Page 205 of Scourged
A dark consciousness brushed against hers, and Mariah could only pull her lips back from her teeth and snarl.
“Well, well. What a treat it is to meet you in the flesh, little goddess. I have watched you for so very long.”
His voice … it was far from unpleasant. As much as Mariah wished to recoil, a part of her struggled, wanted to lean into the voice instead. Wanted to wrap herself around it like a cat, to lose herself in the unusual cadence and soft, sinful darkness.
She fought against that part of her, warring deep in her soul.
“Who are you?”
She swore he made a sound like a tsk. “Really, little goddess? Do you not recognize me? I know there is a part of you that does. A part of you that will always know me.” If dragons could grin, he gave her what could only be described as such. “A part of you will always bemine.”
A growl rumbled from her chest. “I belong to no one. Only myself.”
“Are you so sure of that, little goddess?” The dragon flicked his tail, wings rustling. “I can feel her in you. And she has always been—and will always be—bound to me.”
Something clicked in Mariah’s mind. Her power, this new form. The part of her that ached for this other beast that had crawled out from the blackest of pits yet took a form of beauty and magic and whispered to her in a voice of dark, tantalizing secrets.
All their stories were wrong. The dragons were not summoned by the gods.
The dragonswerethe gods.
And this god …
“You’re him.” She trembled, but whether it was from fear or anger or wild energy, she couldn’t be sure. “You’re Flétrir. The Scourge.”
The black dragon’s lip curled back from his teeth. Wickedly sharp fangs gleamed against his scales. “Those are not names I chose. I am not a scourge upon this earth. I was one of its creators, and I was locked away for daring to believe we should be worshipped as such.” He stood back on his hind legs, wings stretching wide. The crowd screamed again; the air thickened with their fear.
“My true name, my forgotten name, is Kol. I was once the God of Sun and Shadows. Until I was betrayed by Zadioneand her cunt of a sister for the crime of loving too much. I was thrown from my throne for wanting more for this world than what it was. But now, little goddess…” He drew in a deep breath. The center of his chest glowed, as if he held the sun itself.
“Now, thanks to you, I am free.”
Chapter 71
Everything in Mariah’s world tilted, instincts wrapping around her like soft hands.
“That’s … impossible. I would never …”She released a devastated, frustrated rumble.
“Impossible, or simply forgotten?” Kol’s dark voice chuckled. “Some stories are true. I was cursed from this world, bound to a prison in Enfara by the magic of all the gods. And Zadione used her blood as the key. But that meant she had to be imprisoned as well, her essence as tied to Enfara as mine.”
Mariah’s tail twitched against the rubble of the risers. “No. You kidnapped her. Zadione is free.”
“Her prison was not the same as mine.”Kol’s lip curled, smoke billowing from his nostrils.“She found a way out. But she is far from free.
“None of the gods are free, and they know it. Because the magic they used to bind me had a flaw. If they returned physically to this world, then my bindings would fail. Freed, all I would need is the right key, and I could return.”
A hand touched her side. “It’s a lie,nio.There is no god of the sun.”
Mariah speared her mind for Andrian’s. “You can hear him?”
“Yes. Of course.”
Waves of confusion and fearful anger washed over her from her other Armature. “I think you might be the only one.”
Kol stretched, burning eyes fixed on them. “Of course he can hear me. He is one of mine.”
Mariah ignored him, ignored the way her stomach dropped at the possession in his voice. “The gods haven’t returned. If what you say is true, you can’t be here.”
“Are you so sure they’re gone?” Red-gold eyes flickered with shadows. “Because I am looking at one right now.”