My heart cracked.
I slid my gaze to where Isla lay. Her amber eyes fixed on mine, a single tear sliding down her beautiful, bronze skin.Black, hand-shaped bruises formed on her neck and her swollen, puffy lips. Dark, red lines began to form along her abdomen, dripping into small pools of blood.
“What have you done?” I breathed, my gaze slicing to the dark king’s glowing eyes. The clang of Astraeus’s blades in the distance was lost against the pounding of my heart.
“You’ve twisted it…” I choked as a sob formed in the back of my throat. “Twisted it into something…” I shook my head.
“I’veperfectedit,” the dark king said, a note of triumph in his voice as he held his hands to either side, the Ramadiel Bone pulsing on his palm.
I swallowed the bile rising to my throat.
“Weaponized it.” He grinned at me, the yellow of his eyes somehow glowing brighter.
“You sent it to Lotrennia… Infected people? How?” I asked, defeat hovering nearby.
“Poisoned is the correct term, Daughter of Darkness,” Daimos purred. “The Lotrennians love their traditions. Though my spies were only able to poison one shipment of nebulis…”
My mind spun, horror coiling as I remembered the deaths at the Awakening… He’d poisoned the powder at the celebration…
“They had more success lacing the vats of sparkling wine that came in from the east. And though he was often reckless, Cyril did have his uses.”
Wine.
The Lady of Tomorrow had a bottle of sparkling wine with her. Had no one checked it for poison? I had barely noticed it… And Cyril. Oh gods, that was a grape he’d examined in his tower. A grape and the powder…
“Ah,” the dark king continued, a note of surprise in his voice as his attention shifted. “I see you’ve at last learned of my deceit.” His unnatural eyes slid to the pile of bodies on the hill.
I followed his gaze to where Aeriden caught the blade of a Nivis soldier positioned at Astraeus’s back. My chest caved.No. I wouldn’t let him take Aeriden.
“The Transcindiel does wonders, but it’s not perfect. You never looked very close at the head in the ice trunk.” A pale tongue slipped over his lips as if savoring the memories from the Crystal Castle.
“Their numbers are dwindling, Your Grace,” a female voice crooned from across the valley.
I knew that voice.My head snapped to the left, and my gut sank as it landed on Selvina, memories from the Crystal Castle surging forward.
The dark king’s niece strode across the field of ash,my ash, in a war gown of deep blue, reinforced with leather armor, a nyxteria in full bloom on her breastplate. Tendrils of her white-blonde hair blew loose from the elaborate twist of braids and sapphires. As she approached, the rain fizzled into soft, white flecks of snow.
A female slave strode behind her, her thick iron collar stark against her pale skin. The Tauruk followed closely behind, his horns gleaming white and his crimson robes trailing behind him. Flashes of my father’s time here…of the torture inflicted on him by the Tauruk fueled a white-hot rage gathering within me.
A torrent of bloody images flooded my memories, my emotions spinning in my chest, and I urged the darkness and light to rise to the surface. Selvina locked her gaze on mine as she approached from a distance.
“Your return is timely, Queen of Darkness,” she called, her gaze bearing into me.
I blinked. Where had I heard those words before?
“Indeed,” Dark King Daimos drawled, taking a step toward me. Those glowing yellow eyes slid to my hands and back tomy face, no doubt studying the blazing rim of orange that surrounded my pupils.
I reached for my bond with Tiberius, willing all the power left in that deep chasm to cast to him. To call him here, but the chasm was quiet.
Here, I urged into the darkness, into that space I found the threads.I’m here. Help us.
“Welcome, Father Killer. Tynan’s Accepted… Though I’m not sure the gods will appreciate what you’ve stolen. You’ve committed treason byharnessingtheir power. Just like the Bellators. All of you,” he said, glancing nonchalantly at Bayne and Nerissa. “How they will reward me when I present you to them.” Daimos smiled as he held his hand with the Ramadiel Bone to me.
The dark king sent a thin tendril of dark blue power, like a living stream of water, snaking through the air to me. An overwhelming sense of panic took root, and I threw my hands up, rallying what little strength I had left to surround myself in a shield of darkness when a blast of violet light and wind slammed through the valley.
Black ash spun through the air like a cyclone of darkness, and I sensed Olienna’s presence before the dark king bellowed her name.
