Chapter 46

CHAPTER 46

I hiss as the chains continue to wrap tighter around me, burning through my skin to the bone underneath, only for my skin to regrow before the process restarts. It's a constant agony, the godly magic within them containing my own so I am unable to free myself.

Wherever they sent me, it's dark and humid. I can barely see around me, but what I do see are sharp, jagged rocks surrounding me as I swing from the chain. With nothing else to do, my mind wanders to my little witch.

Is she okay? The gods . . . They wouldn't hurt her, right? Phrixius wouldn't let them. I have to believe that. I have to trust that. I would know if something was wrong. I would feel it, but that doesn't mean my heart doesn't ache at her memory.

The last sight of her haunts me—her devastated eyes as she reaches for me. It's all I see in the dark as I struggle to get back to her side.

We have not been apart this long since she was born, and I hate it.

I will get free and find her again, and if they laid a single finger on her, then I will destroy them, gods or no gods. Nobody fucks with my little witch. I just need to get free.

Agony rips through me, tearing me to pieces as something within my soul snaps and crumbles.

The deal, the bond . . .

"No!" My roar fills the cavernous space as pure grief rolls through me.

No, no, no, no.

It cannot be.

She cannot be gone.

I felt it though. It was the deal breaking, which only means one thing.

Freya is dead.

I fall into a pit of despair and fury, letting it burn through me as I bellow my agony to the world with a promise to make every single person burn.

SHA

I do not know where I am. All I know is that she is not here. I cannot sense her, and my body vibrates with anger at being torn from her.

She is mine. I need to get back to her.

I turn my head as much as I can, fighting the encroaching black dirt trying to reclaim me as vines crawl along my body, tugging me deeper. The sky or air around me is black, like my shadows, stealing my vision. I hate it, but I fight to get back to her.

She needs me , I remind myself as I tear through the vines and kick off the dirt, continuing to fight, my entire focus on getting back to her.

The tether that links me to her and this world . . . it snaps, ripping up my insides as pure terror and pain pump through me.

No, no.

Freya!

My roar can be heard across the world as the ground swallows me once more.

Freya, my mistress.

She's gone.

Without her, the world claims me as its own.