Chapter 53
Chapter Fifty-Three
Lies
MAGNOLIA
Dahes was staring at me as I walked down the steps toward the landing pad. There was a soft wind drifting through the mountains, but I didn’t feel it. I kept my Token on.
The Viridis moon was now fully blocking the other five, casting Viven in a vibrant hue of green.
“You can’t defeat me, little ghost,” Dahes sneered as I reached the final step, his voice filling with malice. “You’re going to have to drop your Token if you want to use that.” His eyes drifted to my belt where the dagger was stashed. “And the second you do, I control you.”
I paused, my eyes flaring. I knew Dahes could get me to do anything he wanted, had lived through it for years.
He couldn’t control me using my Token. I could turn it on and off of my own free will—I just never knew how to before—but I hadn’t realized he couldn’t control me while I was using it.
I had never made the connection, mainly because I’d never been able to keep my Token on long enough around him to realize it.
Whatever telepathy he had from his Ater Vinculum didn’t work when I was a ghost.
I couldn’t tell if it made me happy or furious to know that all I had to do was learn to use this form and I could have walked out of his castle, and he wouldn’t have been able to stop me.
I sent a silent thanks to Nessium, regretting all the times I wished I was blessed by Cupio instead.
I used to question her, had spent years being bitter, wishing I had a different Token to defend myself with, to help me escape.
But she gave me everything I needed. Not only had it prevented Dahes from raping me, but he couldn’t kill me, he couldn’t get inside my head, and now he couldn’t read my thoughts.
“I win today,” Dahes continued, his voice rising, “and I’ll make your life fucking hell.
You’ll beg for death alongside your brother.
” I winced, the reminder stabbing me through my heart.
“But I won’t let you,” Dahes continued as he circled me.
He drew back his hood, pulling his mask off before tossing it to the ground.
“I’ll keep you alive so you’ll never see him again, and all you’ll be able to do is beg for it. ”
I staggered backward as he continued, each word feeling like a punch to the gut.
“I’ll keep your boyfriend alive too, just so he can watch what I do with you.
” Dahes smiled as he took in my body, blood dripping down his mouth and it was the first time his physical features looked demonic, even without the mask.
He kept circling me, slowly moving forward as he did. He was gaining on me, my feet getting dangerously close to the edge.
“You will always belong to me, Magnolia,” he sneered. “YOU ARE MINE.”
No. That wouldn’t happen. Either Dahes was dying today or I was. I wasn’t going back to Moriann with him. I wouldn’t—
“Do you want to know a little secret?” he whispered now, his voice softening, the change jarring. “Masin never fell into the Examinis.”
Silence stretched even though I knew the clash of metal was clanging around me. Dragons were roaring and monsters were shrieking, but I didn’t hear any of it. His words haunted me, wrapped around my heart and twisted until I couldn’t breathe.
“No,” I whimpered, my voice was catching, my walls caving in. “No,” I said again. “I watched him die. I watched him—”
Dahes just grinned as realization dawned on me.
His Ater dragon…
“Yo-you made me see it? It was just an illusion?”
He nodded, bending over me, as I stopped backing up.
“I watched you fight off someone twice your size over a piece of bread,” Dahes drawled and my stomach turned.
“I wanted you then, and knew I was going to make you mine. It was easy to get inside your head. All I had to do was manipulate your sight and make you think your brother fell into the river.”
No. No. No.
“But he didn’t. He was very much alive as he watched his only sister make a deal with the devil. To him, you abandoned him for food, willingly coming with me all those years ago. You left him alone. You left him to starve. You’re the reason he died on my streets years later…”
NO. NO. NO.
My hands were clenched over my ears, my knees bending as I fell to the ground and screamed. Sobs consumed me. Guilt stabbed me through the chest on repeat until the pain was all I could feel.
Masin—
I tried to keep myself together, just four seconds, that was all I needed, but I was falling apart. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I wasn’t supposed to let anything he did affect me. It was why I came without Hael…
Dahes smiled over me before crouching down. The rings in his eyes were a twisted reminder of what I’d done. I swore I could feel the burning all over again, as the blue bands seared into my irises, permanently binding me to him.
Dahes couldn’t read my thoughts right now, he didn’t know what I was planning.
Four seconds, Magnolia. Then, you can let yourself fall apart…
“Your soul is mine, little ghost,” he crooned, taunting, vindicated like he knew he already won. “You gave it to me—”
His words stopped short as Hael’s dagger pierced through his heart, the fire spreading outward in a beautiful fluttering motion that was mesmerizing.
His gaze snapped to my hand—the only part of me that was physical.
If I wasn’t so destroyed, I would have smiled, would have savored the moment.
Would have been proud of myself for isolating my Token to a single part of my body while continuing to block him out.
It was why I didn’t sleep this week, what I trained so hard to do…
But I was dead. My soul so fractured from hearing about Masin that I couldn’t muster the satisfaction.
“The only person I belong to,” I ground out, shoving the dagger further into his chest and twisting, “is me.”