Elodie
Morday, the 12th of Emberglow
Approximately 1.5 Months Ago
Bibikraas softly from the canopy frame.
A comforting hand goes to my shoulder. Brows knitting together, Maida doesn’t say anything at first. “Well, that doesn’t seem so bad.”
Heaving a sigh, I wish I could leave her in blissful ignorance. Wish I didn’t have to tell her the things I’m about to. “My memories are only the start. It gets so much worse.”
I have no choice in the matter. Not that I ever really have when it comes to Tiss. Seeing as neither of us will survive this without Maida’s help, I tell her everything—
My history with Tiss and the reason for the ritual. The fact that she’s a fuckingdemunwho just pledged herself to the Temple of Eisha.
At first Maida denies the truth. Then weeps about it. Screams about it. When she’s finally over the initial horror, my friend stands frighteningly still at her glass balcony doors. Lips pinched into a pale line, she looks as exhausted as I feel.
“What am I going to do?” I whisper, head in my hands. My fury at Tiss is a distant memory by now. Cold fear has its fingers around my throat, and a well of hopelessness yawns in my chest.
“We pass her off,” Maida says. She watches the first blush of dawn tinge the horizon with steely resolve.
“Pass her off. Sure.” I give a sharp, dark laugh.
“Didn’t you just say you believe Deirdre to be completely Sightless?”
“Deirdre’s one thing. But how am I not going to say the wrong thing or put my foot in my mouth? Especially around Tiss.” My hands drop. “The way she came here, Maida—goddess. She’s lost her mind. I can’t count on her to make rational decisions anymore. I certainly can’t put my well-being into her hands! Or trust her to knowanyof what I just told you and keep calm.”
If she lets something slip and Deirdre catches on that I still have my memories… That I know what happens to those poor girls, or that I’ve told another priestess…
Maida shrugs. “How did you survive these last four years without giving yourself away—not even to me?”
My eyes press closed. “I figured out how to deceive my brain into believing I don’t remember anything. Put a wall up between myself and my past. Refused to acknowledge it, to let myself linger on it, even for a moment. Played dumb whenever the lottery came up.”
“Then that’s what you must do.” Maida turns to me, determination flattening her expression. “As of now, your history together doesn’t exist, and you don’t know her. Which you reallydon’t, if her coming here in full knowledge and doing what she did is any indication!”
Easy enough until our soul-tie comes into play. Or my libido. Or my feelings. “Sure, but—”
“No buts. I’m sure she’s an entirely different person than she was before. And if your time together was as intermittent as you say, then you might not have known her as well as you originally thought.” Her gray eyes flash in a menacing way I’ve never seen before. “Hear me now, Elodie. You knownothingabout that girl. Nothing.”
She’s right, of course. Soul-tie, sex, and my foolish sentiments aside, Tiss is as good as a stranger to me.And perhaps she always was.
Everything I believed I knew about her, every fact I previously thought to be true, flew out the window when she declared she wished to pledge herself to the goddess. When she forced me to protect her, knowing full well the loss I must endure if I fail.
Not to mention the threat on my own life.
Maida rejoins me on the bench. Her posture remains rigid. “I suggest you make your peace with reality, dear. She’s set something into motion we can’t reverse. It’s not just your own safety on the line anymore.”
Present Day
Time warps, sending us hurtling back. We come to, safe inside the Observatory.
Tiss gasps. Pushes herself off me. “Those were memories,” she hisses. Searches my face like she’s seen a ghost, like someone’s been butchered in front of her. “F-flashbacks.You saw them too, right?”
“Yes. That actually happened,” I croak.
Scrambling away, her aura pulses the hideous blue-purple-black of a new bruise. “It’s me.” She touches her chest, eyes wild. “I’mthe fucking Succubus, and you aremyThrall. And youknewit. You’ve known everything, rememberedeverythingthis whole time.” Pure black swirls around her, overshadowing her like the umbra of a solar eclipse. Threatening to obliterate her completely.
I’d sit up if I could, but being drained for the first time in over four years has left me as feeble as an infant.
