Ignite (The Unraveled Fate #4)

Prologue

The screams of tormented souls fill the icy air. The Vale is a desolate wasteland, a personification of nightmares and death. Graylen’s knees slam into the cracked, dry dirt. The red sky above him begins to rain down droplets of blood, staining his skin with streaks of crimson.

“You’re going to be fun.” Vidaris smiles, sickly sweet, her white teeth gleaming through the crimson haze. “Torture looks good on you, Aegis.”

Graylen didn’t flinch as a sword made of ice sliced across his abdomen.

Even as pain seared his flesh, he managed to hold back the grimace twitching beneath the surface of his face.

He gritted his teeth, his anger flaring.

But he had to be patient. He couldn’t waste his draining energy on an outburst of anger.

He would wait for his opening, and then throw everything within him at Vidaris.

The Goddess of Vengeance may have been the Queen of the Vale, but everyone had a weakness. And if anyone knew how to exploit a weakness in someone, it was Graylen.

He would bide his time, keeping his anger in check with thoughts of tearing Vidaris to pieces limb by limb. Only when she was nothing more than decaying flesh would he return to Lunaria. His little princess was strong, a lot stronger than she believed she was.

So, each time Vidaris found a new way to cause his body pain, he would let her. He would study her movements, her motivations. Learning what things he could say to cause her to react—and in turn pay the price of her wrath.

But if she was here torturing him, then it meant she wasn’t out in the living realm trying to hurt Lunaria.

Graylen focused on biding his time and on baiting Vidaris to focus on him. It worked… Until it didn’t.