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“Smell like mate,” Helius mumbled.
Smell like mate? Were these zombies listening to each other? Agreeing with each other? How, when they only had enough brain cells to follow simple orders? Gorgo had made sure of it!
“She is mine. Mine!” he raged, a shrill scream erupting from his throat as he hit them both with blasts of magic, his hands going up in flames as he hit them again and again until they finally fell to the floor, acrid black smoke steaming from their bodies.
With trembling limbs, Gorgo moved toward them, standing over their supine bodies as inky black rage seeped from his pores and pooled at his feet. His hands throbbed so hard, tears pricked the back of his eye. “You will do as I say,” he said on a hiss, “or I will obliterate you into nothing. Do you understand?”
Clutching their burning guts, they both rolled onto their sides with pitiful groans.
“Good,” he snapped. “Now go get me that girl!”
Before they could answer, he turned from them, rushing toward his potions room where he had salve and bandages for his hands and a potion to slow the spread of the poison that leeched from his skin. He’d almost reached the end of the cavern when he thought he heard a shadow of a whispered, “Mate,” followed by another, “Mate,” but he had to have been mistaken. They wouldn’t dare challenge his authority again. They wouldn’t dare! This was all the girl’s fault. Oh, how he’d relish making her pay for tormenting him. He would peel away her flesh and devour her screams. He would drink her sweet blood and suck the marrow from her bones, all while keeping her alive so he could torture her again and again. He would force his lechers to watch, so they understood their mate belonged to him. And if they refused to accept it, he would find new slaves and feed them to his flames, burning them until they were obliterated.
* * *
EILEA SAT BENEATH THEcrook of Tan’yi’nug’s wing, drying her eyes. “Tell me what happened after I was eradicated?”
He frowned down at her, his long neck angled like a serpent.They were too powerful, my queen. They found a way to combine their magic. None of us could stop them. They took my heart scale, and they syphoned your sister’s magic.
She worked hard to unclench her teeth as rage tightened her jaw. “She capitulated so easily.” She didn’t know if she could ever forgive her sister for such weakness, for refusing to listen to her warnings and secure the city.
Tan’yi’nug turned his gaze to the water.She’s trying to atone for it now.
“So you side with her?” She couldn’t keep the venom from her voice as she glared at her dragon, that familiar feeling of betrayal piercing her heart like a poison-tipped blade.
I will always side with my queen.He bowed low, twisting his neck until they were staring eye to eye.Always.
She looked down at her bare feet, her toes digging into the soft sand, as ugly memories resurfaced. “If she hadn’t had her sons lock me away, I could’ve fought. They trapped me in a curse chamber.” Right after she’d performed the ritual that would save their souls should they be eradicated, they took advantage of her momentary weakness and locked her away. How could she forgive them for such a betrayal?
Hecate thought you were a threat.The dragon slowly nodded.It wasn’t like your sister to be so paranoid.
She grimaced. “I know.” Which made everything so much more confusing. Why? They’d ruled together peacefully for centuries. Why had her sister suddenly turned on her? Closing her eyes, she braced herself for the onslaught of emotions, and she saw the image of a silver crown with emerald jewels sitting on top of her sister’s head. The gargoyles had given them each crowns the day before. Hecate had immediately put on her crown, despite Eilea’s warning to test the crowns for curses first. Eilea had meant to test her crown, but then she was assailed by dark premonitions, so powerful, they made her too sick to stand, much less perform any magic.
This doesn’t justify her behavior,Tan’yi’nug said,but there were rumors that she was already spellbound when she locked you away.
She tapped her chin, thinking more and more that the crown had been to blame. “Perhaps.” That still didn’t excuse her sister for refusing to heed her warnings, for foolishly putting on that crown, mesmerized by its beauty.
Tan’yi’nug pinned his wings behind him, blinking up at the twinkling stars.There are a few gargoyles that survived the Vindictus purge. They said the Vindictus convinced them to curse Hecate and then they broke their treaty, eradicating most of the gargoyle tribe.
Eilea heaved a heartsick sigh. “Served them right for betraying us and trusting such vile witches, but I’m tired of speaking of them. Have you heard any word on my sons?”
The dragon shuddered, a ripple going across his scales as he looked at her with wide, luminous eyes.I tried to free them, but they were already under Gorgo’s spell by the time I found them.
Anger boiled her blood as magic pulsed through her veins. “Tell me about Gorgo.”
The Vindictus tricked him by promising your sons as his slaves in exchange for access to his visions,he said, his top lip pulled back in a snarl though he didn’t speak aloud,but they bound his magic instead. He served the witches until they were obliterated, the binding spell broken.
White-hot magic pooled in her fingers. How she wished Gorgo was here now so she could obliterate the bastard. “And now?”
He let out a growl that rattled her bones.And now, in the course of a year, he’s turned the second dimension into a wasteland, devouring everything in sight. Those demons he hasn’t enslaved have been eradicated or else knocked to a lower dimension.
“How do you know this?”
He turned his gaze once again to the sky.From those souls lucky enough to escape into the lower dimensions.
“And my sons?”
Last report was that they still served their master,he said while keeping his gaze on the sky.
