Page 91 of Soul of Thorns
“Like your love for the Night Bringer?” My brother’s voice is harsh, angry.
“Yes, exactly like that. Do you think I’d be here if it weren’t for him? No. No, I’d be free to manipulate the living right alongside him. But I’d foolishly chosen love.”
My eyebrows pull down.
“That was my first curse. A human trait I’d fallen into.”
“You don’t love your mate?” I whisper through my aching throat.
“Of course not. I’ve learned to rid myself of that curse long ago.”
“Yet you will bend the world to reunite with him?”
“I will break the world to reunite with him. But not for sentimental reasons. We are one, child. Two parts to a single whole. That is all. We will reign, together. Because together is how our power will reach its fullest. He needs me to free himself from his own stone prison. I need her to free myself from my cursed prison. It is a simple matter.”
My breaths are still heavy, my windpipe and chest burning with the effort it’s taken just to remain alive.
“You, however,” she hums, her voice drifting closer, “have benefited from the love of your mate.” Her words wrap around me like a caress. “But it has only delayed your final death.”
I wince, preparing for the blow I know is coming. The roots tighten on my wrists, but there is a flash of something dark in the glowing red light, and a stone drops into my palm.
Warmth spreads over my body like the glow of my magic—except I haven’t done it. I open my palm, and sure enough, my Lumistone glows softly.
What the hell? I’d lost it in my fight with Reahgan and the manticore. How...
“You,” the ground rumbles. I force myself to stand on wobbly feet.
“Hello there, dear old friend,” Caelynn’s wraith murmurs, his smoke form dancing over me, as if—protecting me? Why would he... unless Caelynn is...
My heart sinks. “Where is Caelynn?”
“She has the spell book.”
The tree growls, anger shivering even the stone below my feet.
“And we’d like to make a deal.”
