Darkness Embraced Part 6

"I can't help it," I said. "I feel you as if you are a part of me."

Renata nervously licked her lips.

My mouth hung open for a moment, words caught on the tip of my tongue as I stared at her. "That's why you cast me out," I said, the shock and disbelief making my words a whisper. "You saw my power. It wasn't because I am or was weak. It was because you were afraid of what I would see in you?"

She shook her head. "I do not know what you are talking about, Epiphany."

"I do," Vasco said, moving around the side of the bed like some deadly panther. "You cast Epiphany out because you didn't want her power letting her get too close to you. I knew you had the potential to be cruel, Renata. I never realized you were scared."

She seemed unexpectedly tired, as if the years were catching up with her. She rubbed her temples, much as I had done earlier. It was a strange gesture for her. "I never claimed to be cruel, Vasco."

"No," he said.

"You could've fooled me," I said without thinking.

"Once, you would have never spoken to me that way," Renata said.

"What do you want me to say?"

"I do not want you to say anything. I am merely pointing out a fact."

"Does my newfound confidence bother you?"

She seemed to consider it. "I am both proud and disappointed to see that you are stepping into your own."

I hadn't expected her to be that honest with me.

"But," she continued, "I worry for you."

"Why?"

"I do not believe you have the power to reinforce this newfound boldness."

"Do you speak truth, my lady?" Vasco asked.

"I do."

"You do not think that Epiphany wil pa.s.s the other chal enges?"

"No." She gave a soft shake of her head, tresses slithering around her like a cloak. "Which is why I needed to test her power myself."

"If she could break your hold she could break the others," Vasco murmured.

"Precisely."

"And I failed at that," I added.

"Quite dreadful y," she said with a little smirk.

I held her gaze, resisting the urge to go to her, to feel her arms around me. "Vasco has a point."

"What point is that?"

"You said you knew I wouldn't want to fight you."

"I thought that might be the case," she said tilting her head. "I was not certain."

"So now," I said, "I am beginning to think this entire thing is a manipulative ploy in order to deflate my confidence so that I do indeed fail. Yet, what you gain by my failing I cannot fathom."

"She has been spending entirely too much time with you, Vasco."

Vasco gave a slight bow. "I enjoy her time, my lady."

"You would," she said and there was some spitefulness in it. Spitefulness or jealousy, I wasn't sure.

"What does that mean?" I cut Vasco off before he could say anything.

The look she gave me was long and hard. I realized in that moment that she didn't like that Vasco and I spent so much time together.

I actual y laughed. "You're jealous? You cast me out and now you're actual y jealous that I found one person among the Rosso Lussuria to cal friend?"

"I told you to stay out of my head, Epiphany. I wil not ask you again."

"I'm not in your head, Renata. I'm in your heart. There's a big difference."

She closed her eyes and I wondered if she were counting to ten.

"You were never this frustrating to deal with."

"Everything changed when you cast me out."

"You act as if I completely deserted you, Epiphany."

"Didn't you?"

"Vasco," she said, "tel her."

He put his fist over his heart and bowed. "You made me swear an oath never to tel her."

She waved it away. "You are free of your oath. Now tel her."

"Tel me what?" I stepped forward, resting my weight on the pad of my foot.

"Epiphany," Vasco said, "she did not desert you."

I stared at him, uncomprehending.

Chapter Four.

"Did you not think to question your friends.h.i.+p?" Renata asked.

"No. Why would I? Vasco has shown me kindness. I do not question that."

"He showed you kindness because I appointed him as your protector," she said. "I did not throw you to the wolves as you are so quick to accuse me of."

I wasn't sure I believed it. Vasco stood and didn't bother to say anything in his defense. "It's true, isn't it?" I asked in a voice that was almost a whisper.

"Colombina." He spread his arms out. "It is true."

I shook my head. "No," I said, "I don't believe you. You're both lying. I don't know why, but you're lying."

He moved forward as if to touch me. I whirled away from him before he even got close.

His eyes widened. "Colombina..."

I put my hands over my face. "No. How can it be true?" I glared at him. "You are tel ing me that this friends.h.i.+p...al of these years have been a lie? You've only pretended at someone else's command? At her command?"

"We are friends." His voice was soft as he reached out toward me again.

"Stop trying to touch me!"

He spread his hands again, but this time he was trying to make a point of harmlessness. "Look inside of me."

I stubbornly shook my head. "No."

He was quick, so very quick. His hands dug into my upper arms as he shook me. "Look!"

His power hit me and there was nothing subtle about it. Vasco didn't pour his emotions down my throat. He simply opened himself up and my power sucked it in like some great black hole.

Candles sent a dance of light and shadows across the room. I was kneeling on the familiar stone floor of Renata's bedroom. She regarded me from where she sat in the corner of her room, displeasure rendering her beauty even colder.

She said my name, only it wasn't my name.

It was Vasco's.

"My Queen." I bowed my head.

She bid me to stand and I rose, waiting.

"I have a task of great importance for you, Vasco. A task I am unwil ing to place in the hands of any other but you."

"What is your wil , my lady?" The words flowed smoothly, in spite of the niggling sense of unease I felt. I was afraid of what she would ask, but I was her creature. Whatever she asked, I would do.

"Epiphany," she murmured, features taking on a thoughtful expression as she traced the carved wooden arm of the chair. "Watch her. Protect her. See to it she does not fal prey to the Elders."

The unease left in a whoosh of air. "It wil be done."

The vision changed, and I was suddenly in the banquet hal , leaning against the far wal . I saw myself, and knew for certain these were Vasco's memories I was viewing, not mine.

It is a strange thing, seeing yourself from the perspective of another. Vasco's thoughts clouded mine, making it hard to differentiate between the two. I knew this; he had known I had been Renata's pet. He had known I had been cast out, though he too did not understand why. He saw my vulnerability and felt, not pity, but compa.s.sion.

I watched and remembered, though I did not want to.

I moved as inconspicuously as I could through the tables, careful to keep my distance from the others. The dress I wore in his memories was modest, solid black, but the black brought out the paleness of my skin and the pale gray of my eyes. I have always been smal , but the way I held myself made me appear even smal er, as if I was trying very hard not to be noticed.

I had been.

I felt Vasco raise his gla.s.s to his lips, watching and wondering.

The vision changed. My boots were silent against the stone floor. I walked down one of the lesser hal ways that led to the library. It was odd seeing the Sotto from Vasco's height. There was a startled gasp and I turned on my heel, heading quickly in the direction of the sound. Someone groaned and I started running. I hit the bend at the end of the hal way.

"What's it like no longer being the Queen's favorite little b.i.t.c.h?" Lucrezia's voice sent a s.h.i.+ver of disgust through me.

"Lucrezia!" I said harshly. She turned, long auburn hair framing a round face with wide pale green eyes that were not quite sane. I agreed with Vasco's thoughts. I didn't think she was quite sane either.

"Vasco!" she said, surprised. "How nice of you to join us..."

Epiphany, my body in the vision, made another smal noise of discomfort. I felt Vasco's emotions in that moment. He wanted to protect me, not because he was ordered to, but because what Lucrezia was doing was wrong.

Lucrezia kept my body pinned against the wal .

Her wrist twisted and there was another disturbing sound. I didn't want to think of the woman pinned to the wal as myself. It was both a blessing and a curse that I was reviewing the memory from Vasco's perspective. A blessing because I didn't want to remember that b.i.t.c.h touching me. It was a curse because I saw that when Renata cast me out, I had lost the wil to live, to survive. It was there in my flickering eyelids, in the set of my mouth, the slack submission of body. It was a pitiful sight, and Vasco wanted to save me from it.

Lucrezia's cheek rubbed cat-like against the back of my mahogany hair as she cooed at Vasco, "Want to play?"

"Let her go."

"No, thank you." She smiled so sweetly and traced the lobe of my ear with her tongue. "Are you sure you don't want to play, Vasco? She's up for grabs now." She made a pleased noise low in her throat. "And so very tasty."

I grabbed the hilt at the back of my neck. My sword sang free of its sheath. "I wil not ask you again, Lucrezia."

"Oh." She widened her eyes in a pretentious fas.h.i.+on that was undeniably Lucrezia. "Looks like our friend has brought a toy."

She moved and that was al it took to set Vasco over the edge. I knew from my own memories and personal experience that there were cuts high up between my shoulder blades, cuts Lucrezia dealt me.

From Vasco's memory, it was not so obvious.

The tip of my sword dug into the delicate skin beneath her jaw and I used it to push her back, fol owing as she kept back stepping. "I'm stronger than you, Lucrezia. You don't want to play this game or any game with me."

She hissed at me around the blade digging into her chin. "You should have told me you'd claimed the woman as your b.i.t.c.h, Vasco! I didn't think she was quite your type."

I gave the sword a little push and a drop of crimson blood slithered down the steel. "Touch her again and I'l cut your heart out and feed it to you."