Chapter 41
MATTHIAS
If you’re reading this, then my body has finally given up and I’m making mischief on the other side.
I pray to Evella my Keya is with me. But you have to know what I found, those years I wandered the world, desperate for power, before I found my purpose and became a mentor.
A book of secrets, one I should have shared with the world, but my stubborn old heart wasn’t ready to part with.
It lurks under the floor, under that damn yellow rug Keya adores so much.
I fear what may become of Eusis should someone with a heart of stone, dark intentions, discover it.
Enja’s book of secrets. Burn it. For the love of Evella, burn it before her secrets bring upon the end of days.
— THE PERSONAL EFFECTS AND JOURNALS OF MRS GLESNI GRACE
Each step towards the temple had torn me apart.
I’d slipped through the severed flesh of those Vyrus had eviscerated, the wolf grabbing me, hauling me up as we raced towards where Sorrow lay.
The raging volcano, cleaving the tiny ebony island apart, yet another enemy.
But nothing, nothing, not even death, would come between me and Sorrow.
Pablo found her first, as I’d trembled, hiding behind the crumbling Vyrium columns.
I’d watched the empress as I dived between the cascading rocks, the wolf leading me to Sorrow once he knew where she was.
I’d seen it all. How the empress had torn the final fragment of jagged ruby from Vyrus, the confusion etched onto her face as she turned page after page.
My body fought the urge to slam a sword through her chest when she spoke of the blood of a Deviant.
My pulse eased a fraction as the candles flickered against Sorrow’s face, how her expression shattered as her wolf pressed against her neck, till her eyes opened, seeking me, but finding nothing. A woman, dead, lay against her shoulder and, gently, I prised the body away.
‘M…’ Sorrow’s voice broke. Her hand reached forward. I clutched her fingers, pressed them to my lips while I fought back the tears. ‘Matthias. My sight. My…’
‘I’m here. And Pablo.’ I kissed her knuckles again. ‘I swear on Evella’s soul, we’ll survive this.’
A sob broke through her. I huffed, grasping the bands holding back her gifts.
I glanced past her, to where the empress turned the pages of a book resting upon a lectern, her brows furrowed.
Vyrus writhed weakly on the floor, blood pooling from the cavity that had once been his chest. The empress twirled his heart.
My gaze narrowed as it crashed with a dull clang against… against what? A glass heart?
‘Shit,’ I muttered, working away the binds across my wife’s wrist with a dagger.
Memories from The Chronicles slamming into me.
A heart of crystal, one that blessed us with protection.
Pablo whined as my gaze flipped to the broken corpse slumped by Sorrow, the golden blood seeping through her ebony skin.
‘Evella,’ Her name issued like a prayer from my lips. The cuffs fell and I grasped them, laying them down so as not to alert the empress, a woman who now possessed two divine hearts. Sorrow exhaled, her body slumping as her gifts returned.
We froze at the scuff of a boot. Dipping low, I gripped Sorrow’s hand, ready to throw her behind me. A figure, hunched and limping, emerged through the haze of ash and smoke. My jaw clenched at the man backlit by the amber light.
Ifan.
Swiping his nose, he stood next to the empress as she turned the pages with a violence that threatened to tear the tome in half.
‘Don’t suppose you ever learnt the old language?’ The empress clicked her tongue. ‘No. You were never blessed with brains, were you?’
My heart stuttered as his eyes locked onto mine. I gripped Sorrow tighter, ready to drive my sword through his traitorous heart. But my brother, my little brother, inclined his head, crossed his arms and blocked the empress from my view.
My gaze snapped onto the God, on all fours, wrenching what remained of himself from the floor coated with a film of viscera. The God who’d freed me from the Vyrium. Vyrus had killed them all. Yet Ifan stood. Not a single whisper told the woman he’d been thralled to I was there.
‘I may not make sense of this,’ she said. ‘But I’m certain a god can.’
Vyrus cried. Thunder ripped through the sky.
‘Mr Vengeance, do come and help me. Assist your usurper. Witness my ascension.’
The God’s legs hauled him up as she pressed the crimson heart to her cheek, her eyes closed. Reverently, she placed the hearts within an obsidian bowl, surrounded by flickering candles. If I could get the hearts from her…
‘If she heads this way.’ Sorrow’s chest heaved, as though she knew these were our final moments together. ‘I might be able to get his heart. Give it back.’
Her wolf nuzzled her face, and I swear tears swirled in his amber eyes. I scratched behind his ear. Fought the thundering of my heart.
‘Do you think you can control…’ I glanced down to the Goddess, her gilded blood fading as it spilt across the obsidian tiles. ‘Evella?’ Fight her with a God?’
She blew out a tattered breath, shook her head. I swiped a lone tear from her cheek.
‘I-I don’t know,’ she whispered, her eyes searching for me as though I’d be her anchor. ‘No matter how I try, I’m never enough. Never…’
The God leaned over his lectern, his hair billowing as flames burst through his eyes. His mouth shaping the words that would damn him. Damn us all. I placed my Sorrow’s hand against the thunder of her heart, pressed it close as she dragged in a breath.
‘This,’ I said with all the devotion in my soul. ‘This heart. This rage. This… spirit. This is my Sorrow. My chaos. My altar.’
Lifting her hand, I pressed her palm against my chest.
‘And this? It beats for you and you alone. A mirror to your soul. An answer to your prayer. She may steal your sight, but I will never let her steal our future.’
My Sorrow nodded, raised her chin. The wind whipped through the temple, candles flickering as the sky exploded in a bolt of lightning that shook the world.
Lightning that sparked from the empress’s fingers as she watched the now-steaming bowl. I couldn’t tell Sorrow how the hearts of the gods shone, casting the leering empress in a grotesque glow.
‘One last time, Elmswood?’
My voice caught. ‘Your wish, my command.’
Sorrow pressed her hands to my chest, as though she could tear out my heart. ‘If this is it.’ The whisper of a smile tugged up her perfect mouth as her eyes searched for mine. ‘If this is all we were permitted, you were worth every second, Matthias Elmswood. Every, damn, second.’
My smile answered her words. A smile she no longer saw. I dragged in a heavy breath, fighting to keep hold of the wisp of hope lingering within my soul.
Pressing a final kiss to her lips, she sat straighter, raised her closed eyes to the thunder above, her arms wide as her gifts flooded from her.
Steadying myself against the trembling columns.
I slipped away behind a broken archway. My blade demanded the empress’s blood.
Revenge for all she’d stolen. My eyes caught on my brother as he stood to the side.
The boy who’d always tried so hard to make me proud swiped the thick black fluid oozing down his chin.
Was Vyrus too late? Had the Vyrium seeped so far into his soul, the prince was damned anyway?
As I watched him stumble, his trembling arms wrapped around himself, my mind warred with my heart.
But, Gods, I still believed that redemption wasn’t beyond his grasp.
As his eyes found mine, before returning to his empress, I prayed that little boy still fought back against the poison.
He hadn’t told her I was there. Perhaps there was still a place for Ifan by my side if, somehow, we walked away from this.
We jolted as the empress squealed, dancing around the bowl. ‘It’s almost there, vengeance. Don’t stop. Don’t—’
The world tilted. The threads binding Eusis shuddered as Vyrus gurgled.
I stepped into the shadows as the God gripped the dagger embedded in his throat.
Ifan clutching it, twisting it as the God’s eyes widened.
The empress’s scream drowned out the thunder as she stepped back, gripping the bowl, drops of Sorrow’s blood splattering the floor, hissing against the heat of the volcano.
Vyrus collapsed, dragging the lectern, the book toppling.
My brother turned, met my gaze, the slightest twitch lifting the corner of his mouth, before turning his eyes onto the empress.
This was it. This was our chance. I leapt over the rubble, sword raised as Ifan turned to his slaver.
A tempest raged around Sorrow, but I knew if I turned to her, I’d never leave.
Ifan raised the crimson dagger, the blood of the God streaming down his arm.
Rage etched into every line of his face. Throwing his arm back—
‘Too late,’ the empress screeched, her mouth opened wide, the bowl tipped back as she swallowed Sorrow’s blood.
The glowing hearts slipped out, slamming into her chest, crashing against the cobbles as slivers of scarlet trickled down her chin.
Her throat working as she gorged on the blood of the Deviant.
I stumbled, cursing as Ifan flew forward swifter than the lightning crackling above us. Roaring, the dagger flew towards the beast who’d stolen all from him. I raised my sword, ready to join my brother. To end her.
It all happened too fast. I blinked, certain my sight lied.
Slowly, so slowly, the empress raised her pale hand.
The tip of the dagger pressed against her putrid heart before it clattered to the floor.
Sparks, silver and white, erupted from her fingers.
Ifan screamed into her face as the temple exploded.
Sorrow called my name, panic lacing her voice as I blinked away the sharp spots, my chest heaving, my legs refusing to move.
The empress stood; thick blood stained her pale chin as she turned her gleeful gaze towards me. Pale hair whipped around her as she raised her arms. A scream caught in my throat. Ifan lay at her feet, eyes wide open, the light already extinguished. His neck twisted at an unnatural angle.
Rage erupted, flowed through every vein, ignited every pain she’d caused me. Jaw clenched, I raised my sword as the body of Vyrus twitched. Even if I breathed my last, I’d buy the other part of my soul time to raise the Gods and end this heartless beast.
‘Still vexing me?’ Black fissures split across her flesh, scoring deep grooves into her skin. Lightning flashed erratically from her twisted fingers. ‘I possess the cure, Asmar. I am the cure.’
I raced towards her, determined she’d taken her last breath, when my world burst into a blaze of searing white, and pain, crippling, devastating. My face slammed against the rubble. Spitting out blood, clouds swarmed the edges of my vision. I opened my eyes.
Blood.
And before me, my sword, bent, broken, the charred remains of my twitching right hand still clutching the hilt as I screamed.