Thirty
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Samkiel
“T he Queen and King of Rashearim, what are your customs again?
Shall I bow? Curtsy?” Dianna said, my voice flowing from her
lips, the words laced with a hint of pure malice. “I am truly
honored.”
“Dianna. Let her go.”
“What’s the magic word?”
“You don’t want to do this.” I extended a single hand, trying to calm the situation.
“Wrong.” Her grip tightened on Imogen’s throat. “Try again.”
I’d been too slow. Even as I felt Dianna above me, I knew she would reach Imogen long before I did. Now, as I watched a shadow version of myself hold her by the throat, I knew a single wrong word, and she would be just another blue light blasting through the sky. The plan had to work.
“Please let her go. This is between you and me.”
“How about we make a trade? I let her go after you give me the map?”
She smiled. It was unnerving seeing it on my own face.
My heart sank, and not for Imogen.
“We’ve played this game before. Are we bound to repeat this scenario?”
I said, reminding her of our time in the tomb nearly six months ago when Tobias had held her just like this.
“Think you will be faster this time?” Her hand tightened around Imogen's throat.
Her words cut, and not in the way she presumed. It was just another blistering nightmare that still haunted my damned dreams. The lights above
me flared as power wafted off me. The shine illuminated only me before bursting.
Her eyes caught the movement before landing on mine once more.
“Looks like we are both too far gone now, World Ender, but it doesn’t have to end in bloodshed. Give me the map, and you can have your precious queen back. You can go home to your people, beautiful palaces, faithful servants, and leave the killing to the professionals.”
“No,” I snapped. “Unlike you, I will not abandon the ones I claim to care for, so I am not leaving without you.”
The voice that responded was hard and cold. “Then I guess you’re not leaving.”
Dianna pulled Imogen closer, the pressure of her grip cutting off Imogen’s soft gasp. She mirrored my movements, blocking my path to the door. If she caught my gaze, she would realize how close she was to what she sought. I needed her to get away from it. I would have to find another way out. Dianna inhaled deeply, her nostrils flaring, and something wrathful and filled with jealous rage awoke in her eyes.
“Oh, Imogen, have you been a bad girl?” Dianna purred, nipping at Imogen’s ear, her fangs mere inches from her throat. “You smell just like
the World Ender.”
Imogen held her own.
“Don’t lie to her.” I pressed. “She can sense it.”
Imogen glared at me, her mouth pressed into a thin line as she realized where I needed this plan to go.
“Lie to me?” Dianna demanded, her voice a horrific meld of my voice and the low growl of her beast.
“I didn’t know about you, but I’m glad you are here,” Imogen taunted.
“Otherwise, I never would have realized how much I missed Samkiel, how much we still cared for one another.”
Dianna’s grip on her throat tightened a fraction harder, and her lips pulled back in a silent hiss. So strange to see her expressions on my face, but I could see Dianna through any illusion. I knew her, and exactly where to hit, so I aimed my words carefully.
“Please, I’ll give you the map if you let her go.”
“How about you give it to me, and I won’t rip her heart out? You know, like old times.”
I watched as the shadow version of myself moved his hand across Imogen’s chest, Dianna unsheathing her claws above her heart. My soul ached, seeing how far Kaden had pushed her, how far she had fallen. I could hear her laughing at jokes I did not understand. I could see her smile even when the world tried to break her. She had given up everything, thinking she was saving me, her sister, and all the realms. Now she was doing the same thing to Imogen that Tobias had done to her. Kaden had truly destroyed her. I knew she would assume that the pain etched on my face was for Imogen, but it was for her. It was always about her.
I had to act fast.
I took another step forward, and she took one back.
“You already know the lengths I will go to keep those I care about safe.”
She paused. “I do care for Imogen. Tremendously. And she was right. I did not realize how much I truly missed her until she returned. So, thank you for that. I guess I realized when I kissed you all I thought about was her.”
No growl left her throat this time, and I realized with anguish twisting my heart that she had been waiting for me to say such things. It was confirmation that she was nothing special, that she was replaceable. It proved that the devastating words Kaden whispered to her were true. Pure and utter devastation crossed her face, and I had caused it. Agony ripped through me, but at the same time, hope flared like a bright, burning star in my chest. It was pure and more potent than any pain. And it held a blistering confirmation. She still cared for me.
Dianna’s grip tightened, and Imogen’s eyes went wide.
“It’s over, Dianna. This entire city is secure. There is no way you leave here. Not again.”
“Oh yeah? And just how do you plan on containing me? Are you really willing to risk your precious family for that? The world? I will reduce it to ash. I may not be able to kill you, but I can tear through them in seconds.
Ask Cameron.” She smiled as Imogen groaned in her grasp.
“We have Camilla, who was nice enough to place that same poison Sophia had made into this building. A single thought from me and the sprinkler system releases it.”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk, and you all say I am the one who has fallen so far? The Samkiel I knew would never poison me. Not very heroic.” She tipped her head toward Imogen, and fear laced my gut with how close her fangs were to her throat. A slow smile curved her lips. “I’m impressed. You finally gave
up the constant whining and trying to convince me that this isn’t me? Do you think I’m still in here now?”
“You have made me very desperate and have left me no choice. Again.”
Dianna’s hand clasped over Imogen’s throat, and she lifted her. Imogen choked, her feet dangling. “The only way you will have me again will be in
ashes.”
“Never.”
Smoke filled the room, and the alarms blared, followed by the sprinklers going off. Dianna jerked and screamed, releasing Imogen. My heart ached that she thought I would hurt her. A simple lie, and she believed it so well.
Dianna would soon realize it was nothing but water. I grabbed Imogen and threw enough power to blast us a few floors below. I heard Dianna’s shriek of fury and the roar of flames above us. She had figured it out, and rage had replaced fear.
“That’s your plan?” Imogen sneered below me. I had landed to protect her in case the building fell next. It was not her fault, nor would I let anyone in my family get hurt for me. Never again. “Lie and piss her off about us?”
“I needed to see.”
“See what? Pure blinding rage?” Imogen asked. I lifted off of her and
stood, offering her my hand.
“If she is still my girl.”
Imogen’s face softened, a corner of her lips curving up. “That was the most insane way to test that theory.”
“I’ve done far crazier things for those I care for.” I hauled her to her feet, able to hear the flames roaring above. Smoke and steam poured through the ventilation system as the water from the sprinklers tried to dampen the magical fire.
Imogen glanced down at herself. Her shirt was torn, but that seemed to be the extent of the damage. “She didn’t hurt me.”
“No, no, she didn’t.”
“Then she’s still in there.”
I nodded, my focus on the floor above and Dianna. “Get out of here. Go to the others and wait for my return.”
Imogen reached out and squeezed my forearm. “Good luck, Samkiel.”
Imogen left, and I shot up, returning to the top floor. Flames bit and chewed at every part of the hall now, the water above unable to stop her
fury. A smile played on my lips. “Now, this reminds me of the first time we met.”
She wiped her face, her hand clenching at the water there. My lie. She growled at me, no longer wearing my form, her wet hair clinging to her cheeks. She didn’t hesitate as she charged forward. One clawed hand swiped at my face as I leaned back, avoiding the strike, and grabbed her wrist when she tried again.
“You lied to me,” she snarled, throwing her body against mine.
“You taught me well, and I would say it was more just a slight trickery.”
Her free hand reached for my face, and I grabbed that too, realizing a moment too late that was what she wished. Her knee came up, connecting with my groin. Pain shot through me, my gut twisting with nausea, and I released her. She spun and kicked me through not one but two walls.
My back skidded across the dry floor. I was in an entirely different part of the building. No flames or sprinklers erupted here. I took a few deep breaths, willing the pain to ease, and bumped my head against the floor.
“Smart, Samkiel, so fucking smart. Teach her how powerful her legs are so she can kick your ass.”
I pushed up as she stepped through the hole my body had made, the forsaken blade in hand.
“It hurts, doesn’t it? To think of someone else touching or being with the one you care about the most.”
Another sharp growl ripped through the air.
“Now, you know how I feel.”
“I feel nothing.”
“Terrible liar, Dianna. You always were.”
She opened her mouth, no doubt with a scathing reply, but she snapped it closed when her eyes focused on something behind me. It was then I realized what room we were in.
The map she so desperately sought was on the conference room table, surrounded by books. She ran toward it, completely ignoring me.
I was on my feet in the next second, reaching for her. She sidestepped my fingers, and I caught air as she spun away. Her hand shot toward the map, and I knew the second she touched it, she would be gone forever.
Lightning shot from my fingertips, scorching the parchment.
She stopped, her hands half-raised, watching as it floated toward the ceiling in ashes.
“No.” The words left her lips on a whisper. “What have you done?”
Then she turned to me, her crimson eyes burning with blistering rage, and on a roar of fury, the room burst into flames.
M y first thought was how glad I was I’ d evacuated the city . I t burned now. Every ball of fire she tossed at me, and I redirected, burst through a wall or window, lighting the city aflame.
My second thought was I had never really counted the number of floors we had in this building until I fell through each and every one of them. My hand swiped the dust from the silver-plated armor on my shoulder. I had summoned it for protection between the first few floors Dianna sent me through, letting it take the brunt of my fall. I couldn’t allow an injury to slow me down, not now. Not when I was finally this close.
I pushed from the floor as the debris settled. Electricity sparked in the hole my body had made above me.
“You ruin everything,” Dianna hissed, her lithe form landing in a crouch before me.
“You will have to be more specific, akrai, on what exactly I ruined. Your mood?” I taunted her. “Your panties, perhaps?”
Her brow furrowed, and I saw the shock in her eyes at hearing me call her my heart in Eorian. Satisfaction filled me and made the time spent learning the ancient language worth it.
“Don’t call me that,” she growled, lunging forward. My blade blocked hers mere inches from my face. “You egotistical, conceited, arrogant lying bastard.”
“If you’re going to insult me, akrai, you have to do better than that. I have heard far worse from beings who wished to have my head on a spike.
You should have heard what they said to me when I ascended.”
“Stop calling me that.” She pushed off, sending me a step back. To her, it looked as though I was eluding her, fleeing, but I had to keep her moving.
I needed her closer to the runes.
“Is this us flirting? You yell and toss me through a few stories when you don’t get your way, or perhaps you’ll drop another building on me.”
I twisted from her, sprinting to the end of the hall.
“I am not flirting,” she growled, cleaving her sword through the air toward me. It cut through the wall behind me as I ducked and rolled inside a nearby room.
“I don’t know, Dianna.” I smirked. “It definitely makes me hard.”
She pulled her blade from the wall, stepping into the room. “Shouldn’t
your queen do that?”
“She does.”
She snarled, all fangs and fury, and attacked, not giving me a chance to respond. Steel rang against the forsaken blade, the room shaking with her ferocity.
The sound seemed to echo through time as if it was what the universe had craved, what it desired. Walls cracked, tables and chairs splintering as one blade missed its target, then the next. It was a deadly, powerful dance of two beings destined to destroy each other since the beginning of it all.
“You’re wasting my time.” She snarled. “Because of you, I have to find another fucking way.” Her head collided with mine, a crack sounding through the room. “Do you have any idea what you have done?”
“No.” I stumbled back, righting myself as she straightened. “Because you won’t tell me why you needed the map.”
“It meant everything, and you took it from me.” Another sharp hit of her blade against mine. “You ruined everything again!”
Rage, powerful and overwhelming, poured from her.
I took a step back, dragging her with me. In her warpath, she paid no attention to where I was leading her. “Again, you must be more specific about which situation I ruined the first time.”
A frustrated growl left her lips as she charged. “It’s your fault.” Another hit. “I was fine. Everything was fine until you showed up and ruined it.”
Ah. So that was what it was, a crack forming in that impenetrable armor. I only needed to apply more pressure, and I would split it wide open.
“I understand that you have to blame someone. Give all that rage an outlet, but blaming me will not bring Gabriella back.”
Her eyes blazed with a thousand burning embers as she snarled and launched toward me. I dodged, the wall behind me shaking from the force of her blade, the strike so powerful it would have cleaved through bone.
And that crack in her armor widened.
Dianna yanked the blade free, taking a chunk of the wall with it. She shook it off and, with one final enraged glare, disappeared. Dark smoke stood where she had been. I was dumbstruck, to say the least, but I remained alert, keeping my blade in my hand. I still felt her.
“Do you like my new trick?” Her voice carried on like an echo. I spun but saw nothing, yet my senses screamed.
“You did this on the ship.” Realization hit. “How?”
A slash rang against my armor, my arm aching with the blow. I looked down and saw the silver bore a new jagged indention.
“The more I fed, the more I let go of that damaged girl who would give up everything for others. You know, the one you cling to so desperately.”
Another slash, and I spun.
“I have become something truly lethal now. Something so powerful that nothing and no one will ever hurt me again. It’s just a shame I didn’t learn it sooner.”
I thought I sensed her to my right and heard the slight exhale of her breath, but I saw nothing. Another slash came, this time to my back. I twisted and saw her coat flare as it dissolved into the darkness. Impossible.
It was as if she were here but not here. And then I remembered. One of the
oldest texts my father ever showed me.
“You are enamored with beasts.”
Unir’s hand splayed on the table at my side as he leaned over me to see what I was reading.
“Well, I must pass the time since you will not allow me to spend time with my companions.”
“That is your punishment for your reckless behavior.”
I cut my eyes up at him, one hand propped under my chin as I flipped a page. My father’s eyes remained on the book in question.
“You went through my personal belongings to retrieve that?”
I smiled. “Boredom overcame me, and you keep all the interesting texts
locked away.”
“And what did you find?”
I moved to the side, allowing him a better look at the book.
“Ah.”
“Ancient beasts long since dead.” I brushed my finger over a part that I had enjoyed. “But I’ve never heard of this. What is the inbetween?”
My father was quiet for a moment as if deciding if he would explain.
Finally, he said, “The inbetween is neither light nor darkness. It exists but does not. It is a place out of time and space. Rules do not apply, nor is there enough known about it to explain. I learned about it during my travels.
Mostly legends passed down. Some say that long ago, it was where shadows went to hide, but it is that of myth. Nothing of that power lives any longer.”
A touch of sadness filled his eyes as he closed the book and took it from me.
I turned in my seat. “How can you be sure?”
“You question me?” he said, a look of amusement gracing his face as he placed the book behind his back.
“Maybe something slipped past your omniscient rule.”
“You are but a copy of your mother.” The corners of his lips turned up in a ghost of a smile. “You are still so young, with so much to learn. But remember, nothing can truly stay hidden if you listen with more than your ears.”
I closed my eyes and centered myself, my heart rate decreasing as I listened. There, like a string pulled tight, I found her. I felt her through time and space, a heartbeat that matched my own. She walked around me, her footsteps more vibration than heard, as if she perched behind a thin veil.
She sidestepped and thrust forward. My blade drove upward, stopping hers, and my free hand whipped out, grasping her wrist, holding her in this space.
Her eyes went wide. “How?”
“Always with the tone of surprise. There is no place in this world or the next that you can hide from me, akrai.”
She twisted in my grip. “You’re pathetic.”
“Am I? Curse me if you want. Throw your hateful words. Whatever you need, I can take it.”
I saw the struggle in her eyes as if she warred within herself. She pulled at her arm, trying to free her wrist.
“How many do I have to kill for you to give up on me?” There it was, a final split in the armor she built so diligently around herself. Her expression twisted, and I could see that she hadn’t meant to respond, the words slipping out.
“You could make a river of blood run down these streets, and I would still try because I know you, the real you, not this version he created.”
She lowered her blade just a fraction and huffed. “You’re wrong.”
“If I’m wrong, then so was Gabby, and I know she wasn’t. She wouldn’t give up on you, and neither will I. We can do this dance until this world burns and the next takes its place, but I will still choose you.”
She stopped.
Her sister’s name had once grounded her but now seemed to be a catalyst to emotions she fought to destroy.
“You want to save me? You want to be like Gabby so badly?” she hissed, all fangs and sharp edges. She twisted her wrist too sharply, snapping from my grip. “Then you can join her.”
Her face crumpled, but not from tears. Anger flashed behind her crimson eyes, pain hovering in their depths. She used the rage, turning it into resolve as she’d been forced to do so many times in the past. Kaden had taught her feelings were a weakness, and now she threw herself into that belief more than ever.
She lunged too hard and fast. My blade connected with hers, shattering from the force behind her strike. I had a mere second to summon another to protect against the onslaught of her fury.
“You’re a fool, and so was she.”
Slam
“You will only end up dead because of me.”
I stumbled and brought my blade up to meet hers, but the power behind her strikes made my muscles shudder with strain. My back hit the ground, and I summoned a second blade, placing it across my front to act as a shield. It absorbed her every hit as she unleashed.
“Dianna was weak.”
Slam
“She was a stupid girl.”
Another world-shattering slam.
“Who dreamed of flowers and happiness in the middle of war.”
A crack formed on my blade, a small tiny fissure that grew with every strike.
“She was too trusting and cared too much. She loved too much, and
now she’s gone.”
Slam
“She’s dead, and she’s not coming back.”
I knew then it wasn’t herself she was talking about, but the sister she so desperately missed. Even as she rebelled and fought with blind savagery, I
saw the shine in her eyes. A part of her shattered, and I knew then and there
that Drake had been right.
I had reached her.
With a last ferocious strike, she slammed her sword against mine, breaking it. Then she was atop me, her blade in both hands as she raised it, threatening to impale me. Even with my armor, she had the strength to do it.
“I’ll carve that damned heart from your body,” she said breathlessly.
“Then you’ll leave me alone.” But she stopped a fraction from my chest, her hands and arms trembling as she panted.
“Do it.” I angled the tip of her blade above my heart. “If you are truly gone, I refuse to live in a world without you, so you’ll have to angle it farther to the right. That’s where a god’s heart lies, and mine already belongs to you, so do with it what you will.”
She glared down at me, her chest heaving.
“You can’t, can you? You cannot truly hurt me.”
She growled, her arms shaking as she tightened her grip but made no other movement.
I lunged up. Dianna let out a startled squeak and withdrew the blade.
My hands cupped her face, taking advantage of her parted lips to slam my mouth over hers. Her fangs nicked my lip, and I groaned at the pinch of pain. She didn’t stop, but the world did as I kissed her with every bit of longing and desire I had for her. I poured all the desperate need and love I had felt while we were apart into the kiss. I gave her everything to make her see, make her feel.
I heard her blade crash to the floor, and her hands gripped my armor, pulling me closer. The taste of her and the feel of her tongue sweeping across mine were complete bliss. She pulled back slowly, her eyes wide, dazed, and confused. Her lush lips were parted and softly swollen from my kiss, the emerald magic clinging to them.
It had worked.
She sagged in my arms, and I cradled her against me. “It’s okay. It’s
okay. I got you.”
“Wha—” She stared up at me.
“I’m going to help you as I promised. Your burdens are my burdens, remember?”
Her eyes met mine, emotions swimming in their depths. Finally, I had reached her, at least for a moment. Her eyelids grew heavy, Camilla’s spell
taking effect. Her heart rate decreased, sleep pulling her under. I cradled her head as it lulled, slipping my arms around her and pushing to my feet.
I stepped into the middle of the room, and the runes on the floor lit, transporting us from the building.
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