Nothing happened.
A whistling wind echoed down the silent corridor, and Sirius’s thin lips widened into a smile. Frowning, I reached for my power again, searching for any sign of it, for that all-consuming hole of blackness I’d hated all these long years. But gone was any trace of it. It was as if it had never even been there.
“Did you truly believe you could use your fae magic againstus?” The god asked with a bitter laugh. “Your power is useless.” He stormed down the corridor, his footsteps quicker now. “You are ours to command. Nowyieldand give me the girl.”
Sirius threw all his weight behind his raised sword. I got my weapon up just in time, but the force of his blow threw me off my feet. I slammed into the wall, my head knocking against the stone. Tessa’s terror—and my horror—tangled around my heart, and as I tried to reach out, to do anything I could to save her, darkness consumed me.
Thirty
Tessa
Iscreamed when Kalen hit the wall. His head snapped back, and he collapsed into a heap on the floor. My heart ripping in two, I rushed toward him, but Sirius grabbed the back of my neck and threw me in the opposite direction.
Toryn lunged toward the god, his spear raised. But Sirius knocked him out of the way as if he were nothing, and the god’s crimson gaze zeroed in on me. My back against the wall, I slowly pushed to my feet, my breathing shallow and desperate. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what Icoulddo. Kalen was hurt. Toryn was scrambling to his feet down the corridor, but even if he reached me in time, his spear would do nothing but irritate the god. I saw it now, as clear as a new day in Teine. We were nothing but insects to him. Flies buzzing about, pesky and annoying. And easy enough to smash.
Sirius stopped just before me, only a breath away. He smelled like incense and blood and dirt. Up close, I could see the depths of red in his eyes. The bright crimson was marred with flecks of black and gold, and his skin was as smooth as glass. He leaned close, sniffed, and cocked his head.
“Oh, Andromeda is going to enjoy meeting you,” he said in a voice that slithered down my spine. “How, exactly, is it that you came to be?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I breathed.
“Don’t play dumb. You’re part mortal, and you smell of lies.”
So the gods could smell the truth in mortals, just as the fae could. That might be useful knowledge in the future, if I got out of this without being flayed alive.
“You’re coming with me,” he hissed.
Sirius reached for my neck, but I ducked down and yanked my glove from my fingers. As his hand made contact with the wall, I reached up and brushed my fingers across his face. A part of me didn’t want it to work—death by touch still horrified me—but there was no other way out of this. He was too strong for us to fight any other way.
A jolt of surprise flickered across his face, but he did not even shudder against my power, let alone take his last breath. Instead, he grabbed me by the throat and slammed me against the wall. Pain lanced through my skull, and my windpipe seemed crushed beneath the force of his grip.
“Did you just try to give me the gift of death?” he hissed into my ear, his breath hot against my neck. “Oh, yes. Such a lovely little toy for Andromeda to play with. She might even give me an entire herd of mortals when she sees what I’ve found for her.”
I shuddered, my teeth grinding as I tried to recoil from the god. But I had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide. He had me trapped, and he knew it. My power was useless against him.Everyone’spowers were. And he was only one of the immortal beings we had to face. There were four more, including the worst of them—Andromeda herself.
All of this…it was impossible. The world had no hope of defeating them. I could see it now, the future a vision in the back of my mind. The gods would destroy Aesir in their quest to stomp down any opposition. They did not care how many fae they had to kill if it meant conquering this world.
And then they would move on to the mortal kingdoms, their true desire. They would take control of all the cities and burn down whichever ones resisted them, just as they’d done before. The mortals would bow to them as their gods, and then offer themselves up—their blood, their flesh, their bones, until there was nothing left, and then the gods would move on at last.
I saw all this in Sirius’s gleaming red eyes, as if he were somehow showing me exactly what he and the others intended to do to my world.
And it made me weep.
“There, there, little one,” he murmured, tracing a finger down my cheek. He snatched a tear and brought it to his lips, tasting my grief. “You don’t need to fear us. None of that will happen to you. You will stand by Andromeda’s side, you see. You will be one of us.”
“Never,” I growled, and then I spat in his face. A glob of saliva splattered onto his glass-like skin, and I had the satisfaction of seeing him flinch. Baring my teeth, I smiled at him. “I would rather die than become one of you.”
I expected anger or some retaliation, a brutal response like Oberon would have given. Instead, Sirius smiled. “Little vicious thing. You are so much like your mother.”
My blood chilled. “Andromeda is not my mother.”
He tightened his grip on my throat. “In every way that matters, you are Andromeda’s daughter, and there’s no sense fighting it. You even look like her. But more importantly, you have her rage.”
I fought the urge to punch him in the face. He’d probably like that, too. Instead, I clamped my mouth shut and sought a way out of this. On the far wall, Kalen had begun to stir, thank the light. But Toryn…there was no sign of him. Furrowing my brow, I flicked my gaze around the corridor, noticing that the rumbling had ceased—probably not a good sign.
A blur of motion came from my left. I turned in unison with Sirius. Toryn raced down the corridor with his spear raised, angry determination twisting his face into a scowl. Sirius released his grip on my throat to face Toryn. I sagged against the wall, sucking in deep breaths of air, bracing myself on the stone.
And then a feral shriek rent the air.
