Page 6 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

‘Put him over there. Use the shackles.’

Garrik’s wrists began to burn.

The silhouette emerged from the doorway. Three others followed.

Two tall figures dragged a writhing body through the light until they transformed into darkness like ink dripping into a crystal glass of water.

Garrik stumbled a step back and shook his head from the memory.

“A powerful weapon. A star capable of destroying worlds—or saving them. Daughter of stars, ice, and sea. The wind, crystal, and fire, shadows, earth, and flow. Sheismagic, commander of all things. Tell me, how did you weave your claws and find her trusting you, Prince Made from Darkness?” Kerimkhar turned his head to the cloudless sky as if to speak to the sleeping stars. “Did she have a taste of his shadows?”

The thousands of voices turned back to him. “Starfire couldn’t resist that which haunts the light?”

Eyes wide in shock, Garrik fought for words. Alora not only had fire magic …

She hadstarfire.

The very magic rumored to be woven into the creation of Elysian.

His eyes flashed to Kerimkhar, who pierced his prismed eyes into the darkened bedchamber, listening to the sounds inside.

“Haven’t you wondered why her burn upon your flesh hasn’t healed? Why, with everything she makes, every use of her magic has come with the burst of white flames? Oh, Whore of the Snake, how naïve, when your powers manifest everything you desire with smoke and shadow. She is the same.”

The burn under Garrik’s armor…

Kerimkhar was right.

Though he hid the blistering pain brought about with every brush of his armor, it still festered. With his fast-healing High Fae blood and Calla’s healing balm, it should have healed overnight. But morning had come inside Alora’s tent, and it had still sizzled like the moment she had laid her flaming hand on him. It burned like …

A weapon.A burning, raging inferno laced with the most powerful magic in Elysian.

Kerimkhar’s face rippled, his skin shifting as if attempting to change form.

“You say she is a weapon?—”

“Sheis not the weapon, you fool.”

A male voice screamed behind them,‘Do not touch me!’

Garrik tuned out his own screams from within the darkened room. “Then what the hell is?”

“My freedom depends on that which she carries. Obtained by a deal, steel as dark as night holds the shimmer of Life, Blood, and soulless Death. But when Blood and Death are missing, Life slowly takes.”

Fucking riddles and trickery.“Out with it. I do not have all night,” Garrik snapped.

Kerimkhar paced the balcony stones, glitching forward three steps. “The obsidian dagger that left your slow-healing wound will be the High King’s damnation. Fated by Destiny, together the white-haired and weapon will destroy him entirely. But,Made for Magnelis, the dagger is futile without its three sisters. And I see two are not united with Life.”

Garrik’s brows pinched.Alora’s dagger. He had been at the mercy of it enough times to remember even the slightest details. Its off-balanced weight because of the missing gemstones in its hilt. They thought it only a mere dagger. A stunning piece with ruthless purpose alone. Not a weapon. Not a powerful one.

“Life, Blood, and Death. They are the gemstones?”

“They are the sister spirits.” Kerimkhar’s rotting smile widened.

“And if the dagger is used incomplete?” The wound at Garrik’s neck burned in answer.

“No Blood to take, no Death to steal from Life. Only a wound, the life remains.”

“The dagger cannot kill without all three gemstones.”

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