Chapter Eleven
Be strong...
The words echoed in her mind, and Raven took courage from them.
She didn’t know what had happened to Kael after he’d left. Something, because she knew he would have come for her otherwise. But whatever had happened, she sensed that he was somewhere in this world, that he still lived. As did her father, and it comforted her that there were people out there who would mourn her passing. They would know that today was her birthday, the day of the prophecy.
Were they thinking of her?
She’d made no attempt to hide after Kael had gone that day, and the fire-demons had found her almost immediately. But Sorien believed her story. She had received a savage beating and been returned to her cell, but she would have fared much worse if he’d suspected the truth.
The last few weeks had been an agony of hope, but now she had attained some level of peace, and at least she could die knowing that the fire-demons would gain nothing from her death.
It would be over soon. Once she would have welcomed this; now her soul cried out against it. She wanted to live; she wanted to spend eternity with Kael, to bear his children. She loved him, and she longed for the chance to tell him so, somehow to lessen the pain he would feel at her death. He had lost so many already.
But it was too late, for the time had come, and she was living through that final vision.
She opened her eyes and stared straight into Sorien’s vicious face. A smile played across his features, triumph gleaming in his coal-black eyes.
“Well, the time is here at last,” he murmured, stroking a claw-like finger down her throat. “Can you feel the sunrise so close?”
Raven turned her head away. She lay stretched out on the altar. She wasn’t tied, but a fire-demon stood at her head and one at her feet, their claws around her wrists and ankles, shackling her to the smooth, cold stone. Through the stained-glass window above her she could clearly see the blood-red glow of the coming dawn.
The sun touched her feet first, a prickle of heat in her toes. Soon the prickle became a sharp, searing pain and she bit back a whimper. The scent of charred flesh filled the air and the pain expanded until it consumed her whole mind. She squeezed her eyes shut, clenched her jaw against the scream that tore at her throat. She tried to think of making love with Kael, the sweet taste of his blood, but the pain grew until it was a giant fist squeezing the air from her lungs, ripping the very thoughts from her mind.
Just as she thought she could hold back her scream no longer, the light dimmed. Behind her closed lids she sensed the dawn fading, and the flames that licked at her body flickered and died. She opened her eyes; beyond the window the rising sun had been banished, eclipsed by a vast black shadow so only a faint glimmer of light still showed.
The window above her exploded and a huge, winged creature hovered in the opening, its wings beating the air as it searched the room. Then the creature threw back its head and screamed before diving for the altar.
Raven kicked out viciously at the fire-demon holding her feet, then hissed and bared her fangs at the other. They appeared dazed, staring at the creature, backing away. But Sorien was still beside her, his face twisted into a mask of fury and determination. He drew a long knife, raised it high above her with a scream of rage. But, as he brought it down, the creature slammed into him, knocking him from his feet, then picking him up in its talons and hurling him across the room. At the same time the huge wooden doors burst open and a swarm of people flooded in, bringing with them a brief flash of hope. Was this Kael’s army?
But Raven couldn’t watch; her whole attention was taken by the winged creature landing lightly at the foot of the altar. She stared into its deep-blue eyes and knew him.
“Kael?”
He lifted her almost gently in his talons and flew with her to the shadows in the corner of the room. She almost fell as her scorched foot touched the floor, then Kael stood before her. He went down on his knees and lifted her foot. He kissed the reddened, charred skin before staring up into her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“Sorry?” Raven shook her head, not quite believing that this was happening. “You saved me.”
She swayed toward him, and he stood up quickly, taking her in his arms, pulling her almost roughly against him. She was shaking, touching him, running her hands over whatever parts of him she could reach. Checking that he was real. All around, the sounds of fighting filled the air, but she ignored them, focusing only on Kael.
He ran a trembling hand through his hair. “I can’t believe we were almost too late.”
“Tell me what happened?” she asked.
“I was taken as soon as I transformed outside the castle—traitors in the Council. They used magic to bind me in my human form and imprisoned me with your father.”
“You escaped?”
He looked uncomfortable. “With a little help.”
He nodded in the direction of the fighters. It was chaotic, but after a moment she saw Sorien was up and was fighting a tall, slender figure. With a flash of shock she realized it was a woman with long blond hair that whipped about her face as she spun and twirled. She was holding her own against the huge fire-demon; in fact, she appeared to be toying with him. She was fighting back-to-back with a tall, dark-haired man, and Raven’s eyes widened as she recognized her father. Her gaze flew back to the woman and, briefly, the fight seemed to stand still as their gazes clashed. The woman had pale silver eyes, rimmed with black, witch’s eyes. She flashed a smile, then she was whirling away, and Raven turned back to Kael.
“Your mother,” he said dryly.
“She helped you?”
