“Why not just question me yourself and kill me now, then, if you are so sure she is going to kill me anyway? It would save me the walk which I’m not looking forward to at all anyway,” Shade snapped. Things were not going in a good direction at all and his wounds had pushed him well past irritable. The eye was the worst of it. He could ignore the wounds on his back and legs, but the eye was impossible to ignore. With each beat of his pulse it throbbed with pain and his remaining eye was blurring with tears making him nearly blind.
“Because she will have her own questions for you, Morcaillo, and a quick death would be too good for your kind. If not for your people, we might have found a place in this world. Instead you used us against your enemies and forced us to perform atrocities. We will be hunted down for our crimes, but we will kill as many Changelings as we can before they kill us off,” Granger replied without a hint of mercy in his voice.
“I didn’t even know my kind controlled the Blights,” Shade muttered as he followed along. “I thought it was just my father that had control over your people, and I would have gladly helped you kill him,” he added with a sigh.
“Save your lies for Onvalla,” Granger snarled.
“I think I’ll try the truth instead. I’m a lousy liar,” Shade mumbled and rubbed his good eye in a vain attempt to regain some of his vision. It would be nice to be able to see who was going to kill him when the time came. “I fucking hate Tevrae,” he grumbled to the goblin that was still clinging to him. It gibbered to him sympathetically and Shade smiled faintly. “Well, at least I won’t die alone. I’ll have one friend with me, even if I can’t understand a single bloody word you are saying.”
Chapter 15
The Darklands
“Try the next one,” Seth’s voice was calm as he flicked another mage stone toward her. Zoelyn eyed it with irritation and dropped the one she was holding. When Neph or Jala made the stones for her they were colored depending on what magic they held. Seth’s were all dark grey with no indication of what kind of magic was held inside. “Try the next one,” Seth repeated in a firmer voice.
“I’ve already tried three and it’s no use. I can’t sense anything from them,” Zoelyn objected as she leaned heavily back in her chair. “I’m sick of failure,” she added in a softer voice and turned her attention from Seth and the stone covered table. The throne room was empty aside from the two of them and Legacy who was playing in the floor beside his father’s vacant throne. She had no idea where Finn was. It was the first time she had been in the throne room when he wasn’t present.
“Are you really going to give up so easily?” Seth asked with a heavy sigh.
“Easily?” Zoelyn snapped. She shook her head in frustration, but refused to look at him. She didn’t want to see what expression he had. “I’ve been working for three weeks with Jala, and another week with you and I still can’t sense anything about the magic or control my abilities at all. I don’t have the talent for it.”
She heard the sound of his chair scraping on the floor and his soft footsteps moving behind her. “You have the talent. All Undrae do. You just need proper motivation,” Seth said in a low voice as he paused behind her chair. She had expected him to move around her, to force her to look him in the eyes, but instead he leaned over her and grabbed her arm in his iron like grip.
“What are you doing?” Zoelyn demanded as he ran a finger down her bare hand. She had taken the gloves off to work with the stones, and the way he was staring at her made her nervous.
Seth smiled at her coldly and grabbed her other arm effectively pinning her in place. “Motivating you,” he whispered. His gaze rose from her to the child across the room. “Legacy, come here.” His voice rose as he beckoned the child over with a nod.
“No,” Zoelyn gasped her eyes flickering to her bare hand and Jala’s son who was already approaching with an innocent look on his face.
“No, Seth, don’t do this,” Zoelyn begged. She struggled in her chair in an attempt to loosen his grip on her arm, but he didn’t budge.
“Legacy do you have faith in Zoey?” Seth asked calmly as the child stopped to watch them with confusion growing in his violet eyes.
Legacy nodded slowly and crossed his arms over his tiny chest. “Are you hurting her, Seth? She doesn’t look happy.” There was a note of reproach in the child’s voice as he continued to watch them.
“Legacy, get back please. Go back to your toys.” Zoelyn’s voice rose with her desperation and Legacy’s expression darkened.
“Zoey is my friend, Seth,” Legacy warned, his eyes narrowing. There was no hint of his age in his tone of voice or the look in his eyes, and Zoelyn knew the boy was dead serious. Legacy had a very fixed idea of right and wrong in his mind, and the expression he was giving Seth left no doubt on how he viewed the current situation.
“I’m not hurting her, Legacy. I’m keeping her from running. She is very afraid right now and she has lost all faith in herself,” Seth explained calmly as he knelt down beside her chair. He still held her arms pinned and by his relaxed posture it was taking very little effort to hold her in place. “Zoey has given up on herself, Legacy. She thinks she is a failure and I disagree. What do you think?”
“Momma says you never give up on what you believe in.” Legacy spoke cautiously and was still watching Seth with suspicion.
The Demon nodded and gave the child another smile. “I want to help her. Will you help me with that?” he asked sweetly. “No, Legacy please don’t,” Zoelyn pleaded. She could feel the beginning of tears welling in her eyes.
“All you have to do is touch her hand, Legacy,” Seth continued in the same sweet voice.
“Momma says never to touch Zoey,” Legacy informed him stubbornly.
“Your momma is right, Legacy, I will hurt you without meaning to,” Zoelyn gasped as she pulled against Seth’s grip once more.
Seth nodded with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Do you remember when your father started teaching you swords, Legacy?” he asked.
“Yes,” Legacy replied hesitantly with a slow nod.
“Do you remember how you did really badly until Finn made you angry and then you started really trying to hit him and you got better?”
Seth prompted.