“I love you, Princeling. Even if it was only for a few twinights, it was enough,”I whispered to Quazar as I faded out of consciousness and entered a bottomless dark.
Chapter 52
Agentle brush of feathers over my cheek pulled me from unconsciousness. I fluttered my eyes, blinking away sleep until the room around me became clear. Brilliant light filled every inch of space, overwhelming my senses. I groaned, pushing to sit up. Leaning back into the pillows supporting me, I took another good look around. Aquamarine eyes, wet with fresh tears, found me first.
“Good dawn, Ellie.”
My voice was a ragged, broken thing. Like I hadn’t had anything to drink in a long time. I reached out to hold her hand. The tears slipped down her cheeks as she took a deep breath.
“I didn’t know if you’d…I wasn’t sure…at some point you stopped breathing and…”
She closed her eyes, holding my hand tight. She wept, hanging her head low. Daelun reached over with a wing, wrapping it around Ellabeth’s frame. His eyes were wet, too. All of Seventh Choir was present. Not one had a dry eye. Not even Kazemir.
“The Scourgers,” Daelun began, stumbling over his words. “They…even when you’d fallen. Even when…you stoppedfighting back. Even when you went unconscious…they didn’t stop. She…she never told them to stop.”
He didn’t have to say her name for me to know who theshewas. Granmanmi Asarah.
“Quazar…he…well. Hèls. Never heard a grown male scream like that before. Your…Granmanmi. She…dragged your body so it was…it was directly in his sight.” Daelun paused for air. I shuddered at the visual. “You would’ve thought his wingmate bond was being broken. Stars. He screamed. Tried so hard to break free to get to you. But his shackles…”
I nodded.
Granmanmi had mastered cruelty. She knew what she was doing. I was the fool for taking so long to recognize it. She’d allow for the Scourgers to butcher me, publicly, as alesson. Stars. If she was willing to do that to me, what had she done to Manmi? To my Tatis? My Kouzis? I wondered if Jael had been exposed to this version of her. Hosea? Ezekiel?
“What made the Scourgers stop?”
My voice was no more than gravel. I tried clearing my throat, but it didn’t help.
“The dragons,” Amayah whispered. She sat at the edge of my bed with her knees tucked beneath her, her wings hanging off the edge of the bedcloud. “Theparilielthaiof our temple-mates came. They rushed to the Talons, but Quazar demanded that hisparilielthaisave you from the Scourgers. His dragon ripped the Scourgers apart. Well, Jeroah and Lilithine escaped unscathed. Anyway, by then, their damage to you had already been done. We thought you…”
Were deadis what she didn’t say.
“Well, the angels got the bloodbath they wanted,” I whispered, dropping my head back to my pillow. Stars. I was exhausted. However long I’d been asleep, it wasn’t enough.
“No, they didn’t.” Omarion’s lips twitched into a smile. “They wanted the Fallen Prince to bleed. Not you, the fifi of their beloved Amaryss. And by the hand of your Granmanmi no less! Chaos descended.”
I raised a brow.
“Chaos?”
“The angels were begging her to stop. To make the Scourgers stop,” Omarion said, leaning close to brush a stray hair out of my eyes. He sat on the other side of me, his entire body a hardened wall of protection.
“She didn’t. Some tried jumping in on your behalf,” he shrugged. “But they were arrested.”
“Some in the Farasee Order had surfaced, ready to shut down the uprising with brutality,” Daelun chimed in, excitedly. “So we jumped in, too. Felt good ripping out that big ones tongue. Remember when we first got here and he wouldn’t stop staring at you?”
I thought back. I did remember. I’d felt so small. So vile.
“You ripped out his tongue?” I chuckled.
“And his eyes. His rib cage. You know, the necessities.”
I shot up into a sitting position.
“You killed aFarasee?” I breathed.
“We all did.”
I turned to Amayah, shocked at the vengeance in her voice. The bristling rage in her eyes.
