36. Aniah
Aniah
The Council left me in a stone room—chained to a wall—nothing but a long oak table and battle maps everywhere.
The war room.
Time became nonexistent in here. The Council had stayed for hours, while breaking Malachai piece by piece. Over and over. I’d vomited until nothing was left.
My eyes adjusted to the darkened room. Blood crusted over my mouth and chin from the nosebleed. No matter what the Councils tried, they hadn’t been able to find the location of the orb. That was something at least.
A single torch burned on the far wall by the door. It didn’t help much, but it lit up the outline of—
“Malachai!”
He groaned, chains clinking. Golden eyes blinked to life across the dark room.
“Are you alright?” I breathed, fresh tears streaming down my face.
“I’ve dealt with worse,” he grunted. “I won’t be able to shift my wings back until they’re healed.” His voice was strained, making my heart constrict.
“Malachai, I’m so sorry,” I cried. “I wanted to help you—not cause you pain. I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have let you be—at least until my magic was fixed—”
“No,” he said firmly. His chains clinked as he pressed forward. “I’ve spent these past three years thinking the worst had happened to you.”
“You already knew who I was?” My brows furrowed. “But the Council… they said—”
“They didn’t take my memories. They made sure I kept every single one.” His breath came out wet and ragged. My fists tightened as I jerked on my chains, willing any magic to come to my aid. None answered.
“They took my free will, turned me into a weapon,” he hissed as he shifted closer to the sliver of light.
“I was the test. They forced me to follow Aiden. Do anything he bid,” he spat.
“First thing he ordered was that I stay silent about my past and anyone in it. Second, to protect him at all costs.”
My stomach was in knots. If I had anything more to throw up, I would have. Not only have they been using my curse, but they’ve fully weaponized it.
“So you recognized Evanee?”
“Yes. It was Aiden that betrayed us—he and Queen Ava cut a deal with the Fae that they would be spared and in return, they’d give the King access to great power.
” He moved further into the light, the chains stretched tight.
I gasped—his eyes were swollen, his body crusted over in blood, and his wings…
His wings were broken and hanging behind him. I swallowed past the lump in my throat.
“They planned the transference spell, didn’t they?” I could barely say the words out loud.
“They did. The King was to have a child with her first, then Aiden. Both would gain power through the child.”
The blood drained from my face, my skin clammy. I’d learned of Aiden’s ambition for power and read the texts I could get my hands on over the past few years on how that would come to pass. But I hadn’t thought him capable of something that vile.
“I’ve heard and seen many sick, evil things these three years, Aniah. Yet, I couldn’t do anything about it. Even being bound to follow Aiden, I was able to fight it in ways. Finding loopholes where I could.”
His words settled over me. The anonymous tips we'd receive. They always came in scribbled letters, or a stranger would approach, saying they were looking for a woman of my description.
“You sent those messengers,” I whispered.
The torch’s glow outlined him nodding.
“A stranger approached me one day with your description. Wanted to report it to Aiden so he could receive a reward the Witches had put out for any information regarding you. I snapped the male’s neck and dumped his body into the sea that same night.” He exhaled, as if steeling himself.
“After that, anything I heard about Evanee, I’d send to various messengers in countless towns and cities, hoping it would find you.”
He sighed, dragging chains across the stone.
“When I heard you might be alive, I was relieved. But I was also ashamed.”
“Why would you feel ashamed?”
“It was my job to protect you. To be there for you.” His voice broke.
“Are all Gargoyle males broody warriors, thinking their sole purpose is to protect a female?” I scoffed. “Mal, we’re alive. Let us be grateful for that.” However long that would last.
“Aiden revealed intel, after I was captured, that Ryker was slain.”
The air grew thick with his sorrow. But I couldn’t share that Ryker lived. Not yet. Not here anyway. My heart shattered, imagining what he felt these three years thinking we were both dead.
“I couldn’t believe it when Aiden pulled our team together and told us we were retrieving a human female.
Only to see it was Evanee. But she had no memory.
Believed she was human and bought into Aiden’s bullshit act.
I watched over her as much as I was able these past few weeks.
Interrupted times that Aiden… he was trying to lure her in.
Make her fall in love with him, so that she'd be a more willing participant.”
“And with King Raul? How did he see that going?” I said, my words clipped as anger pulsed hot beneath my skin.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “They won’t stop until they find her. Or that orb. They kept talking about a Dark Master. Aiden even met with them once. Though he was careful not to say much about it and went alone.”
I never knew the identity of the Dark Master. The Coven Council was careful as well, never allowing us access to those meetings. For a while, I thought the Dark Master they referred to was a mythical being—just something they referenced to keep us in line. I’d never expected it to be someone real.
Silence fell, thick and uncomfortable. Only the sound of our chains clinking and his wheezing breaths filled the cold room.
“How will we get out of this?” I whispered.
His silence was answer enough.