Surely, not everyone would respond as well as Casteel and Kieran had.
Would my eyes unsettle the Atlantians—as my mere presence did with Generals Aylard and La’Sere? At least the dark-haired female Atlantian had seemed to warm up to me a little. Maybe.
Would the changes in me terrify them?
Did mortals believe I had been Chosen and blessed by the gods? Or did they think I was a false god like the Blood Crown—my mother—had tried to convince the realm once it was clear that I wouldn’t fall in line? And if they did still think that, how would we gain their trust?
Pressure settled on my shoulders, but as I stared at my reflection, I reminded myself of what I already knew. We would have toconvincethem with our words and actions.
Pushing away from the counter, I walked back into the bedchamber. My gaze moved past the bed to the glass wall.
I was walking before I realized it and stopped in front of it. The windows only faced the Peaks and the steep, jagged rise of the Cliffs of Sorrow.
The blood in my veins hummed, and my pulse picked up. I lifted my arms and placed my palms against the cool pane. As I stood there, an inexplicable impulse to go to the Cliffs built within me. The urge settled deep in my chest, heavy and insistent, the pull tugging at me as my breath fogged the window, demanding that I…
That I do what?
Blinking, I jerked my hands away from the glass and stepped back. My heart pounded harder as I swallowed. I had no idea why I would feel such a need to go to the Cliffs. It made no sense. Shaking my head, I turned to the bed.
It really did look soft.
I toed off my boots and approached it. Holding on to one of the posts, I stepped onto the platform, then crawled to the center of the bed, where I plopped onto my back.
Itwassoft.
Lying there in the quiet, I stared up at the opaque curtains as I toyed with the buttons on the robe, my thoughts roaming right to a topic I really didn’t want to think about.
The realm that was now in ruins.
What was happening there? Was the land still splitting apart or being consumed by flames? Were people still dying, though in smaller numbers since I didn’t feel the horrifying pain again?
“Stop,” I whispered. No good could come of me dwelling on that.
Though no good came fromnotdoing so.
And that made me feel no better than the Arae.
Blowing out a ragged breath, I forced my thoughts to how we could ensure that we actually improved the mortals’ lives. I needed to talk to Casteel about my feelings regarding us ruling the mortals. But before we could do anything to improve the lives of those in Solis, we needed to deal with Kolis. And he was either…floating around somewhere unseen while doing only the gods knew what or had already taken corporeal form. The latter was oddly the better option. At least he wouldn’t be moving about without us knowing.
I knew I should get up. Casteel would return soon, and I should bathe and put on actual clothing before he did. But I remained sprawled across the bed as the seconds ticked into minutes. I had no idea how much time had passed before I felt a featherlight brush of lips against mine, and the cool graze of fingertips trailing down my throat and lower. My body responded, my back arching as the barely-there caress drifted over the swell of my breast, hardening the peak. My eyes fluttered open to…
Nothing.
Sitting up, I slowly glanced around the chamber. My gaze landed on the windows. The chamber was dimmer, the sky beyond clouded over. I slipped off the bed and stepped down from the platform. My feet carried me toward the glass, but each step was slow, as if I were walking through thick slush. The elms were darker than I’d ever seen them.
A prickle of unease skittered through me in warning, but a suffocating heaviness settled over me like a thick fog, forcing my eyes closed. The tiny hairs on the nape of my neck stood at attention as an unmistakable presence, cold and heavy, pressed against my back. Every part of my being screamed for me to turn and fight. To do something. Anything. But it was like I no longer had control of my body. I couldn’t move as the weight of an arm encircled my waist. Horror entrenched itself deep within meas the robe loosened. Icy fingers grazed my collarbones before gripping my throat. My breath stilled in my chest.
Frigid air brushed my cheek. “I’ve always been with you.”
My eyes flew open as thin fissures appeared in the window, racing outward from beneath my palms. An achingly cold chuckle turned the blood in my veins to sludge, cracking the window—
The glass exploded, thousands of sharp pieces causing me to jerk back, but there was nowhere to go.Hewas behind me like a solid, cold, unyielding wall. The hand around my throat yanked my head violently to the side—
The fragile bones in my neck breaking were like thunderclaps in my ears, a sound so deafening it drowned out everything as the realm exploded in a blinding flash of white.
Choking on a scream, I jerked upright, my arms thrown out as my heart threw itself against my ribs. I could still hear the cracking bone—my bone—as I stared through eather-shadowed fingers at the…intact glass across from the bed.
“Oh, my gods,” I breathed, lowering my trembling hands.
