Page 91 of She Who Holds My Wrath

“I know.”

My voice cracks open completely, grief spilling through it. “I told her I would. I told her we’d face it together.

Maelkar offers me half smile. “She was brave.”

My lip trembles. “She was everything.”

Silence settles over the room, the walls behind me humming faintly with the lingering power of Korithax’s return. The miracle Velentha bought with her life. Every pulse of magic in the air feels like another reminder of what she gave away.

The sound of Maelkar exhaling sharply through his nose pulls me back to the present. He shifts to sit beside me, so close I can feel his shadows stroking against me in comfort.

“I’ve only ever lost one person I truly cared about,” he says at last, his tone so quiet and full of sorrow. I glance at him, but his eyes remain fixed ahead.

“My mother. Veyrithra.” The name lands, making goosebumps erupt across my flesh.

“She was called the Voodoo Queen,” he says, and there’s something strange in his voice. Like pride mixed in with old pain. “Whispers of her crossed every realm. Kings feared her. Gods avoided crossing her. They said she could stitch curses into bone and pull truth straight from a soul with a single touch.”

I stare at him, but he doesn’t meet my eyes. “I’ve heard of her.”

That earns a faint smirk from him. “Most have. Hard not to when your mother is a living legend.” His shadows twitch, like they too are reliving the memory of her.

“She vanished when I was a teenager. No warning. No explanation. One day she was there, and the next… nothing. Just gone.” His jaw tightens, his hands fidgeting with his dark silk trousers. “She left behind an entire realm I knew nothing about. A throne I wasn’t ready for. A legacy I didn’t know how to continue.”

There’s no anger in his voice when he speaks. Just exhaustion and a kind of grief that never leaves.

“I could’ve stepped into her place. Become the next Voodoo King. Carried on her empire. But if I had…” his mouth twists bitterly. “It would have felt like erasing her. Like accepting she wasn’t coming back.”

I look at him then, truly look at him. Despite being a scary bastard, in this moment, he looks just like the young boy he would have been when his mother vanished.

“So, I didn’t,” he continues on. “I kept to myself. Dealt in darker magic. Corruption, soul trade. Anything to avoid becoming what my mother was meant to turn me into.”

His eyes finally meet mine, the violet in them glowing with unshed tears. “And all the while, some pathetic part of me kept thinking if I held everything still long enough, she might return and reclaim it.”

I swallow hard, a new layer of grief for the man sat by my side joining the rest in my chest. “She never did?” I ask quietly.

He shakes his head once. “Not yet.”

The words hit me harder than they should. Because I know that hope. That impossible, poisonous hope. The kind that keeps grief from becoming grief because it never gets to finish becoming real. Gods do I know it all too well.

“If Lucifer ever pushed something like that on me…,” His voice lowers, “if he left without waking me. If he made that choice alone…” he laughs once, but it’s humourless. “I’d be devastated. And furious.”

There’s something deeply honest in the way he says it. Like he’s opening himself up entirely, just to help me in his own way.

“Despite the fact I haven’t actually told the arrogant bastard yet,” he says, rolling his eyes faintly. “I love him very much.”

That surprises a breath of something close to amusement out of me. Maelkar notices and points a finger at me.

“Don’t look so shocked. I’m capable of emotional depth. Occasionally.”

He leans closer and rests a hand briefly on my shoulder in a way I didn’t realise I’d find comforting from him. “It’s okay to be both,” he says quietly. “Hurt and angry. Both things can exist at once, Aran. Loving someone doesn’t erase the pain they caused. And pain doesn’t erase love.”

The words hit deep. Because he’s right. I am angry. Angry that she left me sleeping. Angry that she made that choice for the both of us. Angry that she carried this alone. And I love her so much I can barely breathe with the weight of it. My eyes burn and I look away before he can see the tears gathering there. He doesn’t say anything more. He doesn’t need to. He simply stays beside me in the silence, and somehow it hurts less than being alone.

Not long later, we’re walking in silence back to the upper halls, my heart not feeling as heavy thanks to Maelkar’s words as my footsteps drag along. As we reach the landing, I feel a ripple of power rolling beneath my feet. The air feels different. Charged. A mixture of bright magic and a dark void lingering. I can feel Daisy and Korithax. Their energy a living thing.

I brace myself against the railing as another wave of their power spreads outwards.

Maelkar glances sideways at me. “He’s different,” he murmurs. “Korithax.”