As if they’d let him.
A gentle pulse echoed through Arianna’s body. She turned her attention inward, noting the friendly presence that had been living inside her for her entire life. She’d once called it a creature. Now she called it a friend.
Laoirse.
The previous Divine.
A queen who hadn’t been able to rest because she’d failed in her task.
She sought permission now and Arianna granted it, letting Laoirse expand using her own power.
Vairik’s lips parted as he watched Laoirse materialize, a ghostly figure walking across the field toward the male who had tried to ruin their lives.
Vairik threw out his magic again. It did nothing.
He stepped back, his mouth gaping, heart beating fast.
“Why do you fear me?” she asked, voice ethereal and dream-like.
Vairik stopped moving. His mouth gaped, taking her in from head to toe. “Laoirse.” He didn’t say the name with malice, but rather with reverence. As if she were the center of his entire world.
Laoirse tilted her head, staring at him. Weighing her next words. “For years I wanted nothing more than vengeance,” she admitted. “I wanted to watch you suffer and burn for everything you’d done.”
“I gave you freedom,” Vairik countered.
“Freedom? Freedom from what?”
“From him,” Vairik bared his teeth at Rion. “From the bond the world forced you to accept. I set your soul free.”
“You tore it apart,” Laoirse said, sadness lacing her tone. “You stole the most important person in the world to me.”
“No—”
“Yes,” Laoirse interrupted, her voice forceful and laced with grief. “Yet, you are the one who has suffered in shackles of your own creation.” Her gaze softened and with it, her voice. “You are the one who couldn’t escape.”
Vairik trembled. Arianna found herself surprised the male could even experience fear. “You promised we were forever. We had dreams. You were everything and then he—he—”
“We were younglings,” Laoirse said. “My promises were from one with a youthful heart. One who didn’t yet understand what forever meant. You’ve held onto the promises of a child.”
“No, no, I didn’t—” Rage tore through his features again and his magic lashed out, whipping the ash up like dark flakes of snow. Power flared around Laoirse’s body, as bright and all-consuming as Arianna’s own.
The female was a part of her and not, all at the same time. She was ancient and unyielding. And finally accepting her fate as it had been dealt.
Laoirse collected herself and stepped forward again. “I have been allowed to come here and exact my own revenge for what you stole.” Vairik backed away. Laoirse drew closer, her hand out stretched. Rays of light extended from her palms and latched onto Vairik as if they were tendrils of living rope.
He screamed, the strands burning through the flesh around his wrists.
“I was taught The Divine had the ability to heal a soul, even one as lost as yours.” She clenched her fists and Vairik fell to his knees. “Although sometimes, it is not healing a soul needs, but torment.”
Vairik’s entire body shook. “What are you doing?”
“Showing you how little your version of freedom meant to me.” His eyes grew wide again. “The gods have sentenced you to ten thousand years in the deepest pits of hell. There, you will suffer. There, you will face the consequences of your actions. Once you finish your sentence, we’ll see if your darkness can be cured.”
“Wait,” Vairik pleaded, his voice far too calm for someone about to encounter eternal punishment. “Are you free? Are you safe in the afterlife?” He sounded so … sincere. As if the idea of Laoirse suffering wasn’t something he could handle.
Laoirse smiled, but before she could answer, Ellie emerged from the ash like a wraith and plunged her blade straight through Vairik’s heart. Arianna stared at her little sister. She looked so frail and yet so fierce. She’d sensed her, but Arianna had never imagined—no, somewhere inside herself, she’d known.
Vairik’s face collided with the hard ground. Ellie twisted the blade, extracted it, then shoved it through his heart again. Again. Again. Blood splattered across Ellie’s face. She withdrew the blade. Plunged it down again. “Ten thousand years,” Ellie spat. “To hell with that, you can burn for eternity.”
