“Whatever power you’re using to beguile my enemies, it will not work on me,” he says.
Both the Frost King and Ember King remain unmoving, each more than five paces away from me, their eyes glazed and, even now, within my mind, I’m telling them…
Wait for me!
Let me go!
The Iron King leans toward me, and I fight the pull of energy around him, the magic that seems to radiate out from him with every ragged breath he takes.
“You may fear them,” he whispers, his lips curving into a smile. “But I’m the real monster.”
His arms shoot out to seize me, and I respond on pure instinct, lifting the Dragonstone Blade and preparing to defend myself with it.
My eyes widen because it’s gone!
No, notgone.
The blade has turned itself vertical, lifting itself parallel to the underside of my arm, where I couldn’t see it, while it still felt like I was holding it. Before my eyes, the blade is adhering to my skin, sinking into my flesh.
With a shout, I stumble back from the Iron King, clawing desperately at the dagger, trying to leverage it off myself and keep it at bay.
He pauses, his brow furrowed and his shoulders tense.
Not for long.
Stepping toward me again, he moves with the stealth of a predator while the golden metal sinks into my arm and the ivory ribbon rises of its own accord, twining up and around my limb.
I can’t stop it. I can’t halt the blade’s descent into my flesh. I don’t feel any pain. Instead, deep fear thrums through me, an overwhelming force that threatens to consume my hope even as I fight back against it.
I can’t give in to shock, or I’ll be lost.
Within heartbeats, the blade has merged with my body, and so does the cloth, and now they appear as an elaborate, inked artwork adorning my arm.
The blade’s golden hilt sits across my palm while its cross-guard wraps around my wrist like a bracelet, and its sharp tip points to the inside crease of my elbow. The ivory ribbon is like white ink trailing along and around my arm from my palm all the way up to my biceps, stopping below the edge of my tunic’s short sleeve.
As I continue to back away, the Iron King follows after me, matching each step I take with one of his own, the thread between us remaining taut until I hit the wall behind me, pressing up against it as if it will somehow give me answers or provide my freedom.
My father’s body lies within reaching distance, his form even more collapsed now.
Oh, Father…
Why?
I raise my head, facing the Iron King as he looms over me.
His furious green gaze collides with mine.
A whisper tears from my throat as I seek meaning from the two visions now writhing within my mind. Visions of darkness, claws, teeth, blood, and beasts.
“You must earn what you desire,” I choke out, even if I don’t know what that means.
With that, the blade’s energy finally,finallybegins to recede, leaving me to slump against the wall, my thoughts filled only with questions for which I have no answers.
“WhatIdesire?” The Iron King gives me a smile that sends a shiver down my spine, demanding my complete focus once more. “Why don’t we find out what that could be?”
I close my eyes and bury my fears as I accept the only path that now seems available to me. “To you, I will submit.”
Chapter Nine
