She reaches toward me. “May I?”
I’m not sure what she’s asking, but I nod. She takes my arm, the one Caiden cut open last night. Her touch is like ice.
“This is amusing. They think they can rein in our magic. Always trying to control the gifts we give you to bolster their own power. Tsk-tsk.”
I watch as she examines my arm. “I didn’t want him to.”
“I know.”
“I want him dead.”
She smiles at that. “I know.”
“I want the emperor dead, too.”
“Yes.” She traces the wound. Her icy fingers are a balm to the angry red flesh. “Do you mind?”
Once again, I agree, though I’m not quite sure what she’s asking.
She drags her fingertip over the injury again—only this time I feel a bite of pain and the wound reopens, looking just as it did when it was first cut. I wince.
She holds her hand above the cut, and a small triangle shaped piece of metal floats out of my skin and into her palm. I gasp.
The object is bloody and leaves streaks of crimson against her pale skin. She grabs it with her forefinger and thumb and examines it. Her nose wrinkles. “It isn’t even a proper relic. This has no magic.” She tosses it into the flames, and for a moment, they turn bright blue before shifting back to purple.
With a flick of her wrist, the wound returns to the way it was. “We can’t have him knowing you took it out. It will benefit you to give him the illusion of control.”
“I have to go back and play pretend again?”
“Yes, for a little while. It’s not yet time for him to die.”
My brow furrows, and I feel like she punched me in the gut.
“May I?” she asks again, her hand almost touching my cheek.
I nod.
She strokes my face like a mother might a child. “You must be patient. This is bigger than you. Bigger than this empire. And you will help me. In return, I will give you all the vengeance you wish.”
“What is your price?” I ask.
She lowers her hand, and her smile is that of a proud parent. “That you would ask that question is one of the many reasons I chose to answer your call.”
“I won’t see any more innocent lives lost,” I say.
“Death comes for all mortals.”
“But it doesn’t have to be that way.” I think of my family, all gone too soon.
“It must. And it will be. With you or without you. You can leave here a mere mortal and return with a whisper of magic like those ridiculous shadows their Night Legion has. Or you can leave here with true power.”
Mara steps back, the leather of her clothing takes on a purple sheen from the flames. While her demeanor has been almost tender, her entire presence radiates a kind of strength that serves as a warning. “Death is not a choice, Taylan. But this is. What do you choose?”
Forty
Snow swirlsin the icy wind, and I wrap my arms around my body to warm myself. I’m standing outside the temple in my underclothes. I remember going inside, but I don’t know what happened or how I got out here.
The temple’s arched doorway is sealed. Am I done? Was that it? What happened?
