33. THIRTY THREE
THIRTY THREE
VALARI KHARUN
T errified, I struggled to free myself from his Horous’s grip, but it felt as though I was chained to his hand.
I twisted with all my strength, my dagger clenched so tightly that my knuckles burned. I slashed at his arm with every bit of force I could muster. The blade barely nicked his skin, but I refused to give up. If he wanted me, he would bleed for it.
Horous barely flinched. He yanked me off my feet despite my resistance and carried me toward the vortex spinning before us with blinding intensity.
“No!” I screamed, clawing at hismassive, muscular arms with my bloodied hands.
Horous grunted and clamped his tattooed hand over my mouth, wrenching me hard against him. It felt like wrestling a mountain. Then my mind snapped into focus. The dagger was still in my grip. His veins stood out along his wrist, pulsing like ahuman’s. This was the weakness I could reach .
"Tilly!" Cillian’s voice cut through the chaos.
The brothers and the Ecliptuari fought toward me, but the Gatemen outnumbered them.
I shot him a sharp, furious glare, the betrayal burning through me, before turning my anger back on Horous.
Cillian looked desperate, but I didn't care if he died in the mud. He’d helped put me in that cage.
I drove the blade intoHorous’swrist, aiming for the vein standing out on his hand.
Hesnarled as my dagger ripped across his skin, hot blood spurting overboth ofus.
His eyes blazed with fury, and he pulled me harder against his chest, wrenching the dagger from my grip with his free hand and throwing it to the ground.
Horous bellowed words I didn’t understand in a guttural tone to four of the other Gatemen.
They glanced at him even as they battled, shouting back inacknowledgment.
Giving his kin a final nod, four of them retreated toward us.
He gripped me tighter and leapt into the vortex.
I felt instantly disoriented and nauseous as the brilliance swallowed me.
Forcing my vision clear, I flailed and glanced desperately toward the rapidly shrinking slit of the vortex. Cillian and the othersfought valiantlyas the opening winked out, and I was immersed inspiralling, shimmering light.
I closed my eyes, refusing to break. My body felt weightless inHorous’sunrelenting grip, and I fearedI’dbe lost to the vortex should he release me. We drifted through rippling currents of light and darkness, then into light again, buffeted by a cool, fresh wind.
The disorientation and nausea faded, and I ventured to open my eyes. My heart lurched at the sight of an endless expanse of slate-grey ocean stretching to the horizon.
I glanced at Horous. His face was turned away from me, his heavy cloak snapping around us like a black banner in the wind.
When I turned back, panic overwhelmed me; more of the Gatemen followed, with none of the brothers or Seraphina in sight.
A familiar stretch of desolate beach emerged from the clouds, revealing the stark terrain of hills and moors beyond.
“What is this place?” I cried, my voice barely audible above the roar of the stormy ocean. “Why have you brought me here?”
“You bear a mark cursed by stars, bound to ancient laws that cannot be broken. Understand, human: I am not your enemy.I amthe only one stopping what’s coming. The prophecy demands you be offered to the blood moon of Vareth, but I intend to destroy the prophecy, not serve it.”
Reality hit me. Did he really want to stop it?
“Damn you and the evilyou’vecast on me—and themarkedwho have suffered at your hands! I don’t believea word you say.”
“Silence, mortal,” Horous said. “You chatter like the birds of the shore. You have no idea what to believe, nor any ideawhat forces are clawing their waythrough you. I’m the only one keeping what’s inside you from tearing you apart.”
I trieduselesslyto dig my heels into the sand, but as he dragged me toward a particular stretch of beach, all I created was a gouged trail toward the waterline.
The melodious sound of chimes lifted my spirits as we approached a low hill, where an ancient stone abbeyperched at the cliff’s edgerose from themist-drapeddistance.
At first, I thought it was only an abbey, until I saw the towering monoliths aligned in a vast circle beside it.
Theirmassiveshadows fell across the sand and ocean toward us like giant sundials.
Even from here, I could see that their surfaces were etched with spiral markings that glowed faintly in the fading light.
You should not be here.
Then another cold voice slid beneath it.
We remember this place. We died here… and now you return, carrying our voices in your head .
My head throbbed, the voices overlapping and pressing against the inside of my skull.
Save us. Let us through.
A sharper voice cut through them all—the voice that had been with mefora long time.
Tilly… they lied to you. Now you know their truth. You can save us.
My breath hitched. The voices weren’t just whispers anymore; they were shouting, trying to control my thoughts.
Shut up , I snapped to myself. I can’t think.
Horous strode toward the abbey anditsmonoliths at an unnatural speed. “Faster, human,” he said, as he reached the abbey’s heavy wooden door.
It creaked loudly as he yanked it open and hurled me inside. I stumbled onto the cold stone floor, catching a whiff of dampness mixed with the lingering scent of incense and candles. A chill pierced straight through my flesh.
Gazing at the altar and the dull light streaming through the stained-glass window, I shivered, knowing this wasn’t a place of God but a place bound to the stones outside. Even here, a faint tremor moved beneath the floor, vibrating up through my boots and into my bones.
As my eyes adjusted, the shadows peeled back, revealing what I had mistaken for carvings along the walls.
I gasped, my breath catching in my throat.
Entire skeletons stood upright, fused into the stone itself.
Ribcages bowed outward, their skulls tilted, and their empty eyeswerefixed on the altar.
Some were crumbling, while others remained disturbingly intact, as though time hadn't touched them.
Oh, shit. My stomach churned.
Now you see what happens to us , the voices whispered.
Now you see what will happen to you ,cameanother .
Slamming the door shut behind him, Horous turned to me with a dangerous glint in his eyes. “There’s only one path from here. You feel it—the pull. You know why we’re here. The gate is waking for you.”
I began to panic, the image of those skeletons fused into the walls burning itself into my mind. I crept as far away from Horous as possible. “You can’t kill me like this.”
He regarded me with disdain. “I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to help you.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you wish,human. Today you will walk through theGate, or you will hang on the walls like the rest of them.”
“What?” I stammered. “Why would you want me to walk through the Gate? What’s on the other side?”
His tone shifted. “You feel them, don’t you? Themarkedclawing at your mind. They’ll tear you apart from within if you don’t help them.”
The voices were getting stronger; I couldn’t deny it. I couldn’t hum them away anymore.
“Don’t you want to help them, Tilly?”
His attention flicked to the door as though he’d heard something.
The distraction lasted long enough for me to bolt toward the exit.
He bellowed like a wounded animal and pursued me, but his guards were to the right, so I turned left and ran toward the cliff as fast as I could.
I would jump and take my chances in the ocean if I had to.
He emerged behind me, but fear drove me faster thanI’dever moved. I sprinted across the uneven ground, the wind whipping my hair into my eyes. I ran toward the only open space I could see: the rise of the cliff where the monoliths stood.
Irealizedtoo late that I had skirted the edge of the cliff, leaving myself without an escape route. Seeing my predicament, Horous grinned coldly. No matter which way I tried to run, he blocked me with unnatural speed. There was no getting past him, and I refused to feel his grip on me again.
To my right, two towering stones stood upright, and a third lay across their tops, forming a vast stone doorway.
“Would you hurl me off the cliff?” I shouted. “Is that your intention?”
“That doesn't have to be your fate. There’s one other choice.”
Aghast, I stared down at the churning sea battering the sheer cliff wall. I knew I wouldn’t survive the fall; the thought of drowning or being crushed against the rocks offered no escape at all.
“That is your fate... unless,” He looked at me with soulless green eyes. “You choose theGate.”
“I will jump,” I said, edging away slowly. “I would rather die in the sea than become a sculpture on a wall.”
I pressed him further, my mind searching for a weakness. “What are your intentions with theGate?”
Horous stepped aside just enough for the doorway to loom behind him, its shadow stretching toward me. “TheGateopens for themarked," he said, eyeing me like a beast about to devour its prey. “And you, Tilly… you’re the only one it answers to now.”
I shivered at the excitement in his words.
I looked bleakly from the raging ocean below back to Horous, who stood like a gargoyle between me and freedom.
This was twisted. If I chose not to jump, I’d be dragged to the stones and used.
What would become of me? My ribcage would be hung like a trophy in the abbey for the futuremarkedto see.
As if reading my thoughts, he grinned and approached me until I was pinned between him and the cliff. My body shivered from the cold, but that was the least of my problems.
“I’d rather die than go through thegate!” I backed precariously toward the edge, trying to distance myself fromhim .