Page 9 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
The dais.
The smoke that cascades upward like a waterfall to the height of the towering ceiling.
The shaft of light from the window that sits above the fog of the Shadow Realm.
I remember this room.
It’s empty now, no figures on the dais, no Reapers in the shadows, no souls about to be reborn into another life.
Cole presses his dagger into my hand.
“Almost there,” he whispers, pointing from where we’ve stopped in the shadows at the edge of the room toward a row of cauldrons near the door at the other end of the grand hall. “Ready?”
I nod, even though my legs feel unsteady and my body weak.
“Run.”
My heart surges and we take off from the safety of the pillars that line the room, running as fast as we can go. Cole drops my arm and leads the way, his fiery sword illuminating the shadows and the souls that linger in their dark embrace. Ediye clings to my arm, pulling me forward. My lungs protest, the broken ribs piercing my chest with every ragged breath.
A Reaper guard materializes from a hidden chamber and shouts a warning before Cole cuts him down with his sword. He’s faster and more powerful than any Reaper I’ve seen, even more than Ashen. His grace isn’t bound by this realm. The flaming arc of his blade is the perfect shape of a scythe as it swings from his left and slices through the torso of the guard, spilling hot blood across the floor.
“Don’t stop!” he calls over his shoulder as he jumps over the slain guard. He powers ahead and I know he’s aiming for the torches to light a cauldron that will take us away from this realm.
Another guard bursts from the shadows, landing between us and Cole. Ediye drops my arm and points her palms toward the demon blocking our path.
“Lizazzu salmani sunu,” she says, and the guard is immobilized, only his eyes darting around in confusion as his limbs stiffen like stone.
Ediye glances toward me and smiles as I give her the thumbs up. “Christthat felt good,” she says with a fleeting smile.
We focus on our target ahead. Cole grabs a torch and tosses it into a cauldron midway down the line. The flame roars to life across the black and gold stones. He anchors a foot in the fire and leans toward us, beckoning for us to run faster. Ediye pulls me in her wake, her free arm pumping in rhythm with our bare feet as they slap against the stone.
“Lu!” a voice calls from behind me. It echoes across the pillars and dances in their shadows.
The rich timbre. The deep pitch. The surprise and urgency. It will never cease to amaze me how two letters can communicate so much.
I halt, pulling Ediye to a stop with me. She looks beyond my shoulder with a murderous glare. I pivot a slow turn, my breath trapped in my lungs.
Time grinds to a halt. The only movement in all the Shadow Realm is Ashen’s eyes. They catalog everything in no more than a beat or two of my heart. All the bruises that haunt my skin. The gore that smears my chin. My gaunt cheeks and cracked lips. The dirty, ripped clothes that hang from my bones and the angry slashes of blood where my nails are missing from the hand that grips my blade. The fierce and feral glare that lives in my glowing red eyes.
Ashen’s lips part and his beautiful face is filled with both rage and a flash of something that crashes like a wave on a rocky shore before it’s swept back out to sea. Maybe loss, or regret. I don’t give any more thought to what it might be.
Within one sharp exhalation my hand is empty, my blade lodged to the hilt next to Ashen’s heart.
CHAPTER4
Iharden my glare until it sings as sharp as steel. Ashen looks down at his chest and back up to my eyes before he falls to his knees. His hand closes around the handle of the dagger and grips it with waning strength.
“Ashen,” a female voice calls out with desperation. I didn’t notice her in the shadows. I didn’t hear her heartbeat or catch the scent of lilac that drifts toward me now, mixing with the scent of sizzling blood.
Davina rushes up behind Ashen and grasps his shoulders, trying to keep his body from toppling over. She doesn’t look up at us. Her gaze is trapped on the blade and the blood that drips from the wound, pooling on the floor. But Ashen’s eyes don’t leave mine, not as he pitches forward, not as his free hand splays on the stone.
I break the chain between us and turn away. Ediye and I run. We run as guards shout from the darkness and plunge toward us from hidden recesses of the grand hall. We run as I hear my name wheeze past Ashen’s lips on a ragged breath. And when we’re close enough, we jump into the cauldron, crashing into Cole’s arms as the flames erupt around us.
The fire falls away and we tumble out of the cauldron and into the Living Realm, landing in a room I’ve never seen. Cole scurries to his feet and grabs an iron lid, closing the cauldron so that no Reapers can follow us from the other side.
We heave desperate, greedy breaths, pulling air into our lungs as we stare at one another. No one seems to know where to start or what to say. It’s like there are so many questions to choose from that it’s impossible to begin.
“Thank you,” Ediye says to Cole. I nod vigorously in agreement. I can hardly believe any of this is real. I was so ready to die in that dungeon that this seems like a dream.
