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And when it’s all over, and the orb dissipates, all that is left, is simply Blaise.
CHAPTER 108
KIRAN
“Tell me, Kiran. Would you like to see her one last time?”
Az’s voice rings in my mind, still muddled with the residual anguish of believing I’d found him in bed with Asha. Of the realization we’d been trapped. Of Blaise’s betrayal I should have seen coming.
I’m going to rip that girl’s throat out if I ever get ahold of her.
Azrael’s words ring in my head once again.
Would you like to see her one last time?
More than anything, though I don’t know if I can bear it. Bear to see if he’s broken her.
But my heart belongs to her, so I agree.
The throne room has been renovated since I was last here. Asha and I never had much use for it, preferring to handle foreign relations at the dinner table, with piles of aromatic foods paving the way for collaboration.
Asha always said the food made me seem softer. I wasn’t sure that was a good thing when dealing with foreign diplomats, but she always assured me softer was quite different from soft.
It’s strange, how even seemingly insignificant memories like that make me ache for her presence.
A host of guards, followed by an array of Others that follow at Az’s command, lead us into the throne room. Before taking us to Asha, they bind all of us with goblin iron that keeps Lydia’s fire magic at bay, as well as my ability to control feelings.
Az made sure the guards took Dinah away. He claimed seeing her sister would only upset Asha. Three guards had to restrain Fin before they managed to wrestle Dinah from his arms.
A mere drags Elias’s unconscious body by the neck of his tunic, his legs limp as he smears blood from the wound in his side against the floor.
Anyone who doesn’t know my sister might mistake her casual expression for indifference, but I can tell she’s panicking on the inside for the life of her human husband.
“Kiran?”
My neck almost snaps as I find Asha on the other side of the room. My chest caves inward at the sight of her.
Because the woman in front of me is not the woman I’m used to seeing. Not the face whose scars I’ve been tracing every night in my dreams since the moment we parted.
Next to me, Fin swallows so hard it’s audible.
Lydia mutters under her breath.
“What did he do to you?” I growl.
Because watching me from the throne is Asha.
She’s watching me with both her eyes.
Asha blinks rapidly, batting tears from her eyelashes.
She’s stunning, arrayed in vibrant crimson that matches her soft lips. I’ve always known she was beautiful, since the moment I laid eyes on her, but there’s something about the lack of blemishes on her face that unsettles me, makes me want to lash out.
I’m going to kill Azrael.
It’s not that I care what Asha looks like. If this is what she wanted, I’d happily have searched the ends of Alondria for a cure for her scars.
It’s that I know where this is coming from. It’s the same place from where Azrael told Asha in the gardens that he “had things he had to work through.” The same place from which the mask he made her wear during their wedding ceremony came.
