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She was not his fate. She couldn’t be his. Fate would not condemn him so thoroughly. Not like this.
Chest heaving, Rune surveyed the damage he caused. He mastered his powers millennia ago. He hadn’t lost control since his youth. Before he could mend the damage, the Ra’Voshnik sank its claws into his awareness and dragged his consciousness into the depths of his mind.
Rune descended into himself, meeting it. He had enough of the fool creature and its incessant want for the mortal death awaiting him. Desire was as fleeting as pain. Wanting the minx was irrelevant when the cost was his life.
Pain sank into his throat as he stood before the Ra’Voshnik. A replica of himself that could not be more different. It sank its claws deeper into either side of his neck. Pain was a fleeting thing, and the creature finally found the end of Rune’s patience.
His will did not bend.Not for a spell. Not for a peasant. And certainly not for the Ra’Voshnik who invited their very death to his bed.
“Your will is already hers. You didn’t mind her in your bed when you were feasting between her thighs. She is everything we’ve dreamed of,and you left her!” The Ra’Voshnik’s claws connected behind Rune’s windpipe as it hissed, “I will return to her and mend things.”
Rune seized its wrist and squeezed. Crushing bones until the grip on his throat slacked and fell away. He speared his other hand into the creature’s chest in a practiced motion, and tore its heart free. The Ra’Voshnik’s dark eyes clouded as it collapsed at his feet.
Rune kicked it onto its back. Pausing for the briefest moment as he gazed down his own dead form.
He’d always imprisoned it in his mind, viewing the bothersome creature as the cost of his power. It would continue to heedlessly court his death. The spell must be tied to the Ra’Voshnik. If he killed it, would he still be a Pure Blood? He would remain a Shadowman like his brothers. Like his father. Become lesser as a turned vampire perhaps?
It mattered not. The consequence was a necessity, this spell had gone on longer than Rune could tolerate. Killing the Ra’Voshnik would sever the tie the minx held over him. The leash she unknowingly held. Yanking him closer with every exchange.
Rune knelt beside the fallen creature taking it by the throat. He took a final breath bracing himself for pain he was sure would follow. With a twist of his wrist its head separated from its shoulders.
He’d expected agony. A tearing of some kind when he ended the creature. But Rune felt nothing. He got to his feet, the Ra’Voshnik’s head lie on its side, its long white-blonde hair staining red in the growing pool beneath it.
The Ra’Voshnik blinked before its gaze swept up to meet his.
Rune recoiled as a smirk formed over the creature’s mouth. “Did you honestly believe all those centuries you studied under Saith—Until our body failed you, I haven’t killed you?” It laughed then settled itself with a sigh before saying, “You have died dozens of times, while our body lay unconscious, recovering.”
The creature’s form dissipated into smoke and shadow, its dark shadowy gaze lingering, being the last to fade. Its disembodied voice echoed around him, travelling upward.
You can’t kill me. We are two halves of the same coin. There is no separation for ones like us. We exist in tandem or not at all.
A mental barrier fell over Rune, caging him.You can wait in the shadows while I return to our queen.
Rune’s power rose, answering his fury. The fool creature sought to trap him and take possession of his body.Never. The mental bindings shattered around him as he ascended to his physical body.
“My will is greater than yours. Every deed you commit, every thought that rattles through your fool mind—Is because I allow it.” Rune stalked to the edge of the hall, a pillar of shimmering crystal rising to meet him. His realm obeying his will.
Rune touched the pillar, spreading his fingers wide. He summoned the Ra’Voshnik and cast its consciousness into the crystal. The creature did not separate from his mind. Rune tried a second time to no effect.
Frustration mounted in Rune. He dropped his hand, burying the creature within the recesses of his mind until he no longer felt its frantic thrashing. Rune stalked toward his father’s throne, while the creature’s roar echoed from its confines.Return to her!
Rune growled, rubbing his hand over his bare chest. With a flicker of his mind a trunk appeared before him. Rune crouched and opened it, withdrawing a shirt. He stood, roughly pulling it on. He’d finished buttoning it before he recognized the boots trapped within the crystal pillar beside him.
His gaze lifted to a woman. Fiery red hair fanned out around her, still and suspended in her prison. Her chromatic sage gaze met his and a dark smile spread over his lips. She was a broken mind trapped in flesh that would never return to the Darkness. Sadi had broken her mind and shattered her core, centuries ago. Stripping her of the day-blood shard she once carried. Rune sealed what remained of her flesh with his father’s other gruesome curiosities.
Forever imprisoned in Standing Shadows.
“Sadira,” Rune said, inclining his head, greeting the queen who enslaved him for a hundred and thirty-seven years. Her gaze flicked over him and frantically searched her surroundings. “Lovely to see you as always.”
Rune strolled away from her approaching his father’s macabre throne. Julian was created with nine other shadowmen as caretakers to Hell and serve Saith.
His father rebelled against Saith, along with the other shadowmen in what would be known as the Great War. After his father’s victory, Julian killed each of his brethren. Using their bones to construct a throne Rune never sat in.
He walked passed the grisly chair to the passageway behind it, leading to their family’s quarters. Rune climbed the steps needing silence and distance to clear his mind. The minx consumed his thoughts, eroding his will. He would ask Sadi to look into his mind, perhaps she could see the spell binding the minx to the Ra’Voshnik.
Rune’s thoughts wandered to Faye. He could still feel her, hear her breathy sighs. Her taste lingering on his tongue making it impossible to center his thoughts. He silently strolled the familiar halls, needing to cleanse Faye’s scent from him.
Darkness, let me find the spell tying her to me.
