Land of Monsters (Savage Lands #8)

Chapter 2

Sweat dripped down the back of my neck at the same time my body shook with cold and fatigue. My legs ached, each step getting harder to take while wrestling through the rugged terrain. The gluttonous clouds eagerly dropped more snow on us. The endless patter on my face and head never seemed to stop. Another thing tapping at an exposed nerve.

My whole body was raw and tender, my strength waning as we silently hiked over the mountains. The snow clung to my lashes, and I took in the back of Ash’s physique. His shoulders rolled forward, his body tense, trekking forward without pause.

He had barely looked at me. Not in the eyes, anyway. My throat tightened, tears pricking at the frozen ducts.

It was exactly what I feared. What I knew would happen. It was how most who learned what I was responded. Fear. Horror. Disgust. It was why my parents kept quiet about me and my brother after we were born. Only close family and personal royal guards knew what we were capable of.

The world, of course, knew my brother and I came from a dark dweller and a Druid, but most didn’t know my mother was a natural obscurer. That I could inherit it from her. Be all the “evil” parts of my parents’ union.

My brother was far luckier.

Fear rose when my brother and I were born. Rumors swirled about what my parents could produce, but as the years went by and we grew, the talk died away. It was purposeful. An image we had to maintain. Little did they know the very thing they were so afraid of was even worse than they thought. Or at least for me.

My brother, Rook, was the perfect one. I was the problem.

“Just over that range.” Ash flicked his chin at the mountains ahead of us, his attention gliding over me clinically, no emotion escaping him. When he held my hand, I swear I could feel him, the blood in his system, the beat of his heart, his aura giving me strength.

Now he let nothing show, while I felt exposed and thin as parchment.

I nodded, my fingers searching for the cuff like a security blanket. To despise and miss something equally left me more unsettled in my body. Like a convict who escaped jail but realized they enjoyed the security of the cage.

My powers were empty, a side effect of my glitch, but I still wanted to run back to the protected pen of my cuff, scared of what I could do. It had been almost a year since I put it on, the spelled metal containing my magic, and I had grown accustomed to it. To being without my powers.

Part of me had wanted it off, to feel the wildness roar back in, to be free. The other wished I had walked away from the cave, telling Ash the truth.

I might be half of myself, but nobody would die.

The taste of the man’s blood still coated my tongue, the sound of my teeth tearing into his flesh echoing in my ears. Maybe it horrified me, but the beast enjoyed it, and the obscurer craved it. Natural obscurers were banished for a reason among Druids. We weren’t the healers and protectors; we were the killers and the darkness. We were born of black magic and went against everything of the Druids’ white magic.

My obscurer got off on the power of controlling people, seeing their brains leak from their noses and ears.

I was born to be a murderer.

Ash turned from me, trudging through the snowdrift, his demeanor colder than the ice around us.

Much of last night was a blur after the Russians found us. Only a few moments stuck out amongst the high of blood and power bringing my monster back to life. Except my mind kept rolling back to the tiny hut. Waking up buzzing with heat and lust, the dweller needing to fuck, while Ash barked at me to get up and move. Ordering me around.

I expected my dweller to lash back; she didn’t even obey our alpha at home. But with every demand, wetness seeped into my panties, and I was compelled to strip what was left of my clothes.

Sometime last night, he had undressed me, used his body to keep me warm, saved me from hypothermia… even after knowing what I was. What I was capable of.

My blood heated at the memory of the hut, but I didn’t know why I’d awoken so needy. Like I had sex dreams about him but couldn’t remember. Not that horny wasn’t a natural state for a dark dweller, especially after a kill.

A few yards ahead of me, Ash changed our trek sharply and stopped, pinching his nose like his head hurt.

“What’s wron—” A wave of magic slammed into me. A thick, knotty spell, smelling of earth, layering over my skin, tapping at my most basic instincts, telling me to walk away.

The last time we neared the pagan temple, the spell around my cuff had blocked it, but now I felt it speak to every fiber of my being. Without my bracelet, the Druid spell blasted through my system with recognition and annoyance. Familiarity and challenge. As if we were still set back in the days of warring tribes, a Druid’s signature laid a subtle threat to all who neared from other clans.

Pushing on, I knew Dubthach ( Dew-aach) would feel me enter his spell, the metal no longer disguising what I was. Like a fly hitting a cobweb, even in my weakened state, he’d feel power ripple over his, engulfing his own. I could lose my magic forever, but I was still a Cathbad, coming from one of the most powerful lineages of high Druids. And most of all, I was a Dragen. That alone usually sent people fleeing.

None of my senses were up to par, yet I could feel and smell people creeping up to us, hear the soft clink of a gun’s safety being taken off.

“They know we’re here,” I spoke to Ash, lifting my hands in peace, my gaze roaming the brush in front of us.

“Don’t move or we will kill you.” The voice came from the forest.

“It’s us.” Ash’s hand went up.

“Exactly.” Vlad stepped from behind a tree, his weapon pointed at us. Viorica and Codrin shuffled out from other angles. “You think I trust you anymore? Especially after what happened at Ra?nov?” he snarled, stepping closer.

“We told you we needed sanctuary from Sonya,” Ash replied.

“It was more than that.” Vlad scoffed, his head shaking. “Iain came solely to the fortress for you . People were beaten and taken prisoner yesterday, all because you two got away.” He progressed even closer, his voice tight. “I helped you escape, now help us by leaving. You are a threat to this place. To us. Leave now.”

Over his shoulder, my eye caught movement. Dubthach’s dark skin stood out against the white snow, his rich black, brown, and orange dashiki popping life into the colorless terrain. His expression was stern, his back stiff, his defensive gaze locked on me.

“I knew something was not right with you,” Dubthach sneered, though his eyes held fear. “You are dark. Unnatural.” He came up behind Vlad. “You hold black magic .” Every insult was crammed into those two words, coated in abhorrence and righteousness.

It was how my mother and I were treated when they found out. With repulsion.

My mother’s throne was still threatened by those who continued to hold prejudices about Druids. Death threats and revolts were daily events. Whispers of her past circled about her being “evil,” but most chalked those up to rumors. She worked hard at hiding the darkness inside. Something she and Aunt Fionna tried to teach me… and failed.

“You are a traitor to our kind.” Dubthach peered down at me. “A disgrace!”

“I’d watch your fucking mouth,” Ash growled, his hands rolling up.

“She should not exist.” Dubthach’s nose flared, more confusion and fear registering in his eyes. He sensed something else was wrong with me. Another element in there besides the dark Druid. “What are you?” he whispered before his fear won out. His mouth started moving with an incantation, his hands rising to inflict his magic upon me.

I was empty, with no claws or spells to guard myself, but I held my ground, my chin up. Dragens didn’t run.

“Stop!” A man called out, stepping up behind his group, turning everyone to his stout form. “This is not who we are!” Iacob, dressed in a thin cotton robe and unbuckled snow boots, tramped through the snow. His hair and beard were mussed, like he just woke up and threw on what was near and came running.

“But—”

“She has black magic—”

Both Vlad and Dubthach rebutted, turning to their leader.

“No.” Iacob’s voice barked like a command. “We do not turn away anyone asking for help.”

“Sir—” The Druid tried to speak again.

“I said that is not who we are.” Iacob cut him off. “Too many claim they are open for all in need and are not. I will not be a hypocrite. I saw it too much growing up.” He stepped up to Vlad, putting his hand on the muzzle of the gun and pushing it down until it pointed at the snowy ground. “We help those who need it.” He nodded at Viorica and Codrin, getting them to lower their weapons too.

Iacob’s gaze came to us, his stout frame taking a few steps in the snow to us. With a heavy exhale, he crossed his arms over his chest, his expression growing more serious.

“Though I think you owe us the full truth.” His dark eyes darted between us, landing on me, his tone sharp. “Tell us who you really are.”

?

Minuscule pinpricks jabbed at my thawing skin inside the warm dome, causing my nose to run and my bones to ache. The spell around the encampment buzzed overhead, making me realize how much the bracelet had dulled my senses before. How little I was living, yet the onslaught of it had me longing for the buffer. It was as if I was standing naked—raw and exposed. And way overstimulated.

The herb and mushroom tea in my hands did very little to soothe my nerves. Eyes from all around the dome sliced into me, especially from Dubthach, though the insignificance they had addressed me with the first time was gone. I was depleted and weak, yet they still detected the unusual power that lay within my bones because I was too exhausted to wall myself up.

Dubthach examined me like he was trying to peel back all my layers and ascertain what threat I posed, what powers were lingering just out of his grasp.

I had learned from a very early age to guard myself. I was always around powerful figures and international leaders, people who would feel threatened by the truth. Most already feared my father just from his name alone, knowing my uncles and aunts also stood behind him as well. They knew what my twin and I were, but after years of showing no sign of any particular threat, they relaxed.

The press cooed over my brother, the media fawning, finding no flaw within his six-foot frame. Rook was engaging with everyone from heads of state to maids and even the tabloids, his charm winning people over instantly. I learned to smile, flatter, pretend I was the same. That I didn’t come out fucked up and resenting the cage of royal life.

“Are you ready to explain?” Iacob sat on a bench near us, his robe opening across his bare torso, displaying his hairy chest. Celeste cuddled up next to him like she was a little girl visiting Santa; they all were so free with touch and displaying affection with each other.

One side of me grew up going to the dark dweller ranch with a huge, physically affectionate family. The other side lived in a castle, curtsied, and addressed leaders formally. I couldn’t step out of place because the press seemed desperate to find something wrong with me. From my lunches with friends, shopping sprees, or helping with Aunt Zoey’s orphanage, they found ways to tear me down and make me always seem frivolous and shallow.

Little did they know the depths I kept hidden.

Ash cleared his throat, sipping his tea. He still wouldn’t fully look at me, and I couldn’t deny the ache in my chest. It shouldn’t matter. He made it clear we were nothing. This partnership would end if we made it out of here alive. And now that he knew the truth, the end was coming sooner than later.

Exhaling, I started first. “My name is Raven, and I am a dar—”

“ I’m the reason we are hiding here.” Ash cut me off, his eyes sliding over to me so quickly I almost missed it, but I could sense his body stiffening, telling me to shut up. “She was dragged into my mess like you have been.”

I blinked at him, knowing he was lying. Or at least not telling the whole story. I was just as much the problem. The Russians were here for me. I was the one who brought even more weight down on us.

“My real name is Ash.” He set down his mug, looking at Iacob. “I have come here to seek revenge for people I loved who were taken from me.” His voice stayed steady. “Sonya and Iain are not hunting me. I’m hunting them.”

“Ash?” Vlad muttered his name, his eyes widening. “The same Ash who is said to run with the legend Warwick Farkas? The Wolf ?”

That name had some sucking in breath, as if saying it would conjure whoever this man was.

“One and the same.” Ash dipped his head.

“Futu-?i gura m?ti!” Fuck your mother’s mouth! Vlad stood up, hissing out a curse.

“Many did,” Ash replied.

A laugh snorted from me, my hand clasping over my mouth.

“So wrong,” I mumbled.

He shrugged one shoulder at me. “But true.”

“The Wolf? The man who the legend says came back from the dead? That not even death would have him, spitting him back out? Who can slaughter hundreds in mere seconds?”

“Whoa.” Ash held up his hand. “That’s a total exaggeration. He can kill maybe a dozen, two dozen at most in seconds.”

The entire group stared at Ash in silent horror.

“That kind of violence,” Iacob finally spoke. “Doesn’t it go against a tree fairy’s constitution?”

“I’m not the conventional tree fairy,” Ash said matter-of-factly. “I tried for a bit. Didn’t really stick.” Ash clasped his hands, taking a breath. “I am here to kill the queen and her son, so I understand if you do not want us here. We bring a lot of danger to you. But if you would be so kind to let us have a night to regroup and heal.” He gestured to me. I could see Iacob really noting the blood covering us, the ripped clothing and healing wounds. “We’d be so grateful. We will leave early tomorrow.”

Iacob leaned back, folding his arms over his chest, watching us for a moment. “You do bring a lot of trouble to our door. I’m convinced it’s why my brother dropped you here.” He huffed. “But I keep to my word. Helping people shouldn’t be conditional.”

Vlad and Dubthach whipped to him, “Iacob…”

He held up his hand again. “We are a democracy here. So we will vote on it.” He stood up. “Nays?”

Twenty or more hands went up, including the Druid and Vlad.

“Yeas?”

Only half went up right away, but slowly, a few more hesitantly put their hand up.

I counted. It was an exact tie.

Celeste sat up, her hungry eyes on Ash, a salacious grin turning up her mouth as she lifted her hand, like her vote came with obligations. Ones he’d owe her later.

Deep within, my dark dweller crawled up to the surface. I didn’t even know a low growl came from me until Ash’s head jerked over, an eyebrow curving up.

Embarrassment flooded my face. I hated the feeling of being out of control. I wanted the bracelet back.

“You can stay.” Iacob turned to us. “The beds in the healing room are still open for you.”

“Sir.” Dubthach stood, his expression pinched, his head shaking. “You don’t understand what she is.”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Iacob shook his head. “We voted. It’s done.” He padded away, rubbing at his messy hair. “Now I’m gonna go back to bed. Don’t wake me unless it’s an emergency.”

Some people followed him out, heading for their own bedrooms or to the food tent, while others stayed, lounging by the fire.

Ash rose, giving me a signal with his chin to follow. We made it five steps before Celeste put herself right in front of Ash, her shirt so thin it didn’t cover the fact she wasn’t wearing anything under it.

“I’m happy you came back.” She reached out and rubbed his arm, her teeth nipping at her bottom lip.

“Didn’t have a lot of options.” No emotion came from him, making me curious if he really felt nothing about this stunning, practically naked woman or if he was pretending he didn’t. I mean, how could he not be into her? She was a nature fairy like him. Gorgeous, sensual, and offering him uncomplicated sex.

Unlike you. A voice said in my brain, and I shook it out instantly.

“You know the best way to heal?” She nodded to the dried bullet wound in his stomach, brushing her nipples into him as she rose to his ear. “Sex.” She didn’t bother whispering. “You can just lay back and take all my energy. Heal while I ride you back to health.”

Fury climbed up the back of my neck, another low growl humming up my throat. I was seized by the need to kill. To taste blood. Watch her brain melt from her ears.

Ash’s head jerked to me, his eyes widening.

“Maybe another time.” He grabbed my hand, pulling me with him toward the healing tent, looking back at a stunned Celeste. “Fuck, Raven,” he hissed, dragging me through the door. The dome was exactly the way we left it, even the messed-up sheets from when we slept on the floor together the night before last. “I’m trying to keep what you are hidden while you’re about to tear out her throat, exposing yourself. For what? Jealousy?”

“Jealousy!?” My tone pitched in response, the allegation hitting dead center. “Over you? Are you kidding me?”

“Then why do you care if she hits on me?”

“I don’t!” I sputtered, my arms going out.

“Right.” He huffed, neither one of us believing me. “We aren’t doing this again.” He rubbed at the back of his neck. “You need to be careful. Your eyes turned red.”

“I can’t control it!” Shame bubbled up inside me, along with more anger and defensiveness. I never really could. My brother was a master, while I was a broken mess. “It’s why I wore the bracelet.”

His attention went to my empty wrist, the absence of it screaming through the room. It highlighted all the things we had yet to discuss. No moment to understand what happened last night.

“Tell me.” His voice dragged across the ground, his green eyes looking directly into mine. It made me feel vulnerable. Bare.

“What do you want to know?” I shuffled my feet, folding my arms around me.

“Everything.”

I scoffed, my head tipping back, staring up at the cloudy sky above as flakes flittered down but never touched the glass dome.

“You probably know who my parents are…” I started.

“Yeah.” He laughed. “I actually met your father once.”

“What?” My focus snapped to him, my mouth falling open.

“They came to help us with the battle last year against Istvan.”

“Oh.” My head wagged. “That was the mission Uncle Lars sent them on. Mom only told me Uncle Lars had sent them somewhere.”

“ Szar .” Ash’s hand went back to his head, and he started to pace, a crazed laugh billowing out. “Uncle Lars…”

“Yeah?”

“Your uncle is the fucking king !” He exclaimed, his arms out wide in bewilderment. “Your mother is the queen… and your whole family are deadly killers!”

He wasn’t wrong. Druids to dark dwellers, I came from very powerful roots, not to mention my extended family of pirates, wanderers, incubi, sirens, pixies, and a monkey-sprite.

“How could you not tell me?” Ash’s voice rose. “You are a princess! You should not be here. I thought you needed to go home when I thought you were an average rich girl! I’m shocked they haven’t tracked you down and killed me yet!”

“The bracelet cut off any connection to me.”

His eyes widened. “So now it’s off?”

“It’s not like I have a beacon on me or anything.” I flapped my arms. “And only my brother would have any connection to find me.”

“Your twin, you mean?”

“Yes, but we don’t have some supernatural twin psychic connection where he can find me out of thin air. We’re normal twins. Well, he came out normal. I did not.”

“Normal?” Ash huffed. “You think being half Druid and half dark dweller is normal?”

“No. Rook and I are the first of our kind. But at least he isn’t fucked up like me.”

Ash stilled, his brows lowering. “What do you mean?”

“He’s just a regular Druid and a regular dark dweller.”

“You mean he’s not a natural obscurer?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I was the only one who inherited that gene from my mom.”

“Inherited? I thought the mother had to practice black magic during pregnancy for her child to become one. And even that is very rare.”

“Yeah, so we thought.” I rubbed my cheek on my shoulder, feeling prickles behind my eyes. My mother held vast amounts of guilt, though it wasn’t her fault. “My grandmother did black magic when she was pregnant with my mom. It was during the time Queen Aneira was slaughtering Druids by the thousands. My mother didn’t know she carried this power until her twenties. She found out with me it was something that could be passed down.”

“But not to your brother?”

“No. Rook, of course, came out perfect.”

“You keep saying that.” Ash frowned, like he was mad at me for being so hard on myself.

“Because it’s true.” I started to move around, hating the envy I carried when it came to my twin. “Rook is seamlessly split. He can turn into a full dark dweller and hunts and fights with the pack. Or he can work his Druid magic. He’s one or the other. Never together.”

Ash’s head tipped back in understanding. “You can’t.”

“No.” The burning started behind my eyes again. “My powers were never separate. They came out jumbled and flawed. I get stuck in this in-between state, where I can never fully be a dark dweller, and I have never been a high Druid with white magic like my brother. My mother is a natural obscurer, of course, from her mother, and Aunt Fionna can do black magic, but they both mainly stick to white magic now.” Aunt Fionna still loved to dabble a bit in black magic every once in a while; she still had the choice to do either. I didn’t. Before she reunited with my mom and her own daughter, Piper, she practiced heavily in black magic. She was part of the alliance to take down the fae, but her life took a huge turn when she fell in love with Uncle Lars.

Aunt Fionna was the one who helped lace my cuff with the Druid protection, spelling it to hold back my obscurer and buffer the goblin metal from trying to drain me of all my powers. She saw my heartbreak and knew I needed to be protected from myself, and her daughter was part of the reason for my downfall.

My older cousin Piper was my idol growing up. From the moment I was born, I had been in awe of her talent, intelligence, beauty, and her seer powers. I trailed after her, copying everything she did, said, and wore. I worshipped her, happily sitting by her side on days she was absent from our world, lost in visions, and flighty to reality.

Then she became my foe. Taking the only person I ever loved.

“You could never control them?” Ash’s voice pulled me back to him.

“Well, no. I was okay with dealing with them… before.”

“Before what?”

A tear finally slipped out.

“Before Wyatt left me.” His name was a dagger to the gut, instantly putting the image of him in my mind. His rare smiles and cheeky winks.

A carbon copy of his father Ryker, Wyatt was six-two, broad, blond, and had the prettiest white/blue eyes I’d ever seen. A wanderer like his mother and father, he had his mother’s dimples, which I think I fell in love with the moment I was old enough to understand their power.

“Wyatt is the ex?” Ash’s jaw gritted.

“Yes.” I nodded. “He was my best friend, my first love, and I thought my last. We lost our virginity together. He was my whole world.”

“But…?”

“But he was secretly in love with my cousin.”

“Ouch.” Ash flinched.

“Yeah. She was older than us, and for a long time, thought of us as annoying kids. I don’t know if Wyatt ever really thought she’d see him as more, especially being raised like family together. We dated, and I think he fell in love with me too, at least for a moment there. But we grew up, and things shifted between them. Between us. They began hanging out more.”

I couldn’t go on, remembering how I found them kissing. My heart had shattered into pieces because I could tell it was more than a simple kiss. I couldn’t deny how they looked at each other.

They were fated mates.

And my whole world combusted.

“I was so heartbroken, so lost… I went on a work trip to Russia with my mom and Uncle Lars to get away.” I swallowed, memories of that night flickering in my head. “Another boy was there, saying all the right things, telling me how pretty I was. How much he desired me and always had. I wanted the hurt to stop…” I wiped at my cheek. “No, I wanted to punish Wyatt. I think deep down I was hoping he’d find out and realize what a mistake he made.”

Ash’s head bobbed like he perfectly understood.

“We got really drunk and took some fairy dust.” I closed my lids, more snippets from that night coming through. “We were so high.” I recalled how rough I had been riding Alexsei, how desperate I was for pain, to taste blood, to lose myself, like I could bleed myself of the agony rotting my core. The drugs twisted my mind, making me see Wyatt and Piper next to me, watching him fuck her, grinning wickedly at me, telling me I had never been good enough, that it had always been her pussy he imagined when he had been with me.

The dweller and obscurer lashed out, wanting everything to feel the anguish we did. I had heard his bellows of pain, his distress, even when I felt him come inside me, but I didn’t stop. Nothing felt real, like it was all a faraway dream.

“I snapped.” I swiped faster as a few more tears fell. “I woke up laying in his blood, his throat and heart torn out, blood pooling from his eyes and ears.” A sob racked my body, and I quickly curbed it. There was no image sharper than when I had stood up, his blood dripping from my mouth and hands, while his cum dripped down my legs, and I stood over his dead body.

“The boy…” I lifted my head, looking directly at Ash. “Was Alexsei Kozlov.”

Ash’s mouth fell open, his eyes widening. “Faszom!” he barked, his hand going through his hair. He paced in a circle, understanding the significance of my declaration.

“The son of Dimitri Kozlov,” I continued anyway. “The leader of Russia.”

Ash let out a strangled laugh. “And head of the fucking Mafia!” Dimitri denied his involvement in the Mafia, though it was the worst kept secret. Even Lars was unnerved around them, and if you knew my uncle, that said a lot .

“These people will torture and murder your whole family for looking at them wrong,” he exclaimed.

“But you knew Nikolay was after me.”

“Yes, but I didn’t realize how severe the connection was! This isn’t a little insult. You slaughtered his only son.”

“Yes. I know.” I struggled enough to come to terms with what I did.

“ó, hogy bassza meg egy talicska apró majom!”

“Did you just tell me to fuck a wheelbarrow of small monkeys?”

“It’s a Birdie expression.” Ash walked the floor.

“Who’s Birdie?”

“Someone who’d be kicking my ass for getting myself into this shit.” He swung to me. “So let me get this right, we most likely have the king and queen of the Unified Nations looking for you with a pack of killer dark dwellers at the same time the Russian leader has his Mafia out hunting for you, while I have the entire Romanian army searching for me?”

“Yes.” I dipped my head, feeling overwhelmed. “Plus, I think the Druid here really hates me and wants to see me dead too.”

“ Szar. ” Ash rubbed at his face. “I think the wheelbarrow of monkeys just fucked me .”