Page 141 of A Realm of Shattered Lies

To get to my wife.

But I’m grasping at the wind.

“No,” Fin says. “No, she was supposed to be at the Rip. How…”

She was with Lydia. She can’t be here, my mind tries to reassure me, but it’s Asha on that balcony, looking out upon the crowd with numbness written all over her lovely face.

Her perfect face.

On which Az has placed a mask.

It’s perfectly crafted to her features, a mask of ruby flames that traces the exact curve of her scars, down to partially covering her mouth. It’s only the unmarred side of her face that shows, the rest of it glistening with jewels.

That imbecile made her cover her scars.

The thought enrages me, though it doesn’t produce the fire I might have hoped.

Fin winces at the sight, jerking in his chair.

Our eyes meet one another, and something like kinship stirs between us.

The music begins, and it’s the same tune that played at my and Asha’s wedding.

I think I might be sick, but I can’t peel my eyes off her, try as I might to fight against my restraints, break my chair, anything.

Azrael takes Asha’s hands in his, and even from here, I can tell that she’s shaking. Shaking like how she was when she married me.

There’s no fire left in my veins, but smoke fills my lungs, suffocating me all the same.

They leeched my Flame, and I have nothing left to protect her.

The vizier begins the ceremony, except this time it’s a human script, one I’ve never heard.

The vows are more sentimental, less transactional.

At one point, Azrael promises his body to her, and I want to claw my ears out.

“Kiran,” Fin says, glancing at me. “We have to get out of here. We have to stop…” The words seem to fail him, disgust writhing on his features.

I can’t hear Asha’s voice as she speaks her vows. Even with my fae hearing, her voice doesn’t carry like Azrael’s and the vizier’s.

But I can still see her shaking, still catch the glimmer of the tears streaming down her unmasked cheek.

When the ceremony ends, the crowd applauds, and Azrael cups Asha’s face in his hands, drawing her in for a kiss.

Her entire body tenses, and I die on the inside.

Azrael presents his queen to the people, and they erupt into cheers.

There’s no fire left within me.

Nothing to burn.

I’m flickered out, left to fade.

There’s nothing but emptiness where there used to be rage.

They say that fire is consuming, and I’m all used up.

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