RENDED SOULS

BOOK THREE OF THE DARK HEART CHRONICLES

CHAPTER 1 SAMPLE

Copyright © 2019 Daniel Kuhnley

Edited & Published by Drezhn Publishing LLC

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Chapter One

He breathed deep and exhaled evenly, releasing his pent-up fear with the breath. His pulse slowed, and the wild bird trapped within his chest settled. He held out his right hand; it trembled like a leaf in the spring wind for several moments before stilling.

The beast stalked forward, her ears pinned back against her head and her tail held low. Her beige fur glistened in the pale light as her muscled form moved effortlessly across the remains of torn books, demolished wooden shelves, and shattered crystal chandeliers.

Her yellow eyes locked onto his. He didn’t recognize her transfigured body, but those eyes he knew. He’d never forget them. Never thought he’d see them again.

Theyn.

Nardus leaned forward and stretched his arm out as far as he could. “Theyn, it’s me.” His voice didn’t waver, but his fear returned as flashes of Berggren’s mutilated stomach and chest pummeled his mind.

His pulse raced and his mind reeled as questions bombarded him. Where’s Gnaud? Were there tufts of fur in the rubble? Dried blood? Is Gnaud dead, buried amongst the remains of the books? His eyes grew wide. Did she eat him? He quickly pushed the thought from his mind, unwilling to contemplate it further.

The beast paused, sniffed the air, and growled deep in her throat. She crouched down, ready to pounce, but she didn’t move.

It’s me, Theyn. You know me… better than most.

Time itself stood still as they held each other’s gaze, neither willing to blink or look away. Each passing moment proved more difficult than the last for Nardus to breathe, and his thoughts failed to make sense.

Had the air been sucked from the room, or had he forgotten how to breathe? He didn’t know, but either way the air pressed down on him and suffocated him like a thick pillow over his face. His arm fell to his side, the act of holding it out any longer unbearable.

The beast lunged from her crouch like a wound spring unloaded, and she hit Nardus square in the chest before he had a chance to react or brace himself. The impact forced out what little air he’d held in his lungs, and it knocked him backward and onto his back. He grunted as her full weight settled on top of him.

She pinned him down; her claws pressed into the fleshy part of the backs of his arms. Her claws didn’t break the skin, but they would if he moved. She snarled, her fanged teeth dripping with saliva. She opened her jaws wide, howled like no other creature he’d ever heard, and then went for his throat.

Instinct pulled Nardus’s eyes closed, his body turned rigid, and he grimaced. Her fangs rested against either side of his neck. It’s me, Theyn. Don’t do it. You love me. Theyn applied pressure, and her fangs sank into his skin like four arrowheads.

Nardus gasped and swallowed hard. His pulse raced, and beads of sweat formed on his brow as droplets of warm blood slid down the sides of his neck. Moments they’d shared flashed through his mind: long looks, subtle touches, shared smiles, the night at Joriah’s, the vision of their future when their minds had interlinked.

Nardus opened his eyes. Our minds…

With no understanding of how it worked or if he had the ability to do so, Nardus opened his mind and reached out to Theyn. “I know you don’t want to kill me. You love me. Remember that. You love me, Theyn.”

Theyn’s jaws tightened, and her claws dug into his arms. Nardus winced as fresh blood trickled down the sides of his neck.

Damn. Guess that didn’t work. What had he expected? Mezhik? The idea sickened him.

Theyn’s words pierced his mind and left him stunned. “I do. But do you love me?”

Do I love her? Attracted to? Yes. Enamored with? Perhaps. But love? Preposterous. How could he? To love Theyn would betray his love of Vitara, wouldn’t it?

Theyn bit down harder, and Nardus groaned.

“Don’t think too long on it,” she said in his mind.

Tell her what she wants to hear… even though it’s a lie.

Nardus gritted his teeth. “I do love you, Theyn—” The words burned his heart like acid. “—but I never wanted to.”

In his mind’s eye, Nardus grabbed the arrow that had pierced Vitara’s throat. He twisted it violently and shoved it in deeper. He tensed, balled his fists, and screamed within his mind. Forgive me, my love! They’re only words, nothing more. I don’t love her. I swear it! But even he didn’t believe his own lie.

Theyn’s claws retracted, and she released his throat. She purred as she stroked the wounds on his neck with her sandpaper tongue.

Even her tongue? “Huh…” He’d never contemplated it changing in her transfigured state, but it made sense. Everything about her had changed.

Theyn rubbed her furry jaw against his. “I knew you loved me. It’s about time you admitted it. Had you been anyone else, I would’ve killed you. Until you spoke to me in my mind, my thoughts were purely animalistic. Thank you for coming back for me. I’ve longed to be with you since we separated. Never have I felt so alone.”

Theyn rubbed against him and kneaded his arms with her claws.

Nardus jerked. “Ouch! Can you please stop with the claws and let me up? I think there’s a book crushing my spine.”

Theyn growled, but she rose and moved to the side. “Don’t make me regret not killing you.”

Nardus sat up and rubbed his neck; the puncture wounds Theyn had left were little more than pricks. Leaning over, he wrapped his arms around her neck and held her for several moments. “I thought you were dead, Theyn. We all did. I didn’t know what had happened. I stepped through the mirror, Pravus placed another collar around my neck, and then Berggren started cursing at me.

“If Joriah hadn’t been there to restrain him, he would’ve killed himself trying to attack me through the mirror. I couldn’t see the ground where you’d been standing, and I thought I might’ve killed you like I did Shaul. Then the mirror went dark and Pravus wouldn’t let me go back.”

“How did I get here? Where exactly is here? And how do we escape? There are no doors, and the windows are too high to climb out of. Trust me. That’s why most of the bookshelves are toppled over.” She looked around. “The rest of this chaos I can’t explain.”

Nardus scratched the back of his head. “I think I know what happened, but I’m surprised it did. When Joriah removed the silver collar from my neck and placed it on yours I thought I’d be able to finally escape and return here—Nasduron. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the stone prevented me from returning here, not the collar.

“You must’ve been touching me when I stepped forward to return here. Unfortunately, I only phased in and out from here as I did on the boat, but you remained here. In that brief moment, you must’ve let go of me.

“No one there knew about this place or that I could travel here, so they assumed that I’d killed you like I did Shaul. You cannot comprehend the sorrow I experienced in that moment and in every one since then until I came here and found you alive. I’d lost everything, Theyn. Again. I begged for death.” Tears welled in his eyes, and he blinked them back.

Theyn sat back on her haunches. Her tail whipped the air, and her upper lip rose, exposing her fangs. “If you thought I was dead then you didn’t come back for me.” She growled. “Why did you come here?”

Nardus huffed. “To escape from Pravus and Cinolth, but now that I know you’re alive, I’ll do everything I can to help you get back to your human form.”

“Cinolth? As in the dragon Cinolth the Dark? Cyrus Nithik killed him 1200 years ago.”

Nardus sighed. “Yes, the same one. The stone I retrieved for Pravus didn’t resurrect the dead—as he’d told me it would. Instead, it brought Cinolth back to life. It wasn’t a stone that I’d retrieved. It was Cinolth’s heart. Dragons are apparently difficult—if not impossible—to kill. So, I’ve basically ensured the destruction of the world.”

Theyn shook her head. “I can’t believe you’ve brought the most evil being to have ever walked this world back into it. You may as well have brought Diƨäfär here.”

“Yeah… lesson learned: never trust an evil wizard, even if they’ve promised to raise your family from the dead.” Nardus chuckled, more from nervous guilt than amusement. “Anyway, Cinolth was about to kill me. That’s why I came here.”

He glanced toward the ceiling and frowned. “To be honest, I’m not sure how I escaped. Based on the rules of traveling here, I should’ve been prevented from coming. You cannot travel here as a means of escaping death, and I most certainly did. Then again, those rules seem to have no relevance or hold over me. I’ve broken more than one of them on multiple occasions.”

Theyn cocked her head. “What else have you lied to me about, wizard?”

“Wizard?” Nardus spat on the floor and pointed his finger at Theyn. “Don’t you dare accuse me of being something so vile. I’m as much a wizard as you’re a spectre.” He spat again.

“You walk between places—across great distances in the blink of an eye—and you don’t believe you do so with the power of mezhik?” Theyn laughed, but it sounded like small bursts of growls. “What else would it be?”

Nardus frowned as he thought about it. No answer came to mind. He shrugged and shook his head slowly. “I can’t explain how I’m able to do it, but it’s certainly not mezhik. Don’t you think I’d know if I were a wizard and could wield mezhik? My life would’ve turned out much different. I would’ve shielded my family from the arrows and destroyed the bastards who attacked us with a single thought.”

“You’re a strange man, Nardus. It’s just one of the many reasons why I love you.”

Love… Everything I’ve done for it has repaid me with grief.

Nardus surveyed the room again. “Speaking of strange men, where’s Gnaud? You didn’t eat him, did you?” He laughed.

“I…” Theyn lowered her head. “Forgive me, Nardus.”

Nardus swallowed hard and clutched his stomach. “My God, Theyn…”

Theyn’s cat-like eyes misted. “Please listen before you judge me.”

Gnaud… Nardus closed his eyes and nodded, lost for words.

Theyn continued, “For the first few days I held my condition in check, clinging to my identity with thoughts of you. But my condition raged within. Several times I blacked out for many minutes, waking to find myself surrounded by destruction and Gnaud in a panic.

”I warned him to keep his distance from me, but he’d convinced himself that he could find an answer as to how to cure or control my condition. Then, as before, my last thread of sanity snapped, and I lost control. My condition consumed me within a few minutes. From that moment, I’ve remembered nothing until your arrival.”

Nardus exhaled, stood, and dusted off his trousers. He looked at Theyn and held her gaze for several minutes. It’s not your fault. It’s mine.

Nardus rubbed the scars on his left bicep. “I’m the last person that would ever have the right to judge you.”

Theyn rose and sniffed the air. “The wood shelves and leather-bound books overpower almost every other scent, but I do smell traces of blood as well. Nothing of death, but this place is massive. He could be anywhere or gone.”

Nardus shook his head. “Gnaud would never leave this place. This is his home. He’s gotta be here somewhere.”

Theyn moaned softly. “If he’s dead, I’ll never forgive myself.”

And I might never forgive you.

Nardus looked to his right. The destruction impressed him. Nary a shelf still stood, nor a book unrent. Gnaud, if you’re still alive, will you forgive us?

Nardus cleared his throat. “Gnaud, it’s Nardus,” he yelled. “If you can hear me, answer me. Or make some noise if you can’t talk.”

A minute passed in silence.

“Gnaud!” Nardus’s voice thundered through the Great Library.

Theyn bounded up and over two mounds of carnage and stopped abruptly atop a third. She looked back at Nardus, her tail tucked between her hind legs and her head low. Nardus scrambled over the piles, tripped, fell, and gouged his hand on the splintered end of a chair leg. He cursed loudly, picked himself back up, and pushed forward.

The wound stung his hand, but the thought of Gnaud dead stung his heart. Ƨäʈūr, don’t let him be dead.

Nardus reached Theyn and stopped next to her. He met her gaze briefly, but then his gaze locked onto the tufts of fur and the pool of dried blood at the bottom of the mound they stood atop.

Nardus’s hands dampened, his breathing shallowed, and he dropped to his knees. Pain ripped into his heart, a feeling he’d experienced too many times in his life.

Theyn’s voice quivered in his mind. “I’m so sorry, Nardus. I don’t remember any of it. Forgive me.”

Nardus clenched his fists. Forgive you? How could I? Anger welled in his stomach, swelled in his chest, rose into his throat, and burst from his lips as a bone-chilling, guttural scream.

Theyn slunk back. “Kill me if you must. I will not fight you. I deserve nothing less.”

Nardus rose to his knees and shook his fist at her. “No! I’ve been down that road. Killing the men who took the lives of my wife and youngest daughter brought me no satisfaction. I’ve suffered endlessly since that day. Nothing I did brought them back, and nothing ever will.”

His chest convulsed, and he sobbed. Have I lost hope? Will I never see you again Vitara? Savannah? And what of you, Shardan? Do you still live, or did I bury you with your mother?

Nardus took a deep breath, wiped his eyes, and looked down at Theyn. “So no, I’m not killing you, Theyn. I’ve lost almost everyone I’ve ever cared about or loved. I’m not losing you, too. Do you hear me? Whether I choose to forgive you or not is irrelevant. I will not abandon you.”

We’ll be damned together.

Theyn crawled over to Nardus. “How will I live with myself knowing that I ate your friend? I can’t even fathom having done so.”

Nardus couldn’t wrap his mind around it either. He pulled his hair back and groaned. “I don’t know. Every time I think my life can’t possibly get worse it does.” He punched the remnants of a book next to him.

Theyn jerked upright and craned her neck forward. She blinked several times and then howled. “At the far end of the room, there’s a door with a bloody handprint on it!”

Nardus jumped to his feet. He squinted but couldn’t even find a door let alone discern that a bloody handprint marred its surface.

He looked down at Theyn. “Are you certain?”

She nodded. “I can see for miles. How do you think I spotted you in the middle of the lava fields on Incendia Island?”

Nardus ignored the question and bolted ahead, Theyn at his side. “Gnaud!”