“I do.” And leaning forward, I pressed my lips to his. For one single heart beat, time froze. Warmth and power threaded through me, strengthening me and making my head spin.
Ryker tore away and a bright light exploded from between our hands, a sharp pain following. I bit back a cry, and even Ryker winced. The bound silk fell from our hands, and the high priestess' chanting ceased. I slipped my fingers from Ryker’s, inspecting the skin. No wound remained. Instead, a jagged star shaped scar bloomed across my palm. Feathers fluttered within me, a small smile tugging at my lips.
“It is done,” the high priestess murmured, removing the objects from the altar.
The empress' tall form rose in my peripheral vision. A coy smile spread across her painted lips, killing the joy I’d just felt. With slow, deliberate steps, she stalked toward us, clasping her hands before her. Her eyes drifted heavenward, and mine followed. The moon shone full and bright almost directly overhead. Silence reigned, as if every single being within the temple held their breath in anticipation.
“Remove the princess and traitor from the summoning circle,” the empress instructed. Her voice wasn’t loud, yet it filled the room.
Beside me, Ryker stood. His chained arms coiled around me, and he lifted me from the floor. I hung suspended in his arms, curled against his chest. Just beneath his skin, his pounding heart gave away the emotions his face refused to display. Guards melted out of the shadows to encircle us as Ryker carried me out of the runed circle.
We stopped at the empress’ side, her vivid blue eyes staring down at me. Her long fingers stroked down the side of my face. “It is time, daughter.”
With a cruel smile, she stepped past us into the circle. As if summoned by an invisible cue, more veiled priestesses swarmed the stage, the high priestess taking her place at the head of the altar. The empress lowered herself onto the raised altar, and a low hum emitted from the surrounding priestess' as they started chanting.
A gong reverberated through the temple, and my stomach churned as Ryker tensed. As the gong’s final notes began to dissipate, a bright light flashed from above. Squinting at first, my eyes widened. A silver shaft flowed from the crystal ceiling straight down onto the altar, bathing my mother's pale body in a luminescent glow.
The priestess' chanting increased, and I stared in horror. Tremors rippled through the empress like waves, her arms and legs flailing a moment more before her back arched and a high-pitched scream pierced the chanting.
The scream cut off, and my mother’s body went limp, falling back to the altar, unmoving. The priestesses continued to chant, acting as if nothing had happened. Unable to tear my gaze away, bile rose in my throat. Ryker’s arms tightened around me.
Dark, smoke-like tendrils trickled from my mother’s mouth, slowly at first, until giant plumes wafted upward. Ascending. They amassed into a giant cloud, just above the altar, the black strands roiling and shifting as they revealed the true form of the empress and my people’s so-called goddess. I’d never witnessed an Ascension before, but many around me had. How could they not see her for what she truly was? What Ryker and his people knew she was all along. A Demon.
The last of the strands left the empty form and two guards stepped into the circle, removing my mother’s limp body.
“Bring her to me,” a strange metallic voice whispered. The sound reverberated through me, making shivers crawl up my spine. Ryker didn’t move, and a guard stepped forward, ripping me from his arms. The warmth of his skin dissipated, and I shivered, the cold of the guard’s armor seeping into me. I winced, the metal biting my skin, but he didn’t seem to care and stepped into the circle. The guard moved to the side of the altar, and fear gripped my soul.
“No,” I whimpered, trying to struggle, but was barely able to breathe as my lungs constricted and my throat tightened. My eyes darted toward Ryker, my last hope. But he wasn’t looking at me, his eyes were riveted on the writhing mass drifting in the shaft of moonlight.
Please save me… but he couldn’t. Not if I wanted Cassie to live. The guard set me on the cold altar and, all fight leaving me, my gaze found hers. She sat rigid on her throne, two guards holding her back as tears streamed down her crumpled face, disappearing into her mask.
Blinking back my own tears, I tried to offer her a smile. “I love you,” I whispered. After everything we’d been through, this was how it was always meant to be. Me giving my life to the empress so Cassie could live hers. A tear slid down my cheek, and too weak to move, I averted my eyes skyward, letting the prismed light from the moon blind me.
Ragged breaths lifted my chest, and I stared up into the looming black mass. The priestesses closed the circle, their chanting filling the air. The high priestess lifted her hands, and the black cloud descended, tendrils snaking off it, reaching for me. I shivered, cold unlike anything I’d ever felt before seeping into me wherever the blackness touched.
The tendrils coalesced, forming into one thick offshoot that caressed my face. I clamped my mouth shut, my survival instincts fighting against the inevitable. A familiar laughter bubbled through the cloud, and my heart stopped. Two orbs of glowing red stared down at me from the darkness. Lilitha.
Terror gripped me, locking my eyes to hers. A heavy force weighed on my chest as the shadow began to descend. Unable to move, I barely registered the movement in my peripheral vision. The ceremonial dagger flashed through the air, flying into the mass of darkness.
A harsh, grating shriek emanated from the demon as it jerked away from me, thrashing and seething. Wails and shouts rose from the crowd.
The high priestess' acolyte charged. “Now, Ryker!” She ripped off her veil, revealing not one of my sisters, but a tan-skinned Outlander. Amber eyes flashing, she pulled a pair of long daggers from the folds of her robes just in time to intercept the first guard fighting his way through several fleeing priestesses.
Golems stormed the stage, the shouts and screams and fighting blurring together as several priestess joined the fray. I fought to stay conscious against the sedative, stars dancing in my vision.No! The blackness descended again, forcing itself down my throat, clawing and burning its way through me. I choked, and my body seized, spasms jerking my arms and legs. A copper tang filled my mouth, and I fought to breathe, to think, to exist.
“Kaleah, hold on!” Ryker appeared in my peripheral, a furious look in his gold eyes, wielding a bloodied sword he must have confiscated from a guard. Grating laughter filled the air as I suffocated. He dropped to my side, pulling me against him with his free hand. “You have to fight her, Kaleah!”
Fight? How? Darkness closed in, blinding me, and a strange sensation oozed inside of me. Ryker’s voice grew distant.Leave me alone, I begged, something cold caressing my mind.
It is you who needs to leave, daughter. Lilitha’s demonic voice purred.Give up.
Her presence continued to spread through me like a disease, smothering my existence bit by bit.
Stop!
Make me.
My chest heaved, hot tears sliding down my cheeks.