Page 121 of Of Serpents and Ruins
I flung his body aside, rage pouring through me.
Bastard couldn’t even assassinate me properly. That hadn’t gone well. The blood surged stronger through my veins, my wrist and arm tingling as the circulation intensified the sensations in my fingertips.
With one arm free, the temptation to break loose intensified.
I clenched my eyes shut, shuddering as I struggled against the pull.
Go to her.
I needed to go to her.
I had to hold her once more.
That was all. I’d hold her. Kiss her. Tell her goodbye.
No!
Jerking back, I pressed my free hand to my chest. No matter how the mate bond compelled me—no matter how much my need for her intensified—I wasn’t going to endanger her.
Mocking laughter filled the room and seized within my chest. My head snapped up.
The Gola Resh floated above the ground, her form swaying and twitching. Those malevolent orange-green eyes blazed at me, smirking with malicious delight.
"So amusing." She chuckled, her shadows dripping down the wall like sludge. "You thought you could keep this fromhappening. You thought that binding yourself with these flimsy metal straps would keep you from the doom I have planned. Well, let me tell you, brute, either you or your little rutting mate will be dead before the curse makes its final claim. Youwillknow my pain."
"I am ready to die to save Stella and Sepeazia." I kept my hand tight against my chest, fingers digging into my pectoral. "I am not your instrument of destruction."
"Oh, but you are, and yes, you'll die. I'll see to that. You destroyed my beloved. At least most of him." Still laughing, the Gola Resh lifted her hand. The darkness dripped from her, erasing her fingers and then returning as they grew once more. "But if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can’t hope to make that permanent, now, can you?"
"If you require my death, then kill me now," I snapped. "I give you my life. Just free Stella and Sepeazia."
"No. There's a third bargain in play, my dear. See, I knew you and your stupid little slut weren't ever going to take me up on my offer, but that doesn't mean you can't suffer. Just knowing you held the knowledge was enough. Part of me had hoped she might try to hide more of it from you so that I could reveal it with a flourish and make one of you think the other had betrayed you, but that isn't how it works with you two, is it?"
Some small part of me stirred with pride. Stella and I had our weaknesses, but even after death and years of torment, we did our best.
"Don't look so self-satisfied," she chided, chuckling. Her hand swished through the air, the sharp metallic scent intensifying. Her eyes burned like poisonous fire. "All that means is that it is far easier for me to wound you both and ensure both of you will suffer, and watching you here just a moment ago made it so clear what must happen. I will ensure that your beloved is given to another."
I scoffed, glaring at her. When I opened my mouth to respond, she swiped her hand up near my mouth, the cold darkness of her form choking me.
"He has already spoken to me of his desire for her, not that she will accept him. He thinks she might. I'm sure he'll believe that when he takes her too. Think of that. Your mate with another, not even happy to be with him."
She smirked, holding up one dripping finger as she tilted her now-skeletal head. Drawing closer, she smiled. Her fingers danced dangerously close to my skull.
"I wasn't missing for those fifty years. I was watching, nursed back to health by one who has come close to understanding my value. I learned that not all is ugly and small with you Sepeazians. In truth, there is something that some might consider beautiful within you." Her mouth grazed my ear. "You wanted her happy. It's how you comforted yourself. Not even with the thought that she was searching for you and pining for you. You took comfort in the belief that she would find someone who would make her happy enough to give her a good life away from you. If you don't kill her, Stella will live. Your beloved Stella will watch you go mad and die. You may even get the chance to kill her a time or two before the end, and that will make the memory of you harder to bear. Hopefully, you'll hurt her, badly, and if she survives that, then I will see to it that she is handed over to another. He will take her, believing that he can force her to love him, but we both know that that won't happen. He will feel righteous and good because he will believe that through him Sepeazia will be saved. Not in full but in part. I will spare him and ten of his choice, including Stella. A remnant of Sepeazia will survive. One without magic of any type, but survive they will."
I sneered at her, masking the terror that clenched my guts. "You've allied with one of the factions."
"There were so many to choose from," she said with a wry smile. "You have made so many enemies over the years, little Brandt. Refusing to take another queen? Refusing to let anyone use her ring? There are consequences for that. If it weren't for your cousin and the strength of your inner court, I suspect that you would have been overthrown by now. How fortunate for you that no faction orliving mancould tempt your cousin to aid me." Her voice turned smug, leaving obvious implications.
"Hord would never cooperate with you."
"Really?" She lifted her chin, smirking. "His beloved passed in Taivren, did she not? All he has left is his son, Cahji. Well, other than you and the rest of your kin, for what that is worth. Cold comfort for the loss of a beloved. You do not know what it is to love as a parent, and you cannot know what else I promised him if he did not do as I commanded. Then again, there is so much you do not know." She plucked at the manacles on my right hand. The metal squealed beneath her touch, the screws in the stone loosening as the bands weakened like wet paper.
"I don't believe you."
All she wanted was our suffering and our pain. Hord was one of my closest friends and allies.
"Hm. You will. If you survive this, you will." She smirked. Her fingers dragged down the chains. They started to warp beneath her touch. "My powers are returning even as Sepeazia's are fading. You might consider why. What was I given that has allowed me this resurgence? What special nourishment was I given to let me escape the jaws of death and become what I am?"
