Eona - Alison Goodman [130]
A dark intuition quickened within me: there was another route to his will. One that I had stumbled across only minutes ago. A call in the blood that had drawn Ido toward me. But it had also drawn me toward him. A dangerous and double-edged weapon, made of pleasure and pain. I did not entirely understand it, but somehow I knew it would defeat him. He would be at my mercy.
Did I really want to have that kind of power over Ido? Yet he was already pushing against my Hua, looking for a way to turn it against me.
I had no choice. With a sob, I released my fury through the pathways of desire so newly blazed. Ido gasped as my power rolled over his defenses, burning away the silver in his eyes. The shock rocked his body forward. He collapsed flat on to the ground, his silent scream ripping through my Hua in a backlash of pained pleasure.
Ido’s will was mine for the taking, and I took it, fusing his hammering heartbeat to mine.
“Eona!” His voice cracked; part plea, part warning.
I forced his head up, the amber eyes wide and dark.
“Call Dillon,” I said.
His command to the Rat Dragon shifted through me like a hand sliding across my skin. The power reached, searched, found its goal. I felt Dillon’s hate respond, its sharp barbs clawing into Ido like a soldier’s grappling hook, anchoring the boy to his master and pulling him inexorably toward us. Dillon and the black folio were on their way.
Then the power curled back upon me, its razor edge sending a shiver of pleasure through my body.
Abruptly, I released my hold on Ido’s will. He slumped, the rasp of his breath loud in the sudden, eerie quiet. All the birds and clicking insects around us were silent as if they marked some irrevocable event.
Ido slowly raised his head, but I turned on my heel, unable to look him in the eye. I got as far as the jasmine bush, its white blooms hanging heavily in the hot air. The cloying perfume caught in my throat. I could still feel his presence in my Hua.
“Addictive, isn’t it, Eona?”
I knew I should ignore his soft voice. Just keep walking. Yet I stopped and looked over my shoulder. He was on his knees, the back of his hand stemming the flow of blood from his nose.
“What’s addictive?” I asked.
His smile was a caress. “Getting what you want.”
As I pushed my way through the bushes toward camp, my mind was caught in a loop of horror: the pearl, Kygo, Kinra, Ido, me, all of it circling around and around the red folio’s portent. I slapped past branches, feeling the sting as they lashed back against my skin. Was Ido telling the truth? A bird flew up from the bushes at my feet, screaming an alarm. No! I had to believe he was lying. The alternative was too terrible. I ground my teeth. His presence still hummed in my blood.
“Eona, are you all right?”
Kygo stopped in front of me, sword drawn; a tall blur through my tears. I reared back and lost my balance. He caught my arm with his free hand and held me upright, the strain digging his fingers into my flesh. Behind him, Caido and Vida crashed through the scrub, swords at the ready.
“What’s wrong?” Kygo said. “Did Ido do something? Ryko felt you compel him.”
My eyes locked on the pearl. The Hua of All Men.
“It was nothing.” I pulled my arm free. “Just training.”
Kygo lowered his sword and turned to Vida and Caido, sunlight sliding across the pearl in a shimmer of colors. “False alarm,” he said.
Caido scanned the bushes around us. “We shall escort you and Lady Eona back, Your Majesty.”
“No.” Kygo waved them away. “It is only a few lengths.”
They bowed and retreated through the bushes, leaving the smell of churned earth and the green snap of broken twigs.
Kygo resheathed his sword. “Are you sure you are all right?”
I stared down at my dirt-smeared feet, away from the lustrous power at his throat. Did Kinra try to steal