamped chains and manacles on Hana and then added a ball gag for good measure.

  “If you try to alert the guards,” he said. “I will kill you first.”

  Hana looked terrified. She was only wearing a thin slip, and now both Gavin and I could see almost everything.

  Including, the fact that she was covered in blood. The fucking girl had bathed in the blood of the innocent.

  Shaking my head, I focused on surviving. I didn’t like the whole chains idea, but killing Hana was worse, no matter what her crimes were. Murdering evil people in itself was an immoral act. I wasn’t interested in falling down her moralistic slippery slope.

  And, leaving Hana behind, all tied up, would leave her in the world of the cult, which I didn’t want to do.

  I don’t know why.

  I just didn’t want to.

  Gavin put his own chains and manacles on.

  Then, he handed me some, as well.

  Binding myself was psychologically more difficult than I thought.

  “Your nose is bleeding,” Gavin said.

  I wiped it off with my hand.

  Then, I felt a cold ethereal kiss on my cheek. Turning, I saw Taesa near the wall. Smiling, she blew me another kiss before she walked through the wall and disappeared.

  Hana started to shake when she saw Taesa leave. I heard her mumble something through the gag, but it was incomprehensible.

  Hell, it would have scared me too, if I was her.

  Mary threw open the door and stalked out into the hallway, daring anyone to stop her. When she didn’t see anyone, she yanked on Gavin’s chains and led us across the hall and up another stairwell.

  Brynn shut the door behind us.

  I no longer liked that she was walking behind me. When I had asked her if she had cursed me, she didn’t say no. And, the more that I thought about my early actions, the more positive that I was that she had charmed me in some manner. Probably with her gaze.

  And, I’d also like to know why she hadn’t used her glare on the giant and the cultists, to begin with. None of this would have been necessary if she had killed the giant when it attacked the wagon.

  Maybe she couldn’t turn people into stone, or kill with a glare like the legends said.

  We went up two more flights of stairs, making a hell of a racket. Luckily, the festivities had started outside. Screams of agony slipped in through the buildings broken windows, and I could smell flesh cooking.

  Leaving was cowardly, but staying and fighting was madness.

  Mary led us onto the roof. There in front of us was an airship, bobbing in the wind. It looked like a sailboat with wings on its sides and under it. Three large propellers turned lazily behind and under it, keeping the craft in place. A wooden cabin stuck out of the back of it, like a forecastle on a ship.

  And, then our luck wore out.

  Three guards were on the roof. They were sharing what smelled like a marijuana cigarette when Mary stormed into their midst.

  Each of the men had a rifle on their back.

  “Ready the ship,” Mary demanded.

  The guards looked from her to us, and then one of them said, “Hana?”

  Fuck.

  We were so screwed.

  Before I could react, Mary stepped up to him.

  “Do you know this woman?” she demanded. I could feel the temperature drop as she asked the question. The guard suddenly looked terrified. In his eyes, Mary was the right hand of God, and God was never wrong.

  Hana whimpered from behind her gag, imploring the man to say yes, to admit that he knew her.

  “No,” he answered, keeping his eyes pointed downward.

  “Are you sure?” Mary asked, leaning in and breathing in his scent.

  The man edged back but tried not to look like he was.

  “You smell like her,” Mary mused. “Is she your woman?”

  “No,” he stammered, “Head Priestess. No. I have never seen her before.”

  Hana sobbed behind the ball and tried to pull away from the coffle. Even I could tell that he was lying.

  “Good,” Mary snapped. “Otherwise, I’d throw you into chains as well.”

  Clapping her hands together, Mary ordered. “Why isn’t my airship ready, yet?”

  The men sprinted to the ship and began to prep it for flight.

  Yanking the chains again, Mary led us up and onto the deck with Hana sobbing in distress.

  This time I could understand the word that she was mumbling.

  Mark.

  She said the name in utter defeat. He had been her man. And, Mark had betrayed her.

  I knew how she felt. Brynn made me feel the same way.

  Mary snapped our chains into bolts preset in the deck of the ship.

  Engines roared under us, and I dared to think that we were going to make it.

  - 21 -

  “Get off of my ship,” Mary ordered the three guards.

  The men fled.

  Mary moved over to a huge ship’s wheel. There were dozens of levers all around it. Yanking on several, I felt the ship slowly rise up into the air.

  Looking down, I saw the Wendigo lite the wicker man.

  It went up like a torch. Hundreds of male voices screamed in ecstasy, as the monsters cavorted around the bonfire.

  Other Wendigo had already begun raping the woman, as their husbands burned. Apparently, they had eaten… early.

  I turned and looked away, but I couldn’t shut out the screams. Tears began flowing down my cheeks, upsetting me.

  I was a Goblin.

  We murdered and killed humans every day and ate their meat. We raped their women and slaughtered their children.

  But, the screams… hurt me inside.

  “Dammit,” I snuffled.

  Then, I noticed Hana panicking. Her hands were chained behind her, and her sobbing had filled her nose full of snot.

  The ballgag didn’t let her breathe out of her mouth.

  Hana was suffocating.

  Her feet thumped frantically on the deck, but Mary only watched her… and me. My new wife wanted to see my reaction. She must have sensed my annoyance earlier when she had instantly reacted to my feelings. So, now she was waiting, as she tried to decide on how best to act… to make me happy.

  But, I could feel her enjoying Hana suffering. The young woman’s fear was a sexual aphrodisiac for the cultist leader.

  Mary was enjoying herself.

  I moved over to Hana and looked into her eyes.

  Pure panic.

  She couldn’t breathe.

  And, like Mary, I was enjoying it.

  I was as sick as my new wife, apparently.

  My hands were strapped behind me as well. I could break the bonds if I transformed into my stone form, but the ship would probably flip over because of my weight. Or the deck would collapse underneath me.

  Did I want her to live?

  Hana began to thrash in earnest, terrified beyond thought.

  Sighing, I leaned over and gripped the ball gag with my teeth. Then, I pulled backward, yanking it out just enough that Hana could take a tortured breath.

  Hana sobbed, drawing in a deep, shaky breath.

  This was the power that Brynn wanted me to have. The ability to kill without effort, so that I could protect her and Abigail.

  That worried me a lot. I could feel the remnants of the curse now. Somehow, bonding with both women had raised my own power level. The burn that it caused had dislodged Brynn’s charm spell, freeing me to decide what I wanted on my own.

  Hana tried to wipe the snot on the outside of the ball so that if I let go, she could still breathe.

  I felt another cold kiss on my cheek.