Chapter 7
H e let Moranna lead him back up the stones of the secret passageways to her quarters at the top of the cliffs. The archway dissolved back into the wall in her dressing room when they emerged.
“I’m going to clean up,” she said, finally releasing his hand. Her palm had already healed. His was still steadily bleeding. She frowned slightly, fingers brushing over the band on his wrist. “You understand why I cannot remove this yet, yes?”
“Of course, your Grace,” he replied, stepping aside to let her pass.
Her frown morphed into a smile, and she sighed wistfully. “How I have missed you. Your replacements have been…inadequate.”
He smiled faintly, nodding his head, and she moved out to the bathing room. He followed, slipping beyond into the bedroom where he removed his cloak, boots, and various weapons.
For Aravis. This was all for her. He didn’t matter as long as she was safe.
He was pulling his tunic over his head when Moranna stepped from the bathing room wearing nothing but a sheer red robe.
Her dark hair spilled over her shoulders, hunger shining in her eyes as they raked over him.
She held out a hand to him, and when he took it, she tugged him over to the bed.
She shoved at his chest, pushing him down onto the mattress, and he went willingly.
Anything required of him to keep Aravis from being touched like this again.
Moranna climbed into his lap, fingers sinking into his hair while she straddled his waist, her breasts pressing against his chest. “So many travels,” she murmured. “Yet you keep coming back.” She brushed her lips across his. “You have always been mine. No matter how far you strayed.”
He gripped her hips, tugging her closer, and she gasped lightly at the movement. He slid a hand up her spine before grasping the back of her neck.
“When you have proven yourself loyal to me once more, I can remove that band,” she said. “Then I can see all that power swirling in your eyes.”
“Whatever you desire, your Grace,” he replied, bringing her mouth to his.
She deepened the kiss instantly, hunger and lust and want driving her.
He opened when she nipped at his bottom lip, meeting each stroke of her tongue with his own.
Her hands were roaming over him, down his arms, across her chest. Fingers skated along his torso, and when they reached for the ties on his pants, he flipped them.
Another gasp came from her when he settled between her thighs, her robe falling open. He broke their kiss, bracing himself on one hand while he trailed his fingertips up her abdomen, between the valley of her breasts. She squirmed beneath him, and he could sense her growing impatience.
“I learned some fascinating tricks on my travels,” he murmured, fingers moving along her collarbone.
“Do tell,” she said breathlessly, hips pressing up against him. “Or better yet, show me.”
The corner of his lips tipped up. “I plan to, your Grace.” His fingers trailed downwards again, stopping over her heart.
He pressed his palm flat, leaving a smear of blood from his still bleeding palm.
“This reunion is all about you,” he went on, fingers trailing around one breast, then the other.
“It has always been about you.” They trailed back up the valley of her breasts, into the blood smear.
“But now that I am bound irrevocably to you, tell me, your Grace. What are we working so hard to achieve?”
She smiled up at him, eyes brightening with a different kind of hunger.
“Power, my Ash Rider,” she breathed, her back arching as his finger kept moving.
The lightest of touches to keep her seeking more, keep her on the edge of anticipation.
“The more power I can breed for my king, the more power he will bestow upon me. And now that you are back where you belong, I can finally make progress. I am hoping that one of your offspring will be able to activate the—”
But her words got stuck in her throat, her eyes flying wide.
A wicked smile filled Rayner’s face as he leaned in close, the dagger piercing her chest sliding in a little further. “I do not give a single fuck,” he whispered.
“You cannot kill me,” she rasped, fingers clawing at his hand that was holding the blade in place. “You are not powerful enough. No one here is.”
“I am aware,” he replied. “Which is why I sought help. From a Fae Queen. She seemed to know of you.”
Moranna’s lip curled up into a sneer despite the agony.
“Eliné,” she hissed. “In service to the daughter of the traitorous ones. I told Alaric to take care of her.” She grimaced when Rayner twisted the dagger.
“But even she is not powerful enough. Fae magic cannot take my life. As much as this hurts, it is nothing compared to what your punishment will be for this poor choice,” she gasped.
She coughed then, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
“I know that too,” Rayner answered, reaching with his other hand to swipe up the blood with his fingertip. He began drawing a Mark on her chest.
Right above the Blood Mark he’d stabbed the dagger into. In a moment, he would place the final line of that Mark and trigger whatever magic was in the dagger. It might take his life, it might not. But in the off chance he survived…
“What are you doing?” Moranna gasped, struggling even more beneath him.
“I want this enchantment you have around these islands,” he replied, continuing the Mark. “When you are gone from this world, living your eternity in the Pits of Torment, I want these islands to die with you. No one will inhabit them ever again. I want to know if someone sets foot on them.”
She laughed, and it turned into another cough, more blood sliding down her chin. “My sweet, na?ve, Ash Rider. Not only is your sister bound here by these wards, you can only transfer this enchantment with Blood Magic, and there is only one being who has created such a Mark.”
“Then this one shouldn’t affect you,” Rayner said, his manic grin growing when Moranna went still beneath him. “I think you already know I can use the Marks though, and once I control the enchantments, I can let Aravis leave them.”
“Rayner, wait,” she gasped. “Wait, you don’t know everything. Let me explain—”
But she was arching off the bed again when he completed the Mark, the dagger sinking deeper into her chest. He felt it. The shift. Something settling over him, and then he could feel the islands themselves. Every soul moving among them. Those in the cliffs. The merchants at the docks. All of them.
“You are going to regret that,” Moranna snarled.
Rayner said nothing. Just lifted his hand, showing her his still bleeding palm. “The Fae Queen also gave me this dagger. Said it was imbued by the first Water Prince at the Eternal Springs.”
Her thrashing turned frantic, hands clawing at him. “Please, Rayner. Whatever you like, it is yours. You want to leave? Go! You want to take Aravis with you? It is done!”
He bent over her once more, the dagger sliding in to the hilt. “The only thing I want, your Grace , is for your death to be as painful as possible. The Fae Queen assured me that would be the case.”
He moved to bring his hand down, but her nails raked down his arm, drawing more blood. He tried to brush her hand aside, but she dug her nails in further. With a final yank, he pulled free, grasping the dagger with his bleeding hand.
But not before her fingers hooked on the deathstone band in her desperate attempts to stop him.
The band slid off, being flung through the air at the same time that black flames flared out from the dagger.
Rayner was thrown off of her, flying across the room by the blast of the flames.
Flames that were so hot he should have been incinerated on the spot, but his ashes were pouring out of him, a tight shield forming and growing thicker as it strained to guard him from the onslaught of dark fire.
Moranna was screaming, and Rayner flipped onto his hands and knees to watch as the black flames consumed her.
Eliné had promised she would suffer, and she hadn’t been lying.
His magic was being pushed to its limits as it held back the flames from reaching him.
He knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
And that was fine. He would go to his death willingly as soon as he was sure Moranna had gone there first.
Her screams died moments before his magic gave out, and when silence settled, he felt a ripple of power rush from the room. He didn’t know what it was or what it meant, and he frankly didn’t give a fuck.
Rayner stumbled to his feet, going to the bed to find nothing. Not even ashes. The black flames had consumed every last bit of her. The dagger was gone. Nothing left but scorched sheets and memories.
He turned back to the dressing room, getting dressed and strapping his weapons back into place before looping his cloak over his arm.
He had arranged for merchant ships to be waiting offshore, waiting for his signal.
All the innocents would come with him today.
Any overseers and guards remaining would meet their deaths.
When he left the islands today, they would be nothing but the graveyard he’d once said they would be.
But Aravis was first. He would get her to the merchant ships, then come back for the rest.
He raced down the stairs as fast as he could without tripping over his own feet. He was exhausted. He hadn’t planned to use all of his magic reserves so quickly. It would take months to replenish any of it, and he felt hollow and empty without the comfort of his ashes.
He threw open the door to Aravis’s room to find her curled in a ball on her bed, tears still streaming. She looked up at him, eyes rimmed in red.