CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
EMMERY
Emmery’s hands trembled as she dressed in her leathers and strapped on her daggers, but they shook uncontrollably as she scrawled the letter to Dez to explain why she was leaving, why he couldn’t come after her, how sorry she was to put him through this after she promised herself to him and made plans for a future they would never have.
And that she loved him. Gods, that she loved him endlessly, and she was sorry it took her so long to realize it. That she’d wasted all that time they could’ve had, and she never told him.
As she wrote, her own words lent her strength to pour her heart onto that page.
I would fight. I would sacrifice for my home, my family, everyone I love, and give until I had nothing left.
Scrape my soul raw if that was the cost. If I had something to fight for, people who loved me, there would be nothing in this world that could stop me. There’s nothing I wouldn’t give.
Now, she would hold herself accountable. Her friends wouldn’t die because of her. And she needed Dez to stay far away from all this. They all did. So she slung her green cloak around her shoulders and snuck out the door before Aera woke.
Quill guided her as she rode to Draskyn Hold. She stroked that flickering white spark at her wrist and formed her plan. Whether it was right or wrong, she would not falter.
When she arrived at the great crumbling stone fortress sunken into the marshy ground, there was no turning back.
With a spyglass, she first scoped out the castle’s windows, all blocked except one in an enormous room littered with creatures.
And while she could blast the walls, she wasn’t sure where Briar, Callias, and Vesper resided, or if they would be injured. She didn’t risk it.
After her long ride, midnight claimed the land, and the starless night sky bared down on her. Thellonius had requested her presence before dusk the next day, and, frankly, it was mighty generous of her to arrive early.
Emmery eyed the sad portcullis hanging uselessly on frail chains. With a blow of her khaos flame, she flung it aside, but used a tad too much force, and it toppled over the side of the bridge and crashed into the water below.
Her shoulders hunched. “Oops,” she murmured. Evidently the extra dose of power from Dez had taken hold.
On the other side of the gate, half a dozen creatures, the same as those in the Sacred Lands, stood, illuminated by firelight, tarnished swords held in their warped hands.
Even from across the small courtyard, she could scent their decay.
One of the creature’s twisted limbs jerked, like they didn’t belong to the body they were attached to.
There was nothing natural about them, no evidence they’d once been Kenna or human.
In the torchlight, she caught a glimpse of the dark wood and the unmistakable thorns, too much like Dez’s. Identical, really.
The creatures blocked a doorway. The main entrance she presumed.
Emmery’s heart slowed as she approached, and they raised their heads, their eyeless sockets locked on her. In the distance, a creature bellowed a high-pitched wail.
She sighed. Well, that was one way to be greeted. Before she could speak, the first creature barreled toward her. If this was how they’d play, so be it.
Her vestige pulsed with the most power she’d ever known. Whatever bond Dez had created ignited a power inside her that even relighting the khaos flame couldn’t match.
All she had to do was twirl her little finger and a spiral of fire snaked out to wrap around the creature.
It struggled against the heat, the flame, and its vines crackled until it ignited.
With an inhuman shriek, it thrashed uselessly against her magic.
The stench of scorched rot clouded the air as it collapsed in a heap of charred wood and skin.
The other creatures spurred into action and bolted toward her.
Emmery’s magic ripped through her and knocked them back. Their vines caught fire and smoked as their flesh melted. The air sizzled, rife with the scent of death, as their bodies struck the ground.
A breeze laced with ash lifted her silver locks as she kicked a sword aside and threw open the entrance doors.
An empty foyer of uneven brick and crumbling walls lay ahead.
The heels of her boots clicked along the broken floor as she turned down the closest hallway, the silence that of a graveyard.
A dank musty odour lived within these walls, and the darkness sullied the very energy of this place.
Only the golden light of her flame twirled between her fingers lit the way, while her other hand swept behind her, leaving a trail of sparks in its wake.
She reached the end of the hallway and rounded a corner. Anticipation, fear, and exhilaration clutched every thread of her existence, like the moment before plunging into water. Her heart kicked against her ribs, egging her on, willing her to hurry the fuck up to find Vesper and the others.
The hallway led into the dining hall, the same room she’d scoped out.
Giant scarlet curtains bracketed the window looking out onto the swamp.
Once her eyes adjusted to the dim moonlight flooding through, she blinked hard and not just because of the sheer dilapidated state of this place, but because she wasn’t alone.
The room was packed with those creatures.
None of them moved as she stepped into the room. Tables and chairs, all in different sorts of disarray, filled the space, and yet they all sat dormant. Utterly still, like dolls. Puppets.
A shiver wracked her body. This was all so fucked up.
And there were far too many for her to take down on her own.
She spotted a stairwell across the way and held her breath as she edged along the wall toward it.
If Thellonius kept her friends prisoner, it would likely be in a dungeon.
She slipped into the stairwell, determined to find her friends, alive because if they weren’t—
They had to be. They had to.
As the first stair crumbled beneath her feet, she sucked air between her teeth but carefully descended until a small room greeted her with sad stone and empty air. Voices echoed from it, too muffled to make out, but her heart leapt. Maybe she would find cells down there.
She summoned a flame to her fingertip and peered into the dark, her footsteps entirely too loud. Her rampant heart thundered in her ears as her blood rushed when she entered an adjoining room. Then her heart slowed. Stopped entirely.
Aside from the hundreds of slumped creatures across the floor, her eyes found her target.
A tall man stood before the hearth, warming his hands on crackling orange flames.
His wavy brown hair, flecked with silver, fell to his shoulders in a startling contrast to his pale skin as if he hadn’t seen the sun in decades.
An iron crown lay nestled atop his head, endowed in ancient text illuminated by the light of the fire.
The letters swirled and joined on each of the razor-sharp peaks, unevenly spaced apart.
Silver-plated armour covered his broad shoulders and body and clasped around his neck was a cape the same shade as his vestige—a rusty-orange, unlike the breathtaking crimson of Destonne’s.
There was no doubt in her mind who she had stumbled upon.
Thellonius’s black eyes lifted to meet hers, vicious intent in their bottomless depths.
While their bone structures, high cheekbones and strong jaws, shared likeness, Thellonius and Dez were opposites.
Like Thellonius’s hardest and grittiest parts invaded his son, but his mother’s gentleness won the war.
And Emmery would forever be grateful for that.
“Have you come to surrender, hybrid whore?” he asked in a deep timbre, his accent identical to Dez’s.
Hybrid whore. It sort of had a ring to it. Maybe she would get it embroidered on her cloak. Spine stiff and chin held high, she stepped forward.
“Is that any way to greet a new acquaintance?” she snapped back.
“We have met before.” He pushed away from the wall and gave her the least genuine smile she’d ever seen. All bared teeth and no joy. “Many times.”
Her top lip curled as he stared at her, like he planned to flay her alive and feast on her blood. “You may have to refresh my memory.”
“The last was the most memorable by far. I know I recall it often.” He narrowed his eyes and goose flesh broke out over her skin. “Come here,” he ordered. When Emmery planted her feet, he snarled, “If you’re going to surrender, you’ll have to listen, you little harlot. Now, come here.”
Her fingers itched to wrap around his throat and roast him alive while she revelled in his screams. He deserved to pay for everything he’d done to Dez from his childhood, his abuse, the crown, and for the torment he’d inflicted on Brennen, Dez’s mum, and now her friends.
She would kill him.
But it wouldn’t be fast. No, she would peel his flesh from his bones, melt his eyes from their sockets, slice his body into pieces like Dez’s thorns did to him everyday. If it was the last thing she did, he would beg for mercy at her feet.
“That’s presumptuous to assume I’ve come to surrender,” she purred. She unsheathed her dagger and twirled it between her fingers. “I know how this works. I know you have no intention of letting them go.”
“It appears I didn’t give you enough credit. But you did walk in here, alone and unarmed.” He gestured to the dagger in her hand and the other strapped to her thigh. “Except those measly scraps of metal.”
“I don’t need blades.” She flicked her wrists for flare and golden flames twined around the dagger. She repeated Dez’s words in Deimos’s study. “I am a weapon.”
“Though you’re right about that, I don’t see how it works in your favour.” Thellonius snapped his fingers. The creatures jerked as if pulled by puppet strings. Heads cocked, nostrils flared, they scented the air, scented her. With a wave of his hand, the creatures rose to their knees. “Stand down.”
“Tell me where my friends are, and I’ll consider killing you quickly. I don’t think you want to know the heinous things I have planned,” she snarled.
Thellonius’s boots thudded in the eerily quiet room as he stalked toward her. The crinkle around his eyes indicated he had smiled at one time. “Have you looked around? There are hundreds of them and only one of you.”
“Yes, but none of them are me.” She snapped her fingers and a crackle of sparks erupted in response.
“Neat trick,” Thellonius sneered. He flicked his wrists and orange fire bled from his fingers and parked at the tips. “However, I can do that too.”
Her eyes widened before the creatures converged on her.