Page 24
24
Dagny
My eyes spring open, watching the shadows dance along the ceiling, frozen in place by the heavy pit of dread spreading from my gut.
Something’s wrong.
I rise slowly, careful not to wake any of my slumbering mates. My head swivels around the room, searching for something out of place, a threat, something to explain the niggling in the back of my mind and the tightness in my chest.
I hold my breath as I navigate the maze of tangled limbs, determined not to make a sound. My steps are silent but hurried, the chord tightening around my heart and urging me toward the exit, down the darkened stairwell toward the bathing chamber.
Heated air smacks into my face as I push off the last step, flowing over my skin and raising the hair along my arms from the temperature change. The thick vapor filling the room partially obscures the beastly outline crouched at the far corner of the pool, and though his face is hidden, the raw anguish rolling from his shoulders lets me know exactly who it is.
The pads of my feet smack against the water-slicked floor as I walk over to the golden-eyed demon, the sound like gunshots against the stifling silence. I sit beside Kaebl at the edge of the pool, dangling my bare feet in the heated water with a sigh.
Kaebl’s stare burns a hole into my profile, but for whatever reason, I can’t bring myself to look at him. Because I know if I do, if I hold the weight of that tortured longing one more time, I’ll shatter.
“Where’s Syn?” I ask, turning my attention to my hands clasped tightly in my lap. “I didn’t see her with the others.”
I sent her away.
“Why?”
He takes a deep breath in through his nose, forcing his eyes from my face to the far edge of the pool. It’s too dangerous for her to be close to you. I refuse to allow her to complete the bond between us.
“Oh.”
My throat tightens at the unexpected wave of rejection his words cause, and I fold my arms around my middle as a cold chill runs down my spine. Tears spring to my eyes as the wild thing beneath my skin rears up, filling my ears with her haunting screams of wrath and outrage, demanding Kaebl retract his statement. So this is why he’s been keeping his distance and sleeping in a different room. Because he doesn’t want to bond with me.
Noticing my expression—or perhaps the violent thoughts rushing through my mind—Kaebl reaches out, placing his hand on the stone just next to my thigh. I didn’t mean it like that, Dagny.
“Then what did you mean?”
He shakes his head, his golden eyes filling with heated desperation. I want nothing more than to bond with you—to hold you and to worship you and to connect with you as the others do. But it’s too dangerous.
“Why?” I demand. “Nothing happened when I bonded with any of the others. If anything, it made them stronger. You don’t have to lie to me. If you don’t want me, all you have to do is be hones?—”
Do not ever… Kaebl’s voice enters my mind as a growling threat, cutting off my words and sucking the oxygen from my lungs. Don’t you dare say that I do not want you. You are all I think about, all I dream of and more. If there were no sun, I would look at you to brighten my skies. If there were no wind, just your smile would be enough to keep me soaring through the atmosphere. There is no part of me that does not want to be completely, irrevocably linked to you. You are my mate, Dagny— our mate—and the only reason I have the strength to stay away from you is because it’s the only thing keeping you alive.
“Kaebl…” I’m at a loss for words, the violent whooshing in my ears making it impossible to string a single line of thought together. “Kaebl, I?—”
Please… Don’t. His eyes fill with sorrow as he inches his pinky toward my thigh, stopping just before it brushes my skin. The sound of my name rolling off your tongue is torture. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted, and everything I can never have.
“Why not?” I ask, my heart thudding into my throat. “Why is it so dangerous?”
He just shakes his head, staring at that last little distance between us. Do you remember when Malice told you about Abaddon’s sundering in Slaine's dungeon?
“Mostly,” I whisper. “It was hard to tell what was true and what was a lie.”
He nods solemnly. I imagine practically all of what he said was based on fact. The only thing he would have to lie about would be motive—just in case Slaine was listening.
I take my lip between my teeth, pondering. “So the part about the heart… how Malice was created without one…”
All true. Abaddon’s living, beating heart is hidden somewhere in this world—buried beneath several feet of ice after all these years, I imagine.
“It’s still fucking beating ?”
Kaebl nods, seemingly unaffected by the information. High-powered demons like Abbadon and Slaine are incredibly difficult to kill. Sundering is the only known way, and even then, you have to collect all the parts and destroy them if you don’t want them to be resurrected.
“And Varys got to them first.”
Kaebl nods. He forgot the heart, though. The resurrection failed. Malice ran off into the night with the last piece that could bring Abaddon back, and the rest is as you know it.
Kaebl cuts me a look out of the corner of his eye. It’s that wretched heart that is endangering your life.
“I don’t understand.”
He lowers his head to his chest. The night before Fenryr went missing—the night before Malice kidnapped him—he discovered a loophole to resurrect Abaddon. Written in some ancient tome that took years to decipher was the key to it all; and the key was you.
“Me?”
He nods slowly. The act of creating living beings out of soul pieces is incredibly rare and only recorded once in the entire history of this world. In that instance, one of the sundered pieces of the demon lord was destroyed before it could be recovered, and they were forced to resurrect incomplete demons such as me. The corners of his eyes crease with despair as his mouth turns downward, clearly distraught over the part of the story he has to reiterate. They discovered the lord's fated mate could be used in place of the missing piece. That her soul could be forfeited so his could be whole. And it didn't matter how many pieces of the lord were missing—as long as they found his true other half , they could bring the demon back to life.
My eyes widen as horror floods my veins. “Did they find her? His mate?”
Kaebl’s face pinches in disgust as he tips his chin. They brought her to an altar and bound her soul to each of the remaining pieces, then let the rest run its course. It worked remarkably well—for a time. But while his body was mended, his mind was shattered beyond repair. The loss of his mate—a woman he had only met for a few moments—was too much for him to bear. He turns his head to face me fully, drowning me in the weight of his gaze. She offered her life for him willingly, too. That’s how powerful that kind of bond is, Dagny. If we bonded, there’s no doubt in my mind you would offer your life to bring Abaddon back—your one, true mate.
“But you’re my mate,” I whisper. “You and all the others. I feel it.”
He just shakes his head sadly. “Abaddon is your mate, Dagny. The rest of us are just pale imitations. We each have pieces of him, yes, but as a whole…” He lets out a heavy sigh. “The stars fated you to him for a reason, little one.”
“I wouldn’t do that. I don’t even know him!”
Yes, you do. His eyes shine with a tender warmth. You see pieces of him in me. In Cyprien and Lir and Roark and Fenryr… and especially Malice. And yes, perhaps you wouldn’t do it right away. But if something threatened our lives, and you knew reversing the sundering would save us—save Abaddon—you would do it in an instant. Without knowing how, without knowing why, you would.
“You don’t know that?—”
I do! It’s exactly what happened in the other case. I didn’t want to go into details, but… He lets out a puff of breath, his jaw ticking. When the lord’s mate refused to give her life initially, they brought a knife to his throat— knowing how powerful that bond is—and acted like they were going to kill him. She gave up her life in an instant, and they hadn’t even mated yet.
“That’s… horrible.”
It was more than that. It was… devastating. He shakes his head. In the end, the kingdom was turned to ash, and half the world was drenched in flames. He cleared the continent, leaving only Slaine’s and Abaddon’s territories untouched at the edge of the world. And now… now there’s truly nothing left on this half of The Far Place.
I swallow hard. “There are no more kingdoms? No more demons? They’re all just… gone?”
There were never a great many here to start with—the weather and lack of resources make for bad living. The Gyldens and the Naifs are the last groups to remain— were the last groups—but after the slaughter of the Gyldens twenty-some years ago, on the night Abaddon was sundered…Slaine’s kingdom contains all the remaining demons in this part of The Far Place. Kaebl shrugs. But the south still has many kingdoms and a variety of species and fauna living there.
“Can’t we leave, then?” I whisper. “Go south? Or anywhere that’s safer than here.”
Kaebl frowns, his shoulders tensing at the hint of desperation in my tone. I’ve thought about it many times. But to abandon our lands—Abaddon’s rightful territory—and give it to Slaine… He shakes his head. He will continue to build his army, grow his resources by creating more of those… creatures… and then take that army south and ravage their lands. Hundreds of innocent demons and creatures will be massacred, and while he wouldn’t necessarily succeed in the long run… I cannot allow his treachery to spread. I will not sit by and watch his evil drench the south in its filth. We must stay. We must fight.
“But… Everything is gone. Abaddon’s castle, Slaine’s castle…”
Kaebl’s gaze hardens as he stares at the rippling waves. We rebuild. But first, we take back what belongs to us. What belongs to you.
“Me?”
He nods slowly. You are Abaddon’s mate. My mate. This is as much your kingdom as it is anyone’s. And I’m going to do everything in my power to see you ruling it.
Warmth blossoms in my chest at the pride in his voice, but it’s overshadowed by the cold reality of the situation. “I don’t think I’m capable of that. Even if I wanted to, there’s no way?—”
You’re the strongest being in this world, Dagny Olavera. You’re the last person to realize it, but it doesn’t make it any less true. You will make an amazing queen. All you need is to learn to harness your power, and you’ll be unstoppable.
“I’ve been trying. But it… I can’t make any progress, and we’re running out of time.”
I know, his voice whispers. That’s why I’m going to help you.
“You’re going to train me?”
With Malice, yes. I think together, we’ll be able to understand your power, so that you can.
“Okay,” I whisper, knotting my fingers in my lap. “I’m willing to try anything.”
Kaebl lowers his eyes, frowning at the sight of my nervous twitch. We’ll figure it out, little one. I believe in you, in your power. Now, it’s your turn.
I take my lip between my teeth, lost for words, for something to say that will fill the stifling silence between us. But there’s nothing other than the screaming desperation of the bond, agonizing over being so close to him and unable to touch.
You should get some rest, Kaebl says, tearing his gaze from me and focusing on the far wall of the room. We have a big day tomorrow.
I nod, my words caught somewhere down my throat, wrapping like a vise around my aching heart as I walk away from Kaebl. I shuffle back into the bedchamber, lying at the edge of the furs next to Lir—leaving Kaebl just enough space in case he wants to come in.
But somewhere deep down, I know he won’t.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24 (Reading here)
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39