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Damien waved his hand and the burning ships changed to the streets of Koratha. Soldiers dressed in royal armor were scurrying in every direction, grabbing people from their homes and cutting their arms to draw blood.
Children screamed as their parents were ripped from them. Those with red-stained arms were thrown to the sides to weep while the amber blooded were loaded into carts with bound limbs and gagged mouths.
Some were too young to walk on their own.
My eyes welled but I refused to turn away.
“Then we shall kill those swords too.” I lifted my chin to make sure my voice didn’t tremble.
Damien snarled. “Have I not made myself clear?” He waved his arm and the Shades appeared. Not dead and hanging over buckets the way they had in those first nightmares, but beaten and bruised, pricked with needles again and again to spill their blood. Their eyes were red from crying, staring at me like I was the one who was doing this to them. “What will you tell the Halflings I arrest foryourcrimes? That you were too concerned with bringing back magic for your new more powerful friends to wield than you are with saving their lives?”
A cold wave washed down my spine.
“Did you think I didn’t know?” Damien’s snarl turned into a vile grin. “It took me longer than it should have to realize you didn’t come to the Order on a rescue mission. I had to torture dozens of guards before I learned the truth.”
The screaming figures of men being prodded with hot swords filled the space behind the Shades.
“Why else would you come with a single ship to ferry so many?” Damien waved his hand again and the watery seal along the ground of the Order came into view. “So I investigated myself. The spell was almost faded by the time I arrived, but I recognized it for what it was. You coming to the Fractured Isles and leaving all those Halflings behind only served to prove my suspicions.”
“Yet you stand here taunting me?” I raised a brow.
Damien’s smile widened. “I’m impressed, Keera, that you have finally put aside your quest of being a savior and started going after an ounce of the power I have. You’ve almost become a worthy adversary. Almost. But there can only be one me.”
I spat at the ground. “I amnothinglike you.”
Damien sat back down on his throne, relishing the tortured screams that echoed around us. “No? You seek to gain power for Fae friends. Do you hope they will forget what you have done if you restore their magic? Do you think they will forget all the ones you’ve killed?”
Damien lifted his chin and the images around us shifted again. Now we were surrounded by countless Halflings, some with faces I recognized, others nameless Elverin from Damien’s imagination. All of them had a thick line of amber running down their necks as they fell to the ground.
My hands turned to fists and I fought the urge to strangle Damien. But he was wrong. I had already faced these ghosts and won. These faces and images Damien wanted to pass off as memories did not scare me now.
I was free.
It was my turn to laugh. Damien’s lip curled as I stepped toward him. The bloody Halflings disappeared and instead were replaced by the burning images of Damien’s ships and drowning soldiers. I waved my hand to make it clear to him that it was my mind that wascontrolling our shared dream now and cast an image of the palace of Koratha falling into the sea and Damien’s body hanging from the white stone walls of the city.
The eye patch was gone, so the entire world could see his true self in death.
A smug satisfaction flowed through me as Damien paled.
I grabbed my dagger and held it up to his chin, forcing him to look up at me. “You think you scare me with your threats and lies?” My breath was so close to his face that it fogged the red steel of my blade. “I have bested you not once, but twice. Why should I heed your warnings that I am incapable of a third?”
I looked around the dream and smiled. “You have spent too long messing with my mind.” I pushed the tip of my dagger into his throat, not enough to end the dream, but enough to haunt Damien when he woke. “Now it is my turn.”
Damien leaned back in his throne trying to get away from my blade. I waved my hand and his golden chair disappeared, sending him crumpling to the floor. Damien lashed at my legs with his arm, flinging spit at me as he looked up at his hanging corpse.
“I dispatched my Arsenal to Volcar the moment I realized what you were trying to accomplish.” He coiled his limbs around himself. “Once they destroy it, I will destroy you.”
Damien let out an unhinged laugh and fell back onto the ground.
“Then I will get there first,” I promised, and slashed my blade across his throat.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN
ICOUGHED MYSELF AWAKE.A strong hand slapped my back, helping the rest clear my airway.
“You inhaled too much smoke,” Rheih said in between the slaps. “Your healing gift couldn’t fully clear your lungs.”
I coughed again and black liquid splattered onto the ground.
