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Dagny
An ominous, swirling energy emanates from the golden wire, thickening the air and staining the clearing with a blinding beam of golden light. It circles his body, curling around his head, throat, chest, belly, pelvis, and legs—separating him into six pieces. The magic cuts through his skin, separating flesh from muscle and tendon from bone as it carves deeper into his flesh, severing his body right before my eyes.
Abaddon gazes into my eyes, and a flash of red consumes the golden iris as he takes in the pain twisting my expression. His lips part, his voice echoing softly into the space between us—only, it’s not Abaddon’s voice I hear. It’s Malice’s.
“My heart. My mate. There’s no reason to look so sad.” A feline smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, and though he tries to reach up, to hold me, he’s unable. A sigh billows from his parted lips, but the joy in his eyes remains as he whispers, “It’s okay, Dagny.”
“It’s not.” I shake my head vehemently. “It’s… it’s not. Nothing is okay.”
“But it is,” he answers, the corners of his eyes crinkling with his smile. “The few moments I was allowed to spend with you… They mean more to me than life. I can go willingly to my grave, knowing I had them and got to meet you, even if it was only for a short time.” His eyes drift closed as the golden wire sinks deeper into his bone, tearing the threads of his soul apart. “Thank you,” he whispers, his voice dying along with the light in his eyes. “ Thank you… thank you… thank… you.”
There’s an explosion of light, a surge of energy that shoots through the air and threatens to cleave the ground. Abaddon’s body sunders—and when I blink, I’m staring down at six evenly divided sections—no golden wire, no grand theatrics, nothing.
There’s no blood, no carnage, or anything spectacularly gory about the sight, but it’s the most horrifying thing I have ever laid eyes on. To see my mate, the one being I love most in this world, chopped into pieces… There are no words to describe the anguish it brings, the utter despair pulsing throughout my body, threatening to tear open my chest and send my heart shooting out of my throat.
I throw my head back with a scream originating from the base of my stomach, filled with so much pain that it rattles the silver branches of the welwigs, filling the air with a melodic tinkling as their leaves rustle in the hurricane swirling around me.
I curl my body over the remains of the great demon king, desperate to save him from his fate, shielding him from the elements whipping through the space and threatening to whisk his pieces away. Tears stream down my face as I press my palms to his frozen chest, pushing healing magic beneath his skin in a frantic attempt to revive him, knowing it will do no good.
This can’t be all there is, my heart cries. There must be something else. Something more. Something to make it worth anything at all. But no matter how much I wish it to be, how much I scream and cry and plead with the fates to bring him back, they refuse.
As the last of my magic is sapped from my veins and the storm begins to die, I slump to the ground beside him, my throat raw and my chest heaving with violent, rattling sobs.
This can’t be it. It was right there—right there—and then it wasn’t. My future, my hope, my love—all taken in a single moment.
I tip my head to the skies, the whipping wind freezing the tears on my cheeks as they fall, singeing my skin with its cruel icy fingers and reminding me of what I had and what I lost.
A high-pitched mewl draws my attention to the side, and when I turn my head, I’m shocked to find Nya’s glowing red orbs blinking across the distance. Her fluffy black tail swishes back and forth along the ice, causing a fine layer of ash to billow into the air around her.
Honey materializes from the shadows next, followed by Comet, Bo, and Echo. Syn slithers across the ground and stops at Nya’s feet, rising with a gentle hiss as her long, inky tongue flicks out, sampling the misery and despair hanging heavy in the air. I wait for them to step closer, to come and soothe me like they have so many times before—but they just stand at the periphery of the clearing, watching silently. Waiting for something.
“What are you doing?” I whisper, my voice cracking with each strained word. “Why are you just standing there?”
The little yellow rabbit who started this entire fucked-up tragedy shuffles forward, the tips of his fuzzy ears dragging in the thin layer of soot covering the ice. He moves about a foot, then stops, tilting his head to the side as he inspects me from across the distance.
“ Bo ,” I plead. “It’s okay. You can come here.”
Bo’s lips twitch, but he refuses to move any closer, just sits there watching me with those big, beady yellow eyes. Nya lets out a piercing meow, calling Bo back to the group. He blinks, then turns, hopping to the space between Honey's burly paws and nuzzling against her chest for comfort.
As the familiars turn and begin walking away, pain throbs in the six separate bond marks spread across my body. It starts with a tingling ache in the center of each of the marks, growing into a searing agony that spreads like wildfire across my skin, eating through muscle and burrowing to the center of my bones. A sob claws its way up my throat as I watch Nya turn and skulk into the shadows, disappearing without so much as a glance back, without warning.
With every step she takes, the bond marks peppering my body begin to fade, the brilliant hues dimming and returning to the color of the surrounding skin. I don’t need to ask to know what it means. The bond is dying.
“Wait!” I scream, my fingernails breaking as I claw across the ice, desperate to reach them before they disappear for good. “Wait! Don’t leave! Please ! Please come back! Don’t leave me here alone!”
But none of them listen—none of them care. The tether holding us together has ceased to be, and there’s nothing for them to stay for. Nothing to fight for.
I press my forehead to the ground as great sobs wrack my chest, flooding from me as fast and violent as the tears from my eyes. It’s over. All over. They’re all gone. All but me.
My hands curl into fists, smashing against the ground and breaking my skin apart from the broken shards of ice that line the surface. It’s that brief shock of pain that allows my mind to quiet, allows me to focus.
For a single moment, the fog of panic clears—and I remember. It seems so long ago now, but I can still recall each of his words in startling clarity and remember the story whispered in that darkened cell, when I thought they were the last ones I would ever hear. And I realize they’re the key to it all.
Twenty-one years ago, a demon I never knew was in this same position, tasked with a problem just as great. Varys was able to bring the pieces of Abaddon to life, and if I believe in what I’ve heard—if I believe in the power living inside me—then I should be able to do the same.
But first, I need to take out the heart.
Table of Contents
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- Page 9
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- Page 11
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- Page 15
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- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36 (Reading here)
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39