PROLOGUE
KELLAN
Kellan – Beyond the Gate of the World
Lyvia’s scream cut through every bone in my body, her horror-stricken face seared across my mind as the glowing spear ripped me away from the Vael Lacrima. Snarls and howls rose in a cacophony of terror as the Embodied tore me back, the air binding me to her beginning to slip.
Pain erupted in my chest as the jagged hooks of the spear sliced into my abdomen, my skin and muscle ripping and spilling the soft flesh beneath. A blinding agony detonated through my physical body, but it was nothing compared to the panic that arrived as the deepest part of me grappled for the air oath, unable to reach it.
The tunnel of darkness we fell through disappeared as soon as it arrived. My vision somersaulted between the twisting faces of the Embodied and a violet sky of stars. A single silver moon hovered in the distance.
Unanswered questions ricocheted in my mind. An overwhelming sense of regret and loss punched through me asmy time with her was cut short. Rage pounced at the realization, and my body struggled weakly against the goddesses holding me in an iron grip of power.
Ganmira and Renova’s teeth lengthened as they raked their talons over my body, slicing through my scarred skin and muscle… butchering me as we fell. The sickening squelch of my shredding flesh melded with the snarls slipping through the Embodieds’ lips. Blood leaked from the wounds as they slashed, and a quiet numbness began to spread through me.
Hot pain slid into foggy aches… Shock.My body was going into shock…
My mind ebbed. My vision blurred as the end neared.No…I grappled for her connection as my life began to slip away.I should have told her…
A dark ocean spread below us, and a rocky island appeared in the distance. Stars shot across the darkening sky, leaving trails of light in their wake. My body became lighter, my pulse slower. The goddesses removed their fangs from my neck and paused before they turned their wrath on each other. The buffeting wind ripped their howls away as they screamed.
Blood clogged my throat, but I breathed in the fresh scent of this world, the purity of the wind anchoring me,reminding me…
I am not alone…
My eyes closed as the precious oath slipped from my fingers, and a single, hopeful thought materialized… before it all ended.
CHAPTER ONE
LYVIA
The siblings had always feared the One, for the master of Death was also the master of Life.
– History of the Gods, Temple of the Sky, Aedrialis.
Lyvia – Beyond the Gate of the World
Iam Death, I reminded myself, as my heart raced to keep my body living as long as possible. The source of that chilling voice hovered nearby. Its hiss crept through my bones like a parasite tracing an invisible path through its host, slow and unseen…destructive.
I’d fallen through eternity, time disappearing as darkness consumed me. Consumedus. Tiberius was close behind, his soul moored to my own as my bonded caeluma, partners in the Realm of Vael and wherever we landed.
I clung to the air oath tethering me to Lord Astraeus as we fell.Kellan. I tunneled deep into my chasm of power, preparing to face the wrath of the Embodied, to face Ganmira andRenova, the twin goddesses whose transformative power glowed alongside the darkness within me.
But then that sliver of air clinging to my fingers slipped, and the whisper of breath lingered on their tips like the ghost of a feeling. And I knew what that meant.
Kellan was dead.
Numbness slipped through me at the thought, and a fierce wave of denial warred with what I knew to be true—that only death could break a magical oath. ButIwas Death, and I was coming for him.
Vael needed him.His power would end all or bless all.Those words pricked a memory, but I couldn’t place it. I didn’t fear the Starling Sentry, the descendant of the very gods whose revenge on our world hovered like an asp waiting in the shadows.
“Lyvia,” the voice whispered again, the sound coming from everywhere yet nowhere at all. Deep and somehow soft at the same time… Definitivelymale.
He spoke my name as if he knew me. A distant part of me screamed to flee, but something deep and primal anchored me to this spot. This was exactly where I needed to be.
My hands pushed off the damp, sticky ground as I got to my feet. Something slimy and wet soaked through my leathers, the thickness of it turning my stomach. I blinked against the darkness, trying my best to make out my surroundings, and I swallowed the growing pool of saliva that filled my mouth. I couldn’t seeanything. Stale air filled my lungs, something like sulfur and rotting blood, causing my throat to constrict.
The Obscura stood at attention, the pressure of the power building beneath my palms, its awareness more sentient and astute than ever. Adrenaline pumped through my system, fueling the gathering darkness.
