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“Leave,” he commanded the others in the room, uncomfortable with anyone else seeing her naked form.
“We will not leave you with this thing!” his sister snapped.
“That ‘thing’ is Tehdra. She is manacled in over a hundred chains of the strongest metal known to us and surrounded by a ring of fire. She will
not break free,” Ajali said flatly.
Ajali?
Tehdra’s voice was thin and hesitant. Even when she’d lied, she had done so with boldness. Was it that she expected him to shun her in the hour of her need? I am here, Tehdra.
He ignored the puzzled look Acheron threw his way. His blade must have sensed the ripple of power as they spoke through the link they had formed.
The darkness wins…and I’m tired.
Defeat lay heavy in her voice.
A surge of anger burned through Ajali as he looked at her broken form. The thing inside of her could not exist on this plane. It had to be housed within a body, yet it fought Tehdra’s will, smashing her bones. Her back was twisted at the oddest angle, but her restrained wings, seemingly crippled by the hundreds of chain holding her down, had him battling his rage.
Fight, Tehdra! Ajali snapped along their connection—a connection he still clung onto even though Tehdra had tried to force him out. Trapped within her consciousness, the malevolence of her darkness had been calling forth his Phoenyx. Somehow she had slammed down the mental connection between them as she sensed what was happening, closing him off from the brutal battle she fought. Rousing him from his unconcious state.
He had surged to awareness in the arena with Ruxia, Uriah, his sister and his Kingblades surrounding him, still connected but not the depth they’d shared. He had wasted no time, flashing to where they detained her. In the dungeon pit—deep and cavernous, made from harsh, grey stone marbles with several rings embedded into the ground that could hold the strongest of men. The ground itself was forged with valnetium iron making it an impossible feat to rip the rings from the earth. Red eyes with a flicker of yellow met his gaze over the wall of fire that surrounded her. The black chakra poured from her mouth and the scream that reverberated in the pit as her left hip cracked was unholy. Pain and rage mingled in the shriek, creating a mesh of sounds that grated his ears. He could not see Tehdra in the gaze that ensnared his, yet she softly stirred in his mind.
Ajali had no idea how to help her, and he despised the helplessness. Stay with me, Tehdra, speak with me.
Why?
He opted for honesty. Because I do not want you to lose. I hardly know you, but the thought of never seeing you again as you were…unbearable.
I liked you Ajali…. Her voice wafted through his mind, almost teasing, and some of the knotted tension in his stomach eased.
Liked? As in no more?
Her pained chuckle slid across his senses in a dark caress.
Am I not your most hated enemy?
Darkans are.
Am I not a Darkan?
You are also something more…
This time the voice that laughed contained an overlay of menace, and the thing in the pit twisted its head and peered directly at him.
Come closer…
He remained rooted.
Pitiless eyes met his with the cold watchfulness of a reptile. Are you afraid, Phoenyx? Power poured through their link, a darkness that wound around his soul to touch the light of his Phoenyx. Yet instead of shying from each other, power acknowledged power. Icy flames stirred in his gut and filled his veins.
Do you not dream of what our combined power could be like…tyrant? I will make you the king of Amagarie…all who challenge your rule will only know pain and death.
The insidious beauty of her words wrapped around his desire to never see his kingdom fall, but he resisted her dark pull.
Is that what you want, Tehdra?
I only want your happiness.
