I hissed as it flowed faster.
When Kakias pierced her own flesh, it drew my blood. How in the realm of the fucking Angels had she done that?
I masked the shock chilling my blood, spewing, “Clever.”
“Only the beginning.”
My blood dripped to the floor, more than I’d expected from the small slice.
Around my neck, the emblem of the spear flared with a burst of heat, but I didn’t yell out against it. The fire melded into my chest, soothing instead of searing. Bolstering instead of scarring.
“What’s the purpose of it? Why do you need this power?” I asked as the warmth faded into my skin, making the second pulse pound faster through my body.
Then, that power, too, crawled along my veins, toward the handKakias’s magic held. Like fingers prying open a fist, it picked through the darkness until it released me, and I smiled.
The queen glared.
“Next?” I asked, as if I wasn’t as shocked as she was by what just happened.
But I only had half a second to consider it before Kakias raised her arm, palm open toward me.
With a twist of her hand, I was flying back.
The Rapture Chamber was a whirl of marble and moonlight as my weapons flew from my hands, leaving me defenseless except for the dagger strapped to my thigh.
I collided with the statue of Damien, my bones cracking and breath leaving my lungs. The Angel fell with a piercing shatter, and I crumpled to the ground atop the rubble, shards digging into my skin. My tattered dress tore further.
But above it all, dread shredded my gut—harsh and undiluted.
Because no warrior should have been able to do what the queen just did.
“That’s a new trick.” I staggered to my feet, ignoring the ringing in my ears.
I shuffled forward, nearly tripping.
When I looked down, my heart stuttered. A large square marble tile had been removed from its spot in the floor, revealing a dark cavern beneath.
“The tunnels?” I breathed, eyes flashing back to the queen. “They lead here?” The maze through the mountains burrowed into the Rapture Chamber itself—and who else knew where.
That ancient network of pathways handed over the key to our home.
Damien, I cursed, frustrated.
The Angel who built this house couldn’t have revealed this little weakness? The invasion stung, even more personal now.
“That’s why Aird was here after the Rapture, isn’t it? He was searching for an entrance.” I clenched my hands at my sides, remembering the chancellor’s unsettling responses when I found him in the palace.
I’ve found what I needed.
Spirits, I’d been too caught up in Malakai and the prophecy to see the threat right before me.
“Good work, Chosen Child.” Kakias’s bloodred lips parted around razor-sharp teeth.
“Again with your false titles.” I stifled the violation, the treachery and fury, and stepped forward, feigning a limp. Angelborn only lay a few feet away.
“Have you still not figured it out?” Kakias tutted, hungry eyes flicking between me and my spear. She curled her fingers and Angelborn shot toward her, rolling to a stop at her feet. I growled when she slammed a heeled foot across the hilt. “You’re smarter than that, Ophelia.”
Kakias tilted her head, studying me—and I surveyed her in return. The creeping silence of her movements. The swirling secrets behind her dark eyes. The power that seemed to have multiplied in the months since I last saw her. How she seemed to know I was chosen. What Barrett had revealed about the source of dark power in the Engrossian Territories. The intricacies of how those pools worked, what they took…
