My lips curled into a smile as the icy knot in my chest swelled. With a push of my arm, I threw the hooded god into a nearby column. He hit the floor and remained there. The crack of his head when it hit the pillar told me he would be out for at least a few moments.
“That wasn’t wise,” the Primal spat, briefly shooting a glance at the unmoving god. “You will regret that. He’s the wrong person to get on the bad side of.”
I wondered what about me gave her the impression that I would regret even a second of that.
“I’m going to give you one more chance,” the Primal said, eather lighting up her veins. “Because if you’re her King, then I don’t want to upset her. But you take one more step, and I won’t hold back.”
Primal mist streamed from me, spilling out around me and rising into the air. Crimson laced the whirling shadows as unease flashed across the Primal’s face.
“That’s…impossible,” she gasped. “What are you?”
I did what she’d warned against and took a step toward—
The presence of another filled the Hall without warning, soaking the atmosphere in raw power.
“What he is,” an oddly familiar voice boomed from nowhere and everywhere, “is what we feared. The Bringer of Ruin.”
Before I had a chance to register the presence or the words, a blinding flash of light crashed into me. The force hit me like anout-of-control carriage, lifting my body into the air and throwing me back.
Before I hit the wall, instinct took over once more. My wings swept up and out, muscles straining as they caught the rush of wind from the force of the blow. The action wrenched me upward, and for a moment, I was suspended, weightless in the air, and then I started to dip. I fell several feet before I willed my wings to move. With a powerful sweep, I soared toward the remnants of the destroyed dome as the searing glow faded. Breathing hard and heart pounding, I spun around.
The Primal was gone.
So was the hooded god who’d hadherblood on him.
Fury pounded through me as I spread my wings wide and angled them so I descended. I whirled toward the dais, searching—
I halted.
Her scent.
It was stronger.
I breathed in, scanning the Hall until my eyes landed on the half-sunken dais and the splash of dark red along the floor there.
Somewhere in my chest, my heart stopped.
I flew forward, halting when I was about a foot from the platform. The wings swept up, pulling me down. I landed with a thud that cracked the tile and took a step. The only thing I saw was the dark-crimson marks.
Blood.
Herblood.
I hit my knees, chest constricting.
There was a lot of it.
Too much of it.
Pitching forward, I planted my hands on the floor, inches from the stains, as awareness throbbed when more gods arrived. My nails scraped over the tile as pain hit hard. Grief chokedme, causing the essence to throb as I knelt there, half-bent over. I couldn’t breathe around it, but that wasn’t what caused the essence to churn. It wasn’t what started the quake somewhere deep inside me. It was the rage that had the strongest hold on me, burning through me with icy flames as my thoughts spun chaotically into one another. There were so manywhat-ifs. What if I had convinced her that I could handle myself? What if I had left the moment she demanded that I stay back and rode to Pensdurth? What if I had listened to him and talked to her? And there were so manyshould haves. She never should’ve come here without me. I should’ve done more to stop her. I should’ve found a way to be at her side. I should’ve told Poppy—
Poppy.
A shudder went through me, and then I went completely still, but only on the outside. What was inside was moving, churning, and twisting. Anger and grief crashed together over and over, mixing with the essence—with guilt. And there was so much of it. Pressure built, straining at my flesh. My entire body shook, and my jaw tightened as I tried to hold it in, to stop myself from letting it out. To keep from screaming. From snapping and tearing the realm apart.
But there was no stopping it.
Not the scream. Not the lashing out. Not the rage, sorrow, guilt, and all that power whirling through me. It crashed together, and there was no holding it in.
