Page 32 of Blood of Two Crowns

Azrael paid them little attention, and panic for Mareina rose swiftly in my chest.

“Is that what you call the genocide of thousands of drakonati? Anunfortunate event?”

Both mine and Mareina’s jaws dropped in realization.

“And I mounted his fucking head on a pike,”Azrael seethed.

Erius smirked. “Far too little, too late.”

My desperation threatened to turn into panic yet somehow Mareina’s face remained impassive as she held Erius’ gaze, drawing a smirk from him. “I’d be careful with this one, young goddess. Duplicitous is the last of this male’s?—

“You forget your place, drakonati,”Azrael roared. Infused with his magic, his voice wove through the air in a way that crept upon your skin and seeped into your mind.“It is by my will alone that you maintain this form. Perhaps the time has come for your soul to return to the chasm?”

Erius smirked. “And start a war with the drakonati? You and I both know that Ataraxus wouldn’t take my death lightly.”

“I could just as easily returnallof you to the chasm,” Azrael snapped.

Erius’ head tipped back with laughter. “Hmmm, yes. Send usallback to the chasm only for your own soul to join us. Have you forgottenyourplace? That your fate is equal to our own.”

Realization hit me like a tidal wave.That’s why he needs her. If he kills them, he kills himself. And he hoped another god or Goddess of Death would be the solution.

Azrael stared down from Cerebus’s back. “It would be a better fate than having to tolerate the sound of your voice.”

Erius merely chuckled and gave another dramatic bow. “My lady. Your majesty.” The male turned and strode away, abruptly shifting back into his drakonati form and nonchalantly crushing nearby buildings, along with anyone in them, before he shot into the skies.

The crowd in the streets had gathered, staring at Azrael and Mareina with nothing short of malevolence. A voice in the crowd cried out, followed by another, and another.

“Mortatum ad’ Azrael!”

“Mortatum ad’ Azrael!”

“Mortatum ad’ Azrael!”

The crowd beneath us— filled with demons to humans to orcs and fae—heaved as what I could only describe as black vaporous archestratum appeared to push them back as they cried out to chant in unison, “Mortatum ad’ Azrael.”

Death to Azrael.

Azrael did nothing as the crowd closed in on them.

“Why don’t you stop them?” Mareina shouted to him to be heard over the chanting.

“Because the more of them that die, the more of my power dies with them. And they know it.”

Without warning, the world shifted before me as Azrael folded with Mareina and Cerebus in tow to stand in a barren alien world. Steaming pools of black, murky water bubbled in a patchwork array of salt-crusted pools that blanketed the land as far as I could see.

And only a few feet way, a torn hole in the fabric of this realm hovered in mid air. Instead of the opaque black of the portal Azrael had previously opened, we could see straight through this, directly into another world. A crystalline sea of green and endless fields ofaetralay just beyond a few hundred foot drop asif a window had opened in the sky. Whorls of black curled away from the small three foot opening.

Electricity bolted through me in shock.

The Kahlohani Islands.

Mareina’s features went slack with shock. “You’re sure no one has found it?”

Azrael shook his head. “I honestly can’t say. I wouldn’tfeelif one or two people left. It would take a mass of them to leave before I noticed the loss.”

“What happens when you try to close it?”

Azrael lifted his hands. Dark and gold magic poured out of him, weaving together like a blanket until the hole disappeared.

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