Chapter 59
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
Rinla Ramadiel, master of affliction. Of remedy and blight, unmatched power and might.
—Lock Scroll, the Arx.
The powers writhing beneath my skin stood at attention as I made my decision, throwing both hands to the side and splitting my focus.
Flesh sizzled as the pendant on my neck burned through my skin and cotton undershirt.
Power tore through my palms. Golden, Transcindiel light spun wildly through my right hand as it engulfed the herd of ashen surrounding Vulcan, while pure darkness ripped through my right, spearing straight for Dark King Daimos.
Clouds formed in my vision as my mind became fuzzy and light.
My powers flowed through me like a river bursting through a dam.
Or was I their vessel? A ship carrying two gods.
I swayed as the powers drained me. Panic crouched, ready to pounce, as hazy visions of Odessa crept into my mind. Focus. Rein them in.
Lyvia!
Someone called to me in my mind. Tiberius. Or was that Olienna? Had she come to save us?
“Lyvia!” a voice growled from behind as something large barreled into me.
I fell. And then a crack. Pain.
Something wet dripped down the side of my head, and a hand slid into mine, a spark of power shooting into me as I lay on the freezing ground.
“GET UP!” Astraeus bellowed as he hauled me to my feet.
I staggered against him, blinking against the icy rain. Blood dripped from the side of his head into his hair, wet and muddy from battle. His shoulders sagged. His features were dark from exhaustion.
His arm gripped mine, eyes scanning the crimson valley in which we stood. Piles of bleeding bodies, elven and human bodies, lay strewn on the incline of the hill. Vulcan lay unmoving among them.
My eyes drifted to Nerissa’s tall frame that lay at the top, to her chest that slowly rose and fell. To the center of the valley, where three elves began to stir.
“Lyvia—” Astraeus began as clanks of armor surged from the south. The pirate lord whipped toward a small group of approaching Nivis soldiers, and I pulled out of his hold, staggering down the hill to where Bayne and Isla lay.
They were moving. They were alive, but—
A gasp escaped my lips as I neared, the evidence of what Dark King Daimos had done displayed on their bodies. I crashed to my knees as I reached Bayne, unsure where to place my hands.
“Bayne,” I croaked, warm tears mixing with the freezing rain, wetting my face.
A pool of blood surrounded him. A matching pair of black eyes shadowed the brilliant Ravindra green, bordering a broken nose. What had the dark king done?
His left ankle jutted out to the side at an unnatural angle, and his wrists… Broken and twisted. His skin was pebbled in a dark red rash… And as my eyes followed his arms…
“No,” I moaned, a vice tightening around my chest.
Those scars… Those long, deep slices down the center of his forearms. The ones he’d inflicted on himself while here on Kayj over a year ago when he tried to save Lida. Leaching himself…
Blood pooled.
“No,” I said again, shaking my head. “How—” I choked.
Bayne’s brilliant eyes found mine, and his face crumpled.
Doubt and concern replaced the pain rippling across his features.
He opened his mouth to speak, but he choked, blood spurting from his lips.
His eyes shot to my neck, to the thick scar always on display, and a sinister chuckle rasped from behind me.
My stomach curdled as it all came together.
I turned as Dark King Daimos stepped toward me. A grin formed on his bloodied lip, and the Ramadiel Bone on his palm glowed a deep, deadly blue. It looked different from when I’d last seen it, twisted and rotten, somehow.
“Bayne the Unbroken,” Dark King Daimos mused. “How easily he breaks.”
Another spasm of power erupted from the dark king’s hands, and Bayne’s body convulsed as a scream ripped through his lungs. I threw my body over his as it shook against the power.
My mind spun as the events of the past year fell into place.
The Lady of Tomorrow. Her injuries. Her ailments.
As if every injury, every illness, every bit of damage her body had ever endured over her lifetime had suddenly slammed back into her.
The shock it would cause to a body, to endure it all again, all at once. No one would survive that.
My heart cracked.
I slid my gaze to where Isla lay. Her amber eyes fixed on mine, a single tear sliding down her beautiful, bronze skin. Black, hand-shaped bruises formed on her neck and her swollen, puffy lips. Dark, red lines began to form along her abdomen, dripping into small pools of blood.
“What have you done?” I breathed, my gaze slicing to the dark king’s glowing eyes. The clang of Astraeus’s blades in the distance was lost against the pounding of my heart.
“You’ve twisted it…” I choked as a sob formed in the back of my throat. “Twisted it into something…” I shook my head.
“I’ve perfected it,” the dark king said, a note of triumph in his voice as he held his hands to either side, the Ramadiel Bone pulsing on his palm.
I swallowed the bile rising to my throat.
“Weaponized it.” He grinned at me, the yellow of his eyes somehow glowing brighter.
“You sent it to Lotrennia… Infected people? How?” I asked, defeat hovering nearby.
“Poisoned is the correct term, Daughter of Darkness,” Daimos purred. “The Lotrennians love their traditions. Though my spies were only able to poison one shipment of nebulis…”
My mind spun, horror coiling as I remembered the deaths at the Awakening… He’d poisoned the powder at the celebration…
“They had more success lacing the vats of sparkling wine that came in from the east. And though he was often reckless, Cyril did have his uses.”
Wine.
The Lady of Tomorrow had a bottle of sparkling wine with her. Had no one checked it for poison? I had barely noticed it… And Cyril. Oh gods, that was a grape he’d examined in his tower. A grape and the powder…
“Ah,” the dark king continued, a note of surprise in his voice as his attention shifted. “I see you’ve at last learned of my deceit.” His unnatural eyes slid to the pile of bodies on the hill.
I followed his gaze to where Aeriden caught the blade of a Nivis soldier positioned at Astraeus’s back. My chest caved. No. I wouldn’t let him take Aeriden.
“The Transcindiel does wonders, but it’s not perfect. You never looked very close at the head in the ice trunk.” A pale tongue slipped over his lips as if savoring the memories from the Crystal Castle.
“Their numbers are dwindling, Your Grace,” a female voice crooned from across the valley.
I knew that voice. My head snapped to the left, and my gut sank as it landed on Selvina, memories from the Crystal Castle surging forward.
The dark king’s niece strode across the field of ash, my ash, in a war gown of deep blue, reinforced with leather armor, a nyxteria in full bloom on her breastplate.
Tendrils of her white-blonde hair blew loose from the elaborate twist of braids and sapphires.
As she approached, the rain fizzled into soft, white flecks of snow.
A female slave strode behind her, her thick iron collar stark against her pale skin.
The Tauruk followed closely behind, his horns gleaming white and his crimson robes trailing behind him.
Flashes of my father’s time here…of the torture inflicted on him by the Tauruk fueled a white-hot rage gathering within me.
A torrent of bloody images flooded my memories, my emotions spinning in my chest, and I urged the darkness and light to rise to the surface. Selvina locked her gaze on mine as she approached from a distance.
“Your return is timely, Queen of Darkness,” she called, her gaze bearing into me.
I blinked. Where had I heard those words before?
“Indeed,” Dark King Daimos drawled, taking a step toward me. Those glowing yellow eyes slid to my hands and back to my face, no doubt studying the blazing rim of orange that surrounded my pupils.
I reached for my bond with Tiberius, willing all the power left in that deep chasm to cast to him. To call him here, but the chasm was quiet.
Here, I urged into the darkness, into that space I found the threads. I’m here. Help us.
“Welcome, Father Killer. Tynan’s Accepted…
Though I’m not sure the gods will appreciate what you’ve stolen.
You’ve committed treason by harnessing their power.
Just like the Bellators. All of you,” he said, glancing nonchalantly at Bayne and Nerissa.
“How they will reward me when I present you to them.” Daimos smiled as he held his hand with the Ramadiel Bone to me.
The dark king sent a thin tendril of dark blue power, like a living stream of water, snaking through the air to me.
An overwhelming sense of panic took root, and I threw my hands up, rallying what little strength I had left to surround myself in a shield of darkness when a blast of violet light and wind slammed through the valley.
Black ash spun through the air like a cyclone of darkness, and I sensed Olienna’s presence before the dark king bellowed her name.