Chapter 65 #3
Sal’vathar spread his arms, his web trailing like silk. “Commit treason? I never swore myself to you. I merely waited for the right moment to strike.”
His fingers flicked.
The chains lashed around Rune’s neck, divine fire searing his flesh like brands. He didn’t cry out, but his body convulsed, smoke spilling from his lips.
“Stop it!” Alora cried, clawing at the dirt for him, but she had not strength to move.
The chains slipped away from his neck and he dropped, gasping. Rune barely took a breath before they jerked again. The stone beneath splintered as he was hoisted into the air, strung up before the glowing Gate.
“Oh, he makes such a pretty puppet,” Morvenna sighed dreamily. “A pity.”
Calla rose with a hiss, her eyes flaring red. “My Lady—”
“Be still,” Morvenna sneered. Compulsion struck like a hammer. Calla froze mid-step. “And be silent. I have allowed your loyalties to deviate for far too long.”
“Hold,” Ira commanded next when Hadeon lurched to his feet.
So long as they belonged to their court, their will was tied to their Dominion. They had no choice, even as Rune saw their faces tense and body shake with the urge to move.
“Ah, we are all here,” Sal’vathar announced.
Rune clenched his teeth as two more entered the chamber.
Lady Nexia swam through the air, her gaze shifting around nervously. Segrith moved like a silent phantom in her black robes, white hair moving on windless air.
“So…” Rune growled. “All of you have decided to betray me.”
He had never trusted the Dominions. Loyalty had always bowed to power. They scented weakness quicker than blood. But he had underestimated the precision of their strike—and their unity.
Lady Segrith canted her head, listening. “When a structure is doomed to fall, one must plan precisely where to stand.”
Even blind, she looked up to the dark crevice where Deimos had been primed to attack.
“Down.”
Deimos dropped, crashing in a heap at her feet, dust clouding. He leaped up with a hiss, claws flashing.
Segrith placed her hand on his face, covering his eyes. “Be still, clever one.”
Deimos froze in place, thin tail twitching.
“Here.” Morvenna handed Segrith another cord necklace with a Hellstone. She had already placed one on Calla and Hadeon, both kneeling motionless on the ground.
“No need. This one is too senseless to disobey me,” Segrith said, holding Deimos’s gaze.
They stared at one another for a beat longer, then she drifted past him.
“T-this is wrong,” Nexia stammered. “It goes against our creed.”
“I should have known you would tuck tail the moment you were asked to stand against the current,” Morvenna snapped. “Go sit with your treasures if you lack the stomach to take what is ours.”
“And what is that, exactly?” Alora said, earning a slap.
The cavern shook with Rune’s rage.
“Temper, darling,” Ira chuckled, giving Morvenna a pat on her ass.
Nexia’s eyes flickered from them then to Rune frantically, paling further. “I want no part of this!” The scales of her tail flashed in the low light as she fled out of the chamber doors.
The Dominions laughed.
“Coward!” Morvenna cackled, the sound of her shrill laugh carrying into the dark.
Ira’s large horns cast shadows on the wall, complexion deep red beneath the glow of the Gate as he looked up at Rune. “I have swung my hammer for you for many centuries, but your rule has deteriorated to sentiment.” He beat a fist over his chest. “My court follows only strength.”
“And mine tires of restraint,” Balgor added, licking his maw. “We will kneel to a sovereign who relishes in consumption.”
Rune laughed, the sound bordering on a growl as he looked at Sal’vathar. “Ah yes, so Envy takes the crown. And you believe yourself capable of dethroning me?”
“Oh,” Sal’vathar’s oily black eyes turned to the doors again. “I do. And you will submit to me, willingly.”
From the gloom, spider demons dragged two figures into the torchlight.
Theia.
And a boy.
Small and bound, blood staining his tunic, clutching something desperately to his chest.
The prince.
Alora went still, eyes wide. “Rihan…”
Sal’vathar rested his hands on their shoulders, claws teasing the veins in their necks.
Theia trembled, shutting her eyes.
“A clever thing, your wards,” he said to Alora. “I could never have entered the mortal compound…if you had not tied them to a child’s hand.” His voice shifted, sounding exactly like hers as he said, “How easily I persuaded my sweet brother to open the door.”
Rihan lowered his head, sobbing quietly.
“Your commander and meager unit of guards made a valiant stand,” Sal’vathar continued in his normal voice. “Though short-lived. The Vareth was more entertaining. I do enjoy creatures that resist before they break.”
Alora lunged, fury blazing in her red eyes. But webs snapped around her, binding her in layers of silver silk. She screamed as the strands cut into her skin.
“Sal’vathar!” Rune roared, making all go still. He seethed, his voice searing the dark. “Once I’m free, I will tear you limb from limb. And whatever remains, will be cast into the Abyss.”
Karag D?r trembled beneath Rune’s promise. The Netherworld Gate droned, its glyphs blazing as the void within churned, casting jagged red shadows across the walls.
With the flick of Sal’vathar’s fingers, webs snapped around Rune’s mouth then Alora’s. They winced, feeling their skin sting as if they kissed glass.
“Do you see the flaw now?” Sal’vathar’s legs clicked against stone as he stirred closer to Rune, taking in his true form with a mocking sneer.
“You are no god. You are no king. You kneel to her as the shadows do.” His eyes drifted to Alora with a smirk.
“It is her blood that commands the dark. The Seven Courts bow to it. And once I devour that power myself, both Mortal and Netherworld shall bow to me, too. All it took was meticulous planning.”
Understanding struck Rune like another blow.
Calveron.
Eldrik.
The Hellstones.
Sal’vathar had been behind all of it.
Alora’s eyes locked onto Rune’s, desperate, wild.
Ira struck her behind the neck and caught her as she fell unconscious.
“Thank you for temporarily sealing the Rift,” Sal’vathar said quietly, almost fondly, as he touched Alora’s hair. “When she is dead, I will return for you.”
Then they vanished into shadow, taking her with them.
Rune thrashed against the chains, burning with their divine containment, fighting even as the smoke hissed from his scorched skin. Roaring with rage through the web bindings.
He would butcher them all!
The Dominions vanished into the dark, and their presence vanished from the mountain.
Rune hung his head, strung up like a pig for slaughter.
How did it come to this? No one was to blame but his own oversight. He should have killed Sal’vathar a long time ago.
Gravel shifted and he looked up as Deimos rose to his feet. Rune stiffened. How could he still move?
Understanding settled between them.
Segrith.
The seer who had brought Deimos to him, declaring he be put down since he was too violent to be of any use to her. Deimos who Rune took in and proved otherwise … releasing him from her Dominion command.
She had chosen a side after all.
At his nod, Deimos snatched the Hellstone necklaces from Calla and Hadeon. Both inhaled a deep breath and quickly lurched to their feet.
“Forgive me, sire,” Calla said, bowing her head. “I should have suspected.”
“My will was not strong enough to resist my lord’s command,” Hadeon added gravely. “I will slit my neck now rather than fail you again.”
I have not released you from your service, Rune boomed through their mental connection.
All three lowered to one knee.
Your queen needs you. Spread word to her allies and find her. But do not draw near, lest you fall to their control again. To Deimos, he said, You are the only one they will not expect. Make it count.
They bowed their heads and vanished in smoke.
Once Rune was alone, he let the fear surface. There was little chance they would be enough to overpower Sal’vathar in time to stop him.
Time stretched into something cruel and formless, each heartbeat a slow tolling bell, each second an eternity as he waited in the dark.
The chains dug deeper with every breath Rune dared to take, burning where they pierced him, leeching his strength drop by drop.
When twilight arrived, the sky darkening with storm clouds. Thunder rolled and rain poured down through the opening in the ceiling.
He could not tell how long he had been there. Only that the hollow in his chest kept widening, despair climbing where wrath once lived.
Fury was always his first response when the world dared defy him, but it had rendered him beyond the borders of defeat that he had tasted many times before.
Rune’s breath shook when he caught the distant scent of Alora’s blood.
Desperation strangled his lungs, his gasping screams of rage echoing in the chamber. He couldn’t feel her, but he knew she was afraid.
Because so was he.
Somewhere she was fighting for her life as his court fell into disarray.
But all of the anger fell out of him, knowing he had no more recourse. No more strength. No anger to draw on.
He could not save her.
Not alone.
For the first time in eons, Rune looked up at the sky not in wrath or challenge, but in plea.
Father…
The word echoed in his chest, quiet and unguarded.
Please, do not forsake me a second time. His eyes shut against a flash of lightning. I yield what remains of me. My pride. My name. My immortality. If any mercy yet lives for me, let it be hers. And I will serve Your will once more.
The silence was not empty.
It judged.
Rune held his breath as he waited for an answer.
Thunder cracked the sky.
A blast of lightning struck the ground within the chamber, tossing debris and smoke. His chains snapped and Rune dropped to the ground, landing unsteadily on his feet.
He tore the webs from his mouth, shuddering and gasping, warring with shock. Power surged through his veins, raw and forceful, burning like it never had before.
Rune inhaled sharply, recognizing that familiar Seraph strength. The shadows answered at his will, armor fitting over his body in the same divine metal of the Havens.
Then he turned to the burning glow where the lightning had struck.
When the smoke cleared, within the crater gleamed a great sword forged with an orange blade. The same blade that had defeated him once before.
Sunstone.