Page 503 of Kingdoms of Night

Time moved at a grueling pace, like I was wading through stormy water, my head mere feet from sinking under. The slew of intrusive thoughts that blurred my path from the market to the bed featured all the ways I could have broken the lamp in my arms. The catastrophic effects of lightning unleashed ranged from burning us alive to leveling the downtown area, but they paled in comparison to the loss of opportunity.

Here it was, the fabled ‘heavenly fire’, contained, filtered and loud with its volatile power, the unnerving hum of its smothered crackling vibrating against my ribs. Hugging it to my tight, pounding chest, I climbed the steps to the alcove where he remained.

Motionless in sleep, I barely saw him in the dim light from further back and what peeked through the shawl I’d bound our sole savior in. Unnaturally obscure, he cleaved the bed like a bottomless fissure.

Now I stood as the heroes of ancient, fractured fables. At the mouth of the unknown and unseen, voyaging where none before me had, and aided by the piercing light none could tame but the gods. Until now.

Unleashing a deep breath, I unbound the lantern and raised it. Its blue-tinged brightness flooded the floor and cast the shadows of its frames onto the walls.

My eyes watered. It was far more intense than it was before, and I could barely see past it. A part of me didn’t want to, couldn’t face another crushing disappointment. But I had to know. Know what soul-crushing surprise could be awaiting me past the shroud of his curse—

No great effort from my imagination could have done justice to the truth. What I had reached through touch alone couldn’t have prepared me for what laid before me, with the shadows burning off him, peeling back like fading clouds of smoke.

Tamuz sat up, bare, powerful legs bent and his arms out as if to ward off the miraculous light I held. His dark hair fell to his broad shoulders in waves, darker than the spread wings whose shadows reached up the wall like curved claws. Contrasted against them was his pearlescent, ochre skin, softly gleaming like he were carved from golden mother-of-pearl.

He lowered his arms as I set down the lantern, frowning his thick, up-tilted brows, and narrowing his half-moon eyes in confusion. “Meissa?”

“It worked,” I said, shaky with disbelief, sounding far away to my own ears. “Tamuz, it worked!”

He jerked back, staring at his own hands, still long and baring sharp, curved nails, but matching the rest of his skin. A skin tone I found back in Beinahrein, joining his stern features and stubble as the earthly features that blended with his celestial traits of great, bat-like wings, long, pointed ears and saffron eyes.

“I don’t believe it.” He felt down the planes of his chest, leading my gaze down the sinewy muscle of his narrow waist and past his chiton to his thighs. “I must be dreaming.”

I couldn’t help myself, overwhelmed to ecstatic sniffles and tears as I laughed. “You’re not. I woke you up, remember?”

At last, he met my eyes and broke out into a fanged grin that should have struck as predatory and sent me fleeing like a gazelle before a snarling lion. But it didn’t. I was lightheaded with relief and happiness I hadn’t felt in so long, if ever.

“You did it!” He rose on his knees, about to crawl towards my open arms. “You saved me, you saved us all!”

“Did she now?” arrived a cold, delighted voice, submerging me in ice-water.

Frozen in place, reliving the fear of watching him fall from the sky, I could barely breathe as I glanced at the sulphuric glow advancing towards us.

Sickeningly intense and confined to the frame of a vulture-winged woman, the lifeless shine of the Evening Star burst between us before Tamuz could lunge at her.

Their explosive collision sent me flying back, blinded and burnt, and the last thing I felt was the crushing landing.

* * *

I awoke drenched and choking on the stench of rotten eggs.

“Oh, thank the gods.” Suzianna pulled me into her arms, pressing on aching parts that interrupted my coughs with a pained cry.

Baltasar entered my view, holding the lightning lantern. “Thank them for what? They’ve done nothing for us in all these years!”

Its vividness blew back my groggy confusion. I attempted to scramble up, but the pain across my body and pounding head brought me slapping back down like a fish on a deck. I groaned, unable to push up until a grip on my dress hoisted me to my numb feet.

“What happened?” Suzianna caught me, and I rested my weight against her, arms limp over her shoulders while hers held my smarting waist. “How did she get in?”

“What?” My head swum and my legs wobbled, the throbbing surrounding my skull making it hard to maintain focus.

“Ashtara!” Baltasar shouted, worsening my headache. “She just addressed us from the skies, telling us to accept her as Mahala’s rightful replacement, or she was going to rain flames down on us and replace us with the creatures that reside on her planet!”

Ashtara was here. She had succeeded in going past the barrier, but when and how?

It must have been when Tamuz had dropped from the heavens. My single minded stupidity had allowed her in.

“Tamuz,” I wheezed, fighting to stay upright. “She came for him, right after he was freed and she…she…”

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