Page 158 of Of Blood & Stone

It was over.

She released the breath, shoulders slumped and hands dipping into the gold liquid surrounding the altar.

“But there’s no soil,” she whispered.

“You won’t be needing it.”

Power ignited in her veins, that of Aretta breathing life again, but it wasn’t the same.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Distrathrus’ heart thrummed through her, dark and heavy. His claws ripped into her mind, in her limbs, moving through her veins. He was using her as he always had.

As he always would.

“Sylzenya!”

She looked up. Nyla’s amber stare found hers, the cloudiness in her gaze drifting in and out of focus. Dried blood trailed down her face, her body hunched over as she kneeled with all the other Kreenas before the altar, circling it.

“He’s going to kill us!” she screamed.

“Silence,” Distrathrus commanded. “Create life, all of you.”

Suddenly, a bright yellow light flooded the cavern, the vat of orodyte serum blinding like the sun. All the power he’d collected over the centuries, stored at this altar, was now being used to resurrect him.

Every Kreena screamed, their shouts echoing off the walls as blood poured out of their backs and onto the ground.

Sylzenya’s heart stopped.

She wasn’t going to just help resurrect Distrathrus’ body through the orodyte serum—she was going to be extracting every Kreena’s power with it.

Blood for blood.

Life for life.

“All life comes with pain,” Distrathrus whispered into Sylzenya’s ear. “And with it, a sacrifice of great price. But that’s what these Kreenas have been made for, their power enough tohelp you push my sister’s blood into my heart. Just enough to form my true body to what it once was.” He slipped a piece of her hair behind her ear. “But while they’ll die, you’ll live. And don’t worry, Sylzenya, I’ll help you forget all these people. All this death. Even the scar on your back. I’ll give you a blissful life by my side, as I always promised. No more pain ever again.”

No more pain.

She could forget… he would help her forget. No memory of all the horrors she’d committed. No more pain slicing down her back. No more pain plaguing her. No more memories of the lives she’d stolen. No more slow torment blooming in her heart, twisting around her like vines, swallowing her whole. All her life she’d been in pain.

She didn’t want it anymore.

She ignored Nyla’s desperate cry, silently hating herself for it. Distrathrus would make her do this one way or another, and she was his anyways. Diving deeper into the pain, she let herself drown, allowing Distrathrus complete control. Sparks of light bloomed from the orodyte serum, but she found no beauty in it.

All she saw was death.

The liquid crawled out of the moat slithering like a river of snakes up the sides of the pedestal, and flowing into the large exposed heart.

Pain sliced into her back, and she screamed. The heartbeat of Distrathrus’ bloodied flesh boomed louder. More orodyte serum flooded upward, through the crevices of the stone, covering the altar more and more until it and Distrathrus’ beating heart glowed with power.

Kreenas all around her cried out in agony.

She glanced towards Nyla. Light leaked from her friend’s hands, her skin turning paler and paler, cheeks turning hollow and blood dribbling from her mouth.

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