Mariah, to her credit, hardly paused. She simply whirled, that wild expression still on her face, and charged at the god again.
Their weapons met in a muffled clash, like steel striking wood.
Ksee leaned closer, breath tickling Anniliese’s cheek. She fought the urge to flinch. The priestess was enraptured by the duel unfolding before them. Mariah and Kol took turns striking and parrying, their movements dizzyingly fast. Their weapons were little more than a blur as they carved through the air, so precise that Anniliese was sure that either one of them could end this.
She found herself holding her breath each time Mariah drove her weapons forward, and gritting her teeth when Kol drove his.
She remembered a time when she hated the young queen. She certainly had no reason to love her now. Yet even when faced with atrocities, Mariah had still extended her hand to Anniliese.
Even when Anniliese didn’t know what she would face in her future, somehow Mariah had known, and tried to save her from it.
So Anniliese hoped that Mariah’s blade would be faster.
Their deadly dance continued—for how long, Anniliese couldn’t have begun to guess. The longer they went on, the longer Anniliese and Ksee watched from the shadows of the ruined forest, the clearer one thing became.
Mariah was better.
Not by much. She still fought an ageless god, a being crafted from the very foundations of their world. But when was the last time said god had fought? The last time he’d had to wield his blades of shadow against another?
Which also begged the question: why didn’t he just shift?
“Because,” Ksee hissed. Anniliese jumped, pulse hammering in her throat. She hadn’t meant to ask that last question out loud.
“Because this is your final test,” Ksee continued. “Kol knew it would come to a fight. Knew he would be at a disadvantage. In his infinite wisdom, he saw it all.”
“A test?” Anniliese asked weakly. Another clash rang out. Kol grunted with exertion. No longer was he smiling; his expression had settled firmly into a snarl. His gaze darted to his left; not toward where Anniliese and Ksee hid amongst the underbrush, but to the winged demons lurking in the shadows.
With savage cries and the rustle of leathery wings, Kol’smudaelaunched into the fray, serrated claws aimed for Mariah’s exposed back.
Anniliese forced herself to bite back her cry.Turn around, turn around, turn around?—
Two other figures saw Kol’s signal.
The two Armature Mariah had arrived with—including Andrian Laurent—intercepted themudaewith a swiftness that came only from years of training. Arrows fired in quick succession by the second Armature thumped onto the chests of the first two demons, slowing them enough for Andrian’s sword to cleave their heads from their necks.
The clearing erupted into chaos.
“Now is the time,” Ksee hissed again, louder now over the din of the fight. “While the false queen is distracted. Prove yourself to your new god.”
Anniliese whirled, wrenching herself from Ksee’s clutches. Her skin tore where Ksee’s nails had dug into her skin, but she hardly felt the sting. “What are you talking about?”
A mad rage filled Ksee’s hateful, muddied stare. “Your fire, girl. Burn the queen, just as you did all those other heathens whofailed to bow to our supreme. Give Kol his victory, once and for all.”
Something in Anniliese snapped into place.
She’d done terrible things. To keep herself alive, yes, but that was a selfish reason. She’d bowed and buckled and folded at every turn, hiding behind the cloak of self-preservation.
But what was the point of surviving all this, of living to see tomorrow, if she couldn’t bear to live with herself?
She met Ksee’s stare unflinchingly, the first time she’d ever done so.
“Why?” Anniliese asked softly. “Have I not done enough? Why does someone as powerful as him need this from me?”
Ksee snarled. Her hand moved fast, like a viper striking. Her palm met Anniliese’s cheek in a sharp blow, pain blooming across her jaw.
“Howdareyou question me and your god?” The priestess gripped the hair at the base of Anniliese’s scalp, wrenching back her chin. “Aftereverythingwe have given you? We could have sacrificed you with the others long ago. And instead of loyalty, you defy me?” Spittle flung from Ksee’s mouth, the lines around her lips cracked and spreading.
Anniliese didn’t flinch. Didn’t cry out. She simply held Ksee’s stare, something hot and bubbling rising in her stomach.
