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Resolved more than ever to restore the portal and have me resurrect Thanatos, Neo prepares to cross into the doorway of my suite. I curl myself into his dark chest, steeling myself for his twin’s arrival.
“Stay down, Neoptolemus!”
Oh, Goddess, no!
Neo crashes to his knees. And those words beat down the door of my mind like a wild, demon horse trampling me with hot iron hooves.
Before the blood moon sets and the sun rises.
Mordere is here.
Chapter33
“What do you want from me in return?”
The first thing I do is release my Halo chains to bind around his neck. “Neo, go!” I scream, but several of Mordere vampires mount him before Neo can rise.The portal, Neo! The portal!I scream through our bond.
What happens next rocks me to my core!
Out of Mordere’s chest arises a figure mantled in an otherworldly black fire that shifts in and out of the form of fanged skulls. All over her nude form are blood runes to eclipse her flesh and grant her the power of spirit summoning like Satan’s body paint. Hair like wild, blood serpents. Skin white as bones. Wings of black lightning. And eyes like—foremothers, preserve me—like two fathomless holes in a skull. The eyes of someone who has stared into the abyss of infinity, the end of the universe, and has reaped every last black hole. The polar opposite of Thanatos. The necromancer!
As soon as she emerges from Mordere’s chest, my Halo chains snap as if they are no more than threads!
The moment Neo breaks free from the bitten vampires and plunges into wraith form so he may repair the portal, understanding how we need it more than ever, the necromancer screams like a banshee tormented in hell. I hit the ground, and blood leaches from my ears, but I don’t close my eyes for nothing. Not when a swarm of Fallen enters the room, commanded by the necromancer. My heartbeats seem interrupted, the Halo shutting down to the necromancer’s screams while the Fallen attack Neo.
“Come, Elysia,” Mordere commands and grips my wrists, raising me from the floor. “You won’t want to miss this.”
I spit in his face, but he shoves me toward the suite entrance, where Neo reaches the third level with the Fallen closing in all around him. The necromancer stands before me, those abysmal black eyes fixed on mine as if they can swallow, as if they can absorb—as if they canbreakmy Haloed heart. I pray, I pray, I pray! Neo wraith shadows right through them, but his fingers barely brush the air above the wall before the Fallen stab their claws into his back.
“No!” I scream, prepared to release my Halo, but Mordere captures me by the waist, hand driving up to collar my throat.
Before I can do anything, he issues a low command, “Don’t move, Elysia.”
All I can do is stare as the Fallen ravage Neo. One collective unit, they lower themselves to his body and sink their fangs deep into him, injecting him with a powerful combination of venom and blood. Enough to overwhelm his heart because it slows. One gold tear tumbles down my cheek, and I try to move again.
“Stay right here, Elysia,” demands Mordere, his bone armor claws scraping my flesh once again. “Don’t worry, little angel. We won’t be killing him just yet.” He kisses the edge of my jaw just beneath my ear while he reaches his hand up to stroke my curls.
I still can’t turn away from the necromancer’s eyes. They seem to scribe mutilation on my very heart, echoing the curse of the prophecy. How I will break. How part of my heart will be lost. But not shattered.
You will be broken but not shattered, perplexed but not driven to despair, struck down but not destroyed.
Those are the words I bind around my heart and gird like armor for my soul when the necromancer opens her mouth. In a voice that reminds me of the skeletal carrion in the Soul Plane heralding doom before feasting on their prey, she orders the Fallen to carry Neo,myNeo, to the dungeons.
“Mydungeons now,” Mordere growls low in my ear and combs his fangs along my neck.
“Mordere!” Neo manages to thunder even if the Fallen have paralyzed the rest of him, even though the necromancer absorbs his destruction. “Let her go, and I am yours for life!”
Mordere throws his head back and laughs. “My, my, she has tamed you, old friend, hasn’t she?” His bone claws dig into my scalp, gathering a clump of my curls to yank my throat back. “I’ll look forward to taming her tonight.”
“I’ll destroy you, Mordere!” Neo delivers the empty threat as the Fallen carry him away.
Mordere nods to the necromancer. “Go ahead, Morgya. As long as you return to my form by the next blood moon, you will not return to the Chasm. And I did promise Elysia that she would satisfymybed. Have fun tormenting Destruction, dear one. I will have his bride…or former bride, is it?” Yes, because there is no horned mark on my wrist. Despite our blood bond, despite how I can feel Neo’s pain, torment, desperation, guilt, torture, I am not his wife anymore.
As soon as they are gone, Mordere throws me hard to the floor. Thankful for Neo’s shades, which catch me and wrap around me in a protective mantle, I brace myself, emboldening my heart, refusing to let the necromancer, this Morgya, shut me down, refusing to bow before Mordere. On the floor, with my hands pressed to the glassy surface, fingers fanning out, I sense a spark, just a tiny flame of power, but it’s not enough.
Especially not when Mordere commands, “Up against the wall, Elysia. I’d like to have a good, long look at you first.”
With that masterful force battering my flesh and blood and infecting my mind, I somehow know lightning won’t strike twice. Mordere wanted to be caught before. If I try to enter his mind this time, he will know. At first, I consider surging my Halo power as much as possible,ifI can. But Mordere is not the type to care whether he rapes me unconscious or not.
