“I need you to breathe, Ves,” Ryc says, his voice firm.
“Let me go!”
“Do not do that,” Cenviri counters, his tone sharp.
The necromancer casts Eve’s breastplate aside. As it lands at her feet, crimson splatters onto the obsidian and abloodstone bladefalls amid it. The resounding, hollow ring of the blade fills the sanctum, swiftly replaced by my scream.
My vision becomes a liquefied blur of blending colors and the ground trembles as ice lays siege to my heart. Candles plummet and crash to the ground, their red flames extinguished. Glass shatters and metal creaks. Theloud, bone-rumbling groan of stone swallows the sounds of the world as razor sharp glass rains from above.
Vines spread across the room in a violent race, blanketing the sanctum as my scream dies. Floors grow carpeted, walls become curtained, and a choir of screams rise to replace mine.
Ryc’s chest vibrates as he shouts, but his words are lost.
As thousands of indigo blooms burst open, Cenviri’s face appears before mine. He stares at me, his mossy green eyesfilled with regret.
“Forgive me,il-akiv,” he says, but like Ryc’s, his voice doesn’t reach me—it’s swallowed by theragingand uncontrollable swell of Aether within me.
He rears back and the gleaming pommel of his bloodstone dagger meets my temple.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Ryc
Twenty-eight daysbefore the evening of Ashdown
I’ve never felt such terrifying power.
A power capable ofdestroyingthe realms.
It ripped through our bond like an avalanche, burying me beneath the heavy desire to smother the living. Had Cenviri not intervened, I wouldn’t have been able to control myself.
Had the realms not trembled in fear, I wouldn’t have believed it.
I still don’t believe it—despite Cenviri’s explanation.
Who she is—whatshe is… it doesn’t make sense. And yet somehow… it makes all the sense in the world.
She’s the embodiment of Aether.
No.
SheisAether.
The creator and keeper of the veil. The source of old magic. The primordial entity who fell in love with Life and traded her ability to create universes to live among mortals.
Sheis the reason nyraphim, winged fae, and a plethora of other mystical creatures existed in this realm. And right now, she sleeps peacefully beneath three hovering black candles burning withblueflame. Her breathing comes deep and even, lulled to rest by the spelled candles above.
According to Cenviri, as long as they burn, she sleeps.
And heals.
One candle is enough to suppress the innate of those in thisroom. Three renders the entire tower a void, nullifying any innate use. Even then, it’s not enough to suppress Ves.
Small vines creep from her fingertips, curling up her fingers. One has reached Eve, having slithered across the bed to wrap itself around her little finger.
Ves loves her.
That’s how I know I made the right choice.
