Then I hear his voice. The low rumble that seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. Nyxthos. The God of Darkness and Secrets. The God of Fear. The God of the Realm of Night.
I’m about to become his champion. Even as my heart breaks for the ones that have been lost because of me, I know I’m going to save more because of their sacrifices. I’m going to become the monster I was raised to kill so that countless more will survive.
I survived Saelira’s prophecy. Somehow. Is the Mark of the Coin truly strong enough to alter destiny’s path? I thought only Caeldra’s powers could do that.
“Fiona Thorne, Daughter of Rhaskar Thorne, has won the title of Champion of Darkness and Secrets,” Nyxthos says slowly, and while I doubt his tone sounds any different to the rest of the audience, I know the seething anger he’s directing toward me. He didn’t want me as his champion. He doesn’t want anything to change.
My body slowly leaves the stone, his powers making me float and spin to face the audience. I still can’t feel my arms or left leg, but I don’t have to when Nyxthos is controlling my body.
I can see everyone sitting in the outdoor amphitheater while only Nyxthos and I are on the stage. Rhion and Ainslee are in the first row. Azric is in a back corner shrouded in shadows, his eyes never leaving me. All the dragons are perched along the top wall that rings the amphitheater. The other champions are here as well. Thecompetitors who died in the first two trials are here, though none of them are dressed for battle this time.
“She will succeed where Echo failed,” Nyxthos continues. “She will wield shadows like her predecessor. She will command my armies in my place, and she will be my voice when I am not available. But first, she will come with me to the Realm of Night to be trained.”
There’s a rumbling in the crowd, and a voice whispers to me from behind me, from the shadows. Azric. “Everyone heard what you told Isola. They know what you are and what you becoming the Champion of Darkness and Secrets means to the world.”
I smile at his words. Nyxthos jerks toward the sound, but I know Azric’s magic is already gone.
Nyxthos turns to me, putting himself between me and the crowd gathered around us. The God of Fear truly should be his title as I stare into those black eyes and realize just how furious he is. “You think you’re so clever, and you’ve been told that I cannot kill you, but there are no rules about how much I can torture you. Time is a strange thing, human. In the Realm of Night, years can pass in the span of a few breaths here, and you are mine until I say that you’retrained. By the time I’m done with you, you will wish for death, and I’m sure you’ll achieve it. That does not break any laws or oaths.”
Terror sweeps through me. I won, but what exactly did I win? He presses his hand against my chest, and dark power flows through me like a tidal wave of anguish. I try to scream, but the scream is swallowed up by the pain. “I give you the gift of truemagic in the form of darkness, Fiona Thorne. I give you the gift of shadows. I give you the gift of immortality. From this night forth, you will be known as the Champion of Nyxthos, the Champion of Darkness and Secrets. From now until the end of time, you are mine. Your soul has been bound to me.”
It’s exactly as he says. I feel him in every corner of my being, in my very soul. His power is washing over the woman I thought I was, and it’s changing me, altering the fabric of my existence. I am no longer human. I am no longer a Priest. I am no longer Rhaskar Thorne’s daughter.
I am the Champion of Nyxthos.
Chapter 58
They have found another world full of magic. This place is strange, though. I have seen it with my own eyes. An entire world full of warriors. This world might stand against them even if we couldn’t. I suggest we set sail immediately. They may be warriors, but they do not know what is coming.
~Missive to the Black Oath
Azric
I remember the way it felt when Lysara filled me with her power. The burn of it, the overwhelming sense of despair as I became something other than the man I thought I was. I will never forget it, and as I watch Nyxthos press his hand to her chest, my heart aches for her.
It’s necessary. I know that. All the champions had to endure that feeling, and Fionaneedsto become his champion. I’ve been doing everything I could to achieve this since these trials began.
She will survive. You did. She is just as strong as you are.Inni’s words in my mind are of little help. My nails dig into the stone as I watch her shake on the stage. I’ve watched her hurt more times than I can count, and each of them tore at me. That fucking human has wrapped herself around my heart, and there’s nothing I can do to distance myself. I’d hoped that when I stepped back after our dragon flight, it would allow me some semblance of control.
But when Isola had her pinned down in that last trial, I tried to save her. I tried to shadow walk to her side. I would have ripped Isola apart to save her, even if it had damned us all to the thirteen hells.
I glance at the black dragon perched beside Inni as I remember how he’d ripped control of shadows from me in that moment. All the way from outside the castle, he’d stripped me of the power I lean on the most. I had shattered every piece of furniture in my chambers as I watched her on the brink of death.
But she’d survived. Somehow, she’d convinced Isola to die in her place. Somehow, she’d reached out and pulled on one of the Undying’s heartstrings. My little Priestess survived one of the Lost One’s magic. She’d figured out all Nyxthos’s tricks to lead her to the altar. On her own. She’s grown so much since the night she robbed me.
Her body hangs limp, suspended in the air, and Nyxthos steps aside to address the audience one last time. I want to go to her, to hold her hand and tell her it will be okay. Damn the games I’m forced to play in this circus of fools.
She is strong, Azric Cyrus. She must stand on her own as she did in the trials. You cannot be her hero at every turn. Do not do anything foolish.
I snarl at her words, and from the corner of my eye, I see a puff of smoke leave Inni’s snout as she turns to look at me. I ignore her as I wait for Nyxthos to speak.
He doesn’t have a chance to, though. An explosion of power from above us draws every eye, including Nyxthos. A ship is floating twenty feet in the air.A crystal shipmade of a strangely glowing black stone with shadows for sails. It looks almost like Vyran’s scales with how much power is imbued in it, but that’s not possible. The ship is massive, at least fifty feet long. I take it all in without moving, without reacting, just as I’ve trained myself to do.
But the dragons react to the sight of the ship. All of them, in unison, scream, “The Hunters have come!”
I look to Nyxthos, and there’s fear in his eyes, but before anyone can react, an explosion hits the stage of the amphitheater and fills the air with some kind of glittery substance. Then, close to twenty humans in incredibly perfect steel armor leap from the ship onto the stage. Crystals like the ones the ship is made from are embedded in their breastplates, each of them glowing with different colors.
Without a thought, I try to reach out with shadows as I would with any other attack, to rip them apart regardless of their steel armor. Unlike when Vyran stripped the shadows from me, I can reach them, but as soon as I make the connection, it’s like I’m being drained of power. I feel as though I’m coated in the thickest steel imaginable, and I can feel my power fading faster than ever before.Even faster than when I was training Fiona, and that nearly killed me with how hard I was pushing.
