I couldn’t sleep. Not with the constriction of the bones that dug into my skull. Or the images that kept replaying in my mind. It wouldn’t be the end of it all. Raoku would return for more power, and I had a terrifying feeling he was only getting started.
I worked to mentally build a barrier between Noctis and I. The shackles along my wrists blocked our connection anyway, but it calmed me only slightly, knowing he didn’t have to feel my pain. If he even could with the damper of our bond. We couldn’t communicate, so I couldn’t tell him I was okay… even though I wasn’t. I felt better knowing that if I died, he wouldn’t know the extent of the torment I’d experienced. He wouldn’t know the hell it took for my body to finally give in.
No more walls. Promise me.Noctis had begged, but I just couldn’t survive knowing he was ravenous in my name and fueling it with my own emotions. He would save me. I knew it, but tears threatened to fall from my eyes when I questioned why it was taking so long.
Silence broke in the night, slowly filling with aching moans, cries, and gurgling as the glass silos holding my kind awoke. I couldn’t see anyone, but the sounds would haunt me forever. Hours ago, I thought the breathing, living stone chamber would kill me, but that changed when that guard dragged me here.
I wouldn’t let Raoku see me break, but I was already nearing that point.
I yanked at the bone helm, but it held firm. Each tug tightened the ivory constrictions around my head. It dug further into my skin and throat, and nothing I did lessened its grip.
Footsteps approached, thunderous hits against stone, and I straightened in the water. My head nearly reached the capped metal roofing of the chamber, but I poised with confidence.
Torches lit on command as a shadowed figure walked forward dragging his feet leisurely. Each step slower than the last, kicking with exaggerated coolness.
I overlooked the blood coating the outside of the tank, but my lip quivered as the person who neared became visible.
Duscharne cocked his head in wicked delight, stopping inches from my tank. His black coat trailed behind him like an onyx train, shimmering lilac particles floating around him.
“No rescue mission, yet?” he quipped, attempting to anger me. He knew I wondered the same. His canines flashed when he recognized my hesitation.
“Why are you here?”
“You know why. I was actually sent to propose something.”
I seethed. There was nothing he could offer that would make me fight on their side—not that I would be much help without powers anyway.
“You’re a coward,” I spat, and he laughed.
“Contrary to your beliefs, I am here to negotiate terms you will like. I could find a way, if you give me just a little trust, to make sure you survive.”
“I will die keeping the realms safe from you and the Royal Vanguard.”
“Then you will die. And we will win. Is that what you want? It's sort of a double loss for you and everyone if you ask me.”
“Tell me what you want.”
“We will releaseher—” he said, and a torch illuminated and flashed at my right. Evelyn floated unconscious in a tank far in the distance, and my heart dropped. She was there. And alive. Barely. “—if you sign a peace treaty after helping us defeat the Thal’Maruun. If you ever make it out of here alive that is. We have some insight that proves that you have a hand in the impending war, but we cannot see further.”
“Parchment will never stop me. Release her, and I’ll kill all of you quickly. No hesitations. No slow, painful death. Ocean Mother and all.”
“I was hoping you’d choose otherwise.”
“You want me to help you defeat Thal’Maruun, and then what? Let you all walk free? Continue turning a blind eye to the torture of my people? Let you all dominate the realms with stolen power?”
“Exactly.”
“Enjoy your power while it lasts. We are coming for everything it brought you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I could have agreed to the deal Duscharne offered, but I refused for three reasons. Firstly, there would be no safety in the realms for us to live out our lives under the ruling of the Royal Vanguard or Thal’Maruun. Secondly, I fumed for vengeance, and my first surge of revenge came from denying the treaty for whatever reason they wanted it. Thirdly, fuck that guy’s wry smirk.
The Varaxis wasn’t happy to have failed in his persuasion, but he left the lanterns blazing when he stormed out. I searched for any signs of life in my sister until dawn’s light streaked through the guarded room.
Evelyn’s chest barely rose and fell, but her body swirled in the water chamber, so I could only monitor her breathing when she faced me. Her skin wrinkled as if aged decades in the hands of the Royal Vanguard. The creases that marred her face took the place of the lines around her lips that showed years of laughs and smiles. Bones wrapped with only thin, translucent skin, protruded from Evelyn’s frail body. She was so thin and sick.
Shadows flooded the vast room, and I startled. Two beings stormed toward my chamber. A woman dressed in a pristine, tanned militant uniform rounded the glass cylinder ahead of me first. Her black hair was slicked back in a bunexposing her rounded, pale forehead. A man quickly trailed her, his own onyx hair plastered backwards. Each bore a look of disgust as they looked upon me.Great.If only they knew how much I agreed with them. I was a failure. I couldn’t save Evelyn. Couldn’t save myself, the realm… Noctis…
