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“You’re pathetic.” I spun away, heading for the exit.
“You know, there’s a way to get your sister back?” he called after me.
I stopped. “What?”
“I can do it if you help me. Help me open the realms. Once Samkiel dies, every world returns to how it was in the beginning. Every realm will be open, and you could see her again.”
Realization hit. I was the missing piece in this fucked up game. I was the key.
I threw my head back and laughed, turning to face him. “Gods, you are so fucking manipulative. How did I not see it before? That’s what this is. What it has always been. You need me, don’t you?” I took a step, then another, and another. I smiled, allowing my fangs to show. “That’s why you haven’t attacked yet. Why you haven’t come for him.”
“I always needed you,” Kaden said. “I never denied that.”
“Kaden?” My voice was low and soft, even as I swallowed every bit of bile that rose with his words. I stopped a fraction away from him, barely controlling the Ig’Morruthen trying to rip itself free from my skin and eviscerate his incorporeal form.
“Yes?” His eyes fell to my face, my lips as if his words meant a godsdamn thing to me.
I raised a single hand tracing over the side of his face. He shuddered as if he could feel the tip of my nails along his skin. “What in that psychotic brain of yours makes you believe I would bring Gabby back to this kind of life? I already damned her once. I will not damn her twice. That is not love, but then, love is not a concept you are familiar with.”
I dropped my hand, and Kaden straightened as if waking from a trance.
“Let’s make one thing perfectly clear. You will never have me again. You lost me long before Samkiel returned. You kept her from me, used her to make me do what you wished, and then you took her from me. I will burn this world to ash, and when I find you, I will kill you. Then Samkiel and his betrothed can build their new kingdom from that.”
I spun on my heel, my form rippling. I shot out of the factory in my wyvern form, leaving dust in my wake. Family. That’s what Samkiel had now and what he could keep. My wings beat a fraction harder as I climbed higher in the sky, away from the factory, from the street, from Kaden.
Kaden was a sand viper for sure, but this time his strike had pierced deep and true, the venom burning its way through my veins.
Twenty-Three
Dianna. A Few Days Later.
“Self-isolation is not healthy for a being with powers and emotions as strong as yours.”
Candles flickered along the rim of the large ceramic tub, the water long since cold. I took another long pull from the wine bottle, the taste dulled by the residue of blood on my tongue. I lifted my foot, the edge of my painted toes appearing above the water. A small bubble popped in the large cloud that surrounded me. I didn’t hear him enter, although I never heard Reggie. I was pretty sure he didn’t actually walk.
“Are you to remain in here until your skin wilts off?” Reggie asked.
I took another long drink and looked at him. “Do you think it will, or will I heal from that, too?”
“It has been a few days since Kaden taunted you. You have fed and trained religiously but haven’t left the temple. Why is that?”
“I’m cramping.”
Reggie said nothing.
I waved my hand. “Yeah, even creatures of the night menstruate.”
“Ah, I assume Kaden referred to you as such?”
I ignored him and set the empty wine bottle beside the tub before sinking beneath the water. The noise of the world became muffled, and I heard nothing but the steady rhythm of my heart. I slowly sat up, pushing my hair back from my face. The bubbles clung to my skin as I turned to eye Reggie through thick, wet lashes.
“It makes sense that your appetite would increase with your menstruation, but I am not a meal for you to eat.”
A slow smile crossed my face. “Don’t worry. I’ve fed enough, and besides, I am sure you taste like stars and dust.” I reached over the tub’s edge, grabbing the third bottle of wine.
“Your temper as well has increased in the last few days. Maybe there is another reason?”
“Nope.”
