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Ryan jerked to a sudden stop. He stiffened and took a long strangled intake of breath, eyes wide and intense on the blade in my hand. Zack laid a hand on Ryan’s arm.
Ryan. Szerain. I staggered, dimly aware of Eilahn steadying me. “Ryan,” I breathed, trembling in the wake of the power overload. “You killed her,” I whispered hoarsely. “Imprisoned her for centuries.” Elinor’s essence, trapped within the blade for all that time. In pain. So much pain. Vsuhl and Elinor had shown me the horrific truth, and the sense of it ran through me in uneasy shivers. “Centuries.” The word hissed through my teeth with a touch of my own personal potency.
Ryan’s face contorted in a tangled mess of shifting features, anguish and exultation. He inhaled, a long throaty sound as if drawing breath for the first time, and shuddered, eyes on the blade. Zack gripped him by the upper arm. His regard went to Ryan, then to me, then back to Ryan, as if balancing on the razor’s edge of decision.
Ryan…no, he was far more Szerain now. Different face. Broader of cheek. Fuller lips. Higher brow. The same as in Elinor’s memories. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Tessa backed to the wall, eyes wide. I knew that the revelation of Ryan as a demonic lord had to be a teensy bit of a shock, but I couldn’t spare any attention for her right then.
Zack tightened his grip and put a hand on Szerain’s head. I knew Zack intended to submerge him again in that moment, and my stomach lurched.
“Dahn, dahn!” Szerain said, struggling to pull free as Zack spoke in demon. With the residuals of the power still flickering through me I understood the meaning. Only for a moment.
Szerain stilled, gave a single nod. Zack’s brow creased with worry, as if hoping he wouldn’t regret this decision. Slowly he released Szerain’s head, but kept a firm grip on his upper arm.
I trembled and clenched my hand on Vsuhl’s hilt. Szerain lifted his head and met my eyes, his own glistening bright as if with tears. A heartbeat later, he stared again at the blade as though inexorably drawn. Shudders ran through him every few seconds, and his head jerked to the side as though with a heavy tic.
“Slew Elinor. Created you.” He took a step forward, shoulder pulled back where Zack still held his arm. He shook, shifting between an aura that radiated jubilant freedom and chaos.
I took in the differences between him and Ryan. His facial features had changed, but his build was the same and his eyes the same gold flecked with green. But even with the disturbing aura of chaotic flow—and I had to wonder if it was a touch of madness from his long confinement—he was so alive, so potent.
“Why did you hold her?” I asked, voice breaking, knowing—knowing—how much Elinor had suffered. I understood she had to die, just as I almost had to die. But entrapment?
He drew a deeper breath, straightening, though his eyes never left the blade in my hand. “I had the choice of unraveling the world or—” He hesitated. “—slaying Elinor.” A shudder passed through him. “And yes, holding her,” he said, with a haunted quaver in his voice. “I will not speak of why.” He knew what it was like to be held, even though it was of a different nature.
A shiver of realization went through me as Detective Marco Knight’s tranced words echoed, spoken to me only a few months ago during the investigation into Lida Moran’s stalker.
Evil is often a matter of perception. Even the most powerful get screwed. The world was at stake, and he had to make a terrible choice. Sometimes the punishment fits the crime far too well.
Horrific entrapment for horrific entrapment? Was that what that meant? Knight had given no indication that it referred to Szerain, but that’s what I’d guessed the moment I heard it. And it sure seemed to fit here. Far too well.
Gooseflesh crawled across my skin. “Is killing and trapping Elinor why you’re in exile?”
He shook his head once. “Only—” He stopped as Zack tugged on his arm, as if to prevent him from saying something he shouldn’t. Szerain shot Zack a look that clearly said, I can’t take this anymore. He drew a deep breath, gathered what potency he could, gaze returning to Vsuhl. “It was most assuredly a contributing factor to everything.”
Szerain lifted eyes filled with a perilous hunger to mine. “My blade,” he said, voice low and fractured. He held out his hand. Twitched heavily. “Kara, give me Vsuhl.”
I took a step back, chilled. Vsuhl rested cool and quiescent in my hand, telling me all I needed to know. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I felt Eilahn at my back, silent and supporting, wings half-spread.
Zack’s grip tightened on Szerain’s arm.
“It is time it came back to me,” Szerain said, baring his teeth slightly, hand still extended. “Time to end this madness.” Clear in his eyes was the certainty that once the blade was in his hand everything would be different. And I knew that to be true.
Zack reached for Szerain’s head to put him back under, but with a feral snarl, the demonic lord ducked the hand and twisted in Zack’s grip, nearly freeing himself.
“Kara!” Zack shouted. “Send Vsuhl away!”
Sucking in a breath, I looked to the blade in confused shock. Send it away? How? I didn’t have more than a second or two to figure it out. Mzatal and Rhyzkahl seemed to simply will their blades to them and away. Is that it?>Rhyzkahl’s free hand tightened into a fist. “There is no other way,” he said through clenched teeth. As I watched, I felt him detach, his face taking on that icy look I knew so well.
Mzatal’s eyes were deep wells of pain as he shifted his grip on his blade. I felt their blades, knew their blades. Like the first ignition of the columns, the Three should have resonated in harmony. But the rakkuhr spiked the melody, fractured it, punctuating it with bone shuddering disharmonies a hundred times worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.
Eilahn left the lords and moved behind me, took hold of my shoulders. I leaned back against her, deeply grateful for her support. I tipped my head back and looked up at the roiling sky. I never got the chance to say goodbye to so many people. “Please find a way to let my aunt and the others know,” I said to Eilahn. Let them have closure at least. The wind screamed around us, but her chiming came to me even through the noise and discordance, and I knew she’d heard and would do as I asked.
She slid her arms around my shoulders, holding me close to her.
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A cold touch wound around me, a razor coil of ice.
The two lords exchanged looks that said everything from I fucking hate this to Do it now.
