Chapter 51 Departure
Departure
ANNA
Ezreal stood, his stoic, patient demeanor gone.
He was watching Melanie with a hint of glee as she crept back.
“I am sorry, Ezreal, but I need her,” Melanie said, a tone of desperation in her voice.
Ezreal raised an eyebrow. “An exchange, then? Her life for his? And here I was thinking we were not over. Shame.”
My lips parted as I stared at Melanie’s back. Had I heard him correctly? SHE was the one sleeping with Kalmont?
“When did Blake find out?” he crowed. “Was it before or after I had you in the prince’s bed?”
“Ezreal, please,” she pleaded. “Let us go. I swear I will make it up to you.”
He scoffed, then raised his hand.
Suddenly, Melanie was thrust up and into the stone wall beside me with a sickening crack. She crumpled to the ground, unmoving.
Fuck.
“What did you mean by ‘her life for his’?” I asked.
I knew Melanie wasn’t helping me out of the kindness of her heart, but those words scared me.
Ezreal watched me with his glowing red eyes. “Who knows what deal she struck with the prince, but I assume it was something like I will save her if you marry me, or perhaps it was I will save her if you bed me, or it could have been—”
“Why are you here?” I shouted, my fists tightening until my nails cut into my skin.
“I came for you,” he said. “Obviously. Since Caelan failed in creating the soul gem with your everi, I am now forced to do it myself.”
“What?” I spluttered.
“This place,” he said, gesturing widely with his arms. “Do you know what it is?”
I tried to remember what Blake said, then grunted. “Who cares. It’s some ancient palace.”
Ezreal began pacing. “It is said a goddess once lived here. Many believe her soul is still trapped here. Betrayed by her lover, she was used for her power. It is hard being special. You become hunted. Enslaved. Used.”
Ezreal took a step forward and I immediately took a step back, startling when my back hit the wall.
“You seem to have far more tenacity than your predecessor,” he said. “It is fascinating how different you are.”
My heart began to race as he lifted his hand.
“If you’re going to kill me, at least tell me where Blake is and why you did this?” I shouted.
Ezreal’s hand hung in the air for a moment before he lowered it.
“Kill you? If I wanted you dead, I would have done that years ago. No, I think I will let you wander off and see what you do. If it makes you feel any better, you never had a chance with the Falls Prince. Even in the off chance you live a long life, you and Prince Rykiren will never have the fairy tale ending you seek. Unfortunately for you, what makes you special will also make you a liability, and most will not recognize your value. Princes of the Realm marry pureblooded maidens, or in Blake’s case, pureblooded sluts who are desperate to hang onto a man in power. ”
“Then why keep him here?” I whispered. “You’re supposed to answer to him, aren’t you?”
“I answer to the King,” he said. “The true King.” His expression twisted into a bemused look. “It will never cease to amaze me the way the Ryth’enirs manage to enslave a woman’s heart.”
What was this guy going on about?
“What do you mean?” I asked, threading everi in my palms.
“Your mom was a fool, too,” he said. “Falling in love with someone she could never be with.”
“She was in love with a Ryth’enir?” I asked. “Ryden Ryth’enir?”
Ezreal’s expression danced with curiosity. “How is it that you know that name?”
I tried to breathe normally but utterly failed. I had to lie fast.
“One of the professors mentioned him,” I said.
Ezreal smirked. “Fascinating. And did this professor tell you who he is?”
I shook my head slowly.
Ezreal’s footsteps shook my bones, but I refused to back away as his breath condensed on my cheek.
“King Valenthor Ryth’enir, also known to close friends and family as Ryden is the King of Raven Falls,” he said.
The King of Raven Falls. That couldn’t be right. That was Blake’s father.
He leaned back enough to look into my eyes and smirked.
A tremor struck my nerves, and my limbs shook. What did that mean? Was he suggesting that this man, Ryden, could be my dad? There was no way.
Pleasure twisted his features like a madman as he watched me writhe in the shock of his revelation.
What a sick bastard.
“You must be delusional. Tell me what you know. Is he my dad?” I asked.
He laughed maniacally and paced before me. My skin crawled as I watched him; his behavior and reactions were nothing short of insane. My body was waging a war between rage and fear, but it didn’t matter as it was presenting in the same symptoms.
He stopped, his malevolent gaze finding mine. “The lives of the students at Nightfall are more sordid than the entirety of the Falls Court.”
“You think this is a game?” I shouted. “Your entertainment? Tell me what you know!”
His demeanor stilled. “Your insight into your mother’s affairs has extended your life. I might as well enjoy the show as you chase after pointless answers. But I can only speculate who your father is. Maybe it is Ryden, maybe it is not. Your mother was no more than a whore.”
My arm stretched out and a pointed blade of crackling silver everi seared toward his head. He easily deflected it with his hand, where it exploded in rock and debris.
“Since you seem so concerned about it,” he drawled, “I will let you in on a secret. King Valenthor may be your father, but he is not Prince Rykiren’s.”
Shock struck like an arrow to my chest, seizing my chest. Could that be? Was Blake not… the prince?
“Why should I believe you?” I growled.
He smirked. “I do not know. You asked. But I am finished playing now.”
Suddenly, a cold more intense than I’d ever felt, paralyzed me. It wrapped its frozen blades around my skin like razor ribbon.
“This cold,” I whispered.
The shadows around us thinned and twisted. They moved toward me, wrapping themselves around my ankles and snaking up my legs.
“Is something the matter?” Ezreal asked. “Are you cold?”
“You,” I breathed. “It was you.”
Rage exploded around me as flame curled around the shadows, igniting them in an impossible sight.
The bracelet on my wrist, the gift from my mom, glowed in a white, ethereal light, the everi within me drawing me to it.
Touching it with the tip of my finger, it was warm, and the power within it sent shockwaves through me as wispy tendrils of light began to spill from it.
I watched in awe as it morphed, shimmering with raw everi, into the sword Derrick gave me, ablaze with a white flame that lit the room, a small emerald shard crafted into the hilt.
I stared into the eyes of the monster that killed my mom.
“I hate you,” I said, my voice quaking, then swung the sword with all my might at the monster before me.
An incredible force stopped my sword.
He stood mere inches before me, his hand against the blade. A line of blood dripped from the cut it made on his palm.
“Such power, and in my presence, no less,” he said, but he wasn’t speaking to me at all. His eyes narrowed, the blood-red irises watching me with calculated intent. “I would not recommend staying here too long or you will never escape.”
He thrust me back by the blade, flinging his hand to shake the blood dripping from it. He turned and started for the rift.
“Wait!” I shouted, lurching forward mentally, but physically halting in the process.
He paused, turning to me with narrowed, gleaming eyes.
“You killed Annabelle too, didn’t you? Because she was close to my mom. Why?” I asked quietly. “Who are you?”
He watched me, his cloak billowing as the energy of the portal radiated near him.
Ezreal smiled. “The light will always burn out, but eternal is the night.”
His cloak whipped through the air, snapping loudly against the powerful current of the rift, before he faded away into the swirling black.
I stared into the twisting, churning mass of darkness, feeling the storm brewing within me. The fire was burning from within and all I wanted was to drag him into the abyss, even if it meant we never came out.
Something was shifting within me, my everi slashing through me violently like it was cutting through my skin.
I grasped my sword tightly and charged toward the rift.
But I never made it.
The force that struck me was powerful enough that I blacked out for a second. My sword clattered to the floor and my body was trapped.
“Anna!”
It was Ash.
He was bodily restraining me. Automatically, I searched for the red and green that should inevitably be nearby, my blurring vision desperate to find her.
“Roslyn!” I cried.
She came to me like an angel, her green hooded cloak barely containing her red curls.
“Anna,” she said, “You must calm down. We have to get you out of here.”
The tension in my muscles eased but Ash didn’t let me go.
Instead, he threw me over his shoulder. My sword morphed and flew around my wrist as the familiar bracelet my mom had gifted me.
“Wait!” I shouted, forcing Ash to set me down. “We can’t leave Melanie.”
Roslyn followed my light of sight, seeing her in the shadows.
Roslyn tipped a vial to her lips and Melanie began to stir. She helped her up, pulling her arm over her shoulder.
I glanced at the rift, the intensity of its swirling energy, and despair pooled in my stomach. With every bone in my body I wanted to run through it, to find Ezreal and beat everything I wanted to know out of him.
Instead, I shut down my emotions, swallowed the pain, and hardened myself to what I had to do. I couldn’t defeat him right now. That was clear. If the terrible pain in my chest was any indication, it was evident that I’d narrowly escaped death.
With every piece of me in tatters, I left the rift behind and entered The Realm.