Perhaps he deserved to be here.
Cassiel circled the cell, testing that every bar was fused tight. It was recently built and made with enough space that it didn’t feel stifling. But how did she acquire Skath metal? How did she know where he would be and what he had been up to? Someone had been feeding her information.
Where was he? There was nothing in the old wine cellar but bland stone, a bed, a blanket, and a chamber pot for his shame.
The only window near the ceiling was no larger than a brick, and it provided no hint of his location. He could see nothing but grass and a patch of sky. There was no telling how long Dyna had kept him unconscious or how far she had taken him from Nazar. Evening light made its way in, leaving patterns on the floor for his only company with the thoughts that were loud in his head.
His boots scuffed the stone floor as he paced. Now he was trapped here while she could be killed at any moment. Muttering a curse, he aimed a kick at the barred door but halted when he remembered the repercussions. Looking at his feet reminded him of the pins fastened into his boots. Cassiel yanked one off and felt around the gilded embellishments built into the counter above the heel, but he found nothing.
The pins were gone. Both of them.
Blinking down at the empty groves, half-manic laughter bubbled up his throat. He couldn’t help it. Cassiel gripped his hair, pulling at his scalp until it stung.Clever girl.
He pitched his boot across the room, and it thudded violently against the wall across from him. Dyna knew him too well.
And she knew what this would do to him.
Clenching his shaking hands into fists, Cassiel forced himself to take a shallow breath. His chest felt too tight, and he was nauseous. It was an adequate punishment, he told himself. If she left him in here to rot, who could blame her?
Cassiel’s legs buckled, and he slid down the wall with his back against it. His mind was a mess of memories from their past life and their present one. So many, some bright and some dark, some missing and so confusing, it made his head hurt.
He never did tell her the truth of who he was and why he did this. Cassiel had thought he could erase it all by erasing them. But he should have known his stubborn, maddening, incredible mate would never let him get away with that.
He should have told her the truth. But he couldn’t, because her answer would be the same answerSheligave.
He heard an echo of two voices melding together, both sets of green eyes looking at him with complete love. One was spoken in spring and the other in winter.Through the darkness and through the flame, I’m with you, kohav...
Only one future waited at the end of that path. He couldn’t bear to witness the consequences again, so he had convinced himself leaving was the best thing for them.
The only thing he succeeded in doing was making her hate him.
They all did, if Zev and Lucenna’s cold expressions were any indication.
None of them realized what danger she was in now. He had to get out of here. His Valkyrie had to be nearby. Yelrakel wouldn’t allow him to be taken, but the only one who could command her would be Dyna.
The Queen of Fire.
Never did she cease to surprise him.
She was a marvel.
Her power had held up against him, and Cassiel couldn’t help feeling awed. It also gave him hope that she really could defend herself againstwhat was to come. ButShelihad also been powerful, and it didn’t prevent her death.
Cassiel winced at the horrid echo of the bond snapping in two. It was Kahssiel’spain, embedded so deep in his soul, he still felt it.
He couldn’t go through that again.
His entire body physically reacted at the thought. His stomach heaved, and his chest caved in as he struggled to breathe.
Cassiel pressed on his burning eyes as he recalled the day Dyna wept for him. He felt the shake in her hands, saw the shine in her wet eyes, pleading for him not to leave her. Over and over his mind plagued him with the image of betrayal on her face when he rejected the bond.
That agony lingered in his soul, like a wound that refused to heal. When he thought of her face that night, of all the cruel things he said, of how much pain he caused her, it strangled him. At the time, he told himself he could live with her hate, but he had not been prepared to see it.
And it brought him here.
Cassiel stared down at his hands blankly. A petal of Seraph flame wove through his fingers. Blue light glowed against the wall, making the shadows stretch. So many had fallen to his fire. That power had been easy to sink into. He could still taste it on his tongue and feel it like a current on his skin. It surfaced from within, rising like a feral creature of flame that urged him to eradicate all who defied him.
Maybe he had reason to fear you...
