Chapter 17 #2
The royal Prophet was terrifying in his stature as well as his gifts.
He was a huge man, both tall and broad, his head fully shaven and eyes two pits of nothing.
I hated what he was and what he represented with his white robes which he never removed in public, the stark, bright colour a contrast to the deep stains I knew lined his rotten soul.
His power wasn’t some gift from the gods.
It was stolen. Almost all of it taken through methods which weren’t even whispered of, for all folk knew how twisted and depraved they were.
“I will die shortly either way,” I muttered, not caring for their plans, only wanting one thing now. “And then I will finally be with my sister again in the eternal garden where nothing can touch me anymore.”
“You think you will be welcomed into the garden?” the guard scoffed, and I turned a cold look his way. “You’re a murderer.”
“I saved the kingdom from the rule of a tyrant. I stopped a monster from hurting anyone ever again. I believe I will be welcomed into the garden for that,” I assured him.
The back of Kalir’s hand smacked across my face, throwing me to one side as I tasted blood and felt bone crack from the unnatural strength he held.
My shoulder roared with agony as my weight was forced to hang from the shackle which secured that arm, but I didn’t let so much as a breath escape me, much less a cry of pain.
I rocked back around to face him, spitting my blood at his feet as the magic I had been gifted upon my birth sprung to life within me, my healing Affinity flaring as the power raced along my jaw and healed the wound.
It was much harder than it should have been with the iron encasing my hands, but I came from a long line of powerful Fae and even that beastly metal couldn’t fully contain my magic.
Kalir’s lips lifted in a savage grin as he watched my magic work, his overly bright eyes pinned to me as he nodded.
“She is perfect,” he breathed, greed lighting his eyes.
“What do you intend to do with her?” the guard asked curiously, not like he cared or wanted to protect me, more like he was genuinely interested in what torture I was destined to endure.
“I will remake her,” Kalir said, imbuing my limbs with fear as I wondered what he meant by that.
There was no way he intended to offer me anything close to kindness or redemption, so I was certain any plans he had would only be designed to aid in my suffering.
“I will bind her and create her in the image of a god itself.”
“Why?” the guard asked as I frowned, not wanting anything at all other than death now.
“She is destined for power only ever known by the gods, but the price of it will be her will, her freedom and her soul.”
“What?” I breathed, my pulse picking up though I didn’t understand his words at all.
“You, the woman who disrespected the highest of all Fae in the most despicable of ways, will only ever know a life of servitude and submission from this day forth,” Kalir said cruelly.
“You cannot break my will,” I assured him, my jaw gritting with the knowledge that I would never bend to whatever he thought to force upon me. I would die first. And if not by their hands, then I would do so by my own.
“I won’t give you the luxury of a choice.”
Kalir jerked his chin at me before I could respond in any way and the guard moved forward, drawing a key from his pocket which he used to unlock the shackles which held me.
I let myself drop to my knees as I was released, the cold stone cutting into my skin and making me bleed once more before my power rushed to fix it just as fast.
I feigned weakness, waiting for the guard to move behind me and haul me to my feet while my attention fixed solely on the blade which hung from the sheath at his side.
I didn’t intend to waste any time on whatever plans they had for punishing me.
I was done with this world and all it had taken.
I was done with this endless life. Because without her in it, I was lost. She was the one constant I had held tight to, the one truth that had ever really counted for me. And now she was gone.
The guard heaved me up and I twisted sharply, slamming my fist into his jaw hard enough to knock him back and grasping the blade from his belt before turning it on myself.
The steel brushed against the flesh between my breasts and my muscles tensed as I moved to impale myself upon it.
My heart. I only had to strike my heart and even my gifts couldn’t save me.
But before I could go through with what I ached for so desperately, a strange and unholy power locked around my limbs, freezing them in place.
A gasp of fear escaped me as the guard lurched forward, ripping the blade from my frozen fingers before taking hold of me and squeezing my arm tightly. The power holding me fell away and I shuddered as I was whirled towards Kalir.
The Prophet was panting heavily, the dark skin of his bald head and brow speckled with beads of sweat and his gold embroidered robes dampened with it too.
Whatever power he had just used to contain me was no Affinity I had ever known of.
That was some twisted sorcery which he’d stolen from the lap of the gods themselves.
“I’m not letting you escape this fate, Esworn,” he growled, the use of the cursed name stilling any words I held on my tongue.
The Esworn were the worst of the Fae, those who had done atrocious things and had forfeited their right to even hold a name any longer.
I wasn’t like them. What I had done was no crime.
“But I will make it easier on you if you give up the location of your brother-in-law and his children.”
“I’ll die before I give them up,” I spat, and his eyes widened because he knew I spoke the truth.
There was no lying for our kind. Which meant he really would make it easier on me if I spoke of their location too, but I meant what I said with every fibre of my being.
I was already dead. If they wanted to cut me apart piece by piece before I met with the after, then so be it.
I had already faced the worst pain I could ever endure anyway in the loss of my sister, and no physical agony could be a match to that, nor enough to ever make me give up her remaining family.
“We’ll see about that,” Kalir muttered.
My heart began to race as I was hauled away from the cavern where I’d been held since the moment I had been dragged off of the emperor’s corpse, laughing and praising the gods for helping me in my endeavour.
Herdat had offered me more then. More blood, more power, more of everything. She had shown me a vision of me sitting upon the eternal throne in place of the man I had just killed, a pile of bones at my feet which paved the way there for me.
She had tried to tempt me with that offer but even in the thrill of death, I hadn’t wanted it.
I hadn’t needed it. I wanted no life anymore, not one blessed with power and riches, nor any other which didn’t include the laughter of the one person who had meant more to me than all else.
So I had denied the offer of a goddess and had accepted my fate, awaiting the sword which would cleave my head from my shoulders or spear my heart in payment for what I had done, so that I could rush to the garden in the after and embrace my sister once more.
But now, even that was denied to me.
We headed out into the brightness of the sun, the guard carrying me as the strength I’d managed to summon fled, and I paid the price of days without nourishment while clad in iron.
I slumped against my captor, the ripe scent of him filling my nose as he carried me towards some unknown destination.
I knew I should have been fighting harder.
But it didn’t really matter. Whatever was done to me now would still end the same way.
I would find a way to end my life if they didn’t do it for me.
I would find a way to join her in death.
We strode away from the palace through the cool spring air, more guards surrounding us as we went and the sound of their booted feet on the ground carrying to me.
The pastel shades of the blossoms blooming all around us made my chest lighten as I looked to them, the trees swaying in a light breeze and the scent of spring caressing my senses, focusing on that instead of my destination.
We headed into the forest, following Kalir’s directions until the light of the sky began to darken once again with the thickness of the canopy overhead.
We finally arrived in an open patch of woodland, the trees parting for it as if the hand of a god had swept the ground clear in this spot alone for some unknown purpose. Maybe even for this very moment.
In the centre of the space was a heavy wooden chair with an iron collar, the inside of it lined with sharpened spikes locked to the top of it.
There were carvings in the wood which made my skin prickle as I looked upon them, effigies of the gods in their purest forms, the lines simple and yet endlessly intricate.
It seemed as though every single god and goddess were represented in those carvings, each of them offered the same amount of space as a sign of respect to their power.
I began to fight as I was carried closer to that chair, the sight of the collar which was attached to it lighting fear in me beyond what I could even understand right now.
I had never seen anything like it, but I could feel the power it held, sense the eyes of countless deities turning this way and I knew in my soul that I wanted no part of that at all.
“Stop,” I gasped as the guard’s fingers bit into me, another coming to take hold of me too as they fought to contain me.
“Please,” I begged even though I knew it would do no good. I began to kick and fight, my nails catching and tearing on the metal of their armour as more hands gripped me and forced me to bend to their will.