Page 114 of This Vicious Dream

“You have no idea. I’ll tell you everything. But first I need your help.”

Demos raises one eyebrow. “With what?”

“We need to find the dark god.”

Calysian

I nudge my horse, urging it to go faster, toward the call of the grimoire. The forest has become a blur, the wind snapping at me as we gallop east toward my memories. Toward my power.

“I always suspected you would be a power-hungry bastard. I ignored my instincts, but I won’t do that again.”

For some strange reason, the mortal’s words continue to echo in my head.

I grind my teeth, pushing them away and urging my horse on.

I should not be in this world.

I should not have spent centuries wandering blindly.

I should not be almost powerless.

The strange interest I had for the mortal is now gone, and she will stay behind while I—

Stay behind. With the other mortal. The male.

I clench my teeth until my jaw aches. Irrelevant. Mortal lives mean nothing to me. The woman is little more than a speck of dust to one such as I.

Agony seizes me.

It erupts through my head, stealing my breath, my thoughts.

I’m forced to bury my hands in my horse’s mane as I hunch, muscles seizing, my vision blurring at the edges.

I suck in a deep breath and the world seems to snap into place, my thoughts sharpening once more as the pain finally ends.

Easing Fox to a stop, I slowly lift my head.

I left her.

I left heralone.

Madinia, who has been abandoned by so many people.

Worse, I left her with Haldrik.

Haldrik, who has been a wedge between us since the moment we met.

Realization slams into me with startling clarity.

Haldrik.

Almost every time I attempted to talk to Madinia alone, he interrupted. Each time I attempted to cajole her into my bed, Haldrik reminded her of who and what I was. Each time we attempted to bridge the widening gap between us, he introduced some new distraction, some new calamity.

My mind is sharp. Clear.

Hot, lethal rage burns through me, until I can feel it in my bones, can taste it on my tongue.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur to Fox. “But we have to go back.”

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