Page 11 of Destined

Please don’t leave me here, she’d said. As a young girl Tara had often begged him in her dreams to take her back with him to the clan. I want to be with you.

Dirk had told no one of his intention to make his changeling half-sister his bride. No one but Jarek would have dared to object. But when the time came to bind Tara to him Dirk would make sure his father was already dead. Now that she had given her heart to that Fae scum who had taken her maidenhead, Dirk no longer wanted her as a wife. For that betrayal he would chain the little whore and make her watch as he cut the bastard she had fucked into ten thousand pieces.

You shouldn’t do that, a very young Tara had told Dirk the first time he’d touched her. You’re a grown-up, and I’m only thirteen.

Dirk’s hands bunched into fists as Tara’s image appeared briefly in the center of the glowing-edged shadow. Remembering how it had been with her made his cock hard, and it took all his self-control not to hurl himself into the portal.

“Sister.”

Tara looked back at him for a long moment. “Not anymore.” A moment later the portal collapsed in on itself and vanished.

Dirk felt even more stunned than he had when the dragons had attacked his father’s monstrous creations at the lake. Tara had been taught how to open and close her own shadow portals, but Dirk had never shown her how to do the same with his. She must have discovered the secret on her own. Blocking him from her mind had not only closed the portal, it ended the mindshare spell that had allowed him to enter her thoughts and dreams since she was an infant.

Tara had never resisted him. She’d been his toy for so long he’d never imagined being kept from her thoughts. When he took her back from the Fae, he would have to prevent it from ever happening again. Perhaps he’d use one of his father’s spells to render her as mindlessly devoted to him as Jarek made his own nightmarish creations. Mindless devotion could…

Dirk’s hair stood on end. He knew exactly how to defeat Sheridan, and take Kayla Rowe away from the Fae.

The air in the room turned suddenly brackish as a portal opened in the far corner. It could only mean one thing: Dirk’s time had just run out.

The Blackstone clan leader stepped through. His fine garments sparkled with dark jewels beneath the swirling dark cloak fashioned of spiny hide. Dirk knew his father enjoyed the bristling effect of the cloak, but its true value was in the lethal venom contained in each spine. Many had attempted to assassinate Jarek Blackstone, only to die writhing at his feet.

As his personal guard came through the portal, Jarek took in the filthy room. His thick, craggy features remained impassive as he regarded Dirk.

“You choose a pretty spot to shelter. Do you have her?”

“No, Father. The dragons made short work of your creatures before aiding the Fae against my men. I lost another seven to fire and blade before we could escape.”

Since using Tara as a changeling had been Jarek’s idea, Dirk took some pleasure in relating how she had betrayed the clan.

Jarek’s heavy jaw worked as he listened, and when Dirk finished he ordered his guards out of the room.

“You cannot mean to hold me to account for Tara’s treachery,” Dirk declared. His head snapped to one side and his faced exploded with pain, as his father dealt him a back-handed blow. “I…I knew naught of it.”

“It is just as well,” Jarek said. “I have long suspected you and that half-Fae bitch of mine to be conspiring against me. Now it seems she alone did all the scheming. A pity you did not ferret out her intentions while you were mind-fucking the little whore.”

It took all Dirk’s will to go down on one knee and bow his head. Though pain fed his temper, it was stayed by the knowledge that to do otherwise would result in banishment.

“I but live to serve you, Clan Leader.” He glanced up. “My mistake was in trying to use the changeling as bait. If you will allow me to set one final trap, I know how to lure the spellsinger to it.”

Once Dirk related his plan, Jarek seemed almost amused. “I must have rattled your brains with that clout. What you speak of is suicide.”

“Then you will be rid of me at last.” He spat out some blood. “Give me leave, Father, and I vow I will deliver her and Tara to you.”

“Very well.” His father smiled a little. “Only know that if you fail again, Dirk, you need not return to report it. Bring me the spellsinger, or you will be banished from the clan forever.”

Chapter 7

THE SOUND OF running water roused Kayla from the dark, dull place where she had been floating. She could feel her sodden clothes clinging to her body, and smelled rain. Her wrists felt heavy, and when she twitched one she found it to be manacled to something even heavier.

“She’s very dark, Father,” a little girl’s voice said somewhere near Kayla. “Lorcan said she’s been living with outcasts. Are you sure she’s one of us?”

“Completely, my sunshine,” a mellow male voice said. “Now she’s waking, so you must go to your lady mother. Quickly now.”

Kayla opened her eyes to small slits, which allowed her to glimpse a child with curly white hair and a white dress hurrying out through a crystal-studded wooden doorway.

“Pretending to be asleep will not work, Kayla.” The man came close enough for her to feel his body heat against her cheek. “Feigning death might, but I doubt you’ve developed your gift that much.”

She lifted her eyelids to see a man with clear green eyes. He had long, loose white-blonde hair, a remotely handsome face, and what looked like a ball of foam in his long-fingered hand. She remembered that hand. He’d been the one to pull her into the grove pool.