Chapter 39
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
NAKOA
E very night since we’d set the Kahlohani Islands aflame, I’d had a reoccurring nightmare where I returned to watch my home, my land, my dreams be reduced to ash. At first, I would search from the sky, watching it burn while icy terror bled through because I knew that Mareina was there somewhere. I just had no idea where and no way of finding her. Still, I would fly into the flames—into my old home where Leilani had raised me—and scream Mareina’s name over roaring flames and collapsing wood.
The echo of her cries would lead me on a chase until I burned along with her.
I’d returned to this nightmare again tonight, but something about it felt different. I was standing in my mother’s old bedroom, each wall consumed by flames, and yet I was still.
Waiting.
From one moment to the next, I was no longer standing in my old house. I was standing in a palace that looked vaguely familiar. The flames burned higher, and it was only when I noticed the towering statue of a familiar female I’d never met that I realized where I was.
Azrael’s palace.
Mareina’s—
Before the thought can even finish, a deep, velvety voice calls behind me.
“You won’t find her here.”
I turned to find who I can only assume is Somnus based on his likeness to Mors; though he is notably fairer, his features less sharp, more… boyish. There’s something more innocent about him. And a little more… lonely.
When my eyes locked onto his purely black ones, I home in on them, squinting until I realize that his gaze isn’t merely black, like mine. A light glimmered in them that wasn’t a reflection of the flames engulfing Azrael’s palace but the stars. A whirling, glittering, distant cosmos. Instantly drawn into them, the burning heat and fire around me fades.
“Don’t.”
Somnus’ voice is deep and smooth, like a thick velvet blanket.
I reared back slightly, almost dizzied by his strange, enchanting power.
“Where is she?”
“The mountains… With another soulbound.”
The words seemed to cut the air off in my throat as I anticipated a blinding stab of jealousy that didn’t come. Perhaps it was the dream softening the blow of what should have been devastating news.
“Who?”
“His name is Ataraxus. Another drakonati.”
I scanned my Knowingness and my heart, still waiting for jealous rage and betrayal to burn through me like the flames consuming the palace. Instead, I felt relief.
She’s safe. Surely?
Somnus nods. “He guards her with his life.”
I have so many questions, but none are more important than the task at hand.
“Do you think Azrael will let her come home with us?”
Somnus frowns. “Not even remotely.”
Talons of fear sank into my heart.
“Will you help us get her back?”
Somnus’ frown hardened with regret and anger.
“Ataraxus will. And you need to ensure you take him back to Bellorum with you.”
“… That is not what I asked.”
Somnus heaved a sigh. “I cannot.”
My words came out as harsh as I intended. It was his niece for Akash’s sake. “Why?”
“Because I made a bargain with Azrael. And he will kill my soulbound if he discovers my betrayal. Even this risks his wrath.”
“Are you not powerful enough to kill him?”
“If I were to be cunning about it, certainly, but killing—while sometimes necessary—is not always the answer. Azrael is suffering. And like you, he is not beyond redemption.”
The weight of Somnus’ gaze somehow grew impossibly heavier as though he was willing me to feel the gravitas of his words.
“And… If he were to die, his hell realms would open up to all of Bellorum and, eventually, Avernus. His power would dissipate across the universe in which his realms exist, and the barrier that separates Bellorum from Vassileo would unravel completely. Our worlds would blend. The beings from Vassileo wouldn’t merely find their way to Bellorum via some portal— all of Bellorum would become a hell realm. And the divine realm of Ourinessa would be destroyed. There would also be no one to hold dominion over the souls of those in Ourinessa or Vassileo. The dead realms would merge with the living realms. I cannot even begin to fathom the consequences of such a thing because it has never happened. Azrael must live.”
My gaze returned to the flames, and it felt like I was reliving the nightmare for the first time. My guilt doubled down on me. Not because of how I hurt Mareina, destroyed our relationship, or played such an integral part in Mareina’s feelings of obligation to martyr herself, but because I realized then that I was absolutely ok with facing those consequences if it meant getting Mareina back.
“If you came here thinking that would be enough of a deterrent to prevent me from killing Azrael?—
Somnus’ laughter cut me short.
“ Akash, no. I’d kill every last one of you if it meant saving my soulbound.”
The nonchalance and honesty of his admission had me seeing him through new eyes and wondering how I’d presumed him innocent.
Somnus offered me an easy shrug as if we weren’t standing in a palace on fire, collapsing around us, and he hadn’t just blatantly admitted that he wouldn’t hesitate to murder us. “Nothing personal. You’d do the same for yours.”
The groan of metal and crashing of stone were stark reminders that time was of the essence. Somnus’ features darkened as he looked away to some distant point. I recognized the expression because I had worn it each time a vision overtook me.
My voice became tinged with desperation. “How do I get her back?”
It became clear to me that Somnus was no longer listening when his lip curled, eyes locked on something in the distance, growling something that I couldn’t make out over the sound of the destruction around us.
Panic leapt through me as the nightmare around me began to collapse. Blood dripped from Somnus’ hands a moment before he disappeared. I turned to look for an exit as the feeling of claustrophobia gripped me. One of the statues cracked beneath the weight of a beam. Instead of it bearing the effigy of Azrael’s mate, it was Mareina. Just before I was crushed beneath the weight, I was jolted awake.