“And you think this Mytaz is still alive?”
“Yes.”
I glanced up and down the endless corridor of frozen demons. There was no way I was going to end up as one of these things. I’d kill myself before I ever allowed that to happen.
“If he is, I’ll make sure he doesn’t stay that way,” I said.
“It’s not that easy.”
“I’m not becoming one of thesethings,and I won’t let you be one either. We have to move.”
“Then let’s go.”
I walked beside her as we headed deeper into the darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bale
I wouldnotletmy apprehension of this place and Mytaz get to me; I wouldnotlet the discovery of Fiora devastate me. Just because I hadn’t seen her as one of his statues before, didn’t mean I hadn’t known the fate that befell her.
When she vanished near Mytaz’s cavern, I assumed he’d taken her as he’d become increasingly aggressive about expanding his territory. I’d always known she’d become one of his things, but seeing her in that frozen state rattled me more than discovering Wrath was my Chosen.
She was my little sister, the one I protected and loved until the day she vanished. Then she became the one I was determined to avenge with Kobal and the one I’d grieved for centuries.
I refused to let myself consider she was still alive beneath her protective casing. Before going after Mytaz, we were able to get our hands on a statue. We tried to break free the demon inside, but the gold went all the way through, and only dust remained. I chose to believe that once they turned into gold, they perished. The alternative was too disturbing to ponder.
Of course, Wrath and the other horseman would think it was fine to hide in those rocky tunnels and amid those golden statues. They were sealed away millennia before Mytaz came into existence. They never would have recognized the peril they might face when they entered those caves.
Still, it took everything I had not to slap Wrath upside the back of his head and call him an idiot. He was lucky, that if Mytaz still lived, it wasn’t amid those tunnels and on that level of Eldorata. And then I almost slapped myself upside the head for considering it lucky for him to be alive.
It would have been far easier for me if Mytaz had frozen him before he ever entered the minotaur’s labyrinth. If I never encountered him there, I never would have known he was my Chosen, and my life would have continued on the same as always.
Except now, I was starting to consider my old life a rather lonely one. Sure, I enjoyed going from one partner to the next, but watching my friends and my king with their Chosen had made me realize there could be something more to life. Something I might enjoy having for myself.
Once I met Wrath, I stopped acknowledging the part of myself that had been longing for something more since Kobal met River. However, that longing for more was taking hold inside me again. Unfortunately, it was for someone who didn’t care about anyone beyond himself.
He did save my life and destroy War to keep me safe.
I couldn’t deny that, but he’d probably done it to save himself. If I died, then so did he.
“How did you find Eldorata?” I asked.
“Are you trying to learn my secrets, Bale?”
I started to frown at him, but then I saw the playful smile curving his lips and bringing that dimple back into view. Damn it, why did he have to be so irresistible in so many ways? I tore my attention away from him before that dimple crumpled the last of myself control.
I hated this game we played with each other. This give and take; this push and pull. I yearned for things to be simpler between us. I wanted to claim my Chosen without fearing I was giving a large piece of myself away by doing so. I also wanted my sister back as well as Mytaz and the horsemen dead.
I wanted so many things, but I wasn’t going to get any of them, and the wanting would only leave me bitter. It was better to release those dreams.
Still, tears pricked my eyes as I recalled Fiora kneeling on the ground with her hands raised as if she were handing something to Mytaz. I’d never know why she was in that position, or what transpired between them, but I’d always remember her that way.
Fiora was always beautiful, vibrant, and the opposite of me. She was carefree, where I was serious; outgoing, where I was reserved. She was part of the battle against Lucifer because she was raised to be, but whereas I relished the fight, she hated it.
When we were children, I would spend hours braiding her long black hair and marveling over its shine. I recalled her tiny face looking up at me while I played with her hair. We were only eleven years apart, extremely close in age for demon children. She would stare up at me with her big, green eyes the same color as mine and smile.
Her skin was paler than mine, and she hadn’t inherited our father’s ability to wield or withstand fire. Her visions were stronger than mine and, even as a child, she could foresee things, whereas my premonitions didn’t really develop until I became fully immortal.
