Thanks for taking the time to read my story. A short chapter, but I feel it ended in the right place. If you're enjoying please let me know what you think. bambers2:)
Chapter Ten
Present time…
As I have lost so now shall you know loss. As you have destroyed so now shall you be destroyed. The woman's threat echoed over and over again in Riordyn's mind, filling him with dread. Whoever the woman was she had taken away his memories, abilities, and his lifemate, and he had no idea how to get them back.
At his insistence that Jenna wasn't dead, Rafe, Aiden, and Julian set out to search for her. From their collective expressions, he knew none of them believed she was alive, and he wondered if they would really look for her or merely pretend they had for his benefit. She has to be alive. She must have brought me to Julian – and then what? Why would she leave me and run off? He ran over every idea that came to mind, but nothing explained why she wasn't with him when Julian found him close to death.
Jenna, where are you? he mentally called out to her, concentrating all his energy on breaking the curse depriving him of his abilities. Hear me, Jenna. I need you. His temples throbbed, a headache blossoming behind his eyes as he kept reaching out to her. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tried to rub away the ache.
"If you have a headache, maybe you should lie down for a while," Genevieve said from behind him, startling him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sneak up on you." She took a seat beside him on the wooden glider chair. For several long uncomfortable minutes they glided back and forth on the chair while she watched her two daughters chasing after each other. Then shifting to face him, she rested an elbow on the back of the slatted backrest, and propped her cheek against her fist. "Carpathian men are not easily dealt with," she began with a winsome smile. "They listen to what you say, and then decide what they think is best for all concerned."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"They believe they are protecting you, but I think they are crippling you. Whether you are Carpathian or human, you are still capable of protecting your lifemate."
"If that were true, she would be here right now. Instead she is missing, and I have no way of finding her on my own."
"That's not necessarily true." She glanced up, and waved a hand at her daughters. Both girls stopped chasing each other and skipped over to them. "Uncle Riordyn needs your help girls," she said in a low conspiratorial tone. "But we aren't going to tell daddy about this okay?" When both girls nodded in unison, she added, "They have special gifts I believe will be useful in helping you find your lifemate."
"If that is true why wouldn't – will this put them in danger?"
"Definitely not." Genevieve shook her head. "I wouldn't even suggest it if I thought any harm might come to them." As she spoke, Meagan and Marissa climbed on Riordyn's lap, and each girl tentatively placed a tiny warm hand against the side of his head. Then they grasped hold of each other's hand. When his brow furrowed in confusion, she went on to explain, "They're going to try and see into your past. If it works, you'll be able to see what they see." Lightly resting her hand on Marissa's shoulder, she gave a slight nod for them to begin. "Uncle Riordyn is very sad girls. Something happened to his lifemate, and he can't find her. We need to help him, okay?" Both girls gave Riordyn shy smiles and nodded.
"We'll find her for ya, Uncle Riordyn," Meagan said.
"Thank you, little one."
Meagan and Marissa closed their eyes, and he watched as their eyeballs darted back and forth beneath their eyelids. Their hands grew progressively hotter against his temples as they fell deeper and deeper into a trance. The minutes stretched outward in strained silence while he waited for them to find some small useful thread of his past.
"You took something from her," Marissa finally said. Her eyes opened, and he saw they were glazed over as were Meagan's. "She is very angry with you."
"What did he take?" Genevieve gently coaxed, shaking her head when Riordyn opened his mouth to speak.
"You destroyed her," Meagan went on to say, ignoring Genevieve's question. "You broke her heart . . . ." as her voice trailed off, Marissa picked up where she left off.
"You chose another instead of her."
Genevieve drew in a sharp breath. In Riordyn's mind, he saw a faint image of two women, one with dark hair and crystal blue eyes, and a pale, fair-haired woman with strange silver blue eyes. One of them was his lifemate, and the other was the woman he chose to spend his life with.
"That's not possible. Riordyn, you would never choose another woman over your lifemate." Even as Genevieve tried to defend his honor, he realized Marissa spoke the truth.
"She is very dark," Meagan went on to say, still deep within her trance, and he heard Marissa whimper. "I sense no light within her . . . ."
"As I have lost so now shall you know loss. As you have destroyed so now shall you be destroyed," Marissa uttered, bloody tears spilling down her cheeks as she began to tremble. The voice she spoke with was no longer her own, but the same one he heard over and over inside of his mind.
"Girls, wake up!" Genevieve cried out, shaking her daughters in a vain attempt to break the trance they were under. Yanking their hands away from Riordyn's head, she pulled them into her arms. Still deep within the trance, they flopped against her like ragdolls. "Come on, babies, wake up for mommy!"
"Y-you chose wrong – you destroyed her . . . she destroyed you," Marissa uttered, dark smudges appearing beneath her eyes.
"I thought you said this wasn't dangerous for them?" Riordyn grabbed hold of the girls, lifted them in his arms and raced for pond at the side of the house, hoping the cold water would snap them out of the trance. As he ran, he saw the blurred image of a woman bloody and broken, but before he could determine which woman it was, the image faded to be replaced by a raven haired woman crying as she plunged a dagger into her own heart. Standing high atop a cliff, she plunged to her death with her bloody hands still clutched around the hilt of the blade. At the bottom of the cliff he stood waiting for her, and when her body slammed into the ground, he called upon the lightning to incinerate her body.
"You destroyed her – she destroyed you," Meagan reiterated, blood spilling from her lips just before he dunked both girls and himself beneath the icy water.
Breaking through the surface, he shook the water from his hair, and hugged both girls to him. "I am so sorry, little ones," he uttered, kissing them both lightly on their cheeks. "Had I known this would bring you pain, I never would have allowed it."
He glanced up and saw Genevieve wading out into the water. "Are they okay?" Tears shimmering in her green eyes, her voice trembled with fear. When she reached them, she wrapped her arms around all three of them. "This has never – I never would have . . . I'm so sorry girls."
"It's okay, mommy," they both said at the same time. "She didn't want us to find her," Marissa went on to add, "But we did good, right?"
"Yes, you did," Riordyn answered for Genevieve. "If the woman I love is still alive, I know where I will find her."
"You do?" Genevieve asked hopefully. "Where?"
"Where I witnessed the death of another woman – apparently she wasn't as dead as I believed she was at the time." With his lips pressed into a grim line, he waded through the pond, and set the girls down at the edge. How could I have been so foolish? I knew dark spirits possessed her, but I never once considered it possible she might be a mage . . . I betrayed my lifemate for her, and destroyed everything for her. "I will find you, Jenna, and when I do I will kill you," he vowed under his breath. Menacing laughter once again filled his head – a challenge from her, one he gladly accepted.