Chapter 82 Dianna
DIANNA
Two days later
I swallowed the blood that had gathered in my mouth, and the pain of even that simple movement made me wince. I was thirsty, but I had zero hope she would even give me water. My eyes stayed closed, bloodied and ruined, yet I struggled to push myself up.
“She has to be the stupidest ruler I’ve ever met. She sends her lackeys down here to beat me into submission as if I’d ever tell her anything.”
“Stop taunting them,” Unir said. I flipped him off with my good hand, managing to pry my eyes open.
The guards ignored him, one of them cracking his blood-stained, armored knuckles before slamming his fist into my face again.
I fell back to the floor, my cheek scraping against the stone.
The burly guard flipped me over and pulled me up by my shirt, backhanding me this time.
The fates wailed, and the guard glanced behind me, a grin curling his cruel mouth
“The fates like you,” he said.
“What can I say? I’m a people person,” I said, with a bloody smile of my own.
He sneered and punched me again. “I think you talk too much,” he sneered, pulling me close.
I mustered what little power I could, hoping he could see my eyes flare red for even a second.
“And I think I am going to drain you dry, but first I’m going to rip the arm you keeping hitting me with off and shove down your smiling girlfriend’s fucking throat.
” I let my fangs grow and snarled at him, putting the horror of them on full display. “Call my bluff, I dare you.”
His eyes flared wide, exposing the whites, and I knew I had done exactly what I wished.
“Don’t listen, Tortie,” the female guard said, pressing her thumb on the small device she held.
My body bent in pain, but I clenched my teeth so hard to stop from screaming that I worried they would break.
If they weren’t using their fist or feet, they were using that godsdamn collar.
She stopped, and I took one ragged breath, then another.
“See. It’s false bravado. We both know neither she nor the fates will be in this realm much longer.
Not once Nismera is finished with that medallion. ”
Her words hit deep, the apprehension draining from his features, but this time, when he hit me and I fell, I knew it was more to shut me up than to continue the abuse. He spat on my crumbled form before I heard their boots stomp away.
I lay there for a moment, focusing on my bruised and battered body, my aching bones, and burning cuts.
I willed the pain away, trying to convince my mind that we were past it.
The chains that held me were the same ones Samkiel had bound me with while at the guild, and that damn collar around my neck was probably a gift from Milani’s broken armada.
I just had to be stronger than their magic.
Which, given the blood that was pooling beneath my head, was easier said than done.
“You take too much.” Reggie’s voice was soft in the cold, dark dungeon.
“That part I agree on,” Unir said.
“It’s all part of my master plan,” I said, weakly holding up my good hand and giving them a thumbs up without bothering to lift my head or otherwise move. “Trust me, guys.”
A snort came from my father-in-law. “That’s your plan? To be beaten within an inch of your life?”
“Listen, one of the brutes has to have a key on them to these damn chains.” I took a shuddering breath. “I just need to piss them off enough to meet that guy.”
“And what then? Flee?” Unir said. “With the condition you and the fates are in, I fear that may fail.”
I groaned and pushed myself up. My ribs barked in rebellion, but my arms hurt too much to wrap around them or attempt to ease the burn. “I never said it was smart,” I said from between clenched teeth.
Reggie moved as close as he could to me, just a few inches separating us. We were restricted by the shackles she’d enslaved us in, but there was just enough slack.
“Can you try not to?” he asked quietly. “For me, please.”
“Yes.” I nodded and grabbed Reggie’s hand, squeezing in reassurance.
We would get out of here if I had to tear this cursed place to the ground to do it.
He smiled back, as if he could read my thoughts.
“There isn’t anything Samkiel or I wouldn’t do for our family, and I think Nismera severely underestimates that. ”
“She does,” he said. “She does not feel like you or him. Her emotions are tied only to her need for conquest. When she finishes here and grows bored, she will attempt to claim places far from here.”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard the villain monologue,” I said, taking shallow breaths and looking at Reggie. “You’d think she—”
Reggie’s sisters whimpered, and we both turned toward them.
Their hair was a tangled mess as they held each other, rocking back and forth.
They swatted at their skin as if trying to put out phantom flames.
Reggie never joined them in their visions or reactions, and I would be lying if I said that didn’t worry me.
Was he not connected to the same source?
Their heads shot back, their six eyes glowing eerily.
Their heads snapped forward before turning to me in unison.
“The prophecy remains.”
“One falls.”
“One rises.”
“It was foretold and will remain.”
“One carved from darkness.”
“One carved from light.”
“The world will shudder.”
“The end begins,” they said in unison.
The sisters gasped, their eyes returning to normal as they fell out of the vision. They began to whimper as if what they’d seen caused them pain. They held each other tight, rocking back and forth.
I looked at Reggie. “Has the torture Nismera’s put them through caused them to get stuck in a past vision? It seems as if they’re repeating something that’s already passed.”
Reggie looked at me as his sisters continued to repeat the same words in hushed whispers, their faces buried in each other’s necks. “What do you mean?”
“The whole light and dark thing. This is how the world ends. Samkiel told me about the shuddering crack and all that. How it referred to Gabby.”
Reggie’s eyes grew forlorn. “I never said that prophecy was about your sister.”
“Oh,” I said, staring dumbly at him through my swollen eyes. “Wait? Then what is it about?”
Reggie looked at me, then at the ghost trapped with us. But it was not Reggie who spoke, but Unir.
“If Samkiel does not make it in time, if Nismera succeeds, it will mean the end of not just worlds but of everything. That has and will always be his destiny.”
I winced and looked at my father-in-law. He held my gaze, his eyes filled with only truth and what resembled sadness. Of course, he would have known the prophecy. He was the one who had locked Reggie up. A part of me wondered if this was at least part of the reason.
“Oh, so you didn’t call him the World Ender just to bolster his ego?” I asked, my lip curling. “Who would’ve thought?”