Page 2 of Oath-Maker

I stood straighter, resolve building within me until I summoned the nerve to look Merek in the face and shove away everything we’d once meant to each other. “Get out of Alastia,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “Now, Merek.”

I wanted to threaten his life. But thinking of doing so, resolving to follow my new oath, was one thing. Actually committing to it was another. And I wasn’t ready to speak those words yet, to turn them into action.

Merek appraised Lucius and me for another moment longer before digging out a golden, sparkling flower from his armor. He laid it down on a nearby table. “As a show of good faith to you, Ayla, this flower will stave off the effects of light sickness for about a day. You have until then to decide where your loyalties will lie once and for all. If you come with me, I will not touch Alastia and I will cure your demon lord’s light sickness completely. Stay with him, and I will force you both to watch Alastia burn until its destruction opens a new tear in the Veil—one large enough to meld our worlds.” He lifted his chin to me. “I will send a messenger tomorrow morning. Kill them instead of answering me, and I will lead the Light’s first charge straight through the heart of this city to your Angel of Death’s throne room.”

Merek turned, stretched his wings, and flew back out the balcony doors into the skies. Shots of magic fired, the sounds echoing beyond the balcony. I didn’t rush to see for myself. I knew Merek would make it past the sentries on the walls of the castle and out of Alastia safely. He’d already gotten inside unscathed.

Lucius collapsed back into the bed as soon as Merek was gone. I followed, kneeling beside him on the mattress.

I grabbed his hands in mine. Lucius’s body still shook. A sheen of sweat covered his body. “You shouldn’t have used your magic.”

Lucius’s dark obsidian eyes met mine. His black hair fell into his face, stuck to his forehead with sweat. “I will always protect you. My life before yours.”

“Not on my watch.” My gaze drifted back to the flower on the table near the balcony doors. “I don’t trust that kindness.”

“Neither do I.” Lucius’s voice was tight.

But before I could ask if Lucius was hurt more beyond the obvious, a vicious tearing sound swept through the air, originating at some point beyond the balcony. It sounded as if reality itself were being torn in two, a screeching static that permeated everything. I felt the vibration of it in my chest. Felt it as it shook the room—no, the very castle itself.

“Ayla,” Lucius called.

I stood and ran to the balcony. “I need to see what’s going on.”

And I did. It was clear as day from the balcony, though many miles off in the distance.

Bright magic had shorn a hole in the sky over the Singing Hills. A new tear between planes.

No evil celestials poured through it. No further paladins still tied to the Order marched through.

But the portal sat there, staring down on Alastia, as one last echo of Merek’s warning.

Submit, or be destroyed.

CHAPTER2

Another portal. Another tear in the Veil. If I weren’t seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it after everything we’d been through, everything we’dlost, to secure and destroy the last one. This tear wasn’t large enough to fulfil the threat Merek had made to Alastia, but it was plenty large enough to move troops through.

“Ayla?” Lucius asked. I turned to him with what must have been a horrified expression. He’d already begun making his way to the balcony on shaky legs.

I met him halfway and nudged my shoulder under his for support. “You need to lie down, Lucius.”

“I need to see.”

I hooked a finger under his chin to draw his attention to me. “You already know. It’s another tear in the Veil. He put it over the Singing Hills this time.”

Lucius’s body stiffened. “To make invading from Soltar easier.”

I scoffed. “Nothing is easier than opening the portalinsidethe city.”

“He can’t do that again.”

“I know.” Thank the gods. Lucius’s magic and mine had made sure of that… for now. I glanced him over, worried my mate’s time was running too short. Even though we’d only been together for a few days, I could no longer picture life without him. Our mate bond had snapped into place so quickly and was now immoveable. “What is Soltar?”

“The name of our home world,” he said, his voice breaking with exhaustion. I’d never heard he or any other celestial-kin refer to their home world by name before.

Soltar. That was where my ire needed to be directed. “Please lie down, Lucius.”

He growled low in his throat—a frustrated sentiment I understood—but he relented, allowing me to guide him back to the bed. I pulled on my dress from yesterday which took up the little time we had before guards were already pounding on our doors.

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