A thousand thoughts scatter through my mind. I steady my breathing, despite the guilt cutting into my mind like smothering smoke. “Who’s lives? What fate?” I question, growing desperate for answers.
He leans closer, the smell of pine and polish emanating from his clothes. His moss-green eyes swirl, as if they contain an entire universe, and I am entranced. “You are a murderer.”
“Yes,” I reply, then slowly rise, finding strength despite the residual guilt shaking my bones. Cyna’s mocking smile evokes contempt. “Why are you in my dream? What do you want with my sister?”
He tilts his head, then stands, towering over me. “It seems you’re smarter than my brother. No wonder he is so taken with you.”
My eyes widen. “You are mistaken. He hates me.”
He doesn’t look convinced. “Do you trust Death?”
I lick my lips, hesitant for a moment. “I trust him more than you,” I admit, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. “Although you are all monsters.”
His discerning stare travels down to my fingers. “No, it is you who are the monster,” he spits, grimacing, and a low growl reverberates in his chest. I hold my breath as he grabs my arm, his fingernails cutting into my skin. I stare into his eyes, the green mixing with veins of red and gold. “For your sins, you will be dragged to the darkest reaches of the Darklands.”
“You will never fucking awaken,” I shout, and push his arm back, surprised that I have enough strength to wrestle myself free.
“Yes, we will and soon.” His fingers uncurl, and he growls again. “Those you love will feel the cost of your darkness.”
“No, you’re trying to scare me. It won’t work. I will not let you hurt my sister.”
He steps back, challenge threading his eyes. “It has already begun. Death cannot keep you from us forever.”
I jump when he lunges at me, stumbling backward. I grasp nothing but air as I fall again, the ground opening up into an abyss beneath me.
My eyes snap open as I’m jolted awake, gulping in a heavy breath as Cyna disappears from my mind, and the darkness dragging me deeper releases its hold on me.
“No!” I gasp, breathless, sitting upright.
“What’s wrong?” Candlelight flickers over Ari’s face as she slides into view. “You were having a nightmare,” she announces, and that is a fucking understatement. Cautiously, she glides an old piece of fabric over my forehead, wiping away the beads of sweat.
I push her hand away, then brush my hair out of my face. “What time is it? Where is Azkiel?”
“He stepped outside a half hour ago. He refused to talk to us,” she explains, and my muscles tense. I whip my head around to the window, and the impeding night outside. “But there is something else,” she whispers, pulling me out of the hundreds of thoughts racing through my mind. “The gods spoke to me in my dreams.” Her eyes widen under the orange hue of the candlelight, the madness in them still sparkling.
My heart stammers, rolling a wave of numbness from my head to the tip of my toes. “What?”
“They say they will return soon,” she explains, a desperate hope etching her tone.
“No, Ari. You cannot listen to them.”
“I must. They can save us all.”
“They’re monsters. Death says—”
“He is a liar,” she snaps, then lowers her voice again. “They told me he would lie to us. Cali, he wants us to believe the other gods are evil. He trapped them here.”
“I know, but it was for good reason,” I say and stare at my sister, hugging the crimson, silk robes around her tiny, breakable body. “What else did they tell you?”
She smiles, pretending all our problems have been solved, but this is far worse than I could have imagined. “Nothing, except I should prepare myself.”
I grab her forearms and she flinches. My wild eyes mirrored in her violet irises as I ask, “Did they say how?”
“No, why? What do you know?”
“Nothing,” I lie, knowing she would sacrifice herself to keep us safe. I need to get her off this damned island before the gods can lure her to whoever is helping them, or Azkiel finds out who she is. I rub my fingers over my temples. Good gods. What the fuck are we doing to do?
Cyna’s words float back to me. Death cannot keep you from us forever.
“Where is Drake?”
“He’s gone to find water.”
“With Death?” I ask, my jaw slacking. “No, no, no.” I race past her, then down to the door, finding Azkiel standing in the night as if he belongs to it, with Drake nowhere to be seen.
TWENTY-EIGHTAzkiel
Challenge pulsates through me as I listen to my mortal admonish me from the doorway of the house.
“Where’s Drake? If you’ve hurt him, I swear to—”
“God?” I ask and bring my thumb to my lip, tilting my head as my amused smile grows wider.
“I mean it!” she shouts, and I take a step closer, her magic pulsating as a shadow threatens to escape her fingers.
Ah. She has them, too. The possibilities.
“I see you’re back to your poisonous self,” I say. “I was concerned when you were slightly less spiteful earlier.”
