The Eternal Sword. I’d begun to think it was simply a myth. Now, I knew where it resided.
Having memorized Lilly’s letter to Gray, the final pieces of what she said clicked into place, and I knew I’d made the right gamble when I handed it back to Gray. Now, knowing about the Eternal Sword, there was no way the Syphon Bond would allow the letter to exist.
I slammed the tome shut, a plume of dust puffing from the pages. I hastily shoved it back on the shelf before stumbling from the cursed library.
Once I reentered the withdrawing room, the magic’s intensity receded, but the damage was done. The brief moment I had back as myself would quickly be over. And I hadn’t even gained any new insight into Celanea’s weaknesses in the process. Just confirmation of my own fate.
My emotions swiftly vanished. My pure, untainted love for Gray dissipated, morphing into a possessive ownership. The heartache I felt from witnessing her and Slate together transformed into an inferno of wrath. My concern for my people disappeared, and in its place came complete indifference.
I would kill Slate.
He’d managed to fool me with his Angel magic, but I wouldfucking torture him until his screams fed my insatiable hunger to maim.
I may not have had Gray with me anymore, but I knew where she was. And I’d get her back. Thoughts of her impending punishment brought excitement to my dead little heart.
A smile pulled up at the edges of my mouth. She would like it. We were one and the same, and pain, whether it was emotional or physical, was something we were both accustomed to.
In time, she would see that our bond was meant for nothing else. She would see that it was our role in this world. We were Pain’s conduits.
First, I just had to break her down as I had been.
Casually, I shoved through Celanea’s receiving room doors, feeling right with myself again. Relief coursed through my limbs at the knowledge that I no longer had to endure the miserable shit that briefly took hold of me at Slate’s hands.
Fucking prick.
I turned down a corridor, headed for my chambers, and nearly collided with Forest.
“Watch where you’re walking, old man.”
Forest studied me, suspicion in his eyes. “Where have you been? Where is my daughter?”
“Which one?”
Forest’s beard rippled as it usually did when he fought the urge to lash out against me. “Both,” he said. “You were supposed to bring them back.”
I chuckled and shrugged. “One of them is in the hands of Elementals. And the other has disappeared.”
A deep shade of red climbed Forest’s neck and rapidly rose up his face. A blood vessel in the center of his forehead throbbed, and I did everything within my control to prevent the uncontrollable laughter threatening to erupt at the sight.
I failed as I snorted, covering my mouth with my fist asI tried to contain myself.
A hand latched around my throat and squeezed. I couldn’t breathe, but it was fine. He couldn’t kill me. I knew that for a fact now. So I held his depthless eyes, unable to keep the smile from my face.
“What the fuck do you mean?” Forest ground out.
I let my shadows ooze from my body, wrapping around his neck in return. I directed them to compress almost to the point that his throat caved at my will. The king’s eyes widened as the shade of my dead mother’s hair consumed his face.
“I can’t speak while you’re attempting to choke me…” I hissed.
Forest released his grip, and I held my shadows there just until his eyelids began to droop before I instructed my shadows to let him go.
I straightened my clothes and tilted my head to pop my neck. “Well…things might’ve taken a wrong turn.”
“What happened?”
“Shit happened.” I might’ve been back to myself again, but Forest or Celanea didn’t need to know that there was a way to restore me, even if it was on a temporary basis. “Gray faded away with Slate at the last second, and I tried to follow them. But I was just half a second too late. When I traveled after Gray, I obviously left Royal behind. And when I returned, she was being held prisoner by the Perry Hollow Elementals.”
Forest’s nostrils flared. His desire to inflict pain upon me, like in the old days, was clearly evident in his eyes. And it only seemed to piss him off more that he couldn’t. “You will fix this. And you will fix it now.”
