Page 54 of Inheritance
Why was I in a cave? I guess it didn’t really matter.
I was bleeding out. I’d really never assumed that would be the way I would end up going…My eyes fluttered shut.
Man, this poison was something else. My limbs were starting to go numb. But at least that would stop me from feeling this pain.
“Ama?”
The masculine voice that echoed through the space and the stone underneath me heating slightly had me smiling. I knew that voice. At the same time, sadness filled my gut because the last time I had heard that voice, it had been filled with heartbreak.Luce.
I kept my eyes closed as the rock beneath me heated more, and the space was suddenly filled with crackling power. I would have sat up and looked around if I’d had the energy.
“Amare.” A sharp voice demanded my attention, and my heavy eyes slowly opened, bringing me face to face with the devil himself. I offered a small smile, happy to see him, as his eyes ran over every inch of me, something truly dark and menacing filling his features. I would have been concerned, but instead, I felt myself trying to reach out to cup his jaw, but failing as my limbs refused to cooperate.
“You’re sort of beautiful,” I mumbled, my mouth feeling like mush as panic filled his features, intertwined with the fury. It was fascinating to watch, and I would have loved to watch more, but my eyes were growing heavy, and the vibration of the stone surface beneath me aggravated my injury horribly, making my eyes shut as I winced.
“Do not close your eyes.” Luce’s voice was sharp and had me opening them again immediately. His hands came cradled either side of my face as I felt his magic run through me. I inhaled sharply, feeling it invade every nerve ending in my body, the pain lessening greatly. At least I wouldn’t die in too much pain…
No.What was I talking about? I wasn’t dying. I just needed a nap. Yep, just a little bit of a nap...
“I’ve missed you,” I admitted, and his gaze filled with so much emotion it had my chest squeezing.
“Little Temptress, I need you to hang on,” he demanded with a low growl. “Promise me.”
“So demanding,” I teased and then nodded, “I promise I will try.”
He was gone then, and the cave went back to being cold abruptly. I felt my eyes close, and I honestly couldn’t tell you if they were ever going to open again.
I tried to open them but failed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Finias
Fear wasn’t a concept I was experienced in handling. Hell, to be honest, I couldn’t remember the last time I had felt fear...but hearing Ama’s screams as they echoed through the capitol building grounds? My heart had turned to stone and dropped into my stomach.
Her voice was filled with pure agony. Pain coated every single aspect of it. Ama was in pain, and that concept dragged up a part of me that was so dark, I had thought it didn’t exist anymore—especially since she had come into my life.
How fucking wrong I’d been.
I had no idea if the others heard her over the roar of battle, but I didn’t even bother to check. Instead, I slaughtered my way through the masses to a large set of stairs. I heard her scream echo through space again and used a rune to increase my speed. I shouldn’t have known where I was going—the capitol building wasn’t extremely familiar to me—but somehow, I knewexactlywhere Ama was, and her last scream before I reached her practically brought me to my knees.
My mate. My entire heart and reason for living was in such blinding pain.
It didn’t surprise me that my mother was hurting Ama. I should have expected it, and because of that, I felt a surge of guilt that nearly toppled me. I had tried so damned hard not to lose my shit when she had given herself over, but I’d known that Ama would want us to keep Adrien’s sister safe—which she was now—and continue the fight—which we had.
As in, we had killed each and every one of the people who’d dared come our way.
But our ability to continue fighting and pushing was probably the reason that my mother was now choosing to do this. She knew they were losing, so she was going to hurt the one person who mattered more than anything to all of us, and holy shit, was it effective.
What she didn’t expect? That the puppet strings she had pulled on for so long had completely snapped. She was the one who’d created this monster, and she was about to learn how it felt to be on the receiving end.
The soldiers tried to stop me from exiting out onto the stone balcony, and while I knew they were simply doing their job, they had allowed my mother to hurt Ama, and that was enough reason alone to kill them.
They could be thankful for my temper right now because I killed them so fast they probably hadn’t even realized they were in pain before their heads rolled off to the side, having been severed by one of the long swords I kept on me.
“Finias?” My mother’s voice was choked, and I snapped my head from where I’d finished killing the last soldier to find her crouching over Ama, a very familiar dagger in hand. Blood pooled around my little creature, and I realized that my mother was carving letters into her back as she lay there passed out.
I saw red.
