Page 14 of Evermore (The Never Sky #3)

I yanked my wrist free and stepped away, trying to drag the Remnants that circled the ground backward, though I truly had no control over what they did.

Their hissing in my mind grew louder and angrier.

I felt like I was surrounded by a thousand swarming bees while trying to face down an ancient beast.

“You made yourself my enemy the day you dropped me in Wisteria. Everything since then has been icing on the cake.”

He ran his hands through his dark hair until it was a disheveled mess.

And that tic in his jaw, the one that always spoke to his feelings even when he tried to hide them, drew all my attention.

He’d always been the most beautiful man in the room.

Apparently that was because he was a god. The god. Fucker.

Reverius straightened and his shoulders squared. As he opened his mouth to speak, a chill swept through the meadow. The grass rippled like waves on a dark sea. The shadows between the trees deepened, coalescing into a figure that stepped out of the darkness with casual grace.

Alastor.

He wore a suit of deepest black that absorbed the light, making the pale skin of his face appear to float disembodied in the night. But I knew the suit hid his tattoos. I knew the sleeves were covering markings that moved along his skin as much as his Remnants curled along the ground beside him.

“Where one goes, the other is never far behind,” he drawled, cracking his knuckles as he walked past Thorne, er Reverius. “I thought we were learning things here, Descendant.” His eyes scanned the Remnants circling me before he scowled. “Explain this.”

“You don’t have to tell him shit,” Reverius said, scowling.

“That’s a very interesting choice of words, coming from someone who does nothing but lie and manipulate for his own vie for power.

But let’s discuss, shall we?” Alastor came to my side as he loosened the navy tie at his neck.

He slid his hands into his pockets and faced Reverius coolly.

“My darling Paesha and I have a standing agreement. Isn’t that right? She still owes me a name.”

“Don’t do this,” Reverius said, face changing as if there was a threatening weight to Alastor’s words.

Alastor smirked. Centuries of built-up justice written across his face. “I will do exactly this. And you will stand there and do nothing because you have no say over what happens here.”

My heart began to race as the tone of that threat curled around me.

This was no longer the meadow I’d danced half my life in, no longer my escape from the weary, no longer my place of peace.

This was a battleground forged by gods, commanded by gods, and would ultimately be destroyed by gods.

Because that’s what they fucking did. They took and took and destroyed.

Everything. And everyone. Even themselves.

My Remnants, the ones I no longer mistook for Alastor’s, hissed.

Both men turned to me, glancing at the fists clenched to my sides and then the shadows rippling across the ground like giant claws, with nails ripping into the fresh earth as if they heard my thoughts and meant to mark this space as their own, rather than handing it over to these bastards that thought they had some kind of claim over me.

Thorne looked at me. Not Reverius, the god, but the shadow of the man that’d needed to hold me after cutting off an arm.

The man that’d danced with me in a goddess’s temple, forcing me to focus on him rather than my fear of the Cimmerians.

The man that’d sat beside my bed to keep the nightmares away.

“Don’t fucking look at me like that,” I said with disgust. “That mask no longer becomes you.”

Still, his eyes sank. Still, he drew back. “I’m sorry.”

The Remnants roared, swiping at the earth before him.

“Don’t you dare lie to me.”

“I’d love to sit here and watch this battle unfurl, but I’ve got things to do.” Alastor said, turning to face me. “You owe me a final name, Huntress. I’ve come to collect.”

Reverius cleared his throat. His hazel eyes were wide and full of desperation. I took a step back. Why the sudden shift? Why was he so worried? “I don’t have a name. I haven’t had time to find the final broken soul.”

Alastor laughed. His eyes darkened. His Remnants surged forward.

“Alastor,” Reverius begged.

I whipped my head around to look at him. “What do you know? What’s happening?”

“Let me guess, you never told her the terms of the bargain.” Alastor shook his head.

“Thorne…”

“You see, Huntress, sometimes gods learn their lessons the hard way too.” Alastor stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the world as his Remnants swirled around me, smothering any trace of mine.

“What did you do?” I screamed as the shadows circled my ankles and wrists, holding me in place. “What the fuck did you do, Reverius?”

“You were so faint. So, so close to death. And once again, the Keeper has failed you,” Alastor crooned, turning toward Reverius. “So many chances, and you still couldn’t tell her the truth. This is on you.”

The shadows at my wrists and ankles began to burn, searing into my flesh like molten iron.

I thrashed against their grip, but they only tightened, biting deeper.

Panic clawed my throat, threatening to choke me.

This couldn’t be happening. Not again. I couldn’t be bound, not after everything I’d fought for.

“What’s happening? Someone tell me what’s happening?” I screamed, my voice raw and desperate as the familiar shackles of control tightened around me, my free will dissipating. The meadow spun, the once peaceful night now a nightmare landscape of writhing shadows and accusatory stares.

Alastor’s face loomed before me, his eyes twin pools of endless darkness. His smile was cruel, predatory. “You made a bargain, little Huntress. And now it’s time to pay.”

“I didn’t,” I screamed. “I didn’t agree to this.”

“You did,” Reverius whispered or shouted. I couldn’t tell.

“Tell her the bargain, Keeper. Every bit. Tell her what you pushed her into.”

I looked at him. Pled with him in that glance. “Please tell me.” I could not be shackled again. I could not be a prisoner.

“Should he request a name and you’re unable to deliver, you become bound to him.”

My heart absolutely shattered. Exploded into a million pieces of hurt, betrayal and rage, until the darkness took over.

Until the monster swelling within me grew too big, too angry.

But I pushed back, swallowing everything, building all the walls.

I needed to keep it chained, keep everything I’d become a secret.

The push and pull battled until darkness descended.

They couldn’t see the beast I’d become. Not when the power to control it had just been taken from me.

Burning, raging magic shoved against my ribs, roaring to be released, to break the world. To rip both of the gods from their forms and drown them in an eternity of misery.

I didn’t choose this. I didn’t choose this.

I could not be bound. I could not be chained.

Tears streamed down my face. The burning from Alastor’s Remnants intensified, spreading up my arms and legs like liquid fire in my veins. It consumed me from the inside out, rewriting who I was on a fundamental level. Hiding the monster behind a wall of power. Alastor’s power.

My gaze darted wildly between Alastor and Reverius, silently begging for answers, for mercy, for anything to make this stop.

I fell to my knees, consumed by the fire. I couldn’t see beyond the pain.

“Stop!” Reverius roared, and I could swear the earth rattled with the force of that command.

But Alastor’s laugh was greater. “She’s mine now, Keeper. Pity you failed again. Some of us were really rooting for you. There’s nothing you can do to stop it now.”

“I’ll fucking stop you myself,” I roared.

Somewhere, a million miles away, I heard the door to the house slam shut.

“Come find me when you’re done with your tantrum, Huntress,” Alastor’s magic echoed in my ear as his Remnants dissipated and I was left buried beneath the panic of my own shadows, unable to breathe, unable to move, unable to blink beyond the two black bands circling my wrists.