Page 198 of The Eye of the Fifth
High Wielders moved instantly, blocking her path. She swung her bound fists to the helmeted head of one of them, iron clanging loud against it, but then four more of them appeared. Powerful magic,wrongmagic slithered over her very bones, rendering her body useless. In a few seconds, she was kneeling as Rosary was, crushing hands clasping her arms and gripping her hair, holding her in place.
‘You have three seconds to make your choice,’ Azar said coldly.
‘Fuck you!’
‘Three.’
Kyra’s heartbeat spiked. ‘Wait!’
‘Two-’
‘No… please-’
Azar wrapped both hands around the hilt, ready to strike true. ‘One-’
Kyra roared,‘I’LL DO IT!’She blinked away the heat in her eyes, choking, ‘I’ll do it. Just let her go. Please. Let her go.’
‘A fine choice,’ Azar said quietly, lowering the blade from Rosary’s chin. ‘Release her,’ she commanded the High Wielders holding Kyra. ‘Do it, then, Earth Warden, and quickly. The Gods have waited long enough.’
Trembling, Kyra got to her feet.
There was no one but Gedeon in the Throne Room now. Everyone else faded into the ether. She clasped his hands in hers. ‘Please,’ she begged him quietly. ‘Please, Gedeon.’
He stared down at their interlocked fingers. A deep frown began to materialise on his dark brow as his thumb traced back and forth over her skin. ‘Once, an augur foretold that I would bring about the end of times. He told me I would be Droria’s doom. I did not understand it then. But I do now.’ Shining obsidian eyes met hers. His voice was barely a whisper. ‘I cannot let his words come to pass, Kyra. No matter how much I want her to live. What lies between us, what hasalwayslain between us… it isn’t enough to condemn the rest of the world to ruin.’ Tears pooled in his eyes, and there was no starlight in them now. His grip on her tightened. ‘Even for the sake of Rosary’s life.’
‘Do you hear what you are asking of me?’ Kyra grasped his hands as though they were a rope above a bottomless pit, the only thing stopping her from falling into the chasm. ‘Please, Gedeon. If not for her, forme.’Her voice broke. ‘Do it for me.’
Gedeon earnestly searched every inch of her face, his pupils dilating. A few moments went by. Then, everything shattered into a thousand shards as he shook his head. ‘I can’t.’
Kyra broke their hold.
Debilitating dread rushed through her blood as she beheld the Empress’ sword positioned at Rosary’s chin once more. Azar declaredin a booming voice, ‘Let it be known that the ultimatum will not stop with this woman. I will drive my blade through everyone you have ever loved until you make the bond. This I promise you both.’
Rosary simply smiled at Kyra. Her eyes fluttered shut, and a singular tear fell down her cheek.
And then Kyra was screaming, screaming as Empress Azar skewered her sword down into Rosary’s chest, all the way to the hilt.
Chapter Fifty Three
Secret Of The Black Throne
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The Black Castle, Dracyg Dominion.
Gedeon.
The High Wielders did not stop Kyra this time as she bolted for Rosary, catching her before she could hit the hard ground.
As if it would make a difference. The blade had pierced through to the other side. Her body had become a broken dam. Blood was all Gedeon could smell now as it seeped fast and unstoppable, camouflaged against the black marbled floor.
He watched as it coated Kyra’s bound hands. Watched those hands fumble against the fatal wound like she might scoop the blood back into Rosary’s body, the woman’s name repeating and repeating on her lips. As if she might somehow speak her spirit back into existence.
But the blade had gone precisely where it had been willed. No heart could continue to beat once it had been sliced through the middle.
Rosary’s had stopped just seconds after Kyra caught her. Gedeon heard its last beat as a mouth choking on red released its last breath, and vacant, amber eyes stared up at nothing. Forever unseeing.
‘Take away the body,’ was his mother’s harsh words as she swiped a cloth over the length of the bloodied sword. She commanded Hossean, ‘Continue the search for the boy. I want himfound.He will be our next ultimatum.’
