Page 58 of King of the Damned
Amatisi cups my cheeks. “Oh, the mortal heart, so filled with hope,” she mocks. “Even in the face of death you yearn for a man you cannot have. It is noble, truly.”
“Answer the question,” I demand.
“Kaius’ debt will be satisfied when my sister returns,” she says, and then tilts her head slightly as she adds, “upon your death.”
I take a deep breath. Amatisi is smart. She saw right through my attempt to change my fate. My eyes fill with burning tears as I look at Kaius, still hanging from the post and bleeding. I step toward him and rise onto my toes to kiss the underside of his chin.
My touch seems to wake him from his daze and his eyes slightly open to focus on me.
“Adelasia…”
I cup his cheek and the tears begin to fall from my eyes. “Will you make me a promise, Kaius?”
“Anything…” he whispers out painfully, blood dripping from his mouth.
“Promise me that you’ll live the full life you’ve always wanted. Promise me I won’t die in vain.”
The mention of my death seems to slightly pull him from his delirium and he raises his head. His eyes trace my face and reveal confusion.
I take a shuddering breath and turn the blade to face my stomach. “Promise me…” I beg quietly. His body begins to twitch and move awkwardly as he attempts to free himself from the post.
“Adelasia, don’t!” he shouts as he falls to the ground and reaches for me.
A small whimper escapes my lips. Time feels frozen at first–everything seems to stop moving. I let out a humorless laugh at the odd pressure in my abdomen.
Only when my eyes meet Kai’s again, because I cannot bear to look, I pull the blade free from my body and drop it at my side.
Twenty-Seven
Kaius
Numbness overtakes my body at what Adelasia has done.
I watch the dagger clatter to the ground, splattering drops of her blood on the floor.
She looks at me with a distant gaze, and huffs as if she can’t believe it herself. As if the regret settles into her and she realizes I wasn’t worth it after all.
My own injuries and pain disappear with the numbness, and the world begins to move again. Her body falls limp and I barely catch her before her knees hit the marble. I hold her face tenderly in my hands, but she does not focus on me. Her hand clutches her stomach, blood beginning to spill over the top of her fingers.
She hisses and jerks away from me to curl on her side in the fetal position. A painful moan escapes on an exhale of her breath. The air grows colder around her when a black mist begins to spill out of her stomach along with her blood, followed by a loudcrack.
Adelasia whimpers, and another loud crack follows. Then another. And another. She rolls slightly to lie more on her stomach, her chest heaving harshly between the pain.
With one more crack, a pool of blood seeps through the delicate fabric of her beige gown. Slowly, the scar down the length of her back morphs into the color of fresh blood, and from the blood, a hand pushes through her skin in a pool of black mist. The long fingernails grip her skin and push through her spine, the mist flowing upward and outward until landing with a soft thud on the marble.
This is Yekaterina’s soul escaping from Adelasia’s, and only through her death will the Priestess return to this plane.
Adelasia’s time is limited, but without my Bloodstone, what can I do to help? I couldn't even save her from a werewolf bite without that dark magic. How could I possibly hope to save her from this certain fate without it?
“Kai…”
I hold her to my chest and wipe the tears from her eyes. I’ve never seen them so lifeless. The vivid royal blue I’ve always been so fond of has faded into a vacant gray. Her lips have gone purple and her skin a ghastly white.
“Kai…” she chokes out again. “Change me.”
My lips quiver and I can’t help but deny her. “I can’t.” I shake my head. “I can’t Adelasia. I won’t do that to you. I won’t take your life from you.”
“I’m dying anyway.”
