“You get a front row seat,” Dahes smiled, but it was far from warm. “I thought you’d want to watch the moment Idowin.” He looked between us—Hael standing next to him and me already inside the cage, one of the sentries locking the bars. “Because when I fucking do, I have lots ofcelebrationsplanned for us.”
He pulled on his mask before drawing his hood—becoming the devil everyone sees.
The sabberneath dropped down, tucking its wing. The remaining fog swirled around us as Dahes jumped onto its back. A thatcher swooped down to grab Hael.
I could walk through the bars. His order to not resist didn’t apply to my transparency, but the moment Dahes flew into the sky with Hael was the moment that idea disintegrated.
I wasn’t in a cage so I’d stay in Moriann.
Multiple thatchers swooped down, grabbing the sentries, but some went toward me, toward the cage.
The metal groaned as the bars lifted into the sky, and I realized what Dahes meant by being forced to watch.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Living Nightmare
HAEL
Istill couldn’t process that the person who hurt Nollie, the person who tried to rape her, was the godsdamn Dead King.
I already wanted to murder the bastard who did that to her, but now my rage was a living inferno. Except I couldn’t do a fucking thing about it.
I regretted my reaction, regretted calling her his whore. Her flinch was seared into my memory, forever etched across my skin like a scar.
Fuck.
Seeing her on that throne, seeing what he tried to do.
Cold fury was running through my veins. I hated Elion, had wanted him to die for the entire century I knew him, but Dahes—I finally found someone I hated more.
Because he laid his hands on her—he touched her. Hurt her so fucking badly that all she knew was survival. And he had the audacity to think he fucking owned her.
I had no idea how I was going to do it, but I’d get her away from him, even if it killed me, even if I had to make so many deals there was nothing left of my soul.
She wasn’t going to belong to him.
I could see it now, see that she was helpless, see that whatever transpired from when I met her, she didn’t have a choice.
But I couldn’t stop thinking about it, couldn’t stop wondering how much of it was real.
She loved someone before, that much was obvious. She traded her soul to bring her lover back to life, and Dahes still let him die.
It made everything hurt worse, made me feel so fucking stupid because of course it wasn’t real. She didn’t feel anything. She didn’t know we had the bond, but I did, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t take my feelings back.
I was wrapped around her finger, and I’d do anything for her, even if it destroyed me.
The cage was dropped inside the middle of the Dome, the entire space eerily quiet. All I wanted to do was get Nollie as far away from here as I could.
“Put a barrier shield around us,” Dahes commanded, the compulsive order running through me. “I don’t want anyone to hear us.”
“I think it would be more important that they don’t see us,” I gritted, but I was already making the shield, the wall building around us. I didn’t tell him that no Wielder or commoner would. The Solstice was a holiday for riders. Elion didn’t want anyone to know what the moons did to drakins, so every year he ordered everyone in their homes. He only kept his strongest Wielders with him, the ones he used for protection.
“I have an illusion over us,” Dahes answered. “To the naked eye, the pit will look deserted. I want the barrier as a precaution. When it’s time, I’ll tell you to put invisibility over me.”
My eyes flicked over Nollie for a second before I reeled them back.
“Now call your dragon.”
