53. Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter 53
“N o fucking games.” Rieka was done playing the pawn.
She forcefully patted herself down as she made sure some part of her hadn’t disappeared during the teleportation. Or whatever the hell she had just gone through. It had been brutal—as if she had been flayed alive while every cell in her body had simultaneously been pulled apart, stretched into nothingness, and then excruciatingly reconfigured. As far as she could tell, she wasn’t missing any vital organs. Although her bruises had bruises.
Too bad it hadn’t detached the bracelet. It continued to pulse with a life of its own. The cacophony of voices that had been blessedly silent decided to come back in full force.
Rieka surveyed her surroundings; she was encircled by a fire. It flickered from opaque to translucent around her, the edges a faint gold-red before it changed back to violet. The flame flickered again; she reached out to touch it, but it skirted away. Rieka licked her dry lips, tasting the metallic taste of her blood. Just outside of fire, she could make out the edge of the island they were standing on. She was done playing Alice.
“Rieka.”
She glanced at Dante. He stood alone on the bridge as he stared back at her. He didn’t move, but his gaze burned straight through her. The world around her stopped. It was a goddamn cliché, but she didn’t care. A small kernel of hope threatened to overwhelm her, but she pushed it down. Hoping for the impossible was too dangerous. It would get her killed in this world. In the end, they had gotten what they both wanted. The tomb.
Too bad her stupid heart had to get involved. Always the second choice. She stood shaking as she straightened, every bone aching as she stared at the black marble. The tomb had been found, and she had fulfilled Lilian’s dream.
They had found Vandana’s tomb. After decades of looking for it, she should have been elated. But all she had was an emptiness that ran through her and bone-weary tiredness. She’d never realized how alone she had been until now.
“You are bleeding.” Dante softly stated.
Rieka touched her nose, her fingers sticky. Just what she needed: a bloody nose.
“You did not inherit any of Lilian’s abilities?” Lucien asked, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He didn’t wait for an answer. “You bleed like a human.”
It sounded like an insult. She had been telling everyone that she was human. She wasn’t some lost key. Or special because a quirk of fate had made her a direct descendant of Vandana. They could all keep their chosen one ideal as far as possible from her. All she had accomplished, if she believed Lucien, was waking the old gods and damning them all.
“I see the Anki are still up to their old tricks.” Lucien tilted his head, closing his eyes for a second before snapping them open. A sardonic smile etched on the edges of his lips as he studied Idris. “Ninhursag’s work, no doubt.”
Idris snarled. Rieka looked between the two of them. That answered the question if Lucien and Idris were working together. Maybe not, Lucien was antagonistic to everyone…
Dante hadn’t moved, a stoic expression on his face. Except for his eyes—they appeared brighter than she had ever seen them. Neon green. “Let Rieka go.”
Lucien clicked his fingers, drawing everyone’s attention. “Do you know how to kill the Anki?”
What game was Lucien playing?
“They cannot be killed,” Idris hissed as he stepped into the light, his eyes bloodshot, his cheekbones sunken. Rieka looked closely. Under his skin was a faint yellow, almost sallow, glow. She hadn’t noticed it before, but it aged him.
Lucien ignored the outburst. “Kill the O’hurani. The Anki, and all those who carry the bloodline, will cease to exist. They all become the stardust that first breathed life into them.”
Rieka shifted. The flame mimicked her movement, giving her more space as she moved closer to the marble coffin. In the distance, the echoes of serpopards sounded, their talons unnaturally clinging to the rocky walls and ceilings. The heavy breathing of the human and Atlantean wayfarers tinged the silence. She ignored it all, never taking her gaze off the coffin.
“This is not new information,” Dante said.
Lucien chuckled. The sound was unnerving; it drew her attention back to the three of them. “There will be blood.”
D ante warily watched Lucien. Idris was unpredictable, but Lucien was by far the most dangerous being in the cavern. Something was not right with Lucien. He continued to change his persona as if he was cycling through pre-determined personalities and switching them to suit his audience. As if Lucien was trying to understand what reality was and what was in his mind.
“What do you want?” Dante asked, his gaze never leaving Rieka’s. The serpopards continued to move; they grouped up as mated pairs before creating larger herds with as many as five pairs to a group. Their guttural cries and snakelike hissing rose in a crescendo, echoing off the walls until it was painful. The wayfarers scrambled down the walls, some falling to their deaths. They were surrounded. Even if the immortals appeared, they would be hard pressed to walk out of here alive. It didn’t matter. He was willing to side with the O’hurani if Rieka was guaranteed safe passage.
Rieka continued to glare at Lucien. Her rage was palpable, and it surrounded her like the flame she was cocooned within. Faint bruises appeared on her skin; the outline of fingers around her neck and chin were unmistakable. Dante’s attention snapped back to Idris. The Atlantean would pay for every mark on Rieka with his flesh.
“The pendant,” Idris interrupted. His focus was entirely on Rieka and the flame. “There are some secrets Vandana took to her grave, including the final resting place of the O’hurani and the location of your beloved Atlantis.”
“No!” Rieka shouted. She stumbled as she stood up, and the violet flame flared out as it reacted to her movements. The edges of the flame changed to a darker red–gold. “The O’hurani will destroy everything.”
A slow smile crossed Idris’s face. If Dante had held a sliver of dormant hope that the Atlantean could be saved, he was swiftly dissuaded. The Idris he had known was long gone.
“They will remake the world in their image, and the worthy will be blessed.”
Idris’s eyes were bloodshot, the whites almost entirely gone. It wasn’t the first physical sign Dante had noticed about Idris’s transformation. Talon marks suddenly appeared along Idris’s forearms, deep enough that his ability to heal was affected.
“And you are considered worthy?” Rieka shrugged casually. She looked down at the pulsating bracelet and then glanced at Idris. “You don’t even carry a drop of Anki blood. Why would they save you?”
Idris snarled, reaching out to Rieka. Dante moved, running to the edge of the bridge, toward Rieka.
Lucian clicked his fingers.
The bridge disintegrated beneath Dante. He jumped backward, landing hard on the ground, his breathing heavy as adrenaline coursed through him.
Rieka stood unnaturally still; perspiration trickled down her face. Her clenched fists were white. Her eyes were molten red, with no hint of white. The flame behind her intensified, the edges transitioning from violet to red, gold, and black. He hadn’t imagined it; the flame was reacting to Rieka.
“Perhaps you are less human than I thought,” Lucien muttered under his breath as he stared at Rieka before he turned back to Idris and tsked as if he was talking to a toddler. “Someone has been keeping secrets.”
Idris stood motionless. A small sheen of sweat coated his skin as a drop of blood trickled from his ear. His lips curled up in a monstrous grin that was more animal than Atlantean. “I am deemed worthy.”
Pain exploded through Dante, and he tasted blood. He stumbled under the growing onslaught. The cries of the humans, Atlanteans, and serpopards were indistinguishable as their pain slammed into him. Wave after wave. Rieka appeared unaffected.
Idris snarled, “The pendant.”
“No,” Dante gritted out through clenched teeth as he barely held himself upright.
“You will continue to feel their fears, pain, and their deaths unless you give me the pendant,” Idris explained. “It is a gift that has been bestowed upon me.”
Dante took a deep breath. “No.”
Idris crossed his arms. Blood continued to seep from his eyes and ears. “You would let everyone die?”
Lucien looked over at him with a bored expression, his pale eyes blank as he leaned against the tomb, absentmindedly stroking one of the stone serpopard’s fur.
The world could burn if it meant Rieka was safe.
“I wonder if this will change your mind?” Idris clicked again.
Rieka fell to the ground, as she let out a bloodcurdling scream. The violet flame surrounding her transformed into black mist, dancing along the edges like a snake. Lucien straightened in interest and shifted to get a better view but didn’t move to interfere.
She looked up at Dante, tears running down her face. Her hands clenched in the dirt. “Don’t.”
Scarcely a whisper, but the demand ran through him and made him falter momentarily. Dante didn’t have a choice. He never had. He would gladly damn the world if it ensured she was safe. He was not a hero and had never aspired to be.
He slipped the pendant off, holding it out to Idris in a closed hand. The pendant had cooled down. He wasn’t sure if it was in response to Lucian or proximity to Rieka. The pain that had run rampant through him moments ago was a distant memory as he focused on Rieka. Anger flashed across her face as she gasped, shaking her head.
“Give me Rieka, and you can have the pendant.”
“You would give up everything for the hybrid?” Idris stopped. “Your potential legacy and unlimited power. The Anki will give you everything you have worked for. A permanent place in Atlantean and human history will be but a taste of what they can offer you.”
A look of shock crossed her face as she stared at him, and she blinked as if she hadn’t understood what he had said.
In a heartbeat.
“You can have the tomb.” Dante walked toward Idris, stopping just out of his reach. Every step was like walking on burning coal, pain shooting up his limbs in protest. He felt Rieka’s pain-filled gaze follow him, but he wouldn’t back down. “The pendant for Rieka.”
Idris motioned for him to drop the piece. Dante refused to acknowledge the request. On his periphery, he could see Lucien. He hadn’t entirely discounted the other being, whatever he was. He highly doubted they were on the same side. It was a gamble, but it would buy him precious time.
Dante threw the pendant into the air. Time seemed to slow. As he realized he had no way of predicting or influencing the outcome. It was up to fate. Or Lucien.
“Nooo!” Rieka shouted, the black mist disappearing as quickly as it had appeared. She limped toward Dante.
He ran toward Rieka, not waiting to see what had happened. He spun her, positioning himself to take the brunt of the fall as they hit the ground. He rolled over her, using himself as a shield. He held her as if she was the most precious gift in the world. Dust and dirt surrounded them, but at least they were back on the same ledge as Khalida and Talik.
Rieka slapped him on the chest. “I need to breathe, Delacroix.”
He barely moved, not willing to risk falling debris or an attack.
“Lucien has the pendant!” Rieka shouted.
His ears rang, and Rieka yelling at him wasn’t helping the situation. “I know. I threw it at him.”
She blinked, recognition finally dawning on her when she realized what he had done. “You picked me?”
For a moment, they were alone in the world. The vulnerability in her voice tore through him, as he was given a glimpse of Rieka beneath the armor she wore. He reached out and tugged her messy braid, the wayward curls intertwining with his fingers as he moved his head until both their foreheads were touching, their breaths intermingling. “Always, Wildfire.”
A ghost of a smile tugged at her lips. Warmth surrounded him.
“We need to stop Lucien. I don’t think he is sane.” Rieka sucked in a breath as a crack snaked around the coffin. Her eyes were large like saucers as she turned her gaze back to him.
Lucien casually glanced at the pendant he was carelessly dangling from his hand. It was as if he was daring someone to attack him. Idris took the bait, leaping from his position. A throaty roar escaped the Atlantean.
“You are not the only one with secrets.” Lucien clicked his fingers.
Idris was thrown into the wall with a loud crack , his limp body crumbling into a heap.
Khalida moved to him and held him at sword point. Idris was not going to be a problem.
“No…” Idris’s gaze locked with Rieka’s.
She held out her arm, the glowing bracelet impossible to miss as she silently taunted him. An ominous silence replaced the echoes of the screams. Rieka stepped closer to Dante, her body brushing against his as she slipped her fingers through his.
The stone top of the coffin shattered into a thousand pieces as if it was glass.
Dante pulled Rieka back behind him, shielding her from the flying debris. A mushroom of gray smoke erupted from the coffin, coating them in dirt and dust and ash.
Rieka coughed as she rubbed her eyes. She took a step closer to the edge and looked in horror at Lucien. “What have you done?”
Lucien had opened Vandana’s tomb.