Chapter 10 Dianna
DIANNA
GATHRRIEL
My eyes blinked open, only they were no longer under my control.
I watched as I sat up and tossed the covers aside.
I slipped out of bed, air hitting my naked flesh, the floor cool under my feet.
Fear slithered into my gut as I tried and failed to take back control of my body.
I felt like I was back on Onuna when Gabby and I used to go to the theater.
We would sit so close to the screen, pretending we were the characters.
Only this time, it wasn’t a movie. I was actually fucking possessed.
Goosebumps erupted on my skin, a chill going through me, followed quickly by a rush of heat.
My muscles cramped and ached, and I watched in horror as my body began to change.
My arms and legs expanded, growing thick and corded.
I blinked, and my perspective changed. My body grew taller, and my center of gravity shifted as my chest and shoulders expanded.
I could see the bulge of my biceps from the corner of my eye when my hand slid over my head.
His satisfaction swamped me when his fingers found the horns growing from my skull.
“You truly are the perfect vessel,” Gathrriel said. He glanced down, and the dark armor he had worn in the cavern flowed over our body.
“I’m not a fucking toy!” I screamed back, the sound echoing inside my head … our head.
He ignored me and left our bedroom, heading for the stairs. I screamed, cursed, and fought, but to no avail. Rage turned to fear and worry. Where the fuck was Samkiel? Where was anyone? Could no one hear the armored boots against the floor, feel him here?
Gathrriel crossed the foyer and went out the front door.
He stopped and inhaled deeply, seeming to savor the feel of the cool breeze.
I felt the beast within him stretch awake and burst into reality.
Our body shifted once more, and I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the windows of the castle.
Horns and spikes that mirrored those he sported in his other form covered his head and torso.
Enormous, powerful wings spawned mini tornadoes as we took flight.
Massive didn’t come close to how I felt, and our shadow brought true darkness to the land below.
The size and power of this monster put mine to shame, and I would have fled from any battlefield he entered, powers or not.
His wings were a clap of thunder that split the air, propelling us higher until we parted the clouds.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
His massive head swung toward the city, the cluster of lights glowing softly on the mountainside far below. It was late now, and the town was quiet, but I could almost hear the echoes of joyful laughter and industry as the people sought to rebuild their lives.
“What do you want with them?” I asked, still trying to will a flame, a claw, any fucking thing.
“I must feed to seal myself in your body. Once I have, I can use it freely and exact my revenge.” His dark, powerful voice rolled across my subconscious.
Panic settled in as he banked, and I realized where he wished to feed.
Our city, the one Samkiel and I built and loved.
No. We promised them they would be safe, and I would not be their undoing.
I raged and screamed and fought, scraping at the specter of his mind, but nothing stopped his trajectory or descent.
The ground quaked beneath our landing, the trees shuddering as he tucked his wings against his back.
Dark mist swirled around our body, feeding the magic, and when it cleared, he was back in his base form.
I continued to beat at the connection between us, determined to somehow, some way, stop this from happening.
“Relax,” he said, stalking toward the city. “The only blood I wish to bathe in is from the ones who took what I held most dear.”
A breath of relief left me, but then I realized what he had said. Held most dear. As in no more. I knew of his legend and of hers, too.
“Wait, do you mean Vvive?”
Gathrriel had already proven that I was no match for him.
He had complete control over me, but as her name whispered across my mind, his foot stilled.
There was no hiding the overwhelming and all-encompassing grief.
It was violent and angry and thick. It consumed us both, coating my skin and lungs before pulling us under.
We drowned in it, burned and swelled and suffocated.
I knew grief as well as he did. Maybe that was another reason we bonded so easily.
I had lived in this place for a time when I lost Gabby, and I tasted it again when Samkiel died, drowning and burning in my pain.
I was no stranger to grief. We were intimately connected now.
Grief had formed us both, and I realized there had to be more to the story of Gathrriel and Vvive.
I started to ask him what happened, but a familiar voice stopped me.
“You do not belong in this world anymore, Gathrriel.”
Gathrriel’s head whipped around, and I saw Reggie standing between the man who had taken over my body and the small, sleeping city.
“How peculiar.” Gathrriel’s head tipped to the side. “You are one of the creatures that bore three faces, yet now you wear one.”
Reggie. My heart swelled, but then dread swooped in. He could not fight against Gathrriel.
“How are you able to walk this world?” Reggie asked. “Could Asheroth not hold you?”
I felt Gathrriel smile. “I owe this world blood, and they will have it.”
“Not with her,” Reggie said, clasping his hands in front of him.
Warmth and exasperation filled me. Here he was, once again, trying to save me.
Gathrriel, however, did not care. I felt the heat curl in his palm and through his mind.
I knew you couldn’t kill a fate, but he seemed more than willing to try.
His eyes flicked toward the town behind him, and something like desperation floated across his skull and mine.
Were we running out of time? How long could he hold me like this?
Whatever it was, it gave me hope, and I fought back even harder.
“If you hurt Reggie, you dick,” I said, my voice viciously cold and filled with the promise of death, “I will burn you alive.”
“Hmm,” Gathrriel said out loud, but his voice ricocheted in my head, his words directed at me. “Is that the fate’s name? You keep him like a pet. It’s deplorable.”
Reggie watched us, and I saw the moment he realized I was still inside and fighting. Relief flared in his eyes, and a brief smile curved his lips. Fear stuttered through me.
Reggie, I swear to gods, if you try to fight this thing, I’ll kill you myself.
“She fears that you will try to stop me. I can feel it.” Gathrriel tipped his head and studied Reggie. “Does fate wish to fight me? For her? What’s your relation to my fledgling?”
“None of your concern.” Reggie said it so carelessly, as if he wasn’t staring down a beast as ancient as time itself. I adored him for it, regardless of whether it was false bravado or taught arrogance from being around Samkiel and me.
Don’t be a hero, you idiot, I practically begged, even though he couldn’t hear me. I couldn’t watch Reggie be hurt. That would break me.
“Ahhhh.” Gathrriel drew out the word, nodding.
He felt everything I did right here and now.
“So she does feel for you. Deeply, it seems. Is it love? Love is the only thing that would compel a fate to challenge me with such arrogance.” Gathrriel’s head cocked to the side, and pain seared my mind.
It felt like he was raking his talons across my brain, looking for the answers.
“No,” he finally said. “Not intimate love. Familial love. You care for her as a parent would a child, and she you. A false father, it seems.”
I blinked here in this trapped area of my mind.
I had never said the words out loud, but I had often thought them to myself.
Reggie had been there when I so desperately needed a strong word and a helping hand.
He never judged me, only wishing to guide me, teach me, and help me.
He was the closest thing I had to a mentor or father.
My chest clenched. I always said he was family, and I fucking meant it.
From what I could see, Reggie made no move to confirm or deny.
Outwardly, he didn’t respond in any way, but I felt the way Gathrriel recoiled in pain.
Whatever flicker of emotion he felt was gone in a second.
“It is forbidden,” Gathrriel said, with no hint of malice. “You damn yourself.”
Reggie’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Many things are said to be forbidden.”
“You will pay greatly for it. Trust me, the universe does not take kindly to its rules being disregarded.”
What did that mean? I had no idea what they were talking about, and Reggie seemed unconcerned, but I desperately wanted to know what was forbidden.
“As you have? You venturing past the veil is forbidden, no matter the vengeance you wish to seek for the wife and child stolen from you, Gathrriel,” Reggie said.
A growl ripped so violently from Gathrriel that I felt my throat burn from the force of it.
Fire erupted from him in a harrowing blaze, thick, intense, and coating the area where Reggie stood.
The trees cracked and burned, the leaves turning to ash from the intensity of the flames.
They were far hotter than anything I could produce.
Branches snapped and fell, smoke clogging the air.
Reggie no longer stood where he had, his voice now coming from behind us. Gathrriel spun.
“So it is true,” Reggie said, still his usual eerily calm self.
“My rage knows no bounds, fate, my anger unquenched. Perhaps I shall begin my vengeance with you. Cut out your tongue for the words you so carelessly toss at me.”
“I do not wish to fight you,” Reggie said matter-of-factly, his fingers running across a low-hanging leaf. “I am merely a distraction for the one who loves her even more than I.”
Gathrriel saw the flames and smoke and stopped his advance. “A beacon,” he growled, his teeth biting at the words as he turned toward the burning forest around us. He snarled, his ego bruised as he realized he had been tricked by fate.
Relief flooded me. I could feel Samkiel streaking toward us, closing the distance from wherever he had been.
The air shifted, and curiosity rippled across Gathrriel’s mind.
He was no longer the most powerful being here.
Gathrriel snarled, his rage at being denied flooding both of us, making it hard to separate his emotions from my own.
The closer Samkiel got, the more I felt Gathrriel fade.
Pain shot across my skin as if he were trying to claw his way to the surface to fight whatever was pushing him away.
Then it all stopped as if a switch had been flipped.
Smoke obscured my vision as Gathrriel’s presence dissipated from me.
I didn’t feel him leave, too consumed by the presence at the center of the storm rolling toward us.
Air rushed across my skin, my own skin, and I reveled in the touch of the cold night air as the ground rushed toward my face.
Arms of muscled steel caught me mere inches before I ate dirt.
Samkiel’s eyes glowed eerily in the night, and I blinked up at him mutely.
Concern and anger warred on his perfect face.
He cursed and summoned a cloak, wrapping it around my naked body before lifting me against his chest. The wind pushed the smoke into my face, and I coughed, fire crackling and burning all around us.
Samkiel flicked his hand, and a powerful gust of wind extinguished the flames.
It was then that I realized what Reggie had done, and I wanted to kiss his face. He had distracted and delayed, and then he had goaded Gathrriel into setting the trees on fire, creating a light for Samkiel to follow.
“What happened?” Samkiel asked, his eyes raking over me, searching for wounds. “What are you doing out here?”
My body shivered, and his arms tightened around me. I knew it was more than just the cold that made my bones ache. “Ga-Gath—” I tried and failed to get the words out, my teeth chattering too hard.
“Dianna, your lips are blue, akrai.” He brushed his lips across my cheek and hissed. “You’re cold as ice. What happened?”
I swallowed, my saliva like daggers in my throat as I tried again. “Gathrriel poss-possessed … me.”
Samkiel didn’t scare me. He never had. Even at my worst, he was never cruel. But right now? When his eyes darkened, I felt what I saw in his mind on Shorerock, and the look on his face terrified me.