Chapter 1 #2
Kol tsked. “Now, now. No family squabbles in my hall.” His hand tightened around Ksee as he turned his gaze back to Andrian, that same strange look flashing again over his burning red-gold eyes. “Apologize to my High Priestess.”
Andrian only glared, hate scorching his lungs and settling low in his chest.
Kol cocked his head. “No? Shame. Perhaps it’s time for some parenting.”
He lifted a finger. Without warning, without prelude, Andrian’s soul shredded.
It was like being pulled apart from the inside out, like someone had dipped a hot coal-tipped forge into his chest.
Down, deeper. Into that secret, dark place he kept away from everyone. That place where his shadows had first spilled from, where they so often curled and rested, like sleeping snakes waiting to writhe.
Now they were on fire. Andrian’s bellow of agony echoed off the great hall’s stone walls.
The pain ceased as quickly as it began.
Andrian collapsed back into his chair, body shaking and spasming against the aftershocks of the pain. He gripped the armrests, fingernails cracking against the wood.
“You see, young reykr,” Kol droned, “those shadows you wield? All that power you hold deep inside you? It was mine first. I might no longer be able to control them myself, but I am as infinite and eternal as the sun. And my strength will always burn.”
Andrian’s chest heaved with labored breaths, teeth still gritted. He tasted copper and fought the urge to gag, to spit his blood on the floor.
After what felt like an eternity, he lifted his head. Dark hair fell across his brow, shading the vision of his maker and the sneering white-clad priestess beside him.
His voice was quiet when he found it. “What do you want from me?”
Kol snorted. “Well, now that’s a question. With your mind lost to me, what else is there for me to crave from you?” The red-gold glinted, like twin burning suns. “Answer me, Andrian. What would a sun god crave that he does not already have?”
Andrian’s blood chilled, freezing in his pain-wracked veins.
“You let her escape. You promised she could go free if I willingly stayed with you.”
“Promised? I don’t think I swore any oaths.” Kol sat back, pushing Ksee away from him. She stumbled a step but hurriedly pulled herself together, smoothing out her crisp robes. “I said she could go if you stayed. I never said I would let her stay gone forever.”
“You’re a liar—”
“Yes, I am. I am no oath breaker, but I fully admit to being a liar and a cheat. They are the only people who win in this world, after all.”
Andrian fell silent, rage and terror and pain still wracking through him in waves. Blood dripped to the marble floors from where his fingers had bit too deep into his palms. In his soul, his tattered and torn shadows fluttered desperately.
He’d stayed for one reason. His presence here served one purpose. Was he a failure at even that?
The flames in Kol’s eyes softened. He rose from his seat, taking the few steps down the landing. He gripped Andrian’s chin, tilting up his head.
“I know you want her, too. I’ve been in your thoughts; every piece of you cries out for her.
Your bond with her is silent, and you don’t know why.
You’ve never been severed from her, not since the day you met.
” Kol leaned forward. “Yet you know where she went. Where it was that she fled. You are doing a very good job at hiding it from me, which tells me that you will kill yourself to keep me from knowing it. But I will make an oath to you, my son.”
Andrian winced, trying to pull himself from the fallen god’s grasp. Kol’s fingers tightened. The red of his eyes flickered again.
“I vow that if you tell me where to find her, I will not harm her. You will be able to see her and touch her again. Let me bring her back to us so she can return what she stole, and we can move past this.” Kol blinked. “That is my oath. And as I said: I am no oath breaker.”
Andrian stilled. Not at the offered oath—he was no fool. Despite Kol’s claim, he would never accept a bargain with the demon god.
But the other thing he’d said…
“Is that why you want her? Because you think she stole something from you?”
Kol’s eyes sparked like embers. “I don’t just think. I know.”
Andrian carefully chose his next words. “What did she steal?”
Kol snarled, finally releasing him. He paced in front of Andrian, like a predator caught in a cage. “I don’t know, foolish boy. I don’t know what exactly it was that she took, but I am…missing something. I have been missing it for quite some time.”
That spark appeared again in his eyes, and Andrian was finally able to place it.
Madness.
Shadows spilled from Kol, the temperature of the room rising as they writhed.
“That treacherous bitch of a goddess took something, long ago. I haven’t felt a whisper of it since, but when your little queen was here—I thought I had imagined it at first. But the more I’ve dwelled, the more I’ve realized.
Whatever I am missing was given to your Mariah.
” Kol spat her name as if it tasted foul on his tongue.
“I should’ve known; Zadione gave her everything else.
Why not give her the stolen piece of me? ”
Kol’s rage grew as he spoke, sparks of sunfire now dancing amidst the curling tendrils of his shadows. Andrian’s ravaged shadows, along with the ice in his heart, balked at the rage of the god.
Dread coiled through Andrian, cold and hollow. What if Zadione really had stolen from Kol, long ago, and hidden that piece where she’d hidden all the rest of her secrets: with Mariah?
If it were true, then Kol’s return was so much worse than just an ousted god seeking to return to the world. Kol’s vengeance was personal, and it was now centered around one person.
A person Andrian would gladly spend an eternity suffering all the torments of the world for. Whatever it took.
He’d been convinced before, but this solidified everything for him.
Kol could never be allowed near Mariah again.
The doors at the back of the great hall burst open. Kol’s gaze shot over Andrian’s head. He straightened his spine, shadows slinking back beneath his skin as he fixed the lapels of his fitted black jacket.
“Speak, herald.”
“A new arrival, Your Holiness.” The herald’s voice was youthful, shaky. Kol grinned, looking again at Andrian.
Andrian was really starting to dread that look.
“Lord Gabriel Laurent has arrived from Antoris, as commanded. He awaits an audience with Your Holiness.”