“By the fucking Angels,” I muttered.
First came the beaked head of an eagle, talon-tipped feet reaching forward. A lion’s lithe body and the grand wings of its aviary counterpart stretching from wall-to-wall. It arched out ofthe tapestry, landing lightly against stone, like this creature was born for the open air despite its conjured state.
And I stood there breathless as a fuckinggryphonappeared before us. The tapestry where it had been was now a bare stretch of navy blue, like it was wrenched from the sky.
I’d seen the sphinx Ophelia had woken, but something about actually witnessing the magic in action as it brought a creature of legend to life was altering. Like I hadn’t realized just how intense this form of power was. How dangerous it could be if commanded by the wrong hand.
Just what would Echnid make Ophelia bring to life if he had her under his thumb?
“We have to hurry,” I said with a glance over my shoulder. Nothing sounded from the vault, but who knew when one of the Angels would drift away.
Ophelia was tending to the gryphon, ensuring not a feather was out of place, but the creature didn’t seem riled at all. If anything, it was determined, eyes steely gray and focused on her.
“Come on,” I urged.
“Ready?” Ophelia asked the creature.
Unlike the sphinx, this one didn’t talk. It snapped its beak with a muted screech, like it was trying to keep quiet.
As we hurried toward it, a gold glow echoed from the stairs.
Damien.
Ophelia’s face paled, her eyes wide. She hastily hopped on the gryphon’s back, and I was about to jump up behind her, but she shook her head and flapped her wings.
“Take the lead.”
I grumbled, but didn’t argue, tucking my knees above the gryphon’s wings. Ophelia wrapped her arms around my waist, and I prayed to whatever beings actually cared that she was as steady on a saddleless gryphon as she was on Sapphire. I nudged the beast into motion, and we fled, talons scraping againstmarble floors. My hands tightened against the creature’s thick, feathered neck.
As we rounded the corner, I cast a last glance over my shoulder.
And I met the purple stare of the Prime Mystique Warrior.
Valyrie stood beside him, her star-flecked ether dancing around her lavender gown.Fuck…Valyrie. She probably read our escape attempt just now. Damien opened his mouth to say something, but I never heard the words.
We were out of the depths of the palace and tearing through the foyer, down the wide stone entrance and toward the grand staircase to the grounds. Wings flared out on either side of us, and soon, the palace shrank below. The gryphon took flight, soaring off into the night.
“There’s one more thing I have to do!” Ophelia called over the rush of wind.
The darkness in her voice sent my stomach spiraling back to the ground.
“What is it?”
I checked behind us, but no Angels were taking to the skies. No cerberus raced along the grounds.
“My Curse mark,” Ophelia whispered, speaking of the gray webbed veins that had tattooed her wrist since the first false curse appeared on her. “It’s been a connection this entire time, showed up when the Angelcurse first woke. And Echnid has been using it to drug me since he returned.”
“I fucking knew it,” I grumbled, anger igniting. She’d been catering to the mark since we got here. “I knew something was wrong.”
“I don’t remember entire days. I swear, Malakai, I-I never would have sided with him. I never would have tortured you, but for some reason this mark allowed his magic access to my thoughts and actions. To control me,” Ophelia admitted, wordsrushed and cracking. “It was always when you weren’t around. I think you kept pulling me back, or my subconscious kept coming back to you. Everything was foggy—and there was some voice in my head—and, and?—”
Her voice was so fucking broken.
This was it. Ophelia had fought for so long. Against Kakias, for the Angels. She’d been used, but this? This had stolen something from her. Forced her to do things beyond her will.
Thiswas the point at which she’d shattered.
“I know, Phel,” I said, holding her arms tighter to me and looking at the black webbing on the inside of her wrist. “I know.”
