Chapter Twenty-Nine
Screaming.
Someone’s screaming.
It takes my sleep-addled brain longer than I’d care to admit to process the sound, before I roll onto my side in bed and open my eyes. Greeted by the still darkness of my bedroom, my breathing slows and I listen.
A muted scream has me slinging the blankets from me and leaping from the bed. As my feet fall upon the marble floor, rushes of tingles course down my skin—magic use.
This is Kassil.
It has to be.
The vampire Ryc killed would have told him everything. And Kassil would know I’d hide in Celesta’s temple once he’d learned I’m in Ollora.
Snagging my dagger from under my pillow, I strap it to my thigh and bolt out the door into the hallway. Another scream cuts through the air, pulling my attention to the far end of the hall where a winged creature carries Cora through a shattered window into the night.
Demon?
No. My eyes narrow, flying down to the chaos in the hall, to the wings of feathers—not the bat-like wings of a demon.
Demons wouldn’t be able to cross the threshold. Kassil has sent a different creature—harpies. Neither undead, nor demon, Celesta’s ward wouldn’t apply to them. But they’re pledged to Netharis all the same.
My heart sinks as fear kicks me into motion.
The corridor is filled with the skittering creatures, shrieking as they pull temple members from their beds. Cyran fights amidst four alone, and my feet take off toward him on instinct. As I pass Eve’s door, I crash a fist against it once, hoping to jar her awake.
“Eve! They have Cora!” I scream, my feet not slowing.
Good gods, I hope she heard me.
I don’t have time to stop.
In seconds, I reach Cyran and launch my innate, full force, at two of the harpies at his back.
The shadows respond, lashing out as tendrils of dark, wrapping themselves around the wings of the creatures.
My fist clenches, and their wings are torn from their bodies.
The shadows fling the dark-feathered limbs across the hall where they hit the wall and fall to the floor.
My innate screams with delight and the shadows expand, encasing the two harpies in darkness, muffling their screams as the scent of blood blossoms through the air. The shadows constrict and the sound of bones crushing fills my ears.
Now is not the time to lose control of my innate, to succumb to my demonic urge. I let the shadows feed but keep the magic on a tight leash.
Cyran embeds his sword into the throat of the harpy on his left.
Wasting no time, I pull from my innate again, my fingers dancing, and three shadowed blades streak past Cyran, striking the remaining harpy’s heart, throat, and forehead.
She sinks to the floor, and my innate ripples with delicious satisfaction.
Cyran turns, giving me a firm nod in acknowledgment before sprinting off to the next closest harpy.
As I race down the hall, tendrils of shadow strike at every passing harpy, piercing through chests and spines to grip and tear at their hearts. A chorus of screams rise as the shadows retract, dropping the bloodied muscles onto the white marble.
Leaping over the banister, my feet land firmly on the middle landing and begin carrying me the rest of the way down. Pushing with as much strength as I can muster into my legs, I speed down the empty hall toward the doors that cut through the garden.
I should ferry.
But if Kassil is here, I need every ounce of my reduced innate pool if I want to survive. I’m not returning to the hells. I refuse. If he’s here, he’ll be out front. Celesta’s ward will keep him from setting foot within the temple.
Bursting through the garden access doors, I turn my eyes upward. Dozens of harpies fly overhead, many with devotees in their claws.
My heart sinks.
Cora isn’t one of them.
Pushing harder, and ignoring the cutting gravel under my bare feet, I cross the garden and enter the sanctum. It’s there Kassil’s voice carries from the central courtyard.
“This is not my wife!” he roars.
The sound of a slap echoes sharply against the marble walls along with Cora’s sob.
My innate shudders, reminding me of its yearning to be used to cause destruction and death—the things I’d been designed to do, but refused to embrace.
Tonight, I’ll embrace them.
In a swirl of shadows, I’m no longer running through the sanctum but down the stairs of the temple into the courtyard.
Kassil turns, his face lighting up.
He’s in the middle of the courtyard, holding Cora by her hair with a hand, the black ribbon I’d given her in the fingers of his other.
“There she is,” he croons, his smile revealing unnaturally long fangs as his pitch-black eyes fix upon me.
“Let her go!” I scream, stopping at the top of the stairs.
He lifts Cora from the ground, dangling her by her hair to look at her face. “Sorry, love. Wife says I can’t play.”
Cora’s tear-rimmed, blue eyes meet mine, the fear upon her face gripping my heart in a fist of ice.
She knows.
She knows exactly who—what—holds her captive.
My heart pounds wildly as Kassil turns his gaze to me, grinning, but it’s the movement behind him that gives him away.
And in an instant, it’s as if the whole world slows to a near stop.
I cannot move fast enough.
Please no.
Please not her.
Kassil’s barbed tail strikes through Cora’s chest, piercing her heart. Her scream shatters me, and my mind snaps as it abruptly ends. My own horrified scream deafens my ears, and my vision blurs, but I launch myself forward anyway.
He tosses her aside, laughing.
As her lifeless body falls to the ground with a haunting heaviness, it echoes in the darkness of my mind, searing itself into my very being. The sharp crack of her skull against the stone from a fall of nearly eight feet will forever haunt me.
I’ll never forget the sound.
Or the icy rage exploding in my veins.
A snarl rips from my throat, fueled by panic and fear and rage and sorrow as I begin my assault. Blades of shadow appear in each hand as I strike and slash at the archdemon who’s come to return me to the hells.
Taken by surprise, Kassil dodges, but one of my blades lands against his upper arm in a wide arc. Black blood explodes from his pale skin along with the stomach-turning scent of sulfur as he roars.
In a beat of his leathery wings, he puts distance between us as he unsheathes one of the two blades crossed on his back.
He swings, I dodge, taking advantage of our two-foot height difference.
As he prepares to strike again, my hand whips out, launching several shrapnel-like blades into his left leg near his knee.
He staggers with a growl, his blade missing my shoulder by a hair’s breadth. Snarling, he rights himself, pulling his wings in tight. Barreling toward me, he strikes at me with the skill I expect from an archdemon thousands of years old.
This mortal body cannot stand against his strength.
As I block, twirl, dodge, and deflect, it becomes clear to me I’ll never get close enough to strike his heart with the bloodstone dagger. It’s no longer fear fueling me, it’s desperation.
Laughing, Kassil snaps his fingers.
In a flash of hellfire, I’m rendered immobile.
Hellfire shackles sear into my wrists, my neck, my ankles. My throat burns with my screams, Kassil approaches as I fall to my knees in pain. The stench of burning flesh fills my nostrils and I nearly retch.
“Violent as always, Ves,” he taunts, his lip curling in dark amusement. “How I’ve missed it.”
He continues speaking as he strolls toward me. “I never would have guessed you’d last this long in the mortal realm with Netharis capping your innate.” He laughs, a deep, wicked sound. “It’s honestly impressive, but your father and I are not going to tolerate this tantrum any longer.”
I can’t look at him as he rambles on. My eyes are on Cora’s still body in the distance behind him. He follows my stare and turns back to me, tilting his head.
“Have you grown attached to the mortals?” he asks, making a soft clicking sound with his tongue. “How… quaint.”
He reaches down, wrapping a hand around my neck and lifts me off the ground. With the pain of the hellfire threatening to steal my consciousness, my reality begins to feel dreamlike.
“It’s time to come home, moonflower,” he whispers, trailing his fingers down my cheek. “Your father signed our contract the moment I told him I’d found you.”
He snaps his fingers again, the hellfire bindings vanishing. The release from the pain is euphoric as is the coarse gasp for air. It becomes difficult to keep my eyes open, lids growing heavy, but to the right, a contract unfurls.
Our marriage contract.
My eyes are drawn to the signature line where my heart seizes and the blood in my veins turns to ice. Netharis’ signature lies upon it in place of mine. He’s signed it on my behalf after all.
My innate screams, and in an explosion of darkness the ground begins to shake. Kassil’s hand leaves my throat, and I land on my back on the ground. The wind knocked out of me as my vision fills with white stars, I force myself to stand, unsheathing my dagger.
“Ryc.”
I sob, gasping for air.
“Ryc, please. Don’t let him take me.”
Staggering through the shadows that cling to the courtyard, struggling to see through the darkness, I find Kassil lying on his side. Still. It takes everything I have to approach him.
Reaching him, he rolls onto his back and I lunge.
I cannot afford to lose this opportunity. The dagger plunges into his chest, and white hot searing pain rips through my side, into my chest. With a downward glance, I’ve sunk the dagger too far to the left. I’ve missed his heart, and his tail has missed mine.
The night sky suddenly comes into view, and the taste of blood fills my mouth. A bright white flash dispels my shadows, revealing the cloud-darkened night sky, and my chest seizes with coughing. The raking contractions send blazing pain through every part of me.