Page 75 of Vanquished Gods
He shrugged slowly. “I’m sure you’ll think the same again soon when you finally recover your senses.”
“And what happened next? Did we fuck, and I told you that you were the greatest lover of all time?”
He arched an eyebrow. “So, you remember? Back then, I’d started remembering words, and how the civilized worldworked. I dressed myself again in the clothes you brought me. And then we started to talk. I told you I wasn’t a god. I told you I was a vampire. I just didn’t entirely explain the blood-drinking because I thought you might find it distasteful. But you were the first person who’d been nice to me in decades. I left the woods after that, but I kept coming back to see you at night.”
I didn’t know what to say, my breath catching as I tried to reconcile the Sion I knew now with this man in the woods. A person I’d apparently been more than just connected with. Someone I’d wanted. I felt a tug in my chest, pulling me closer to him. “So, weweretogether.”
“I have never forgotten it.” There was a rough, hungry edge in his voice, like the memory of the kiss had branded him. Firelight gleamed in his eyes, an unspoken invitation that stirred something dangerous inside me.
For a moment, my body heated with the memory of Sion kissing me against a tree, his hand around my neck, my body on fire for him. The way he’d tasted me, savoring me…
“I think some memories of you are returning.”
“I wish I’d left the good memories of me. But I knew I couldn’t return to you after you saw what I was. I couldn’t keep meeting with you, knowing who killed your father, that I was there for it, that I kept it from you. It was the way you looked at me after you saw what I really was. You looked at me like I was a monster, and I never wanted to see that expression in your eyes again.”
“So, you erased it all.” My voice broke with the weight of it, the lost pieces of myself.
His jaw tightened, his eyes flickering with a vulnerable edge. “It was the way you looked at me after you saw me snap Maelor’s neck to stop him. We’d fought viciously, tearing at each other, and you knew I was just like him. I wanted you to forget seeing your father die at Maelor’s hands…” His voice was barely awhisper, and the pain there—so sharp, so unexpected—sent a jolt through my chest.
I inhaled sharply. But before I could say another word, there was a knock at the door. The sound shattered the charged air between us, and Sion’s eyes slid to the door, the vulnerability disappearing like shadows chased off by the dawn.
He crossed the room and opened the heavy wooden door. A servant stood there, his eyes wide.
“Your Majesty,” the man said, his voice tense. “Another letter has arrived. Our spies have seen ships belonging to the Order, and the Luminari are boarding at the coast of Merthyn. They’re getting ready to sail. They’ll be here by morning.”
“And the pendants for the vampires?”
The servant shook his head. “We only have enough for three hundred.”
“And we will be fighting a force of thousands.” Sion’s face darkened, his fingers tightening around the door handle until the wood creaked. “Dismissed.”
The servant bowed and left without another word.
Sion scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “We can create a shield around the entire island, but all the Order has to do is wait for our magic to burn out. They’ll have a full infantry, cavalry, archers. Thousands of soldiers against our three hundred.”
“What if we wait until they get closer?” I suggested. “They won’t know we have that ability until it’s too late. We’ll summon a veil of death as they dock and kill them the moment they land. We’ll create utter chaos as the first troops reach the shore.”
A dark shiver ran up my spine at the thought of it. Our magic was the best defense we had—the power of death to meld with the shadows, to create a barrier that would wither any person it touched.
“The shadowy wall will create chaos and weaken their numbers quickly, but we won’t be able to maintain it,” Icontinued. “The magic will burn out long before they all die. Maybe we need to bring in the other witches. Fire magic, shifting rocks. Surely Percival can set some of the ships on fire.” My stomach tightened, but I pressed on, knowing this plan was a good one. “But we need to be careful with the witches. They can’t get anywhere near my magic.”
Sion paced away from the table, his silhouette blending into the shadows. “I think that after the first wave lands, we need to lure them into the woods. The other vampires, those with pendants, will be waiting there in the forest in an ambush. Those without pendants will be defending from inside the castle. The Order wants you, I’m sure. They want your power for the Pater. They will want to capture you, and they will want Maelor and me dead, and I suspect they’ll be under orders to hunt us down. To make a spectacle of our deaths, the way the Order likes to do. So, we lead them after us into the forest. Our magic is strongest there, anyway, and their cavalry won’t be able to manage well with the rough terrain. They’re trained to fight in fields, not between oaks. In the forest, we can use another pulse of shadows and death, spread it out between the trees. Our three hundred vampire soldiers will meet the rest of the troops at the shoreline. They’ll still be outnumbered, but vampires are far superior to human soldiers in every way.”
I swallowed hard. “Do you think it will be enough?”
“It has to be. I’m not letting them get anywhere fucking near you.” He held my gaze, his eyes uncharacteristically unguarded once more.
Once, I’d thought he didn’t feel fear at all. Now, I knew how wrong I was.
CHAPTER 35
Sion stood by the window, staring out at the sea, not moving. The fire cast warm light over his back, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
I joined him, my chest tight. “Do you think the Order will try to get to Veilcross?”
His gaze flicked to me, and he looked at me with a quiet intensity. “I don’t know how much Epona told them, or if they know it’s there at all. We just have to make sure they don’t get that far. And when it’s done, you can give Leo a kiss on the forehead for the first time.”
Dread flickered through me, and I looked down at my hands. My death magic pulsed beneath my skin. “I’m not quite as confident as you are that I can control my powers.”