Chapter Sixteen

By the time we arrived in the Corrupter's fortress, I was lost. Some small part of Ember remained, but he was buried beneath layers of death, caught in a skeletal darkness. The new Ember stepped out of Caleb's arms, took a deep breath, and looked around with fresh eyes.

A thought burst inside me, The world is mine!

Yes! Death shouted. You see it now. You can have anything you want, Ember. You and Aranren.

I looked at Caleb and saw Aranren staring back at me. Sneering, I said, "For fuck's sake, get out of that pathetic shell."

Caleb shuddered, then fell back against the stone wall, and gasped. His eyes went wide and his hand went to his heart. "Ember," he whispered. "Oh, sweet Goddess. I'm so sorry. I tried to tell you over and over, but every time I did, he returned." Caleb began to weep.

"Shut up." I rolled my eyes and turned away from him.

There was a soldier nearby, one of the so-called Corrupted. I saw them for what they truly were now—tools to be used. There was no corruption, only freedom. Power. Not for them, of course. For me.

I waved at Caleb and said to the soldier, "Do something with that."

"Ember!" Caleb cried and reached for me.

I flicked my hand at him, and he slammed back into the wall. With that motion came a rush of adrenaline. Joy. This was who I was meant to be. Confident. No hesitation. I just did as I wished, when I wished.

"Beautiful, just beautiful," Aranren said as he stepped out of a room. "Such smooth execution of a combination of magic. And it came to you with ease. I'm impressed."

The soldier dragged Caleb away as he sobbed. I barely noticed; I was too focused on Aranren. Beautiful, he had said, but it was he who was beautiful. That hair, streaming around his slender shoulders in golden glory. Those eyes, so pale a blue that they seemed to glow in the dim light. The fine bones of his face were poetry, created to entice. And those lips, so full and soft, were meant to be kissed.

Aranren smiled and opened his arms.

I went into them immediately, my face turning up to his. Aranren met me halfway, gracefully folding around me, his robes gaping open so that my hands found bare skin. But it was his lips that I was instantly obsessed with. The softness of them upon mine. The way they opened gently, then pressed hard to claim. His tongue slipped through and entered me. I groaned to taste him at last. Dark spices and chocolate. Cream and sugar. He was everything delicious and bad for you. I wanted to lick him up.

"Oh, my Ember," Aranren purred as he drew back. His mouth went to my neck, pressing kisses there before he whispered in my ear, "I've been waiting so long for you to come to me."

"I've been a fool," I said.

"No, never that." He brushed his lips over mine and pulled me closer. "Just misled. I will show you the way."

"Show me," I said eagerly. "Take me now."

Aranren blinked. His face shifted into pain, then anger. "No!" he shouted and pushed me away.

His odd and violent rejection confused and disappointed me.

But then he went on, "Damn you, Death! I don't want him like this. This is rape!" He waved a hand at me. "If I wanted to fuck a puppet, there is an army of them for me to choose from. But you know that's not what I want. It's not what you promised. Release him!" He looked back at me, waiting, then shouted, "Release him now!"

The desire and adoration filling me abated, and I was left staring at Aranren in even deeper confusion. He was still beautiful, very beautiful, but I didn't have an overwhelming urge to make love to him. To be his. I took a deep breath, processed what had happened, and a part of me screamed in my mind. I had nearly been raped, but the Corrupter had stopped it. The fucking Corrupter!

My mind spun, fighting the power inside me. Death had drawn back its will enough for me to think, just a little, as the true me. And I needed to hold onto my true self if I was going to get free of the Corrupter. No, not the Corrupter. Staring at him, seeing the hint of fear in his eyes and the way his chest rose and fell rapidly, I remembered that skeleton I'd seen caging him when I had confronted him in our minds. He was just as much a victim as I was.

Fuck. The real villain was Death. Always had been. Aranren was just a puppet. As I was. Death had tricked me too.

"Aranren," I whispered.

"I'm so sorry, Ember," Aranren whispered back.

I gaped at him. Was this the real him? Had Death drawn back from his mind as well. But instantly following Aranren's apology, his eyes went blank.

"Aranren?" I asked.

The Corrupter returned, eyes filling with evil and lips curling in triumph. "Come, Ember. Let's get you settled in your new home."

He stretched out a hand to me and over it, around it like a gauntlet, I saw a flash of white. Bone-white. Then I was pulled under Death, a cage solidifying around me as well. I took Aranren's hand and saw it for just a second—a glove of tiny bones around my hand.