Just to laugh with her Goddess as they frolicked in the Void?
That was a brand of cruelty I had neither the experience to deal with nor anticipate.
Crumpling, I sat back, setting my ass cheeks to the bathroom tiles, regardless of the chill. Scrubbing at eyes too drained to bother with tears—eyes that begged me to forget this insanity, crawl back into his bed, and embrace defeat with whatever shreds of dignity I possessed.
It wasn’t until my vision sparkled with dark stars that I began to realize just how cruel a woman Sasha had truly been—all the more so for her genius, for it was then I realized one horrible, poetic truth.
There wasoneway through this that didn’t involve me submitting to a life of slavery, but it would cost the sum value of the very thing I intended to reclaim. A price so steep, I’d never consider it if there was even a whisper of another way.
My independence.
Tattered heart singing with emotions too complex to unravel, I picked the scabs ringing my right wrist raw. Picked until it bled and the smear of crimson confirmed her choice to be the correct one.
As ifall of ithad been for this.
I sighed, feeling the weight of free will stripped away, leaving me lightheaded. Weightless, as dark feathers pulsed with hated, renewed purpose.
After all, I’d been promisedeverything—what more could I do than accept?
Chapter 17
It was clear, given the contents of this ‘gift’, that I wasn’t the intended owner of three-fourths of the things bequeathed to me. Clear Sasha had meant me to be nothing more than a delivery agent of her most prized possessions. I cursed and began to unpack items I had no desire to touch, let alone accept guardianship over.
First, and largest among them, was the ancient text I’d first encountered the day Tritan fell. Marked simply with a silver etching of the Priestess symbol, Sasha had wrapped it in a fine, sheer linen. Protecting those elderly pages from desecration as best she could, and apart from removing it from the case, I didn’t disturb those efforts. Just set the dusty old tome aside and moved on to sort the rest.
The next item, and last of the surviving Priestess relics, was none other than one withered Lotus Regula. Shriveled and absent its plain clay pot, I wrapped it in a dry washcloth from the sink and bundled it away. Careful to keep its desecrated flesh apart from mine, lest I awaken it without the ability to return it to hibernation.
The third was far and above the most inherently repulsive of the lot, both for its ability to render the Blood fragile and mundane, and its history of ending an era by doing exactly that.
Sasha had returned the single, rounded ingot of Eidolon I’d lost in her office at the hands of the late General Tilcot. Arguably one of the pieces the Captain had used to sedate the Wood’s Menace, and the very same I’d worn to disguise my Truth only hours before. That, too, was wrapped in a bit of cloth and set aside.
It was the fourth and final of her gifts that set my teeth on edge. The most loathsome of the bunch, and the only one Ihadto handle. An unused set of Tritan chains to match the ones already melted into my skin. Three delicate rings for a prospective slave, one thicker, masculine cuff for a would-be master. Sinister, even in their glittering beauty. Re-purposed with a prospect all the more heinous for my lack of participation in the matter.
Sasha hadn’t moved against the captain for fear of obliterating theonebeing who could stand before an Empath without blinking. Who could bathe in darkness without suffering the consequences and balance the scales between the Blood. She’d trained him in the ways of the Goddess and had given him the gift of control. Freed him of Glaith dependency and shielded him from discovery.
But as I sat there—bare-assed and seething with fated impotence—I knew she hadn’t doneanyof it for cruelty’s sake.
Above all else, Sasha had meant to restorebalance.
She’d paid with her life to get me the contents of this box, and no matter the urge to delay until time ran out, I gnashed my teeth and prepared as best I could. The largest of the golden circlets—the one meant to ring the throat of a slave—needed to taste the master’s blood.
As he had done in the shower stall only days prior, I pressed the tiny glass vial embedded in the gold until it swung open. Sent it to drink from the deepest of the self-inflicted, scabby wounds ringing my wrist, then snapped it shut. Filled with a crimson smear, I watched the whole set glow white-hot for a single instant, knowing this was it.
There was nothing left, but the taking of my moment and the surrender of the only thing I’d never willingly give.
Grim, I stood, setting the bracelets atop the ones already permanently affixed to my skin. Warming the gold against my wrists, yet leaving the clasps unhinged. Ready. Hiding them where he wouldn’t think to look until it was too late. I kept the largest two separate. Knowing the collar was too small to fit around his neck, and the master cuff couldn’t be hidden in plain-sight. I’d have to improvise and hope the improvised positioning on his body wouldn’t affect the outcome.
And if he could sense the subtle lure of Glaith within these chains through his sleep? Well… I’d just have to do something to distract him.
Whatever it took.
I didn’t bother with a steadying breath. Didn’t pause to fret about the possibility of failure, or what the consequences could be for victory. I simply opened the door and approached the sleeping Elite Trila-Glís, naked and unashamed.
Fated to restore balance.
He was as I’d left him. Right forearm slung over his eyes, left stretched toward the bedside table and his pendant. Glorious, spent, and far,fartoo trusting of the dark thing he’d chosen to share intimacy with. A thing without remorse for the prospect ofbreakingthat fragile trust.
Silent, I claimed the foot of the bed. Crawled over rumpled sheets and long, splayed legs, careful of the golden circlet caught tight in either fist to stop them from clinking and clacking. My attention snared at the sight of that slumbering beast between his legs, waiting limp and placid against his thigh. Even shrunken, it made my sex clench with lewd memory, and fascinated, I watched it twitch.
