Chapter 60
Chapter
Sixty
EVIE
I ce.
All around and inside me.
My teeth chattered as the shadows around me pushed and pulled, trying to consume me whole. My lips were parched and my eyes stung from dehydration. I stumbled in complete darkness, lost and confused.
I gritted my teeth and kept seeking to get to Zandyr. If there was still a Zandyr to get to.
Finally, mercifully, I stumbled out of the darkness, falling to my knees onto red marble at the end of a corridor.
My vision blurred with too much light to bear. No matter how fast or hard I blinked, I couldn’t escape it or detect where in Xamor’s name it was coming from.
It’s just light, Vegheara. Deal with it.
I rose in one move, only swaying once. The light was still there, but–
I looked down–it was coming from me.
My leather armor was still there, but it was weaved out of sun rays. The only dark spots were the vials where Zandyr’s blood swirled, greedily sucked in all the glow. Even my skin and hair radiated, like the goddesses of old.
I didn’t dwell too much on it as I rushed through the corridor, its walls full of inscriptions I had no chance of deciphering. It felt like stepping inside a forgotten temple, grand and imposing.
With the radiant light, I could barely make out the shapes of a dragon between the symbols. In some, he was snarling victoriously. In others, his mouth and fangs were frozen in a howl of pain.
I couldn’t explain it, but this felt like Zandyr. Majestic and magnificent, but immersed in darkness.
Still no trace of the man, though.
Where in the–
Groans.
Chains.
A grim cackle.
I quickened my steps as the sounds grew louder.
“Pathetic.” A harsh, distorted voice chuckled. The crack of a whip reverberated through the tunnel. “And they expect you to save the Blood Brotherhood? You can’t even save your little family.”
I ran like my own life depended on it.
Another crack of the whip. It rattled my bones, as if it had struck my flesh.
“The great Dragon, down on his knees.” That same cruel voice laughed maniacally. “Everyone knows how worthless you are. Unfit to lead us. Your father didn’t give you the crown because you don’t deserve it. The throne will fall as soon as you sit on it.”
Whoever this person was, they’d just signed their death sentence.
“Nobody would have bothered with you if you hadn’t been born a prince. Admit it.” The whip fell again, this time eliciting a groan. “Except one. And you drove me away.”
Me?
Two figures speared the darkness at the end of the corridor, their backs to me. A woman, draped in a golden robe that barely covered her, one shoulder and leg exposed, standing on heels that looked suspiciously like the stilts Allie loved so much. She raised the whip again.
My heart jumped in my throat as I saw the figure kneeling on the ground at her feet.
Zandyr.
His bloody back had so many fresh wounds, I could barely make out his dragon tattoo. His hands were raised above his head by two chains jutting out from the wall, head caved between his shoulders.
Only the occasional groan escaped him. Otherwise, he didn’t move, accepting this torture.
“How does it feel, you miserable son of a bitch?” Another lash. “To know that nobody will ever love you, crown or not. Your parents have proven they don’t. You think I do? I could never love someone as weak and pathetic as you .”
As she raised the whip once more to flail him alive, I jumped on her back and knocked her pretty little head to the floor. We struggled on the ground, rolling onto the hard marble, until I ended up on top of her, her wrists caged in my hands.
I flinched as I saw her face.
It was me.
Not the actual me, but a copy that was too beautiful and too vicious to ever be me. She looked like someone had taken a brush to my own face and enhanced everything. Made the lips fuller, straightened the nose, and tamed the chin.
“Oh, but this is fun.” My replica bent her back, pushing her chest up. She nodded at Zandyr’s chained form. “Think he wants to join? I bet he does. All he thinks about is you. The more, the merrier I say.”
“Shut up,” I snarled. Godsdamnnit, how many more replicas of me did I have to face?
Her grin grew so wide, it almost split her rouged cheeks. “He doesn’t like what I say, either. You two are so irritable.”
I headbutted the grin right off her face. My forehead hurt, but her nose bled, so I took that as a win.
“Fierce little creature, aren’t you?” She licked the blood dripping onto her top lip. “He’s going to love that. He likes it rough, but took it easy on you, since you’re so inexperienced. But you should see how he dreams of you. Oh, those moans are sweet.”
I flicked my switchblade open, yet hesitated to strike.
“You’d kill yourself to save him?” she taunted, bloody and nasally. “Come on. Some part of you must be delighted at seeing him defeated. The man who broke your heart and trust is hanging onto life by a thread .”
I didn’t dare look at Zandyr hanging in those chains.
“You should have seen him right after the wedding,” she went on. “He tried to reason with me, of all things. Ask for forgiveness. Plead–”
“Let him go .”
She laughed. Her teeth elongated into fangs for a moment. “My dear, sweet, innocent Evie. He put himself in those chains. Penance, as if that changes anything.”
I lowered my switchblade. She was right.
This was Zandyr’s mind. He might not have conscious control of it, like I didn’t have with mine, but the essence of him was still there.
“Thank you, you big-mouthed fool.” I kissed her temple and let her go, rushing to Zandyr.
This version of him was as still as the one resting in the Frostfall Reach room. He didn’t breathe, he didn’t flinch.
I fell to my knees in front of him, cupping his face in my hands. Gods, his cheeks were stained with blood, too.
“What are you doing?” my replica hissed. She crawled toward us like a spider, limbs disjointed. “Leave him alone to his misery. It’s all he deserves.”
I shut her out, focusing everything on the fading man in front of me.
“It’s me,” I whispered, struggling to hold his head upright. I lifted his chin and it fell down, limp as if he’d already died. “It’s the real Evie. It’s your menace.”
“Get away!” my replica roared, standing up and raising the whip at my back.
I faced her with the fury of a thousand gods in my stare. “Make me.”
Her hand shook, but the whip didn’t crack.
“Can’t do it, can you?” It was my turn to taunt, and, damn, did it feel good. “Zandyr would never let anyone harm me.”
She bared her fanged teeth. “He hurt you.”
“Yes.” I turned my attention back to him. “And he has to come back to deal with that, not die on me.”
“Let him.” She came up behind, whispering in my ear. “Let him go, he’s of no use to you. Plenty of men out there who would love to be with a Vegheara.”
“Zandyr.” I raked my fingers through his hair. “Don’t listen to her. She’s insane.”
“Hey!”
“You’re not weak.”
“Shut up, he is.”
“You’re not pathetic.”
“He can’t even move.”
“You can’t let yourself be tortured like this,” I pleaded. “We need you to live. I need you.”
The darkness around us began to flicker, even as the light coating my skin glowed stronger.
“He almost destroyed you!” My replica bellowed.
“He risked his life to save me.” More than once. “Come on, Zandyr. It’s me. Evie.”
The smallest groan passed his lips.
“NO!” Her roar shook the tunnel. “He deserves to be tortured for all eternity for what he did to you. He doesn’t deserve your smiles or your whispers.”
“Listen to me,” I whispered. “We are fated mates. The universe would have not crafted a weak man for me. You’re mine–and I won’t allow you to slip away from me. Got it?”
The replica shrieked louder.
“Wake up.” I pressed my forehead against his. “Come back to me.”
The corridor rattled harder as my replica cried out for the last time. The light became unbearable, engulfing us. In the distance, I heard the crack of chains breaking.
Zandyr’s body leaned into me.
I almost cried out in relief when his arms circled me before the light engulfed us.