Chapter 3
Three
Aureum Obsidian
Red skies darken into a deep maroon above me, glowing with an ever-present light that never quite reaches full darkness of night.
My eyes squeeze shut as my muscles tense, knowing the pain that’s about to tear through me.
I pull against my restraints, wincing as the shackles bite into the tattered flesh of my wrists.
The motion causes the freshly healed wounds across my chest and back to stretch until the pain in my wrists feels like a pinprick in comparison.
Dribbles of blood leak from various cuts, the chill of the liquid making me shiver.
As the sliced skin across my body stings, I still can’t muster any fear for myself or my situation. My single focus is on what the Goddess of Vengeance would do to Lunaria if she got her hands on her. If she could do this to me, an Aegis who serves no purpose for her…
Cold chills climb up my spine, causing my teeth to chatter.
We still don’t know why she wants Lu or what her interest is in her. That more than anything haunts my thoughts. But as long as I’m in the Vale with Vidaris, then that means she isn’t.
Hands slide onto my face, and I jerk away from the touch as my lids spring open.
Wide hazel eyes stare back at me—the eyes of the woman I love.
Relief crashes through my veins like a violent storm suddenly giving way, but the relief doesn’t last long. My heart clenches at the mirage in front of me, the edges of the Vale still visible around the illusion Vidaris has conjured.
“Graylen,” Lu says frantically, her hands reaching to unchain me. “Please, you have to wake up—she’ll be back any minute.” Lu loosens one of the chains around my ankle, her fingers trembling. “Did you hear me? We have to hurry.”
Her voice… It’s a lullaby to soothe my aching soul.
“Lunaria?” I send into her mind, a part of me yearning for this to be more than a trick created by the Goddess of Vengeance.
My jaw tightens as I watch her, and I shake my head.
It can’t be her; she couldn’t be here. If she were, then Vidaris would find her—would likely kill her, or use her for something Lunaria would want no part of.
But my pulse quickens regardless. At seeing her face, at hearing her voice. She’s the most stunning creature I’ve ever seen, with eyes like leaves changing during the fall, and a smile that brightens the darkness within me.
The edges of the Vale peeking through the image begin to fade, and all that’s left is her. My little princess, my brilliant warrior.
Lunaria leans in closer, so close I can see the flecks of gold in her hazel eyes.
She’s here to take me home, to set me free.
“How are we getting out?” I rasp as a soft click comes from her unlatching the first shackle.
Please be real, please be real.
Her eyes shoot up to me, wide and scared. “We’ll figure something out,” she stammers and turns her attention to getting the chains off of my right leg.
My heart sinks, and my stomach twists as if I’ve been kicked. Lu wouldn’t come here without a plan to get out. She’s smarter than that. My Lu wouldn’t make it to the Vale and then not know how to escape it. This Lu looks too frightened, too uncertain and weak. And Lunaria is anything but weak.
I bite my tongue until a metallic taste fills my mouth, forcing myself to remember this isn’t Lunaria. This is another one of Vidaris’s games, one I’ve started to slip into thinking is real more and more—if only for a moment.
I won’t let Vidaris win. Not today.
The fake Lunaria blinks, her long lashes brushing against the tops of her cheeks. “Graylen—”
“No,” I snarl. The word is like a blade punching into my gut. This isn’t real—she isn’t here. “This isn’t real.” I repeat the words aloud, hoping that if I say it enough, I won’t forget.
Her head snaps up, and tears line her eyes. She quickly gets to her feet, her hands sliding onto my bare chest. “How could you say that?” she demands. “I love you, please believe me.”
She reaches a hand up and caresses my face, her palm soft and gentle.
Vidaris is in my head—causing me to see images of Lunaria, ones that are nearly perfectly aligned with the real her.
Bile creeps up my throat at the thought of Vidaris being able to see into my mind, to know Lunaria in a way she shouldn’t.
It’s either that or she’s able to watch her somehow, and I don’t know which is worse.
The disgust building inside of me pauses as her fingers lightly play with strands of hair that go past my ears. I close my eyes, reveling in the feel of her touch—even if it isn’t her, I can still pretend that it is. If only for a moment.
“You’re not her.” My voice is a whisper, hate dripping into every word as my eyes slowly open. Lunaria’s expression warps from sad and desperate into a knowing smirk. “You’ll never be her.”
She sighs and drops her hand by her side, her body morphing back into the soul-sucking bitch that has me trapped here.
“Ah, ah,” she scolds. “Such an angry little Aegis.”
My nostrils flare, fury coursing through my veins once more.
This has been one of Vidaris’s favorite forms of torture over the past several days—or has it only been hours? There is no rising and setting of the sun, just an endless red sky and blood rain that comes more often than not.
The second I let an ounce of emotion slip through my carefully guarded face, she would pounce. But her morphing into Lunaria and pretending to be here to save me did the trick, if only for a second.
She decided that she didn’t just want to hurt me physically; she wanted to break me.
Well, good fucking luck with that.
The mirage of Lunaria in front of me screams as an arrow whizzes over my shoulder and lands in her chest. I grunt and struggle against chains of ice.
Another arrow glides over my shoulder, this one slicing into her neck.
Blood spills from where the arrow is lodged, and her screams turn into garbled cries as she falls to her knees.
Not real, not real.
A growl rips through me, rumbling low in my chest before working its way into my throat. My breath comes out heavier as her gaze meets mine, her eyes wide and panicked. I clench my jaw, trying to focus on any memory I can think of to ground me—to find something real.
But what is real?
I think of Lunaria in my arms as we lay together in the damp cave. It was the night I became hers—the night I gave myself to a woman who had owned my heart from the moment her eyes met mine.
Before Vidaris tried to take her. Tried to hurt her.
I don’t regret pushing Lu aside and ending up here, but she sure as fuck is going to be pissed as hell at me for doing it. Still, I would rather bear her wrath than see her get hurt. I couldn’t have stopped myself if I wanted to.
Lu is valuable—goddess-forged and wanted by Vidaris.
And if Vidaris wants her, then I won’t let Vidaris have her.
Our group can go on without me, but they need Lunaria.
Making the split decision to jump in front of Lu wasn’t just fueled by my love for her, but also by knowing how royally fucked we would be without her.
She may not know it yet, but she’s destined for something bigger than all of us. And I refuse to let Vidaris get to her.
My magic stirs in my veins, a fiery heat crawling beneath my skin. Just as it begins to answer my call, sparks dancing across my fingertips, the chains of ice splinter off. Tendrils of freezing water cover my body, abruptly cutting off my fire.
A hiss sounds from beside me, snapping my thoughts back to the present. Back to being Vidaris’s plaything.
“Pay attention, Aegis,” Vidaris snaps. She grins, a viper clothed in flesh. “This is the good part. It’s new… I think you’ll like it.”
My vision turns hazy, the desolate wasteland around me morphing into something else.
Suddenly, I’m running, the trees of Crea’s castle gardens surrounding me. The stars are out, shining brightly. Lu is running beside me, asking me if I would rather be a bird or a bear. Her perfect voice is breathless from the run, but she doesn’t slow.
“Anything with wings.” The answer slips out before I can stop it. She has always had a way of drawing words from me.
Lunaria’s soft lips part, her brows flicking up. Her guarded gaze reminded me of a caged bird, screaming to be let out.
“That’s what I always say!” she says with a small laugh, the sound like twinkling bells that tap against my chest.
She turns toward me, her face open and bright.
Suddenly, she sucks in a sharp breath, her guarded eyes sparking with fear as she looks down.
“Graylen?” she stammers.
A sticky, wet substance covers my hand, along with a metal object that my fingers are wrapped around. I quickly drop my eyes to what she’s staring at, and my heart stops.
“No,” I rasp.
Within my grasp is a knife, and it’s plunged into Lunaria’s throat.
She coughs, causing me to frantically look up at her, only to find tears streaming down her face.
“No!” The word tears from my throat, hoarse and pleading. “No, no, no—this isn’t how this happened.”
I take a step toward her, my body slow and heavy. Something feels wrong about this; it shouldn’t—
Lu drops to the ground, too fast for me to catch. I drop to my knees, my heart hammering in my chest as her eyes slide slowly over to me.
“Why?” she chokes out. “You said you would always protect me.”
Pain crashes into me like a wave as her broken body shivers against my chest. I pull her in closer, rocking our bodies back and forth against the cold ground. Mud seeps through my pants and onto my knees, but I hardly feel it.
All I can feel is how cold Lunaria is in my arms.
“Lu, please,” I beg. “Please.”
This isn’t real, this isn’t real, I chant in my mind, over and over again, squeezing my eyes shut.
Darkness pulls me under, and a distant blood-curdling laugh beckons me toward it.
“She really did a number on you.” A deep, feminine voice jolts me awake like a bucket of ice water being poured on me.
I blink, taking in the red sky above me. Chains of ice are wrapped around my wrists, ankles, waist, and neck.
Lunaria and I were in the gardens together, training and running, and then her cold, lifeless body within my arms… But that isn’t right—that isn’t how it happened. Though I can’t seem to place how it did happen.
The memory of training in the garden with Lu is different. Changed.
“No,” I growl and snap my eyes to Vidaris. “I know Lunaria is still alive. What did you do?”
The memory is gone—whatever happened the rest of that night has just…vanished. Replaced with a horrible lie of me stabbing Lu.
“You altered my memory,” I continue, fire dancing in my veins. Even as the words come out, I can feel my memory of that night fading altogether—transforming into something new.
Vidaris cocks her head to the side and glides in a circle around me. Shadows billow off of her, whispering jumbled words I can’t understand.
She leans in, her face a breath away from mine, as she whispers, “In time, you’ll learn to hate the woman you’ve come to love.”
My nostrils flare. I could never hate Lunaria—no matter what tricks Vidaris tries to play.
“You didn’t get what you wanted, did you?” I huff a laugh, finding joy in the way her eyes narrow. “Instead of getting Lunaria, you got me. So torture me—fuck with my memories and do your worst. But you’re still here. With me and not her.”
A hungry smile slips across her face as she says, “You think I didn’t have a backup plan? And then another backup plan in case that one fell through? Along with hundreds of others in case those failed?
“I’ve been around a long time, Aegis. You might not have been my goal, but I can use you all the same. It doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun in the meantime, though.”
I would damn well like to see her try.