“Blood for blood!” the angels cried, all of them shooting out of their seats, demanding vengeance. “Blood for blood! Blood for blood!Blood for blood!”
Chapter 50
My ears rang with the death cries of the angels. The holiest temple in the empyrean had turned her angels into blood-thirsting monsters.
Granmanmi Asarah hadn’t removed her gaze from me once. I struggled to gather my bearings looking at Quazar in this condition. His wings had been torn. All six pairs. His skin was littered with bruises and open gashes. He could hardly lift his head.
My Quazar. My heart of hearts. My bonded.
How could she do this to him?
I struggled to breathe. Seventh Choir was paralyzed as we all stared out at our bonded, chained and beaten in some fashion, stripped to such a humiliating degree it almost felt wrong to look down at them.
“Princeling,”I whimpered down the bond.
“Don’t cry for me, love. I’ve endured worse.”
His breathing was labored, even down the bond. Then the veil fell between us, sealing us on opposite sides. I screamed in my mind, barreling into the veil, slamming at it over and over, until it gave way and released its hold.
The moment the veil moved, I slipped down Quazar’s mental pathways, filled to the brim with his restless shadows, and dove in with my starry light. A trail of starfire followed me as I slipped into his mind, his thoughts, and nestled deep, refusing to let go.
While I kept my eyes on Granmanmi, I began leaking starfire into Quazar. At first, he remained limp on top of the stone he was shackled to. But after a few moments, he could move. First one leg. Then the other.
With great effort, he forced himself to his feet. Then he stood tall. As broken as he was, he forced his chin up, lifting his head high. When his eyes found mine, he smiled wide until I could see not just one dimple, but both of them. And stars if I didn’t love him even more for it.
I pushed to my feet, sitting back on my cloudchair.
Granmanmi looked at me, then Quazar.
Her eyes darkened. Not with purple. But with a black film. Her fingers twitched, the only visible sign of her sweltering anger.
“The Fallen Prince still stands,” angels began crying.
“This isn’t punishment enough!”
“Break his pride!”
“What would the Hallowed have us in the Farasee Order do?” Granmanmi questioned the masses, but her eyes were on me.
“Scourge them!” the angels cried with a loud voice.
“Rot,”Quazar cursed down the bond.“It’s always a scourging with these blood-obsessed angels. Why can’t the option ever be ‘pray for them’?”
My nostrils flared.
I almost laughed at the dark humor.
Almost.
“She won’t touch you.”
“You may underestimate your Granmanmi’s ability to turn this assembly into a blood hungry pack of hyenas, but I don’t.”
“She will not. You have my word.”
“As you all wish!” Granmanmi cried.
An explosion of obsidian starlight burst over the dais.
