Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR
Ilay panting in the snow, surrounded by nothing and no one, my flesh both freezing and unblemished.
I was no longer what I’d been. My mind no longer mine alone.
“You broke your vow to me, faceless one,” Caelum growled from within the recesses of my mind.
My skin felt too tight around my bones, my mind too constricted with the monster’s presence taking hold of its dark corners.
“I would kill you for your betrayal. But it seems I have use for you yet.”
“What do you want?” I panted through lips known as those of Prince Dragor, though of course I’d killed the real prince many years ago before taking his place along with his face.
Just as I had done with so many powerful Fae before him.
My empire had been complete and none but me and this hideous creature had known of it.
But I’d always feared this day would come. I’d known making a bargain with a monster would only end in horrors.
“I want the same thing I have always craved. More souls for the reaping.”
I swallowed thickly. I had lived for many hundreds of years and claimed power no other Fae had ever dared to dream of seizing.
All with the aid of this beast. My part in our deal to keep the war waging so that it could feast on the magic their deaths fed it while it gave me the gemstones which bought me immortality.
All with the knowledge that this day might finally arrive.
It had been my creature for so long, gifting me the crystals I’d needed to extend my lifespan while I simply fed it with death and ruin as it had demanded.
But all those years of feeding it pain had made it far stronger than I’d ever wanted to believe possible. The Void had been my only hope to keep it in check, to keep my own position as master of The Waning Lands in place and stop this beast from breaking through from its own world into mine.
“You can still maintain your position as master of all,” it purred from within me, the rotting stench of its power burning as it filled my nostrils. “But in return, you will keep me fed.”
“Yes,” I agreed. I had no other choice left to me regardless.
So once again I made a bargain with a monster. But this time, I feared I would not be the one in control of the destiny we wove as one.