Just as I faced Galla Vividari, mirroring her cruelty, so I must now reflect Antony’s darkness. Even if it only buys me a few more moments of life.
His lips twitch into a cold smile as he asks me softly, near-crooning, “Will you try to run now, Thyra?”
I take a deep, slow breath, trying to calm the thumping beatof my heart, a thump of blood that can only tempt him to drive his fangs into my throat without delay.
Just as softly, I lean closer, raise myself up on my tiptoes, brush my lips to his jaw, and ask, “Do you want me to?”
He shrugs but says, “Yes.”
I bite my lip. Slowly. Making sure he’s watching as I draw it between my teeth, releasing my lip again before I ask, “What if I run into the light?”
Again, his broad shoulders rise and fall. “I’m immune to light.”
“Liar,” I whisper. I don’t know what’s emitting the light behind me, but… “Starlight stings you.”
I remember the scent of burning skin when he used his starlight power in the bloodlands the first time we flew through here. I thought it was the scent of burning vampyr flesh—and it was, but it was also his own. The coin that had struck him in the back during the fight with the kings had burned into his skin. Now I’m sure it was because of Antony’s own starlight power interacting with his vampyric flesh.
He confirms it when he says, “A little.” But his eyes are brightening, glistening black orbs. “Why don’t we see how far you get?”
With that, he opens his arms, freeing me from his hold.
I don’t move an inch. Not yet.
Not even to take my hands from his face.
The moment I move, I’m certain it will trigger whatever hunting instinct is controlling his impulses.
I’m weaponless. No stronger, physically, than I was when he and I first met. The hammer I brought with me to this place has disintegrated into dust. The runes that decorated the hammer’s surface transferred to my right arm, now lined up along the image of the ivory ribbon twining from my palm behind the blade’s hilt andto my biceps.
If Antony were still himself, he would have asked me what happened to the hammer. He would havedemandedan explanation for the runes that have joined the image of the Dragonstone Blade along my arm.
I told him I was a fast runner, but as quickly as I might be able to sprint, I don’t have a hope of outpacing him.
If I knew how to control the Lethian armor covering my body, I could command it to extend up over my face and protect me.
Except that Antony seems to know exactly how to part the threads to gain access to my body, so even that won’t do me any good.
“I’ll run,” I say, my palms remaining clamped around his jaw. “But first, you will tell me a truth.”
He narrows his eyes at me, his arms twitching at his sides, and I worry that I won’t be able to delay him.
“Don’t worry,” I murmur. “It will be an easy truth.”
He relaxes a little, his eyes brightening again. “Ask me.”
I tilt my head to the side, my dull, black hair falling across my shoulder. “Once you catch me…assuming youcan…will you kill me or turn me?”
I don’t know exactly how turning happens, but from what Antony said, it seems he drank his attacker’s blood just as Antony himself was on the cusp of death.
His hungry smile grows. “I will kill you.”
My heart squeezes, and then he continues.
“Before you die, I will offer my poisoned blood to you. It will be your choice.”
A terrible choice.
But more than that, what shatters my heart is facing him now as if he’s a stranger. As if the past three days never happened, and he is my enemy once more.
