Page 16

This was no longer his game, and I saw the moment Kri'Valta realized that, too.

My fingers twitched, the magic I'd placed throughout the room exploding inside of me. Kri'Valta's eyes went wide with a horror that was befitting his name.

I never used my magic; I abhorred it. I'd always preferred my fights head on, and that was the exact reason Kri'Valta lost before I'd even entered the building. Because he didn't think he had to prepare for this.

He didn't know how much I'd sacrifice to make sure tonight went in my favor. How much I'd already sacrificed.

My lungs burned, and I clung to the bonds in my chest as I lifted my hand. Even with so little in the room, my human magic spread. It had started as nothing but sprouts, Hemomancy digging into the wood, my blood sliding along the floor as it traveled its way into the roots of his home, planting a trap in the fiber of the walls. I pulled on Forgemancy next, searching for weak points in the building, for hollowed-out holes that might be hiding something of use. It plucked through the brick, the paint, and the mortar, deconstructing it and breaking it down until it was just parts to be used. I pushed it to go further, allowing it to pick apart the room until the walls quaked, and threatened to fall.

Every bit that I forced out of me added more tension to my spine, the sour taste in my mouth growing as it searched his palace, looking for what I knew to be hidden.

Kri'Valta's pretense of civility fell, horns sprouting from his head, wicked things that stretched around, twisting into spirals. His eyes bled solid gold, and his teeth sharpened into dangerous points. Lust slammed into me; the full brunt of his powers no longer hidden away. He struck out like a wild animal caught in a trap. It sliced through the air, striking me in the side, across my arm. It tore into flesh and ripped all the way to bone.

I was a force of my own. I lifted my hand, snarling as his magic fought against mine, forcing my ring and pinky finger down. I was rot, and my mouth flooded with blood, my eyes bleeding red. My skin split as I kept the pressure on.

I'd fought kings. I'd fought gods .

None of them had threatened Aaliyah. None of them had to worry about my full wrath, didn't have to face me while I was so desperate to win.

Kri'Valta had already lost. Because if I was trapped under the weight of my own detestable human magic, then I'd be sure he was the first to drown in it.

I caught Kri'Valta's surprised gasp just as my magic spiked, the wretched pull of Hemomancy blended with the Forgemancy I'd bled into the walls. My entire body was drained in an instant, a cold sweat pooling down my spine as the magic I'd kept locked away came barreling out of me. Kri'Valta didn't move, couldn't, as blood rose from the ground, winding around him like an enchanted rope. My veins pulsed, my nose bleeding as I swiped it away.

Kri'Valta struggled against his chains, and I tightened them, imagining them cinching against his skin until his breaths came out in tortured gasps.

"How—" he started, choking on the words as his blood slowed to a crawl in his veins. His eyes rolled back. "You don't use Sorceri magic. You've never used your magic."

I'd never needed to. I'd made sure that my infamy was far greater than the supposed weakness of not using my gifts. I was feared … but it was well known my distaste for my blood. Had it been any other fight, any other time, he would have been right. I would have died before I used it. A part of me died now, knowing that I had.

I leaned into Kri'Valta. His face paled, the bonds tightening on him. The false humanity had flooded away, and I tipped my head, unbreathing as his heart rate picked up.

The quick intake of breath, the dilation of his eyes as fear truly came to him … It was all more addictive than any drug.

"You've grown cocky, Kri'Valta. Soft," I said, barely more than a murmur. I saw what I'd seen every time another had crossed my path. A man, nothing more. Trapped by his own petty desires, his own faulty reasoning and inescapable fate. "I've learned something over the last few months, that decades of life spent in a past that tortured me couldn't."

Aaliyah's soft expression kept me going, even as the magic in me grew to violent heights. The potent rush of it, like hands dancing along my skin, was enough to make me gag. Still, I held the reins, unwilling to let go of our key to victory now.

For my light, the one that had brought me back from the edge of damnation. Who I fought for now.

"I would do anything to keep the one I love safe, and if that means using the magic that eats me alive? Then so be it. There is nothing I would not do for her. Nothing too vicious, too far, or too cruel. Nothing that will ever stand between me and her safety again."

I was Osiris Vivas, fourth Turned of Sebek Ra. Rex interfectorem. I was a monster, but above all else.

I was hers.

"Not even myself," I said with a finality that freed as much as it damned.

Kri'Valta balked at me, chuckling with a sour pinch of dread wrinkling the skin between his eyes.

"One problem with that. You can't kill me, Osiris. So, what, you keep me chained up until your magic runs dry? Quite the feat. Do you plan to bore me with your tales then? What about more monologue?" His dry words ended in a huff as I let my hand flash in the air, my hard work showing in my palm. His eyes grew wide as he paled, seeing what I held.

A small gold marble, the weight of it enough to make my arm shake. It was what I'd been searching for, what I'd pushed my magic so hard to find. Kri'Valta had been a pain to subdue, but this was my ace.

A Demon's Core was their life force, what kept them tied to the mortal realm. It had to be kept close, not necessarily on their person, but close . I'd been searching for the signature of his magic since the moment I walked into his home.

He jolted against the chains, cursing in an ancient language even I didn't know. The thing binding him to this plane pulsed in my hand.

I squeezed it between my thumb and pointer finger.

"Wait, wait !" Kri'Valta cried, jolting, his blood hitting the ground like liquid gold as my bindings tore into his skin. "We can talk about this. Don't do anything rash, Osiris!"

He wasn't mocking anymore, his joyful attitude torn away, exposing the man for what he was. Being faced with his own death had stripped him down to base instincts, to fear and panic, to bargaining . I hadn't planned on listening.

"Your death is all the help I need from you," I said, putting more pressure on the ball.

It resisted the fracture, sending a wave of pain up my arm, sharp enough to make my fangs drop.

Kri'Valta screamed as if I'd removed a limb.

"Information then!" he cried, his face blotchy as tears streamed down it. The essence finally cracked, and he shrieked. The gold in the air pulsed, some of it dropping to the floor. "Please, don't break it!"

I clicked my tongue. "Information is a grain of sand on a windy beach, Horror. You're going to have to be more specific?—"

"Darius. Darius ! You want him to fall at this Eternium." A bait, one that I'd expected him to go for, but there was nothing about Darius that I didn't already know. His fall was something I'd thought about many times in my life. Something I'd dreamed of, and one more Eternal that supported Sebek out of the way would only benefit us. Kri'Valta took a shuddering breath, his eyes closing. I pressed the Core again, and he jolted with a gurgled cry. "I know his weakness!"

I froze, eyes tracking Kri'Valta's panicked gaze as he watched helplessly from the floor. He rocked back and forth, letting out weak gasps as he did.

Darius had many things, but a weakness had never been one. I'd searched endlessly. He was untouchable.

It was why he was still alive.

"What weakness?" I asked.

"Promise you'll let me go," he whispered, and I shook my head.

I let the Core roll to a stop on my palm, running my pointer finger over it. It pulsed with life, the inside flowing as it moved. A little pressure, and Kri'Valta was screaming again.

This time, his eyes rolled back, and it took a few moments for him to regain his breath.

"It's not that easy, Kri'Valta. You dying tonight is the only way we can get the support needed for the Eternium, but I can make this painless," I hummed. A small crack echoed in the room, Kri'Valta's broken moan following it. "Or I can make you suffer. Either way, you don't get to live."

I wasn't expecting him to sob, for his head to drop in such poetic defeat. The broken part of my soul reveled in it, and for just a moment, I let that sink in. I swallowed the fear he bled, my fangs aching in my mouth. Instincts I'd thrown away came rushing back.

All for Aaliyah, I tried to tell myself.

"I'll leave, stay in the hell's and let my title as Eternal go without fight or fuss. Everyone will assume I'm dead. At least for the next couple centuries, and I'll tell you everything I know about Darius. Please ," he cried, the noise growing louder the longer I stayed silent. I knew what desperation looked like, and Kri'Valta's eyes flashed like a beast with nowhere else to run. " A binding vow! "

His words sucked the air from the room. Even my powers dulled as the shock of them hit me. A binding vow, a true devil's deal.

"You must be truly desperate," I said, allowing the reins enough room for Kri'Valta to sag forward.

The room shuddered under the weight of our combined power until even the human mask that Kri'Valta held started to flicker. His human form, so beautiful and extravagant, faded away. The Demon that kneeled at my feet was little more than a grotesque beast that heaved heavy breaths. His thick coiled horns tucked close to his bald head, wide golden eyes frantically searching the room for an out he would not find, his sickly yellow skin lit with veins and demonic glyphs that pulsed with his heartbeat. The same one that moved the Core in my hand.

I considered it. "You will tell me how to fell Darius. You will never take the spot of Eternal again. You will never bring harm to those of the Vivas Crypt, or those allied with them. You will disappear."

I took a step toward him, ignoring the part of me that purred at his flinch. I reached down, tipping his head up so I could stare into his eyes. Disgust followed the touch that I endured as I started the vow. "Swear it and speak your terms."

The move was instant as Kri'Valta's eyes went fully gold again. When he started to speak, that same gold flowed over his skin, igniting the glyphs that burned into him, one at a time, like dry tinder. The scent of torched flesh soured the air. "I, Valta, Horror of the Depths, Lust of the Kri Horde, swear by my word I will follow the rules outlined by this vow."

He shuddered once, the ancient ruins glowing before setting in that gold. They stretched over his right eye, from his hairline down to his jaw, unfading. "Bound by Infernal Conviction and the fires that made us. Meus sermo obligat ."

He sagged, still held up by my magic.

I mulled over his words, tilting my head before I nodded. His posture relaxed, his eyes dulling as pain set in. "Well, speak."

"I'm not that daft, Osiris. I've sworn my part. Now you have to uphold your half," he mumbled, the chains tightening around him, but he didn't relent. "You will not kill me. That is my term."

I hummed low under my breath, letting go of his chin and dipping until I was eye to eye, tilting my head when he shrank away. "I, Osiris Vivas, Kingslayer and eldest of the Vivas Crypt, swear by my word that you, Kri'Valta, shall not die by my hand."

The sealing of the binding vow lit the air like the Flame, sparking along our skin as his golden magic wound between us. It crawled up my veins as I finalized the pact. " Meus sermo obligat. "

My word is binding.

His magic faded away, sealing my vow in the fabric of it. To go against it was a death sentence, and now Kri'Valta held the cards. He took several hollow breaths before his words came crashing down around us. "Darius's luck is tied to an angelic artifact, bound by a pact older than the Eternal's. The only records of it were destroyed some years after he took over, but I've seen proof . If you fight him now, you will lose. Just like everyone that has fought him since."

"If Darius held a bond like that, I'd have felt it," I drawled.

"I don't lie!" Kri'Valta screamed, his voice shaking the room as he shook his head. The ruins covering his body glowed when he spoke, showing that, at the very least, he believed what he said. "No. It's not magic. It's older than that, forged by the first Angels. The method lost to time, a ritual that's nothing more than dust now. Darius cannot die with the idol still intact, and luck will always be on his side as long as it's unbroken. How do you think he took the spot from the original Eternal Atlas to begin with? Darius was a lesser Mythic, leagues less powerful. He shouldn't have won. Without the binding, he wouldn't have."

Hints of doubt sprouted.

Darius had taken over as Eternal just decades after they'd first been introduced. He'd been young and had stolen it from a Mythic ages ahead of him in power. I hadn't known of Atlas, but his feats lived on even today, to the point of almost legacy status among the Griffon Mythics. But even then …

"Where is it?" I pressed.

The room was silent besides the wheezing and the still-sizzling of Kri'Valta's skin.

"The one place no one would look," he said finally. "Trapped under the Eternium, bound in chains where none come back from, it's in the Pits . The Eternium holding ground. But if you get it out, and destroy it? Darius wouldn't be able to handle a Challenge. Or Retaliation. Even one he places."

A shiver shot down my spine, one full of promise.

The idea of revenge had always been on my mind. After Kali, watching her finally die by my hand … I craved the same with Darius. To see him brought so low before his heart stopped. With Kali dead, he would seek Retaliation, and I would be the first he'd blame.

A win for him either way.

If this idol truly existed, it was the key to the fall of my old master. In a way that could not be turned against us at the Eternium.

"You did well, thank you," I said, lifting the Core so I could gaze in it once again.

The bindings on Kri'Valta tightened as I stepped forward.

"What are you doing? We had a deal!" Kri'Valta hissed, straining against the magic ropes, helpless as they bit into his skin. His blood hit the ground in a golden, sizzling splash. "You'll die, too, you lunatic!"

Something dark inside of me relished it, the power, the fear that the Horror of the Depths felt.

"A deal is a deal," I said, standing straight. I'd always been a fan of games, especially ones like this. Ones where the victory tasted so much sweeter. "My magic, however, was bled into this room long before I agreed to it, a failsafe to make sure you didn't walk out of here. A failsafe that I no longer control."

Hemomancy coursed through the room, and his arm jerked crudely, like an unwilling puppet. I set the small pearl in his hand, placing his fate in his own action. Kri'Valta's eyes shot wide, the stark mix of betrayal in them making me feel things I shouldn't.

"I swore not to kill you with my own hands." I put them behind my back, and he struggled against the magic that had already beaten him, choking on a cry as he squeezed until the pearl shattered . "But that's not to say you can't die by yours ."

I like to think we're more.

It was like watching a switch flip behind Kri'Valta's eyes, his ruins glowing hot gold before he smiled and stopped struggling. One by one, they faded from his skin, as though they were being erased. The cruel expression only distorted further as his head tipped back, and a broken laugh came cracking from his chest.

"You're just like him, Rex interfectorem, " he choked out as his body turned to dust, disintegrating into nothing more than gold that fluttered in the stagnant air of the room. His last words were nothing more than a haunted whisper. "Sebek would be proud."

They lingered, ringing in my ears, dragging me along as I looked to where he'd been. The rush I'd felt at his death didn't fade, nor the remnants of power that still held on to me like a drug. I'd never been one to fight so dirty, to go for the throat while parading a conversation.

It was cowardly. It was slimy .

My stomach cramped, the rush of adrenaline fading with each breath. The power turned to lead, my head spinning as I tried to convince myself that he was wrong … but Kri'Valta hadn't lied, not throughout our conversation and not now.

It was exactly what Sebek would have done.