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Had Andryas left me alone down here? My breathing came quicker, but—there,that was the scuff of his boots on the ground. My shoulders drooped, relief forcing a breath from me.
At least until the footstep was followed by the heavy metalthunkof a door opening. Oh, gods. We were here.
And I could already hear the titan's roar of fury.
14
The titan's roar brought me to my knees on the black marble floor, pain shattering through my legs but dull compared to the blinding agony splitting my skull in two. I screamed. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help it.
I bowed over, myself grabbing my head, and the titan must have thought I was bowing before him because the pain tore away in an instant. I gasped, tears streaking my face.
See,he rumbled in my head, a voice darkness, nothing like the cool brush of my shadows. These were sharp and scalding, as blistering as an iron poker and every bit as damaging. This was a darkness that could kill. It had before, and would again.
"Apologies, sir," Andryas rushed out—and screamed so loudly his voice cut out. I didn't dare look to see what had been done to him; I couldn't risk it being done to me, too.
The last time I was summoned here, the titan poured so much of his magic into me that my heart stopped and time stopped with it. I still didn't know what I'd done to anger him; I'd bowed deep and not spoken a single word.
Even existing was a cause for death.
Summon your shadows,the titan ordered, and I jumped as my skull split with a vicious ache. Fear brought an instant refusal to the tip of my tongue, but if I defied him, he'd kill me again.
If I obeyed, what he’d do could kill me anyway.
Questioning him wasn't an option; I'd stopped asking questions half a century ago, when my wings were carved out of my back. They were hung above the titan's grand terrible throne, a trophy to remind his enemies to obey. They still dripped blood, like the wounds on my back still bled. He'd used magic to ensure they would never close.
I gritted my teeth, nostrils flaring with a sudden breath when I reached for my shadows. I had a choice—I could refuse—but the suffering would be worse. I didn't want to die today. So even though it made my whole body shake, I summoned a faint veil of shadows around my hands.
More.
My throat closed. My hands shook harder. But I pulled my shadows further, until my arms were cloaked in darkness and—the titan shifted in his throne and I flinched. Magic slipped out of my grasp, and I cried out, knowing he'd be furious, knowing he'd punish me—
The pain came faster than I expected, and I roared when it scoured through every part of me. My eyes bulged, and my fingers locked where I gripped my head. I didn't want to scream again, but the sound was ripped from the tip of my blistering tongue. More howls poured from my throat until my voice finally rasped to silence. My mouth hung open on empty noise, my body ravaged, skin tearing, blood pouring from my back.
More,the titan ordered.
Claws sank through my shadows, into my skin, and beyond, hooking into the part where my magic lived. I had no control over it, could do nothing but silently scream, my bones locked and my world narrowed to a single point of suffering. I couldn't see the titan on his throne anymore, didn't hear Andryas shifting his weight or my own rattling breaths.
The titan demanded more magic, and I couldn't stop my shadows erupting into the air around me. I couldn't protect my magic. My shadows were all I had left. My shadows and her name.
What was her name?
"No!"I roared, the sound too raspy and weak to reach him. "You can't take her! She'smine."
What was her name? Her name…
I threw myself sideways with a violent wrench, tearing my body back into motion. I hit the ground on my bloody back and held my hands up to my face, scanning the cuts all over my fingers, my palms, and up both my arms.
Halwen. Her name wasHalwen,and she was my mate, and I was hers, only hers. Not the titan's. Only Halwen's.
Relief weakened me, and I sank against the cold marble floor with a rough breath.
Revairs,the titan ordered.
Tension tightened my body. I tried to roll and push off the floor, but the titan knew what I planned. He was in my head, in my blood, in my magic. He wanted to own me, wanted no part of me left unbroken.
Halwen. He couldn't take her. And as long as I remembered her, he couldn't takeme.It didn't matter that he'd stolen my name. I knew who I was.
The titan gripped more of my shadows, ripping them out of me until darkness pooled on the floor at the foot of his throne. I could do nothing but pant for breath and try not to choke on my own blood when the titan hooked his power too deep. A pitiful moan came from me, the noise of a broken thing, not even a man.
