Page 214 of Scourged
Anniliese touched her palm to the dried wood of the platform.Go, she whispered to her magic.
Burn. Cleanse. Free.
Her flames obeyed.
They hungrily leaped from her hand, gobbling up the wood. Within seconds the platform was ablaze, a great torch ignited against the quiet night. Lisabel’s body lay within the flames, Anniliese’s cloak burned to nothing, the horror of the day swallowed by the cleansing fire.
A makeshift pyre. One last, small thing Anniliese could do. She would never earn true forgiveness, but she knew, in her heart, that this was right.
Perhaps the first truly good thing she’d ever done.
“Well, well. Now isn’t this intriguing, Ms. Hareth.”
Anniliese’s stomach bottomed out with panic and fear. Her flames snuffed out, even as the platform kept burning up the night.
Slowly, her feet barely loosening against the ruined grass, she turned to face High Priestess Ksee. The older woman wore a malicious smirk upon her face, white robes splotched with ash and blood.
“I truly did not think you had it in you. I always suspected you of having the gift, but with your station andsautoire, you were of better use to us as breeding stock.” Ksee frowned. “Speaking of … where is your necklace, girl?”
Anniliese trembled. All that newfound power vanished with the breeze. The flames of the pyre were warm behind her but no longer felt like hers. No longer felt connected to her. Returned was the trained and perfect Royal lady, bred for perfection.
Her fingers brushed her neck, the column of her throat, searching for the slender necklace she always wore. Hersautoire,the traditionaldebutantegift for a high-born or wealthy lady.
But it wasn’t there.
A memory flashed behind her eyes. Of watching the sacrifice of the priestesses, when the first demons had cracked from the earth. Watching her father slit the throat of a girl no older than her.
Of her fingers at her neck, yanking away that necklace with its small black and gold stone. Of the way she’d tossed it at her feet, lost amongst the chaos and death.
Her panic consumed her. “I-I don’t know,” she whispered softly, voice wavering.
Ksee shrugged. “Shame. We had such high hopes for you.” The darkness behind Ksee rustled, and more white-robed priestesses melted from the shadows, heads bowed.
“But it is no matter,” Ksee continued, frown tilting up into a sinister smile. “Replaceable is all you ever were. And replace you at court is what we will do.”
Cold, scaled hands wrapped around Anniliese’s arms. Hands tipped with sharp, serrated claws, still coated in dark, cracked blood. Voices hissed in her ears.
She screamed, a sharp pierce against the night.
Ksee’s smile broadened, the light of the fire carving her with shadow.
“And now you, dear Anniliese—you aremine.”
Chapter 74
The muscles in Mariah’s back were an agonizing ache. Her chest burned, the fires long-extinguished, energy leeching from her body with each powerful stroke of her wings.
And still, she flew.
Maybe one day, she could fly whatever distance she wished. But it was all so new, so uncomfortable. She gave herself to instinct, but faltered each time she was pummeled by an updraft or when the winds shifted to drive her back.
Those instincts had at least guided her away from Khento. East would’ve taken them to the Mirrored Sea, where the only haven would be the same cutthroat pirates of the Kizar Islands who’d threatened her city not long ago. Idrix and Vatha to the south were too much of a mystery for the refuge they sought; despite occasional trade, no Onitan had seen or heard from any southerner in thousands of years.
Which left her only option to head west. Just where she’d told Ciana and her court to go if things went horribly wrong.
Mariah could only beg the gods that they’d left. That by some miracle they heard of Mariah’s failure and fled. She pleadeddesperately that they wouldn’t be trapped in Verith, vulnerable and alone.
All she could hope for was that they were waiting for her in the west or were on their way there now.