Prologue #4
He watched it all, taking in every detail, marking every face that would meet death at his hand.
He let all of it feed the monster inside, let it all feed the growing appetite for vengeance.
Not vengeance for him. Never for him. He should have done more long before tonight.
He’d live with that guilt the rest of his life, however long or short that may be.
But as the chamber emptied and he was left in the silent dark, he made a vow that he would see Moranna dead before he left this world.
He would see the entirety of the Southern Islands become a place that only the spirits visited, and even they would not want to linger after he was done with this place.
The sound of the iron door opening drew him from his thoughts.
A Marshal appeared in front of his cell, his features shadowed in the flickering flames of the torch he held.
He was one of the Marshals who had slaughtered Fae tonight.
Rayner said nothing, staring back at him unblinkingly, contemplating which manner of death would suit him best.
“We do not have much time,” the Fae said, his voice raspy, as though he rarely used it. When Rayner didn’t move, he waved him over impatiently. “Come on, Ash Rider. That deathstone won’t remove itself.”
His eyes fell to the dark stone encircling his wrist. His wrist was bleeding where the stone was digging in. He hadn’t felt a thing. He was numb. Numb to all of it except the rage coursing through him.
“You expect me to believe you are going to take it off of me?” Rayner asked. “I am not a fool.”
“No, you are not,” the Fae agreed. “You are the only one who can liberate those trapped here. I have waited decades for someone like you to show up.”
Rayner’s head tilted to the side. “I watched you butcher innocent Fae tonight.”
The Fae swallowed audibly, nodding once.
Rayner smiled at him. “If you take this off, I will end you.”
Even in the sparse torchlight, he could see the male pale. “It— It will be nothing less than I deserve.”
Rayner pushed to his feet, drifting towards the shirastone bars. He gripped them in his hands, leaning down to peer into the male’s face. The male took a small step back. “Explain what you mean when you say you have been waiting for someone like me to show up.”
The male nodded. “There are few powerful enough to take on the Baroness. The ones who are do not wish to. They like the power they have here, but you … You are different. You will do what I would never be able to.”
“You could have stopped killing at any moment,” Rayner sneered.
“Only to meet my own death. And then what? I would just be replaced.”
“But you would not have so much blood on your hands.”
The male hung his head. “I am prepared for you to take my life when I free you, Ash Rider. I will face Arius’s judgment and spend my eternity in the Pits of Torment knowing I deserve every moment.”
Rayner looked the male up and down before meeting his eyes once more.
Then he shoved his arm through the bars.
With a shaking hand, the Marshal slipped the stone from his wrist. In the next breath, Rayner had moved through the smoke of the torch.
The male didn’t have a chance to scream as a blade went through his back and pierced his heart.
“Consider a quick death a mercy,” Rayner said, his tone low and dark. “For surely Arius will not grant you any.”
He let the male fall to the ground, the torch hissing as it went out, rolling across the stone.
Rayner didn’t need it. He had excellent eyesight in the dark.
The minute he was past the iron door, he was moving among the smoke again.
He would leave the cliffs, regroup, and then come back for Aravis once his power had fully replenished.
He made his way to the front entry hall, still planning to kill those five sentries before he left, but he drew up short when he found Moranna standing in the archway that would lead outside.
“More unwise choices, Rayner,” she chided, her hand clasped around something he could not see.
He reached over his shoulder for his sword, but she tutted at him.
“Now, now, before you make another unwise choice, let me speak. Should you attempt to take my life, Aravis will be thrown from the top levels.”
Rayner spun to find she was not bluffing. He could make out two figures at the railing of one of the top levels. “What are your terms?” he demanded, turning back to Moranna.
“I thought you would see things my way,” she simpered, moving towards him. “Give me some of your blood, and I will let you leave these islands. I will not stop you.”
“What else?”
She shrugged. “That is it.”
“And Aravis?”
“Oh, she must stay.”
“I will come back for her.”
“I am sure you will,” she purred. “Should you make the choice to stay now, I am afraid both of your lives will be forfeit. Which would be … unfortunate.”
Knowing this was surely a trap, but not seeing any way around it, he nodded. Moranna jerked her chin, and a sentry hurried from the shadows. Rayner’s eyes never left hers as the sentry filled five vials with his blood. When he was done, he dropped his arm to his side, the wound already healing.
Moranna stepped to the side, gesturing towards the exit. “As agreed.”
Rayner moved forward, waiting for the catch. He turned so he could keep her in his sight, refusing to turn his back on her. He paused as the archway began to shimmer, the beach appearing on the other side. “Your death is mine, Moranna. I am coming for you and everyone here.”
“I await your return home,” she said with a small smile. “But know that when you cross those wards this night, you shall not remember how to get back here. You will lose all your memories of your time here. I wonder, how will you find your way to someplace you do not even know exists?”
“I have never had such a problem before,” he snarled.
“But you always came back to me, Rayner,” she replied.
“You had reason to return, and I had reason to want you to. Now I have reason to keep you away for a time, to make you pay for what you have done here this night. How dreadful to not remember anything about your past. To not know where you come from. You will not even remember you had kin, let alone remember to return for one.”
“I swear to you, I will be your end.”
“We shall see, my Ash Rider.”
“I am not your Ash Rider, Moranna, but I will your end.”
And with that, he stepped through the archway, breathing in the sea air before everything went black.