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Azrael summoned not one but two ablaze weapons. “You are forbidden to leave,” he said, lurching forward, swinging the blades at me.
I side-stepped, forgetting how quickly I could move with my powers. Add that to the fact that I hadn’t been training or eating properly, and I stumbled, one blade slicing across my forearm. I hissed and grabbed at the wound, blood pooling beneath my fingers.
“You are…” Azrael hesitated and slowed his forward charge. He took one more slow step toward me, then another. “Ayla.”
I watched him warily, ready to dodge another hit. He stared at me, or actually at my arm. Something flickered in his gaze. I didn’t know what it was, but it told me he was in there.
Ayla. Was that my name, my true name?
“Yes, it’s me.”
Azrael screamed and fell to his knees. Dropping the blades, he grasped at his head, his fingers curling into his long unkempt hair as he rocked back and forth. Cobalt blue lines flickered over his skin and flared in his eyes as he tried to gain control.
“See. You don’t want to do this. It’s me. Ayla. Your daughter. Just like Ava. You care about us.” I didn’t know if this was the right thing to say to him, but I had to try. “You care about Victoria and Rashearim.”
His hands fisted in his hair, his arms shaking as he fought whoever had control of him. “Vic-Victoria.”
“Yes.”
“I-I remember you. I used to visit you when I could, disguised as another. I gave you your first dagger. A blade made on Rashearim. I tried to keep you safe, Ayla.”
Azrael shuddered, clawing at his head, and whispered like a chant, “You are forbidden to leave.” He screamed, sweat slicking his body as he fought, forcing that compulsion away. “I showed you where to stab to kill, and I need you to do it again. Now.”
Azrael had come and seen me. How many times was it him with me and not who I thought was my father? I didn’t speak and didn’t move as he bent again. Vibrant blue blood dripped from his nose and ears.
The world shook, and I glanced up, steadying myself against the wall. Samkiel needed me. I had to leave, but how could I leave Azrael like this?
“You…” Chunks of stone fell to the floor, the cavern breaking apart. A roar vibrated the air, and I felt the sound like a blow. Azrael shoved his sword into the ground, using it to steady himself as he got to his feet. “You have to kill me.” He wiped at the blood under his nose as he stood. “The words of Ezalan,” he grabbed at his head again, nearly going to his knees once more, “can only be broken in death. It was the most forbidden use of power. I wish I could have known you, Ayla.” Azrael screamed again, and I flinched. He grabbed at his head and bent. The tortured sound stopped, the sudden change more frightening than the sound of his pain.
The flickering across his skin stopped, the cobalt lines burning bright and solid instead. He looked at me again with no remorse or sorrow, just a celestial bound by duty.
“You are forbidden to leave.”
My heart twisted. I ached for this strong warrior. He had once been brilliant, crafting weapons of death and war, and now he was this shell, nothing more than a puppet controlled by a cruel master. I ached for the life that they had stripped from all of us. Kaden had much to answer for.
He swung his sword at me, and I dodged.
“If you can hear me in there, just know you gave me a good life, a good family.” He spun, and I rolled to the other side of the room. His blade hit the wall so hard it chipped the stone. “I loved them very much, so thank you.”
He stepped forward, and I released my hold on my beast, my form rippling.
“At least you can die knowing I was loved, too.”
Scales replaced skin, and fire consumed the cavern as it bellowed through my throat in a thunderous roar. A bright blue light shot into the sky, and I followed it, bursting through the cavern ceiling and racing toward the rift.
Ninety-One
Samkiel
The council hall shuddered as more portals opened. Nismera’s guards spilled into the room, marching in unison, their boots echoing against the stone. They filed out and pivoted toward the exit. I heard her whisper something about Onuna as they strode out under Nismera’s orders, their weapons as sharp and twisted as they were. I groaned, trying to get up. They would destroy that planet, and I couldn’t let them. I knew what would happen.
It’s not enough. My father’s words rang in my head.
And it wasn’t.
Nismera had an army of Ig’Morruthens and beings to do her bidding, and I feared I’d merely seen a fraction of it. She stood to the side, her arms folded as she spoke to Kaden. An armored fist connected with my face, drowning out their hushed whispers. The dragonbane armor on his knuckles split my skin, and the force of the hit sent me crashing to the floor. Someone stepped on my outstretched hand, grinding it beneath a heavy boot. I groaned and pushed up as much as I could, spitting blood onto the floor. My body was so weak, and I was so tired. A talon-tipped hand clamped on the back of my skull, yanking it back by my hair.
Isaiah kneeled beside me in full armor except for his helmet. Kaden had introduced him as one of my brothers, and I could see the connection. He resembled Kaden in the face, but his build was a fraction leaner and a fraction taller. Short, tight curls graced the top of his head with a zigzag pattern clipped in on both sides. Isaiah’s nose matched our father’s and mine, and he had the same furrowed brow I had seen Unir wear so frequently.
