Page 65 of The Stygian Crown

The acrid scent of magic eaters clogged the air as blood flooded the pit. Horror bloomed in her gut. That smell…the marked women Victus had been capturing for years. It was all connected. He’d been harvesting the magic in their bodies to prepare for this, this ritual. What the fuck required this much power? And they had the magic eater Kara had nursed, the one empowered by Namirah’s blood.

The blood reached Kara, creeping across the stone to pool along her skin. It drenched her hair and slid beneath her until she was soaked with it.

The Sanguines stared on in silence. A raw, crackling energy suffused the room. Kara’s head spun.

“It’s time,” Salizar said.

Logan’s head began to nod as two Sanguine guards gripped his hands and pried them open, palms up toward the ceiling. Then Salizar drug a dagger through Logan’s wrists, and Kara screamed. Not Logan. Not like this.

Logan’s head jerked up, eyes flaring red as he took in the scene. He was still disoriented—hadn’t even looked down at his wrists yet. Lifeblood dripped down the side of the pit, joining the rest of Namirah’s Chosen.

“Logan! Save yourself, please—” She didn’t know how it was possible. At this point, what could anyone do, even Magdalena?

Logan’s eyes found hers, and the chair shook as he pulled at his bonds. His blood spilled faster. He glanced down, finally realizing what was happening. When his eyes met hers again, they were heavy with finality.

“I love you, Kara. Thank you for everything. May you meet me in your dreams.”

Kara unleashed a keening wail full of pain and longing. Full of everything she hadn’t had a chance to say. Tears bled down her cheeks, and she shook in her bonds.

Logan’s marked wrist began to heal, slowly stitching closed, and Salizar sliced through it again. Logan’s skin paled as blood poured out of him. His eyes never left hers, as if he wanted to soak up as much of her as he could in the time they had left. Again and again Salizar sliced through his healing mark, until it no longer flared with power.

“Stay with me, Logan.” She turned to Victus and begged. “Stop. Don’t do this. I'll do whatever you want, just let him go.”

Victus tsked and shook his head. “Too little too late, darling. I'm afraid you’ve served your purpose.” Victus jumped into the pit and strode towards Kara, wading through the crimson lake.

The blood surged as Logan’s mixed with it, the magic in the air growing thicker. All the hair on Kara’s body rose.

Victus leaned over her and drew his dagger. He slid it through Kara’s mark with a smile on his face. She stared, numb, as vital blood left her body, joining that of her sisters and her lover. Of all those Victus had hurt. Her mark flared a demonic red color. Then the blood level in the pit rose rapidly, far faster than it should have given the flow and capacity of the barrels. Victus climbed back out of the pit and looked on eagerly, a manic energy in his eyes. Salizar had abandoned Logan to bleed and was kneeling at the edge of the pit as if in prayer.

Logan nodded off and slumped forward, eyes losing focus. Kara fought against the manacles holding her down, screaming, her mind clawing for anything she could do to prevent this—to save him.

Magic buzzed across her back as the blood coated her, and the pain there eased. The same thing happened at her battered wrists and ankles—every scrape and bruise she’d acquired during her time in the dungeons began to heal, including where Victus had cut into her mark.

The blood flooded her ears, then the corners of her eyes, still rising steadily. She lifted her head as far as she was able. It almost covered her calves now.

She refused to die choking on the blood of her tortured brethren, Logan slowly bleeding out, Victus and Salizar still alive. They needed to die.Deserved to die.She yanked at her wrists until her skin burned.Fuck! Think, Kara.Magic energy choked the room, and it hit her. Power. She could use her power. This room couldn’t be rune blocked, she was strapped down in the middle of a giant one.

Kara stretched her blood-soaked fingers in a painful, awkward bend, carefully tracing the rune forunlockon her right cuff. All four cuffs restraining her sprung open. She stood, and the blood that slid off her gathered and rose into a shape. It was a pillar of dark liquid at first, shuddering in the air, and then its edges began to twist and curve.

Kara stumbled backwards and tripped, falling into the crimson lake. It tugged at her, pulling her down. She ripped away from its cloying grasp.

She tried to run, to reach the edge of the pit and Logan. A hundred bloody hands reached out for her, pulling her down with each step.

Kara looked back to the pillar in the center of the altar. It had flattened into a large oval rippling at the edges like a flag in the wind. The space it occupied feltwrong, unnatural.

The oval shuddered and flattened, and then Kara stared at a reflection of herself tinted red.

Skin began to melt off her mirror self, starting at her mark, revealing ethereal flesh that glowed red underneath. Faster and faster it vanished, up to the roots of her hair and the tips of her toes. Hair fell away like ash, and ebony horns ruptured from her forehead, growing until they swept back behind her ears. Her brow jutted forward into a sharp point.

Eyes bled and grew until they glowed like rubies. Kara rose a quivering hand to her head and touched normal hair and skin. Her reflection mirrored her movements with the black talons that had sprouted from their fingertips.

Then a taller creature stepped into the mirror behind her reflection. It was male, riddled with muscle and cock swinging between its legs. His horns stood high, curving back over his prominent brow. His claws curled over her mirror demon’s shoulder, and a sharp-edged tail curled around her waist.

Kara gasped when she felt the tiny pinpricks of lethal claws on her skin.Logan. It had to be. Some part of him was still alive in there, beyond that rippling veil of blood.

‘Join us’echoed through her mind in a slithered whisper. It was Logan’s voice, but ancient, archaic—like the crackle of burning logs in a great fire. The male’s tail trailed between the female’s thighs, and Kara felt its phantom flicker across her own skin.

She took a step toward her reflection, and the demon couple’s lips curved in serrated smiles. They wanted her to join them. Better to live in their realm than die in this one.

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