Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
Rage
MAGNOLIA
At some point, the sentries dragged me back to my room, but I had no concept of time.
I felt so broken.
I didn’t eat, didn’t bathe, didn’t move, didn’t even bother going to my bed—I just collapsed onto the floor and sobbed until I had no tears left.
Until I couldn’t cry anymore, couldn’t feel…
I was numb, dead on the inside, and all I wanted to be was dead on the outside too. I wanted to see Masin again—even if it was in the After.
I wasn’t processing time anymore, wasn’t feeling anything. All those years of trying to make myself numb, and I’d finally done it.
I stayed on the floor, not caring that my back ached, that I was resting on my arm at a bad angle, that the cold was seeping into my bones.
I didn’t feel anything.
Except it wasn’t enough. Being dead wasn’t going to fix this.
I needed Dahes to pay. I couldn’t let him win, couldn’t let him take anything else from me.
Because Hael was still alive somewhere in the castle.
Rage coursed through me. I fucking hated him, hated what he had made me become over the past seven years. Hated the lies, the manipulation, the pure fucking evilness he possessed.
I destroyed everything in my room. Every piece of furniture was ripped to shreds, not caring that my hands were slowly becoming a bloody mess in the process.
I welcomed it, needed the physical pain to drown out the emotional turmoil that was spiraling inside me.
I started pacing my room, splintered wood cutting into my feet as I walked.
I needed to do something. I needed help. Please…
I prayed to the Goddesses, begging them to do anything, pleading to the point of desperation.
Except—
Nessium already helped me. She already gave me everything I needed to get away from Dahes.
He couldn’t control my Token.
I didn’t sleep. Every waking second before the Watala, I practiced my Token, while making sure to keep my mind numb.
I didn’t want Dahes to know what I was doing, didn’t want him to realize that I was honing my power to be the one thing that could destroy him.
Controlling my Token was starting to feel instinctual. I was surprised—the moment I loved my Token, the moment I was thankful for it, it came easily. It was like I’d been missing the final key and the lock finally clicked into place.
I was still rough in the beginning, every now and then, my focus would drop, and I couldn’t control it.
But now, I owned it, made sure I was ready to use it.
I half expected Dahes to fetch me using his sentries, but he was standing in the door frame as the hinges opened.
Hael was chained behind him, his jaw set, his fists clenched.
He looked so much worse than before. More blood and bruises marred his skin—
Don’t think, Magnolia. Don’t think.
Keep your mind blank. Emotionless. Numb.
“Evening, little ghost,” Dahes smiled, taking in my room. “I see you’ve kept yourself busy this week.”
It wasn’t until I was following him through the halls that I realized the Watala had begun.
The fog started to dissipate over the kingdom, the start of the seven-day phenomenon when Moriann could see the sky.
The barred windows were enough to glimpse that the Summer Solstice would follow shortly after.
Right now, the suns were setting above us in Viven, but soon the moons would replace them, slowly shifting on their axis until they were all aligned.
It was almost time.
Dahes stopped on the open rotunda. Thatchers were perched around the stone archway, looking down at us, while sentries lined the floor.
“Lock her up,” Dahes ordered the sentries, then turned toward me, “don’t resist.” The command sank into my bones the moment two sentries wrapped their metal fingers over my arms.
I noticed a sabberneath out of the corner of my eye—part reptile, part bird.
Their long feathery wings with slender bodies made them fast. They were less intimidating than a dragon and much more rare.
Instead of sharp teeth, they had an elongated beak, talons that retracted, and long slender legs that tucked behind them when they took flight.
I’d only seen one once before. Dahes usually kept his rarer items hidden from the world, and it reminded me that Hael killed his dragon. He wasn’t able to ride his Ater into Viven.
I smiled despite myself, because even if Dahes brought the drakins back, his dragon was dead.
I remembered Hael telling me there was no coming back from that, that a rider only got one dragon for life.
I opened my mind, letting the thought sit at the forefront of my mind for Dahes to read, to remind him of what he fucking lost for once.
At least Hael did that, at least he took something from him.
“Careful, ghost,” Dahes growled, looking me up and down slowly. “Because after this is over, there is a lot more I can still take from you.”
My smile faded.
“If you come back,” I said, not really knowing what I was doing. “The triplets said that the future is always changing.”
Dahes eyed me for a moment, probably aware of the shift. Before I met Hael, I would have held my tongue. But not now. Not anymore.
“You get a front row seat,” Dahes smiled, but it was far from warm.
“I thought you’d want to watch the moment I do win.
” He looked between us—Hael standing next to him and me already inside the cage, one of the sentries locking the bars.
“Because when I fucking do, I have lots of celebrations planned for us.”
He pulled on his mask before drawing his hood—becoming the devil everyone sees.
The sabberneath dropped down, tucking its wing. The remaining fog swirled around us as Dahes jumped onto its back. A thatcher swooped down to grab Hael.
I could walk through the bars. His order to not resist didn’t apply to my transparency, but the moment Dahes flew into the sky with Hael was the moment that idea disintegrated.
I wasn’t in a cage so I’d stay in Moriann.
Multiple thatchers swooped down, grabbing the sentries, but some went toward me, toward the cage.
The metal groaned as the bars lifted into the sky, and I realized what Dahes meant by being forced to watch.