Chapter 40 #3
“The gods thought that they could contain me, but look at me now. Perhaps a clearer view will help.”
He pulls Celeste to him and sinks his fangs deep into her neck.
He rips a chunk of flesh from her throat before throwing her lifeless body to the floor of the dais.
Someone shouts out at the back, but no one dares to move.
The domed window above suddenly fills with a bright light, and the vampires jump back from it, hiding in the shadows of the room.
The rays of light coat Karius in a warm glow, and he tilts his head back and smiles. “Sunlight,” he says, breathing it in.
A hiss comes from a couple of vampires at the back, and I turn to find them trying to get out, but the door is blocked by a human. No, I gasp as I spot the dark eyes and veins that sit beneath their eyes.
“Bring the girl up here,” Karius says, and I only just realize that the two guards who were blocking Iza are impure.
They grab hold of her arms and drag her to the dais, throwing her down in front of Karius.
I step forward, but Ajax grabs my arm. My eyes flicker to Willow next to him, but she just looks on in horror.
“Come, don’t be afraid.” He beckons to Iza. She scrambles to her feet. “Isadora here is by far the most intelligent among you. It burns me to know that she is not one of my children. Tell them what you discovered, my dear. All of it.”
He pushes her roughly to the front of the dais, and her eyes land directly on mine, an apology swirling in them.
“I…the gods…” She sounds nervous.
“Would it be an incentive if I started killing your friends?” he purrs.
“He’s not Karius. Not anymore,” she says, and the entire room seems to collectively suck in a breath. My eyes fall on him, and my heart sinks. “He’s a demon, the one that the gods imprisoned before they disappeared.”
My stomach drops as her eyes meet mine.
“You wanted to know why I’ve been avoiding you? The prison wasn’t a place like we thought, but a person with enough magic in their blood to contain the full essence of a demon without allowing it to take control of them. To keep it imprisoned within them.”
Her words hit me like a punch in the gut. Athriel. He’s the demon the gods locked away.
His eyes meet mine as though he senses that I just figured it out.
“That’s not possible,” I whisper.
“Oh, but it is, my dear Adina. The gods are a tricky set of bastards, and they made some rules about my imprisonment. You see that magic running through your blood, not only imprisoned me, but it also cursed me to forget exactly who I was, so I would not even know to try to escape.”
I shake my head in disbelief.
“But the problem with magic is that it demands balance, and if I were to be trapped with no memories, then there had to be a doorway for me to get out.”
His mouth curves up into a wicked grin that doesn’t even look like Karius, and I know without question that it’s Athriel standing before me.
“Stop speaking in riddles,” I demand, and this makes him smile.
“Your mating bond was my balance. As soon as it was sealed, it opened a doorway for me. A way to get out. And every time that he fed on you, it opened a little more, allowing me to slowly remember who I was and what had been done to me. Don’t worry, you’re not to blame.
You just carry a magic in your bloodline meant to entrap me, but you and I formed an unbreakable bond, Adina, and not even the gods can come between that. ”
“That’s why Julian sent me to kill the prince…he knew,” I say in horror.
A sense of twisted pride floods his face as he watches me put the pieces together.
“The gods didn’t account for the fact that imprisoning me did not trap my children. They held on to the memories for me. They remained loyal for centuries as they searched for a way to free me.”
“But why all of this? Why not just leave once you were free?”
He tsks as though I should know better, and realization dawns.
“You wanted them all linked to him so that…”
The words trail off as I struggle to even speak them aloud.
“Once I find my body, I will have no use for your prince. I will be rid of him and every disgusting bloodsucker in this court, created to stand against me and my creations, and then I will return for you, my love.”
“Killing the prince will kill me,” I remind him.
A wicked glint flickers across his eyes. “Not if that pesky bond is broken.”
I take a step back at his words.
“The gods created the vampires to kill your impures, didn’t they? That’s why you orchestrated the war so that the vampires would defeat the very thing that kept them alive. Humans.”
He smiles at this. “I always said you were one of the clever ones.”
“You’re not leaving with him,” I growl the words in warning.
He tilts his head to look at me and then grabs Iza by the throat.
She screams out, but a shadow-shaped arrow flies through the air straight at him, and he drops her to the floor to catch it.
He squeezes it in his palm, and it disintegrates into nothing.
Iza uses the moment of distraction to scurry down the steps of the dais away from him.
A strange noise causes me to snap my attention in Ajax’s direction, and as my eyes lock with his, I find an apology there. It was his arrow. He tried to save Iza. The world stills as dark rivulets of blood run from his mouth, and a familiar gurgling sound comes from the back of his throat. No.
“Ajax,” I say his name in desperation as though it can somehow undo what has already been done.
I dip my gaze to the hand protruding through his chest, its clawed fingers wrapped around his beating heart.
Willow stands behind him, her monstrous black eyes assessing me over his shoulder.
Lines of dark veins trail along her exposed skin, almost covering her entirely. She was right. She’s already gone.
I step forward as her grip tightens around Ajax’s heart. “Willow, n—”
But I’m too late. A horrific tearing sound reverberates across the silent hall as she rips his heart from his chest. His lifeless body crashes to the floor, and a strangled scream pierces the air, drawing my attention to its source.
Ivana.