AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You want power,” I say. “Elixir.”
“Two more easy guesses,” she says. “I was told you were simple, but I didn’t anticipate such a sad opposition to my reign.”
I frown. “Fine,” I say. “So what is it you want? I’ll give you anything for their safety, as long as you promise you’ll leave them alone.”
Her lips curl in a cruel smile, and she twists her fingers like she’s wrapping them around Orion’s throat. He’s hauled into the air and dragged toward her, his tail thrashing as she uses her psychic powers on him. She looks ever older, her face forming wrinkles where there were none before, her figure growing gaunt and skeletal…
But it’s not happening fast enough.
She’s going to kill him.
“A year ago, I asked the most powerful hunter in the galaxy to track down and kill a wide-eyed doe,” Lamia says, ignoring my question. Orion is still fighting her, but I can see him getting weaker, and I canfeel his pain. “But no…he couldn’t do that for me. Instead, he fell in love with her.”
She flicks her hand and it hurls him to the wall with a sickening crunch. I inhale sharply, glancing over at him only to find her laugh when I look back.
“This isn’t about power, or Elixir, or escape,” Lamia says. “Not anymore. It’s aboutyou.”
I swallow hard, and curse myself for stuttering when I respond. “M-me?”
“You have a touch of destiny about you, Fiona Ward-White,” she says. “Everywhere you go, you seem to have the most exceptional luck. And you’ve charmed and seduced your way into the beds of some of the most powerful warriors in the galaxy. You can see why I might be interested in you.”
“But the Elixir…” I start.
“My hold on this planet has been fading ever since you formed an alliance with Cressida,” she says. “I saw the writing on the wall, and yet I clung to this notion of meeting you. Ofdissectingyou. Finding out what makes you tick and extracting that essence of the divine for myself. I could have escaped in my personal shuttle hours ago, and yet I couldn’t resist the idea of meeting you face to face.”
I swallow down my fear, my apprehension. “So what is it you want?” I say. “I’ve made it clear what I’m looking for in this negotiation.”
She smiles. “I want what I asked Orion to bring me all those cycles ago,” she says. “Your heart.”
“Don’t,” Orion’s weak voice comes from the corner.
“Hush, Hunter,” Lamia hisses. “Your usefulness to me only goes so far as she’s willing to give herself up. Every word you say leads you to ruin.”
“And if I do this, you’ll leave them alone. Safe and alive,” I say, a tremor going through me.
“Yes,” she says. “And I’ll leave Homeworld for good.”
I take a step forward, and then another. Up the stairs toward her, keeping an eye on Orion and a hand on my blade. The shell throne looms over me, the dark abyss threatening to close in from all sides in this strange, ancient cavern.
I’m underwater, fully enveloped in inky black.
I’m drowning.
“So how does this work?” I say. “And how can I…how can I trust you?”
“Just come here, dear girl,” she says. “Closer.”
I’m drawn in like a hooked fish, like Lamia is an anglerfish luring me into the depths. She walks me toward a pool of water beside the throne, and I hold up my blade as she stops short, watching me.
“Why haven’t you taken control of me like you did Orion?” I ask. “I’m…I don’t understand.”
“Because,” she says, “for whatever reason, you elude my attacks. I’ve sought you out across the galaxy, spent countless drops of Elixir in search of your mind…but it’s like steel against me. Not like fragile Nereus or sad, damaged Kye. Not like your Hunter.”
“Fiona, please, don’t,” Orion says as if on cue, and his voice makes my heart ache.
But if I do this…then Homeworld is safe. Mymenare safe. And Lamia will escape, but they’ll all live on together to fight another day.
“So you can’t hurt me, but you can hurt them,” I say quietly.
