Page 106 of A Heart Of Bitter Poison
I drop my sword. I don’t need it anymore.
“Gassan tiildibba me zi ab. Alsi kunusi,” I say, raising my arms. My voice rings above the chaos in layers of sound. It ripples the cascade of smoke that climbs the wall behind the dais. It shatters the windows high above the fog, raining glass across the room.
Queen that gives life to the dying.
I have called upon you.
Eshkar readies his spear and rushes toward me, but I don’t move.
He takes only two steps.
Zida strikes in a blur of white scales as she bursts from the shadows then coils back to the edge of the dais. She readies to strike again as Eshkar looks down to his chest, a line of poison mixing with the blood that streams from the hole next to his heart. He looks back up to me, and the only thing I see is the shock and rage and fear in his eyes.
I don’t look away from Eshkar, not as Zida attacks the remaining Council, not as Urtur runs across the dais to my right, picking off guards. Not as someone screams about crawlers rushing from the other end of the hall. I keep my eyes on Eshkar as Ashen passes by me and pulls the spear from Eshkar’s hand before he beheads him with a single sweep of his hellfire sword. Even as Eshkar’s head rolls across the dais and comes to a stop in a pool of blood, still my eyes are fused with his.
“Enough!” Ashen booms as he hits the end of the spear into the dais with a deafening thud. He glares across the room before he walks over to Eshkar’s head and picks it up by the hair, holding the face toward the audience of guards and soldiers and Reapers. The crawlers hem the crowd in from escaping. Souls gather at the edges of the room, drifting listlessly as though they’re not sure where to go. Even the hyenas roam within the shadows, their eyes on me.
The dead lie scattered around us. Some are everlasting deaths, other bodies lifting away in sparks and gray flakes. Ashen looks over at the two soldiers that rode in the carriage with us and orders them to take reinforcements to the Resurrection Chambers, and they scurry off down the hall.
Ashen turns his attention back to the crowd. “Eshkar and Imogen are dead. The Council is dead.” I glance over my shoulder as Zida coils restlessly behind me. The Council members lie scattered across the dais in slick pools of blood. “We were led by corruption. We were led into seeking a conflict that no realm could win. We were led away from our true purpose, to deliver the justice of souls.Mercifuljustice. Not savagery. Not barbarism. Not torture.Justice.”
Ashen throws Eshkar’s head into the crowd. A few of the Reapers gasp and whisper as it rolls among them. “I have control of the Shadow Realm now. And I tell you now, as your ruler, the real enemy is out there, waiting to take advantage of our distraction. And we almost gave them what they wanted.”
Ashen’s gaze flows over the crowd before he sheathes his sword. He turns and walks over to Eshkar’s body and kneels down, pulling a chain from around the bloody stump of his neck. A filigree gold square emerges from beneath the stained robes. It’s encrusted with dark red rubies and polished tourmaline.
Ashen looks at the square for a long moment before he stands and walks to the front of the dais, the chain in one hand, the spear in the other. When he’s in front of me, he stops and turns in my direction.
And I feel him beneath my skin.
So much pride. So much love. But fear too. I don’t know if it’s fear for me, orofme.
“All right, vampire?” he whispers. I nod, a brief smile fleeting across my lips. The warmth in his eyes offsets his fearsome appearance with that matte black armor and the spatter of blood across his face. “Thank you, my Lu.”
“For what?” I whisper back over the sound of Zida’s shifting scales.
Ashen smiles. He takes a step closer, just out of reach. “For trusting me.”
My heart hammers my bones. I want so much to touch him, but I feel so many eyes watching us and it keeps my hands hidden within the long sleeves of my robe. I just smile again, trying not to let my gaze drift toward the crowd of demons that stare up at us.
“I promised you something,” Ashen says. “And it’s time for you to decide what you want.”
My brows furrow with confusion.
“I swore that if you wanted to burn all the realms, I would hand you the match.” Ashen holds the necklace up by the bloody chain, the square twirling at the end. “This is the match.”
I look from the spinning square of gold to Ashen’s eyes. “I don’t understand,” I whisper.
“This key opens all the corridors to the Shadow Realm. All the gateways. You could let the hybrids and werewolves in,” he says, his voice so low that only I can hear him. “You have the most powerful Reapers here, rounded up at your feet. You could sweep this land clean of every demon. You could burn it to the ground, and I will hunt them by your side until the last Reaper dies at your hand.”
I swallow a shallow breath.
I can’t deny it. I’ve wanted this. I’ve thought of it so many times. In moments of the deepest darkness, this is what I wished for. These fantasies of vengeance were my raft when this realm cut me and broke me and stole from me. I wished for this place to burn.
Ashen sees the war in my mind. His eyes never leave mine as he gives me a gentle smile and takes a step back.
“The choice is yours, my Lu. My love. It’s match,” he says as he raises the chain in my direction, “or mercy.”
Ashen raises the spear, and I follow its long silver staff to the point that tapers toward the ceiling.
