Page 91 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
The breath catches in my lungs at the conjuring of horrors I haven’t even imagined.
Ashen’s always said there are worse things in the fog than what I could see. I never doubted it, but it's not like I tried to imagine it either. Even trapped in their torture chambers, I somehow knew that there was more. More suffering. More injustice. More hopelessness and pain.
I swallow down a knot in my throat as I meet Ediye’s eyes. I know she must be thinking the same thing, that this is just a hint of what really goes on in the Shadow Realm. Our gazes unlock and I turn my attention back to the fallen angel.
“I have seen it, the barbarism of the Shadow Realm,” I say as I take a step toward Leander. His clear blue eyes fix onto mine. “I have lived it. I havesufferedit. Survived it.”
“And you could stop it,” he whispers. “You could stop the Shadow Realm from ever harming another soul. All you have to do is finish what Semyon started. Become the best of the hybrids. Take down the Realm of the Reapers.”
I tilt my head, narrowing my eyes at him. My nostrils flare as I take in the scent of the blood seeping from his shoulders. “Don’t you think this is what the Nephilim want, for us to be at each other’s throats so they can take whatever it is they want from us while we’re busy with our short-sighted war?”
Leander scoffs. “Nephilim? They are nothing more than myth. There is only the merciless injustice of the Shadow Realm. There is only the Realm of Light that lets in too many for far too little. There is only the Living Realm that the humans don’t deserve. Let humankind shed their mortal souls under the rule of the immortals. Let them infest their own realm. Since they try so hard to kill their domain, let them fill it with their dead.”
I take another step toward him. My heart pounds in my throat. We stare at one another and I see the hope in his eyes, just as he sees the hate in mine. The hate for the way things are. For what is done to everyone caught beneath corrupted powers they can’t control. Powers most don’t even know exist.
I lean in close, our faces so near to one another’s that I smell his skin, that faint cinnamon scent of his former realm. “How does one of me take on all of them?” I whisper.
A hint of a smile passes over his lips. “Not one. Many, under Semyon’s leadership but your command. You have the knowledge of how to get there and where to go in their realm.”
Our eyes stay locked for a long moment. It might seem like there’s silence in the room, but there’s not. There are beating hearts and shallow breaths and muscle fibers that tense around bones. There’s the subtle crackle of Ediye’s magic, the clink of Eryx’s feathers as they shift behind him. There’s even the sound of sparks flaring and dying within wings of smoke.
I lean in until my lips are next to Leander’s ear. Sweet venom drips onto my tongue. “If I burn the Shadow Realm, it will be onmyterms, bymycontrol. Not Abdulov’s. Not yours.Mine.” I pull away just enough to meet his eyes and watch his smile falter. “Tell me where Valentina is.”
Leander’s lips thin as his jaw clamps tight. I back up a step, letting my gaze flow across the angles of his face, savoring every detail. The red gleam in my eyes reflects in the white surface of his.
“Fine. I’ll see for myself.”
I thrust my palm against his forehead and I violate his mind.
One blink and I’m in a windowless stone hallway. The ceiling is curved. There are utility lights along the wall. Electricity hums within the insulated cables that flow toward a door at the end of the hall. I know it’s locked with more than just iron. I can sense the magic from the other end of the corridor. The spells are like the ones at the doors of The Maqlu. Familial magic, shared among kin. Karras and the Sarnos.
I know that Valentina is there behind the door. Florin too. But something else. I try to walk toward the door but Leander holds me back. He may be human now, but his mind is still powerful, and I’m inexperienced and untrained with this new gift of seeing.
I grit my teeth and push. I push and push and manage a small step. I bend my knees and try to shoulder through the unseen force that holds me back. I take one more step and then I hit a force that flashes with bright light so strong that it throws me to the floor.
My head hits the dirt and I’m suddenly somewhere else.
I stand and face a golden wall. On the wall is a series of rings, one inside the next, with a round polished sphere of lapis lazuli in the center. Each line shifts in opposite directions, like some kind of lock or clockwork.Tick, tick, tick.The lines click along.
I take a step closer and letters flare to life in each ring, illuminated with golden light. But these glyphs are markings in a language I’ve never seen.
“Show me what this means,” I demand.
“No.” Leander’s voice seems to surround me, but I hear the struggle it takes for him to answer.
I try to look at each line and remember the shape and form of every symbol. I try to burn them into my memory. I know this is important and Leander doesn’t want me to see. I edge toward it, reaching my hand out for the stone of lapis lazuli. The ticking grows louder, and louder, and louder until finally my fingers graze the cool blue gem. A final tick reverberates so loudly in my head that I close my eyes and press my hands over my ears and scream.
The sound of a crack splits through my mind. For a moment I think my head has been cut wide open. My brain is surely leaking all over the floor.
“Lu,” Ediye says. I open my eyes and look at her. There’s worry and fear on her face and I blink, trying to clear the pain from my mind. My hand is still on Leander’s forehead and I take it away. The instant I do, his head bobs down and his body slumps against the shards of stars that hold him to the wall.
Blood drips from the corners of Leander’s open eyes in bright red tears. His pupils are dilated. The image of a crescent moon cradling an eight pointed star is carved into his forehead, black veins spidering away from the mark before they disappear beneath his skin.
I killed him.
I killed him with my mind. My touch. Nothing else.
…
