A vicious smirk graced Luella’s lips. "Remember when you said I will dream of flame? I have no space in my nightmares for anything more. Not whenshehas haunted me already. This isn’t you, Caliban." She spoke to the male, the vessel, trapped inside the body before her. "The only way he can have any control over you is if you let him. So don’t."
The words had the effect she wanted.
Green overtook shadows, and he let her throat go, stepping back and tangling his hands in his hair. "Gods,Nor... This agony—please, forgive me, Luella." Caliban looked at her, words hurried. "I don’t know how you know those words, but you have to get out, you have to run from me. You cannot kill him. He cannot die, and so neither can I."
Luella took a step forward. "There has to be a way to kill him. If anyone can, it is me. There is a prophecy?—"
"No, no! Don’t tell me. He hears things, even now." Caliban gave a strangled moan, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes. His shoulders curved inward, he took a deep breath, and when he straightened and dropped his hands, she was looking into the eyes of a god, once more.
The Tenebrae threw the gown at her, then pointed at a much smaller white cape hanging in the wardrobe. "Get dressed."
He turned and disappeared through a door beside the wardrobe. A painting of the moon’s phases on the wall rattled as it slammed shut.
The gown was soft in her hands, and she wasn’t sure when he would return, so she quickly slipped off her old gown and tugged the new one on, stepping through it and tugging it up her legs and waist, until she hooked the straps over her shoulders. Theback pooled low, settling at the curve above her bottom, leaving the ruins of her left wing stump bare.
Even rising on her tiptoes to grab the cape made fire lance up her back. She gasped at the tug of pain, and it turned sharper as she draped the cape over her body, feeling the thick material settle over the stump. She staggered and moved forward, leaning her forehead against the cool stone of a spike decorating the bed’s perimeter.
She focused on her breathing and didn’t move until the door opened and the Tenebrae announced lowly:
"Come."
She met his eyes and found a portal of shadows waiting. Stepping through it felt like another nail in her buried coffin. But she did so anyway, ambling toward him, until he took her elbow, fingers gripping the fabric of her cape as the shadows wrapped around them both. Her stomach lurched as her feet were swept from underneath her.
82
THE CHAINS OF SUFFERING
LUELLA
She staggered onto grass damp with summer’s dew.
Low voices spoke all around her, and she slowly turned her head, gaining her bearings, disoriented and ill from being dragged through the shadowed portal.
A company of Umbra stood around a flat meadow, flowers trampled beneath boots and the hooves of huffing horses. The metal fittings of the saddles clinked as the Tenebrae stalked close to a nearby horse, large and dappled with a grey and black coat, and took the reins. The hair around the horse’s legs was long and perfectly kept. The horse stomped its front hoof, air releasing from its snout as large brown eyes met Luella’s.
Her toes sank into the spots of grass, and she was forced to take a step forward, with the shadows still keeping her on a short leash, tethered to their master. She gritted her jaw, feeling wound up and tight, poised to snap. But if she snapped, what would she do? Kill them all… or just herself?
The air was heavy and foreboding among the Umbra. Everywhere Luella looked, she saw shadowed eyes and smirks, lingering looks that swept over the white cape held tightly around her shoulders, the right side bunched strangely aroundher one remaining wing. She was suddenly glad for the cape, for it kept her wounds concealed from these hungry, depraved eyes.
She didn’t want them to see. They had seen enough of her suffering. The rest would be hers to bear. And bear it, she would, until the chains of suffering grew to be so stifling and heavy that she would have no choice but to cast them off in rage and let everyone around her find themselves at the mercy of her making.
"Come, conquered Princess. We ride for the Lunar Temples in the Lunaria Mountains. We will be there before dawn." The Tenebrae’s white cape fluttered in a gentle evening breeze, which made the flowers that stretched beyond ripple like waves.
Luella stared at the litany of purple petals, interspersed with delicate yellow and deep blue, as she said, "If I do not agree?"
His response was just as simple. "Then I will force you. You have no autonomy here. I have shown you, time and time again, the length I will go to claim you, to break you down, just so I can build you up into a being befitting my needs."
The shadows curled around her chin, forcing her head straight until she met his eyes. Every breath made her back ache.
"Your needs?" she questioned softly.
He tugged on the chains, making the horse nicker. She wanted to wrap them around his neck and squeeze. Her fingers flexed at her side, and she relished the twinge of pain as they spasmed.
"Every damned creature in creation bending a knee tome."
Luella released a held breath, then stepped toward the horse. She walked carefully, not wanting to crush the flowers underfoot, but it was no use—they were so plentiful, she couldn’t maneuver them. They were crushed anyway, no matter how hard she tried to preserve their peaceful beauty.
She pressed her palm to the horse’s flank and uttered a silent apology to the creature used by such a merciless master.
