Memory after memory flooded my mind, filled with secret meetings, whispered thoughts, and shared information. They filled my head until I couldn’t stand it any longer, and still I fought, forcing myself to stay with them in the past.
A heated argument outside a cave, rain drowning out the words. There were tossed arms and accusations until the dam finally broke, and the heat of the argument turned into passionate kisses. Moans, drowned out by the thunderstorm, gave way to whispered promises that extended far beyond a world ravaged by war.
Details of the bargains made and deals struck. Vvive and Gathrriel were a force of nature when they took to the skies. The battles they fought were legendary. I saw how the war changed in the gods’ favor.
Tears and Death. I saw him standing over a broken Gathrriel, Vvive baring her soul and forming the first Mark of Dhihsin. Things changed with the new alliance, but one thing remained. Although a partnership was tolerated, nothing beyond that would be.
Vvive was taken back to her father’s kingdom, and Gathrriel left with nothing but a letter not written in Vvive’s hands, but her father’s.
A sharp pain made my ears ring, and the memory faded. I yanked once more, and the visions came blaring back.
“But, Father, I love him.”
“Love? He has twisted your mind and used you. Can you not see?”
Her hands fell to her stomach, smoothing the thin gown over her small, growing bump.
Her father recoiled. “Abomination!” he spat.
My skull throbbed, the colors of the vision bleeding into each other before it all changed.
Darkness swathed the sky, growing deeper with every wing beat. Fear surged through my veins, making my blood feel hot and thick. She had been gone too long, and I felt … I couldn’t put into words what I felt. All I knew was that it was gone. How could it be gone?
I landed, shifting back to my natural form before my feet touched the ground. Guards in silver armor yelled and scattered as I ran up the ivory stairs, racing into my own personal nightmare. Blood pooled on the stone floor and dripped from the walls, desecrating the once-pristine beauty of this room. My gaze fell on the small, crumpled figure at the feet of the soldiers. Pain tore through me, exploding from my throat in an anguished roar. The soldiers, their swords still in their hands, didn’t have time to react. Flames washed over them, turning everything they touched to ash, and they rolled over everything but her. Vvive lay on the blood-slicked floor, her small, broken hand resting on her stomach. I knew she’d sought to protect our child up until her dying breath.
Agony, immeasurable and boundless, consumed my skin, my bones, and my soul. I didn’t know when I’d fallen to my knees and gathered her into my arms, but I held my amata and child tight against my chest when I threw my head back and screamed my vow of vengeance.
War began. Well, I started the war, in all its unholy glory. I immersed myself in the violence, raising hordes of Ig’Morruthens and leading them into battle after battle against the gods. We won, and we lost in an endless cycle of death, but no matter how much blood I sacrificed in her name, the pain never eased. It wasn’t until I held the head of her father, his face frozen in death, that I realized how deep my wounds were. I had finally killed the being that had taken everything I held dear, and it still was not enough.
I returned to my realm and its fiery pits, fleeing to the only home I’d ever known, but there was no surcease there either. My true home was Vvive. She’d filled the world with love, peace, and comfort. Without her, it was nothing but bones and ash-covered stone.
When Death finally came, and my knees buckled in battle, I still wasn’t done. As long as gods lived, I would not rest. I had to avenge her and our child. I used my last breath to curse this realm and my blood, so that one day, I could return and finish what I had started. In doing so, I sentenced myself to limbo, existing in no realm or dimension, but somewhere in between. I was here, but not. It was as if my soul were in a different world, looking through a portal into this one. It was pain and torture unlike anything I’d experienced on the living plane, but it was still paradise to me.
Unir and … oh, gods. Two forms stood with him. All of them dressed in the same hooded garbs.
I turned toward a woman with bright green eyes, her gaze boring into mine. The witch. She had helped me. “They will taint your bloodline.”
The world is hot and bright and screaming new where they are.
“They will make it anew.”
A baby wailed, and I watched Unir wrap a newborn in a soft blanket, a tiny little girl with silver hair.
My heart hammered painfully hard in my chest, and my head felt as if it were splitting in two. I had to tell Samkiel. The cavern bent and cracked, the magic used to sustain it emptying like water poured from a cup.
Behind me, I heard the beat of heavy boots against stone moving quickly down the tunnel toward me. As if I’d summoned him with my suffering, Samkiel burst into the cavern. He was covered in dirt and debris, and he looked as if he had battled the mountain itself to get to me. He crashed to a stop in front of me, and I gripped his arms, grounding myself in his presence.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyes scanning frantically for wounds.
“The chalice,” I managed to say, gesturing toward the cup. It was empty now, not a single drop of his blood left in it.
“Did you drink it?” he asked. “All of it?”
I nodded frantically. “I saw. Oh, gods, I saw everything.”
“Slow down, talk to me,” he said.
But I couldn’t. I was panting, and I hurt as if I’d lived it all, but it was not my past. It was Gathrriel’s, Vvive’s, and Unir’s. Oh, gods. What had he done?
