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Cameron said nothing, but pain flashed in Vincent’s eyes, pain and regret he tried to mask. “I don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, yes, you do. We all do. Please. Kaden wants to kill him. If he dies, the world goes with it. Vincent, Cameron, please. Just think.”
Cameron hesitated, his hands on the cuff around my wrist. The struggle in him was clear, but then his eyes flicked to Xavier. He stood frozen in the corner, his eyes glazed and staring at nothing. There was no sign of the loving, playful man. Cameron bowed his head. “I won’t choose Samkiel over Xavi. I can’t. I’m sorry, Dianna.”
And there it was—the absolute, soul-shattering truth.
“Since when do you care about the world?” Vincent hissed, finally locking my ankle to the stone slab. “You were on a mission to destroy it, and now you care?”
I snapped my teeth at Vincent, wishing I could rip his throat out. “You better hope I don’t get out of this. I will kill you both if he dies.”
Vincent tightened the strap on my ankle painfully tight, and Cameron looked away. I growled and rested my head against the stone, frantically cycling through my options. There had to be a way out of this. I had to get to Samkiel.
I took a deep breath and looked around the room. No, not a room, but a cave. Furniture littered the cavern, torches illuminating the rough-hewn walls in weak, flickering yellow light. Shock hit me again, and I swallowed hard. I recognized this place. It was part of one of the underground systems on the map. I had been in here before, but this cave was new. The stone slab they’d tied me to was the largest, but there were smaller ones around it. Against the walls were stacks of boxes and crates, half opened and discarded.
Out in the darkened hallway, heavy footsteps echoed against the stone. I strained to see into the shadows. The wretched, sick, twisted laugh of the Irvikuva seeped from the darkness, and goosebumps rose on my arms and legs. Wings rustled, their massive forms bursting into the cavern, bending through the air. They landed above us, their talons scraping and gripping the stone ceiling. Many pairs of red eyes suddenly appeared, staring balefully down at us, and I realized we had never been alone. The light from the torches didn’t reach those heights, and for the first time, I realized that what I had thought were jagged stone formations were actually the Irvikuva. They hung like large bats, hungry and waiting for their master’s command.
I lay on my back, methodically testing and pulling at my restraints as the footsteps drew closer. Kaden entered first, followed by Azrael, a ghastly, haunted look filling his eyes. My skin crawled when I saw the curved, malachite-gray spear and that damned book in Azrael’s hands.
“You like it?” Kaden asked me, pointing to the jagged spear.
“It took a lot of iron to make it. Iron was one element needed to bind it. It’s a fantastic conductor of heat and electricity, exactly what your precious Samkiel is made of. I mean, it’s not complete yet, but when it is, we will have a god-killing weapon.”
My heart pounded, my body breaking out in a cold sweat. There it was, everything I had feared. Kaden had made a weapon, and I had zero power to take it from him.
My breath hitched. “How?”
“Which part?”
Azrael didn’t move, didn’t flinch, as my eyes bored into him.
“Oh, that.” Kaden waved a hand, glancing from father to daughter and back. He took the book from Azrael and walked toward me. “Azrael had a dream, as most do. A premonition of a daughter who would change everything. Victoria never believed him, and they weren’t trying, but you know celestials and their high sex drives.”
Kaden stopped, a frown marring his features and drawing his brows together. He leaned in close above me, his arms folded around the book.
“Sorry, is this weird for you since it’s your dad and all?” He shrugged before going on. “Anyway, Victoria learned she was pregnant, and your dear old dad freaked. You see, there was a prophecy of Samkiel’s equal being born on the crest of a waning moon. The Order knew about it, but they kept it from Unir. Azrael worked for the true king and couldn’t let anyone find out about his sweet baby girl. You’d have been slaughtered. So, being the loving parents they were, they sent their sweet child all the way to Onuna. Azrael landed so fast and hard out of fear that he laid waste to the surrounding environment. Did you never wonder why Eoria was the only desert on Onuna?”
I gulped, my heart racing and my body trembling at his words.
“Crazy, right? Think about it. Why have you never felt whole here among the mortals? Why have you never been sick? Why do you dream of stars and faraway worlds? You don’t belong here. You never did.”
Tears threatened to blur my vision. I looked at Azrael, tears filling my eyes and blurring his image, but I could still see that his features matched mine, and our hair was the same color and texture. My mind flashed to the stone carving of Victoria in the tomb and how I’d felt drawn to it.
I shook my head and sneered, “He is not my family. I had a mom, a dad,” a single tear slid down my cheek, “and a sister.”
Kaden shrugged. “Not your real family, although I will admit he picked a good family. A little taste of godly magic, and Gabby even resembled you. He needed somewhere to hide you, and Gabby and your pseudo-family gave you something to love. Azrael hid you for over twenty years before he and Victoria had another child. Ava, you remember her, right?”
Images of her decaying corpse flashed through my mind. My eyes closed as I tried to push down the bile and everything I had learned.
“Azrael did well, though. Not even Unir or the other gods knew about you or what you carried in your blood. It’s your destiny to kill Samkiel. There had to be a loophole for Kryella’s spell to work. It is always necessary to maintain a cosmic balance. If Samkiel had true immortality, then there had to be a way to break the spell. His blood closed the realms, and the blood of his mate will open them. You know, it’s funny. Azrael thought he was saving you by hiding you here, but the fates lied, tricked even him. They work for the true king too. They convinced Unir that Samkiel’s mate was dead. It was perfect. Unir bound the spell to something he believed didn’t exist, ensuring his precious boy stayed alive.” Kaden paused, sliding his fingers along the curve of my cheek. I jerked away, his touch making my skin crawl. “Yet here you are.”
My mind flashed back to the festival and the first time I asked Samkiel about amatas.
“So, basically, your other half?” I asked.
“In simple terms, I suppose, but it is much more than that. It’s deeper. It is a connection that words cannot fully convey.”
“Does everyone have one? Do you have one?”
