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“Okay, you have a deal, and I want that recorded.” Shadows slowly climbed the stairs. Their footsteps were heavy against the metal steps, neither trying to stay quiet.
The man in front half turned, laughing with his friend. “I’m surprised Santiago hasn’t told him that to his face. My—”
He stopped as his friend’s eyes grew wide. He turned his head slowly toward me, looking to see what made his friend suddenly drip sweat. His eyes stopped at my chest and then slowly traveled up.
His throat bobbed as fear leaked from him. “Oh, fuck.”
* * *
“Your magic is weak compared to the goddess who made it,” I said, flipping open another crate. This one matched the others: boxes and boxes of sheets and rods of iron. The ship rocked, the heavy waves buffeting it. The room smelled of iron and the burnt flesh of the witches that had tried and failed to attack me. Santiago grunted from the ceiling, where I held him with my power. I flipped through the pages on the clipboard, circling two of the crates.
“Why are you moving so much iron?”
“Go to Iassulyn!” Santiago grunted, struggling against the invisible hold. My head tilted up, and I lowered the clipboard in my hand.
“You know of Iassulyn?” My lips turned down in a frown. “I’m impressed. It’s a realm outside of time and space. A place so brutal only the vilest and damned end up there when they die.”
I waved my hand, and his body dropped to the floor next to me, landing chest first. He raised his head, the gash on his nose threatening to open again.
“You took my fucking hands.”
“Yes, yes, I did.” I kneeled next to him. “I warned you what would happen if you put your hands on her. You should have listened.”
A sick, wet laugh left his lips. “Gods, you really are sweet on her. Pathetic.”
“Says the man who… what was that she said?” I paused. “Oh, yes, couldn’t take the word no.” My blood boiled, remembering what she had said that day in El Donuma. I know he had never fully touched her, but that he would even try made me want to summon Oblivion to end him.
“Hey, you can’t blame me for being curious. Everyone that’s touched her has turned into a whipped dog. Even gods, I guess.”
With a flick of my hand, his body hit the ceiling once more. I heard his ribs crack, and he grunted before choking on a laugh.
“Have any of you considered that maybe it’s her that is so mesmerizing and not what’s between her legs?” I used my power to press his body hard enough against the ceiling that the metal groaned.
“He wasn’t kidding.” Santiago’s laugh died as he looked at me. “You really are in love with her.”
His shock soon turned into a smile, then a full-on laugh, when I dropped my hand. I held him above me and turned to rip off another crate lid instead of answering.
“Oh man, you are so fucked. Do you really think Kaden, of all creatures, will let you have her? Let anyone truly have her? She is the first and only one he has ever made. He isn’t letting her go.” Santiago grunted, the pressure of my power grinding against him.
I knew that. Everyone knew that. Kaden had proven he would do anything to keep her, including dragging her back in pieces if he had to.
“I am very aware of how far he is willing to go. He has poisoned her, degraded her, threatened her, had monsters drag her back to a hole in the ground while she screamed, ripped her to pieces, manipulated the people closest to her to betray her, and then he took the one person she loved away from her all because she refused to return to him.”
With another flick of my hand, Santiago slammed to the ground. He landed in a heap and let out a pained cough. I turned as he rolled over onto his back. He was half smiling as if it was the funniest thing in the world that Kaden had done so much to hurt her so badly. My control snapped.
“Do you find that humorous?”
The lights in the ship went out, and the engine died. Total darkness fell as thunder, loud and heavy, cracked the sky, so strong we could hear it in the bowels of the ship. I laid the clipboard to the side, the blackened silver ring on my finger humming. Tendrils of purple and black mist wafted off the death blade, and Santiago’s eyes went wide, the smile and laughter fading from his expression. I saw my eyes flare silver in the reflection of Santiago’s gaze.
“Do you know what Oblivion is, Santiago?” I moved the tip of the blade closer to him as he struggled against my invisible, vise-like grip. “It’s a weapon I made long before you were even a thought. It was meant to be an instrument of peace, formed at my accession. Only I carried too much anger and grief at the time. Feelings I couldn’t control spilled over, and I created this instead. It is every horrible emotion a god should not feel, yet here it is. It is a true death blade. There is no peace, no Astheroth, no Iassulyn, no nothing. It makes you into particle matter to be reused as the universe sees fit. Your conscience is gone. No you, no quirks that make you special, no memories, dreams, or nightmares. It is true death.”
Santiago swallowed, sweat and fear pouring off him. I glanced at the blade in my hand and back toward him.
“I had not summoned it since Rashearim fell, not until her. Do you know why? Because there are no boundaries I will not cross if it means keeping her safe, especially after everything you all have taken from her. It is the highest law not to touch anyone in my court or what I consider mine. That act alone is punishable by death, and she is mine. It will be your end.”
“Well, from what I’ve heard, I don’t think she knows that.”
His smirk died as the tip of the blade touched his suit jacket. The material beneath broke off and turned to ash, floating into the air around us.
