The soldiers holding Arina’s arms release her, and she reaches for her dagger.
Invidia is only mildly impaired by the blow, already pushing up from the ground.
She points a hand out in front of her, twisting her wrist and moving her fingers, manipulating the ground until it encases the soldiers nearest her. The material looks almost liquified as it climbs from their feet upward, turning them to stone that matches the marble floors.
Holy gods.
“You dare strike at me?” Invidia screams wildly, climbing to her feet and storming toward Eryk who turns to run. Many of the remaining soldiers on the upper level scatter, fleeing whenInvidia aims for the captain. He’s turned to stone before he reaches the exit.
I don’t know whether to be relieved or worried, because when I scan the rest of the room, I do not see my mate.
Arina is gone.
I lock eyes with Baltas who has gathered the remaining fighters below the staircase across from me.
I lift my chin in a slight nod, hoping he’ll take the gesture as an order to leave. He stares at me, frozen in place for a heartbeat too long, shaking his head in panicked horror. But then my friend leads his men to safety.
I need to find a way off the floor. If I’m not touching the ground, will it be more difficult for her to use her magic on me?
“I think it’s time you learn a thing or two about how we ended up here,” she shouts across the room at me and puts a hand forward. The ground beneath me goes soft, and I blur to the dais.
“You see, I was the sea god’s partner for many years. His favorite. He showered me with love and adoration the likes of which I had never known. He loved me so fervently that when I asked him to forsake any others he might wish to pursue, he agreed.” There’s a hint of melancholy in her voice.
“Until we discovered I was unable to bear his offspring. Do you know what that’s like? Having a purpose and being unable to fulfill it?”
I don’t respond. I'm crouched behind the throne, hoping she can’t turn me if she can’t see me.
“After those first few losses, he grew distant.”
My father is a fucking dick. I want to yell it. I don’t see why I should be punished for his poor behavior.
She continues, “One year, we attended a celebration of the gods. Here, in Lukasia. In this very hall. It was much of the usual. Food, dancing, drinking. I plastered a smile on my face and pretended to enjoy myself.”
I know where this story is going, and I hate it. I want to vomit.
“All the while, noticing that he couldn’t keep his eyes off their pretty little queen.”
My mother.
“He insisted on staying in the castle for the duration of the festival. I agreed on the condition that he allow me to stay with him. Though it was a great sacrifice on my part; the beds here are nothing compared to those in the gods’ realms, wouldn’t you agree?”
Her footsteps are still coming from the upper level, but she’s almost directly above me now.
“One night, I woke to find he was no longer in our bed. I stole out into the hall, following the sound of…lovemaking. When I reached them, she was already gone, but my lover was there, smelling of her and looking guilty as all hells.”
I risk a look at the landing above me, and Invidia is there, poised to make me her next decor victim. I blur under one of the staircases, but it takes effort, and the well of magic in my soul is emptying fast.
“He promised he never loved her, and just liked the way her fragile fae cunt felt against his cock.” The disgust in her words is more than evident.
“We went home, and I pretended I didn’t notice when he’d be absent for long periods. Didn’t notice he wasn’t touching me the way he used to, and his eyes weren’t lighting up at the sight of me. The following season, we returned for another celebration. It was the same story.”
“But that next season? She was pregnant. Her king doted and fawned over her so voraciously it made me sick,” she spits. “I was heartbroken to hear their sweet babe hadn’t survived childbirth.”
I whip my head around, trying to find the demon and planning my next steps when something dark flashes by a doorway of theupper level. If there’s another fucking shadow demon, I don’t see how any of us will survive it. Not without Gideon.
“But Hydreos was devastated when the news reached him. He didn’t even bother to hide it, just went on a rampage and demanded to see her.”
Another flash, and I locate Invidia at the top of the stairs across from me. At the same moment, the shadow runs at her from behind.
