I feel myself shrinking, but one thing stands out clearly in my mind. The last thing I want to do is tell anyone the prophecy Saelira gave me.If you compete in the next trial, you will die.
I don’t say a word, and Azric is beside me in a moment, his powerful hands pulling me toward him. I’d felt powerful when I spoke to the goddess. I’d been the woman Rhaskar had taught me to be, willing to defy the strongest being on Nyth, willing to face my death to save the ones who can’t save themselves.
In that moment, I was what the Order wanted from every single one of their Priests. I was fearless, selfless, and a perfect image of what I’ve always held dear. But now… Now, I’m falling apart.
Azric runs his hand over my back as he pulls me against his chest. Silent tears roll down my cheeks, and there aren’t words to tell him. I don’t even have words to tell myself. The decision was simple, but acting on that decision is going to be the hardest thing I ever do. Every Priest expects to die in battle. I was raised with Rhaskar’s teachings in the back of my mind. There’s a reason there are so few old Priests. We die so others can live.
I just hadn’t expected to knowwhenit was going to happen.
“Fiona, how did you move across the room without me seeing?” he whispers. His hand never stops the soothing movement over my skin. It’s strangely human to feel him comfort me like this.
How do you put words to thoughts like these? How do you give them shape and realness. My mind can’t grasp them completely. Thinking hard about them is like trying to reach out and grab the wind. They’re everywhere, in every moment, but to consider them is impossible.
Because if I could truly see, feel, or accept those thoughts, it would mean I could accept that I have less than a week to live.
Instead, I pull away from Azric and look into those burning eyes. “I think I need to lie down. Will you hold me?”
His gaze lingers for half a breath before he nods. His nails run over my cheek just as they did the first time I met him, but this time, there’s no seduction in the movement. It’s soft. It’s kind.He takes my hand and leads me behind him to the bed where I’d thought we’d be making love.
Instead, as I lie down in it, he wraps his arm around me. A wing made of bone and shadow covers me. He’s everywhere, and I breathe in his scent. I sink into his warmth.
In this moment, I don’t think I could imagine myself anywhere else. Not in Stormhaven or in an embrace with Rhaskar. No, Azric is my anchor. He is the rock I cling to as the storm of fear threatens to sweep me away.
I give in to that warmth and his dark and powerful scent. Because tonight, he is not my enemy or even my ally. He’s the only person in the world.
Interlude 10
Theboy’stearshaddried up months ago. He was a shell of the boy who’d been brought to the Realm of Death almost a year ago. Pain was a constant to him. The feeling of his body being disfigured had become as commonplace as eating and breathing had been. As the Goddess of Death and Beauty walked across the crimson obsidian floor, leaving bloody footprints in her wake, she smiled because today would be different.
The red dragon watched from several yards away, her tail slowly brushing the boy’s naked body in reassurance. She had witnessed every cut, every broken bone, and every cry of despair. She had felt them through their bond.
He had never given in, had never taken up the torturer’s knife. He had been strong because she had been there for him. At the endof each day, when the goddess had healed his body, the dragon had helped his mind to relax. She had reminded him of how beautiful Nyth had been. She’d sent him images of laughter and sunshine and long summer days.
Inni the Destroyer had chosen the boy’s soul from the Void. Calyr had told her the hardship the boy would endure and the weight he would bear. He had seen what Lysara would demand of him. She’d spent months searching the Void with Vyran to find the perfect soul. She was responsible for this soul’s suffering, and that is why she had always been at his side.
But she could not bear his suffering any longer. It threatened to break her, something that had never happened to a dragon in all their history.
When the goddess stepped up to the boy, her smile widened. “You are more strong-willed than I’d expected, Azric Cyrus. A year of torture, and you still haven’t broken. You still refuse to do as you’re told.”
On this day, he smiled back. “Must be my father’s blood. He always told me he was a rebellious child.”
“That’s probably partly true,” the goddess said before turning to the red dragon. “But there’s something I know about your father that you may not. He would endure all the punishment in the world, but as soon as that punishment was directed toward someone else, his resistance faded. Today, you’re going to watch as I carve up your precious dragon. Sadly, I can’t heal her, so anything I do will be permanent. It ought to be quite an exciting day.”
The red dragon snarled at the goddess as she was expected to, but she had known this was coming. The boy no longer had to be bound in place with magic. He had learned to endure the pain of his torment without lashing out or trying to escape, but as soon as the goddess’s dagger came into existence, its blade coated in a long-dead god’s blood, he exploded toward her.
He could not shadow walk here, as none of the shadows connected to the Void. Instead, he became stronger and faster. Bones grew over his skin, creating an armor that no one else had ever made. His nails grew long and sharp and as hard as stone.
He leaped toward the goddess, and she didn’t even turn to him. Instead, just as those deadly claws were an inch away from her, his body stopped moving. She’d frozen him in place just as she’d done to his body the first time she’d tortured him.
“Your dragon may leave at any time if she wants, but she will not be allowed back. I value her for the coming war, but I value loyalty from you far more. We will see what the two of you choose to do. Remember, as soon as you do as I say, I’ll stop all of this. Take up my blade, and you’ll be rewarded, darling.”
The boy screamed out a cry of anger and pain, but he didn’t give in to the goddess. Frozen mid-air without a scrap of clothes on his body, he wanted to fight her. He wanted to drive his claws into her face and rip her eyes from her skull.
But he couldn’t move.
The goddess took another step toward the dragon, and the dragon tried to move back, but the goddess raised her hand. For just a moment, the dragon seemed to fight against the goddess’s power.Her leg quivered and slowly moved through the air, but then the goddess closed her fist, and Inni the Destroyer felt her body locked in a cage just as readily as if Vyran had wrapped his shadows around her.
“Remember, you may leave any time you wish, but until then, you are a resident of my realm, and what happens to you is done at my pleasure.”
