If he must, he would peel the skin of her chest off to rid her of obeying anyone but him; though, he knew that wouldn’t work. The ink was in her blood, in her marrow. It bound her will to his half-brother’s.
So, the Tenebrae would have to kill his half-brother to remove his claim on his bride.
Luella shifted to meet his eyes fully, and he saw the way her face twisted up in pain.
"I hope you have had time to consider the consequences of your actions," the Tenebrae said lowly.
She was quiet for so long he wondered if she had fallen asleep, but her eyes were open, searching his with a growing,dangerous intent. He almost smiled as he stared at the collar around her throat. He wondered if it had taken effect yet, but the longer he watched her, the more he realized it had.
With a wild look in her eye and loose lips, she was succumbing to the mark that he had forced upon her.
One that he hoped would make her finally see reason. If insanity was the only way she’d ever let herself have him, then he would force her to be mad.
Luella drew in a long breath, as if to steel herself, then said, "I would say I wish you were dead after what you’ve done to me, but I don’t. I pity you, because even as a god, you still have wants that drive you. You are dissatisfied. Being a god wasn’t enough for you, so you wished to become a male."
A laugh filled him. Not aloud, but in his head, in his soul. It was faint with pain and strain.
She knows you. She will undo you,his vessel whispered.
"Mind your tongue, or I will cut mine out to keep you from talking," the Tenebrae hissed. His eyes were unfocused, staring at the gilded bars and the blue glimmers stuck to the walls of the throne room, and not on his captive bride.
It won’t work, his vessel said, voice growing fainter as if the strength he’d mustered to taunt him had fled.
It wouldn’t.
The Tenebrae had tried before to silence his vessel. He’d tried to cut out his tongue, but it had only grown back. He’d tried sewing his lips shut in those first months. But the voice of his vessel had filled his mind, regardless.
Luella thought his threat was for her, evidenced by how she cowered.
"I don’t want your pity," the Tenebrae seethed. "I am not dissatisfied. Why I’ve done what I have… Do not begin to conceptualize the thoughts of a god, because you will fail."
He willed his shadows to form a portal, once more, to take him from her treacherous tongue. Maybe he would cuthersout, because his vessel was always loudest when she was around, as if he felt some strange, fraternal protection for her.
Done with her, he turned to slip through the portal, but her voice stopped him.
"What about your sister?"
He stilled.
Staring into the darkness of his portal, where it clung to the gilded bars, he kept his back to her as she spoke.
"She is a god, and she understands. I-I’ve seen it. I know she loves in a way you never could. Are you jealous of her?"
Rage consumed him. His vessel hid deep below, nestled beneath his organs, retreating in his mind, knowing what followed such rage.
He found himself before her face, so close he saw the way her pupils widened in fear. One hand was by her head, his fingers curling around nothing, knowing he couldn’t push her body any further into pain, lest she succumb to it fully and go beyond where he could reach.
Even gods had limits.
And trapped in a cage of flesh, he was forced to bend to the limits of this form. The rage he had nearly made up for the fact that he couldn’t be everywhere, see everything, have unlimited, unbridled power. Even a god bowed to death, but he swore to make death bow to him. He must, if he were to ensure the prophecy be upheld.
The pieces of the prophecy she didn’t know… the pieces he’d stolen from the Compendium, ripped out from the book itself.
Power over all, purest wings, of a winter’s snowfall. There will be one reigning king, and four aligned hearts, with the blooming rose, who will be within death’s throes.
One day, she would be cradled by death, and he must tear her away from the edge.
"I know something you do not. I know many, many things. Tell me, have you ever stopped to wonder why the mages are spawn of demons and fae, yet only have control of the four elements?" The Tenebrae’s voice was a hiss. The words slipped from his shadowed lips, unable to be stopped in his rage.
