Page 119 of The Princesses of Ruin
“I have you now,”Alyse says, and I know she does. I can feel it…the mask being pulled.
Her eyes are so golden, like the sun. I fall into their warmth and let whatever is happening to my body fade away.
Chapter forty-two
Alyse
Silver-blond strands slide through my fingers like silk. I listen to his dream absently as I consider the mask in the corner of the room. Urictsa often develop patterns and quirks that seem like personality, like the behavior of a sentient being, but until days ago, I was firm in the belief that they were never truly alive.
That mask is alive.
And it wants Kazimir all to itself.
Herself. She uses my voice like a siren, convincing Kazimir to wear her and make them close enough for her to get hooks in him. I don’t know if her intent is to live alongside him, a willing passenger in a symbiotic relationship, or if she wants to control him.
Her recent behavior shows the latter, yet either option is unacceptable. I will notshare him.
I glare at the mask. “He’s mine.”
It titters in my voice, too weak without his magic fueling it to do more than that.
Kazimir has a particularly violent interlude in his dream. It’s the night he freed himself and Adrik from slavery. I tweak the flow of his thoughts, leading him gently away from the sanguine hell and back into the soft embrace of my body.
I look down, showing him resting in my lap, my fingers threading through his hair. I show him the little swell of my belly, whisper to him that he’s resting next to his daughter. His bandaged face relaxes as serenity drags him into the black void of unconsciousness.
The mask sends a psionic shiver through the room. It wants to be worn. I slide a pillow under Kaz’s head and slip out from under him. The mask I’d come to see as part of Kazimir sends a wave of revulsion through me.
I hover my hand over the metal and push a tendril of magic into it.
You can’t have him.
“He needs me. He craves me.”
The distorted version of my laughter makes me grit my teeth. How fuckingdarethis mask mimic me to control him. It should be destroyed. Useful or not, it’s too dangerous to exist.
I grab my shawl and throw it over the mask, then wrap it tightly in the material. My body wants to storm, but I tiptoe quietly, not wanting to rouse Kazimir. The dragon is on the other side of the door, slouched in the hall with his eyes shut, but he’s not sleeping.
“Raenkor.”
His eyes snap open and he looks up at me. His skin isn’t quite a normal color, but he’s hidden his tail, wings, and horns. He’s also dressed himself either out of imitation or modesty, I’m not sure. Perhaps the cold was getting to him in his man-form.
“I need your help,” I say, holding out my hand to him.
He scowls but accepts my offer, rising beside me.
We walk the dark corridor quietly and take the stairs down, down, down to the final level of the dungeon where Zephrom hides. I set the bundle on the ground and pull back the layers of my shawl.
“I need to destroy it.”
“Why?”
“I’m worried for the safety of the child if he puts it on again,” I say, cradling my stomach.
His nostrils flare as he watches my hand caress my belly. His eyes dart up to my face. “What do you think I can do?”
“Your magic damaged the runes.” Specifically, the one used to seal the mask to his face, but he doesn’t need to know that. “You can damage the others that make the mask urictsa.”
He shakes his head slowly. “It’s not as simple as you say. The runes don’t make it urictsa.”
