Page 145 of This Vicious Dream

A deep sense of dread sparks in my stomach, spreading throughout my body. Liona was right.

But I can’t imagine why Anarthys would be so incensed with me.

She prowls toward me, her eyes frigid. When she holds out her hand, one of the guards at my side gives her a dagger.

Horror turns my lips numb, my knees weak. “Please—”

“One of my own acolytes, attempting to take from me. Such betrayal will be spoken of for centuries!”

“I would never betray you, Anarthys!”

“Oh, you would. You may not have betrayed me in all the ways that count,yet—but you would. Calpharos would seduce you as easily as blinking.”

My mouth falls open at the mere suggestion, and this seems to incense her further.

BOOM

Doors slam wide, and Calpharos’s twin stalks toward us. “Do not do this, Anarthys. It will not give you what you want.”

“You come to warn me, Eamonn? You, who suggested Calpharos visit the seer who told him who she would be to him?”

“You cannot change fate. No matter how many seers you torture and kill.”

Eamonn’s eyes meet mine, and they’re…kind. I’ve never spoken to him, but he’s looking at me as if he knows me.

Anarthys moves her dagger close to my neck, her breath warm on my face. “Fate?” She laughs, and it sounds like ringing bells. “I will bend fate tomywishes.”

Panic slides across Eamonn’s face. “She is the other half of his soul. You do this, and he will take his revenge.”

My heart jumps into my throat, my vision wavering. The other half of his soul?

Anarthys gives a hollow laugh. “Once this human is ended, he will return to my arms.”

I tense, and the guards tighten their hold. My limbs begin to shake.

“Anarthys. He will kill you.” Truth saturates Eamonn’s words.

A hint of something that might be fear flashes across Anarthys’s face, but her lush lips curve and she throws her head back with a vibrant laugh.

“Kill me? A goddess? He can try.”

“You think you know what he is. But you don’t. Calpharos will make you beg for death.”

“Such pleading is beneath you, Eamonn. With each word, you reveal your weakness. Calpharos won’t kill me. He is the dark god. This girl is a plaything, and one he will not miss.”

“Please…” My voice trembles, and Anarthys grabs my face, squeezing my cheeks.

“Silence. If you are truly meant to be, he can find you in a future life.” She smiles. “By then, I may be tired of him.”

The temple begins to shake, throwing us off balance. The guards curse as they’re forced to release me, their hands grabbing for me as my knees hit the ground. But I’m already crawling away, towards my only hope. Towards Eamonn.

He sprints for me, zig-zagging through slabs of stone and marble.

Pain lashes through my scalp. Someone has grabbed my hair, and they’re pulling me to my knees.

“How dare you!”Anarthys roars behind me, positioning her knife at my throat.

I catch sight of the bejeweled blade. I’ve carried that blade to her altar every day for two decades. How ironic that it is now to be used to kill me.

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