“You are a fool!”
Her voice had been stripped bare of its usual pleasantries.No teasing, no false warmth, just cold dread.
“I warned you not to be taken in by him, and yet—” Her mental grip constricted until I couldn’t think clearly, “—here you are.In his chambers, drowning in the embers of his touch like some lovesick child.”
I flinched, tightening my hold around the railing until stone dust crumbled beneath my nails.
“Do not forget who he is.What he is.Or have you convinced yourself that a monster can be tamed?”
Anger sparked in my chest, but it was drowned beneath the ice of fear as she continued.Her voice didn’t just echo in my head; it burrowed itself into my bones.
“Do not forget the bargain, mortal.”
My stomach twisted violently, acid rising in my throat.
I had forgotten.Even if it was just for a moment.
“I didn’t forget,” I forced out between gritted teeth.
A bitter, burning lie.
“It will be done.I promise.”
Silence.
Then, a cruel hum that made my bones ache.“Good.I would hate to have to remind you… through her.”
A sharp pang lanced through my chest.My mother.How could I have been so selfish?How could I have let myself get lost in his touch when her life hung in the balance?
Zaheera’s presence melted away like oil, leaving behind nothing but the crushing weight of my choices and the phantom pain of her claws in my mind.
I needed to leave.
I whirled around, scanning the chamber frantically from corner to corner, searching for anything—a door, even a crack into reality itself—through which I could escape.
But there was nothing but solid walls, and the balcony only offered death.
A hollow laugh scraped up my throat.
“Of course,” I whispered.“Of course, he wouldn’t leave me a way out.”
There was nothing left to do but wait.Wait for him to return so I could look him in the eye and lie.
I drew in a shuddering breath, trying to steady the violent tremor in my hands as I made my way back to bed.The mattress sank as I perched on the edge, pressing my palms flat against my thighs, but nothing could quell the earthquake inside me.
Heat shimmered in the corner of my vision.
Azmik’s materialized right beside me, his body forming from flame and shadows like he was emerging through a curtain between worlds.His scales caught the torchlight in tiny prisms of gold and amber.
His eyes were full of real, honest concern.My throat closed up, and something inside me cracked open.
Azmik moved closer, his serpentine head lifting as he studied my face.He took in everything—the way my hands still shook, how I sat curled in on myself like I was trying to disappear.His flames dimmed—softer, warmer, like he was afraid of startling me.
Then he was moving with liquid grace, winding his body around me in slow, careful loops.When his face hovered just a breath away from mine, my reflection in his glowing eyes was broken.Lost.Terrified.
A tear slipped down my cheek, and Azmik’s forked tongue flicked out, so gentle it was hardly a whisper against my skin, catching the salt before it could fall.Then he pressed his small head against my temple and just… stayed.
The sob that escaped me was torn from somewhere deep in my chest where I’d been holding everything together.More tears followed, tears that I’d been fighting since Zaheera’s claws left my mind.
