Chapter 47
Chapter Forty-Seven
Living Nightmare
HAEL
Istill couldn’t process that the person who hurt Nollie, the person who tried to rape her, was the godsdamn Dead King.
I already wanted to murder the bastard who did that to her, but now my rage was a living inferno. Except I couldn’t do a fucking thing about it.
I regretted my reaction, regretted calling her his whore. Her flinch was seared into my memory, forever etched across my skin like a scar.
Fuck.
Seeing her on that throne, seeing what he tried to do.
Cold fury was running through my veins. I hated Elion, had wanted him to die for the entire century I knew him, but Dahes—I finally found someone I hated more.
Because he laid his hands on her—he touched her. Hurt her so fucking badly that all she knew was survival. And he had the audacity to think he fucking owned her.
I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I’d get her away from him, even if it killed me, even if I had to make so many deals there was nothing left of my soul.
She wasn’t going to belong to him.
I could see it now, see that she was helpless, see that whatever transpired from when I met her, she didn’t have a choice.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, couldn’t stop wondering how much of it was real.
She loved someone before, that much was obvious. She traded her soul to bring her lover back to life, and Dahes still let him die.
It made everything hurt worse, made me feel so fucking stupid because of course it wasn’t real. She didn’t feel anything. She didn’t know we had the bond, but I did, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t take my feelings back.
I was wrapped around her finger, and I’d do anything for her, even if it destroyed me.
The cage was dropped inside the middle of the Dome, the entire space eerily quiet. All I wanted to do was get Nollie as far away from here as I could.
“Put a barrier shield around us,” Dahes commanded, the compulsive order running through me. “I don’t want anyone to hear us.”
“I think it would be more important that they don’t see us,” I gritted, but I was already making the shield, the wall building around us.
I didn’t tell him that no Wielder or commoner would.
The Solstice was a holiday for riders. Elion didn’t want anyone to know what the moons did to drakins, so every year he ordered everyone in their homes.
He only kept his strongest Wielders with him, the ones he used for protection.
“I have an illusion over us,” Dahes answered. “To the naked eye, the pit will look deserted. I want the barrier as a precaution. When it’s time, I’ll tell you to put invisibility over me.”
My eyes flicked over Nollie for a second before I reeled them back.
“Now call your dragon.”
“She doesn’t answer to you,” I ground out.
“The deal was for myself.” There was no way in hell I was bringing Aura here.
I could feel her in my mind, knew she was aware of what was happening to me, but she couldn’t do anything about it.
Her desperation was eating a hole inside me, tearing me apart slowly ever since I made my deal.
“I’m aware,” Dahes drawled. “But you still need to call her, and I’m sure if she cares about your life, she’ll come.”
“You’re killing me either way,” I spat, clenching my fists. “She’s not coming.”
“I was planning on killing you,” Dahes corrected. “As soon as this is over, I won’t have use for you anymore. Your dragon gets to decide your outcome.”
Aura, I thought, knowing she was already reading my thoughts. Don’t listen to him. I need you to stay where you are. I need you to protect Nollie if anything happens to me—
“Fuck,” I cursed the moment rattling filled the air.
Dahes grinned, his head tilted to see my dragon sink into the Dome. I knew she’d been staying close ever since her well refueled, but it still ached to see her now.
Aura landed next to Nollie, her talon nearly scraping the metal of her cage.
“If she does anything,” Dahes seethed, his voice lowering. “I will kill Magnolia, so you better make sure she behaves.”
Dahes flicked his fingers as the sentries started dragging thick chains over Aura’s body.
Aura, don’t let them. Fly—
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
She roared, her rattling grew, but she just let the sentries chain her.
“If she leaves this Dome,” Dahes warned, “the deal is off. Make sure your dragon knows that.”
I didn’t say anything to Aura. There was nothing I could do to change her mind.
She could get out of the chains if she wanted.
She didn’t have to do any of this, but I couldn’t convince her I wasn’t worth it.
I could feel her, could feel that she believed Dahes’ threat to her core.
Except it didn’t matter. My life was doomed the moment I made my deal with him.
“I’m glad I get to keep you alive,” Dahes smiled as the last of the chains clamped over her and bolted her body into the ground. “Because living will be a far worse nightmare for you than dying.”
I ground my jaw, letting his taunt roll off me. I didn’t care about my life right now, all I cared about was making sure I could get Nollie as far away from Dahes as possible before he killed me.
And my plan had been Aura. I was going to have her use a barrier on Nollie so he couldn’t lay a finger on her, and whenever her well needed to replenish, Nollie could go transparent. It wasn’t much, but it was a semblance of something, and now it was gone.
Aura huffed steam over Nollie, reading into my thoughts. I knew she would have done it. She viewed Nollie as her own rider now, even if we didn’t get to complete the bond, Aura felt it just as much as I did.
“I’ll let you see what I make of the world,” Dahes pulled me from my thoughts. “Let you watch as I murder every commoner and enslave the Wielders—” Nollie’s breath hitched as Dahes spoke, but he kept going. “I’ll make sure all drakins are superior, but you… you will be beneath everyone.”
My eyes narrowed. “You want to keep me alive just so I can see that?”
“No,” he grinned. “I want to keep you alive so you can watch me fuck Magnolia over and over again.”
I followed Dahes up the steps, leading to Elion’s castle. The suns were sinking further into the mountains, and the moons were already winking into view.
It was abnormally quiet tonight—the Solstice always was. The drakins were confined to MonClem, and everyone else was essentially locked up for the night. It put me on edge.
The only thing keeping me on the steps was Dahes’ order for me to move. I wanted to kill him.
Everything I ever cared about was left in the Dome. Nollie and Aura were both trapped in the pit, chained and defenseless.
I kept staring at the knife pinned to Dahes’ side—my fucking knife. The metal tip shimmered as the blade reflected off the remaining dregs of sunlight. Glimpses of red and orange swirled underneath the silver.
It had taken me five decades to craft it, to work with a Ferro rider to blend Aura’s flames into the metal, trapping it within a permanent shield. I had kept it at my side ever since, knowing one day I was going to use it against Elion.
As far as I was aware, it was the only one in existence. I was the only air user, the only drakin who had the power to contain dragon flames. It was only a guess that it would kill the unkillable.
But now, watching it dangle across the Dead King’s hip, I’d never wanted to use it more. I kept envisioning stabbing him over and over again.
“It doesn’t matter if she dies,” Dahes said, his voice low. “I own her soul for eternity. Even in death, she’s mine. She will never belong to you.”
I ignored him. I already knew that and it broke me when I first heard it. She sold herself for some boy she used to love when she was fifteen years old. She probably didn’t even know what love was…
Maybe I didn’t either. I sold myself to save her, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
A lump formed in my stomach and sank as unwanted jealousy rose inside me. Nollie loved someone else, she was only pretending with me, she…
I stopped thinking, realizing a second too late that this was what he wanted. He was trying to mess with me. He was in my fucking head.
“Get the fuck out,” I snapped in my thoughts, testing my theory.
He smirked, white flashing across his alabaster mask as we neared the landing pad on the steps. Then I felt him inside it. I hadn’t noticed before, had been in a state of constant pain from his fucking torture that a headache was the least of my concerns.
“I’m about to make your life a living nightmare,” his voice echoed inside my head. “And I’ll start by showing you every way Magnolia is fucking mine.”