“Down, girl.” Daisy laughs through tears. “I have a lot to tell you.”
I step back. Despite wanting to be with her, I know she needs this right now. “I’ll leave you to it. I’ll be back soon. I’ll have the help bring you food and drinks.”
“Korithax,” she says gently, like she wants me to stay.
“It’s okay,” I murmur. “You need time with your friends.”
She gives me a soft smile and nods. I close the door behind me and walk to the war chamber. I need silence, strategy, a plan. I need something to make fucking sense. I push a hand through my hair as I enter the chamber, but a figure in the room stops me dead in my tracks.
“Korithax,” a voice says from the shadows.
I draw my sword in a flash, hellfire erupting in bright blue flame.
“Velentha,” I snarl.
She steps from the shadows with her hands raised. “Wait. Please.”
“You have ten seconds,” I growl.
“I knew she would rise, that she would burn the sky,” she says breathlessly. “I bided my time, Child of Ruin. I had no part in what happened before, but the part I am yet to be involved in… I can only apologise for.”
My grip tightens. “What the fuck are you talking about? Spit it out, Velentha.”
She meets my eyes with sorrow. “I have been the enforcer of fate. I am the key.”
And then she’s gone, disappearing in a whisper of golden light before I can swing for her fucking head. I roar in fury, hurling my sword across the room. It embeds itself in the stone wall with a crack that echoes like thunder.
Everything is falling apart, and I don’t know how to stop it.
I watchthe sword quiver where it’s lodged in the stone, its flames flicking upward, then dying entirely. Silence stretches in the chamber, broken only by the ragged sound of my breathing. My hands are shaking uncontrollably, the feeling so foreign it makes my anger flare even more. I press both palms against the table in the centre of the room, trying to steady myself.
The plan from before we left is still strewn across the surface, mapping out each realm, each ruler, each possibility. Never could I have planned to return with an immortal wife who was the resurrected version of the first Queen of Hell. I close my eyes, letting the bite of the cold obsidian seep into my hands. But it doesn’t help. I still feel like I’m unravelling.
My father. My fucking father. He burned her. Three days in flame, and he stood there while her screams filled the sky. I grip the edge of the table harder, the veins in my arms straining as I lean forward, my breath coming in shallow pants as I grit my teeth. I want to scream. I want to tear the walls down. I want to?—
The door creaks slightly, but I don’t look up. I don’t need to. I would know Aran’s presence anywhere. The calmness of his aura has always been grounding for me. But right now, I’m not sure anything could help me.
“I need to be alone,” I mutter.
“I know,” Aran says quietly. “But I’m not choosing to listen.” Stubborn bastard.
For a while, neither of us speaks. The silence hangs thick between us, pulsing with my magic and rage.
Without thinking, I speak the words I know I shouldn’t. The words that are boiling so hot under my skin that they’re threatening to burn me alive. “I should kill him.”
Aran shifts behind me. “Korithax…”
“I should carve his heart out and throw it to the flamebeasts.” My voice is dangerously low. “He murdered her. Lied to me, denied the whispers and the rumours. He raised me like it didn’t fucking happen. Let me, my people, my kingdom, worship him. Let us believe he took the throne because he deserved it. Because he was fit to rule.”
“I know,” Aran says gently.
I finally look at him, and I know my eyes are wild. “You knew?”
Something like panic flashes in his eyes, but it’s gone before I can decipher it.
“I didn’t know, I suspected. I heard whispers, but nobody could prove it. And the Divine Six… they’ve had their hands in every truth and lie for thousands of years.” He steps closer. “But I never believed he was innocent.”
I step away from the table, pacing up and down like a crazed animal. My wings snap out behind me, twitching with the need to take flight.
