My Last Whisper (The Whispers Series #4)

By Joanna Mazurkiewicz

Ania’s world has crumbled – her life is over. It’s finally time to let Gabriel go. He stated clearly that they don’t owe each other anything, and she has to be with Aideen.

She goes back for her final year, trying to forget about him once more, but the news about his upcoming wedding with Rose is torturing her. When Niamh finally comes back from the US, Ania pushes Aideen away. She needs time to think about herself before she is going to commit to anyone.

Niamh, on the other hand, seems happy with Gerald, although he is still distant and unreachable and Niamh knows about his past.

Then during one unexpected dinner, everything falls apart for the sisters. They find out that the Sprites that they both love have chosen different paths.

From then on, they will have to fight for their love, and they have no choice but to fight until death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joanna Mazurkiewicz
• Release date: May 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301305902

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My Last Whisper

(The Whispers Series #4)

By Joanna Mazurkiewicz

Copyright © 2013 by Joanna Mazurkiewicz

First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Joanna Mazurkiewicz. The right of Joanna Mazurkiewicz to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are product of the author’s imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the author/publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine, journal or blog.

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Table of content

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Chapter ten

Chapter eleven

Chapter twelve

Chapter thirteen

Chapter fourteen

Chapter fifteen

Chapter sixteen

Chapter seventeen

Chapter eighteen

Chapter nineteen

Chapter twenty

Chapter twenty one

Epilogue

1

Ania

The dripping water from the old, dusty lamp suspended above the ceiling breaks the silence that surrounds the gloomy, drenched corridor. The tall, hooded woman moves slowly, holding a paraffin lamp in her left hand, stepping into the darkness. She moves carefully, walking quietly, stopping now and again. The long, dim corridor narrows, revealing an entrance to another drenched passage. The lights from opposite walls are pouring into the large, wide-open space with steel doors on both sides.

The woman stops, eyeing the space in front of her. Two Sprites emerge from the shadow, staring at her, alerted. She takes off her hood, unfolding a beautiful pale face, with long, wavy dark hair and large grey eyes. Her body is slim and curved in the right places; the low cleavage reveals large breasts and smooth vanilla skin. Her eyes shimmer in the dim light.

‘Who are you?’ scowls one of the Sprites as it steps towards her. He has sandy, long hair and a broad, long face. A grimace sweeps over his face. He is wearing a short-sleeved shirt, revealing broad, muscular arms.

She tosses her black hair behind her shoulder and asks, laughing, ‘I heard that Maurice has been held here?’

One of the other guards walks to her, standing beside the muscular one. He is slightly shorter than his companion; his face is filled with scars and hard lines.

‘No one is allowed to be around here. How did you enter?’ asks the scarred Sprite in a hoarse tone. A long sword hangs at his side.

‘I've got my ways.’ She places her lamp on the floor and walks up to the blond Sprite. His eyes widen slightly as he doesn’t know what to expect; his body tenses when she strokes his bare flesh, digging her fingers into his arm. She smiles when he grabs her wrist. The other Sprite seems to be transfixed, staring at both of them.

‘I've got something for both of you,’ she whispers, leaning her body closely to his. Suddenly, she gives him another wide smile and shifts her hand to her pocket. She takes out a rolled parchment and hands it to the Sprite who seems to be in charge.

The Sprite doesn’t change his hard, anxious expression. He exchanges a look with the other and takes the parchment reluctantly. He unrolls it and they both concentrate on the text. After a long moment, they look at the woman and stumble backwards, their eyes wide and fearful.

‘I do apologise. We were not aware that Lord Alcott allowed visitors in this block,’ says the blond Sprite, lowering his voice.

The woman stops smiling. Her expression shifts. She raises her left eyebrow, straightening her back and barks, ‘Let me in. What are you waiting for?’

Both Sprites are still hesitating, but when she shoots them a sharp look, they both move fast to the door in the far corner of the corridor. The scarred Sprite takes a large key from his pocket. He whispers quickly and loudly for about ten minutes. After a loud squeal, the door is unlocked.

The expression of utmost contempt and gloating unfolds over her face as if she is just about to meet an old friend she hasn’t seen for years. The two guards shoot her a worried look.

‘I am glad that you obeyed the rules. Lord Alcott will be very pleased with both of you,’ she snarls and passes them, appearing in front of the steel doors. She lifts her hand and opens the doors widely, stepping into the dark, cold cell.

‘Darling, I am here. I know that you have been waiting for me.’ The echo of her voice courses around the space. She closes the door behind her.

Someone is in the cell; there is a small movement in the corner.

‘C’mon, darling, I thought you would be glad to see me after so many years.’

The loud, piercing roars spreads around the room and the man appears from the shadow, breathing heavily. His face is livid; his pupils dilate and his green eyes are focused on the woman. His long hair is filthy, tangled and hanging to his elbows. His face pales, as if he has just seen a ghost.

‘How…you didn’t!’ he roars again, and then storms towards the woman.

She is quicker; he doesn’t get to her, trying to touch her with his large hands. In a split second, she is beside him, pinning him to the wall with her elbow. His eyes are discoloured, disoriented as he can’t understand how she is able to do this, have that kind of strength. His breathing gets harder, more laboured.

She leans closer to him and takes a long breath. She closes her eyes, enjoying this moment.

‘Oh, you still smell so good,’ she whispers to his ear and then bites his earlobe playfully. He jerks but his body seems to be under a spell because he can’t move. ‘You know that I would come. Couldn’t you feel me close by?’

He doesn’t respond and continues staring at her as if he still doesn’t believe that she is here. He murmurs something else to himself and his body relaxes for a moment. His rasped breath fills the space.

‘What do you want? I never loved you. I was just pretending,’ he roars, the drip of sweat rolling down his cheek.

‘You are lying, darling. The fae blood in your veins still boils when I touch you,’ she says with satisfaction in her voice. ‘You won’t leave without me. You are afraid of my humanity, but soon we will be together again. Soon we will be happy.’

He is trying to jerk away but he seems to be pinned with an invisible rope to the wall. His face goes red and his eyes are bloodshot.

‘You left and never came back to me, but I followed my plans and aspirations. I found the last changeling and took her humanity forever. Do you remember our little agreement?’

‘I never knew what you became,’ he says, spraying her with his spit. She smiles again as if she hasn’t noticed.

‘I became powerful! I stepped beyond the old laws!’ she shouts. An evil gleam starts dancing in her eyes. She turns abruptly. ‘And you continued to live with her. I was watching you for a while. The child was gone. You had hidden it, so I had to get rid of the only obstacle that was between us. I had to kill her.’

‘No one killed her. She died because she couldn’t be apart from our daughter,’ scowls the man but his eyes are still focused on the woman. A flicker of uncertainty passes through his broad face.

‘I sent someone to finish her when you left,’ she whispers, materialising in front of him again. ‘I used someone to kill your pathetic wife. I had to be clever and he made sure that she was truly dead. After that, I thought you would come back. It was agony being apart.’

The howl of pain sweeps through the cell; the man hides his face in his large hands, screaming. He falls on the ground, punching his head against the floor. Morgana stands, staring at him, her eyes transfixed with horror and disappointment.

‘You are evil! She will always be better than you!’ he roars, wiping his streaming eyes as if he still doesn’t believe her. The blood streams down his forehead, blinding him.

The woman laughs again.

‘It’s true. I am sorry; I did this for us,’ she says, stepping towards him, touching his hands and kneeling next to him.

‘You always surprise me, Morgana,’ he finally gasps, his red hair sticking to his bloody face. ‘Why did you come back? There is nothing here for you. They are going to kill me anyway.’

‘Don’t be silly, my darling,’ she responds and moves even closer to him. Before he realises what is going on, she grabs his jaw and presses her lips into his. She releases him. ‘You still don’t understand how much power I encountered.’

‘You haven’t got any power. It’s been a hundred years, and nothing has changed,’ he roars, scowling at her.

‘I have Alcott at my feet. I am an immortal human. No one can stop me, and soon he will hand his power to me,’ she says, looking confident and tossing her black hair to reveal her cleavage in her long navy dress. ‘Maurice, I still love you. We will be so happy together when you hand me your daughter.’

The man called Maurice stares at her and for the first time since she arrived, looks petrified, shaking his head apprehensively.

‘You will never get to her. She is far away from here. No one will ever find her.’ He chuckles anxiously, as if he is trying to guess whether she is telling the truth.

‘Aww, you are still so handsome when you are scared. I don’t need to look for her; I already found her. I will kill her and use her humanity to help my son, and then you won’t have any other choice,’ she continues, pressing her lips together. ‘Just admit that you never stopped loving me. We are meant to be together.’

‘You are delusional. You are never going to find her!’ he roars, punching the wall. His face is scarlet and it seems he lost control of his anger.

‘She doesn’t need to be found. She is here in Wales,’ she says quietly, watching him carefully. ‘Do you think that I don’t hear rumours?’

Morgana licks her upper lip, lifting her hands, swirling around as if she is trying to dance and ignoring Maurice, who seems to be thinking about her last words. His face is white; his body is shaking with anger.

Then he spits on her.

‘You are just a filthy Sprite and I will kill you before you will get to her,’ he hisses.

‘I am around her, closer than you could ever imagine,’ she says, materialising in front of him, pinning him to the wall and clenching her small hands on his throat. ‘You will love me again. Don’t you worry, once you realise that there is no one who will love you as much as I do, Alcott will do what I say. He is getting older now. He hasn’t got any more magic, because I took it from him. I am the one who will rule the council, alongside my son.’

***

I wake up suddenly, screaming. It takes me a moment to realise that I am in my own bed. I am drenched in sweat; my bed covers are twisted all around me like a straitjacket. I try to breathe but my heart is racing. I am still sweating and shivering feverishly.

Could this really be possible? I ask myself. Could I really dream about reality, about her being in the cell of my father? The visions are blinding me; I cover my head in my pillow, trying to calm down and bring back the dream.

Morgana came to him. Somehow she managed to get to Maurice’s cell. She tricked the guards with the letter and they let her in. How is this possible?

I roll off the bed and get to the bathroom. My hands are still shaking and my heart hammers in my chest.

It’s not the first time I have experienced this kind of dream. Two years ago, I remember dreaming about Gabriel and his past, the way he was reluctant to marry Rose. During this dreamy trip to an unknown place, I found out that Gabriel was trying to sell me for information about the last changeling. I still remember this vaguely.

I step in the bathroom and switch on the light, passing the quiet, dark hallway and hearing Natasha’s snoring in the other room. I shouldn’t be surprised; it’s late at night. I look at my reflection in the mirror. I haven’t been sleeping well since the traumatic events that are still fresh in my memory. I splash some water on my face and dry it with the towel. The dark circles under my eyes aren’t helping; my skin is slightly yellow, and it’s probably because I haven’t been eating very well recently.

I brush my teeth once again and go back to the bedroom, still thinking about the odd, scary dream. Maybe my changeling powers are starting to appear; maybe I am not ordinary after all.

My home in London seems to be empty and abandoned, especially after Niamh left to visit her family in California. I miss her but I know that I couldn’t keep her away. This wasn’t the summer that I imagined.

We were glad that Maurice has finally been caught; I don’t even remember when he was taken away. I was still in shock when he got us trapped in our own home, where everything began. I constantly keep wondering why I haven’t thought about that letter. The situation was so obvious. Weeks after seeing what Morgana was able to achieve, I was still in shock. Niamh kept telling me that the images weren’t important. She helped me focus on other, more significant matters.

After Gerald took her to the beach, unconscious, I stayed in the house with Gabriel. I couldn’t look at him. I wasn’t able to comprehend that he remembered everything. He didn’t have to say anything then, his blue eyes showed me that he came back—he was himself again.

I remember this moment so clearly; even if I close my eyes, this scene always comes back to me. His chest was rising and falling when he was staring at me, his eyes wide open. All of a sudden, not hesitating, he embraced me in his arms. I inhaled his familiar scent of spearmint, cypress wood, and bergamot. The images of us together were coming back to me; his soft lips were kissing me again. For a few seconds, I felt as if time never passed: I was twenty-two when Gabriel appeared in my life again. I wrapped my body tightly around him, never wanting to let go. He inhaled my own scent, wrapping his face into my hair.

During the time that we were lost with each other, I felt someone else’s eyes on me. When I lifted my head, I saw Aideen. He was standing in the door, staring at us, and the charm was broken. Gabriel released me and stepped backwards, watching me with such a pain in his eyes that I felt as if my soul were divided into pieces. My mind was racing and I didn’t know what to do, how to behave.

‘Ania, are you okay?’ asked Aideen, stepping towards me and ignoring Gabriel, who shot him a vicious look. He touched my arm; his eyes narrowed.

‘I am fine, just shaken up,’ I responded, feeling as if a large stone just flopped onto my stomach. I didn’t want Aideen there; he still didn’t understand what had happened. Gabriel was still staring at me, clenching his fists nervously.

‘She is all right,’ said Gabriel hoarsely. His lips were white as if he couldn’t believe that we were interrupted. The pain in his tone caused me to lift my chin and finally look at him. ‘We just need a minute alone.’

Aideen raised his eyebrow and then he shot both of us a surprised look. His jaw tensed and his amber eyes flashed with anger.

‘Why are you here? You don’t have to speak to this human. I am protecting her.’

‘Just leave us alone, Councillor. I remember everything and I need to speak with the woman who saved my life once before,’ said Gabriel very quietly, barely opening his mouth.

Aideen’s lips parted and then he clasped them shut, speechless. I hid my face in my hand, not wanting to look at them both, feeling drained and exhausted. I wasn’t able to deal with that then; I had to understand what Gabriel was expecting me to do. Aideen straightened up his posture and tightened his grip on my shoulder.

‘Is this what you want?’ he asked in his husky tone.

I just nodded. I wasn’t able to face him, see more pain and destruction. Aideen cleared his throat and marched out, leaving us alone again. I wanted to die in that moment. I wasn’t able to breathe, feeling my heart was just beating but the blood wasn’t circulating through my body.

‘Did you do something to break the curse?’ Gabriel asked in a cold tone after a long moment.

‘The Water of Life didn’t work,’ I began in a high-pitched tone. ‘But then I don’t know what happened. This didn’t seem to work so...’

‘You kissed me,’ he finished for me. The corner of his lips curved in a slight smile. My heart melted and I thought that I was going to pass out. I wanted so much to kiss him back but my subconscious was shouting to pull myself together. ‘Then I heard your voice calling me and I woke up.’

‘Gabriel,’ I started in a trembling voice, ‘I couldn’t tell you the truth, so I pretended that you didn’t exist after you saved my life on the beach nearly three years ago.’

‘Then we are even now. I saved your life and you brought me back to life,’ he said in a low, dark tone and stroked his black hair, cocking his head to the side. ‘We don’t owe each other anything.’

‘I don’t understand. What are you trying to tell me? Do you think that I planned this? I wanted this to happen?’

I lost control then; his voice was cold and although he remembered, nothing was the same between us anymore. Our souls were filled with bitter emotions that we both didn’t understand.

He shifted his weight and stepped towards me; his white skin was shimmering in the dim light that poured from outside. I felt as if I were being punished for wanting to be happy.

‘I am not saying that you planned this, but you know who you are. If we try to forget about what’s happened, then we would hurt too many people. You know this well as much as I do.’

I couldn’t listen to him any longer. He was right that we were even then. There was nothing left: no broken feelings, no regret.

I turned around, not looking at him anymore, and started moving my numb limbs. My mind was hollow. I felt like I have been thrown into a deep water and I was drowning. Nobody came to my rescue; I was alone.

I passed the old, shattered furniture and stormed away from the house. The tears were streaming down my cheeks but then he followed.

I remember our conversation so well right now and the conversation after that. He came back weeks after the incident on the beach; he came back to hurt me more, telling me that he was going to marry Rose, so we can both be happy. I couldn’t keep my emotions away so I told him that I still loved him.

He looked at me with more pain and sourness, but he pretended that he didn’t hear what I said. He told me to stay with Aideen, and he said that we were never meant to be together.

That day I knew that I lost him forever. After sleepless nights, I understood that he was right. Niamh looked after me. I didn’t have to say anything to her; she made sure that I ate and made sure that I slept. I got hold of some sleeping tablets and I didn’t wake up until the whole month passed through.

When I opened my eyes, I felt like there was no point to keep crying after him, no matter how much my heart was bleeding. I had to embrace what I had, move on with my life. By that time, Abella was fully recovered.

She was glad that Maurice was in prison but she wanted him dead. We stayed a few more weeks with her, getting back to normal, and when Niamh was sure that I wasn’t going to finish off my miserable life, she told me to pack my bags and we left. She took me to Florida. It didn’t matter that I refused, it didn’t matter that I cried; she convinced Abella that I had to leave. I had to forget.

We spent ten days lying in the sun until I felt that I could forget about what had happened. Niamh had to go back to California and when she was convinced that I was better, she let me go back to London. She had to stay with her family for a little while. I wasn’t ready to meet them. I wasn’t ready to do anything human. My body was taking food and water but my soul was non-existent.

‘You are tougher than you think,’ she said, packing her suitcase. ‘Just go back to London for a while and relax. Before you know it, I am going to be back and everything will be all right again.’

I listened to her; she was right all along. The sun helped with the healing process and the pain. I went back to Natasha for a few more weeks before I was going to start my final year in Swansea.

Right now, I am in my room, trying to concentrate on the book that my grandmother had lent me. Natasha is vacuuming and this doesn’t help me ponder on the text. I lift my head and check the calendar. In ten days Niamh will be back, exactly on the thirty-first of August. She is going to stay in London for a few more days before we go back to Wales to Abella.

Despite the time that has passed, I still wake up in the late hours in the morning, sopping with sweat, dreaming about Morgana and the way she manipulated everyone around her. When Abella woke up and she was able to talk, Niamh explained everything that happened when she was gone. It turned out that Maurice knew that she was away and waited for her until she was crossing the border.

He used his ancient magic that he was able to accumulate all these years to seize her, and then he brought her back to the cottage and forced her to write a letter. He knew that we were going to come.

Abella went back to North Wales to Cadir Idris. She was hoping to see Lord Alcott, but he refused to meet with her. She was persistent and kept coming back every month. No one heard about Morgana. Abella wanted to know more about the woman who Maurice was so afraid of. During all these months that she