“No,” I say, “Idon’tthink I can manage.” The energy around us shifts, the air shimmering. Somehow, I start to rise above my own body, hovering near the ceiling and watching myself hold a letter opener to Elodie’s throat. My bad arm outstretched, my other hand grasps her by the neck.
Thisis the precise truth of me. This cleansing wrath, this need for pain and destruction, is woven into my essence; it’s the very root of me.
It is my purpose.
“You and your stupidcolorscan go to hell, Elodie.” From somewhere above my own body, I watch myself press the blade’s blunt point into her carotid until her pupils dilate.
A gurgled sound escapes her.
Her blood throbs beneath bronze skin, racing under my fingertips—telling me her anger has shifted to fear. The shift further fuels my lust for brutality.
I’m in two places at once, fixating on the gushing liquid warmth, aching to feel it oozing through my fingers and glazing my lips. Observing my body obeying no orders but its own.
I want to drink in every last drop of her. I want toconsumeher.
When next I speak, I don’t recognize my own voice: “Tell me what you’ve beenkeepingfrom me, damn it!”
Chapter 25
Elodie
Her head is outlined in a flaring red aura—a crown of magnificent rage. Lips peeled back, teeth bared, she hisses, “Tell me what you’ve beenkeepingfrom me, damn it!”
She’s lost complete control of herself. Like yesterday, but worse somehow.
“Tiss, I’m not—” I can’t do it. I can’t lie again. Not in this moment with her hatred gnawing at the edges of me. “Look. You once asked me if you came here of your own accord.”
“Yep,” she snaps. Her grip tightens around my neck. “What about it?”
Gagging, brain fogging, I force my next words out: “I wasn’tentirelyhonest when you asked.”
She cocks her head. “Yeah?”
“I lied by omission,” I wheeze.
“By omission. Hmm.” She adjusts her grip on the handle, and I choke. “So youlied.”
Fuck!“C-can’t breathe,” I rasp, fingers fumbling against hers.
She relents slightly, backing the blade off my artery. Loosening her grip on my throat.
Blood resumes its journey to my brain. Oxygen fills my lungs. “Yes, I lied to you.”About so many things…“It was wrong. I apologize. I hope one day you can forgive me.”
“Noted. Now,talk.”
“Your intuition was correct. Most of us don’t come here willingly. We’re…broughthere, all right?” I gasp. “Usually in large groups from all over the realm.”
The next noise she makes sounds equally as choked, her hand dropping from my neck. The paper knife stays.
“This is a legitimate temple that serves the realm in many ways.” I take a thin breath. “It’s also a prison, of sorts. It’s both.”
She glances at the window, and I know she’s thinking of the dome. The stick smoldering on the ground.
“Butyouwere not forced to be here, Tiss. You came voluntarily and stayed of your own free will. So far as I know, you’re the only initiate to ever do so. Despite what they tell us.”
Her eyes are glazed. I’m not sure she’s really evenseeingme anymore. “How do you know that?”
“Because,” I sigh, already exhausted. Already knowing where my next revelation will take us and seeing no way around it. “I spoke to you the day you arrived. You pledged yourself willingly to the goddess.”
