Page 32 of A Kiss of Hammer and Flame (Fated for Hael #1)

As soon as Cahra raised her head, she knew. She was no longer in her Luminaux guest bed. She knew this place by now, this place of darkness, and of death.

She was in Hael’s tomb.

Cahra cracked a puffy eye open and there he was, like a sentinel in the darkness. The fires of Hael’s eyes were slits, as if he were peering at her, thinking. She squinted back, hardly able to see him and not just from her recent tears. Then she registered everything at once.

Her warm skin on the icy tiles of the floor. Hael eyeing her from behind a column.

By the Seers! Yelping, Cahra sprang to her feet, yanking a threadbare robe that had been draped across her round her shoulders like a shawl. Once she knew she wouldn’t drop the fistful of fabric, she spun on Hael. ‘Where are my clothes?!’

One of his flames flared, as though he’d raised an eyebrow. ‘ Where is your body? ’

She scowled. ‘In bed.’ The flame rose higher. She rolled her eyes. ‘I was asleep!’

‘ You remain so .’ There was a pause. ‘ Is it customary, to sleep disrobed? ’

Cahra felt her cheeks burn hot. ‘Not for me, no.’ Pulling the shroud tighter, she found sleeves and fumbled to dress herself, tying it at the waist. Then she folded her arms. ‘Why am I here?’ She squinted. ‘And why are you hiding from me?’

‘ You are pained, Scion. ’ Hael’s fires narrowed again. ‘ However, I sense no injury. ’

‘Cahra,’ she corrected. She couldn’t stand titles now. ‘And I’m not hurt,’ she said. Not physically . ‘My… my trust was broken.’

Hael’s simmering red flames burst into a nightmarish black, his silhouette descending into smoke and shadow. The air around them crackled as he snarled, ‘ By whom? ’

‘The Prince of Luminaux.’ It hurt, but Cahra found relief in saying it out loud. The crack in her chest began to ease with every word.

‘ A mandrake playing at monarchy, ’ Hael ground out. Then his anger seemed to relent. ‘ Yet, unexpected. Given the centuries that I have been interred here, the game may have changed. And the tri-kingdoms are seasoned players. ’

Centuries? She frowned, her mind whirling with questions. Like why Hael remained a disembodied black cloud when he’d never been before.

She was clothed, but he hadn’t moved or answered her question. Then she processed what he’d said. ‘Oh? What do you mean “unexpected”?’

‘ In my time, Luminaux was the most loyal kingdom to Hael’stromia and the realm. They were peaceful, unlike Ozumbre, or Kolyath, in the end. I would not have believed the fruits of Luminaux to be deceivers. ’

She hadn’t either, but here they were.

Cahra supposed it spoke to Thierre’s claims of Luminaux not being like the other kingdoms. Maybe he was right. But did it really matter? Tomorrow, she and Wyldaern would be leaving to meet the Seer’s teacher, the one Wyldaern called the ‘conduit’. The Oracle.

Cahra glanced back at Hael’s smoky form. She was here, and this was her chance to ask her questions about the Oracles, the prophecy, why Hael was here and where here was.

‘Hael, what is this place?’

‘ Last we met, you were also dreaming, ’ he said, as if comprehending something she didn’t. ‘ You do not remember? ’ Then, softer, Hael said, ‘ Yet, you remembered me. My name. ’

‘What?’ Cahra was remembering something, all right. She vaguely recalled he had said these dreams were visions. Of what?

His unearthly voice soothed her. ‘ You know where we are, who – what – I am. ’ Hael’s smoke and shadow glided to the sandstone slab, then stilled. ‘ This is Hael’stromia, the capital’s palatial temple. And I am the Reliquus. ’

The Reliquus. The word was familiar, but it was like wading through syrup to place it in her mind. As for Hael’stromia, that one, she knew.

They were here somehow, she and Hael, in the capital’s tri-cornered pyramid. Cahra turned in a slow circle, registering the bones, the pillars, the slab and the faraway light. And, finally, Hael’s black cloud before her.

‘Why are you hiding from me?’ She repeated her question, surprising him, by the look of his cloud shifting. Something was off. Hael had appeared to her as man-like before, a full head taller than her, but a physical being in his worn robe—

She looked down, at the cuffs of the robe she was wearing. Hael’s robe. And looked up to where his body should have been.

‘ Do not fear, ’ he said. ‘ You required a garment and I obliged. But my confinement has left me… weak. Malnourished. I cannot appear before you as I did. ’ It was then she found his flames, near-concealed by smoke. The fires in his eyes were like dying candles.

Shame and fear; she knew them well, remembering her own fear, the vulnerability of letting Thierre in, of being seen. And the pain of betrayal when he shattered that trust.

Believing in the Prince had been a mistake.

But now, this wasn’t about her. It was about Hael.

How long had it been since he’d seen another soul, if he’d been trapped in here for centuries?

Trapped, just like she’d been trapped in Kolyath’s dungeons.

No food, no water, no companionship. Solitary confinement, that’s what this was, and he’d been here longer than anyone had ever lived.

All because of the stupid prophecy.

She couldn’t stand it. She refused to be afraid, not of Hael. And she refused to let him suffer alone in darkness.

Cahra stared into the core of his dark cloud, her own eyes soft. ‘Show me,’ she whispered, her voice firm but warm.

Hael’s ghostly form heaved. ‘ I cannot. ’

‘I’m not afraid,’ she said, raising her hand to his wispy smoke.

‘ I cannot , ’ Hael repeated, angst in his voice.

‘You healed my leg,’ she reminded him. ‘How can I help you?’

Eventually, a sigh rippled through him. ‘ It will cost you, Scion. ’

‘Cahra,’ she reminded, smiling. ‘This may be the last chance I have to talk to you before I meet Wyldaern’s Oracle. I have questions, and I can’t sit here talking to a cloud for however long we have. So, Reliquus,’ she said gently, ‘name your price.’

Hael’s eyes flared at the mention of the Oracle, but he stayed silent.

She didn’t break his gaze. ‘What do you need?’

He shuddered, as if dreading his own next words. ‘ Your suffering. ’

‘My – what?’ Cahra blinked.

‘ Your negative emotions. Anger, sadness, fear. ’ His flames seemed to shimmer with remorse. ‘ It is how I survive in such a state, the curse that binds me to this form. My powers, while fed by negativity, can serve to alleviate it. For a time. ’

Cahra laughed bitterly. ‘You can take my feelings away? Have at them,’ she said, hearing the hostile edge to her voice, glad to be rid of anything related to Thierre.

She looked at Hael’s hovering black cloud.

Of course, it was a perfectly nonsensical request. But then, what part of any of this was normal? ‘Will it last?’

Hael’s smoky form shifted. ‘ No. That which I consume will be returned to your conscious form. ’ He hesitated, as if to say more.

Cahra sighed, knowing it was too good to be true. But it was better than nothing at all. Besides, she couldn’t stand looking into his eyes, those flagging flames, that managed to convey such hurt. She would help him however she could.

‘What do I need to do?’

‘ Sit, and be at peace. A partial draw should restore me ,’ he murmured.

How partial? ‘This won’t, you know, kill me in my sleep?’

‘ You will be safe. However, if you do not feel comfortable, you do not have to— ’

‘No,’ Cahra said, shaking her head. ‘You helped me, I’ll help you.’

‘ That is different. It is my duty, as your shield. ’

‘Stop changing the subject and let me do my part.’ She sat as instructed and focused on the feeling of her breath in her chest, holding it to slow her heartbeat. An old trick she’d learned as a child to calm her fears.

Hael hovered next to her, his smoke like satin upon her skin as it encircled her wrist, her outstretched hand. ‘ This… abreption… can be painful. You will feel a pull as the energy, your suffering, is drawn from you. Take heart, the sensation will not last. ’

Cahra frowned. How painful? But even as she thought the words, they didn’t trouble her enough to stop her. Despite his current guise as a cloud, this was the closest Hael had ever been to her. It felt… funny.

‘And this will fix you?’

‘ It will be enough for a time, yes. ’

It was strange. As her agitation increased, Hael’s appeared to fall away. She could sense it, his focus, the fixation as he stilled, his smoke and shadow subdued beside her.

‘ Close your eyes, ’ he murmured, his voice a coarse purr against her earlobe, so close that she shivered. She could have sworn he huffed a low, amused rumble. ‘ Inhale, slowly, deeply… then exhale. ’ His grip on her grew firmer.

There was a flurry of air, like when he turned to smoke. Cahra wanted to peek, but didn’t dare. Hael uttered his final words to her.

‘ Shall we begin? ’

She nodded, eyes squeezed shut. She had no idea this whole thing would be so… suggestive . Cahra inhaled, trying to steady herself, and shook her hands out to relax her.

Then the abreption struck.

She writhed against the urge to scream as a jagged, blinding pain ripped into her palm, invading her body and abruptly shattering every thought.

She felt it, just as Hael had warned: an agony like serrated barbs, shooting and snapping to hook her insides and wrench them out, inch by excruciating inch.

The sensation was unbearable, as though her very soul was being siphoned into oblivion.

Hissing as the pain surged deeper, she sucked in desperate gasps of air between her gritted teeth and counted to ten.

When she got to nine, the torment stopped.

Gone.

It was all gone . Her rage, sorrow, pain. Gone, exactly as he’d said. And in its place, something Cahra had never known.

Peace.