Twenty-Three
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Dianna. A Few Days Later.
“S elf-isolation is not healthy for a being with powers and emotions as
strong as yours.”
Candles flickered along the rim of the large ceramic tub, the water long since cold. I took another long pull from the wine bottle, the taste dulled by the residue of blood on my tongue. I lifted my foot, the edge of my painted toes appearing above the water. A small bubble popped in the large cloud that surrounded me. I didn’t hear him enter, although I never heard Reggie. I was pretty sure he didn’t actually walk.
“Are you to remain in here until your skin wilts off?” Reggie asked.
I took another long drink and looked at him. “Do you think it will, or will I heal from that, too?”
“It has been a few days since Kaden taunted you. You have fed and trained religiously but haven’t left the temple. Why is that?”
“I’m cramping.”
Reggie said nothing.
I waved my hand. “Yeah, even creatures of the night menstruate.”
“Ah, I assume Kaden referred to you as such?”
I ignored him and set the empty wine bottle beside the tub before sinking beneath the water. The noise of the world became muffled, and I heard nothing but the steady rhythm of my heart. I slowly sat up, pushing my hair back from my face. The bubbles clung to my skin as I turned to eye Reggie through thick, wet lashes.
“It makes sense that your appetite would increase with your menstruation, but I am not a meal for you to eat.”
A slow smile crossed my face. “Don’t worry. I’ve fed enough, and besides, I am sure you taste like stars and dust.” I reached over the tub’s edge, grabbing the third bottle of wine.
“Your temper as well has increased in the last few days. Maybe there is
another reason?”
“Nope.”
“Not the words from the angry creature that made you, perhaps?”
The wine bottle stilled against my lips as I glared at him. “I have to be stronger for what I have planned. Kaden reminded me of that. That's all.”
Reggie stared at me as if he didn’t believe me. I took a long drink before letting my arm hang over the side of the tub, bottle in hand.
“Do you want to hear a story?”
Reggie waited.
“It’s how I originally got my bloody reputation.”
Reggie tipped his head in interest. “Enlighten me.”
“When I first changed, my body was adjusting, and I was adapting to my new life. I did everything Kaden said, killed who he wanted, and made a mess of it. Funny part was that I enjoyed it. Blood lust in its purest form is damn near orgasmic. Every sense is in overdrive. Kaden said it was normal when changing, but I soon learned how not normal I was. I don’t remember it happening, but I remember slipping into this pattern. My sister caught on before anyone else. She always did. Kaden noticed our connection, and slowly our visits became fewer and farther between.”
I snorted and took another drink, leaning my head back against the tub.
“I think the only time he actually liked me was when I was more like him, and I felt less mortal. It didn’t matter, though. Gabby never gave up.
She would call and write, trying to find me every chance she got. Gods, I think she would have sent an army for me if she could. Eventually, she found Novas, took a boat in the middle of the night, and walked into a house of monsters. She demanded she get her sister back.”
I looked at Reggie. He hadn’t moved, unnaturally still in the same position.
“Of course, Kaden said no, so she threatened to leave me forever, and something in me snapped. I couldn’t lose my sister. I mean, I gave up my life for her. So I remembered why I changed in the first place, who really mattered, and who never gave up on me. Everything changed after that night. I stopped feeding recklessly. Kaden let me see her more, even if it
wasn’t frequent enough, and the rest was history. She turned some part of me back on, I guess. I cared again, felt again. Even if I was never truly how
I was before I turned.”
The bathroom grew silent.
“I don’t have that anymore.” My voice dropped, the tears filling my eyes, making the wine bottle in my hand blurry. I picked at the label with my thumbnail and continued, speaking mostly to myself. “The one person who actually loved me, who cared, who would cross oceans and face monsters to save me, is gone. I am truly and utterly alone. That’s what Kaden reminded me of when he showed me Samkiel. He got his family back, and I lost mine.”
His voice was like a whisper in the wind. “That’s where you are wrong.
There is so much you have yet to do and see. You’ve only just begun.”
I rolled my eyes, sinking further into the tub. I tilted the bottle back, taking a large gulp. “You know you never make sense.”
“If I could make a suggestion.”
I sighed, raising a single brow. “Go on.”
“I would merely suggest you be more careful with whom you spend your free time. Gods, like Ig’Morruthens, are very territorial beings. To put it lightly, your attempts to drown yourself in men and women every night to erase the taste of Samkiel are in vain. It will not deter him. He sees past your illusion. I would not be surprised if he even feels your pain on some level.”
“I haven’t, not since Malone in that stupid burned hotel,” I said, pinching my lower lip between my teeth. “It helped, for a little while, indulging in others. Helped block out that void that lives in my chest now that she's gone. But I need to preserve all my energy for what’s to come.
That’s what I need to focus on, and I can’t waste it on lackluster mortals who can barely perform.”
“Ah,” Reggie said. “No other reason, perhaps?”
“Like what, oh wise one?”
“That maybe your feelings for Samkiel are far stronger than you recognized?”
My lips curled into a snarl. “I feel nothing.”
“Your reactions suggest otherwise.”
I closed my eyes, refusing to look at him. It wasn’t a complete lie. No matter what I did, I just felt more and more empty. Something in me ached,
something profound, lonely, and angry. I’d shoved it so far down, praying it would suffocate. Yet, even knowing how vile and manipulative he was, Kaden’s words hit something. Then, when I saw Samkiel and Imogen together, for just a moment and against my better judgment, I’d felt ill.
“Also, I hope you are aware that being betrothed means something else in the Netherworld.”
Of course, Reggie hit the mark on the head once more.
“I don’t care,” I said with a sigh, opening my eyes.
He nodded toward the bottles surrounding the tub. “This would also suggest otherwise.”
I turned my head, my eyes narrowing on him. “What happens if I rip you into tiny shreds in a small area? Do you think it would affect my temple?”
“I think this act you portray will only suffocate you. Burying feelings hurts no one but yourself. You will drown in the tide you are trying to subdue, slowly and painfully. You will end up truly numb. That will be a grand mistake and not only just for you.”
I traced a bubble on the side of the tub. “You know you make sense only like fifty percent of the time, right?”
“I know you hear me perfectly, yet you refuse to listen. I understand your grief for your sister, but why does feeling for Samkiel hurt you as badly? What else have you buried?”
The hair rose on the back of my neck, his words crawling over my skin.
A part of my subconscious begged me to answer. Only it would be anger he got, not the harsh truth.
And a lock on a door in a house rattled.
“Reggie, I came here to relax, and you are ruining it.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, wincing.
Reggie went on. “You are not hearing me. It was preconceived that if Samkiel could not find his mate, his soul tie, then he would marry. There must always be two rulers for the realms. Two leaders. Two monarchs. It was just how it was done at that time.”
“Great, I wish them all the best. I hope they have a grand wedding with stupid birds that sing too loudly and a castle and children to rule long after them.” I waved a hand, splashing water on the floor between us. “See?
Completely unbothered. Can we talk about anything else?”
If Reggie could sigh, I swore I heard it.
His words hit me, though. A soul tie. I hated that word, too. Another part of their world that fell into ours. The perfect mate, the reason the Mark of Dhihsin even existed. You were lucky if you found yours. Most didn’t, and those who did loved to flaunt the marks that appeared on their fingers. I always assumed my soul tie died in some freak accident. At one point, I thought maybe it was Kaden, but now the thought made me nauseous.
A soul tie couldn’t hurt you, not really. It would be like shredding their own soul. It was every bit of love you could have for another person, and of course, Gabby had eaten that up. She had wanted her soul tie. I wondered if it had been Rick. Maybe it was. He had died for her.
“Look, Kaden may be manipulative, but he’s right. What was I thinking? We’re so different. I was stupid to think…” I paused, something inside of me stretching awake.
“If I may,” Reggie interjected, but I ignored him.
“It doesn’t matter. Imogen’s perfect for him. They are about fairness and justice. Both made and crafted by that beautiful light.” My nails tapped on the edge of the bathtub. “Powerful men, Dianna. Be careful of powerful
men.”
“Yes, but…”
I nodded to myself, tipping the wine bottle back and cutting him off.
“That’s what Gabby said, and she was right. Now, she’s turned to ash, and I’m stuck between them.”
“You do realize that falling in love with Samkiel did not kill your sister?”
The water in the tub boiled around me, and the wine bottle hit the wall, shards of glass exploding into the air. The temple ruins shook as every candle burst to life. Flames flared, chasing the shadows from the darkened room. A low, thunderous growl escaped my lips as I gripped the tub so tight it melted beneath my hands.
“If you ever say that to me again, I will rip you to pieces.” My voice emerged deep and rough, but Reggie only folded his arms tighter. “Now get out.”
“I have witnessed gods made of light and dark make realms shudder from their power and then be completely incapacitated from loneliness and heartbreak. What happens when there are no more enemies for you to burn?
I do not wish that fate for you.”
“Says the fate, who has seen a thousand different outcomes and does nothing about them, right?” I yelled. “If you didn’t want that, maybe you should have helped a little harder before Drake dragged my sister back to that damned monster. Instead, you are just as useless as the rest of them.
Grand fucking speeches once the blood has already hit and dried on the floor.”
I was slipping again. I knew it. A vile and vicious creature made of scales and claws and teeth. One designed to protect me and my bruised and beaten heart. I waited for Reggie to snap, to tell me how much of an ugly, mean bitch I was, but he said nothing.
I took a shuddering breath, steam pouring off the water. “Why do you care, anyway? I am what you and Kaden have all preached, a monster and an abomination, right? That’s what you said in your now destroyed prison.”
“The translation of those words does not mean the same here. You are merely something that should not exist. It does not have to mean anything —” Reggie went rigid, his head craned back. The slits above and below his eyes opened, opaque beams shining briefly from his six eyes. They closed as soon as they opened, returning to normal as he looked at me.
“What?”
Reggie gave me a chaste smile. “It is nothing.”
It was a sudden switch in conversation, but one I so desperately needed.
“Okay, well, go away then. I’m done talking.” I nodded and turned away from him. The water in the tub no longer bubbled and spewed. “I want to be alone.”
Reggie’s gaze did not falter, but I knew he was about to disagree. “You know, back in the ruling era, monarchs would meet to try to bridge peace
before battle?”
“Well, I am not a monarch.”
The flames from the candles and walls smoldered before burning out completely.
“I only wish to help you. I hope you see that.”
I leaned my head against the cool lip of the tub, closing my eyes and meaning every word I said. “Fate or not, get out before I burn you alive.”
The air shifted as he left me.
And a lock on a door in a house rattled.
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