Page 206 of Scourged
“I am not—”But she stopped herself. Dug her talons into the ground. Her wings quivered, her mind racing.
It was impossible.
It was …impossible.
Kol growled a laugh. “Yes, little goddess. You are Qhohena’s—and Zadione’s—little hidden creation. That light magic you flaunt so brazenly. Have you never wondered why it’s so different from all the other gifts of your world?”He shook his massive head, more smoke and shadow drifting around him.
“Qhohena’s line of queens was her worst-kept secret. She gave that first queen her grace—all that made her a goddess—and spelled it so it would be passed down to a new bearer every few hundred years. The real golden moon goddess has been hiding in plain sight this whole time. And when Zadione followed her sister, as she always does … well, they were always foolish.”
A dull ringing filled Mariah’s head. The scent of blood and fear and her broken family still swirled around her. “Why—why would Qhohena do that?”
Kol’s wings rustled. “To remove the temptation from herself, I assume. With her grace hidden in a mortal, she could not be tempted to return. To break my prison and free not only me but her sister.”
“I don’t understand,”Mariah murmured. “But Zadione escaped.”
Behind Kol, his demons—mudae,as they’d once been known—sidled out of the gardens, claws gleaming and jaws dripping. The crowd they’d been holding at bay shouted their panicked relief, sprinting for the castle. Her Armature brushed into her closer, finding their weapons and unsheathing them. Their alarm at the advancing demons brushed her mind down their bonds, and Andrian’s gaze swept over her with concern.
Instinct pulled a growl from her throat, her body shifting around powerful hind legs.
“I told you—those sisters are foolish. Zadione just as much as Qhohena. I mean.”Kol chuffed. “She spelled the key to my prison to her own blood and then made an entire line of priestesses with that same blood. When I discovered the newest bearer of not only Qhohena’s grace, but Zadione’s as well, was of that same line?”The black dragon rumbled in vicious, terrible delight.
“They made it all too easy. All I had to do was manipulate those easily swayed lords to kill the right bitch, and I’d have the key unlocked and the god’s curse broken. Take your mother’s blood, force you to shift, and my return was solidified.”
The world fell away from Mariah. That ancient beast of fire and light and moonstone wrapped around her, spreading great, opalescent wings.
Kol reared up, his wings of smoke and shadow stirring the air in great beating strokes.“Over five thousand years in a prison and I have dreamed of this day for every single one of them. The day I would rise from the ashes and take my place once again, as the great ruler of this land. All people shall kneel, all people shall serve. For what is a world without its sun?”
Mariah’s gaze dropped, ignoring the risen god and falling to her mother’s body, still leaking dull black-red blood into stained and scourged grass.
The heavens held their breath.
I’m sorry. Sorry I wasn’t strong enough. Sorry I failed you.
Mariah leveled her forest green eyes at the fallen god of the sun. “The world has existed without its sun for five thousand years. I’m sure we can manage many more without it still.”
And she launched herself with a mighty roar, snapping gleaming white teeth at Kol’s exposed throat.
Kol’s orange-red eyes narrowed and flashed. He ducked his head, protecting the vulnerable flesh. But he couldn’t evade Mariah’s powerful leap, and as her body collided with his, chaos erupted.
The demons hissed and vaulted into the sky, flying past Mariah. Drystan gave a wild cry, echoed by Quentin and Trefor before the clash of steel against serrated claws filled the gardens. Mariah snapped her teeth, lashing at Kol with razor talons. He snarled below her and they fell, crashing into more risers, toppling stones into the blooming trees and garden flowers.
With a powerful shove, he forced her back, hind legs raking down her side. She roared into the air, leaping away, her tail sweeping a path of destruction across the gardens behind her. Her Armature battled the demons as she lifted her lip in a snarl.
Mariah might’ve had the advantage of surprise, but Kol was larger and accustomed to this form after eons spent in it.
Kol shook dust and bits of shredded plants from his black scales, eyes still blazing.“Do you truly wish to challenge me here, little goddess? You hardly know this form. And think of your family, so exposed.”
But her pain and her rage and her heartbreak blinded Mariah.“You took something irreplaceable from me. You will die for it.”
Digging into the darkest, most festered parts of her soul, she pulled on the heat churning in her belly. Let it claw its way up her throat until it rested behind her teeth.
With a breath that was almost like a sigh, Mariah opened her mouth, and silver-gold flames spewed forth.
They pummeled Kol, wrapping around him with a lover’s embrace. He screamed into the air and jumped into the sky with a mighty beat of his wings. Mariah closed her mouth, swallowing the rest of her flames.
The gardens around her were now nothing more than piles of smoking rubble. Shouts of concern filled her mind and she shoved them back. A battle still raged behind her, but her focus was on the sky.
On the black dragon circling above, a shadow in the light of the sun.