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“What I’m wearing? Have you looked in the mirror lately?” he asked, motioning to my blood-stained leathers. I shrugged and tightened my gloves absentmindedly, as if I looked like this every day.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. My arms crossed in front of my chest as I waited for him to answer, to give me a rational reason for his presence in the queen’s throne room. He wasn’t a traitor. He couldn’t be.
Loren shrugged then proceeded to pace around the room, circling my position like a vulture waiting for its prey to die. “I belong here, sis, as do you.”
“My place is with my friends, with the watchers and the rest of the dishonored who choose to stand for what is right. I thought I counted you among them, but I guess I was wrong,” I muttered.
“Yourfriends?” he spat. “What makes them better than the runners you trained with, slept with, shared your entire life with?” He continued to pace in front of the throne, his hands clasped behind his back with casual effort. “We are yourfamily, Arya, and you have turned your back on us.”
“This has nothing to do with choosing them over our runner family. This is about stopping an evil queen from destroying our world, Loren. Open your eyes and see the truth!”
“Why should we bring back the gods when we have Queen Eivor? She’s all we need, Arya.” Loren turned to face me at last, his face twisted into a man I didn’t know. “Once we free her, she can restart time and bring back the dawn, and we can live in a world free from the gods and their control.”
“The gods never controlled humanity! They gave us freewill, and we took advantage of our freedom in this world to turn our backs on them and serve an egocentric soulreaper—"
“Who told you that?” he snapped. His upper lip pulled sharply into a snarl, another expression I never remembered him owning. The vicious look he donned was as unrecognizable as the polished suit he wore. “Of course, the watchers would sing the gods’ praises, they were created by them, Arya! Adzehate served her gods for centuries, and they betrayed her. They were selfish, always taking more than she could give, never satisfied with her offerings. They wanted to destroy their creation, but she loved humanity and she protected us from ruin!” he argued, his voice rising louder the higher he drew the defensive. “The gods don’t care for us. Even now, they turn their face from us and let us rot under an eternal night. They abandoned humanity to fend for themselves in this waste of a realm!”
“So says the queen.” I laughed. “You honestly believe shecaresabout us? Loren, she cuts out the tongues of her soldiers, she steals babies from their families, abuses children, and makes them fight each other.” I stepped closer to him, pointing to my chest to make my point personal. “She stole my body and used it for twenty years, manipulated me into thinking my dreams were my own, and risked my life—”
“The watchers risked your life!” He sneered. “They let the huntress, the only mortal who could destroy the queen and bring back their gods, go on a mission they could have easily completed themselves. Face it, Arya, they could care less about you. You were only a tool they used to get the stones, and they wouldn’t even let you use them when you finally found them!”
I took a breath and swallowed, settling the rising frustration building in my heart. One of us needed to have a level head about this, and it wasn’t going to be Loren. His anger made him irrational, and I’d never get him back if I met his anger and matched his rage. “You’re right. The only ones fighting for humanity are us. It’s always been just us, Loren, not a cursed queen, not winged men with god complexes, and not even the gods themselves. It’s up to us to break this curse on our realm so our people can live again. Isn’t that what you want?”
“Yes, I do,” he whispered. “But if we kill her, the gods will awaken and come back to destroy us all. We can’t do this without Queen Eivor.”
Something flickered in his emerald eyes, only there for half a heartbeat before disappearing once more. But the flash of violet was so unmistakable I didn’t dare question my instincts. My hands flew to the blade at my hip and pulled it from its home, thrusting it in the space between us. Loren jerked back in surprise; a look of panic flared for a breath before fading into a brutal smirk.
“You aren’t Loren,” I whispered. His body retreated from mine, only shaking his head in quiet reply as his grin widened. The green eyes marking my friend gradually bled into lavender. The cruelest color I’d ever seen. “What have you done with him?”
“He gave me his soul, and now I have another skin to wear at my leisure.” His voice returned to its former lightness, considering the new skin like it was a cloak to put on when the weather turned cold. “You humans really are fickle creatures. He once would’ve done anything to make sure I spared your life, but today, he gladly gave his own to ensure I was protected from you.”
“Why… Why would he do that? Why would he help you?” I tried to conceal the hurt in my voice, not desiring to allow this demon the satisfaction of my internal pain.
“Did you know Loren was in love with you, Arya?” The vessel cocked his head at me, assessing my reaction and the confusion on my face.
“He loved me like a sister.”
“Oh no, he loved you in a much different way. You just never reciprocated those feelings, and so you never wanted to acknowledge the truth.” Loren’s figure then reached into his pocket and fumbled with something from its depths. He pulled out three ruby red leystones and tossed them in the palm of his hand, watching the small spheres slip around each other as he caressed them. “When you confessed your infatuation with someone else…well, that didn’t go over too well for him.”
“So, he stole the leystones and freed you for what? Jealousy? Seems like a petty reason to ruin the world.” I lowered the sword slightly, feeling my arms throb against the unusual weight.
Adzehate shrugged a shoulder in casual indifference. “Loren was working for me the entire time, but your little speech was like a catalyst to spark him into action. He wanted to wait until after I killed Azriel—it was our deal, you see—but when he found out you actually felt the same way as the winged beast… Well, he wanted to speed things up a bit.”
“Go on,” I demanded.
He sighed and rolled violet eyes to the back of his head. His figure then folded his hands formally in front of him, a stance I’d seen Adzehate assume many times. “He meant to get attacked by the vampyre, Arya. The watchers can’t resist swooping in and saving you pathetic mortals from certain death. So many of the runners before him failed, but Loren managed to hang on and survive the attack. Once he was in, he used our connection to spill all their dirty secrets. To my disappointment, they didn’t have the leystones like I’d believed…until you came along.
“Once I discovered the news you received in Grimsbane and the plans they made to have you retrieve the stones from across the sea, I had a runner find the Dark Army patrol moving south and called them back. I made sure they were waiting for you when you returned by stationing them on the shore. You slipped through their fingers, of course, but I had the object of your affection, which was just as good. Even if you didn’t trade the stones for his life, it was just as satisfying to tear the wretched wing off his back.”
My stomach lurched at the memory of hacking off his other wing just moments before. I didn’t think I’d ever forget the way it felt to slice through bone and ligament, the sound of ripping flesh and gurgling blood, or his whimpers muffled behind a rag. I changed the subject before the bitterness roused the bile from my stomach. “How did Loren escape Estelles?”
“Through the void, of course. You weren’t the only one I visited through dreams.” Adzehate crossed his arms, growing tired of the conversation.
“And? Did he free you?”
“From the chains binding me inside this desolate mountain, yes. But I’ll never truly be free until I destroy the one woman who can kill me. I’ll never taste freedom until the line of the huntress has ended for good.”
My grip tightened to fight the slickness loosening my hold on the sword. “Then I’m afraid your waiting has been worthless. I have no intentions of trading my life for your sovereignty.” I quickly stepped forward and spun, letting the blade follow behind in a sweeping arch. The sword cut through the air and sliced through its target—or would have if the figure hadn’t turned into smoke a moment later.
