“No!”
“That doesn’t sound like you willingly surrendering to me,” Firose said.
Northern soldiers swarmed us, blocking my view of Elsie. The wretched blood oath compelled me forward. They were taking me into the palace, away from the battle. Away from my little sister, lying helplessly frozen on the ground.
A rumble shook the ground, and a roar of sound seemed to come from all directions. Fire was everywhere. Flaming horses.
The Warhorses werenotattacking Luz. The rush of flaming soldiers began slaughtering northern soldiers in droves.
A coarse laugh left my lips as Krait Darvanda’s cavalry descended upon Firose’s troops. Warhorses had been a creation of his centuries ago—one that I helped him attain the magic for.Full circle, wasn’t it?
Crazy bastard.What would his price be for this stunt?The price for his aid was always steep. I would know.
Firose let out a frustrated growl at the approaching Warhorses. “Hurry!” she commanded her guards.
The blunt end of a sword struck me down with force, and a boot met my ribs for good measure.
As the guards beat me, I couldn’t stop laughing.
“You are so fucked.” I gasped the words through a chuckle. Krait wouldn’t let Firose live for what she’d done all those centuries ago. For her deceit, for her hand in his lost love.
The guards pulled me into the palace. They dragged me through the halls and into the throne room, where I hit the cold white marble hard. Looking up, the cerulean ceiling of stars greeted me.
Asterie…I will find you. Wherever you are.
My breath heaved against broken ribs. Firose crossed the throne room, pulling a royal sword off the wall, sapphires encrusting its pommel. It was likely a Luz heirloom blade that she would soon defile with my blood.
“This will do. Bring him here. It’s time we cut the beast out of this one.”
I was pulled up by my arms and made to kneel before her. I’d told her once a story about a tomb, a mummified prince and the curse of the beast in his skin…she remembered.
Firose cut deep into my bicep, peeling away the skin where the ink housed Van. I writhed and screamed as they cut him from me.
My battered body was picked up like a rag doll and thrown forward. Palms flat to the stone, I was at her feet, bleeding out, beaten, heartbroken and ready to meet my end.
Fuck.I hoped there was something more after this. Some way to find Asterie.Please, let me find her.I pleaded to Sources that I barely believed in.
I forced myself to think of Asterie’s face, of her lips parted and ready for me to press my own to them. I wanted her to be the final thing I saw.
“Hold on, Fenris.”Otherly, but familiar.So familiar,yet blurred against the sound of chaos just outside the palace walls.
My arms shook beneath me.Was that her voice in the afterlife, guiding me toward her?
Asterie had told me that our story would not end happily. Happily ever after was for fairytales—our story had ended when a blade pierced her heart.
I spent my last moments imagining what could have been.
We would wake next to each other for an eternity.
I would show her every square mile of the realm, reveling in seeing her expression light up with each new place.
“Wherever you are. Wherever you go, I will be there.”Asterie’s voice reached out to me again.
With that whispered promise and a blade held high over my neck, I prepared to die.
Chapter37
Asterie
