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Curling my fingers around it, I brought the diamond to my chest. Anger fired through me as the priestess twisted her hands. I shot a glare toward the bottom of the stairs, but Tylen and his father were truly both gone.
The tricky bastards had both escaped the second the bargain was completed.
“Why isn’t my magic back inside me?” I demanded of the priestess.
A sob rose in her chest, and she looked at Norivunwith petrified eyes. “I’m sorry, my lady and my prince. I can’t extract your magic from that diamond. I could only remove it from Drachu’s pendant. Only divine magic can place it back inside you.” She sobbed louder and clutched her necklace. “Please, I’m sorry, but it’s true. There’s nothing more I can do.”
“Divine power.” I shook my head. “Then summon God Zorifel again. Ask him to do it.”
“I can’t, my lady. I’m sorry. The gods grow angry when the day’s end draws near, and I would need to prepare myself to make such a request. It requires much magic. It can take weeks for a priestess to harness what’s needed to make such an attempt.”
My nostrils flared, and I stalked toward her. “Are you telling me that Drachu had prepared you for my arrivalweeksbefore I actually showed up?”
She nodded hastily. “Yes, my lady. He knew you were coming.”
“Fucking tyrant,” Norivun snarled.
I kicked the stone pillar, and since a huge dose of my warrior affinity had gone into it, the stone cracked slightly.
“So we have to wait weeks until you could even try to remove Ilara’s affinities from that gem, if you don’t disappear on us too.” Norivun shook his head, his anger rising as it thrummed toward me on our bond. “I knew he would do something deceitful.”
“I’m sorry.” Large teardrops rolled down Genoova’s cheeks, but I didn’t fall for her fake contrition. The female had been too eager to deceive me when I firstmet her. “Truly. There’s nothing I can do at the moment. All I can recommend is that you keep that diamond safely stored somewhere so it never falls into the wrong hands.”
Hissing, I swung away from her. This was no different than before, when we’d also tried to hide Drachu’s pendant. Either way, I was still vulnerable. If the king or some other nefarious individual were to possess this gem and harness it, I would once again be at their mercy.
“Fucking Lochen.” Nish spat on the ground.
All of Norivun’s guards seethed while their wings flexed. Fierce anger and irritation wafted in their auras, creating a potent storm of affinities around them.
Tension radiated down my spine, and my wings lifted. “Is there any other way to extract my magic?”
“No, my lady. Like I said, you need divine power to do it.”
Divine power. I cocked my head. “Wait, I have a divine affinity, and so does Norivun.” I took a step closer to the priestess. She immediately retreated two steps back. “What is needed of divine powers to extract my magic?”
“The stone must be destroyed. Once it is, the magic will be released and return to its rightful owner.”
Forehead furrowing, I recalled how God Zorifel had destroyed the veil encapsulating my power. He’d ripped it right out of me. Something similar was apparently needed to destroy this diamond.
“Will dragon fire destroy it?”I asked.
Genoova raised her shoulders. “It’s possible. Dragons are divine creatures of the underworld.”
“My love?” I held the diamond out for him. “Would you try?”
A savage light lit his eyes. “Gladly.”
Norivun gaveme the looking glass to keep safe, and then he instructed all of us to stand as far back from the temple as possible. All four of his guards, the priestess, and I retreated down the steps and to the edge of the mountain. Warm wind flowed across my back even though the sun hung low in the sky. We positioned ourselves just behind a large boulder, near the cliff’s edge.
I peeked over the top of the rock barrier. Norivun stayed in the center of the temple. He grinned wickedly, his eyes trained on me. “This one’s for you, my love!”
In a flash of affinity magic that was so strong it whipped the hair from around my face and reverberated through my bones, Norivun disappeared in a blinding light, only to reappear a second later in his massive dragon form.
His dragon was so large that he ripped right through the domed temple. The roof flew upward. Crumbling rock and pillars tumbled down the mountainside in a massive rockslide. Almost everything hit the sandy beach at once in a horrific crash of jagged stones. Butthe rocks didn’t stop there. They tumbled into the ocean, causing huge waves to rise.
The domed ceiling landed last. It plunged into the water at least a millee from the shore, yet its splash was enough to make my jaw drop.
Genoova screamed and brought her hands to her mouth. New tears formed in her eyes. Her beautiful temple had become nothing more than a pile of ruins.
