Between the Moon and Her Night (Between Life and Death #3)

Chapter 48

Sage

“W elcome back, princess,” said a cruel voice.

Pain drilled into my cheeks, like my face was stuck in a vice. But it was nothing compared to the horrific agony I felt around my neck, like dozens of needle-like teeth had sunk into my skin.

Slowly, my eyelids lifted, revealing a silhouette crouched before me. The ominous figure split into two, drifting apart. Eyes focusing, they returned together, merging as one.

Dark-gold eyes met mine, followed by white hair.

Aurelius!

No—not Aurelius.

Nicholas.

I tried to scream, but the hand clamped around my face tightened, his fingernails sinking even deeper into my cheeks, causing ichor to brim. Nicholas raised a finger against his lips. “ Shh, princess. We wouldn’t want anyone to hear you now, would we? I tell you what. I’ll remove my hand from your mouth if you promise not to make a peep.” A sadistic smile slithered across his lips. “Does that work for you?”

I nodded, stopping immediately when I felt the torturous pain biting into my neck. My brain was still foggy. Why was I here? What happened?

He released his hand from my mouth, pulling it away.

I went to reach upwards, to try to rub away the ache in my cheeks, but my hands were rendered immobile. With some difficulty, I glanced down—my wrists were bound in iron chains.

“Sorry about those,” he said. “And this.” He flicked whatever was wrapped around my neck. It made a metal-sounding tang .

I winced, realizing what it was. The iron collar. Nails impaled my neck, leeching the power from my divinity, pulling ichor from my veins, weakening me.

Wearily, my eyes flickered around my surroundings. There was no mistaking where we were—the gold-brick walls were a dead giveaway. But it was the dingy look of the unpolished bricks that told me we were somewhere down in the dungeon. Straight ahead, vicious knives hung on a wall, accompanied by spikes and horrific-looking saws. In the middle, a table with shackles hooked up to a wheel. To my left, a trough filled to the brim with water. Chains hung from the ceiling, the iron bonds painted in centuries of spilt blood.

My heart pounded and my palms grew damp with sweat as I realized exactly where I was—I was in a room used for . . . torture .

Von! I yelled through the bond.

Nothing.

I tried again and again, finding the same answer with each failed attempt. My stomach filled with lead as I realized that the iron collar had cut us off from one another.

Brows smashing together, I looked at Nicholas and hissed, “Why have you brought me here?”

“Because you, dear sister-in-law, are going to help me,” he said, tapping the tip of my nose.

“Help you with what?”

“Help me become king,” he said as he stood up.

Become king? I scoffed. “Aurelius will never relinquish his crown. And even if he did, it would go to Arkyn, not you.”

“I’m well aware Aurelius won’t, which is why I will be taking matters into my own hands. And Arkyn is the least of my concern. He is a measly Demi God and can easily be disposed of.” Nicholas turned around and leisurely strolled over to the wall of horrible tools. He plucked a sharp knife from it, eyeing the thin, sinister blade. “Aurelius has not been fit to lead for some time now. Malachai is too blinded by his loyalty to see it, but I am not.”

“So what are you going to do?” I asked, an eerie feeling washing over me.

“I’m going to kill him, of course.” Nicholas laid the knife down and grabbed another. This one was longer than the last.

“How? No one knows his weakness.”

“I do.” He grinned with a sinister smile. Then he pointed the blade towards me. “You.”

My ichor ran cold.

“Nicholas, I am not the God of Life’s weakness. ”

“I don’t believe that,” he said, setting the knife down and picking up another. Firelight caught on the blade’s edge, emphasizing just how sharp it was. “Let me tell you a little story . . . About five or six months ago, we received word that an Old God was trashing a city in the Living Realm and causing multiple casualties. Aurelius sent me to do his dirty work, as per usual. I ended up tracking the immortal down at a tavern. Do you know who was seated in front of the bar?”

I didn’t really care who it was—all I wanted was to get out of here—but I’d play along if it bought me more time. “Who?”

“It was the Goddess of War. She looked terrible, smelt like she hadn’t taken a bath in months. I expected her to try to fight or something, but to my surprise, she waved me over. So I decided to see what she had to say. As I sat down beside her, she withdrew a crown from her satchel and placed it on the bar top. It was a strange, white-ish crown woven from something that looked like vines and sharp thorns. I asked her if there was a story behind it. She told me that the God of Death had made it out of the roots of a tree from the Golden Palace, the one that made you horribly sick when you got too close to it. I recalled the tree, remembered that Aurelius suspected it had the ability to end your immortal life. Not that I told her that. Instead, I let her talk. She said that she had stolen the crown from the Blood King’s crypt and replaced it with a fake one. Then she went on to tell me that she had led a failed rebellion to try to take over the Spirit Realm because she did not believe her brother was fit to lead. You can imagine my surprise, as I had been having the same thoughts about mine. Naturally, we hit it off over that, and before I knew it, she was helping me come up with a plan of my own. She even gave me an amulet so that I could light walk past the Blood King’s wards and into his castle.” He pulled a chain from underneath his tunic, showing me the necklace. A dark emerald embossed in a silver bezel hung from it. He dropped it, and the heavy gemstone thumped against his chest.

My heart mirrored the act, landing with a heavy beat . . . That’s how he had been able to abduct me from the castle—the amulet.

He continued, “We tossed back a lot of different ideas, but everything we discussed always led back to one person . . . you.”

I tried to shake my head, but the nails in my neck reminded me that wasn’t a good idea. Wincing, I said, “Saphira has a talent for twisting words. Whatever she led you to believe, I promise, it will get you nowhere. I am not Aurelius’s weakness. Of that, I am certain.”

“And yet his heart beats in your chest.” Nicholas strode over to me, a knife in one hand and a clear vial in the other.

I bristled, trying to back myself further into the wall as he crouched in front of me. Like a snake, his hand shot out, grabbing my shackled hand. I fought against him as he pressed the blade against my skin, but my divine powers were muted by the collar, and in my weakened state, I was no match for him. Still, I fought, trying to keep my fingers clenched shut as he pried them open.

“Hold still,” he growled as the steel cut into my palm, slitting it open. I cried out in pain. He held my weeping hand over the vial, letting my golden ichor seep into it.

When the small glass was half full, he let my wrists go and took it over to the counter, grabbing a stopper and shoving it into the end. He placed the vial in a little stand, tapping the side of the glass. “Beautiful,” he purred, before he turned back around and strode back over to me. “Do you know what else she said?”

I shook my head, my lips curling at him as he squatted in front of me.

“There is a prophecy that your life is linked to the male you are supposed to kill, or some shit like that. She said that originally, they thought it was about the Blood King, considering you are most definitely his weakness.” I opened my mouth to say something, but he held up a hand. “Don’t waste my time trying to deny that either. I saw the blood seep from his wounds the day you tossed those daggers at us all.” He ran the tip of the blade across the metal collar, making an eerie scraping noise. “Now, back to my story. Saphira said that eventually, she didn’t believe the prophecy was about the Blood King, because the bond had been forged between the two of you and it would never allow you to raise arms against him, no matter how badly you wanted to. When I questioned who she thought it might be about, she asked me who you hated more than anyone else. Who you would kill if you had the chance, and I knew, immediately—my brother. The god who treated you like a worn-out mat, whose only purpose was for him to wipe his feet on. If I were you, I’d hate him too.” He raised a brow in thought. “But the thing is, if your life is linked to his, wouldn’t that go both ways?”

He lowered the knife to my chest, placing it over my heart.

“Regardless of how far you plunge that blade in, you and I both know that it will not kill me,” I told him.

“No.” He glanced at the knife before he tossed it over his shoulder, and it clattered against the floor. He gave me a malicious smile. “The knife won’t kill you, but I know something that will.”

Horror riddled my bones, stretching my eyes wide—

“Nicholas, wait,” I pleaded.

But he didn’t. His hands grabbed hold of me as he picked me up from the floor and slung me over his shoulder. I grimaced as I landed with a hard thump, my abdomen taking the brunt of it—

The baby. Our baby.

I became desperate. “Please, Nicholas,” I cried out, trying to fight against him. “What do you think Von will do when he finds out what you have done?”

“I’ll be ready for him.”

“He’ll destroy you!”

“Not if I kill him first. Why do you think I collected your ichor just now? It is of you. When I pour it on my sword and decapitate him with it, I’m willing to wager it will end his immortal life.”

Internally, I broke at the thought, that my blood would be used against Von like that.

“But he drinks my blood,” I argued, hoping I could plant a seed of doubt. “It does not harm him in the least. What makes you so certain that pouring it on a blade will work?”

“Yes, but how many times has he been wounded after he has fed from you?” he retorted.

My heart sank, but I refused to let on. “Once,” I lied. “He drank from me in the morning and then was wounded during training. It did nothing to his divine powers and he healed, just as he always does. Your plan will not work.”

“You’ve always been a piss-poor liar, princess. Besides, if it doesn’t work, as the new king, I will have an army to defend me.”

“You are a fool to believe that an army will be enough.”

“I guess we’ll find out, now won’t we?” he said, his light wrapping around us.

Seconds later, the darkness of the dungeon was replaced with bright daylight and a blue, blue sky. The unwelcome rays of the sun brushed across my skin as I kicked and fought against Nicholas’s hold. Adrenaline and panic raced through my veins. My body had gone numb to the feel of the nails in my neck as I thrashed and thrashed and thrashed. I banged my chained wrists against his back, screaming and crying out as he carried me through the courtyard gardens.

I knew where he was taking me. Knew what it would mean for me and my unborn babe.

Tears welled in my eyes as I continued to try to break free.

Von! I screamed for my mate. I screamed his name repeatedly. Roared it through the bond. Out loud. “Von!”

“I thought you and I had a deal? You agreed to keep quiet if I removed my hand from your mouth and now what are you doing? Going back on our agreement,” Nicholas sighed. “Oh, well. I suppose you’ll be dead soon enough.”

For a fleeting moment, I thought to tell him that I was pregnant, but then—

The hairs on my arms began to rise.

That was all the warning I had before I felt the full force of it come crushing down on me.

Like a fist sailing into my gut.

Like a hand wrapping around my throat, my stomach.

Squeezing.

And squeezing.

I could feel my body being pulled, summoned to its destructive embrace.

“Please. No,” I choked out, as memories of Aurelius dragging me towards the white-leafed tree began to play out in my mind. Like a tidal wave, those memories swept over me, pulling me under, pulling me into them . . .

“Please,” I sobbed desperately. “Please. Please. Please.”

But Nicholas did not listen as he shoved me against the tree. The ground shook beneath my feet as roots shot from the mossy floor, cracking it apart as they wove around me, sucking me tight against the trunk.

Von . . .

And then I felt it—

Like glass in my arteries, shredding me apart.

Vein by vein.