Chapter 52 #2
She looked at Gedeon.
And saw her own despair staring back at her in those midnight eyes.
Her bottom lip quivered as she watched Gedeon open his mouth then close it again. Words failing him as much as they were her.
Bonded.
Her mate.
He was her mate.
Fated lovers. The divine pairing of two souls.
Mate. Mate. Mate.
‘You knew,’ Kyra whispered, not caring who heard her. ‘You knew… didn’t you?’
She understood then the pain she’d witnessed beneath the fury on his face just minutes before. Slowly, Gedeon nodded.
A shard of ice pierced her heart. ‘About the prophecy too?’
‘No,’ he said in a low voice, and Kyra saw only truth in his eyes. ‘I never knew about the prophecy. I swear it.’
Empress Azar drawled, ‘How lucky you both are to have found each other in this lifetime. To find one's mate… I am told there is no greater feeling, no greater power in the world.’
There was nothing but black rage in Gedeon’s eyes as he glowered at his mother. ‘This was your plan all along? Wait for my mate to be born, then use us both in your bid to destroy this world as we know it?’
‘Destroy?’ the Empress hissed. ‘I seek not to destroy this world, but to restore it, Gedeon! You -both of you- have been chosen by the Gods! There is no greater honour. You are Night and Day incarnate, such a thing has never been seen! United in your mortal bodies, you are conduits for the Gods to rule again! The true Gods. Once you accept what lies between you, Their former power will be restored. Dohra will be freed. The false Goddesses will lose their divinity and everything I have worked for will finally unfold.’
‘And if we don’t?’ Kyra demanded. Her voice shook. ‘If we refuse to make the bond?’
Azar gave a truly frightening smile. ‘Your friend’s presence here has more than one use, Kyraena Daeiros. Hossean, bring the girl before me.’
Kyra could do nothing but watch as the High Wielder dragged Rosary by the arm, forcing her to her knees at the Empress’ feet.
A sentry pressed a sword into her hand. Her delicate, porcelain fingers deliberately wrapped around its golden hilt, and she inhaled as though she savoured every second. ‘I present to you a choice. Accept the bond that tethers you to my son, or watch your dearest friend die.’
‘Don’t, Kyra,’ Rosary said, her voice level. She held her chin high, and her eyes blazed with conviction. As if she had already resigned to death.
Blood pounded in Kyra’s ears. ‘That’s not a choice,’ she seethed through her terror. ‘It’s an ultimatum.’
‘Just like your grandmother before you,’ Empress Azar agreed.
‘A full circle of irony. She relinquished the magic of her people to spare their lives. What will you give up, Kyraena, to spare Rosary’s?
’ She stood, placing the tip of her sword under Rosary’s chin.
Still Rosary’s resolve did not waver. ‘Decide your friend’s fate, or I will decide it for you. ’
Kyra surged forward with a snarl.
High Wielders moved instantly, blocking her path.
She swung her bound fists to the helmeted head of one of them, iron clanging loud against it, but then four more of them appeared.
Powerful magic, wrong magic slithered over her very bones, rendering her body useless.
In a few seconds, she was kneeling as Rosary was, crushing hands clasping her arms and gripping her hair, holding her in place.
‘You have three seconds to make your choice,’ Azar said coldly.
‘Fuck you!’
‘Three.’
Kyra’s heartbeat spiked. ‘Wait!’
‘Two-’
‘No… please-’
Azar wrapped both hands around the hilt, ready to strike true. ‘One-’
Kyra roared, ‘I’LL DO IT!’ She blinked away the heat in her eyes, choking, ‘I’ll do it. Just let her go. Please. Let her go.’
‘A fine choice,’ Azar said quietly, lowering the blade from Rosary’s chin. ‘Release her,’ she commanded the High Wielders holding Kyra. ‘Do it, then, Earth Warden, and quickly. The Gods have waited long enough.’
Trembling, Kyra got to her feet.
There was no one but Gedeon in the Throne Room now. Everyone else faded into the ether. She clasped his hands in hers. ‘Please,’ she begged him quietly. ‘Please, Gedeon.’
He stared down at their interlocked fingers.
A deep frown began to materialise on his dark brow as his thumb traced back and forth over her skin.
‘Once, an augur foretold that I would bring about the end of times. He told me I would be Droria’s doom.
I did not understand it then. But I do now.
’ Shining obsidian eyes met hers. His voice was barely a whisper.
‘I cannot let his words come to pass, Kyra. No matter how much I want her to live. What lies between us, what has always lain between us… it isn’t enough to condemn the rest of the world to ruin.
’ Tears pooled in his eyes, and there was no starlight in them now.
His grip on her tightened. ‘Even for the sake of Rosary’s life. ’
‘Do you hear what you are asking of me?’ Kyra grasped his hands as though they were a rope above a bottomless pit, the only thing stopping her from falling into the chasm. ‘Please, Gedeon. If not for her, for me.’ Her voice broke. ‘Do it for me.’
Gedeon earnestly searched every inch of her face, his pupils dilating. A few moments went by. Then, everything shattered into a thousand shards as he shook his head. ‘I can’t.’
Kyra broke their hold.
Debilitating dread rushed through her blood as she beheld the Empress’ sword positioned at Rosary’s chin once more.
Azar declared in a booming voice, ‘Let it be known that the ultimatum will not stop with this woman. I will drive my blade through everyone you have ever loved until you make the bond. This I promise you both.’
Rosary simply smiled at Kyra. Her eyes fluttered shut, and a singular tear fell down her cheek.
And then Kyra was screaming, screaming as Empress Azar skewered her sword down into Rosary’s chest, all the way to the hilt.