Ecstasy Untamed (Feral Warriors #6)(96)

Taking a deep, mental breath, Faith dove into the flue, the falcon's keen senses guiding her down, far lower than she'd expected to go, deep below the ground. This wasn't good. The first thing she'd have to do was find her way back upstairs if she wanted any hope of locating a door for the others.

Finally, she emerged from the flue, darting over the scene she recognized too well from the video, a scene that scored her heart. The girls still dangled from the curved, stone ceiling of a firelit dungeon. In a circle around them stood the five new Ferals, including Maxim.

Spying the stairs, she headed for them . . . and crashed, suddenly and brutally, falling out of the air, shifting as she fell. With a spine-jarring thud, she landed on bare stone in her human form.

She fought to shift back, but nothing happened. She tried to scramble to her feet and couldn't . . . couldn't move! Dammit. She'd known he'd try something, but she'd hoped to at least be able to fight. Suddenly, she was rising slowly, pushing herself up calmly. Are you doing this? she cried to the falcon spirit.

I am not. Can you shift?

No. I can do nothing!

He seems to be in control, now. The vile one.

"Faith!" Maria cried. The hope in the girl's face tore at Faith's heart. The certainty - now so misguided - that help had finally arrived.

She was standing now, facing the others, facing the man who lived in her nightmares. Dressed in his usual attire, his hair slicked back, Maxim watched her, a cold smile on his face.

"I'm glad you finally joined us, Faith. You're just in time."

Pure fear trickled down her spine. She was trapped, unable to perform the mission she'd come for, and the others needed to know it. I'm in the dungeon, but I've been caught in some kind of magic, she said, speaking to them alone as she'd practiced. He's controlling my movements. The stairs were warded. I doubt there's any way in or out except the chimney flue.

Faith. Hawke's voice caressed her mind, the word aching with frustration. And regret. He couldn't help her. No one could help her.

We hear you, Kougar replied. Grizz, too, was briefly controlled, but only within the vicinity of the castle. Ariana and her maidens misted him out of here. She says he's fine again.

Grizz must have attacked them. Is everyone all right?

Well enough, Kougar replied.

Her gaze swung to the other four new Ferals. As she began moving with a will not her own, walking across the bare, ancient stone toward the man she loathed, she studied the other men, one by one, standing at attention like Maxim's personal guard. Polaris, Croc, and Whit watched her with emotionless eyes. But not Lepard. His hair as white as his turtleneck, he was motion contained, a whirl of energy and power battened down by an unnatural force. And in his pale blue eyes, she saw that struggle, just as Grizz had said. Just as she'd seen in the video. But as long as the Mage controlled him, he was of no use to her.

She wondered if perhaps his animal had fought for him as the falcon had her.

His actions will tell us whether he is the one meant to be marked, the falcon spirit replied. Or the one the infection sought.

The one the infection sought?

"Hawke didn't accompany you?" Maxim asked, his words stealing her attention. His loathsome gaze followed her as she approached.

He smiled even as anger flashed in his eyes. "Pity. I was looking forward to ripping off his wings, so to speak. He will die. The next time I see him, he will die."

Fury coiled inside her. And bone-chilling fear.

"How is this happening, Maxim? Why am I controlled? Why are all of us, but you?"

"Because the Mage Elemental, Inir, chose me to be the group mind for the new Feral Warriors, my dear Faith. I control you all, your actions, your will. I'm the one who ordered the new Ferals to rise up against the nine. The Mage infection made my control complete, until several of you were cured of it. Now it seems I control your actions, if not your will, when you're close by. It is enough. For now."

"If the Mage chose you, they're using you, Maxim. They're using you to feed power into the imprisoned Daemons." She didn't expect him to care, but it was worth a try.

"They're using all of us."

"Why would you help them?"

Maxim's smile was slow and terrible. "Utopia. No laws protecting the weak. No banishment. Blood spilling when and where I please. And the power, dear Faith, the power."

"You're sick."

Maxim laughed. "So they say. So they've always said. I'm a predator of the purest kind, now. I have found my true calling!" He crooked his finger at her. "Come. You have a part to play."

She continued forward, fighting without success against the steps she was being forced to take.

"Within Inir resides a wisp of Satanan's consciousness," Maxim continued. "I am the center of the wheel linking Inir, the new Ferals, and Satanan himself. I am the conduit through which your Feral energy will be channeled into the Daemon blade to Satanan, then connected to the wisp of consciousness within Inir. Satanan's full consciousness, his magic, and his knowledge will become Inir's, through me. It has already begun. The connection is formed. But five Ferals are not enough. Six are required to open the connection fully. And now I have you."

As Maxim spoke, he pulled her toward him through will alone. She defied him in the one way she could - relaying everything he said to the Ferals outside the castle. They needed this information, no matter what happened to her. Finally, her feet stopped moving, and she stood before Maxim. With quaking terror, she stared into eyes of true evil.