Chapter 70

Chapter 70

T he beast consumed her.

It tore through Mariah’s skin, unleashed by her rage, her pain, her regret and anguish and love. A thing of light and fire, scorching through her veins, turning her blood to molten lava and her bones to ash.

Once everything within her was burned and destroyed, the beast began to build and change.

There was pain. So, so much pain. Her bones reformed into pillars of steel, shifting and cracking and changing beneath her skin. Her flesh hardened, stretching across those new bones. She was dipped into fire, forged into something other .

Her hands lengthened, extending out across the gardens, the cuffs on her wrists snapping easily. Her neck elongated, turning serpentine as she arched toward the sun blazing high above. Light burned her, burned around her, as she shifted. Talons took the place of her feet, leathery membranes unfolding down her arms and connecting to the skin along her sides.

Mariah thrashed in pain as her tail erupted from the base of her spine and scraped across the grassy footing. Behind the pain, the gardens grew small, the tang of blood and fear filling her nostrils. She stretched, and her arms—wings—nearly spanned across the gardens, shadowing the gathered crowd.

She gave herself further to the beast, losing herself to her heartbreak and the burning pain.

When the blinding agony stopped, the roar of a great silver-gold dragon tore across the Khento castle gardens, and the earth shuddered.

Everything was so much brighter. The world more vibrant. Sounds echoed against her ears; smells inhaled through deep, powerful lungs.

The smell of her mother’s blood was the worst of it. Sweet, tinged with a trace of silver moonlight, that single drop of magic Lisabel had carried and hid from the world for so long.

As terrible as the smell was, the sound of it dripping onto the vile, black stone was worse.

Mariah’s claws scourged deep rivulets into the soft soil beneath her. She reared up on powerful hind legs, her body crashing into a riser. Her great, leathery wings, shimmering with silver and veined with gold, spread wide. Her lips pulled back from wicked sharp teeth, and with all the anger and pain in her heart, she roared again, so loud it shook the walls of the castle behind her.

The people quaked. Cries of terror and pain filled the risers, and the crowd rushed to escape her wrath. Those in the riser nearest her were crushed beneath the weight of metal and stone, the tang of their blood mixing with her mother’s sweet scent. A few still cried meekly from the rubble, left for dead by the other fleeing attendants. Guards—both human and demon—raced to block the exits, filling the air with more panicked shrieks.

Mariah paid no heed to any of it.

She was still focused on the slow drip, drip, drip of her mother’s blood against the stone.

She took a lurching step, the soft earth giving freely beneath her talons, her wings crashing more of the risers to pieces. A black-haired man appeared before her, gazing up at her with a look of awe and pity and devastation.

Mariah knew him. Would always know him, no matter the form she took. He was as familiar to her as the silver-gold magic whirling freely through her new body, set free from invisible chains, unleashed from the confines of mortality.

She was still here, but she was also no longer the same. Everything had changed. She still felt that mortal part of her, buried deep within. But the woman had retreated, content to let the beast decide the fate of her world.

At her feet, the familiar, beloved man—Andrian, her mind told her—was speaking. He gestured at the cuffs on his wrists. On instinct, Mariah reached for the bridges in her mind, the ones meant to bind her to this world.

And was met by black and gold adamant.

Renewed fury flooded her, and with a snarl, she sent a burst of magic down those bonds, smashing the walls holding them from her to bits.

That substance was made to bind mortals; it was never meant to withstand whatever she was now.

The cuffs on Andrian’s wrists snapped. His bond roared to life, along with six others beside it. They filled her mind, shouting and roaring and calling her name.

Mariah lowered her wings to the ground, the talons at the apex digging into the grass. She snaked her head down, facing a raised dais with six large chairs.

Her Armature knelt before the dais, their faces wearing mixed expressions of awe, desperation, and terror.

Not terror of her. As she sent back the best assurances she could and closed their bonds, she sensed they were not fearful of her.

They were fearful for her. Of what was done to her, to someone she valued more than she could ever value herself.

Scared of what she might do to the world because of it.

Only one bond remained in her mind—the one she couldn’t close, even if she wanted to—as she lifted her head, bringing all her new, deadly focus and instinct to the sad, angry little man with watery blue eyes and wheat blond hair.

His fear was the sweetest. So pungent, so vile, so intoxicating.

Shawth scrambled up the dais steps, stopping before his false throne. The other lords cowered there with him, their fear a thick blanket around them. Even Lord Laurent, his normally fixed expression now slack-jawed, his golden eyes filled with alarm.

Mariah lifted her head and parted her maw. Something hot and ancient and deadly stirred in her chest, churning as it crept up her throat. She tasted ash and moonlight on her tongue as she drew in a breath, flames building and unfurling around her fanged teeth.

If she could smile in this form, the desperate cries for mercy from those lords would have brought one to her lips.

Something hot and vile and wrong sliced down her side, pain shooting deep beneath her skin.

“ Mariah! ” That familiar, beloved voice roared her name.

Flames died on her tongue, were pulled back down her throat. She whirled, instincts older than the world itself taking over.

A demon was latched to her side, serrated claws digging into her scaled skin. But her hide was stronger now, far more durable than soft human flesh, and with a bucking leap, she dislodged the demon. Leathery gray wings unfurled from the demon’s side, lips curling back from its distorted face as it hissed, low and vicious. It launched into the air, hovering just above her. She twisted to meet it, growling low in her chest.

“ Welcome, dragaina,” the demon whispered, its words falling not from its mouth but into her mind. She blinked with momentary shock, double lids sliding across her eyes before her bloodlust resumed its grasp.

She spoke back on instinct, her mind reaching for the foul, twisted mess of the demon’s soul. “ Go back to the miserable pit you crawled out of, and I’ll let you live. ”

The demon chuckled. “ Do you really think me that lacking in intelligence? ” It lifted a serrated claw to its mouth, a long, forked tongue flicking out from between its teeth, licking the blood still there.

Mariah’s blood, and another’s, layered in. She shuddered, and her eyes focused, a predator narrowing on its prey.

“ Your mother tastes so sweet, dragaina,” it hissed, wings flapping as it held itself suspended above her. “ And her blood mixed with yours? ” The demon inhaled again, closing its slitted yellow eyes. “ Divine. ”

Mariah was done with this foul creature, mocking her with the taste of her mother’s blood.

Her muscles bunched beneath her scaled skin, and with a great push, she leaped from the earth, launching at the demon. The demon hissed a laugh as it shot to the right, its body narrowly avoiding the devastating snap of her jaws that crunched through the air, right where it just was.

Its body evaded her … but not its wing.

Foul blood burst across Mariah’s tongue, her razor-sharp fangs shredding the delicate flesh. The demon’s screams piercing the air around them were sweeter than any song. As her hind legs hit the ground, the demon was plummeting to the floor, cracking against the risers with a sickening crunch.

As its body slumped to the gardens below, the earth shook.

The demons holding her father and brother on the central platform backed away, retreating to the edges of the garden. The crowd was still screaming, sharing glances of abject horror as the world rumbled beneath their feet. The bitter tang of their fear pulled Mariah’s lip back from her teeth, the demon’s black blood dripping to the grass and soaking into the soil below.

Something—a hand—touched her side. She glanced down wildly, meeting a stare of crushing tanzanite blue.

“ Mariah. Nio. Come back. Come back to us. ”

The woman inside her stirred.

The words—in that same, familiar voice—were not spoken, at least, not out loud. But Mariah heard them all the same as if they were threaded into her soul, the silver-gold bond flaring brighter than ever before.

The beast rumbled, and the woman took a hesitant step forward. Retook some control.

And clarity slammed into her.

She cautiously opened the other bonds. But instead of feelings and emotions rushing to greet her … she heard them.

She’d heard them before, too, when she’d blasted the deistair from their wrists. But only with the beast now sharing some of her mind, and not all, she understood what that meant.

As her Armature’s thoughts pummeled her, six jumbled voices all panicked and roaring in her head, she knew.

Those bonds were not for any mortal purpose. They’d never been to simply serve a queen trapped in a human form, limited by the confines of a body unable to access magics far deeper and more ancient.

It was for this. For this beast dwelling in the heart of the queen’s power. So that when it was unleashed, she would have seven carrying a trace of that power to understand her fully. Seven who could be a voice to a world that would see only a monster, a legend come to life.

Their voices ceased when she spoke to them, down all seven bonds.

“ Get my brother. Get my father. And get the fuck out of here. ” The ground shuddered again. Those wild instincts roared at her, an instinct she couldn’t ignore even if she tried.

“ Something is coming. I can feel it in the earth. I need them safe. ” Her gaze found Andrian’s. “ I need you safe. ”

Hard rebellion flared across his face. But Andrian nodded and sprinted for the central platform, shadows spilling from his hands as he unsheathed the broadsword from his back. Sebastian raced after him, followed by Quentin and Feran. Drystan, Trefor, and Matheo drew their weapons, forming a semi-circle around her, searching for an exit.

It was sweet of them to still be seeking to protect her. But she had no use for it now.

She snapped her jaws and ignored the pang of guilt when Trefor and Matheo jumped in surprise. “ I told you to leave me. Get my family and find a way out. ”

Drystan met her stare fiercely. “ If you’re staying, then so are we. ”

Mariah hissed in frustration, swinging her head to the central platform as the earth shuddered again. The four warriors had reached her father and brother. Sebastian and Quentin grabbed Wex by both arms. Their touch shook something loose in him and he roared, struggling against their grip. His gaze was locked on his wife’s body, her blood still dripping onto the aberrant . They gritted their teeth and dragged him down the platform, back across the garden.

Ellan still stood there, expression shocked and broken. Feran rested a hand on his shoulder, shaking him, and Mariah’s brother stumbled forward, emptiness shrouding his soft green-gold eyes.

They gathered behind Mariah, eyes searching for a way out, a path that wasn’t guarded by demons or blocked by the screaming crowd. Mariah lifted to her full height, unsteady as she continued to adjust to this massive and cumbersome form, scanning the gardens.

“Escaping? Really? How unlike you. Even like this, I would have hoped you’d put up more of a fight.”

Shawth’s shaky voice from her right scratched against her skin. Her head swung to the dais, flames once again bubbling deep in her chest.

Another shudder wracked the earth, this time somewhere deeper.

Somewhere, in a long-forgotten realm sunken deep beneath their feet, Mariah heard a terrible, furious, murderous roar.

Ignoring the sniveling lords on the dais, she whipped back to the central platform. To the block of aberrant still being fed by the slow drip of her mother’s blood. The gardens were suspended in tension, the air stilling as ancient, terrible, forgotten power trembled around them.

With a sigh, the tension snapped, and a crack split through the deep black stone.

Every instinct in Mariah recoiled. A feeling of wrongness wrapped around her, screaming at her to fight or fly.

But she was held still, rooted to the ground, planted between the stone and her family as shadows leaked from the crack in the aberrant .

They were not unlike the shadows she loved with all she was. Even the way they moved, dancing and winding through the air, was reminiscent.

But where Andrian’s shadows were cool, delicate whispers of ice against hot skin, these were scalding, their heat permeating the air as they seeped into the bright, cloudless day. The already warm temperature rose as more shadows poured forth, snaking around themselves like billows of cloud and smoke.

Slowly, the shadows pulled together. Formed into a great, massive writhing shape. A shape as imposing as Mariah, and just as similar.

Black wings burst from the shadows, the membranes veined with gold, the dark twin to her own. A body followed, smoke solidifying into gleaming onyx scales. A tail snaked and swished across the ground, followed by an arching neck and scaled head crowned with four horns so red, they looked to be dipped in blood.

The fiery, red-gold eyes of the dragon burned back at Mariah with the intensity of the sun as it opened its jaw and roared.

This roar shook the castle behind them. Shook the earth beneath them, made the sun pulse brighter against the shadows, made the sky tremble.

A dark consciousness brushed against hers, and Mariah could only pull her lips back from her teeth and snarl.

“ Well, well. What a treat it is to meet you in the flesh, little goddess. I have watched you for so very long. ”

His voice … it was far from unpleasant. As much as Mariah wished to recoil, a part of her struggled, wanted to lean into the voice instead. Wanted to wrap herself around it like a cat, to lose herself in the unusual cadence and soft, sinful darkness.

She fought against that part of her, warring deep in her soul.

“ Who are you? ”

She swore he made a sound like a tsk. “ Really, little goddess? Do you not recognize me? I know there is a part of you that does. A part of you that will always know me. ” If dragons could grin, he gave her what could only be described as such. “ A part of you will always be mine.”

A growl rumbled from her chest. “ I belong to no one. Only myself. ”

“ Are you so sure of that, little goddess? ” The dragon flicked his tail, wings rustling. “ I can feel her in you. And she has always been—and will always be—bound to me. ”

Something clicked in Mariah’s mind. Her power, this new form. The part of her that ached for this other beast that had crawled out from the blackest of pits yet took a form of beauty and magic and whispered to her in a voice of dark, tantalizing secrets.

All their stories were wrong. The dragons were not summoned by the gods.

The dragons were the gods.

And this god …

“ You’re him. ” She trembled, but whether it was from fear or anger or wild energy, she couldn’t be sure. “ You’re Flétrir. The Scourge. ”

The black dragon’s lip curled back from his teeth. Wickedly sharp fangs gleamed against his scales. “ Those are not names I chose. I am not a scourge upon this earth. I was one of its creators, and I was locked away for daring to believe we should be worshipped as such .” He stood back on his hind legs, wings stretching wide. The crowd screamed again; the air thickened with their fear.

“ My true name, my forgotten name, is Kol. I was once the God of Sun and Shadows. Until I was betrayed by Zadione and her cunt of a sister for the crime of loving too much. I was thrown from my throne for wanting more for this world than what it was. But now, little goddess …” He drew in a deep breath. The center of his chest glowed, as if he held the sun itself.

“ Now, thanks to you, I am free .”