The Knight of Swords Reunites With His Queen

Hello,

I hope those Sunday night blues aren't too bad this evening.  In any case here is the next part of my New Adult Victorian Vampire Romance, Knight of Swords to cheer you up!

Posts are short at the moment because I am editing a thriller novel called Perfection for my agent to send out to publishers.  It is taking all of my time at the moment.  Once it is done I hope to share an excerpt with you.

On top of that when KOS is finished, I will be writing a modern spin off to the story on this blog.

In the meantime enjoy the next instalment and keep letting me know what you think.

Happy Reading!

Sara

Knight of Swords

Dropping my coat, I bent down to scoop the child up into my arms.  I held her close.  Tears stung the backs of my eyes as she clung to me, and I to her.  I nodded over her shoulder at Gabriel.  His face flooded with relief.  Despite his eagerness to remove me as Juliet’s rightful mate, he knew we would only be successful in rescuing her if we worked together as an army.

Emily and I sat next to Gabriel in front of the fire.  We held hands as I made contact with Emily’s consciousness.  Inside my mind we stood alone in darkness, facing the barrier that kept me from Juliet’s consciousness.

It was a searing wall of white hot flames.  The heat that came from them burned my face.  My mind was brimful with an intense ball of pain accompanied by a smell of rusted iron that made me want to vomit.  Emily tugged on my hand, drawing me forward.

‘Don’t be afraid, Nathan.  I won’t let it hurt you.’

Tentatively, I moved forward, but the closer I approached to the white hot heat the more pain I felt.  My insides burned as though they were being licked by the flames themselves.  I panted, trying to get my breath as Emily pulled me ever closer.

I watched her pass her arm through the wall and stare into it. 

‘It’s easy.  Follow me.  I can see her, Nathan.  I can see her.’

I took a deep breath as I wiped the sweat pouring down my face before stepping into the flaming barrier that separated me from Juliet.  The moment I touched its fiery surface my whole body was engulfed in fire.

 Chapter Sixteen

My whole body was aflame.  My skin, my insides, my very bones burned with a heat I had never known possible.  I cried out with the pain of it, but not once did the child let go of my hand.  The heat did not seem to bother her, nor the flames ferociously licking at her skin.  And yet, I thought I must surely die.  I had never experienced anything like it, nor wished to ever have the misfortune of enduring its like again.  I clung to my determination to hold Juliet in my arms, allowing its stubborn strength to carry me through my trial.

As I stepped through onto the other side of the wall, the flames dampened and disappeared.  They simply vanished as though they had never been there.   I was left shaking with exertion.  I looked down at my hands.  They bore no marks or blemishes from where the fire had raged across my skin.  We were in near darkness once more, only the flickering light from a burning torch lit the room we had entered, casting eerie shadows across the scene before us. 

Juliet lay upon a rusting, iron table, her body deathly still.  Emily began to cry.  She clutched at her doll.

‘The Queen is hurting,’ she put her hand to her head and sobbed, ‘It hurts, it hurts.’

I squeezed her hand reassuringly as I rushed forward towards Juliet.  She wore an evening gown of virginal white with her titian curls spread untamed around her.  Her captive appearance was both regal and quite beautiful, but for her cruel bonds.   

Narrow manacles of fire surrounded her wrists and ankles pinning her to the table.  They burned her flesh, cutting into tissue and sinew.  Her pale, fragile throat was also ringed with a choking band of fire.  Her eyes were closed as though it hurt to open them.  Her head moved from side to side, restless with the tormenting pain that filled her mind.  Gentle, feverish moans and mumblings of my name escaped her trembling lips.

Anger pierced my soul with a knife.  I felt her agony press against me in my mind.  I smelt the burning of her delicate flesh.  I could hardly contain my raging hatred of Sebastian.  Calling to Juliet, I asked her to wake as I frantically searched for a means to free her.  To my dismay I could find none.

The torchlight cast dancing shadows over her finely carved features as I brushed my fingertips along her cheek, studying her closely with heavy concern.  Her eyelashes flickered, responding to my touch.  Slowly, her eyes opened.  I was relieved when she acknowledged my presence.  My name was a whisper upon her lips.

‘What have they done to you, Juliet?’ I demanded, continuing to stroke her cheek.

‘You must leave my mind.  I . . . I can . . . cannot continue to protect you from this pain if you are here.  I have stopped it reaching you.  It was meant for both of us.  Sebastian wants to weaken you, Nathan.  But I have contained it.  I won’t let him hurt you.’  Her voice was a hoarse whisper, breathless with pain.  Every now and then, her beautiful features contorted with discomfort.

‘Juliet.’  I whispered her name in a strained voice, distressed she endured so much to protect me.

‘He wants to control my powers . . . make them his own.  His body is failing . . . he wants to merge his soul with mine to inhabit my body.  There is a ritual . . .’

Juliet was suddenly silent.  Her body was in spasm, lifting in an arc from the table.  She gave a sudden terrible cry of pain.  The fiery bonds around her throat constricted, cutting off her voice.   The glow of the bonds around her wrists and ankles intensified as they tightened, burning deeper into her flesh.  I was at a loss to know what to do.  I felt paralysed, helpless.  I was no use to her.  Misery and defeat invaded me like an infection.

The spasm passed.  She slumped back down to the table.  Tears ran down her cheeks, but she did not seem to realise they were there.  I cupped the side of her face, making every effort to still the trembling in my hand.  I wanted her to feel my strength and draw from it. Brushing her forehead with a kiss, I sought to comfort her.  She seemed to take solace from the contact, but my voice betrayed my frustration.

‘It can’t be possible.  I won’t let him do it.  Please, Juliet, tell me how to free you.  I don’t know what to do, my darling.’

‘Nathan.  They are coming for you.  I can’t stop them, please my love, I couldn’t bear it if they hurt you,’ her tears became larger, her voice an anxious sob for my safety.  I could only marvel at her bravery.

‘Do not worry about me, Juliet.  I can fight them, save your strength.  How is he planning to join with you?  Where?’

‘He must enact an ancient ritual at a Druid sacrifice site, somewhere on the coast.’  She panted, breathless with the effort of talking.  ‘We have been travelling west.  It is all I could sense.  Sebastian keeps me locked away in a coffin when we travel.  I hate being in it.  It’s so dark and cold.  I often think I will go quite mad.  I feel so trapped.’

I felt my heart leap for her plight once again.  I had to get her free.  I studied her bonds once more feeling feverish rage demand that there had to be a way to release her, even when I knew there wasn’t.

 ‘Nathan, you must listen.  There is a conspiracy of Druids, humans, Taleians, and hybrids, all ready to help him.  I thought the Druids were our enemies . . .’

Her body rose from the table again as the fiery bonds once more constricted.  A piercing scream issued forth from her mouth.  My anger was so strong, I shook with its force. 

The spasm released her again.  ‘Please go, Nathan.’  She turned her head to look at Emily with grave concern, the child’s body still racked with sobbing.

‘I don’t want to leave you.  I can’t.  Don’t ask me to,’ I persisted. 

‘Nathan, you must take the child away.  In connecting you to me, she feels my torment.  A child should not feel this . . .  She has not yet changed.  Her powers are not strong enough . . .’

I glanced over at Emily.  She was sitting on the floor weeping violently, tears streaming down her small, heart shaped face.  She rocked back and forth as she hugged her doll, her mind and body racked with discomfort.  The little girl had suffered so much already.  I knew Juliet was speaking sense, but a part of my mind did not want to hear it.  Slowly, I turned back to Juliet and nodded in agreement.

‘I cannot free your mind from him, but I will come for you.  I will find you.  Hold on until I come for you.  I won’t let you down.  I love you, Juliet.’

I bent down and kissed her lips passionately.  Despite her agony, she responded fervently, as though our contact quenched a thirst deep inside her.  With aching regret I broke our intimacy.

‘Take the child, please . . . leave,’ she whispered.

I gave her hand a squeeze, then quickly led Emily back into the darkness.  The wall of flame reignited as we passed beyond it.

I opened my eyes wide back in the small room of the farmstead.  The only fire I saw now was in the warming hearth.  It crackled, spitting glowing embers, as I drew a distressed Emily onto my lap to comfort her.  She clung to me as though her very life depended upon it.

Gabriel listened patiently, but with increasing concern when we were alone again.

‘There is a Druid altar in Rockcliffe Caves at Tristone Bay on the north coast of Devon.  It is still used as a human sacrificial site by the Druids’ descendants.’

‘Juliet said there was a conspiracy between humans, Druids, and Taleians.’  

‘Perhaps.  They may help Sebastian complete this ritual because they believe he will give them what they want.  Power and wealth.  Sebastian could do many things with Juliet’s powers.  They are deadly in the wrong hands.  I fear he wishes to take the country and all its peoples under his yoke.  He must be stopped.’

‘I just want Juliet back, safe.  I don’t give a damn about anything else,’ I snapped.

Gabriel gave a sigh and stood.

‘We all feel the same way, Nathan.  We have been without a Queen for so long now, none of us could accept it if she died.  A Queen brings light, hope, and governance to our people.  We have wandered for so long, we ache to find a home.  In Juliet as Queen, we can.  Our race will finally have faith once again that we are meant to continue our existence.’

I carefully considered his words.  The depth of their meaning struck a chord, but my impatience to rescue Juliet took over.

‘We should be riding, not sitting here,’ I told him coldly.