Dark Possession - Aja James Page 0,58
yet he remained true, stubbornly so. Disastrously loyal to the female who only ever exploited him since birth.
With conviction, Eveline said to the silent colosseum of books and artifacts in the library, like Roman senators gathered in circular rows, awaiting her address, standing in judgement:
“He’s been hurt enough, if my dreams are an accurate representation of reality. I don’t want him to get hurt again on my watch. Please help me.”
A ghostly murmur buzzed through the library like busy bees, the strange sound echoing through the shelves. A sudden breeze swept past Eveline’s face, tangling her hair, fluttering the loose sheets of paper on the teak wood table.
Click, chink, rustle.
One by one, the chain-suspended cages rattled open before her disbelieving, then relieved eyes.
Gingerly, Eveline carried the contents of the cages an armful at a time down the floating stairs to the giant table in the center of the library. When she was done, she spread the tablets out side by side and unrolled the scrolls one by one. Though she couldn’t understand the symbols or the writing on any of the ancient artifacts, she started to recognize patterns across them, and jotted the characters down in a large sketchpad that Clara had given her to take notes in.
Mumbling to herself, Eveline tried to sort through the clues out loud.
“An ancient contest…Yes, this must be it. Hand of the Dark Queen…”
It helped that there was actually the drawing of a hand on one of the tablets. There were many other hands reaching for the one feminine-looking hand in the center. Neat columns of text ran down the sides of the thinly cut stone.
“An unknown champion…”
The second Eveline touched a particular verse, flashes of light burst behind her eyelids.
In her mind’s eye, she saw a handsome stranger. Wavy hair the color of raw honey, with the luster of the finest amber. Even though she’d never seen him before in any of her dreams and visions or real experiences, he seemed familiar somehow. The way he moved through the gathered crowds. The impassive expression on his face. The clench of his jaw and the tilt of his head.
It was Ramses in disguise.
Her fingers moved on their own accord, glancing across more carved symbols.
Ramses defeated one opponent after another with such ease that the Dark Queen Ashlu quickly noticed him in the mock arena. She watched him fight with avid interest, sexual attraction and blatant admiration making her breath quicken, her pupils dilate. She wanted this beautiful stranger, no matter the outcome of the contest. She wanted him to win her…
Eveline moved to a different tablet, and the images in her head skipped forward in time.
Only two pairs of contestants left. The clear winner of the second pair that didn’t include Ramses was a male at least six and a half foot in height, perhaps even taller. With broad shoulders, a lean waist and heavily muscled torso and limbs. His hair was a brilliant vermillion, blazing hot like the rising sun. It waved around his face and stood up from his head in dancing flames.
And his eyes…Bright golden eagle’s eyes. They homed in on Ramses with calculation and determination…
Involuntarily, Eveline’s now shaking hands reached for a particular scroll, whose contents were tattooed in blood. As her fingers grazed the animal hide, more images flashed before her eyes.
They were the only two fighters left. The flame-haired Dark One and Ramses in his disguised form. First, they clashed with weapons. Both drew blood, dealing heavy wounds, their blades broken and discarded in the dirt. Then, they crashed together with bare fists and feet. Grappling, wrestling, hitting and kicking. Over and over they came at one another, both males evenly matched. The flame-haired opponent was taller, his limbs slightly longer, but Ramses was even more heavily muscled, and hitting his flesh was like connecting with stone.
Queen Ashlu had risen from her throne, too rapt upon the gruesome match on the battleground below to sit still.
The fighters rushed at each other for the last time, and then—
Everything burst into flames.
Her fingers literally burned by the scroll she was touching, Eveline snatched her hand back with a gasp and opened her eyes.
What could it mean? What happened back then?
Obviously, Ramses won, for he was here now. Alive. Did that mean that the other male was defeated and dead? Who was he? There was something so compelling about him. Something other. He had not been a mere Dark One. And what did all this mean for the upcoming Challenge?
Eveline shook