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She smiled and slid her hand over my chest, unwilling to lose contact with me. The room shook again, and she looked up. “What’s happening?”
Another roar split the sky, and small rocks rained from the ceiling.
“It’s Dianna. I think she is working through her problems.”
Forty-Two
Dianna
Fire lapped and bit at the sky. I’d demolished every single structure that jutted from the cliffs and ground, leaving nothing in my wake. I didn't know what this place was, but it had been here a long time. Far vaster than I could imagine, a world of its own, with abandoned architecture and half-built strongholds. I didn’t understand the scope of it until I was airborne.
My thick wings beat against the sky as I banked, flames tunneling from my throat and toward the creatures fleeing both on the ground and in the air. They screeched and writhed, fear emanating from them as they saw me coming. I reveled in it. The ones that didn’t meet my powerful jaws and serrated teeth met flames and damnation instead.
Kaden would have no weapons, no help, and no one left here. I would make sure of it. He’d taken everything from me, and I planned to do the same to him. I soared over a destroyed keep, gliding through a plume of billowing smoke. As it cleared, I saw a large citadel with twisting turrets and glowing embers inside. It curved and bent, the power radiating from it beckoning me forward.
Kaden.
It had to be.
My wings beat harder, cutting through the air.
A massive form erupted out of the half-fallen factory below. Its thick serpentine body coiled and arrowed toward me, the large gaping mouth and twin fangs aiming for my throat. I dodged, but with one snap, those powerful jaws clamped onto me, dragging me down.
A roar ripped from me, blood staining my scales as we fell out of the sky. We crashed through the broken infrastructure of the factory and hit the ground hard. The jaws released me, and I bounced to the side. My form dissipated, scales becoming skin, wings becoming arms. Blood spilled down my shoulder, but that seemed to be the worst of my injuries.
“You dumb cunt!” Tobias roared. His large body recoiled, and he was no longer a massive beast but a man. “Do you have any idea what you have done?”
I pushed to my feet and stumbled. I hissed, reaching for the tear along my neck and shoulder. If I had not seen him, he could have ripped my throat out.
Tobias smiled, watching the blood spill from beneath my hand.
“I don’t know why you’re smiling.” I snapped. “You can’t kill me, remember? You tried before.”
“You really are stupid, aren’t you? I never meant to kill you in that damn temple. I only meant to get the book and you, but you wanted to play hero for your new boyfriend.”
I took a step and faltered, feeling the blood continue to pour from my wound. Why was I so weak? Why wasn’t I healing?
Tobias’s eyes raked over me. “Hurts, doesn’t it? Not healing.”
“What did you do to me?”
“Nothing. You are the one who charged head-first into Yejedin, thinking you are invincible. We can only be mortally wounded in our true forms. We are the weakest at our strongest. Nature’s little failsafe.” He smiled. “This will make keeping you here for Kaden so much easier.”
Only mortally wounded in our true forms. The words rang in my head. That’s why Roccurem told Samkiel he resurrected nothing. It would take more than that to kill me.
I smiled, squaring my shoulders and ignoring the blistering pain. “Great. I’ll make sure your corpse is blowing away in the wind by the time he gets here.” I called the forsaken blade to my hand and pointed it at him. “And then I’ll take his head next.”
The smug look of satisfaction came roaring back to his face. “You won’t last.”
“Only one way to find out.”
“Even Samkiel’s grandfather couldn’t kill me. So, what makes you think you will?”
“Call it arrogance.”
Tobias smiled and attacked.
Forty-Three
