Page 44 of Steeling Light
I stare up at him defiantly. He’s so much bigger than I am, so much stronger. He is everything I want to be when I get older. Smarter than the other leaders of the Great Houses. More powerful. He terrifies everyone who stands before him. Even King Casimir, the King of Flames. My father is the greatest King of Steel the world has ever seen.
But he hates me.
He slaps me across the face hard enough to knock me to the ground, and then he walks back to his desk. “Rhion, if you want to become King so badly, then prove to me you didn’t spurt from some worthless soldier’s cock into your mother’s belly.”
“How can I prove that?!” I shout at him. The tears are flowing steadily, but I’m already climbing to my feet.
I’m terrified of him, but the anger’s hot in my belly, and it gives me courage to defy him.
But his words kill that anger. “Kill Cole Cyrus, and I’ll accept it as proof that you are my heir. I’ll accept nothing less.”
His words are shocking. Kill Cole. My friend. Ainslee’s best friend. The person who everyone in the world worships nearly as much as a King. He’s the best warrior of all those who don’t wear a crown.
I say nothing to my father. What is there to say? It’s impossible? I don’t want to kill one of the only people I call friend? Ainslee would hate me forever if I did?
Then I remember. Ainslee. She’s not a girl anymore. She’s not just a friend. She’s so much more. She kissed me. I am not the child that cowered in shock at his father’s words.
I shake my head, and instead of fear and heartache like I’d had as a child, anger ripples inside me. Not at my father this time.
Because I remember I’m supposed to be killing a god instead of reliving memories of my childhood…
Chapter 24
We created the High Fae Houses. We gave their bloodlines power. We gave them all purpose within this world. We were deliberate. But we didn’t anticipate the blending of bloodlines. It was a glorious mistake, and the world is better because of it.
~Inni the Destroyer, The Future of Magic and Dragons
Ainslee
I was not born to be a warrior, but Cole trained me to be one. Light covers my entire body as I swing, the Nightforged steel daggers coming within inches of Morvael. Over and over again, I attack, and all he does is slowly step back. My blades don’t connect, but I’m pushing him away from my mother. Her screams slowly quiet the further away from her I push Morvael.
He's snarling and hissing with each step. I can see him. Not just that strange emptiness that we’d all seen before. I can see the person he is. Wherever my light touches becomes solid, becomes a boundary, and I’m sure that if my blades connect with that part of him, they’d cut, and he’d bleed.
He’s just too fast. He’d grown as soon as my mother had fallen, as he’d pulled her power from her, but my light is burning him. I just have to keep fighting, keep pushing, and, like Rhion said, we’ll wear away his power.
And the face in the darkness is furious. “I WON’T KILL YOU. I WILL KEEP YOU HERE IN NIGHTMARES FOREVER. YOU WILL DREAM OF KILLING YOUR BROTHER, OF WATCHING YOUR FRIENDS BE TORTURED TO DEATH, AND OF NEVER FEELING YOUR LOVER’S TOUCH AGAIN. I WILL PUT YOU SO DEEP INTO NIGHTMARES THAT YOU’LL NEVER KNOW HAPPINESS AGAIN FOR EVEN A MOMENT. ALL YOU WILL KNOW IS FEAR AND SADNESS. I WILL FEED ON YOU UNTIL I BREAK FREE OF THIS CAGE, AND THEN I WILL AWAKEN YOU JUST TO LET YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE BROUGHT THE WORLD.”
I say nothing in response; my movements are my only speech. Raven wings sprout from my back, powerful yet agile. I leap forward, and my wings carry me further. This time, Morvael doesn’t step back quite far enough.
My blade catches him across the shoulder, and he screams. Black smoke rises from the wound before it closes up, and he shrinks a little more.
Yes! I can do this. I can kill a god. My daggers are a blur, cutting and stabbing the darkness in front of me. Each time those thin pieces of steel touch him, a bit of black smoke rises into the air. I miss more than I connect, but I could do this for hours. Cole certainly forced me to do more.
Morvael is shrinking by the second, and a cloud of black smoke hangs in the air. I move without thinking. My strikes are made by reflex rather than thought. I’ve never felt like this before. It’s like nothing in the world could stop me.
He spins. My blades rake across his back, and though he hisses in pain, I realize why he turned. In a solid hand, he grips Rhion by the throat. Tendrils of black hold his arms down.
And I stop. I can’t kill him before he crushes the life out of Rhion. There’s nothing I can do to save him. If Morvael wants to kill the man I love, he can do it.
Rhion shifts, a tail sprouting from behind him and sharpened vines snaking from his abdomen. His neck and head become smaller to escape Morvael’s grasp just as I’d done when the sylph had tried to collar me in the Keep of Shadows.
“Wait!” I shout.
Morvael ignores me. Pitch black darkness rushes around Rhion, and then Movael’s head swivels, his body staying perfectly still.
“YOU CAME HERE TO KILL ME, HIGH FAE. YOU CAME HERE HOPING TO DESTROY ONE OF THE GODS OF THIS WORLD. DID YOU EXPECT TO DO WHAT NO ONE ELSE COULD? NO MATTER HOW MANY CUTS, NO MATTER HOW MUCH LIGHT, YOU CANNOT DESTROY A PIECE OF THE INFINITE.
“YOUR PAIN IS ONLY JUST BEGINNING. I HAVE CHANGED MY MIND. I WILL NOT KILL YOUR LOVER. HIS STRENGTH WILL BE ENOUGH FOR ME TO BREAK THIS CAGE. A HUNDRED YEARS OF HIS AGONY WILL GIVE ME ENOUGH POWER TO BECOME WHAT I ONCE WAS. HE WILL RELIVE THE MOST TERRIBLE MEMORIES OF HIS LIFE. I HAVE TASTED THEM, AND THEY ARE DELICIOUS. YOU WILL WATCH THEM ALL. YOUR NIGHTMARE WILL BE SEEING HIM CRY OUT A THOUSAND TIMES.”
