Page 67 of The Surrender

Gripping my chin, the vampire leans in and breathes against my lips, “The demon will take him as high as he will go. Then, he will break him. And watch him fall.”

I lick my lips. My lungs constrict. My heart seizes as I remember the soul-stopping words.

I will break your pride. I will crush your heart. I will kill your soul.

“Oh, gods, no...” I whimper and let the rain cry for me because all my tears have run dry. “His wings!”

44

She will carry a piece of me forever.

KYAN/SHADOW

Blood may bind us all as water does, but wind sees all.

Air sees our invisible wounds and scars. And loves them all the same.

She desired us through the scars, Kyan.

I don’t answer Shadow, but he senses my agreement within our united mind. Desired. Wanted. Accepted. Perhaps, she even understood. But she did not love.

It is our greatest surrender.

We love these mountains, however eerie they seem. These dark phantoms swell all around me. Shrouded in mist, dark gray snow festoons the mountains.

We follow Nuriel to a peak overlooking the Court of Storms as if he has a collar binding our necks to a chain he controls. It’s as close an analogy as any. Only his death from another hand could break the blood oath. But the cursed demon will not slow for anything. The only one who could hope to catch up to us now would be Drago, but not even he can fly against the current of the storm.

Perhaps if the demon was taking us to the highest peak, there would be time, but he wants a show. Nuriel will see me broken before my Court, before my people, my brothers. And before...her.

Despite this beast of a tempest cutting its teeth into our bones and splintering our skin with its raindrops like ice shards, we’ve never felt more at peace. Never more united. Bit by bit, our rule is sundering, fading. The higher we embark with Nuriel, the quieter the storm inside of us grows. Soon, we will be in its eye.

The memory of her heat spasming around us, the memory of her shattering around us as we protected her with our wings and roared her name to nearly bring down the caverns, we will carry it to our grave. And to hell beyond where monsters rightly go.

It requires as much strength and power to sacrifice and surrender as it does to unleash the storm. No, it takes more.

I’ve received more. She’s given me more. Knowing the last thing I could do was to help her fly before I fall is the greatest act of receiving I can fathom. I’m no longer resisting. Instead, I’m embracing in the fullest assurance she will be safe—and she will carry a piece of me forever.

The higher we fly, the more I shed centuries of my past. I surrender the shadows and demons and scars that became my identity and chains when I could not fly. I surrender my defenses and walls until I no longer command or control the storm. I am merely riding its current.

Once Nuriel breaks my pride, I will move from this place of acceptance to something new. I chuckle internally. Shadow mirrors the amusement rippling its heat along our spine. To think we called her spirit moth when she is the one who has truly transformed us.

Perhaps her monsters have not found a home yet within us. But ours have found theirs.

She took pieces of us as surely as she left pieces of her inside us.

We finally arrive at the crest of the mountaintop. Below us, the highest tower of the Court of Storms bares its face through the sheets of gray rain wishing to veil it. Through the slits of the rain and fog and darkness, I make out the sight of my little Queen.

Our little Queen, barks Shadow.

Yes, ours.

I don’t land. I watch her as I hold onto the sensation of the wind rifling through my feathers, the power throbbing through my wings, the blood pulsing warmth into them. Until we met her, I’d believed they were the purest form of freedom. Separation from them was the worst torture. But the moment we saw the blade’s edge cutting against her throat, we knew her blood spilled upon those baby bones would have ended everything. We would have followed her. My brothers would not have been far behind.

Perhaps ten thousand prayers from her lips in heaven would have dragged us up from hell to purgatory. Regardless, she will not go to the afterlife tonight. Nor will our child.

She looks like a shard of the moon shining through the storm tearing all around her. The tempest could never hope to eclipse her light. Of course, my partner stands behind her. He is the fastest of us all.

“On your knees, Lord Kyanatu,” Nuriel growls, his voice a venom lacing the air behind me.

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