Chapter 22
IN BED WITH THE ENEMY
Cold wind whistled all around as I huddled in the nest that crowned the mountaintop. Scores of beasts filled the night sky, screeching at the moon, each call a nightmare of sound and wrath.
I have to get out of here. I crept to the side and peered down the jagged elevation, hoping to discover a way down miles of sharp obsidian rock.
A searing stream of fire came whirling down.
I wrenched back, barely avoiding incineration. The monstra responsible shrieked at me, revealing rows of molten-veined fangs.
Okay. Noted. As long as I remained in the nest, forgoing any escape attempt, the monstra would keep their fire to themselves. Frustration swelled, but I swallowed it. I was well and truly trapped.
I’d have to find another way out of this. I hunkered down near the warmth of the still-burning hay, the faint orange light in sharp contrast to the dark, smoky sky. Minutes—hours?—passed.
Hoping to find a weakness or vulnerability, I watched the monsters. What I saw: power, unity, defenses.
My defeat.
I sniffled and hated myself for it.
When the moon sank, their numbers dwindled until only twenty were flying circles overhead.
The ache in my shoulders worsened, the wounds seeping, draining more and more of what little of my strength remained.
Oh, what I wouldn’t give for serpens-rosa.
Without it, my muscles would give out as soon as I applied pressure.
Focus on the positives. I had my backpack and the stones, though they no longer glowed. Plus, I…
Had no other positives, I realized.
Hot tears welled, the horror of it all finally overwhelming me. First, I lost Jasher. Then Ahav?
What happened to him? To his soldiers? Did they blame me for the death toll? If they didn’t, they should. I blamed myself. Despite my vision, despite our precautions, the monstra had executed a flawless ambush I’d encouraged.
Eventually, the last of my adrenaline fizzled, and my heavy eyelids sank. Abused muscles grew lax, my head lulling, a dark sea sweeping me away…
Dreams came as they always did: sporadic flashes. The same visions I’d seen before, with differences.
Flash. Jasher stands behind Ian, who laughs and lifts the glowing emerald.
The image blinks in and out. Only a split second of darkness, but when it reappears, Ian is scowling. Rather than plunging a blade into my belly, he issues a command.
“Jump.”
And I obey.
Falling…
Impact—I’m standing amid a great battle. King Morris strides across a sea of dead bodies, his golden armor streaked with blood and soot. Sweat soaks his hair. He climbs a hill, monstra following him.
Another split second of darkness. Suddenly, Morris is Ahav, the helmet gone. Then he’s Morris again, the helmet in place. The two switch again and again, as if history is repeating itself.
At the top, he stops and spreads his arms, daring the monstra to act. They do. They douse him with fire.
I scream and suddenly, I’m clinging to an unscarred Elowen, sobbing into the hollow of her neck as she strokes my hair and coos assurances. “It’s all right. You’ll be all right. We will overcome.”
Blink. She’s scarred. And she’s dying.
A blast of light tears me from her embrace. I fight it.
Andrea hovers in the sky, wearing golden armor and flapping water wings.
Monstra surround her, but she isn’t afraid.
Isn’t even fazed when they fixate on her.
The veil in front of her face thins enough for me to see her grin with delight.
She extends her arm, a fiery sword materializing in her grip.
Mesmerized, I reach for it… Darkness. Light. I’m strapped down, struggling to gain freedom from a gurney, in a concrete room. An alarm blasts a split second before a water bomb explodes a wall and a woman walks through. She is horrific in her menace as she approaches me.
I grab hold of that last vision with all my mental might, clinging to it. Concentrating on the dust, pulling the vision closer. Closer still. Must learn more.
Moriah! Wake up!
The frantic call breaks through the haze. My own voice, shouting from the past. The future. Present?
I jolted awake with a gasp. The vision washed out, the world taking shape around me. I lay panting on hay, sweat coating my skin. Bright morning sunlight glared at me as I scanned the nest—foes.
The shadow siren and her companion watched me from the edge.
I clambered upright, ready to defend, but they were already gone.
Gradually, my heart rate plummeted, and the panic faded. It was then—that moment. I felt Elowen’s absence in the core of my being. What a comfort she’d been.
Shadows passed over me, and I looked up. Two monstra circled the nest, coming closer with each loop. My pulse leaped. Jasher, still only half shifted. The other flew beside him, fully transformed and double the size.
Ian, I’d put money on it.
I scrambled to my full height, every action a new lesson in agony. Right on time. The pair landed, one after the other. Jasher wore a tunic and leathers. The other shrank, shifting into his human form.
Oh, yes. Ian. Smirking. And naked. While tattoos covered Jasher, Ian possessed only one: a fist-size emerald, just over his heart.
The Guardian caught a tunic and a pair of pants dropped from the sky by a monstra flying by. He dressed slowly, deliberately, as if my fate wasn’t balanced at the tip of a blade.
“Welcome to Mount Emerald,” he said at last, fastening the last button. “My temporary home since fleeing the palace to avoid killing you in the Ring of Truth.” He winked. “You can thank your precious Tinman for that. He told me of Elowen’s warning.”
His pleasant tone scraped my nerve endings raw. My hands curled into fists, nails biting skin. I moved my attention to Jasher, standing only a few paces away. Tension roiled off him.
I licked dry, cracked lips. “You warned me our tables would turn.”
“You should have listened.” A note of burning fury hid within his cold, hard tone.
Hope sparked. Did I sense regret, too? A chance to win him over? I searched his face, but it was like reading a book written in a language I’d only just learned. Regret, yes, coupled with something I couldn’t yet name. But beneath it all, resolve. Icy, final—terrifying.
No matter his feelings for me, he would do whatever Ian commanded.
Sorrow carved a path through my bones. Though he’d ditched me, a little piece of my heart had clung to the idea of reconciliation. Now, that idea went up in flames.
Inhale. Exhale. I wasn’t out for the count. And I wasn’t alone. Just then, I felt as if the ghost of dream Elowen materialized beside me. She clasped my hand. We will overcome.
Resolute, I shifted my focus to Ian. “Perhaps you’d be so kind as to explain why I’m here.”
“It would be my pleasure,” he said, all indulgence and kindness. He smiled. “I’m going to kill you, Princess Moriah. Just as I will kill Ahav and Sandrine.”
My breath caught, my gaze darting to Jasher, who peered beyond me, stone-faced. “At least tell me why,” I said, stalling. Thinking, planning. Realizing. My best option? When an opportunity presented itself, I would pretend to have a vision that ensured he needed me.
“Even though I know you seek only to delay the inevitable, I find I’m eager to share with someone.
” Ian adjusted the cuff of his shirt. “I was five years old when my father worked in the catacombs. He took me with him some days, with the promise I would remain by his side. But he got busy, and I grew bored. I always wandered the twisting halls.”
I knew it! “You found Andrea.”
“Close, but no. I fell into a cavern… and found Morris. His bones, at least. They draped an altar, where Andrea once laid. He’d attempted to shield her from the cave-in. All that remained of her were shards of monstra shells.”
Click. A puzzle piece locked in place. The mysterious shells Ahav had written of. The ones Morris used to preserve Andrea. “That’s how you made more monstra.”
He arched a brow as Jasher often did. “Shall I continue or let you fill in the blanks?”
I pressed my lips into a thin line.
He waited a moment longer, just to be contrary.
“Unfortunately, the bones disintegrated when I touched them, but within minutes, the Ring of Truth sprang forth. Centuries spent in contact with the Ember had affected him, I suppose. It was then that She Is Near appeared to me. She helped me see. Told me what to do. Gave me a purpose.” His voice sharpened into a blade, his gaze leveled on me.
“The Ori’Emets must be wiped out. Payment for a past we can never escape. ”
“Sin,” I said with a shudder. The shadow siren.
“My Sin.” He snapped his fingers at Jasher, who unhooked a pair of cuffs from a loop on the waist of his leathers.
“The compulsion cuffs.” Panic detonated, flinging shrapnel across my nerve endings. I shoved my arms behind my back, as if that would stop the inevitable punishment.
Once, I’d put Jasher in chains. Told us both it was necessary. That I was doing what must be done. I remembered his rage. Now our roles were reversed, exactly as he’d promised, and oh, payback sucked.
Jasher crossed the distance in three strides. The metal glinted in his grip. He stopped when only a single breath separated us. Close enough that I felt the heat of his body, smelled the smoke clinging to his skin.
I regarded him coolly, daring him to look at me while he hobbled me for the man intending to murder me. Wishing Elowen wasn’t just a figment of my imagination, but an actual flesh and blood woman, here to fight our way free.
Jasher did not accept the challenge. Did not back down.
His touch landed, not harsh as I expected but as gentle as rain, burning hotter than a summer sun, and devastating what was left of my trust. With great care, he closed his fingers around my wrists, pressing his thumbs into my pulse, as if memorizing the rhythm of my life before we said goodbye forevermore.
My shattered heart ached. Muscles trembled, tendons screamed. Water surged under my skin, desperate to answer my sudden call for help, only to slip away like mist.
“It’s not too late.” My voice cracked. “We can fight him. You and me. Together.” I swallowed hard, forcing the words out. “He meant what he said. He’ll kill me if I wear these shackles. I’ve seen it.”
The future burned behind my eyes even now—emerald light, the sickening drop of falling.
Jasher’s mouth curved into the softest, saddest smile I’d ever seen, and it broke something vital inside me. “What I want,” he said quietly, as the metal snapped closed around my wrists, “I cannot have.”
The cuffs locked, cold biting deep, sinking past skin and bone and straight into my will. “Then we’re both doomed,” I whispered.