Chapter 55
Petra
Bile rushed up my throat as the driva tossed Tyrak’s severed head into the air and snatched it with its jaws, the sickening crunch making my eyes water as I tried everything not to vomit.
There’d been no goodbye, no final moments spent staring up at the sky, no whispered words of thanks or apology or wishes on a raspy, rattling breath. He was just gone. Tyrak was dead.
Rixa surged forward, catching Miles’ driva off guard as her talons tore through its wings.
The driva’s agonized screech did nothing to stop Rixa from hooking through its other wing, and I watched as Miles toppled from its back.
He hurtled through the air before the treetops swallowed him, the sound of snapping branches so loud, I could hear it over the chaos of the beach behind us .
Heat flared beneath my seat as Rixa worked up her fire, waiting on my command.
I opened my mouth to tell her to incinerate him, decimate this extension of Malosym.
Amid the battle, my head and heart were fighting their own damned war.
My head screamed at me to do it, to kill him.
That Miles was long gone and so was any chance of getting him back. But my heart…
My heart demanded mercy. I was the Daughter of Katia, after all.
I quashed the incessant screaming in my head, slipping from my seat atop Rixa. “As low as you can go, Rixa!” I called.
She let out a confirmatory huff as she lowered herself to just above the treetops, and I couldn’t tell if she agreed with my decision or thought I was making a grave mistake.
Fuck, I hoped this wasn’t a mistake.
You can always heal yourself , I thought as I balanced on Rixa’s back for one final second before hurtling myself forward.
The backs of my thighs collided with the first branch, and I thought it wasn’t so bad.
The next limb caught me in the ribs, and I began to retract my first thought.
Then my head smacked against the third, and I was nothing but a ragdoll at the mercy of gravity as I fell through the trees.
Every time I cast my hand out to call upon the wind to slow my fall, a perfectly placed branch knocked me one way, then the other, then another way still.
Black dots swarmed my vision like insects when I hit the dirt.
I gasped as I rolled onto my back, trying to replace the air that had been knocked from my lungs.
I needed to get up, needed to get my feet beneath me and find Miles.
Echoes of pain were a far away voice, shouting at me from every direction.
That pain would find me soon, but for now, I ignored it as I clumsily pushed myself to stand.
Miles stepped out from between the trees like a bloodthirsty, prowling animal, his dark eyes empty aside from the blue flame blazing in their centers. His steps were predatory, his chin down and fists clenched as he stalked toward me.
“Miles.” I wanted to shout, but his name came out as a whisper.
Maybe it was the broken ribs in my chest, but I was almost sure it was the broken heart that beat behind them.
“I’m Petra,” I tried, my voice low and broken, but his steps didn’t stop.
“Your brother is Cal. The woman you love is Cielle.” I took a cautious step backward.
I didn’t summon my flames yet, as if between now and the five or so steps left between us, I could get through to him.
“You need to come back, Miles. You’re still in there, I know it. ”
But the face that stared back at me was unchanged as he crossed the distance and his calloused hand closed around my throat. My feet kicked wildly as he lifted me off the ground with inhuman strength.
“ Miles. ” His name was garbled as I fought against him, fought to drag in a breath. He couldn’t kill me, but–
What if he could kill me?
I’d imbued a blade with my power, hoping it could kill Malosym. What if… What if Malosym had done the same with Miles?
The pressure in my head began to build as his hand tightened around my throat. Miles cocked his head, his expression savage, his grip ruthless as my vision grew fuzzier.
Why did I have to choose mercy? Why hadn’t I just commanded Rixa to incinerate him? That would’ve been mercy in itself. Why did I still cling desperately to the belief that Miles was still somewhere in there when it was very, very clear he was not?
I had to kill him. It was either sentence Miles to death or the rest of the world at Malosym’s hand.
“I’m sorry,” I tried to say, but my body was so devoid of air that I was only able to mouth the words. I hoped he felt it. I hoped he was somewhere in there still. I hoped he understood, somehow .
With one final surge, my hand collided with his chest. I cried out as a blinding flash of light overtook the world and Miles’ grip loosened and fell, and my temple hit the ground with a nauseating crack .
The last thing I saw before darkness overtook me was Miles’ form painfully curling on his side, smoke floating from his marred chest, and his open, distant eyes, completely dark once again.
◆ ◆ ◆
Fuck, fuck, fuck! I squeezed my eyes shut in the new, eerie silence of the Darkness Beyond. No Occulti were here any longer. They were all in the Human Realm where my consciousness had left my body. I needed to get the fuck back there now . I killed Miles.
And it was going to be for nothing if my body was found by Occulti and taken to Malosym.
“Petra?” Katia’s panic-stricken voice cut through the darkness. “Rhedros, she’s here!”
I wanted to scream, to tell them to shut the fuck up and let me focus on reattaching to my body in the Human Realm, but the fear in her tone was the same that was festering in my gut. I opened my eyes.
“Are you hurt?” Rhedros called through the darkness.
“No, I’m fine, I–” I swallowed hard. “Adorex is dead, and–”
Katia’s gasp was a knife to my chest. “Rhedros, it’s time.”
“No,” he answered, his voice hard. “I’ll go alone.”
“It won’t work alone. I’m going with you or we’re not going at all.”
“You impossible woman,” he murmured, his voice suddenly softer.
And it was that sudden shift in his tone that had me straightening. “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice unstable with rising panic .
“The same thing we did all those years ago,” Katia answered.
A painfully slow, heavy sigh left Rhedros. “And something we should’ve done a long time ago. We’re sorry, Petra.”
My head shook violently, the dread in my gut expanding. “Sorry for what? No, whatever you’re doing, don’t! I’m going to free you! I’m–”
“Katia, Keeper of the Benevolent Saints,” Rhedros started, cutting my words short.
Katia came next, her voice trembling with fear and sorrow and resolve. “Rhedros, Keeper of the Blood Saints.”
And then they continued at the same time, their words perfectly aligned as they echoed through the Darkness Beyond, “You are hereby cursed to the Human Realm, never to return to the Saints’ Realm for the rest of your days.”
“What? No! ” I screamed, whirling in place before I halted completely.
For one moment, one miniscule fraction of a second, there they were.
Two figures, standing in the nothingness.
Before I could blink, before I could comprehend what I was seeing, they were gone.
“Katia! Rhedros!” I called desperately, but there was no answer.
I felt the sensation of hot tears welling in my eyes and I frantically called out, voice hoarse and cracking, anger flaring. “Mother! Father!”
My eyes squeezed shut so hard I saw lights dance behind my lids. I needed to get back to the Human Realm. How hard had I hit my head? Fuck! I moved through the silent darkness, pacing as I willed myself to awaken.
“They’re humans,” I murmured to myself. “What the fuck are they doing? What the fuck are they thinking?”
The barrier between realms began to thin. No voices filtered through this time. No sign of Cal holding my body to his, waiting for me to wake up. Only the cold awareness of open space behind me.
Consciousness reentered my body on a gasp. With no time to orientate myself, I scrambled to my feet. I was so dizzy I swore I saw Miles stir where he laid dead in the dirt. I pocketed away the grief that slammed into me at the sight of him. I could grieve later, when all of this was done.
One way or another.
I took one step and tripped, my palms slamming into the ground and a string of curses leaving my lips. I scrambled to my knees, but my movements halted when something scraped against my boot.
Hooked around my toe was a crown of twisted silver bands, studded with stones so black, they seemed to swallow the light around them. I brought it to my face, my brows furrowed as I turned it over in my hand. What the fuck? Where did this come from?
But my question was answered when I saw what lay just a few feet away. A gold diadem that looked a hell of a lot like the one Castemont had gifted me. Except this one, I knew, was not a replica.
With a crown in each hand, I sprinted through the forest. My head was on a swivel, ready for an Occulti or some other equally horrifying monster to catch sight of me. But there were none. The noise from the battle had changed, the sound of steel and grunts giving way to breathless, panicked shouts.
Oh no.
I burst through the treeline again, my gasp tearing through my throat when I saw them. And there he was — Malosym had deigned to show his face when the Keepers were involved. In fact, he’d wasted no time at all.