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Chapter Sixteen
Twenty days ago . . .
Jenna had given Riordyn every chance to walk away from Jinn-Si, and he failed her every time. Her broken heart demanded for her to walk away from him, leave him to suffer as she had suffered. He'd proven over and over again that he'd never chose her if given the chance. He blamed it on the colors he saw when he first found her. What he failed to even consider was that she was also in the same hospital room with Jinn-Si. A fact the mage threw in her face more than once when Jenna contacted Jinn-Si to challenge her for Riordyn's life.
Even if she hadn't worked out every step of her plan to the minutest detail, it wouldn't have made a difference. Riordyn may have been attracted to her, but he didn't love her. If the mage hadn't trapped her, locking her within her own mind while she tricked Riordyn, he still wouldn't have chosen her. He would have gone on forever searching for his allusive lifemate while he kept her from finding anyone to love her.
Now even after she told him she'd found a way to save him from Jinn-Si, he found excuse after excuse to keep her from the mage. Within the three days since she returned, she'd listened to him beg her not to risk her life as he couldn't live without her. To which she reminded he seemed to be doing quite well for himself while she was away for over three months. His blood-red eyes a constant reminder as to why he really didn't want to end his relationship with the mage.
By the fourth day, she had enough and asked Conleth to stay with her when Riordyn returned. This would be the last chance she gave him. If he could not break free of his bloodlust long enough to do as she asked, she decided she would leave him even if it shattered what remained of her heart.
"Don't let me cry, Conleth," she said to him for the umpteenth time, and he gently pat her on the arm. "I won't allow him to make me cry ever again."
"You will do fine, csitri," he said, guiding her over to the edge of the glistening pool. They took a seat on a large flat boulder, and he wrapped an arm around her. "If he cannot see what he is losing, he does not deserve your tears."
The night before Conleth offered to take her as his lifemate, not a decision he made lightly. At the time she said she'd consider his offer although she knew she'd never condemn him to a life with her when his true lifemate was out there somewhere waiting for him. Tonight he offered again, and she smiled at how sweet and kind he was to put her life before his own. She gently refused his offer, but as she sat by the pool dipping her feet into the warm water a thought came to mind.
"What if we made him believe I accepted your offer?"
"It is a dangerous game you play, little one," Conleth said, kneading the tense muscles in her shoulders and neck. "If I haven't spoken the words to bind us, and he thinks he's lost you –"
"I know," she cut him off, not wanting to consider the rage he might fly into if she claimed to want to be Conleth's lifemate. "But it would serve him right for always wanting to pawn me off on anyone other than himself."
"That is not true, love," came Riordyn's husky voice from behind them, sending a shiver of dread racing through Jenna. Send him away. I want to be alone with you, he commanded through their shared mental pathway.
"I'd rather he stay," she replied, shutting her mind off completely to him. "If that doesn't sit well with you then it is you who can leave."
"You would have me beg for your time in front of him?" he asked, lifting a brow.
"Honestly, I don't care what you do," she said, finding Conleth's hand and clasping hold of it to give her the strength she needed to confront him. "Since you've failed to take me to Jinn-Si, I'll be gone by your next rising."
"I will not allow it," he uttered in a low deadly tone. "You will never leave me again." In a blur of speed he snatched her away from Conleth, and held her to him. "Why must you torment me night after night, Jenna? All I want to do is spend time with you."
"As I said, I will be gone by your next rising, Riordyn." She met and held his gaze, and pushed back any feelings she had left for him to the further niches of her mind. "You have failed me at every turn, and I am tired of your excuses – I do not love you anymore."
"You don't mean that." His gaze strayed from her over to where Conleth sat near the pool. "I won't allow you to have her. I'd see you dead first."
"If you ever thought to harm him, I'd take my own life," she warned, and cupping his jaw, she forced him to look at her again. "Don't tempt me as I have nothing left to lose."
"You would rather die than be with me?"
"I am not with you," she reminded him, her tone flat of emotion. "I am someone you visit nightly, and lie to. You have destroyed everything that was good in me, and I cannot go on like this anymore."
"What would you have me do, csitri?" his tone turned pleading, his fingers weaving through her hair. "I love you – I would do anything to please you."
"If that is true, and for your sake I hope it is, take me to Jinn-Si."
As he stared at her, the red faded slightly from his eyes, and he gave a curt nod. "I will do as you ask to my own torment."
Gathering her in his arms, he raced through the tunnel and burst out into the night, flying swiftly through the air to the lair he shared with Jinn-Si. As if she knew they were coming, the mage waited for them at the entrance of the tunnel with her well-defined arms folded across her chest. Her long raven hair blew across her face in the strong breeze, and to Jenna she almost seemed a demon with her fiery emerald eyes.
"Finally, he has brought you to me," Jinn-Si greeted as she sauntered back through the long winding tunnel. "You do understand the terms of our challenge?" she called back over her shoulder, her voice echoing through the tunnel. "If he chooses me you will die."
"I know that is what you hope for, and the only reason you accepted my challenge," Jenna said, pushing away from Riordyn the moment he set her on the ground. "I recall clearly how you relished the idea of destroying his life a second time."
"He is a fool and easily manipulated," she said with dismissive wave of her hand. "Tell me again, how much it hurt when he failed to realize the colors he saw were because of you not me?"
Riordyn sucked in a sharp breath, and looked to her, but she kept her sights straight ahead on Jinn-Si's back. "Jenna, I'm –"
"I don't want to hear how sorry you are!" she snapped, cutting him off from making another useless apology. "I've heard it over and over again, and by now it means nothing."
Riordyn caught hold of her wrist, and swung her to face him. "Tell me what to do to fix this, and I swear I'll do it."
"It's too late to fix what's wrong with our relationship." Tears stung at her eyes, and she angrily wiped them away. "So, I'm giving you the chance to start over." She pressed her eyes closed, and called on the ancient Carpathians to help her save Riordyn from himself. When she opened her eyes again, his father appeared at her side.
I am so sorry for all the pain my son has cause you, csitri, he said through their shared mental pathway. We are all here with you, and will help in whatever way we can.
You understand he needs to die in order that he may be reborn – to forget all he has known to have a chance to rebuild his life, she responded, glancing briefly at Riordyn before returning her attention to his father. I fear it is too late for us, but if he does choose me this time around, I promise to give him a chance.
I would not ask that of you as I know how much you have suffered at his hand.
In my heart I feel I cannot live with the things he's done – using me as his excuse to stay with her. I will not easily forgive him.
That is as it should be, Stephen said, and she could feel the strength of Riordyn's people settling through her body and mind, giving her the courage she needed to do what needed to be done.
XxXxXxXxX
Riordyn's stomach knotted when he saw the rumpled bedding, and heard Jenna gasp amidst Jinn-Si's laughter. Jinn-Si sauntered to the bed and sat crossing her legs and exposing an ample view of her upper thigh through the high split in her emerald dress. As Jinn-Si smoothed over a few of the rumples with her hand, she kept her eyes on Jenna. The implications of her simple gesture were clear, and he prayed Jenna would see through her lie. If Jenna had known Jinn-Si well enough, she would've understood the mage hated him for killing her husband, and only made love to Riordyn the one time to seal his fate. He thought to lie to her as well, to say he slept beneath the earth instead of beside the mage, yet when she looked him the eye, he couldn't hold her tearful gaze.
"H-how many times?" she stammered, her breath hitching in her throat. Her heartbeat thundered in his ears, making it hard for him to think straight.
He opened his mouth to tell her he had only had sex with her the one time when he believed her to be his lifemate, and the rest of the time he merely slept beside her as she commanded. Jinn-Si cut him off. "He has made love to me every night since the day we became lifemates," she lied smoothly, and from the shattered look in Jenna's eyes he knew she believed it to be the truth. "Then he would curse himself and rush to your side." She lifted a delicate brow, and added, "Did he make you believe otherwise?"
"I have no misconceptions about his honor or lack thereof." Jenna squared her shoulders, and tilted her chin defiantly. "If he chooses me, his rightful lifemate, this time, your life will be forfeit. I will call upon all Ancient Carpathians to see it done."
"And if he chooses me, as he most certainly will, you will die a painful death." She waved a hand at Riordyn. "Your death, however, will be much slower. Before you die, you will know the torment of living as I have lived without the comfort of the one you love."
"Do you accept the terms of our agreement, Riordyn?" Jenna asked without looking at him.
"What if I refuse?" he asked, trying to catch her eye, but she kept her sights locked on the candles burning off to the right of Jinn-Si.
"Then I will die, and you can live the rest of your life as you see fit," Jenna replied, her voice utterly devoid of any emotion.
You leave me with no choice as I would do anything to be with you, csitri, he tried to say through their shared mental pathway, but she had closed herself completely to him. "I accept you terms."
Both women gave a nod, and then Jenna stepped away from him. Her head fell backward to rest on her shoulders, and called out, "I call upon all Ancient Carpathians to come forth and see justice served for one who has been grievously wronged."
Riordyn half-expected to see his brother, their prince Mikhail, Gregori, and his cousins, Julian and Aidan, instead the expansive cavern filled with shimmering ghostly presences. His father, his uncle, kings and princes from the time he was a child and from long before that - warriors and those who had died in battle. Then came the women – queens and princesses, lifemates who chose to follow their men into death. All of them crowded close to bear witness to his betrayal of his lifemate. And as he thought it couldn't get any worse, his mother appeared in front of him with his little brothers at her side.
"You have brought shame to our family," his mother said, lightly trailing her fingers across his cheek. "You have wronged your lifemate in every possible way, and we can do no other than see justice served."
A sick feeling curdling in his stomach, Riordyn dropped to his knees, and bowed his head, silently awaiting whatever punishment the Ancients chose to cast down upon him. "I deserve no less than to suffer endlessly for betraying my lifemate. I will accept whatever punishment you see fit to cast upon me."
"Jenna," his father said, coming forward to rest his ghostly hand on her shoulder. "We are ready to do as you ask."
"Do not forget that he is to have no memories to cling to," Jinn-Si reminded, grinning at Riordyn as if she held some secret that would damn him further in the eyes of Jenna and his family.
Jenna gave curt nod in way of acknowledging Jinn-Si's demand, and then said, "Riordyn, you shall greet death and be reborn as a human with all the human frailty it entails. No longer will new found emotions or the appearance of long-lost color guide you in your decision as to whom you should love. All your past memories are lost to you as are your Carpathian abilities until you have chosen either Jinn-Si or me." She glanced down at him briefly before her steely gaze traveled to Jinn-Si. "The Ancients are in agreement and will swiftly strike down whomever you do not choose."
His father and all the Ancients began to chant, circling around him as Jenna touched her trembling fingers to his forehead. "As I once loved you, I will give you this one chance to redeem yourself in the eyes of your family and your people."
"Jenna, I love –"
Riordyn's heart seized tight in his chest stark pain cutting off all reason. Another sharper pain followed, and he dropped forward, clutching at his chest as Jinn-Si laughed. The chants around him grew louder as he gasped for breath. His heart faltered, ceased to beat, and he fell forward into Jenna's arms as his life ended.