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He shrugged. “Your sister joined me quite willingly.”
I went still. Every part of me seemed to freeze, like those words had put a stopper on my anger, reminding me of every other unpleasant feeling—grief, loneliness, terror. I forgot to be angry and shook, my mind reeling back to images I wished never to relive yet I could not banish entirely. “And it is because of you that she died.” My voice quavered. “It’s your fault that I no longer have any family.”
He fixed me with an impassive stare. “That is…not entirely true.”
Moments stretched. Seconds. Minutes—I was not sure. A humming began in the back of my mind, a buzzing, rising ever louder, like a swarm of angry moths.“Why?”
I could have been asking anything. Why did Rosey join him? Why did he want me to go with him? Why did he think this attack was justified? “Why” to so many other things. So, I was not sure which question he was answering when he said:
“Because complacency breeds the worst in all of us, and my family have become used to their misery. They have forgotten that it can always be worse, and it’s only through great suffering that they’ll be compelled to end the curse on this country.
“And because I’ve spent over thirty years searching for a worthy successor, and I’ve come to believe that there isn’t one. There is no one person born worthy. The new heir will be created, forged of Source fire like any other weapon, and I will be the villain who burns cities to the ground until I can pull a single worthy hero from the ashes.”
49
BAEL
THE OBSIDIAN PALACE, THE CITY OF EVERLAST
If I was going to die, this was how I wanted to do it: in the middle of a battle with the delicious scent of blood and death in the air.
I stood in the entrance hall, the flames leaping out of the open throne-room doors barely registering as wave upon wave of rebel soldiers came toward me. Just like during the hunt, cloaked figures appeared out of thin air, their black hoods blending together as they moved. The only things visible were the gleam from their silver swords and a few glimpses of faces.
The noise was deafening, the chaos overwhelming.
It was intoxicating.
I wanted to laugh as another rebel fell to dust, and I barely made the effort to bite it back. I had hidden that part of myself for so long, and now it was leaking out in bursts.
Granted, of all the times for violence, this might be the best one—when the castle burned around me, and the only souls there to witness it were the rebels who would soon fall at my feet.
I fought my way across the entrance hall and down the stairs with little effort. Though I would have liked to stay longer—play longer—this castle was coming down, and my family may go with it if I didn’t reach them soon.
I blinked several times and sucked the mortality from another rebel, only to turn and simply snap the neck of a second.Exhilarating.The monster in my mind was currently satisfied. Sleeping. Yet, I knew he would not remain so for long.
I knew it had been days since my last memory. It was always that way, yet I only had strange, hazy flashes of everything that might have happened since the afflicted attacked in Inbetwixt. I could have sworn that my little monster never left. That she’d been there in the cage beside me right up until the moment when I awoke to find her there.
Her scent differed from before. Stronger, and it had nothing to do with Scion biting her, though I’d been more than aware of that the moment I smelled her. She’d gotten stronger—no longer quite so breakable and all the more enticing for it.
If not for the fire, I wouldn’t have been able to keep myself from taking her right there. Completing the bond while I was still not entirely in my right mind. In a way, I was almost glad that my home was burning, if only because now we might live. Another part of me wished I’d ignored it and claimed her anyway, damn the consequences.
I dashed up a flight of stairs and hit a wall of flames. No matter—I only reappeared several floors above.
The higher I went, there were fewer rebels to catch, Scion clearly having been here first. Still, I grinned as I drained two more on my way down another corridor.
Finally, reaching the top of the final standing tower, I took a brief second to catch my breath. The sound of steel made me jerk my head up again and narrow my eyes.
What the fuck?
Scion had his back pressed against the wall, eyes darting back and forth, as a group of rebels steadily advanced toward him. The only thing between him and imminent danger was the end of his long sword, which shone bright silver in the low light.
When I’d looked for him back when we stood outside the barn, he was facing a much larger group and had not yet been cornered, but it was the sword itself that had panicked me. Scion was not a good swordsman—it was almost a family joke. The soldier was the worst with a blade because he’d never had to use one. Why my cousin would pick this moment to practice swordplay when he could have cleared the entire castle faster even than me was beyond comprehension.
I darted forward to help, reaching out a hand to wither the soldiers closet to my cousin.
Surprised, Scion looked up at me, and his right side was left completely unguarded. In that split second, a rebel soldier behind him made their move. I watched in horror as the soldier’s Source-forged blade caught Scion across the face.
The blade hewed diagonally into his cheek, biting deep. Blood spattered onto the wall, and I felt a sudden chill run through me.
