AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My tears freeze on my cheeks.
Arluin twists the dagger. Perverted delight gleams in his eyes, still shrouded by the amulet’s ghostly glow.
He tears the blade from my father’s chest and holds it high. The dagger weeps crimson tears.
“Father,” I gasp. “Father!” Though I call him, his head doesn’t rise. It hangs lifelessly.
He is gone.
Dead.
Though my eyes witness the sight, my heart contests it as the truth.
He is the Grandmage of Nolderan, one of the most powerful sorcerers in the world. How could he be defeated?
Arluin uses the flat edge of his bloodied dagger to lift my father’s limp head, and even when I see his unmoving face, I refuse to believe that he is dead. I tell myself over and over that he is not, desperate to make it true.
Darkness pours from Arluin’s hands. He funnels it into my father, who remains suspended in midair by the phantom hand.
“Arka-joud.” Arluin’s amulet glows brighter as he releases his spell.
Shadowy tendrils plunge into my father’s mouth and nostrils. They seize him from within.
Arluin waves his hand. The dark magic forming the phantom hand dissipates. My father is released from its grasp.
He returns to his feet. His fingers twitch.
“Father!” I shout. “Father!”
His head turns. It tilts further over than is natural. His eyes no longer shimmer with magenta. Now the sockets are empty, filled only by the shadows swarming inside.
He snarls at me, his stiff fingers jutting out. He starts to drag his feet across the stone, but Arluin stops him. He places the blunt edge of the obsidian dagger to my father’s chest and smears more blood across his robes.
My eyes fix on the wound. I want to look away, but I can’t. All I can do is stare at every detail: the way the fabric is unevenly torn, the way black blood continues to seep out like ink.
“Stay,” Arluin commands him. “You will not move until I tell you.”
My father growls a guttural protest, but he remains still.
I barely notice Arluin lowering his dagger and pacing toward me. Only when he reaches me does my attention leave the gaping wound across my father’s chest.
Arluin dismisses the obsidian chains and releases me from their grasp. I stagger. My chest heaves from the removal of the pressure, and air rushes into my lungs at such an alarming rate that my own breaths suffocate me.
The stone platform sways. I offer no resistance as I tumble.
Arluin catches me. His arm slips around my back.
I stare up at him. The icy glow has faded from his eyes. The amulet no longer shines.
“You killed him,” I whisper.
The wind howls. It drowns my words.
Arluin strokes my cheek. Where his thumb touches, blood smears across my skin. My father’s blood.
I should vomit at the realization—that would be the normal reaction. But I feel nothing.
“Don’t worry,” he says softly. “You have no reason to fear me. I know I said some hurtful things before, but I meant none of them. Of course I would never hurt you. I only needed you—your father—to believe it, or else he wouldn’t have done what was required. But now, everything is nearly over. Without Nolderan, without your father, we can finally be together again.”
