Page 134 of Prince of the Phantom Sky

“I know what you did, Huntress.” The lash of his tone had her meeting his gaze. “Don’t mistake me for a blind Galenite. I saw and felt everything through your eyes. You’ve grown, and you outgrew Blake Marwood long before he broke your heart. He was the one holding you back, and then he insulted you with Bree Hydrafort.”

Kora flinched. “Truly, how much of my life did you see?”

“Enough of it,” Raiden answered truthfully, his arms folding. “Enough to know you push people away when they get too close. Enough to recognise a self-saboteur. You’re afraid. You’re afraid of the powers you possess, of protecting your loved ones. Of me.”

She stormed up to him, her fury radiating in burning blue irises. “Stay out of my head, Windward. I never asked you to watch. I never wanted you to. You were a plague in my mind. Things could’ve been simpler if you hadn’t manipulated me toward the Mist.”

“Manipulate you?” Raiden reared back. “I saved your life! Let me know when you realise that, if you’d stayed, you’d be trapped in a cage of black-and-green.”

Before she could answer, he spun on his heel, escaping the Galen Archive. His heart pounded viciously, threatening to tear from his chest as he rounded into the kitchens. Grabbing the nearest bag of flour, Raiden heaved it over his shoulder as his winds slammed the door shut.

With a grunt, he smacked the sack of flour onto the wooden countertop and the fire behind him roared like his burning desire, entwined with sheer frustration. Kneading flour and water, the dough grew with each drop of boiling depravity he poured into it.

59

Kora

The wild beat of her heart pounded in her ears as Kora slammed her fists onto the simple table, and winced as the wood cracked, splintering down its centre. Unlit candles toppled in their holders, and Kora grabbed the nearest book, her rage spilling uncontrollably.

The red haze neared, a familiar cackle raking down her spine.

No.

Rage quickly turned into fear as Kora slunk into the nearest chair, focusing on her breathing as a cold sweat broke out across her skin. She focused on keeping Kordelia at bay, envisioning the light of her divine power. Her sinister laugh eventually faded, swirling down a drain as Kora gripped the roughly textured tome, the sensation grounding her.

“You’re calm. You’re safe. You are in control,” Kora repeated until the familiar cold captain subsided.

Needing an immediate distraction, Kora opened the book she’d snatched, mindlessly flipping the pages without reading them. Raiden had nearly kissed her—she was sure of it. His proximity had driven her senseless, and she’d nearly pounced on him without a care in the world. Until she remembered she looked exactly like his previous love he’d waited a decade for. That she wouldn’t be here in the first place if he’d known her memories were unrecoverable.

She would still be rotting underneath the Citadel, or chained to Barron’s side as his latest puppet.

Was she ready to open her heart again? The thought made her skin pimple, her pulse racing until she felt sick. Blake had broken her thoroughly. His betrayal running so deep she wasn’t sure if she could trust again. Not only that, but someday, she would die at the hands of her own. Thanos’ prediction was in the fates. She wasn’t destined to survive.

Could she do that to another person? Allow them to love when she couldn’t love forever in return?

Kora’s finger snagged on a page, her blood splattering onto a corner and she hissed as she sucked on the tip of her index finger. Her hand dropped as her stare landed on a scripture of Devanian, etched in swirling dark ink. Charcoal had been smudged across the page, tiny rivulets of green running through the edges like an intricately looped border of thorns.

The Dark One has been erased from history. The scholars wished for his deadliness to be eradicated, to not taint the souls of the future. They cannot be trusted. They will bend history to their desires. But I have found him, and he lives within the in-between. Within the shadows of shadows, the first true god awaits in his slumber. For he will rise, and bring a darkness so deep, no life will walk again.

Pure, unrelenting chills smothered her, as Agatha’s vague prediction glared back at Kora, in a tome that was probably hundreds of years old, in the Galen Archive. Which shelf had this book come from? It was old—very old. Dust coated it like a second layer, several pages torn and flaking.

He has marked his heir apparent. And Thanos will fall beneath his mirrored shadow. From the dark, one will lead them all into eternal pain. His magic spreading like a thick web of corrupted ice. He is the Dark One, Dark One, Dark One. Until it all ends. Until all is barren.

Kora shivered. Her fingers traced the final sentence, before meeting a golden wax seal with a familiar, four-pointed symbol. Her mouth dried as the Talmon Empire insignia glinted back at her. The insignia they’d wielded since the Devanian Conquest, in a tome sealed in Galen, from hundreds of years ago.

Thanos will fall. Life will cease. Death will vanish. There will only be darkness from his brethren’s reign. All hail the Dark One.

This was bigger than the magic in her head. Kora jumped, the chair tumbling back as she fled the archive, racing through the castle. This was bigger than Barron’s measly war. His dark magic was an indicator of a greater, darker power.

A darkness that will consume the world.

A darkness that will destroy gods—destroy Thanos.

Kora’s chest heaved as she frantically ran through Skybell, searching for Raiden, Aerion, or Aryn. She needed to tell them, they needed to return to Mistros City at once.

She needed to speak to Thanos.

Suddenly hit with a force that nearly knocked her sideways, Kora gulped as calming air imbued her lungs. Her mind cleared, the panic subduing as she followed the winding current of power, her nose invaded with a rich scent of honey and meats. Her mouth instantly watered, her new-found love of food distracting her as her stomach rumbled. The toying power pulled at her waist, ushering her to a heavy-set wooden door she pushed open.