Chapter 78 Dianna
DIANNA
“Sami?” I asked and was answered with an immediate flood of warmth filling my mind.
“Oh, thank fuck,” he said, his words soaked in relief. I snorted. “What happened to my doorway?”
“It seems you, my smart, beautiful girl, were right. It’s a trick, but only for those worthy.”
“Are you all right?” I asked, just the sound of his voice in my head bringing me a sense of peace.
“As long as you are, akrai.”
Knowing he would feel my apprehension, I sent my love down the bond. He was the only being I would willingly share that vulnerability with. “I’m fine, just ready to get this over with.”
“I’ll be waiting and just scream really loudly if you need me. I have already started digging through this damn wall.”
“It hasn’t been five minutes yet.” I chuckled.
“The clock ran out as soon as the door disappeared.”
I couldn’t keep the love and laughter from our bond as I shook my head and kept moving down the long tunnel, my footsteps growing increasingly loud.
Slowing, I looked down, focusing through the stygian darkness, and saw that I was walking on a layer of ancient bone, crunching them to dust beneath my boots.
I stopped and wildly scanned the walls, only just realizing I was walking through a tomb.
Gods, not only did we always end up underground, but tombs had also become a background theme in our relationship.
I was kind of over it, but I decided not to tell Samkiel.
It wasn’t necessary for both of us to be traumatized.
With a sigh, I continued on, hoping that stealth wasn’t required because my every step echoed through the tunnels.
The tunnel opened into a cavern, and lo and behold, I was right where my dream usually led me.
Well, it was the same cavern, except this version was abandoned, and everything in it was a testament to the passage of time.
The throne was fractured and lying on its side, the massive skulls carved into the walls disintegrating as I watched.
The floors were cracked and crumbling, and the walls had deep claw marks through the stone.
It looked like Gathrriel had destroyed his realm, or whatever this place was, with his own hands.
The anger and grief I had felt when he possessed me seemed to linger here.
“What is it?” Samkiel asked. “You feel distressed.”
“It’s all broken,” I said. “It feels like he did it, broke everything in his grief.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I guess we will find out why soon. Did you get the chalice?”
“Almost,” I said. “Let me concentrate in case there are more traps. I’ll let you know what I find.”
“Be careful,” he said. I heard him grunt as he worked on getting through the wall, and then our connection died.
I stepped further into the cavern, my eyes scanning the shadows for threats.
The silence in here was filled with a thousand screams, and the weight of them was oppressive.
I was surprised to see that the dais and pedestal still stood in what remained of this room.
The chalice on top called to me, and I cautiously ascended the steps.
It was prettier in person, with intricate Ig’Morruthen designs engraved into the thick goblet and stem.
Slowly, I reached out, grazing my fingers along the side, expecting something to pierce my hand or maybe burn the flesh from my bones, but nothing happened.
Looking around warily and hunching my shoulders, I wrapped my hand around the chalice.
I lifted it just a fraction, waiting to see if some massive rock would fall and crush me.
Again, nothing happened, and the lack of drama was almost anticlimactic.
“Hmph.”
I pulled it off its resting place and noticed the rune carved below it.
Similar to the ones outside, and not one I could read.
Perhaps it was only a seal to contain what lurked inside the chalice.
Stepping off the dais, I looked down at what I held.
Just as in the dream, it was filled with swirling, dark liquid.
I raised it and sniffed, the scent of blood filling my nose.
It was unmistakable, and I didn’t sense anything added. It was exactly what he’d said it was.
This was probably very stupid, and Samkiel would have definitely tried to talk me out of it if he were here, but I had to do this.
The power was a huge draw. Gods knew I loved a good power boost, but I also needed to know what he hadn’t told us.
My very being ached to learn the truth, knowing it was a final missing piece to the puzzle.
I needed those answers. So I raised the chalice toward the broken throne in salute and downed the contents in a series of deep gulps.
His blood hit me like the spiciest cider, burning all the way down. I choked and coughed, letting the chalice fall to the cavern floor with a clatter. One second, I was there in the present, and the next, memories not my own were flooding my brain.
They were hazy at first before turning sharp and gray. It wasn’t like before. This was as if I were connected to both Vvive and Gathrriel. Did the soul bond run that deep? They moved past me as figments between worlds, the edges of their bodies undefined and wispy.
She does not back down as my soldiers laugh. Instead, she squares her shoulders and sets her jaw.
“They told me you were a great general, but all I have found here is a beast.”
Snarls erupted throughout the room, and numerous sets of eyes flashed red. Still, this warrior woman does not flinch, even with me bearing down on her.
“Get used to the beasts, princess, because you’re not leaving.”
Pain ripped through my mind, momentarily disrupting the vision. My head felt like it was going to split with all the new information being shoved into it. The wisps of memory bent and folded.
The room was softly lit by a crackling fire, and I stood hand in hand with her, begging for the first time in my life.
“And you promise to return?”
Her eyes were soft and warm as she leaned in close, placing a kiss on my cheek. An ember in my chest flared to life, and I wanted to own her, to have her, to … love her. No one else. Perhaps I was the beast she named me.
Memory after memory flooded my mind, filled with secret meetings, whispered thoughts, and shared information. They filled my head until I couldn’t stand it any longer, and still I fought, forcing myself to stay with them in the past.
A heated argument outside a cave, rain drowning out the words.
There were tossed arms and accusations until the dam finally broke, and the heat of the argument turned into passionate kisses.
Moans, drowned out by the thunderstorm, gave way to whispered promises that extended far beyond a world ravaged by war.
Details of the bargains made and deals struck. Vvive and Gathrriel were a force of nature when they took to the skies. The battles they fought were legendary. I saw how the war changed in the gods’ favor.
Tears and Death. I saw him standing over a broken Gathrriel, Vvive baring her soul and forming the first Mark of Dhihsin. Things changed with the new alliance, but one thing remained. Although a partnership was tolerated, nothing beyond that would be.
Vvive was taken back to her father’s kingdom, and Gathrriel left with nothing but a letter not written in Vvive’s hands, but her father’s.
A sharp pain made my ears ring, and the memory faded. I yanked once more, and the visions came blaring back.
“But, Father, I love him.”
“Love? He has twisted your mind and used you. Can you not see?”
Her hands fell to her stomach, smoothing the thin gown over her small, growing bump.
Her father recoiled. “Abomination!” he spat.
My skull throbbed, the colors of the vision bleeding into each other before it all changed.
Darkness swathed the sky, growing deeper with every wing beat. Fear surged through my veins, making my blood feel hot and thick. She had been gone too long, and I felt … I couldn’t put into words what I felt. All I knew was that it was gone. How could it be gone?
I landed, shifting back to my natural form before my feet touched the ground.
Guards in silver armor yelled and scattered as I ran up the ivory stairs, racing into my own personal nightmare.
Blood pooled on the stone floor and dripped from the walls, desecrating the once-pristine beauty of this room.
My gaze fell on the small, crumpled figure at the feet of the soldiers.
Pain tore through me, exploding from my throat in an anguished roar.
The soldiers, their swords still in their hands, didn’t have time to react.
Flames washed over them, turning everything they touched to ash, and they rolled over everything but her.
Vvive lay on the blood-slicked floor, her small, broken hand resting on her stomach.
I knew she’d sought to protect our child up until her dying breath.
Agony, immeasurable and boundless, consumed my skin, my bones, and my soul. I didn’t know when I’d fallen to my knees and gathered her into my arms, but I held my amata and child tight against my chest when I threw my head back and screamed my vow of vengeance.
War began. Well, I started the war, in all its unholy glory.
I immersed myself in the violence, raising hordes of Ig’Morruthens and leading them into battle after battle against the gods.
We won, and we lost in an endless cycle of death, but no matter how much blood I sacrificed in her name, the pain never eased.
It wasn’t until I held the head of her father, his face frozen in death, that I realized how deep my wounds were.
I had finally killed the being that had taken everything I held dear, and it still was not enough.
I returned to my realm and its fiery pits, fleeing to the only home I’d ever known, but there was no surcease there either. My true home was Vvive. She’d filled the world with love, peace, and comfort. Without her, it was nothing but bones and ash-covered stone.
When Death finally came, and my knees buckled in battle, I still wasn’t done.
As long as gods lived, I would not rest. I had to avenge her and our child.
I used my last breath to curse this realm and my blood, so that one day, I could return and finish what I had started.
In doing so, I sentenced myself to limbo, existing in no realm or dimension, but somewhere in between.
I was here, but not. It was as if my soul were in a different world, looking through a portal into this one.
It was pain and torture unlike anything I’d experienced on the living plane, but it was still paradise to me.
Unir and … oh, gods. Two forms stood with him. All of them dressed in the same hooded garbs.
I turned toward a woman with bright green eyes, her gaze boring into mine. The witch. She had helped me. “They will taint your bloodline.”
The world is hot and bright and screaming new where they are.
“They will make it anew.”
A baby wailed, and I watched Unir wrap a newborn in a soft blanket, a tiny little girl with silver hair.
My heart hammered painfully hard in my chest, and my head felt as if it were splitting in two. I had to tell Samkiel. The cavern bent and cracked, the magic used to sustain it emptying like water poured from a cup.
Behind me, I heard the beat of heavy boots against stone moving quickly down the tunnel toward me.
As if I’d summoned him with my suffering, Samkiel burst into the cavern.
He was covered in dirt and debris, and he looked as if he had battled the mountain itself to get to me.
He crashed to a stop in front of me, and I gripped his arms, grounding myself in his presence.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyes scanning frantically for wounds.
“The chalice,” I managed to say, gesturing toward the cup. It was empty now, not a single drop of his blood left in it.
“Did you drink it?” he asked. “All of it?”
I nodded frantically. “I saw. Oh, gods, I saw everything.”
“Slow down, talk to me,” he said.
But I couldn’t. I was panting, and I hurt as if I’d lived it all, but it was not my past. It was Gathrriel’s, Vvive’s, and Unir’s. Oh, gods. What had he done?
“Vvive was pregnant.” The words came out quicker than I could process. “The stories, all of them, were changed. They’re wrong. They stole Vvive and their daughter from him. The gods killed them because they feared what the baby was, the power she carried.”
“Is that all he showed you?” Samkiel asked. “All you saw?”
“Yes, and no. I saw a figure, a witch, and Unir holding a baby. A baby with … silver hair. I think it was Nismera, and I don’t know what it means.”
He slid his hands over the sides of my hair, comforting me as his eyes scanned my head and face. “It’s okay,” he said before he leaned down and kissed me.
His lips had barely touched mine before I jerked back, my hand snapping up to wrap around his throat.
“You’re not my husband.”
“Nope.” He grinned, unconcerned with my grip on his throat. Then his storm gray eyes bled to red, and he slapped my hand away. I felt the slice of a blade rip through my lower abdomen. Blood rose in my throat, soaking my mouth with the taste as he twisted the dagger.
Kaden? Had he betrayed us? No. I recognized the eyes now. I had looked into them at one of the worst moments of my life. Samkiel’s form shifted and twisted, losing its bulk and height. Long silver locks replaced his dark hair.
Nismera.