Blood of Two Crowns (Hallowed Fates #2)

Chapter 34

Chapter

Thirty-Four

MALEKAI

Z urie swayed and stumbled. No one moved to catch her except Keres as she shouted her name. Well, that was… unexpected. Nakoa and I exchanged a look, that said we were both wondering the same thing. Did she just die?

Keres hefted Zurie into her arms and glared at us in a way that told us if her hands weren’t full right now, she’d likely try to murder us. “If she doesn’t wake up, you’re all fucking dead.”

Nakoa’s lip curled at the threat, but I laid a hand on his chest before he could further inflame the situation. “She’ll be fine, Keres. It’s just a scratch... Look, it’s already healing.”

It definitely was not.

If anything, she was in desperate need of stitches because she was still bleeding out. Keres opened her mouth to argue but was cut short by the trembling of the ground beneath our feet. Magic crackled through the air as a tangible pressure began to build. Initially negligible, it rapidly turned into something painful.

Dark vapours that condensed and shifted into liquid began to spill out from beneath the stone archway, and we all leapt out of the way as it spilled towards the suddenly tumultuous sea behind us. Waves crashed against the shore as if trying to spit out the black liquid poisoning it.

As a group, we shared frantic looks. “I told you this was a horrible fucking idea!” Keres hissed, still cradling Zurie against her chest. Her words could barely be heard over the raging winds.

Nakoa and I exchanged a knowing look and stepped towards the portal.

“Wait!” Rumiel and Pomona leapt forward, dragging him back as Val gripped my shoulder and Pomona yelled above the building storm. “Are you insane? You’ll die in there! And what good will all of this have been then! All for fucking nothing!”

Val’s eyes bore into mine in earnest. “She’s right, lad. Yew, try ta walk through that thing; there’s no telling where you’ll end up. And it’ll likely be nowhere near Mareina. I want her back, too, but this isn’t the way.”

Before we could deliberate on it any longer, the black vapours and liquid disappeared, the winds and sea calmed, and the crushing pressure in the air was lifted, replaced by silence and calm.

Zurie’s head lolled against Kere’s chest. “What happened?”

Keres’ lip trembled as she dropped to her knees. “You nearly died, that’s what happened.”

Zurie’s despair was not what I’d expected. Her heartbreak was palpable. The tears in her eyes genuine. “What? But last time—That can’t be?—

“Last time you opened the portal, you were giving something back.”

As one, we turned to find Miroslav standing behind us. Zurie’s lips parted in realization, clutching her bleeding arm to her chest.

“ Now, you want to take something. Someone. Someone who has become vital to the survival of that realm. To Azrael.”

Miroslav scowled at the group of us.

Fuck.

My chest heaved in protest. Suddenly, that crushing weight returned, but it had nothing to do with the portal and everything to do with the fact that Mareina was still no closer to coming home.

I marched toward the portal where Azrael’s gods-forsaken blade lay on the ground, a black and silver abomination, to pick it up. Nakoa launched himself forward, trying to pry the thing from my hands. “You don’t get to leave too, you fucking prick.”

Before Nakoa gained any chance of stealing it from me, the thing disappeared out of thin air. Miroslav’s voice was like a thunderclap. “You will die.”

Nakoa and I shoved away from each other to see the blade in Miroslav’s hand. “Is that what Mareina would want? Your Kingdom needs you. Both of you, believe it or not. And most of all, she needs you.”

“What other way is there?” I roared back, “If it comes down to her or me, it will be her every-fucking-time! Now give me that Akash- forsaken blade or I swear to all the gods in the fucking pantheon that I will let my beast fucking eat you alive.”

My drakonati roared inside me, eager to burn everything in its path. Akash knew we’d wanted to roast Miroslav like a fucking rotisserie for decades.

Nakoa’s fist came out of nowhere and hit me square in the nose. After the audible crunch of bone breaking, I hit the sand hard enough that it knocked the wind out of me.

“Give me the blade, Miroslav,” he growled.

Miroslav rolled his eyes at us as if we were children. Nakoa’s olana kah’hei watched, tension lining their features.

I wheezed, trying to force air back into my lungs, as I reset my broken nose and crawled to standing. “With all due respect, Your Royal Highness, but you’ve got a kingdom to look after… and a family.”

I had no one.

Lies, some inner voice hissed at me as I studied Nakoa and some ache built in my chest. Outside of Mareina, I’d never loved or considered anyone outside of my blood relatives, who were all well and dead now, to be family, but this male had changed that.

Nakoa’s scowl was powerful enough it should have singed my beard clean off. “If we get Mareina back, that won’t matter. And she loves you more than she’ll ever love me.”

Oh, fuck…

Without even meaning to, my hand clutched at my chest as if I were wearing a string of pearls and needed saving. Fuck me, that hurt to hear.

I opened my mouth to pour out my reassurances but was swiftly cut off by Zurie, who stomped through the sand, holding her mangled arm to her chest.

“You’re right. And she will always love him more than you unless you give her a reason too—which will be impossible if you fucking kill yourself or allow this beast to sacrifice his life for her. She will never forgive you in either circumstance.”

Nakoa’s ire seemed to wither away at that. As did mine.

Time seemed to move in slow motion for some reason when I saw Zurie’s eyes lift to Miroslav’s, and something silent seemed to be spoken between them. Azrael’s blade appeared in Zurie’s hand in the next moment. Drawing the blade across her throat, she whispered Vassileon words that I shouldn’t have been able to understand.

“Kh? hōs kaleídhi kai aíma hōs ragída, to péplo metaksy zo?s kai thanátou zō.”

With soul as key and blood to bind, I rend the veil ‘twixt life and death entwined.

Keres’ eyes widened in shock as she lunged forward to catch Zurie before she could hit the sand.

When the portal opened this time, the ground didn’t tremble, screaming winds didn’t roar, and violent waves didn’t crash.

Instead, as if Azrael’s realm and magic had been appeased with her earnest and selfless offering, a clean, black dot appeared that widened into the mouth of a vaporous black hole.

Keres was screaming something my mind failed to absorb as she knelt and lowered Zurie’s motionless body to the ground. To my surprise, Rumiel appeared beside her and pressed his hands to Zurie’s body. A radiant golden light radiated from them, so bright it was nearly blinding.

Our plan had been to open the portal, unleash hell, and return to Atratus to gather our army, but Nakoa and I both stepped towards the portal as if that thread tying our souls to Mareina’s was reeling us towards her. Perhaps it was also the hungry, dark energy emanating from the portal that seemed to beckon us forward. Nakoa’s olana kah’hei shouted for us to stop, but their pleas grew distant and barely audible over the deafening whispers of countless souls.

It wasn’t until Miroslav stepped in front of us, blocking our path, that the world seemed to return. “If you want to succeed in bringing her home, you will wait.”