All Nikias could see was the wild, deranged gleam in the demon’s eyes as silence fell over the tent.
Horror rushed over him and held him down as the woman he loved rose from her seat and said,“I’ll do it.”
Ready to sacrifice herself on Hypatia’s altar to save the man she loved, even when he had cast her aside for another woman.
“You cannot do worse to me than you already have.”
If only Nikias had known what would follow his fateful words, he would have thought twice about them.
Nikias was on his knees, arms bound behind his back in that fateful tent as Hypatia stepped back. He breathed through gritted teeth, unable to stop a pathetic cry from falling from his mouth.
How long had Hypatia been at it?
He had no sense of time anymore. All he knew were the burns he felt when Hypatia had tired of making him relive the memory of Faustina’s death over and over again.
She stumbled into the table, panting for breath herself. She braced her hands on the counter beside her. Her curls fell into her face even as she looked over her shoulder at him and said, “One night. I get one measly night to make you feel the agony you’ve inflicted for decades on my people. I’m going to make it count.”
Nikias blinked.
Was this what Marcella had felt those days she’d spent under the healer’s knife?
Was this what all of them had felt?
“Far be it…” Nikias coughed, fighting the urge to retch. “From me to give you advice. But how much worse can this get? How many more visions of the past can you use? How many more burns until there’s nothing left of me?”
Nikias should have never opened his mouth.
Because Hypatia had straightened up and looked at the bowl on the counter. The grin that stretched over her was one of complete evil and pure delight.
She lifted it, arms trembling and sending a little water splashing over the side. “Oh, dear Nikias, there can only be one thing worse than your past.”
She dropped to her knees, even more water splashing and Nikias hissed when some of it hit a burn on his leg. Hypatia had in one hand thin sticks that had a pungent and repulsive smell emanating off them. She began casting with the other hand as she said, “Your future.”
The sticks caught fire with her rune, but they didn’t burn like normal wood. Smoke poured off the tips doubling the smell and sending Nikias into another coughing fit.
Hypatia scattered the incense throughout the tent before grabbing him by the hair and pushing his head down so he could not look away from the water. She began casting with the other hand rune after rune as she spoke in her tongue, a frantic stream of babble Nikias could not imagine contained any real words.
Was he actually about to witness the demon’s abominable ability for himself?
Her nails dug painfully into his hair, tearing out the strands when her voice rose as the water remained still. Vitae continued to flood the air, blinding him as she jerked his head when she stepped closer. She kept casting.
Finally, the water in the bowl began to ripple even though nothing touched it.
Nikias’ breath caught in his throat as an image began to form and Hypatia’s nonsensical chatter ceased. Hypatia stilled, smoke and vitae still flooding the tent, making it hard to even see what the image was.
Hypatia kept her grip on Nikias’ head, forcing him to keep staring at it as she stepped closer and leaned in to see it too.
Bile crawled up Nikias’ throat as he saw himself in the water, but it wasn’t his reflection. No, this was him moving through a room at the palace, he thought. It was hard to tell for sure with how hazy it was. He couldn’t tell what time of day it was or when this was supposed to be.
This…
This was wrong. Unnatural. An abomination.
Nikias in the vision was pacing frantically, and then a voice rose from the bowl, echoey and faint, but unmistakably his.
“—see it.”
Then another voice followed, one that haunted Nikias’ dreams.
