Chapter 47
ARIEL
I crashed through the glass wall of the dining room, my body engulfed in flames. Vesstan eyed my smoldering frame from the head of the grand table as I crossed the room. “So your mother really did pass her stolen gifts on to you after all.” He dabbed the corners of his mouth with his napkin as he rose from his chair. “Your grandfather will be furious.”
“He’ll never find out, because that secret will die with you. Now .”
His laughter halted my approach. “It’s no secret, foolish girl. And even if you could defeat me, your life would be snuffed out the moment he got his hands on you.”
“I stopped caring about my life the second Hemming died.”
“He’s dead?” he replied. “Well then, I guess we’re one step closer to finishing this little game, aren’t we?”
A malicious grin overtook his expression, igniting a rage the depths of which I’d never before felt. Without warning, I unleashed a torrent of liquid fire upon him. The grand table separating us disintegrated into the floor; then the floor itself eroded into nothing, leaving a gaping hole in the center of the room. On the far side of it stood Vesstan, his luxurious clothing ruined. His impossibly pale skin charred black.
But those icy blue eyes shone bright with fury.
“You wretched little cunt!” Anger contorted his marred face, and for a moment, I basked in the knowledge that he would suffer before he died. But as I looked on, the burnt, ruined flesh began to heal, smooth white skin replacing any damage I’d caused. Evil laughter filled the room once again. “Your rage has blinded you, Ariel, or you’re too stupid to remember that I can heal myself?—”
“I want you to heal,” I said as I slowly circled the hole in the floor to get closer. “I want you to pay for what you’ve done, over and over again, until my bloodlust has been sated.”
“Abandon this fool’s errand before you truly anger me, Ariel.” The temperature in the room plummeted, and a sheen of frost crept up the walls, extinguishing the flames consuming them. “Continue to test me, and you will feel the full weight of my power.” The wood floor beneath my feet sizzled as ice surrounded me and snaked its way up my boots. “And I have had centuries to hone mine, unlike your newfound gift. Is that a war you truly want?”
I closed my eyes and thought of Hemming plunging to his death. The fire coursing through my veins shot out from every inch of my flesh, engulfing the entire room.
Vesstan glowered at the inferno. “So be it.”
His arms shot out to the sides as I launched myself across the room, fiery wings beating hard and fast. Vicious-looking shards of ice appeared in his hands just before I could drive my shoulder into his gut and take him down. A surge of fire coated the icy weapons, melting them slightly, but the blunted tip of one sliced through my arm as he knocked me away.
I crashed against the far wall and scrambled to my feet as Vesstan stormed toward me, a flurry of frost and ice swirling around him that grew with every step. “Enough of this game!” he roared as a wind that seemed to come from nowhere blew his hair wildly around him.
“This game ends when you’re dead!”
I took to the air as shards of ice assaulted me, biting into my scales like tiny daggers. With a deep breath, I summoned the fire of dragons, preparing to rain it down upon him again. A dome of ice enveloped him in anticipation of my attack, but it wasn’t enough to withstand the fire fueled by rage and vengeance that flowed from every pore of my body. The fortification fell, and I dove through the breach, flaming wings tucked in tight behind me.
Our bodies clashed in a tangle of ice and fire, and we tumbled across the room until he was on his back, his torso dangling through the hole in the floor. I smashed my fist into his face repeatedly, craving the brutality of hand-to-hand combat at that moment. He’d taken everything from me.
I would take him piece by piece if I had to.
Fire licked along his flesh as I pummeled him, and the rush I felt as I watched his life and power falter was a heady thing indeed. But that feeling temporarily blinded me to the danger the god pinned beneath me posed, and I soon found myself shooting into the air, trapped in a cage of ice. It wasn’t enough to hold me for long, but it bought Vesstan the time he needed to get up—and that was time enough. While I tried to melt my way out of his frozen prison, he continued to bombard me with his power.
Ice crept up my legs to my torso, encasing me in a crust so deep that it snuffed out my fire. I crashed to the ground, unable to fly carrying the weight he’d entombed me in. He was on me in a flash, wrenching my mouth closed to keep my molten fire at bay. As I struggled to burn my way free, the ice continued higher still, climbing up my neck to my face.
Panic seized my heart as it grew harder to breathe.
“You could have been a queen here,” he snarled as he leaned in closer. “Now your dead corpse will rot on this island—as will your friends.”
I closed my eyes and tried once more to overcome his power with the one my mother had passed on to me. Fire sparked in my mouth as Vesstan’s magic encased it, and his eyes went wide with what I assumed was anger.
Then blood, warm and wet, spattered my face, and I looked down to find a gaping hole in Vesstan’s chest. He sputtered as he tried to speak, but no words came out. His magic faltered and mine flared in response, melting the ice just before his lifeless body collapsed to the ground. Behind him stood my father, with Vesstan’s heart in his hand.
The collar that had long enslaved him was gone.
And the joy of victory beamed in his eyes.
“You’re free,” I said, breathing hard.
“I am,” he replied as he stepped closer to embrace me, “thanks to you.”
His arm snaked around my neck and he pulled me close.
Warning bells niggled in the back of my mind. I pulled away from him and took a step back. “You killed Vesstan…but you’re not a god.”
His smile morphed into something dark and sinister as he dropped the heart to the floor. Black wings dissolved into shadows, then disappeared altogether as his body rippled and distorted like a reflection in water disturbed by a raindrop, until a new image came into focus
One not of my father.
Thallen stood before me, hands clasped in front of him. “Hello, Ariel…or should I say ‘ granddaughter ’?”
I staggered back a step, my body nearly paralyzed with shock. “Where is my father?”
“He is exactly where I left him years ago—dead. Just like I left your precious lover.” He let that blow land hard.
“It was you… you killed Hemming.”
His amusement was plain. “As far as he was concerned, it was your father. You should have seen the betrayal in his eyes when I drew the obsidian from his back before I threw him over the cliff. So much regret. So much delicious fear.” He took a step closer while I stood still, too frozen by the truth to move. “I see those same emotions in you now, Ariel, but don’t fret. It will be all over once I take back what your mother stole from me.”
His wicked expression twisted with rage as something brushed against my arm.
A cool hand encircled mine.
“I don’t think so,” Shayfer said in a menacing tone as Thallen lunged at us.
My grandfather’s angry cry filled the fiery room as it disappeared from sight.