The serpent’s mouth is open right below his neck, revealing fangs like slivers of midnight. Its eyes are the deepest of blacks, yet they seem to shine just as Vyran’s scales do.
Ghostly silver accents are woven through the coils. Petals of silver flowers I’ve never seen before, wisps of mist, and behind it all are faint traces of skeletal wings barely visible against his skin. At the tip of its tail, the final piece, a crescent moon is cradled in the serpent’s tail. It’s as sharp as a reaper’s scythe, and the curve of it gleams faintly in silver ink, the only light amid the abyss.
“Inni marked me first, tying me to her with a magic older than the Fae, but because of a deal my mother made with my Mistress, she, too, had claim to my soul and this body. I am hers to use untilthe danger of the Hunters has passed. That will be the day that I’m finally free.”
I look over it, and everything in me yearns to reach out to touch the intricate marking, but I don’t. “Are all champions marked in this way?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I told you. I’munique.”
“But why? Aren’t you just one of the champions? Why are you so special?”
He turns back to face me. “Because I wasn’t born to lead my Mistress’s troops. I was born to lead Nyth against the Hunters. I was born to bathe the world in blood. The others… they were simply the ones who could offer a kingdom in exchange for the role of champion. There’s a reason that in the Pact between the gods, the champions were excluded from being reborn. The gods wanted them to die so they could choose optimal candidates to replace them with. Well, other than me and Aunt Ainslee. We were decided upon before the war even began.”
He steps closer to me, and I take a step back, not letting him wrap me in the seduction that is such an innate part of him. “Last night, before you told me… You were taking off my clothes. Why?”
It’s an abrupt question, I’m sure, but ever since the moment I met Azric, he’s been teasing me with every touch.
He smiles at me. “Because you’re like me. There is no one like you in all of Nyth, and just like me, you have followed your destiny, never truly straying from the path that was laid before you. I think it’s time we both should step off that path. I don’t know how, and I doubt you do either, but there is something that ties us together.”
“What does that have to do with you taking my clothes off?” I say brusquely. “We could have sat and talked openly and honestly, something you seem very hesitant to do. I doubt that requires my clothes to come off.”
The corner of his lip curls up. “Are you sure it doesn’t?” He takes a step back, giving me even more space. “I am who I was built to be. I have beentrainedto use my skills to get what I want. Have you not been taught to do the same? My tools are simply different from yours.”
My eyes turn to slits as I stare at him. “I have never sought to do anything other than survive my time here.”
He arches one of those beautiful black eyebrows at me, and the smile doesn’t leave his lips. There’s laughter in his eyes as he says, “Oh, so you aren’t trying to become Nyxthos’s champion to further my Aunt’s desires? You aren’t trying to extend Sylvantia’s reach into Dunloch? Are you truly only trying to survive, little human?”
I catch how he changed from calling me a Priestess after only the one mention, and I file it away as a strangely kind act. “I want to help other people survive and be happy. That’s all. I thought I was supposed to become a Priest all my life, and when I realized I wasn’t ever going to be, I jumped at the chance to become Nyxthos’s champion. Since then, all I’ve done is survive this place. Maybe it was a mistake to come here. Maybe it was a mistake to think I could be as strong or smart or experienced as all the rest of the people here.”
“A noble purpose, though it’s useless.” He sits down on air, and shadows rise to meet him, creating a throne of sorts beneath him. Hebrushes most of my comments away, though. “Your skills are limited, Fiona. That’s why you haven’t used them to gain an advantage. That’s the only reason. Now, as to why I wanted your clothes to come off. Well, to be completely honest, I don’t know. I’d thought it was to convince you to listen to me, but you already were.”
He frowns and looks down at the ground. “Why did I try to take your clothes off?” He gets a strange look in his eyes, almost as though he’s forgotten I’m in the room with him. “I’d wanted to see your markings, but that wasn’t all. If it’d been anyone else, it’d make sense, but not with you. Then I’d have to…”
He shakes his head and looks up at me with an intensity I haven’t seen before. “What are you?” he whispers. “What is it about you that’s so different? Why am I drawn to you?”
I shrug. “I don’t know.”
His orange eyes burn. “I don’t either, and that’s terrifying.”
I can’t help but laugh at the intensity. “You’re terrified of me? Of a human? You, the Prince of Bones. The one that everyone tiptoes around. You can’t be serious.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t understand. You can’t. I said you were put in my path for a reason, and I thought I knew what that reason was. But now… Now I can’t be sure. Destiny is a terrifying thing, and unlike you, I’ve watched it unfold. I’ve seen the lines that fate follows. You have followed your path perfectly, exactly as it was ordained since the moment Rhaskar took you. You are a tool for one ofthem, and I don’t know what your purpose is exactly.”
I frown in response. I hate the idea that I’ve been manipulated my entire life, even though I’ve realized it’s true. “Put your clothes back on,” Azric says. “I’ll take you to Darian. I think we both need to spend some time thinking. We’ll meet up again in a few days.”
I nod, and I ignore the fact I’m wearing the clothes Rhaskar Thorne gave to me. I can’t stop the anger that’s slowly building inside me. Maybe it wasn’t just Rhaskar who manipulated me. Maybe the gods were just as much a part of it.
Chapter 30
“You interfered, didn’t you, you miserable little shit? First, you kill my champion, and now you break the Laws of the Pact. You know what she is.”
“Lord of Darkness, if I were to interfere, you would know, wouldn’t you? All these trials take place in your realm. How would a simple Fae, such as myself, fool a godin their own realm?Or do you believe I’m powerful enough to trick you?”
“No, of course not. But you did something. The human didn’t escape without help.”
“Maybe you have rats. They’ve been known to ruin all sorts of plans. I know a good rat catcher…”
~Conversations between Nyxthos and the Prince of Bones
