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Chapter 19

Aaliyah

I 'd seen dead bodies before. Some haunted my memories, consisting of the others that had been at Ascension, living in moments that left me shattered as I woke screaming. I'd seen more in the last few weeks than I dared to count. The dead weren't new to me, but this one, the one sprawled on the ground, his throat ripped into ribbons, with Sebek hovering over him like a feral beast?

He was new. Blood pooled beneath his body, staining the golden floors and his once-white clothes.

Sebek had dragged me here, damned near kicking and screaming, through another teleportation spell. The room was covered in gold and red, bleeding a luxury I'd never seen before. Lavish velvet bindings traced bodies that hung from the ceiling, weathered but obviously cared for paintings that made my heart ache at the thought of Fallon decorating the walls.

My neck still throbbed, my head spinning from blood loss. The wound had healed, but the impression of his fangs was a constant reminder of his cruel words and dead eyes, a pain that lingered like a burden I couldn't get rid of. One that paled in comparison to the bonds that fractured on my wrist.

The man couldn't have been much older than early twenties, his blue eyes now open in permanent shock, adorned with flashy green make-up that accentuated the color, with wispy blond hair that had been styled meticulously. His features were soft and inviting, like he was the kind of person you could talk to for hours, with a smile that would light up rooms.

Sebek had killed him in an instant because he got too close, because he'd brushed against my arm as I was dragged through the throng of people.

The room had gone sickeningly quiet in the moments since it happened. Even the music stopped as the others around us turned to look on in horror. Sebek paid them no mind, not even bothering to glance at the body he'd left on the ground as he wiped the blood off his own face.

I couldn't look at him either, bile in my throat as I choked down the tears that burned behind my eyes. I held it all in, jolting closer to Sebek to keep from getting too close to the others in the room, frantic gaze sweeping over them. The rush of gold and red, screams and cries.

A flash of mismatched blue eyes that I knew like the back of my hand. My heart skipped, my mind denying it even as Osiris came into focus. The need to see him again, whole, was overwhelming.

I took a half step forward, if only to see him a little clearer. He was clutching his chest, his face slick with sweat as he seemed to stare vacantly into the crowd, the same desperation in his eyes I felt as I reached for my wrist.

A hand on my arm pulled me violently back into the present. I jolted away at the slosh of blood under my foot. This wasn't a dream, which meant Sebek hadn't taken me to the Eternium.

He'd brought me to Kri'Valta's Gala … to make sure Osiris didn't walk out of it.

"It seems Osiris has won his fight," Sebek mused, his fingers biting into flesh hard enough to leave bruises. "It will not save him, Glass."

The surrounding crowd fell into mayhem, as if the spell had been broken for them as well. The quiet murmurs turned to hysteria as people scattered, another man bumping into me as the last had. His blood splattered against the ground as Sebek tore open his throat with a swipe of his hand, the sound drowned out by the sea of screams and his dying moan. His startled gray eyes dimmed as he fell in a heap of blood and organs. The screams grew louder. Sebek's cursed and rambled words were only shadowed by the blood on my face as it cooled, and his threat that still rang in my ears going off like a siren. I reached for the wrist that he still held, suddenly struggling to breathe.

So much death, so much violence. Sebek doled it out without remorse or restraint, uncaring for anything beyond his own goal, whatever it was. Nothing would change that. Not me, not my father.

This man was a monster, and I wouldn't let Osiris be the next to fall. Sebek's words rang as he moved to step around me, letting go of my arm.

The rage from before built again, like nothing I'd ever felt, and it buried the pain of my power coming to the surface. The same that had flooded me in the safe house, the same that had been locked away like a beast in a cage. I went searching for that fury, hoping to find it in the hollow space in my chest where my heart ached.

Instead, all I found was the dark. The Void. And the gentle brush of assurance from the cold grip of death.

The pain from before was still there, the aching behind my ear that told me I hadn't broken through his spell that kept me locked down. That didn't stop me, as I reached for it, touching my soul against the inky black that had ripped Prince away from me the first time, that had destroyed my life in more ways than one. The power was sluggish, hesitant against the binds that Sebek had placed on me, hesitant to listen to my call after I'd abandoned it, but I pushed anyway.

I let my anger fuel me. Years, I spent years at the whims of this man. Under his thumb, controlled, beaten, starved, and tortured. Oddly enough, that wasn't what truly drove me, even knowing who he was.

It wasn't that he ruined my life.

It was that he'd taken theirs.

Fallon and Adrian were gone, and it was his fault.

There was a buzz in the air, and a brush of cold that was barely enough to bring me to my senses. Like a hand, steadying, warning me to keep my focus. It was irrational to think I could feel him, but I would have sworn I felt his touch against my cheek.

Red.

The spot behind my ear pulsed, pain flaring in my skull. I welcomed it, embraced it until it burned like a fire pulsing in my chest. Until the already-fractured seal holding me back wavered. Red helped, seeming to wrap himself around me like he had before, a warmth simmering, driving away the cold.

"I won't let you hurt him, too," I whispered, and Sebek froze, just long enough to look over his shoulder at me.

The bonds were like paper against the full weight of the Void; I gritted my teeth and pushed again. Infuriated and in pain … lost. The voice from before, the darkness that had held me while I ripped out Crustava's soul, came back.

Just overwhelm him. It whispered as the power flared. It hurt, an all-consuming agony that would have made a normal person seize. Red danced more erratically, the bitter essence of broken fear in the air only pushing me harder. Sebek took a fighting stance, all power as his eyes went hollow and flooded red. My gift stretched across the room like a dark cloud so fast even the screaming stopped. So close, I reached out, the taste of death on my lips, and he realized it then. Sebek's eyes grew feral, and he stood up to my power, flashing the same teeth he'd sunk into my neck.

More. Don't let him get away.

I savaged him with it until the entire room was covered in a black shadow that writhed around the bodies. He let go of my wrist, hissing as though in pain. The bonds covering my magic creaked, the sound audible as the Void shot out.

More.

"Settle." Sebek's voice was cutting. "You only harm yourself."

Still, he stood.

End him, put him out of his misery. The voice demanded, a last call that ate the grief that swallowed me whole.

I screamed, and like a toy wound too tightly, I exploded, my gears and springs sparking along my skin. Blood on my lips, this time my own as darkness shadowed my vision. Something held on to me, something telling me to be careful.

We'd finally been so close to safety, even if it was just briefly. The Eternium was supposed to be our last stand, the risk that would tip our scales. I gripped my wrist, almost begging for the burning that hadn't ceased in days to roar back to life.

It felt the others in the room, their life as my power toyed with them too. Felt the bystanders that didn't have a choice in the matter. My power didn't discriminate. It lingered on them as well, ready to rip them to shreds. I should have cared … I did care …

The room danced with a faint chill as Red bounced erratically around the space.

I was too far gone, my soul in pieces that I struggled to bind back together. My chest heaved, my eyes blurring with tears, and as the power reached for life in the room, all that mattered was Sebek. His death, even if it meant the others here would follow him. The cruel voice whispered softly in my ear, telling me things it thought I wanted to hear.

It'll be quick. One flick and they die. They all die.

This time, the voice was mine. This time, my gift stretched, reaching for Osiris .

I choked on the power I was unable to control as it seemed to wrap itself around him, and as soon as it broke free, darkness consumed me. Consumed us. It swallowed me whole, stripping the room of every ounce of light. The voices faded, the life around me snuffing out, as it all went quiet.