A Crown of Cursed Hearts (Kingdom of Blighted Thorns #3)

8. Vexxion

8

VEXXION

W hile I lay on the slab of a stone path, recovering my breath, the beast slithered back into the wasteland.

“Giving up so soon?” I croaked.

No, it was waiting. It knew I wouldn’t—couldn’t—remain in this sanctuary for long. My only hope for a future remained beyond the wall far off in the distance.

I rose to my feet and turned my back on it, striding forward, my feet slipping on the smooth sand, whispering secrets I couldn’t quite make out. Dilapidated marble pillars loomed on either side of me, cast in burnished silver, ghostly remnants of a past long forgotten. Tufted bits of material networked across the gap like lovers’ limbs stretching out to touch, all while knowing they’d never be able to reach.

Rough-hewn, darker gray slabs, now cracked and weathered by endless wind, had been laid in a path leading to the building beyond the pillars.

Through a half-intact stone archway, I walked into a large open room, only the whisper of my feet and the crunch of sand underfoot breaking the oppressive silence. Fragments of the bloody sky stabbed through cracks in the rocky ceiling, making the sand glow.

My gaze wandered across walls painted with faded frescoes showing mythical battles, kings and queens, and ancient rites, the colors muted from time.

Wind tore through the room, making the sand skitter across broken tiles surrounding an altar on the far side—a big crumbling block bearing etchings in a language I couldn’t make out.

The air hung heavy with secrets, and my breath tasted sour.

I walked toward the altar, taking in the cracked mosaic floor made up of indecipherable swirling patterns.

“Why did I come here?” I asked, my voice ricochetting around me.

In the distance, the sand creature roared. It waited, as did my long walk across its harsh territory.

I stepped up onto the platform and stopped in front of the long, casket-like altar carved from stone blacker than obsidian. Why had this place called me here when I could’ve been trying to find my way past the wall?

A mistake, something hissed, the low, guttural whisper scraping across my mind. Go back. Go back. Go backkkkk . . .

I was here. I would see.

Sweeping out my arm, I scattered the sand coating the top of the altar, revealing words etched into the surface. I leaned close, hoping that would make them easier to read in the red-gory light filtering in from above.

“Soft voices hint at secrets cloaked,” I read.

What voices? I closed my eyes, listening . . . But only a low pulsation reached my ears, carrying with it words in a whisper too soft to make out.

With a shake of my head, I traced my finger along the next line.

“To bow to fear or brave the unknown.”

I didn’t know what that meant either.

I should be beating on the wall, not wandering around in the desert. Whatever waited in the sand would try to kill me again as I made my way across. It would suck me down into its sandy embrace, and that would be my end.

On the right side of the smooth, onyx surface, I found another line.

“Beneath the dark, dreamless expanse, something hidden sleeps—far from helpless hands and distant leaps.”

While more phrases had been carved—gouged—into the surface, I couldn’t make out anything else.

I’d stayed here too long yet not long enough. Why did that thought rise in my mind?

Another bellow rang out behind me. The beast was hungry. Well, it wouldn’t feast today.

After peering around and finding nothing else of interest, I stalked back out to the pillars and stood beneath the outstretched, torn fingers of the canopy. The sand churned everywhere I looked. The creature’s call had brought others near, and they slashed through the sand, eager to dine on my magic.

Sending out my threads, I sought the creatures, driving my silver spears deep into the soil. Stabbing. They cried out. Thrashed.

And retreated.

Closing my eyes, I gathered the few wisps of my remaining power, and I flitted, but instead of returning to my fury, I landed on my knees beside the wall, the barrier to everything beyond. It loomed above me, a vast, impenetrable thing I would overcome like I had my pain and horror I’d lived through when Ivenrail tortured my mother.

The wretched abuse of my uncle.

The scorn from the high lords and ladies as the king guzzled down the core to my court’s power.

Every fiend who was eager to rip my fury from my arms and hurt her.

I bellowed out a challenge, and I swore the wall shook with dismay. My grim smile rose, and I nodded. Then I started walking, ignoring the murky wasteland on my left, the building perched in the distance, and the fear creeping through my heart.

It wasn’t over yet. I wasn’t over yet. I had so much more to do before I died.

As I made my way beside the high wall, I kept a steady pace. It was only when I sensed something horrible, something terrifying, drawing near that I halted.

I sent out my threads, seeking.

The sound hadn’t come from here but . . .

The wards I’d placed around Weldsbane jerked. Someone was stalking my fury.

Closing my eyes, I scrambled to pull in magic, guzzling it down like Ivenrail had the power I fed through each and every Nullen brought to him by the Lieges.

And I used it to travel.

My mind floated up over—no through —the wall, and the world parted like a slice gaping wide in the sky. I floundered toward it as if I swam against the current of a raging river, struggling not to drown as I made my way perilously forward.

“You will not passss,” someone hissed.

Iasar hovered in the air not far from me, his wings flapping in a lazy way that maintained his position while I struggled to reach the gap, my magic leaching from me in heavy waves with each flail of my arms.

“If I don’t get through, I can’t help her,” I cried out in stark desperation. “I have to get to my fury. My fated mate.”

“Go back,” he snarled. “Allow yoursssself to drop back to where you came from, and I won’t killssss you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Too late.” He drew in a breath of air that seemed to suck in the world along with it. Flames coiled in his eyes, in his lungs, and I braced myself to blaze and be extinguished. I deserved it for what I’d done.

Amronth flew between us, flapping his wings. “Don’t.”

The breath whooshed from Iasar, and the flames banked in his eyes. “If anyone sssshould hate him, it’ssss you.”

“We’re free. We’re together once more.”

“He trapped ussss! He gave ussss to a monster who pinned ussss insssside a wooden panel as if we were toyssss on display. For sssso long, we—”

“He was eight years old, a mere nothing in their time,” Amronth said.

I was grateful he’d intervened, but I couldn’t remain here while they argued. If I didn’t get to Fury now, it would be too late. I pushed to reach the gap that remained as far away as it had been when I left the ground. My guttural cries of anguish rang out, echoing around me, echoing back at me. Battering me from all directions.

Iasar flew closer, and the heat of his breath singed my face when he spoke. “Our eggssss died because of you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You lured ussss. Allowed him to take ussss, you poor, pitiful, wretch of a thing that sssshould be blassssted from exisssstence.” He sucked in another breath.

“I can’t make it up to you. I know this. All I can do is tell you I’m sorry.” I drew myself up, but I did not meet his eyes. I couldn’t because he was right. I hadn’t wanted to do it, but he’d worn me down, poking at me with his sword and his power until I wanted to rip out my hair and scream. It was my fault they were trapped. “She needs me. I’m her shield.”

“Tempest,” Amronth whispered by my ear.

“Please help me.”

Iasar’s lips curled up at the corners before smoothing. “For her and thissss one time only, we will allow you to travel to her. Do not wasssste the time you are given.”

A flash, and I stood in my bedroom inside Weldsbane Court. Tempest lay on top of the blankets, and I mourned that I wasn’t able to lie beside her. Not me, that is. My still body did lie with her, his eyes closed, his arms limp by his sides. I tried to travel inside him, to wake him up to this world, but I couldn’t slip past his skin.

My fury tossed one way then the other, completely unaware that I stood close.

Not exactly me. Only my spirit, brought to this woman by sheer will and the whim of the only remaining Eratis dragons.

Drask peered at me from his perch by the window, but while he might sense I was near, he couldn’t see me either.

I reached out and traced my fingertips down Fury’s cheek. Across her neck where her pulse throbbed in rhythm with my own. I’d marked this woman. Bonded with her completely. Fused my soul to hers so tightly that I doubted even the fates themselves could see where she left off and I began.

I might never get the chance to tell her I loved her again, but I could do this one thing for her.

Turning, I crossed the room and melted through the walls, seeking . . .

I flashed to the forest outside the building where three fae men crept along a trail stabbing its way between the trees. Landing squarely behind them, I kept pace, releasing a feral grin that would terrify everyone other than my fury. She’d laugh. Stroke my chest. And curl her finger toward me, urging my face down for a kiss that would melt the anger away.

“Remember,” one said. “We kill them quickly. No wasting time. No playing.”

“Really?” one sighed.

“Not too long. ”

They all chuckled.

They reached the edge of the woods and paused, staring toward my mother’s estate. When they started moving again, darting along the edge of the tree line, I remained with them.

Until I roared and sent my threads out.

“Walk with me,” I hissed.

They didn’t startle. They didn’t turn. They didn’t hear my words spoken by a mouth on a body still trapped within the ether.

But my threads had been starved and were eager to feed. Their ends snapped around the men’s necks and tightened. While they clawed at them, I let my threads taste the fear and dismay drenching from their pores.

I garroted them, ripping them up from the ground while their feet and arms flailed.

Once they went still, I shot power at them and burned them until nothing remained but the taint of their ashes lingering in the air.

A sound to my right sent me spinning.

Madrood stood on the other side of the clearing, his gaze locked on me. He dipped his head forward before he took flight, soaring above the building and toward the aerie.

The game was at play, but thankfully, I wasn’t her only protector.

I stalked toward the estate, but before I could reach the front steps, I was sucked back through the putrid gouge slicing a path between this world and the ether. The instant I was wrenched through, it sealed closed.

I landed hard on the ground on my knees, and remained there, holding my face with my palms while my heart rate slowed to almost nothing. I wanted to tip back my head and bellow. Call out her name. I’d promise anything as long as I could see her one last time.

Silence swept across this world, carrying bits of sand that scraped my skin raw.

Rising to my feet, I started walking.

Pacing along the wall.

Seeking a way through it to reach the woman I loved.