Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
Ophelia
Darkness left me as it had come—first in spots that grew into columns of moonlight piercing the clouds. Then as pricks of feeling returning to my limbs. And finally, a sharp burst of air down my lungs.
I fumbled upright, gasping the crisp night down greedily. But something closed around my throat, quickly forcing me down again.
Kakias’s power pressed my wrists to the cold floor beside my head.
The truth of what she’d done—the deal, the magic she abused—came rushing back to me.
“This is—against all natural—balances—in the world,” I panted, still regaining breath, and kept my eyes on the queen.
“Some things are worth upsetting the precious balance.” Her back was to me, her form blurred, but her voice was high and clear. “If you’d been more coldhearted like I’d advised, you’d have learned that.”
“What’s worth this?” I asked. “What could have been worth the sacrifice that turned you into a heartless monster?”
She froze. “If I am a monster because I sought internal peace and revenge, then you are, too.”
“No,” I spat. She went to lengths I would never consider. Killed thousands, enslaved her armies to whatever cursed magic she wrought from those pools, and laid her vengeance upon the land. I’d never fall to those twisted levels. “There are lines that I’d never dare to cross.”
“Everything in this life costs something, Ophelia,” the queen mused. “Sacrifice is unavoidable.”
“Just because you’re desperate, doesn’t mean your actions are necessary.” I tugged against her hold, but my hands were locked beside my head. The statue of Damien lay in pieces at my side. “You can choose what you’re willing to sacrifice.”
“And I did.” Her voice carried around the chamber as she walked toward me, bouncing off the marble and into the blood-soaked night as she prowled toward me. “I chose what I was willing to lose in order to hang on to what I wasn’t.”
The manic flare in her eyes deepened, her chest rising and falling with the memory of her pain. Dark curls flowed around her shoulders, rising in time with her breaths as she exhaled a phantom power.
“What did you feed it?” I whispered.
“I traded my soul.”
My heart clenched behind my ribs. I didn’t know it was possible to bargain a soul, but it was time I stopped underestimating dark magic.
When combined with a ruined heart, corrupted power was the most deadly of poisons.
My own weathered soul knew the lengths it would go to in order to obtain its greatest desires.
In that, Kakias and I were not that different.
“The thing that ripped me to shreds after I lost what mattered most,” the queen continued. “In exchange, I won secrets to ward off my greatest enemy.”
Fear trickled down my spine. “Who is your enemy?”
“Death.” Her tone went cold with the word—the entire night chilled.
The bonds on my wrists tightened. “When I was younger than you are now, I had a child. I was practically still one myself, only eighteen, but it was with a man I truly loved. I thought he truly loved me in return—but I was wrong. To him, I was nothing but a means to an end. He knew the power in my heritage; he wanted to use it.”
“He wanted your crown?” It was not uncommon for suitors to appear around heirs, thirsty for a taste of rule. I didn’t see how that ended with us here.
“No.” Her voice was nothing but venom as she tumbled back into her haunted memories. “He wanted my child. To raise without me, feeding it nothing but darkness to survive.”
I stilled, horror and disgust wrenching through my gut as I began to understand. “He—”
“Children cannot survive the influence of power so bleak.” Her voice faltered, jagged breaths cutting through. It was the most vulnerable I’d seen her—true pain over the child she’d wanted tearing the words to shreds.
For a moment, I was sad for the queen. For the teenage girl who had not meant to bear a child yet loved it fiercely. And had it ripped from her.
“He claimed he didn’t know, didn’t understand the magic he sought to usurp.
I told him he was a fool for toying with things he did not grasp.
Then, I killed him. And with the swinging of that blade, I swore I would never feel such pain again.
” She prowled above where I lay, the press of her power weighing down further on me with each step.
“I promised to take back everything I lost and more. In my distraught state, I went to the dark pools and offered up a piece of my own soul—the mortal piece capable of feeling agony. I asked the magic to give my child a second chance at life in exchange, but the pools insisted it was impossible. Death could not be undone.” She grimaced, a flash of distrust passing through her eyes, but continued, “They offered an alternative. A way that I would never suffer pain again. Never love that way again. Never be swept away into the darkness that took over my life when my child was stolen from me. Never fall to the cruel hands of Mistress Death.”
Realization struck me—the power emanating from her, the vacancy in her eyes, the way she extended her control over her army—and I gasped. “You’re immortal?”
It was wrong among warriors—it was unnatural for us to live forever since our power grew over time. She had gone so far as to break the magic binding our lives to mortality out of pain from her loss and the agony it rooted within her soul. Escaping that terror—that had been all she’d wanted.
Though it was a vile decision that led us here, and I could never begin to grasp the exact pain she had experienced in losing her child, a piece of me understood the desperation that consumed her.
And I understood—Kakias was composed of fear and grief.
Every decision she had made in her war with mortality was staked in one or the other.
She had once been a girl in love, and the betrayals of a greedy man had tainted her future, her heart, her soul.
Set us all on this bloody trajectory where no one could truly win.
Kakias could be immortal, but she’d never return the broken pieces of herself.
And if she died—if I killed her tonight—I would be bathed in her grief, my hands stained with what her life could have been had fate not cursed it centuries ago.
Had she even wanted this future? Or had the sentience in the pools recognized an opportunity to manipulate her?
She’d been willing to sacrifice herself, but without the influence of darkness warping her, maybe she wouldn’t have chosen this.
Her autonomy was compromised the moment she stepped foot into those pools.
It didn’t redeem the decisions she made, the lives she took, but dammit, the Angels were cruel at times.
Kakias stalked toward me, stopping near my head and leaning down, winding her fist into my hair. “I am not immortal yet, dear girl.” She yanked me upright, crouching down to look me in the eyes. “But after tonight I will be.”
“What—” My question faded into a scream as Kakias sliced my arm open.
Blood gushed from the wound. She lifted a chalice I hadn’t noticed and held it to my wrist, the cut burning. My blood trickled into the silver basin.
I waited for the flow to stanch. For the wound to stitch itself up.
But the rivulets continued down my arm, dripping over my fingers until the silver rim was nearly overflowing.
Kakias tossed me aside, pain ricocheting through my bones. I could only stare at the gash, trying to make sense of why the mountains had not yet begun to heal it.
Nausea washed over me as I realized.
Kakias’s blade was laced with power, too.
Not only had the queen been gifted—she’d gone as far as to ensure her weapons were unstoppable. Her army, unnaturally skilled and moving like the wind, was the first defense.
The dagger the second, creating wounds that magic alone could not heal.
My gaze snapped to her shadowed form as I struggled, still in her power.
With slow, careful movements, she moved to the edge of the Rapture Chamber and lowered the chalice to the ground, directly in the center of a ring of moonlight. She circled it, bending to drag her fingers along the marble, smearing some kind of oil on the ground.
“Tonight,” Kakias’s voice echoed, “you help me finish what was promised to me centuries ago.” She continued her lap.
“The blood of the Chosen, transformed under the light of midnight, stirred with elements of sacred land, and spelled with the dark power of the Fallen.” Her words chilled my bones, the pool of blood growing beneath me.
“Tonight”—Kakias stopped walking, turning to face me—“you make me immortal.”
White light flared from the oil she’d drawn, burning a ring through the pillars and shooting into the heavens, dimming the stars. Kakias stepped into the circle.
I blinked against the light, my eyelids growing heavy, but I could just make out the movement of her lips as she recited the words the dark pools had given her for this ritual.
Quickly, she sprinkled whatever ingredients were demanded into the chalice. Elements of sacred land. I’d bet my last breath that those items were what she’d been after these months, traveling the continent to obtain the ritual’s puzzle pieces. Waiting to attack until she had them.
With the third one, a blue glow burst from the cup, transforming my blood into her potion. I was cold with dread as she lifted the cup to her lips and drained it.
Kakias turned toward me, and her sight pinned me to the ground. Nothing human swam behind those eyes.
That was the sacrifice, I supposed. To live forever, one must relinquish their ties to the mortal world.
It was the result of years of mourning. A desire born of fear, terror at having the person she loved most ripped away from her.
Even now, as I writhed beneath her clutches, I understood that pain. I’d clawed my way back from it, dragging myself through darkness and flame to escape. It was an all-consuming, blinding fear.
Barrett once said his mother and I had more in common than I realized. Though I doubted he knew the extent of that claim, he’d been right. We were two women ripped to shreds by the turns of fate, left to repair ourselves after being broken beyond recognition.
I’d found my own solace in my family, but Kakias had been alone. She’d turned to oblivion to heal herself, and now, she’d given up any feeling that remained in her body in order to outlast death itself.
The power that had planted itself in her using my blood swirled around her as she stalked toward me. Her power loosened enough for me to sit up.
“There’s one more step to hand over my mortal soul for eternity and make my transition complete.”
“What is that?” I panted, chest tightening.
Bloodred lips split into a grin, sharp teeth still impossibly white. “Now, you die.”