Chapter 48
CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT
T he press of soft hands to the side of my face was the first thing I noticed, several seconds passing as I focused on that sensation and the sound of my name on lips which called to me from somewhere beyond my oblivion.
The pain came next. Agony crashing through me in a torrent that stole my breath as I sucked it in, the press of an endless weight crushing down on top of me almost making me pass out again.
“Just say yes,” she begged, those hands tightening, and my entire world dominated by that feeling as I forced my eyes open and found her there, her golden eyes swimming with moisture as she pleaded for me to speak that word. “Agree to me healing you, Drake, please.”
A groan crossed my lips which was filled with all the pain in my body, and the call of the darkness was almost enough to make me turn to it for some relief from this torture, but I was unable to turn away from her.
“Just one word,” she urged. “Only one.”
“Yes,” I forced out, an agonised cough following the word before light spilled through every piece of my being and I was consumed, devoured, and remade in her magic.
Bricks and masonry were swept aside as if they were nothing more than leaves in a breeze, lifting from my body and allowing her to use her incredible power to heal me until I was brand new once more.
“What the fuck happened?” I asked, though even as the words escaped me, I remembered the roof, the arrow, the falling dragon. “Is it over?”
“No,” Kyra breathed, a note of prophecy to her tone that made my heart thump out of rhythm before she threw herself at me, her arms winding tight around my neck and her body crushing me to the ground.
The scent of her engulfed me like a summer breeze, sea salt and fresh blossom all rolled into one, this explosion of life given flesh.
Kyra’s magic hummed and buzzed throughout her body, my skin tingling from the contact with her as I slowly closed my arms around her in return, the feeling of accepting such an embrace utterly alien to me.
I had never had a parent hold me this way.
I had never lingered in the company of a lover long enough to experience it either, and I didn’t know how to react to the pure relief she clearly felt in restoring my life to me from the cusp of death.
The ground rumbled beneath us, the sound of countless windchimes sounding from beyond the temple walls, and I cursed as a new pain suddenly exploded through my flesh.
A cry broke free of my lips as I released my hold on Kyra, my spine arching against the stone floor of the temple and my muscles bulging as my fingers dug into the floor while I fought to hold myself still through the burning sensation tearing through my body.
“Drake?” Kyra gasped as she scrambled to her feet and nothing but a bellow of pain fled from my lips in reply, my flesh beginning to heat and burn in deliberate lines all over my body.
My eyes rolled back into my head and suddenly I was in that room again, strapped to that table while foul ink was forced into my skin, the man who had tortured me for so long chanting in that way which had haunted my nightmares ever since my escape from that hell.
I could feel the bite of the needle as it drove into me, but instead of focusing on one place like it had when he’d placed the tattoos upon me, I could feel it everywhere at once, each piece of ink on my skin doused in acid as it ate into me, until I could have sworn they were etching themselves right into my bones.
A warrior born of sin shall rise.
A cacophony of voices all spoke inside my skull, the tattoos coating my skin burning impossibly hotter as my bones cracked beneath the weight of them, forcing their way deeper inside me.
“Make it stop,” I begged of Kyra, forcing my mind away from memories of that place and back to her, back to the stone floor of The Temple of Saresh, where I knew she was with me.
A golden glow pressed through the closed lids of my eyes, tranquillity calling out to me from within in it and I managed to turn my head that way, forcing my lids to part so I could look to my little goddess and see the raw power she was wielding for me.
The glow around her grew brighter and brighter, the light blinding me until my eyes watered, but I didn’t look away.
“It’s not working,” she gasped, her features lost to me in the brightness of the light that surrounded her. “I can’t stop it, Drake. Tell me what to do.”
The power rumbling through the ground only drove into me harder, and I cried out again as I felt the marks of my tattoos sinking deeper and deeper inside me until I was certain they were branding my fucking soul.
The golden light of Kyra’s power died out as if it had been snuffed by the breath of a god, and I was released from my torture in the same moment, panting heavily on the stone floor as my body shook from what I had somehow survived.
“Drake?” Kyra breathed as I groaned, rolling onto my hands and knees, raising my head to look at a doorway carved into the rear wall of the temple.
Nothing but darkness lay beyond the white stone entrance, skulls lining the edge of it with candles lit inside their empty eye sockets. There were marks carved into the bones, marks which I recognised as I forced myself to my feet.
My clothes hung from my frame in tatters, my limbs shaking from the torrent of power that had washed through me, my body feeling almost as if it wasn’t my own as I took a step forward.
There was a tightness to my skin that hadn’t been there before and a fluidity to my movements which surpassed even my usual level of control over my body.
The windchimes continued to rattle out in the city streets, but with every step I took towards that doorway, the sound seemed more muffled, my focus moving to an ancient hum radiating from within the darkness ahead of me.
I made it to the doorway and paused, turning to look at the Fae skulls surrounding it, reaching out to run my hand over one of them and feel the lines of the design which was carved into it.
I knew that pattern. The same mark adorned my right thigh, the lines of the tattoo glowing as I looked down to see it through the scraps of fabric which had been my trousers.
“I don’t like this,” Kyra breathed, moving close to my back, the caress of her power brushing up against my skin.
“Then don’t follow me,” I replied in a dark tone which didn’t sound like my own at all, but it didn’t matter. My destiny awaited me within this place. I could feel it calling for me from beyond here, demanding I come to claim it.
Kyra sucked in a breath at my dismissal, but I couldn’t so much as turn to look at her, my gaze focused entirely on the darkness before me.
Warm air spilled from within the chamber, like the breath of some long slumbering monster washing over my skin, but still, I didn’t turn back.
My fingers fell from the skull, and I raised my chin, meaning to answer the call of my fate.
Kyra’s hand snapped out to encircle my wrist, holding me in place and forcing me to turn to look at her.
Her ebony hair was tangled and the black clothes she wore torn and dusty, more smudges of it staining her skin and the less than perfect appearance made her seem so much more Fae for once.
Like I might have just been looking at a girl instead of the most powerful entity I had ever known.
“I can feel a change coming for us,” Kyra whispered, her golden eyes wide with fear. “If you step foot in there, you won’t be able to turn back. They’ll have you in their thrall.”
“Who?” I demanded, the call of that place only deepening with every moment I lingered here.
“The gods,” she breathed, fear lacing her words. “I feel them stirring.”
My heart leapt at the possibility of that, every fearful, cautionary tale I’d ever heard about the deities who could be as cruel as they could be generous flashing through my memory in warning.
“What else do you feel?” I asked of her, though I knew my mind was already decided on this.
Kyra hesitated for several moments, an unseen wind stirring her hair and making her skin glimmer as she tightened her hold on my wrist. “Afraid.”
I studied the truth written into her features before releasing a breath and turning back to the doorway that continued to beckon me closer with every passing second.
“I’ve had one enemy for my entire life, little goddess,” I said slowly, the ink on my skin tingling with energy. “And I’ve never let fear beat me yet.”
I tugged my hand free of her hold and took a step into the dark, ignoring the sharp inhale of her breath, and walking willingly towards my fate, because I already knew there was no alternative to it now.
I was a man of sin, a street thief, a liar, and a savage. But I would never be a coward.