Page 208 of Scourged
Her Armature still fought desperately, savagely. The bodies of demons lie around them, some still twitching in the grass. Dirty and haggard and covered in blood—mostly black, but some red, too. Behind them crouched her father and brother, the former holding a short-sword and wearing a fierce, broken expression.
The guilt hit Mariah like a crushing, impossible wave.
They’d formed a ring against the encroaching demons. And in the middle of it, sheltered from the fighting, lay Feran.
The tang of his blood struck Mariah first.
He’d been cut, from chin to hip. A long, devastating slice, deep and deadly. His chest still rose and fell, his face scrunched in agonized, staggering pain.
The same pain Mariah felt coursing through their bond snapped open the moment he’d been struck.
Drystan was bent over him, blood-streaked golden hair hanging loosely around his face. His cries still filled the gardens, even as the battle raged.
Even as Kol drifted down from above, a descending shadow upon the world.
He landed heavily, favoring his uninjured leg. Dark blood dripped from the other, smoking as it hit the grass.
Despite the broken carnage around her, that sight brought Mariah some grim satisfaction.
“Enough!”Kol’s roar shattered the bloodshed. His demons halted, retreating into the rubble of the gardens.
Mariah didn’t give her Armature a similar order, but they did not follow. They bunched in tighter, hardened concern and terror and rage wrought across their faces.
“That is enough,” Kol seethed through sharp teeth. With a hiss, he lifted his injured leg, pushing it into a ray of sunlight speckling the grass.
Dread joined the turmoil in Mariah’s gut as she watched his skin knit back together, as the pain left his face, as that wicked gleam returned to his eye.
“You have had your fun, little goddess. But I grow weary of these games.”
A figure stepped out of the circle of her Armature. A figure carrying a broadsword in one hand, and wielding shadows in the other.
Andrian was defiant and furious as those shadows curled, brushing against the sensitive membrane of her wing. His fury, his fear, his love was so tangible, so potent, she couldtasteit.
Kol cocked his head, his gaze turning curious.
“It’s you. How interesting.”
Andrian’s jaw tightened, his fist clenching as more shadows brushed her wings. “I know you.”
The world tilted beneath Mariah.
Kol only chuckled.“I’m glad you remember.”He swung his formidable head to Mariah.
“I will make you a deal, little goddess.”Flames and shadows flickered in the depths of his eyes, the brightest light of the sun casting the longest of shadows.
“I will let you live. Take yourself, your wounded, your Armature, and your family, and leave. I will grant you temporary safety from my wrath. And in exchange …”Smoke curled from Kol’s nostrils. “I keephim.The last of thereykr. My greatest creation.”
Mariah’s world had stilled many times that night.
This time, though, her heart truly froze.
Everything dulled. Her bright senses narrowed and focused, her world becoming only herself, Kol, and Andrian. Those heartbreakingly beautiful tanzanite eyes turned to her, and she could read his answer in them.
Too bad that, despite her failures, she was still his queen. That was not an answer she would allow him to give.
They’d only just found each other again. Thismonsterwould not be what tears them apart. She would rather cleave the world in two, would rather shred apart her body and her soul before she denied herself this single morsel of happiness. Not after everything, not after what she’d already lost.
“No—”