Chapter 19
GRAESON
Most thought rage was like drowning in flames. But true rage was a pool of ice--a numbness coating your skin and blinding you from all sense.
A flood of Tetrian guards ran into the room, running past Dani and Kalisandre on the floor.
"What do you think you are doing?" Graeson spat as the guards tugged him backward.
No one answered him, though. Instead, Ellie stepped between Graeson and Kalisandre. Her fingers flexed around the hilt of a throwing knife, and her expression was cold as she commanded the guards. "Dani, take her now!"
"Ellie," Graeson warned, voice grave.
Kalisandre's muffled screams filled the room as she struggled against Dani's hold. Then, suddenly, Dani stood, her hands falling from Kalisandre.
Ellie gasped as Kalisandre struggled to her feet. "Dani, what are you doing? Grab her!" she demanded.
A sound akin to a laugh fell around the gag lodged into Kalisandre's mouth. Her brown locks fell in front of her face, and she stared at them with an ire-filled gaze, a storm roaring.
Graeson's eyes widened in horror. "She's manipulating her!" Graeson shouted.
"What? That's not possible," Ellie shrieked. "Guards!"
At her command, more guards immediately barreled into the room as if they had been waiting outside.
Graeson jerked from the guards' grip, his shoulder twisting and popping with a sickening sound. But before he could escape, another guard lunged forward, grabbing onto him.
One of the women came at Kalisandre and snatched her arm. Kalisandre swiftly spun around, her tangled brown hair swirling through the air. In an instant, the guard released her and redirected his attention towards Ellie.
"Ellie!" Graeson yelled as the guard ran toward her. Ellie spun, blocking the woman's swing and then knocking her out.
"Get off me!" Graeson shouted at the guards holding him. "I'm the only one she can't control!"
The guards did not let go of him. Their grips only tightened.
Guards continued to attack Kallie, snatching her limbs and tugging her. Each one though, quickly fell under her command, releasing her and charging after Ellie. But not without twisting her limbs and forcing out a high-pitched scream from her lungs.
A deep rumble vibrated through his throat as he was forced to watch. He had promised that she would not get hurt.
"Fucking knock her out already!" Ellie shouted as guards surrounded her, their swords unsheathed.
"We're trying!" a Tetrian cried in dismay.
"Do not touch her!" Graeson roared.
A river of icy rage flooded his body. And that was all it took for the logic, the sense, to be cast to the wayside as Graeson unlocked the door and set the god free.
The human slipped into the shadows of his mind with little to no fight against the god's pursuits.
As a warrior clad in leather shifted Kalisandre in her arms, the god acted. He ripped his arm free from whatever mortal held onto him.
But as he ran toward her, the humans were relentless, their determination an annoyance and hindrance all at once.
"Grab him!" someone shouted.
More hands wrapped around his limbs, but he easily shook them off as if they were no more than flies buzzing around his head. Grunts and curses flew in the wind, but the god did not care who he hurt. He did not care who fell. All he cared about was the woman who was promised to him.
They would not take her.
He would not let--
The god hit the ground, his cheek smacking into the floor as someone knocked him to the ground with a boot to the back.
Before he could get up, someone's knees dug into his spine. Hands locked around his wrists and forced his arms against the floor, spreading them. A heavy weight pressed down on his legs, flattening him to the ground.
The god tried to push up in vain, but he couldn't get any leverage as the warriors drove him down. Nails dug into his skull, digging and piercing. His head was yanked up, and a cold blade was pressed against his throat, eliciting a snarl from his lips.
The Tetrian princess's face came into view, a fire burning in her light gray eyes.
"What do you think you are doing?" the god roared, anger filling his voice.
"We are doing what must be done. What we agreed upon," Medenia said.
"What who agreed upon? Because I do not recall granting anyone the authority to touch Kalisandre or me."
But it was not the Tetrian who answered him.
"All of us, Gray."
Although the god could not see him, the god knew whom the voice belonged to before the man even came into view.
The prince knelt, his hands hanging over his knees and a heaviness soaking his countenance. Terin dug his fingers through his shaggy brown hair, the ends sticking in different directions.
A stab of betrayal struck the man inside in the chest, sharp enough for even the god to feel.
This is why you do not trust mortals, the god hissed at the man within.
"Get her out of here," Terin said, the cold metal still pressed against the god's throat. "Now!"
"She is your sister," the god growled, his gaze flicking to Kalisandre in rage.
Terin nodded, sorrow filling his features. "I am doing this because she is my sister. It is the only way we can help her."
"And if you do not?" the god challenged. "If you are unable to fix her?"
Terin and the Tetrian princess exchanged glances, but their silence spoke louder than any words could ever dare.
The god snarled, anger flooding his system.
He couldn't decipher who the anger belonged to anymore--him or the mortal, for the line between the two was quickly disintegrating. Either way, it fueled him, empowered him. He pushed against the warriors whose weight pressed on him.
Twisting his limbs, he pushed and pushed--
"Now!" someone shouted.
The blade disappeared from his throat.
But before he realized what was happening, a sharp thump hit the back of his head, and the mortal body fell onto the ground. As black smoke fluttered at the edges of his visions, he spotted Kalisandre being dragged away, her body limp in a guard's arms.
Yet the god, as powerful as he might have been, was helpless to save her.