Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
LYVIA
The siblings had always feared the One, for the master of Death was also the master of Life.
– History of the Gods, Temple of the Sky, Aedrialis.
Lyvia – Beyond the Gate of the World
Iam Death, I reminded myself, as my heart raced to keep my body living as long as possible. The source of that chilling voice hovered nearby. Its hiss crept through my bones like a parasite tracing an invisible path through its host, slow and unseen… destructive.
I’d fallen through eternity, time disappearing as darkness consumed me. Consumed us. Tiberius was close behind, his soul moored to my own as my bonded caeluma, partners in the Realm of Vael and wherever we landed.
I clung to the air oath tethering me to Lord Astraeus as we fell. Kellan. I tunneled deep into my chasm of power, preparing to face the wrath of the Embodied, to face Ganmira and Renova, the twin goddesses whose transformative power glowed alongside the darkness within me.
But then that sliver of air clinging to my fingers slipped, and the whisper of breath lingered on their tips like the ghost of a feeling. And I knew what that meant.
Kellan was dead.
Numbness slipped through me at the thought, and a fierce wave of denial warred with what I knew to be true—that only death could break a magical oath. But I was Death, and I was coming for him.
Vael needed him. His power would end all or bless all. Those words pricked a memory, but I couldn’t place it. I didn’t fear the Starling Sentry, the descendant of the very gods whose revenge on our world hovered like an asp waiting in the shadows.
“Lyvia,” the voice whispered again, the sound coming from everywhere yet nowhere at all. Deep and somehow soft at the same time… Definitively male.
He spoke my name as if he knew me. A distant part of me screamed to flee, but something deep and primal anchored me to this spot. This was exactly where I needed to be.
My hands pushed off the damp, sticky ground as I got to my feet.
Something slimy and wet soaked through my leathers, the thickness of it turning my stomach.
I blinked against the darkness, trying my best to make out my surroundings, and I swallowed the growing pool of saliva that filled my mouth.
I couldn’t see anything. Stale air filled my lungs, something like sulfur and rotting blood, causing my throat to constrict.
The Obscura stood at attention, the pressure of the power building beneath my palms, its awareness more sentient and astute than ever. Adrenaline pumped through my system, fueling the gathering darkness.
“Welcome, Lyvia,” the voice hissed, this time from behind.
I whipped my head to the deep, slippery sound and my blood raced. The hairs on my arm stood on end as I turned to him.
Where are you? My panicked voice sounded in my mind, but Tiberius was silent. I felt his uneasy response, but it was different. He was further away yet as close as he’d ever been.
The owner of the voice snaked closer. Death licked at the skin of my arms, bare and bleeding from the battle in the cave on Kayj. The cold drip of blood steeled me, snapping my senses into place.
“Hello, my empress,” the voice wheezed.
A chill chased the words through my bones, and suddenly, a distant horizon appeared.
Black, rocky landscape sliced across a desolate, gray sky.
I blinked, and the world flipped. The ashy sky was now an ocean of night, and the rocky landscape twisted into ominous thunderclaps, the clouds hunting from above.
Bile rose to my throat as the world rolled over itself again, and I pinched my eyes shut, my head lightening.
The Obscura surged to my palms and anchored me to the sticky ground, the world around me finally slowing and coming in clearly.
Obsidian stones surrounded me, stretching needle-like branches through the gray fog hanging mere feet above my head, obscuring whatever lay above. Mist slithered over the ground, a living blanket of smoke and fumes hiding whatever I stood upon.
The darkness hissed, and I whipped my head around, coming face-to-face with twisting ribbons of ink, folding over and underneath each other like serpents of shadow and night.
Little tendrils of death stretched toward me, and the shadows living within my own veins dove into my chasm of power. They surged back up with a line of golden light, as if they’d grabbed the Transcindiel by hand to face the threat together.
The foreign shadows reeled as they hit the shield of darkness. The creeping tendrils of death snapped back into the twisting knot of power, recoiling and uncertain.
“Death and Rebirth,” the shadow whispered, twisting and stretching into a long, thin form.
Shadows curled over each other, and the power of death twisted itself into the shape of a tall man. His features sharpened by the second and I forced myself to take a breath. My boots twisted in the hidden, sticky ground as I braced myself.
“Welcome to the Abyss, Lyviánala Natara. I’ve been waiting for you.”
The outline of black lips curled into a sharp smile as his features began to ebb and flow, lightening and darkening as he took form.
Elongated, pointed ears speared through straight inky hair draping over his shoulders.
The pits surrounding his pupils lightened to an almost white as his skin faded to an ashy gray.
A line of pointed teeth flashed against the tar-like tongue he slipped out.
Black robes draped over his form as the shadows fell into place in a sigh, the long curtains billowing past where his feet would have been and disappearing in a smoky cloud just beyond where he stood.
They crossed over his chest, leaving his too-long, gray arms bare.
Curled black talons hung off his fingers, resting upon the shallow curve of his arms as he crossed them.
My eyes traced the newly formed skin, shadows still rolling over one another as they settled into place like nesting eels. My gaze finally landed on his.
My heart drummed steadily in my chest, a reminder that I was still alive, as I came eye to eye with the God of Death.
“Hello, Tynan.”