Chapter 29
Kade
The memories of what I’d done the last time I roamed Mysthaven stormed through my mind, unrelenting as the guilt festered inside of me.
Being here again made all of it too real. I wasn’t ready to face it. I breathed through my nose, clenching my jaw as I tried to push the memories aside.
“Do pay attention. It’s rude to ignore your king,” Thames ordered as he casually sat in an ornate gold-trimmed chair, the seat covered in onyx velvet. He swirled an amber liquid in his glass before taking another sip. “We have much to accomplish.”
I knew I needed to pay attention, but my head swam with an unrelenting grogginess, my vision blurring in and out. A hot breeze swept over my body, already slick with sweat. The heat in the room made it impossible to think clearly, but I needed to focus.
“Where are we?” I stared at Thames sitting across from me, surprised I remained unharmed. I wiped the sweat from my brow and noticed a glass of water on a table next to me. Reaching for the liquid, I hesitated as soon as it rested in my hand.
“I would drink up,” Thames said, steepling his fingers in front of his face. “Pulling you here from across Atheria isn’t the easiest thing for your body, powerful or not.”
I frowned, glancing at the liquid again.
Would he try to poison me? Was this a trap?
I smelled the glass, unable to detect anything suspicious.
I would have to deal with the consequences later if my assumption turned out to be incorrect, because if I didn’t get something down my throat, I may combust. Swallowing the cool liquid in large gulps, I instantly felt relief.
“Where are we?” I asked again.
A smirk spread across Thames’s lips. “Firestone, of course. Where else would we be as the end draws near?” He stood and sauntered over to a railing I hadn’t noticed before. He looked pleased as he peered down, examining something below. “Yes, the weapon is almost complete.”
The longer I sat here, the more my senses returned to full capacity, even if they did so sluggishly. Far too slowly for this situation.
Thames turned away from the balcony’s edge, a firelight glow dancing over his face. “Feeling better?”
I hesitated, unsure of what the fuck was happening.
He cocked an eyebrow but didn’t make a move.
I nodded once.
“Come, come,” he said as he waved his hand for me to join him at the railing.
Thames acted as if I hadn’t completely disobeyed his orders. I hadn’t brought Lana to him—fuck, I hadn’t bothered returning to him at all. Every one of my senses urged me to proceed with caution, but if Thames was willing to talk, I would play along.
Carefully, I rose, feeling for my shadows within me, in case we needed a quick escape. Concern furrowed my brows. They felt distant.
We’re here. Pay attention. Survive.
I shook my head, clearing the last bit of fog, and moved to Thames’s side. “Tell me more.”
Before he uttered a word, my jaw dropped as I took in what he had been looking at.
I glanced over my shoulder, realizing we were standing in a room carved into the side of the volcano.
The walls were rough, without any pattern to how the hollow cave-like room was constructed.
A slender staircase made up of uneven rocks snaked downward toward an opening in the center of the volcano.
Molten lava bubbled in a large pool beneath us.
Thames’s eyes glistened with glee, as he placed his hands on the railing, surveying everything. “It’s here.” He whisked his hand before him. “It’s all here.”
I took a deep breath and allowed myself a moment to process what he’d laid out before me. “The volcano is the weapon?” I whispered, desperate for it not to be true.
“I have been feeding the darkness into the volcano for years now. Your father’s inconsistent help with this task irked me to no end. No matter, you are here now and together we will finish this.”
It was incomprehensible. Using the volcano as the weapon seemed impossible, but for a Fae who had been trapped for a thousand years, I wouldn’t put anything past him.
“How does it work?” I turned to face him, pretending to be captivated, in awe of his power and capabilities.
A bell rang in the distance, and footsteps echoed below.
“I too have learned a thing or two about sacrificial magic over the years,” Thames spat.
“My mate was particularly skilled in that area of sorcery, and while she may have thought I wasn’t paying attention, I was.
” The smile spreading over his face appeared eerier than usual as the glow from the lava danced over the curves of his face.
He nodded downward, shifting our focus away from the stairs and small pools to a much larger pit of lava.
A line of Fae stepped through a wide opening opposite the end of the staircase.
A Guardian stood, arms crossed, at the edge of the molten pool, tapping his fingers on his forearm as he waited for the Fae to approach.
When they made it a few feet from the ledge, the guardian waved his hand, beckoning the first Fae forward while simultaneously drawing a dagger from his side.
“Do you accept your fate and pledge yourself to the darkness?” the Guardian asked as he handed the dagger to the woman.
She bowed her head and clutched the dagger, slicing across the palm of her hand. “I pledge myself to the darkness.”
The blood from her palm dripped into the lava below, sizzling. Black smoke swirled into the air, reminding me of what the darkness looked like when Lana banished it from Ian’s body, and exactly what had exploded out of Andras at his death.
The hair on my arms rose as I watched the woman hand back the dagger and step off the ledge, directly into the pool of lava. Her body erupted in flames before completely disappearing from sight.
I inhaled sharply as a chill crawled over me. Her scream lasted a mere second, echoing around the walls of the cavernous volcano before it died.
Thames breathed in deeply, his eyes rolling back in his head as if in ecstasy at the sight of the death.
“You see, for those who accept the darkness willingly, it’s embedded into their body.
Into their essence. It overtakes all rational thinking almost as soon as they accept me.
Those who sacrifice themselves willingly fuel my weapon. ”
“How does their sacrifice translate into a weapon?” I forcefully tried to keep the rising bile down, swallowing the foul liquid before it could crawl up my throat.
Thames was marching the people of Mysthaven to their death and relishing it.
A line of willing participants continued funneling in, despite seeing the path only led to death.
“When the volcano is at full capacity, we let it erupt. With the power I’ve funneled into it, it will explode, releasing my magic with it, and we will cover the entire world with my darkness, the magic I have harnessed for a thousand years.
It will be so strong, we won’t need to infect the Fae directly with daggers or other weapons.
” He chuckled under his breath. “No, they will simply breathe, and it will enter their system. I will be able to control them all and Atheria will be mine.” His knuckles whitened as he gripped the railing.
I staggered on my feet as the world stopped around me.
Thames would destroy everything good, everything kind and beautiful remaining in Atheria.
The entire world as we knew it would be gone.
Lana’s light wouldn’t matter if he infected her, but even if she stayed safe from her clear immunity to the darkness, she’d be wholly alone.
Focusing my gaze on the dark ones sacrificing themselves, I lifted my chin. I needed more information to formulate a plan. I refused to leave Lana alone for one second in this world. While my shadows may have been in agreement, they rolled in agitation.
We will find a way.
I kept my face neutral. If I had any hope of defeating Thames, I needed to play along. Make him believe I would follow his every command.
Stepping back from the railing, I bowed, hoping he would ignore my momentary hesitation if I showed him some reverence. “My king, it’s a genius plan, but what happens to those who are disloyal? Those who do not accept it willingly?”
Thames ushered me toward him, placing a hand around my shoulders and pointing down to the line of Fae.
A few appeared through the opening, this time with chains around their ankles, unable to move more than a few inches at a time.
Their sluggish movements made it look as if they were under some sort of spell.
“Their death is still a sacrifice, even if it is not to the darkness itself. A sacrifice of magic is better than no sacrifice at all.” He watched me carefully as he spoke. Then he leaned in and whispered in my ear, “Besides, what better way to deal with traitors? Hm?”
The Guardian below reached for the first man in chains and, without any warning or hesitation, threw him over the side. His horrific screams still echoed throughout the chamber as his charred body sunk into the molten pool. It had to be torture burning alive.
“Sacrifice. Is that what all of this comes down to?” I asked, swallowing my disgust.
Thames’s entire face twitched. The calm facade he wore faltered.
“You don’t even know the meaning of sacrifice.
” Thames’s lip curled. “I was forced to live a thousand years in the void, in utter darkness. My mate”—spit flew from his mouth—“thought she could rid Atheria of me. She was mistaken. Now the world will pay for her transgressions.”
Thames paced back toward his chair, grabbing his glass and swallowing the remaining liquid. A decanter sat on a small table a few feet away, and I snatched it, moving toward him to refill his drink. It might keep him talking if he thought of me as a loyal guardian.
He shoved the glass toward me, shaking it in his hand. My shadows tightened inside of me suddenly, and a glimmer of evil twinkled in his eyes. Once his cup had been refilled, he took another large gulp and I took a few steps away, putting space between us.
“She betrayed me all those years ago.”
Thames stalked toward me. He continued to approach, forcing me to keep retreating until, without realizing, my back was to the volcano wall. I tried to call upon my shadows, but they didn’t come.
Fuck, there was something in that drink. I knew better than this. He did this to us once before and I had been so stupid for believing he wouldn’t do it again.
“But you know who else has betrayed me?” Thames whispered. “You.”
I jerked against him as our bodies practically touched. Fuck. Fuck.
I tried to focus on the tie to Lana, the bond filling me with light. My shadows twitched in response but wouldn’t come forward. They were there inside me, fighting to break through whatever barrier Thames had poisoned me with.
His power was terrifying, and if I didn’t find a way to stop him, Lana would be his next target. He snapped his fingers and my body lifted off the floor, slamming into the wall as his mist secured my wrists and ankles in iron grips against the volcano.
“Thames, what are you doing?” I tried to remain calm, but the growing pit in my stomach filled every part of me with dread. “I can help you.”
“Did you know my own mate poisoned me?” Thames lifted his glass in front of his face, staring at the liquid.
“It’s how she made me weak enough to unleash her sacrificial sorcery and trap me in that miserable void.
” He took a sip and sneered in disgust. “Did you really think, after living through her deception, you could betray me, and I wouldn’t find out?
” Thames roared so loud I flinched. “I sent you on a mission and you didn’t return.
You killed my soldiers and weakened my army. ”
“I had to regain her trust,” I argued. “She would never come willingly with me if she didn’t believe I was hers,” I said, trying anything to keep him talking while I prayed to the Fates that whatever this poison was would wear off quickly enough for me to call upon my shadows and get us out of here.
I had to find a way to return to Illiana.
Thames snickered. “Ah, ah, Kade, you’re lying.
My darkness is everywhere. It lives and breathes with me.
It lives and breathes here.” He shoved a finger to my chest and let his eyes roam up and down with a gaze of utter repulsion.
“There’s nothing you can hide from me. You want your mate bond.
You love her. Pathetic. It made you weak, so I will have to kill her myself. ”
“If you touch one hair on her head, I swear death will seem like a gift.” I pulled against the chains holding me back, but it was useless. I couldn’t move. My shadows hadn’t returned, even though they fought aggressively within me for purchase.
Without any magic, I was completely vulnerable to anything Thames wanted to do to me. But worse, I couldn’t get free of these damn chains to protect Lana.
“You know,” he murmured as he returned to his seat slowly, “I was going to kill her after using you, but how wonderful would it be to kill her in front of you. Her and that bitch Cassandra. I will watch that bond break as she dies, and you will know then, there’s no way to escape your fate.”
Thames collapsed into his chair, laughing to himself.
“I like this plan. Get comfortable,” he snapped.
“You’re going to be here until you die. You are my most prized possession after all, the one that has been fueled by the darkness the longest. Since the day of your birth, you have been infected with my will.
You are the last and final piece I need to complete my weapon. ”
“I will never go willingly,” I grunted. “It will be for nothing.”
Sipping his amber liquid, Thames looked calm and relaxed. “The amount of darkness living inside of you is more than enough, whether you’re willing or not. You alone would, most likely, be enough. The rest are merely my insurance.”
He sickened me. Sweat dampened my skin as the lava surged with each Fae continuing to sacrifice themselves below us. Suddenly, I stopped jerking against the restraints, instead trying to dig inside of myself to release my magic from Thames’s hold.
“It’s useless,” he said with a laugh. “You will be fed into the volcano, and the world will be covered in darkness. I will be king to people devoted to me. There is no sacrifice that can save Atheria this time. You’ll lose everything, and I will be untouchable against the Fates themselves.”