Page 156 of This Vicious Dream

It’s a wild, audacious risk. But it’s my only chance to stop Calpharos.

“How do I break it?”

“Use your fire.”

I don’t have time to argue. I can sense the link, visible only when I close my eyes and reach for it. My flames may be invisible, but they’re filled with my power. And they leap toward the link with a whoosh, engulfing it in seconds. But it burns slowly. Too slowly.

“More,” Eamonn urges.

I throw more flames at the link, power pouring from me in a dizzying rush. Just as the link is almost completely burned, I reach for it, cupping it in invisible hands, and guiding it tome.

Instantly, I can feel the third grimoire, on another continent far from this place. Large, male hands are wrapped around it, and my gaze drifts up muscular arms, to a brutally handsome face. It’s the face of a warrior.

Dark, green eyes scan my body, and they hold a glint of appreciation when they meet mine. “And, who,” he murmurs across time and space, “are you?”

He can see me?

I gasp, and the link between us snaps closed.

“You did it,” Eamonn breathes.

The second grimoire is already fading in Calpharos’s hands, his eyes completely black as he reunites with this part of his soul.

And still, the ground trembles.

Calpharos’s eyes meet mine, and I stumble back. Because he’s looking out at the world as if it has wronged him on such a deep level, itshouldburn.

“You,” Calpharos says. “You took from me.” A hint of confusion flickers across his face, replacing some of the wrath. “Woman.Mywoman.”

Madinia

Eamonn takes off, flying up towards one of the few marble pillars still standing.

Calpharos prowls towards me and I stumble backwards, tripping on a loose piece of marble. I wince as I hit the ground, and Calpharos is suddenly there, hauling me to my feet.

He nuzzles at my throat, and I tremble. “I can scent my power within you,” he whispers. “Calling us both.”

My lungs turn to stone. He knows I took his link to the third grimoire. Which means he knows he needsmeto find it.

I don’t hesitate. Twisting out of Calpharos’s hold, I lunge left, rolling free.

Creas chooses that moment to shake the earth again, and Calpharos lets out another roar. I stay low, crawling across the cool marble.

This time, I don’t need a tonic to remember crawling through another temple in an attempt to save my own life.

I half expect to feel Anarthys’s hand in my hair at any moment.

The ground continues to shift and buck, thick, choking dust rising as stone and marble crumbles.

“Madinia!”

I roll just in time to avoid a huge stone column as it slams into the floor, directly where I was crawling.

Eamonn flutters around my head, but I grit my teeth, ignoring him.

Reaching for my link to the third grimoire, I use it to pour power into my flames. They burn as high as Calpharos’s head, a fiery wall between us.

I launch myself to my feet.

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