Page 39 of The Legacy of Ophelia
I bit down on my screams until my teeth felt like they’d crack.
“More,” Echnid repeated, capturing Ophelia’s attention again and sending his mist to caress her skin. Gold light pulled from her, as if the god’s magic was siphoning it out of her flesh to bend it to his will.
After a moment, Ophelia dredged up more power. Fed it into me. I wished it would become a blade to plunge into my heart. Wished it would just end me.
But I thought of Mila.
You saved me.
Mila who had survived so much and fought for me every day. Who’d cried when I’d been tortured and worried I wasn’t coming back to her. Who I was keeping safe again. I would get all of those tomorrows she and I had promised.
Every single one.
So, I clenched my hands into fists, and I waited until the excruciating pain pulled me into unconsciousness.
Then, I dreamed of Mila, too.
Chapter Thirteen
Ophelia
Echnid mademe try to wake a seraph in Malakai for hours.
Until he was an unconscious, sweaty mess on the floor, his body radiating heat from the mythos power burning into him.
Until the sun was setting, the burnished clouds lining the mountains a fiery explosion through my tear-lined eyes.
Until I fell to my knees beside Malakai’s limp body, my hand on his chest, trying to feel the off-kilter soul bond in our Bind tattoo. His heart thumped beneath my palm, and I stayed there, tracking that strong beat, until the stars winked to life outside the palace, shining through the tall windows surrounding us.
As the day had progressed, the fog across my mind cleared. Horror took its place. Disgust with myself for what I had agreed to, for thinking there was any way Echnid was right. With my body draped across Malakai’s, a tainted feeling settled in my veins.
How had I done this?
Echnid and his group of unsettling cronies left eventually. Those women had an aura about them that ruffled the wings at my back, perking up my Angellight, but I didn’t have the energy to ask now.
Later. I’d deal with it later.
Now, I needed to make sure Malakai was okay. That the myth magic hadn’t done irreparable damage. Bracing both hands on his chest, I pulled at all seven strings of my Angellight.
“Come on, Malakai,” I said through a steady stream of tears. My vision blurred, but light glowed around my palms, warm and welcoming. It licked across my skin and into Malakai’s, searching for a source to heal.
All Angellight is restorative,Damien had said.All can cure rot and the most deeply planted taints.
Malakai’s body was wrung out beneath my hands, but with the aid of my seraph power, I could restore it quicker. Ease the pain.
I gritted my teeth and poured more into him, until his frame was awash with the golden hue. Until the entire room was bathed in the light fueled by my desperation. His eyes were still closed, his freckles standing out against his pale skin, but his heart pounded ferociously. Alive and well, even if he was still asleep. My wings draped protectively across his body.
“Ophelia.”
I whirled at Damien’s voice.
“Get out of here!” I snarled like a wild beast. Light flared around me, gold streaked with black and white. Damien’s, Bant’s, and my own seraph power. The Angel studied it.
“Let me help?—”
“You let him do this!” My light pulsed. “You let him make me do this!” My voice cracked over the words. Like a looking glass beneath a fist, the knuckles of Damien’s betrayal shattered me once again.
As if I’d forgotten after these weeks training and the warnings he’d been giving me. As if I’d thought maybe he was actually trying to help me. Furiously, I wiped my eyes clear of the tears those realizations spawned.
