Page 92 of Daughter of the Dark

Nothing stupid, she had told Cora. It wouldn’t be breaking her promise if she was able to grab Reyes and rift away. All she had to do was lay a single finger on him. Perhaps less than that. She had felt the gravitational pull of Masimu’s gift, and the subsequent disappearance of the muki giving chase. If she was close enough, she could take Reyes with her, then they could figure out a way to remove the collar away from this place.

She wouldn’t leave him. She couldn’t.

The inside of the tower was warm and deadly silent. Solana’s wet boots squeaked against the stone as she skidded to a stop at the base of the stairs, almost falling over them from the force of rifting. Reyes was out of sight. She took off up the steps, careful to keep her feet light, but her footsteps echoed against the walls despite her efforts. Quick it was, then.

Up and up she went until it felt like she had made no progress at all, and she paused to look up. There was a landing six steps away. Solana’s nostrils flared with each shaky breath. Nothing stupid, she reminded herself.

Dagger in hand, she climbed those last six steps and silently entered a large, circular room seemingly made of glass. Windows covered the entire wall in front of her. They were high enough above the trees that she could see past them to the abyss of a cove and the ships stretched across the water. Five that she could count at a glance. Standing before the sea on the sandy shores were rows and rows of dots of black. Their shackles glinted like stars against the night sky.

“It’s quite a sight to behold, isn’t it?”

Solana spun around, dread in her belly and her dagger squeezed tight in her hand. Killian stood before her dressed in all black with a silver crown atop his head. There was a purple stone in the middle that glowed faintly. He was wearing a himaya made with her blood. The sight of it made her sick.

From the shadows behind him emerged several more shapes, one she faintly recognized and another that was achingly familiar.

The room began to lighten slowly, just enough so that it seemed as though a fire glowed gently in a far-off corner. With it, she could see true. A long corridor lined with globe lights stretched out behind Killian. To his right stood Reyes, and to his left was Hakun in a gray robe, his colorless hair pulled back severely. Beyond them were more Servants of Death, their heads devoid of hair and their robes shimmering faintly in the dim light.

But it was Reyes that demanded her attention. His eyes had purple bruises underneath them, as if he hadn’t closed them since he had been taken. His hair hung limp over his forehead and he made no move to sweep it back like usual. The badge on his cloak was back in its normal spot, and the gleam of it matched the jarring circle of metal around his neck.

Solana felt like a coward, but she had to look away. The harsh lines of his face were too much to bear.

“It took you longer than I anticipated,” Killian said. Now that she knew it existed, she could feel the magic in his voice drawing her closer. Nothing more than a small nudge. A suggestion. Solana pulled away from it. “Have you reconsidered my offer?”

A tremble had begun in her hands and she clenched her dagger tighter to quell it. “Remind me again what you want from me. It’s hard to keep up.”

Killian took two steps forward, and the others behind him followed, their steps like a drumbeat over the patter of rain against glass. “Rule the underworld and all of Auquis with me.”

He kept giving her so many opportunities to reject him. Almost as if he was begging. She was beginning to think … “You need me, don’t you?” Solana whispered, the pieces shifting together. The gash on her hand throbbed. She thought of the ships in the cove behind her, his plan to leave Supay and use his demon army to kill and conquer. “Our power has its limits. Is the himaya not working the way you had hoped?”

The twitch of his lips gave him away. “This doesn’t need to be more difficult than it already is. I don’t want to hurt the people of Supay, your friends, your people. All of this is for them.”

“This is for you,” Solana said. “This is to feed your ego and your greed. But don’t you remember what happened when the gods tried to feed theirs?” She took a step forward also, ignoring the shiver that worked down her spine with the weight of Reyes’s eyes on her. “They fell, Killian. They failed. They were tossed to earth and cursed for all eternity. It’s not too late to avoid that fate.”

“IT’S KING KILLIAN!” The force of his voice made her flinch back, but nobody else moved. Their fixed presence made her skin crawl. She wondered if the servants wore the king’s collars too, but she couldn’t see anything underneath their cloaks. It was possible they were simply under his thrall and exactly where they wanted to be. Imitations of the muki they devoutly worshipped. “And I will not fail as the gods did. Join me and see victory, or deny me and face misery. The choice is yours.”

Solana glanced back at Reyes again. At the horrible hollowness throughout him.

“Let him go, and I’ll join you,” she said, the words leaving her lips too easily to be a lie.

Killian shook his head, disbelief carved into the lines of his pursed lips. “Misery it is, then.” He lifted a hand into the air and snapped. A muki appeared to his left with a thin metal circle in its grotesque hand. It was smaller than the one Reyes and the muki wore. Dainty, with an intricate design she couldn’t see clearly from where she stood, and deceiving how closely it resembled an innocent piece of jewelry. Already, she could feel the way it would close around her throat and choke her.

“You don’t want to rule beside me; you want to use me. Just as you did my father.”

“Masimu was weak. But you are not. This collar won’t cage you. It will free you from everything that is holding you back.” The strength of his words was clear in the clench of his jaw. He truly believed that this would free her of choice and burden, of obligation and morality. There would be nothing left of her except what he carved out of her.

Solana glanced again at Reyes, at his beautifully blank face, at the eyes that stared back, unseeing like the muki that lost their humanity. But not all of it. Deep beneath their cursed souls, she had been able to find that tether of want. The desperation to be released. She wondered if she was strong enough to find it in Reyes.

“Others don’t understand what needs to be done in order to protect their people. But you do. You did anything, became anyone, to free them. We are the same in that way.”

The breadth of his delusions was almost impressive, but the fact that he had gotten this far was more terrifying than she liked to admit. There was no part of him that would rule justly. There was no hope to be had underneath his thumb. It was clear there was only one option for her, for him.

The smile she gave him was sharper than any sword, and she saw the moment he understood that she couldn’t be convinced. “I would cut out my own heart before I let you make a monster of me.”

The king nodded solemnly and looked down at the circlet in his hand. “I understand. But you must understand that you leave me no choice.” At his side, Reyes stepped forward. She was not afraid of him, but Solana took a step back all the same. “Fortunately, I don’t need all of you.” Killian swept a hand through the air, and Reyes surged forward again, eyes wild, chest heaving, hands shaking as they reached for the dagger at his side. A tear rolled from the corner of his eye, down his cheek, carving a glittering path through tanned skin.

“Reyes,” she whispered, heart cracking with every breath he exhaled. She held her ground, waiting for the moment he got close enough to touch.

“He can’t hear you anymore,” Killian said. “My son only answers to me. Bring me her heart, Reyes.”