Pure evil is all I see when I look into his sunken eyes.
“You’re a traitor, Reign Calloway! Just like your father!”
The words echo as the mountains around us quake with his rage. Avalanches begin to fall, sending chunks of snow and rock rushing down the sides of the surrounding mountains just like in my dreams. We’re no longer in Strellesia. Wherever he’s taken me is far away from everyone else. There’s no one coming to my rescue. Not that it would even matter. I think part of me always knew this is how I would end up.
“You have betrayed me and the Great Six Realms!” He steps forward, running his talon-like finger under my chin. “Mercy is a fate you will not know.”The threat might have landed harder if I hadn’t already known it was coming. Instead, I feel relief. My fight is coming to an end, and there’s peace in knowing I won’t have to endure much more.
What’s done is done, and death is my punishment. Though perhaps it’s more of a gift.
I straighten my spine, staring back at those eyes that resemble death. If I’m going to die today, I want the fire in my eyes and the smile on my face to haunt him until his last day, knowing that he didn’t break me.
“They’re coming for you,” I promise with the same wicked smile I’ve seen in my nightmares. “You’ve lost.”
Kane’s golden dragon head reaches over the king but doesn’t block his view of me. My heart aches for what he’s going to have to do and what it will be like living with it. I’m being set free, but Kane is the one who is dying a slow death. It feels wrong leaving him to continue this fight without me, but perhaps that was never meant to be my path. The Mother gave me to this world and now she’s ready to take me from it.
It is with that thought that I exhale one final breath, accepting my fate before a ball of dragon fire engulfs me.
Chapter 17
Ryder
No! I’m too late.
The last of my father’s smoke fades as the ashes of what used to be Reign Calloway fall to the ground.
She’s dead, and it’s all my fault.
I did this. I was supposed to protect her. I was supposed to save her from my father, but instead I led her right back to him. I never should’ve let her come. I should’ve kept her as far away from him as possible.
My knees give out, and I drop down beside the pile of ashes. I failed her. Just like I failed my mother and unborn brother. Just like I failed the realms. I don’t deserve to feel her loss. I don’t deserve to mourn the girl with dark, cherry hair and lethal banter. She was never mine to carefor, and she’s not mine to miss, yet the tightness in my chest grows with each passing second.
Usually, I’m able to push it down, but right now it’s all-consuming. The gravel and snow around me begin to float into the air as the leash on my power loosens with rage. Casualties come with war. I know this. I expected this. So why does her death affect me so? She was just another one of my father’s playthings. A girl from the Sector who turned into a soldier. Soldiers die. That’s what happens.
I close my eyes and try to push her from my mind, but I swear I can smell the lingering scent of her. The intoxicating scent of jasmine that stays long after she’s gone. The scent that has entranced me more times than I would like to admit.
Imagining a world without her witty remarks and playful jabs feels wrong. A world where she’s not violently throwing daggers at a target, or insisting she be a part of every plan. A world where she’s not bothering me with insufferable demands. Where she’s not burning holes through the icy walls I’ve built up. I shake my head, trying to rid myself of the images of her now haunting my mind. Instead, I cling to the anger, avoiding all other feelings.
He’s going to pay for what he’s done. Whether it takes a year or five-hundred years, my father is going to die for this. I hear the avalanches fall in the distance as I let my power take over. Wherever he is now, I want him to know I’m coming for him.
Every inch of my body prickles with power. As I take off my jacket, giving myself over to the shadows, something catches my eye. I watch as the small, glimmering object rolls along the mountain’s cliff until it comes to a stop. Suddenly, it feels like my heart is going to burst from my chest. I walk over and pick up the pyramid-shaped stone encased in golden rings.
The Verenite Stone.
I stole it back from the Serenities with my shadows right before they vanished in the Dread Woods. I was so caught up in everything the Oracle had told us that I must’ve forgotten to take it out of my pocket the night we returned. I had been meaning to give it to Reign, but we weren’t exactly on good terms when we got back, and it never felt like the right time.
Hope begins to build inside me, looking down at the small relic in my palm. This could work. It has to work. The stone is said to undo any magic. That has to include dragon fire, right?
My head is telling me it’s a long shot, but I don’t care. It’s hope and right now that’s all I need. I remove the leather glove from my right hand and unsheathe a dagger from my side. Carefully, I set the stone on top of the pile of ashes.
Just one drop of blood and she’ll be alive again.
It’s going to work. It has to.
Though only a single drop of blood is needed to activate the stone’s magic, I’m not taking any chances. I run the blade along the inside of my hand, drawing a long line of blood. There’s a moment of hesitation when I look down at the black seeping from the cut.
What if my blood is immune? What if it doesn’t work?
No. I can’t think like that. I squeeze my hand into a fist, letting the blood fall. Just as the first drop is about to land on the stone, a gust of wind sends the pile of ashes over the edge of the mountain.
