Cullen tilts his head slightly, sharing my confusion. “And why would your deaths bother me in the least?”
“Two reasons,” Anrai replies assuredly, “One, I will steal my death from you and your vengeance against me will remain unpaid. And two, you don’t know the other lines in the prophecy yet.”
Cullen opens his mouth to protest, but Anrai only shakes his head. “You don’t. If you did, you would have killed Mirren the moment you set foot in this dungeon. But you can’t because you don’t know the rest. You can’t be sure that her death isn’t what will bring magic back. So let my friends go. Allow Mirren to return to Similis. Or I will slit her throat and then my own and you can watch the Dead Prophecy come to life and the kingdom you’ve built crumble before your eyes.”
Cullen's face flashes with rage, and for a moment, I fear he will fling another dagger at Anrai. But instead, he watches his son. “You’re too weak.”
Anrai stares at him coldly. “Am I, Father? I am your child, after all.” His face is a mask of violence and death, the ruthless assassin that will burn the world down to get what he wants.
Cullen nods. “It’s a deal.”
“Swear it.”
“I swear I will not harm any of them,” he affirms.
Anrai only waits.
“And I will command no other to do so. So long as you swear your allegiance to me, the girl may return to Similis.”
Anrai nods once. Cullen watches his son stride toward him, a long-sought prize, finally his. His face looks skeletal in the dim cavern light, inhuman and cold, as if he imagines all the possibilities to make his son pay for his betrayal over and over again. To strip everything from him until he is cowering and broken.
“Shaw!” I cry out, scraping my nails against the cavern floor and dragging myself toward him. My nails tear and my fingers bleed, but I will crawl until only nubs remain if I have to.
Shaw opens his mouth, but Cullen shakes his head, a knowing smile cracking his sharp face. “I don’t mean to hear your meaningless words. You will swear your soul to me, forevermore.”
Cullen gestures to the soldiers that Max and Cal tied up, still huddled against the opposite wall. The Praeceptor’s men, forgotten and discarded by their own leader. Until now. “Kill them. Give up the last pieces of your soul and turn yourself over to the Darkness. It is only then you will rule beside me. Give up your humanity and revel in fire and blood.Thisis how you shall pay for your betrayal.”
Anrai’s eyes flare, hesitation and horror flickering across his face. They are gone as quickly as they appear, replaced by hard pressed lips, a locked jaw, and his fingers curled determinedly around his dagger. He means to give himself up.Allof him.
I take my hands away from Cal. My bones are frail, but I force them to hold my weight as I shove myself to my feet. My muscles shriek in agony and pain shoots through every limb, blinding hot. But I move forward, toward Anrai. To fight and scream and rage until he knows it is not just his own soul he sacrifices. It is also Cal’s and Max’s. And mine.
In a world where I have never possessed anything of my own, I know it as surely as anything: Anrai’s heart is mine. His soul is mine. And if he cannot defend them, I will.
I fling myself across the dungeon, ignoring the pain that crawls up my bones, the splinters of my heart slicing through my chest. Cullen motions to a soldier at the entrance and he runs toward me, sword drawn. I yank my dagger from its sheath and stab him in the hand. Another comes, and another, their arms as tight as iron manacles around my limbs. Energy blooms within me, fed by something deeper than my power. I claw at flesh, kick at bones until I feel them crumple. My screams ofAnrai, Anrai, Anrai,echo across the dank cavern.
Anrai stares down sorrowfully at the gagged soldier in front of him.
“Don’t do this! It isn’t worth your vow!” I thrash and shriek, gouging at a soldier’s eye until I feel a pop and squelch. Another wrenches my arm behind my back, but I am already bringing my heel down on the arch of their boot. “I’m not worth your vow!” My feet are swept out from under me, and I’m brought crashing to the ground. My arm cracks. The dust inside me climbs my throat and settles into my mouth, burning my tongue.
Anrai finally raises his eyes to me. “You are,” he says fiercely. “You all are.” I remember the first time I saw him, enamored and terrified by his pale blue gaze. I was reminded of a glacier, cold and remote. But now I only see his fire; the way it warmed and protected me. How it never stopped burning, never for a moment wavered in nurturing my strength, in enveloping me in his own.
“Anrai, don’t do this. We will find another way.” My eyes are hot, but I have no tears. Every bit of my water is gone, even the part that longs to weep.
Because after everything, Anrai still does not believe that he is worth saving. He will go to the Darkness believing he is worth nothing but the parts of himself he can sacrifice.
“Heal them, Mirren,” he tells me softly and I realize why it must be him; why it must be me that stays behind. “Heal them and heal Easton. And thenlive.You are the only good inside me. And you deserve to live.”
I shake my head, thrashing as another set of hands hauls me to standing. I rage and scream and slash, but my body is failing. “I don’t care if you swear to him in blood and Darkness, Anrai Shaw, you are mine! Do you hear me?! You can never be his because you aremine.Now and forever.”
His throat wobbles. He presses his eyes closed for only a moment. When they open again, they are blank. He lowers himself in front of the soldier. The man thrashes against his bindings, lip wavering against his gag as Anrai meets his eyes. Even now, he will not gift himself with anonymity.
He opens the man’s throat with one efficient motion.
My screams are lost somewhere in my throat as Anrai’s body seizes. He falls to the ground beside the dead man, his temple cracking against the stone floor. He convulses violently and I gasp as his eyes flash from ice blue to pure black.
Cullen walks to him, purposeful and victorious. He takes his son’s hand and with a flash, they disappear while I still crawl.
ChapterForty-One
