AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My Queen, you are needed.” Nytara said, her voice as carefully bored as mine. She too had always been an excellent player in the game of masks. I don’t think in the three hundred years I had known her; I had seen her smile once. She had never shown any other emotion, for that matter, other than cold indifference.
“Nothing that leaves a mark, Kieran,” Ash Nevra reminded him, before stalking away to the door, where Nytara waited. I smirked at Kieran again, intentionally goading him with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes Kieran, be a good little servant and listen to your Master.” I purred. The door clicked shut and we were suddenly alone. He snatched up the metal skewer, his knuckles going white as his fingers curled around the handle.
“Hold your hands out in front of you.” He snapped. The bond immediately attacked my immobile limbs, firing white hot shocks deep into my bone marrow, forcing me to obey the command.
Holding both hands in the air before me, he came forward and flipped my right hand over, so my palm was facing him. He ran the tip of the skewer down from the base of my palm to the tip of my index finger, brushing the sharp point gently over the gap where my fingernail connected to my flesh.
He glanced up, meeting my eyes, before flipping the skewer and placing the handle into my right hand and ordering me to close my own fingers around it.
Ah.
Maybe he was more creative than I had given him credit for.
“Remove the fingernails from your left hand. And do it slowly.” He ordered me, and the slavery bond flared to life again. I was forced to wedge the skewer under the nail of my thumb, sending a blinding pain through my hand. I might have cursed myself, for goading him and pushing him to come up with something less predictable. However, just as he gave the order, my magick found what it had been looking for. A tiny pin prick, a flaw, a hole, where I had installed the trace on Raven all those months back in the library.
The triquetra was already working to repress my powers and block Raven from finding me. However, the pathway I had installed was a weak point. I knew if I picked at it, focused, and put every single ounce of energy I had into this one tiny spot, I would be able to contact her.
This realization spread through me, just as my hand worked the skewer beneath my nail to the cuticle. I popped up and away, effectively tearing the nail back from the skin and off of my finger altogether.
The excruciating sting blended with the satisfying feeling of success at my metaphysical discovery and I smirked up at the wizard, before moving onto my index finger.
“You’re a dead man, Kieran.”
“Bold words from someone currently removing their own fingernails.” He snarled. I forced a chuckle, annoyed with the slight strain that was beginning to come through in my voice.
“Tick tock, Kieran,” I replied softly, allowing my consciousness to fall into the numb place I had built for myself over the centuries. I separated my mind from my body and focused on that tiny, shining opportunity within me instead of the metallic tang of pain that exploded like gunshots through my fingers with each nail that I removed from my own hand. I could deal with the loss of a few fingernails. What I couldn’t do, was go much longer without reconnecting with the other half of my soul.
‘I’m coming, Raven,’ I breathed out into the tiny prick in the triquetra’s shield. I didn’t think she could hear me.
Not yet.
Raven
Iwas about to head back down to the base so I could shadow walk home when Frira threw back its massive head and let out an earth-shattering howl. The Titan’s magick forced more fire and molten rock out of the mouth of the burning mountain. I was positive my team could hear it back at court.
I winced as I realized Jeremy was likely watching the volcano erupt from the common room and stressing that I was in danger.
I frowned at the great wolf before trying to turn away to leave again. Suddenly, it pulled itself free from the volcano and bounded down the slope, leaving giant molten paw prints in its wake. I frowned again, confused. It seemed to be trying to block my path back down. I glanced behind me at the violently erupting volcano.
Did it want me to go in there?
For fuck’s sakes… I wasn’t sure I had the energy for this.
I glanced back at the massive magma wolf. I felt like a tiny, dark flea as I hovered before its great fiery snout.
“You want me to go in there, don’t you?” I asked, and it gave me one slow, deliberate nod. The volcano erupted again, and I tried not to groan.
This was going to suck.
However, if a giant magma wolf Titan tells you to do something, somehow, I felt like it would be unwise to ignore its advice. It was trying to help me. I knew it in some deep, instinctual part of my soul.
“Fine.” I sighed, eyeing the explosive path forward warily. “Can you at least lead the way? I didn’t bring my swim goggles.” I joked, more to make myself feel better than anything. This was definitely not funny.
Frira prowled forward, resting both paws on the lip of the opening before diving in, strings of molten rock whipping past me as its tail crested the edge.
I latched a thread of shadow onto the wolf’s fiery form and allowed myself one deep breath. I braced both myself and my shields, before diving in after the great wolf.
