I feel like my body is on fire. This isn’t like the burning pain I felt from Fretez’s light. Even as painful as that was, there was a peacefulness that came with it, but there is no peace with this pain. I swear I can feel fire spreading through my veins, boiling me from the inside out. I’d give anything to just be able to lie down and close my eyes, but I still can’t will my body to move. I can’t even will my eyes to stay shut. All I can do is witness my vision become more blurry and feel the pain intensify. My heart could rival a hummingbird right now. “This is truly a magnificent sight.” The voice speaking these words is like nails on a chalkboard to my ears. Even the beauty of the French they are spoken in is soured by the person speaking them. I look up to see the woman I once called family, standing on the other side of the bars with a malicious smile on her face. The white of her hair and the white of her eyes and teeth shine in the torchlight of this cell, while her ebony ski
“Are you sure about this?” Chris asks Mei, while I resist the urge to tap my foot. “I’m positive,” she chirps, “I’ll have my link open the whole time, I promise,” she says, reaching up on her tippy toes to kiss him. He wraps his arms around her lifting her with ease as he returns her kiss causing her cream-coloured cheeks to blush. “Please be safe,” he begs in a whisper, placing a kiss on her forehead as he lowers her back down. “I promise to come home in one piece,” she says with a bright smile. Chris looks over at me with hard eyes, but I can see the worry he’s trying to hide. I’ll cut the man some slack since I’m kind of in the same boat. “Remember what I said,” he says in warning. “Anything happens to her, and you’ll kill me. Trust me, your majesty, if we fail at this, I’ll personally come to you so you can kill me,” I say darkly. Chris looks unsettled and Mei looks sad at my words, but I mean them wholeheartedly. If I lose Isolde, I don’t want to go on. Chris reluctantly l
It’s not long before we come to a stop and for a second I fear trusting an unexplained ball of light was a really dumb fucking move. “There’s a wall, but it’s not dirt, it’s stone,” she says. I reach my hand out and feel in front of me, and sure enough the wall is smooth. I feel the wall start to silently move back and a crack of light streams into the tunnel. I peek through the crack and can see a giant hall of some sort. The room is filled with women with sparkling flecks of gold covering their skin. From what I remember Izzy telling me, these must be irshiusts. Some of them are surrounding something, and it’s not till some of them shift that I notice what, or who, they’re surrounding. It’s Izzy! My heart begins to thunder furiously in my chest and every impulse in me is telling me to run to her, but I force myself to stay in place. Looking closer I can tell something is wrong. Her gorgeous olive skin looks grey and sickly, I can see her hair sticking to her face, but she’s not sa
Even with all the arguing, I was certain death was inevitable at this point. I never in a million years thought Valeria would find a way to sneak into the most impenetrable fortress on earth, bringing with her the Empress of the nagata – something I’ll have to get details on later – all just to save me. I rejected her and yet she, a human, managed to come all this way for me. I’ve never had someone go to such lengths for me. I never questioned her love, but there’s not a chance I ever will after today. But Manon couldn’t let me be happy for five minutes. Well, she’s certainly shown her true colours now, but she made the biggest mistake of her life. Poisoning me is one thing. Trying to kill Valeria in front of me? This bitch is mine. I step around Valeria feeling more invigorated than I have in a long time. I knew the Gold Snake that every nagata Empress is blessed with has healing abilities that far surpass anything a makkari can do, even a Priest or Priestess. Their healing is seco
I push my magic forward with all my might, feeling as though I’m trying to push through solid steel, but I only feel her magic give a fraction before it pushes back at me. “You’re pathetic. You can’t protect them; you can’t even protect yourself. Hiding away for centuries, too scared to face me. To face your failure. You’ll die as the only High Priestess to never ascend. You’ll be erased from history, and I shall rise a Goddess,” she says maniacally. I tune her out and continue to channel everything I have into my magic, but I feel my feet begin to slide back against the marble. “Just give up, Isolde,” she mocks pushing her magic towards me with all her strength, “I have an endless supply of magic at my disposal. My power is infinite. I have everything, what do you have?” She gloats. Her words have images filtering through my mind like a Rolodex being spun out of control. Images of happy moments shared with my family, followed by the flames that burned them alive. Images and memorie
The moment she’s out of sight I feel my body relax and finally, I feel like I can breathe again. I turn around and can see every irshiust in the room walking towards me, but my eyes are focused on the most important person in the room. Valeria stands only a few feet away and yet those few feet have never felt so distant. Her eyes meet mine and I feel everything fade away. As if in sync, we run to each other, wrapping our arms around each other. I bury my face in her neck and breathe her in. She feels like home, but the electricity from our touch is painfully muted, and I know I am to blame. “You came for me,” I whisper. “Of course I did, I told you I will always have your back,” she says, squeezing me tighter. I take a deep breath and squeeze her in return, but sadly she pulls back out of my hold. Her eyes harden and she punches me harshly right in the arm. “OW!” I exclaim, grabbing my arm. “If you ever reject me again I will personally kick your voluptuous ass, do you understand m
With slow measured steps I walk through the ash and charcoal debris of what was once my home, the only piece of it left intact being the library, still preserved by my magic. Smartest decision I ever made. “Are you okay?” Valeria asks as she comes over, placing a hand on my shoulder, “You can rebuild it, can’t you?” I nod, “Effortlessly, but that’s not the point.” “I know,” she says softly, wrapping her arm around me, “Did you ever rebuild your family home?” She gently asks. I shake my head, “I couldn’t. I would have never been able to step foot in it again. It would have been too painful.” She nods in understanding and gives me a squeeze, “You don’t have to rebuild it if you don’t want to. We can go somewhere else,” she suggests. “I want to do this. This is our home,” I say as I squeeze her hand on my shoulder, “I won’t let her take that from me too.” I step out of her grasp and bring my magic forward, instantly it flares around me like an ignited flame, and with ease I push m
After dinner we see everyone off and Valeria races upstairs while I clear the table. We still have a lot left over so I’m packing it away in the fridge. I hate wasting food. As I make my way upstairs I stop at the portrait of my family that hangs next to the landing. I walk over and look up at the faces of my family and gently run my fingers across the canvas. “I did it,” I say with tears in my eyes, “Took a long time, but I finally got justice. I can’t take all the credit though, wouldn’t have been possible without Valeria. You’d have really loved her,” I smile. I’m sure it’s just in my head, but for years when I looked at this portrait, the faces of my family looked sad, but now… I swear they look happy. I make my way to the bedroom and when I step in I can’t seem to find Valeria. “Val?” I call out. “In here!” I hear her call from the bathroom. I make my way to the ensuite and open the door to see the bath running as Valeria pours some purple liquid into the stream causing bubbl