Page 22 of A Blightress of Wrath
“Soyou kept her heart with you?”Iasked under my breath. “BeneaththeFortress?”
Hecleared his throat in a rasp. “Idid.WhenIhad theFortressbuilt to have a place to train channelers,Ikept her heart beneath it.Withoutit, she’d changed.Shewanted to find a reason why our child was dead.”Helooked back at me stating, “Therewasn’t one.Regardlessof who she decided to blame, there wasn’t a reason for what happened to us.Shegrew cold.Shegrew dark and angry—wrathful.WhenIwould visit her, she began to speak of taking back all the power she’d ever given.Tome.ToLia.ToFelgren.Shecreated theBlightthen.Itwas unlike anythingI’dever seen.”
“Howdid you?—”
“Thesun.”Henodded toward the last sliver of light on the horizon. “Idiscovered that warmth and eternal rays of light around her heart could hold her power at bay.Itwas an accident, really.Thestory goes that the greatBaronAdaynthtook up his mantle as savior and stopped her.Butthat wasn’t it.No,”—he shifted, running a hand through his hair that fell over his face—“Ijust wanted her to be warm again.Isaw her as often asIcould, but she wouldn’t let me touch her after our child’s death, soIgave her my warmth the only wayIknew how.Ikept her heart under theFortressand used everythingIhad to hold theSimulairSolumspell around it.Shenever once asked whereIhad taken her heart, andInever revealed it.”
Isuppressed a chill, finally getting answers to legends we’d only guessed at for hundreds of years. “Youkept theSimulairSolumspell around her heart to dampen her power?”
“Yes.Iused my love for who she once was to strengthen it.Andit worked for so long.EvenwhenI’dhad enough of living in the flesh without her and gave up my body,IdiscoveredIcould reserve some of my power to hold her heart there.”Hesighed, shaking his head. “Thatwas untilEreyth.”
Hatredsifted through his expression. “Iknew he wasn’t strong enough to withstand her.Iknew she’d been attempting to get her heart back from theFortress.Forwhat reason,Ididn’t know at the time.NowIunderstand it was to regrow her power.Ereythwas weak, preferring channelers based on their bodies rather than their talents.”Heshook his head. “Whenhe let her into his mind,Itried to force her out, and then we held a silent battle.Shewon.Sheconvinced him to find her heart in theFortressand bring it to her on the night of theOfferingsinHyrithia.Ereythdesired more than power—he desired her, and she promised him many things.Onthe night he murdered his channelers in his madness, she hunted him down and killed him, taking her heart with her.Isaw her there in his mind right before he died.Shesmiled at me like she knewIcould see.Thenthe power shifted toThalius, andIdidn’t know what happened to her heart after that.”Heglanced at me. “Ido now.”
“You’veseen it?InKarus’smind?”
“No, butI’veheard things here and there.Enoughto know she’s grown it.Itbeats in rage,Revich.Itfuels her.”
“Sowhat do we do now?Canwe destroy it?”
“Idon’t know.Youcan certainly try.”
Inodded. “Canshe be killed?”
“Shedoesn’t think she can.”
“Doyou think she can?”
“She’salready dead in my eyes,Revich.Shedied a long time ago.”
Iswiped my hand over my mouth, hiding the surprise of that admittance. “Whatelse is she capable of?”
Adaynthcocked his head and held out his hand. “Wouldyou like me to show you?”
Takinga deep breath,Inodded and reached out again to grip his hand in mine.
* * *
Desolation.
Desolationof a vast, empty land.
No, not empty.
Wrathand fear seeped from every inch of theBlightaround us.
Everycrater of pitch black, every strangle of abyssal dark vines, emitted a hatred so thick,Icould choke in the dense pressure of it.
I’dnever gone into theBlightexcept for the one occasionKarusran through it to saveMoirafrom a sure death.Backthen,Ihadn’t taken in just how devoid of life theBlightreally had been, or how it was now, deep in the depths ofAdaynth’smemories.
“Thisisn’t even her worst,” he warned, standing next to me in the desecration of his memory’sFelgrenForest.
Isurveyed theBlightsome more.Enormousblack vines, the width of tree trunks, wound over the soil which bloomed in white patches of death in a sure sign of decay.Thorns, sharp as knives, rose from each one as the vines moved, encasing the once-living trees in an embrace of death.Mistwove through my hair and across my cheek as a beckoning—a pull to lay down into the damp soil and dissolve into the earth just as thoroughly, just as slowly, as the creatures who had once roamed the forest had done.
Thestench alone was enough to bring bile into my throat, andIswallowed back the vomit.Thedecay of bodies and blood poured through every inch of my skin, choking me in a successful attempt to force me to retch.Icovered my mouth and nose, inhaling short bursts of breath to avoid taking in the scent of rotting decay all at once.
“Thisis what she did before her heart had grown,”Adaynthmurmured, arms crossed at his chest. “Thisis nothing compared to what she is capable of now.Revich,”—he grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to look at him instead of the silent rage around us— “do you hear me?Shecan do more than this.BeforeIdampened her power through my warmth, she was beginning to create…things.Beastsand creatures that had not existed before.”
“Thefae?”
