Page 7 of Ecliptic

I pried at the choking collar, but no matter how hard I tried, the misted fabric remained in perfect form. The gown hugged my every curve but did little to guard against the chill that wafted around me and sent tremors through my body.

I pressed my hands to my mouth, but there was nothing left in my stomach to purge, and I heaved. I would rather stand naked than be dressed in a gown fashioned from stolen lives. I wondered who, or what, had died for the energy to fashion it.

“You wear my darkness now, little light,” he said, beaming with pride, but Demil’s gaze remained on the ground.

“Look at her!” Erovos screamed, and Demil obeyed, his light-yellow eyes snapping to mine. Pleading.

“I’m so sorry, Keira,” he said, dressed in the earthy fabric of the Wyn elves. His unique silver circlets glinted in the darkness.

He used to be a welcoming sight, but now, he made me sick.

“Fuck you.”

“Filthy mouth but beguiling form. I can see why she interestsyou,” Erovos said, wrapping an arm around the warrior’s shoulders. “Look upon what I promised you, Demil. She is what you asked for? Your reward for delivering the Alcreon Light into my hands. We made a deal: I possess her Light, and you possess her body,” he stated as he motioned to me. “Well, take it.”

Demil’s eyes darted in confusion. “Right now?”

Erovos nodded.

“N-no. You promised I could have her after you removed the Light,” Demil stuttered, his square jaw tensing.

“I never specified when, just that you would. And do you honestly believe anything will be left of her when I’m done? I am bound by my word, but I have a much greater use for her than your petty desires. Your moment is now, and it is fleeting.”

Disgust swarmed my veins. Erovos had given Demil permission to rape me in front of him, but it wasn’t his authority to give.

I stood tall before both men. “Touch me, Demil, and it will be the last thing you ever do. The Light may not hurt him, but it will fry the shit out of you.”

“Keira, I . . . I wouldn’t. I won’t,” Demil said, shaking his head in disgust as if his original plan had been any better. “I thought he would travel to the next world and leave Luneth be. I thought I was saving us.”

“You forfeit your prize then, traitor?” Erovos bellowed.

“I do,” Demil replied.

“Very well, then. Give us our privacy, won’t you?”

The whites around Demil’s eyes widened as Erovos’ gaze swirled like twin black holes—a celestial anomaly. Suddenly, the Dark Spirit conjured a portal in the same manner Aliphoura had in the Crystal Crypts, and Caeryn the night of the fire. It was also identical to the one that had brought me here. The energy taken from the earth and its people was used to create these dark portals, and the fact that Erovos had made two in less than twenty-four hours was horrifying.

How many had to die for him to wield such power? An inconceivable amount, yet somehow not enough to find other worlds without the help of me and Indrasyl.

My thoughts vanished as Erovos hurled Demil into the dark portal with no more than a flick of his wrist.

Dread gripped my lungs as the once vibrant warrior vanished. I couldn’t grasp how it was the same man who helped lift me up after his sister knocked me to the ground. He was a brilliant warrior who offered to train me and fought to free the missing villages from Aliphoura’s wrath. He ultimately wanted to save Luneth, but had chosen the worst way possible, and failed.

“Where did you send him?” I demanded, not sure why I was so terrified of the answer.

“Graem will keep him in line for now. Who knows, I may have further use for him.” Erovos gripped my shoulders as he eyed me up and down. “You do make quite the sacrificial vessel, my little light. Now, let us begin.”

4

I tensed as Erovos seized control of my body with whips of darkness. Smokey tendrils ensnared my wrists one at a time, forcing my hands into the shackles that swayed from Indrasyl’s cavity. My tendons strained as I resisted the dark power that controlled me like a marionette doll.

With the final clink of the irons, my arms were wrenched apart, drawn taut within the hollow trunk.

I had always known my wrists were destined for these chains. And now here I was, strung up and decorated like the sacrificial lamb I’d been reduced to.

But I wasn’t alone; Indrasyl and I were both prisoners to Erovos’ devices. I had seen the dying Mother Tree after my Hymma ceremony, where I thought I’d met the Dark Spirit for the first time. Though, according to my repressed memories, this was where my childhood night terrors had played out one by one.

I lifted my gaze to find Erovos, his eyes gleaming with the anticipation of receiving everything he’d ever wanted. The cost being me, my body, and soul. “How many men did you string uplike this before me? Killing them for something they didn’t possess?”

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