Dragons were creatures of the Forger—hercreations. The sight of it now brought a tear to her eyes, a fond smile to her lips, and a renewed sense of purpose as she wound her way through the prison.
There was one other stop she had to make before getting to work on drawing Emory’s blood.
“I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing you on your knees, Sidraeus.”
He glared up at her, hands bound behind his back, damper collar stark on his neck. Atheia ran a finger along one of the spiral runes on his collarbone, delighting in the way he shuddered and jerked away at her touch. Her smile grew.
“This place must be torture for you, in such proximity to so many Eclipse-born experiencing pain both physical and mental. Did you know I managed to capture acorvus serpentes? Now that the worlds are combined, I look forward to hunting down other creatures born of your magic to see how hurting them affects you. What’s the one that’s considered the Night Bringer’s emblematic beast? Ah yes, thepanthera noctua. Maybe I’ll go after every single version of your abominations, one of each world. If I’m to save the realms by ridding them of all traces of Eclipse magic, none of them should be spared.”
Sidraeus’s silence—forced onto him by compulsion magic—was delectable. “What, nothing to say?” Atheia teased, finally lifting the Glamour.
His throat worked as if testing out his ability to speak. “Why don’t you just end it?” he said roughly. “Do what it is you’ve been longing to do and kill me already.”
“You saw what happened when I tried.” The memory still infuriated her, how something had prevented her from ending his life back at Aldryn. “It seems we cannot kill each other.”
“Then get someone else to do it.”
“Oh no. I’ve decided that would be far too easy for you.”
“You want every trace of my magic gone, so end me and see if it erases all of it. See if it does anything to save your precious worlds. I’d wager it doesn’t, but if you promise to let Emory go, I’ll accept the risk.” He squared his shoulders, as if ready for the deadly blow they both knew Atheia couldn’t give him. “Go on. Take what it is you want.”
Atheia’s blood boiled. “You have no idea what I want,” she hissed. “I want you to admit you were wrong back then. I want you to take responsibility for what happened. I want anapology.”
Sidraeus laughed. “Then I’m afraid you’ll never get what you want, Atheia. Because I want the same things from you, but I at least know it’s a lost cause.”
The fury inside Atheia became a hurricane. “I’m going to make you regret ever stepping foot in the realms of the living.”
She stormed out of the room before he could see the tears in her eyes. She wiped them away furiously, at war with these feelings inside her. The hurt she hadn’t fully acknowledged yet, the heartbreak that echoed from over a millennium ago. She wanted none of it.
So she would break him before it broke her.
47EMORY
EMORY GROGGILY OPENED HER EYES. The stark light that met her was disorienting. She tried to move, but found her wrists and ankles tied to a gurney. Panic shot through her, sharpening her focus. She was in a sterile room that was faintly familiar, wearing some kind of hospital gown. In the crook of her arm was a bandage. Beside her, syringes and vials full of blood.
Her silver blood.
The Institute. She’d only ever been here once, when she’d snuck in with Baz to see Kai, but she recognized the grimness of the place with painful realization.
How much blood would Atheia take from her? How long could she be kept here, weakened as her verylife forcewas taken away from her to give to others?
“Hurts, doesn’t it, to feel so powerless?”
Emory’s head snapped to the side, the quick movement making her dizzy. Romie stood in the doorframe. No, not Romie.Atheia,face twisted in cruelty. She was still wearing the dress she’d worn at Aldryn.
“What did you do to them?” Emory asked, voice coming out weak from disuse. “Virgil, Nisha…” The rest of the names died on her lips.
Luce.
Her own mother, caught up in something that should never have involved her.
“There, there,” Atheia said placatingly. She came to stand beside Emory, gently wiping at a tear on her cheek. As if she cared. “I said I’d give them the opportunity to atone for their traitorous alliance with Eclipse-born, didn’t I?”
The way she said it made it sound like this method of atonement was the sort of painful torture Emory couldn’t fathom.
“Your Eclipse friends, on the other hand…” Atheia tutted. “They’ll get what’s coming to them. Just imagine: your blood, used to power lunar mages who will bring about the end of your fellow Eclipse-born. There’s an exquisite irony there.”
“No one’s going to let you get away with this.”
