Fourteen Dianna

“You know, in a land full of so-called magical plants, you’d think a green flower with red and white speckles would be easier to find.”

I tossed my arms in the air as Reggie glanced at a large, opaque shrub. The planet she sent us to was nothing like I expected, putting the forests of Onuna to shame with its thick foliage and the trees that damn near touched the sky. We had walked for at least an hour, looking for the damned plants they’d sent us to find.

“I agree.”

We stopped short when the forest parted, revealing a lush, rich meadow. I brushed a piece of hair from my face, curling it around my ear as I knelt in a bunch of plants that seemed to have recently bloomed.

“Miska said it would help keep him stable.” I sighed. “He got violently ill last night. I’m so afraid that the spear messed something up on the inside, something that won’t heal.”

“They are magnificent healers,” Reggie said from behind me. “It is surprising that his wound has not healed yet.”

I stood, wiping my hands on my pants as I turned. “Another jab? I don’t remember you being this sassy.”

“The price you paid has changed you on some level, so I am not surprised if it has also changed him.”

“Reggie,” I said, “can we not?”

“I understand you don’t wish to speak about it, but—”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Do you? Because you keep throwing this big consequence in my face. I can’t think about the possibility that he doesn’t exist anymore, okay? I just can’t.”

“I’m merely saying you need to think of all possibilities.”

My heart thudded. “I have, okay? And when I think about them, I tend to go off the deep end. All I know is that I can’t lose him. I wouldn’t survive it. The pain I felt in that tunnel was as if every molecule in my body split and fractured. It was worse than any stab or punch. I thought I was broken before, but . . . my soul cleaved in two, Reggie. I felt it. A part of me died when Gabby did, and whatever part was left, whatever he helped heal, died down there with him, too.”

Reggie’s eyes softened. “I fear for the changes is all I am stating. Your appetite, in all aspects, has increased. Your behavior and temper are erratic, and you know it. I fear it is only the beginning of what you gave up.”

I said nothing for a long moment, the rolling stalks of flowers blowing between us. “You think I’m turning into a monster?”

“I do not know what you are turning into, but you have evolved past what you were, and it changed things. You brought a god back from death, Dianna. That act alone has never been done and will have required equal payment in return. If you think there will not be dire consequences, you are a fool. Can you look at me and say you don’t feel it, too?”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry. As long as he stays alive, the universe will continue to spin or whatever it does.”

Reggie stepped closer, something that looked like concern darkening his eyes. “I thought you would have come to the conclusion that him knowing what happened in the tunnel would be beneficial, yet you seem determined to carry this secret to your very grave.”

“I don’t plan to. It’s just not the time.”

“When is the time?”

I sighed far too loudly and turned away from him. I walked under a half-fallen tree, if you could call the overgrown plant a tree.

“I don’t know, but right now, it doesn’t feel right,” I said, dropping one of the overgrown, broken branches. I heard Reggie’s feet behind me, only a hair away.

“The longer you wait, the harder it will be for both of you. He has a right to know. They are healers, but not even their potions can alter a death wound.”

I stopped. “Is that what it is?”

“I assume only,” Reggie said. “I have been searching through archives. It exhausted me to look through time as such, but all I found as of right now is that death wounds can be permanent. They even remain with the reincarnated ones.”

“Reincarnated?”

“Those with enough power to transcend lives are born once more, over and over, until their true purpose is reached. The blade was imbued with your blood and ancient magic. It was meant not only to kill him but also to open every realm. It has succeeded in both of its objectives. I fear normal healing potions and concoctions will not suffice.”

I shook my head before rubbing a hand across my face. “I can’t trust them, not fully.”

Reggie lifted a single brow. “Yet you trust them enough to give him medicine, to try, and fail, to heal him.”

I spun from him, knowing damn well he knew why. He wanted me to say it once more. Maybe I was selfish. Maybe I needed to push Samkiel even harder, and maybe I was still taking it easy on him, but I couldn’t escape that godsdamn tunnel every time I closed my eyes. I would never forget holding him as his skin turned ashen and cold.

“Why is this such a huge issue for you?” I snapped. “Because you can no longer see?”

Reggie stopped behind me, and I was waiting for him to say something. When he remained quiet, I sighed and turned around. Reggie’s gaze was focused on the tree line, and I stopped to listen. A whirring sound echoed through the forest and then stopped.

“We were followed,” I snarled.

“Not followed,” Reggie said. “A trap.”

I pushed past him and strode toward the forest’s edge. He whispered my name, but I didn’t stop until I reached the clearing. There, behind a closing portal, was a tall man with one eye in the center of his face. He closed the top of his gauntlet, sealing the portal. At least a hundred soldiers surrounded him, all wearing that ridiculous gold armor Nismera outfitted her army in.

Reggie whispered near me. “There are at least thirty, including the commander.”

I smiled softly, patting his shoulder. “Good, I’m just going to go say hi. You stay here.”

“Be careful.” Reggie nodded to the soldiers. “Nismera knows what you are. She would not send soldiers without something strong enough to subdue you.”

“Duly noted.”

I cleared the brush, and all eyes turned toward me. “So, since you are all here, I take it Nismera got my note?” I pouted. “Such a shame she did not come herself. Tell me, does she always send her lackeys?”

“So, you are the Ig’Morruthen she so desperately wants?” My eyes fell on the one-eyed general as he stepped forward. He towered over the other soldiers, and they fell in behind him, their hands resting on the hilts of their swords. “I expected you to look different, scarier perhaps. You are tiny.”

I glanced down at myself, then back toward the towering, one-eyed commander. “I think everyone is tiny compared to you.”

“It makes no difference.” His voice echoed as the soldiers near him moved in formation. “You are hereby detained by the Twenty-third Legion.”

I folded my arms, planting my feet firmly on the ground. “Oh? Am I? I think you’ll need more, honestly.”

The commander laughed, placing one hand on his stomach, then looked back as his soldiers joined him. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

I held my hand out, a swirling ball of flame growing before I turned back to them. “You sure about that?”

One by one, the soldiers with him reached behind their backs, and one by one, chains fell from their hands, glowing and barbed.

“Well, shit.”

A SEVERED LIMB HIT THE TREE, AND THE GENERAL GRUNTED BENEATH ME.

Reggie stepped from the brush and approached me, his feet crunching on the burnt grass. My heeled boot still pressed on the general’s throat, my hands on my hips as I turned to Reggie.

“You were right about the weapons.” I nodded to the pieces of soldiers that littered the ground. A few of the chains still glowed as they lay near their corpses. The back of my arm still burned where I had been hit. After that first hit, I learned how to dodge a little quicker.

“I assumed as much,” Reggie said before looking at the general I held beneath my foot. He clawed at my leg, trying to breathe, his one eye bloodshot now. “Are you all right?”

I shrugged. “A few minor burns, but they are not nearly as trained as they should be if she expects them to defeat me. I’m fine.”

Reggie nodded solemnly. “And what of him?”

Pursing my lips, I tilted my head sideways and twisted my ankle. His body went limp, his arms falling to his side. “What of him?”

“I assumed you’d keep one alive . . .”

“I did.” I leaned over and ripped the sole eye from the commander before walking over to the half-crumpled soldier leaning against the tree. She sat up and grabbed her stomach, the cut deep enough that she hissed. I ripped the fractured helmet off of her head, and she cursed at me in a language I didn’t know.

“Reggie, translate this for me, please.”

Reggie nodded.

I crouched before her and showed her the eye of her general. She turned away from me. “I want you to take this back to Nismera. Show her what’s left of her precious legion.”

Reggie spoke in her language, repeating what I said. Her face blanched. She’d assumed I was going to kill her.

“Now tell me how you found me.”

She shivered, her blood leaking between her fingers. She spoke, looking between Reggie and me.

“We were sent to capture the wild Ig’Morruthen.”

I glanced at Reggie. “I could guess that much. Ask her why?”

Reggie repeated. She glanced at me but spoke to him so he could translate.

“Yes, Jade City is full of healers, but they specialize in poisons. They follow the one true king.”

I sighed and stood up. “Samkiel and I were right. They have a ton of jars containing rare and dangerous plants. Samkiel didn’t know what they were doing, but we knew something wasn’t right. Okay, we need to go get him, and then—”

The female soldier let out a sharp laugh, followed by a wet, pained cough. She glared at me as she spoke.

Reggie’s eyes widened, but he said nothing.

“What did she say?”

“You must promise . . .”

“What did she say?” I closed the distance between Reggie and me.

“She said you are wasting time with her, but it will not matter. The traitor you work with is already captured and will face execution when he reaches Nismera. She said you have already lost.”

All control and reason snapped in that second. They went to Jade City first. That harrowing darkness in me rushed forward like wildfire. I spun and grabbed the soldier by her throat, pressing her into the tree.

“Tell me where they took him,” I growled, “and I might let you live.”

She coughed, pulling at my wrist, but I pressed harder before letting her lungs fill with air.

She glanced at Reggie, her voice broken when she spoke. Behind me, Reggie translated. “She did not tell us. She only entrusted Fig, the general whose eye you currently have,” Reggie answered.

“Fair.” I shrugged. “But he wasn’t going to talk, so that leaves you. What do they know?”

I waited for Reggie to ask and translate her answer. “That you are a traitor’s whore, and the ones that work with and help you will suffer greatly. A cargo vessel for Nismera is already well on its way with the traitor from the city. They plan to take him to her for . . .”

My skin prickled. Did Nismera know Samkiel was alive? No. It was too soon. He could barely hold a blade. The veins along his scar had darkened the last few days, and it was all I could do to keep myself from going on a murderous rampage. I knew he was getting worse. I knew it when our training days had decreased and when he didn’t even want to touch me but preferred if we just held each other. There was no doubt when he was emptying his stomach in the bathroom last night. Reggie’s words danced across my brain, filling me with dread. What if Reggie was right? What if I only brought him back temporarily?

I heard nothing else.

Felt nothing else.

He was limp in my arms, that deathly gray taking up his entire face now.

The color was stripped away.

My light was stripped away.

“I would have loved you then, too.”

Love

Love

Love

“Remember, I love you . . .”

Fangs erupted from my gums, my mouth descending as I ripped into her neck. She screamed beneath me as I fed until there was nothing left. Her body thudded to the ground, and I turned away from her. Using my sleeve, I wiped the blood from my face.

“Dianna,” Reggie scolded me. “This is what I am talking about with control. You could have attained more information.”

“I don’t need any more information. I just need power.” Pushing past him, I reached the fallen general’s body and grabbed the gauntlet off his arm. I tossed it to Reggie. He caught it in one hand and looked at me.

“Where are you going?”

I stomped away. “Where do you think?”

“Dianna.”

“Don’t.” I spun, my hand whipping out to point a finger at him. “I am teetering on a fucking edge right now, Roccurem. So don’t tell me what I need to do. I will not lose him a second time. I can’t.”

Not like I lost her, but those words never left my lips.

“Dianna.” Reggie stopped in front of me, his hands on my arms. He pulled back with a hiss as if my skin burned him. “That child does not deserve your wrath.”

He was talking about Miska. My vision changed, and I knew my eyes had gone red. “You think I’d hurt a child?”

“If you burn that city in a blind rage, if it falls, she will go with it.”

I turned away from him, not stopping this time when he called my name. “Hold on to that gauntlet, Reggie. I’ll be back,” I said.

My arms grew, forming wings, and scales replaced my skin. A roar ripped through the air, my body changing faster than ever before. I cut a path through the sky, my gaze focused on Jade City.