CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
EMMERY
The creatures’ laboured, putrid breaths clouded the air.
Their vines twisted around their bones as they dragged Emmery and Vesper along the unforgiving stone floor.
For the tenth time, she tested her restraints to see if she could slip free, for even a moment's advantage, but the rope only burned more than those damn iridescent marks already did.
However, her magic hummed beneath, ready to shatter them at her command.
She’d replayed the same scene in her head all day as she lay in the cold, dank cell.
This was the only way: lulling her enemy into a state of false security at his unearned victory.
Once she knew where everyone was, she would make her move, because she couldn’t take all of them. That much was clear.
The creatures paid them no mind as they hauled them by their shirts, their iron grips unnaturally strong. Vesper tried to catch her eye, but Emmery stared ahead, not willing to let him see her unease.
She assured herself this would work, but as the seconds ticked by, doubt crept in.
Up the stairs they went. A dull pain reverberated through Emmery’s shins as they knocked against the stone steps.
They passed the room in which she had taken on the mob of creatures.
Her lip curled in disgust as she spotted the black sludgy blood slathering the floor, and ashen flakes of sinewy skin stuck to the charcoaled brick.
When they reached the top, they entered the dining hall filled with those lumbering creatures all crouched, leaned, or slumped. At Vesper and Emmery’s approach, they scented the air like a pack of beastly hounds.
A row of chairs lined the space before two large thrones at the head.
One was a cold steel, similar to the ancient etchings in Thellonius’s crown.
Beside it sat a throne devoured in those same dark vines that consumed the creatures.
Behind the thrones, a large window revealed the snow dusted mountains in the distance and the swamp below.
Emmery regretted not scaling the wall and blasting through this window to take down those creatures when she had the chance. Because everything about this and the thrones made her skin crawl, especially as the setting sun cast the room in a bloody orange haze.
The creatures parted and surveyed them like a sea of sharks watched their chum before they feasted.
Dropped at the head of the room before the thrones, the impact of the stone floor sang through her bones. She gritted her teeth.
Beside her, Vesper grunted and face planted, unable to brace himself with his bound hands.
Her fingers itched to heal him. Between his dislocated shoulder, his crooked, blood-crusted nose, and his split lip, he looked moments from death.
His bruised, swollen eyes slid to her. She gave him a tiny nod as her brows drew together. He returned it.
Despite the grim circumstances, they were in this together. They would die side by side or fight their way out, back to back. And when she’d told him her plan, he’d called her brilliant. At the time it had filled her with confidence. Now that confidence lay inside her, faded.
The creatures roughly hauled her onto a rickety wooden chair and bound her ankles to the legs with rope, cinching it until it bit into her flesh.
Emmery’s stomach roiled at the ungodly smell of them. The rot and pestilence within those vines held something truly sinister, like these creatures were long dead and yet remained as puppets.
They tied Vesper to a chair too, and his eyes darted around the room as he no doubt made note of the exit to their right and another behind them among the throng of creatures.
Eerie silence swept through the room as one of the mountainous wooden doors creaked open and three beings entered. She craned her neck to see them, and when she did, her heart slowed.
Their unnaturally graceful footsteps were soundless, like they floated on air. Red robes garnished in gold accents flowed down their bodies and sheltered their faces. And she knew those robes. She’d seen them once before.
The Council.
They lowered their hoods and Emmery was struck speechless.
Because their eyesockets were empty. Black.
Hollow and gaping. And between their clawed hands with dirty jagged nails and needle-sharp teeth, fear gripped her.
As they walked past, they carried that same bone rattling power Emmery had felt that day at Blackdawn Castle.
How Dez had handled these beasts and not shrank away was beyond her.
Especially with the power they held over him.
She had made the right choice in not telling him she would be here, especially with the Council and Thellonius’s presence.
This was far worse than she could have imagined.
Emmery swallowed the bile climbing her throat.
“Gravers,” Vesper whispered, maybe to himself.
What in the world was a Graver? She shook her head and murmured back, “No, they—those are the same cloaks the Council wears.”
His eyes widened, and he hissed a curse under his breath.
Her attention darted back to the doorway as Thellonius entered, the attention from the creatures seemingly focused entirely on him.
He wore the same robes over his silver armour, a smug smirk on his face as he stood before the throne that matched his crown centered at the head of the room.
At his side, the crimson-robed beings faithfully joined him.
Thellonius lifted his hand, and all the creatures rose to their feet before him. “Good evening to all,” he boomed and glanced at Emmery and Vesper with a nasty grin. “Shall we begin?”
Two creatures dragged a woman’s petite body, her teeth bared as she fought. Blood soaked her puffy black dress, those plum-coloured eyes weary, and her usually vibrant sapphire skin dulled. The world seemed to slow. Gods, this couldn’t be happening.
Zyphira.
Emmery’s mind became a racing, spinning wheel toppling out of control as her heart banged against her ribcage, both dull and sharp.
First, the sting of Zyphira’s abandonment hit, her heartbreak likely evident on her face, because she’d trusted the Oracle and she’d left.
Forsaken her like everyone else. But maybe she’d been here all along, unable to come to her aid.
How was that possible? Zyphira existed inside the Divide.
Or maybe the Oracle’s body had rested elsewhere.
Emmery supposed it had to. But why was she here?
And, most importantly, how? While Emmery’s thoughts sank deeper and deeper, she wondered if Shade might be in the same place.
That he, too, was trapped and his soul wandered the Divide in search of her.
Their stares collided across the room, hers unwavering and brave and Emmery’s a twisted mix of crumbling confidence and crippling fear.
Her eyes seemed to say, this is all part of the path, though Emmery couldn’t think of a single way it could be.
Her restraints bit into her jerking body as she lunged from the chair towards the Oracle, the only person who had ever offered her answers and guidance. And now she was being taken away.
“Let her go!” Emmery bellowed. She may as well have been an ant waving its fists in anger as her words went unacknowledged.
Zyphira shook her head at Emmery and that same look flashed through her mind. The wild red curls breaking free of the braids she’d made, the weights tied to her limbs, those wide whiskey eyes so full of a medley of unfathomable bravery and acceptance of death—
It was the same look Maela had before she was cast into the water.
Emmery’s heart rose in her throat, her chest aching for all the Oracle had done for her. Had she sacrificed herself to see Emmery? To reveal herself from where she had hidden in the Divide one last time?
Zyphira sneered at Thellonius. Ropes bound her arms and legs behind her back though she stared down the evil man and his glinting crown. The dark gleam in Thellonius’s eyes made Emmery fear she might vomit up what little remained in her stomach.
“For your crimes against the Goddess of the Eternal Sky. For conspiring against the true ruler,” he said, savouring the words, “you have been sentenced to death. May the afterlife withhold mercy on your blackened soul and cast out your worm-eaten heart.”
She met his dark stare and lifted her chin as if she could touch the stars. “You may take my life, but you will never have my dreams. You shall find the deepest pits of darkness at your end, Thellonius.”
Emmery wanted to scream. To do something. To fucking move.
Thellonius drew his sword from his belt, a wicked jagged thing with toothy, serrated edges, as if its best use was sawing off the heads of innocents. Emmery thrashed at her holds, but it wasn’t time.
Not yet.
She couldn’t take them all now, especially with Briar and Callias still tucked away somewhere. She attempted several deep breaths even asher racing heart threatened to explode.
Though she knew it was selfish, she glanced at the door, wishing Dez would burst in with his daring stare and unfettered confidence.
That he would save her. Save all of them.
Because as much as she knew he wasn’t, she had convinced herself he was invincible.
That he could do anything. But there was a reason she kept him away.
She wouldn’t let him in Thellonius’s sight.
As Dez’s father stalked toward Zyphira, revelling in the Oracle’s frigid glare, Emmery couldn’t help herself. The words crawled up her throat and claimed every ounce of her self-control, because she was so damn helpless, and she’d promised herself she never would be again.
“No,” she growled, finding her voice. “No. No, no, no! Stop—STOP!”
Zyphira caught her gaze one last time. Held it as the blade kissed her throat.
“THELLONIUS!” Vesper’s rage filled voice called out beside her. Emmery stared at his wide, wild eyes unlike any she’d ever heard.
Thellonius sighed and turned to him.