Like Dove deserved to bleed out for the sins of King Daire.
My twin has been missing for years. Threats to Lazarus can no longer control me.
I tilt up my head, before marching across the smooth sandstone floor toward the inner sanctum of the High Priestess.
I shove aside the ribbons that flutter across the archway and enter the small, shadowed chamber. My eyes sting with the thickclouds of honeyed frankincense that rise in thick coils through the too still air.
Nebet and Ruin are both whispering together in front of a small, raised stone shrine to the Void Devils in the center.
Fear catches at my heart at the sight of the shrine.
I have spent more hours than I can count kneeling on aching knees with my bat wings forced out into a stress position by Nebet’s ribbons, worshiping the very gods, to whom my twin was going to be sacrificed.
Everything began with the Void.
Everything will end with the Void.
As soon as I stalk toward Nebet, the ribbons on the walls snap out protectively, wrapping around my wrists, waist, and ankles, dragging me up into the air.
But I’m not a child anymore.
I transform to smoke, slipping between the ribbons. I land behind Nebet and Ruin with a growl.
Neither look around at me.
“You taught me too well for that to work,” I snarl.
“I didn’t call for you.” Nebet’s ribbons weave around me, until she waves a dismissive hand and they flutter back to lie against the walls.
“I didn’t ask you to kill my Omega’s soulmate.”
Finally, Nebet turns with a sharp smile. “You’re welcome.”
I smile back with dark satisfaction. “He’s not dead. I bit him. Claimed him as my Blood Lover.”
Ruin chuckles. “Our captive beast here does like to try to prove he’s still independent. I miss his good, obedient brother. Now, there was a sweet Blood who?—”
“Speak about my twin again,” I say through gritted teeth, “and they shall be the last words on your tongue because I shall have ripped it out.”
Ruin’s leathery face pales.
He leans on the shrine behind him. “There is feisty and then there is simply unhinged.”
“I crossed that line a long time ago.” My gaze flicks to Nebet. “It’s how you like me.”
She nods, before demanding, “Why are you here?”
“I have bonded my Omega.” I rip off my glove, throwing it onto the floor to show off my Ankh mark.
Nebet gasps. “You dared…?”
“Then just imagine what else I would now dare. So, call off whatever assassination attempts you are scheming for either the fae or the wolf. I know you have them planned.”
“I am the Chief Priestess. You don’t command me in my own temple.”
“Swear a Blood Oath that no Scarlet Temple assassins will harm them,” I persist.
“Only if you assassinate Aurelius.”
