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“You will have a choice. One you must make. Choose out of selflessness, and the path is set. Choose vengeance, and well, the outcome will be devastating.”
“Another damned prophecy?” I groaned, rubbing my brow.
“Not a prophecy, a path, a choice. One only you can make.”
“You literally just said that in different words.” I scowled, dropping my hand from my face. I turned back to Elijah’s slumped form. He had been a part of Gabby’s death, yet taking his life made me feel… nothing.
“Fates,” a deep masculine voice said, “they’re so damn tricky with their words.”
The air in the room suddenly felt condensed and suffocating. I turned and saw him standing there, all proud, smug, and soon to be dead.
Kaden.
He smiled at me, his hands in his pockets. “Miss me?”
Twenty-Two
Dianna
There it was. All the fire and hate came rushing to the surface when I saw him. My skin prickled, and a wave of heat drowned me. My hands shot out, thick flames spinning toward him, bellowing and snapping like the jaws of a raging beast, destroying everything in their path. The acrid scent of burning metal stung my nose, but I didn’t let up. Sweat was beading on my brow before I lowered my hands, some deep and feral part of me coming alive.
“So dramatic,” Kaden said, glancing at everything behind him I’d charred to ash and ruin. He shook his head and folded his arms, muscles straining his dark shirt.
I clenched my teeth, biting back a scream of rage and frustration. It didn’t matter if I couldn’t burn him alive. I would rip him to shreds with my bare hands. I moved, swiping with my claws, aiming for where his face should have been. My strike met no resistance, and I stumbled through him, catching myself on my next step. I turned, looking at my claws, free of blood and flesh. “You’re not even here. Coward.”
He smiled, a single canine elongating as he looked at me. “I prefer survivalist. That power is dripping off you in waves, Dianna. I bet the creatures beyond this realm feel it and quiver.” He leered, his gaze dropping to my chest. “You see me, and your heart doesn’t even falter.”
I grimaced and snapped. “My heart doesn’t beat for you.”
“Oh, I assume it beats for him, then?” he asked, rubbing his chin.
“Reggie. Leave.”
“As you wish,” Reggie said and faded from the room, leaving me alone with Kaden, or the shell of him, at least.
Kaden watched the thick, black, star-filled mist of Reggie’s true form disappear. “You kidnapped a fate, and it listens to you? I’m so impressed, Dianna. I knew once you truly gave in, you’d be unstoppable. How did you carve him from Unir’s prison?”
“How do you know about that?”
Kaden only shrugged. “I know a lot.”
I sighed, smoke curling from my nose. “Why are you here?”
He grinned, trying to play coy and sweet. My stomach revolted. “Maybe I missed you.”
I placed a hand on my chest. “Aw, I missed you, too. Couldn’t you tell by the bodies I left? Maybe we should have an actual reunion.”
“Yeah?” he purred, taking a step closer. “Will you wear something pretty for me as you did for your World Ender?”
Pretty? My mind flashed through possibilities, wondering what he could possibly mean. Then it hit me. He was talking about the dress I wore in the garden at Drake’s, the one Samkiel made for me.
“You were there.”
He smiled. “Mirrors are the mortals’ greatest invention, and a passageway for ancient creatures, Dianna. I told you I have eyes everywhere.”
My lip curled in disgust as I replayed every place I had been with any sort of reflection. The memory of Sophie speaking into the mirror just before she attacked me.
“Don’t make that face. It’s only obsidian-lined ones. I made sure every member of my court had at least one.”
