“You’ll make an exceptional ruler, Blaise. Better than I ever was.”
“I refuse,” he states as if it were as simple as a personal choice.
Aimee unfurls from Sariah’s embrace, coming to hug us both, head resting on my chest, her palm on Blaise’s wet cheek.
“We’ll always be with you, Blaise. Even from behind the veil.”
She takes out Kadirah, just as I unsheathe Alnashar, cutting our palms with them. I grab Blaise’s hand and he struggles to pull away as our daggers sink into his flesh, cresting the palm from base to the padding below his fingers.
“What are you…?”
Placing both daggers in his bleeding hand, we rest our palms on top, letting our essences and shadows blend with his blood. A rupture in my soul makes me flinch, as a wisp of crimson intertwines with black and enters his bloodstream.
“This way you’ll hold a part of us for all eternity,” Aimee explains. “We crown you King, the true and only ruler of Imiryion.”
Her amber gaze burns molten gold as she recites Ereshkygall’s words from the previous night.
“Only when bleeding darkness fights darkness,
May peace finally prevail.
Eimirya shall greet its rightful rulers,
Imiryion redeemed and prosperous under the wise hands
Of its new Vampire King and Queen.
Forged in love and loss, his gentle heart
Shall bear salvation and rebirth.
All hail Mortenghail!”
“The new Vampire King,” Sariah whispers in awe, “I knew you were important, part of a hidden piece of the prophecy, but not how or why. Please believe me.”
“Extend her the same courtesy you did me not so long ago, Blaise,” Aimee says with a sad smile, removing her hand from his. Our shadows morphed the ancient daggers into a crown of pristine, almost translucent bones woven with threads of steel shaped as our marks, the Ouroboros and the crescent moon.
His crown.
His shaky fingers grip it harder, until more blood pours from his wound, staining the bone crimson.
“Fine. I accept your stupid title. You don’t have to die.”
Desperation coats his every breath.
“Don’t regard it so much as death, but as an ascension. To the next plane of existence. True immortality. Eimirya.”
Aimee’s explanation meets his obstinate defiance, the one I’ve always admired in him, even when it annoyed the fuck out of me.
“Bullshit.”
“It’s the only way, brother.” I rush the words out, feeling Morweena’s invasive perusal at the edges of my brain. She’s forcing her way in, pushing her control like a slithering snake wrapping itself around my mind, squeezing, squeezing until there’ll be nothing but her will left.
I can’t fight her forever. I know it.
Either way, tonight I die.
“Arwan’s curse keeps us tied together, Blaise. We can’t defeat Morweena without sacrificing ourselves.”
