Page 205 of The Stolen Throne
Eidolon gives me a look as cold as Tyndra’s icebergs. “I didn’t say I’d leave him alive.”
We’ve lost. I see the truth in Reven’s eyes, the turquoise turning duller with each passing second. There’s only one option left, and I gave up my amulet for nothing.
The air feels like razor blades carving a path down my throat to my heart, where they slice until I’m bleeding inside. An agony of heartbreak, of defeat, threatens to crush me. Pulverize me until there’s nothing left.
“I have to go with him.” Reven’s voice is so weak, fading in my head.
“No,” I plead through our bond.
Through our connection, the swell of determination that comes from him as he stares at me is as strong as a storm. I feel the moment his decision is made, and yet, I think he’d already decided this. Because there’s an acceptance in him that is just as strong. Like this was inevitable.
“Did you know?” I ask.
His expression changes to the same determined, immovable look he had the night he stole me from the palace, thinking I was Tabra.
“Find me in the afterlife, princess.”
Anguish flays my heart. He knew.
“Take me,” Reven demands of the king. “I know where the other amulets are. All of them. No one can reach them without me.”
He’s played the only card he has left, too.
Eidolon’s greed twists his face until I don’t even recognize Reven in his features anymore. “Done.”
Another flick of Eidolon’s wrist, and a dark mist rises off Reven, being drawn toward the king again. With a low groan, Reven forces himself to his hands and knees, then to his feet. He walks toward me, one laborious step at a time, like he’s struggling against the forces dragging at him, stretching out his shadow behind him.
Pinned by the king’s hold on me, all I can do is watch in horror as he fights. On a shout of twisted pain that I can feel echo throughout my own body, he finally reaches me.
Shaking with the effort, his hands wind into my hair. Goddess, he still feels whole. “I love you,” he says, then places his lips over mine, mouth to mouth, heart to heart.
But he starts to fade. He’s still kissing me as he goes, and every second is torture.
I can hardly feel him now, his touch a mere feather of sensation.
But what he does through that wispy touch…
My eyes go wide. He looks straight back at me, even as he kisses me. Vaguely, I’m aware of the purple glow brightening all around us.
Through our kiss, he forces his darkness into me.
“You are strong enough to keep them,” his voice whispers through our connection. “I know it. I’ve seen it.”
No! I want to scream it.
Behind Reven, Eidolon moans long and low, face pale and haggard with the effort, and I feel the tremble of his waning power as it hits Reven, too. The dome of shadow falls. I know because the cacophony of battle erupts all around us again and Bene gives another blast of challenge.
And I think maybe, for one ridiculous, hopeful moment, that maybe we have a chance to stop him now. The king used too much of his power trying to release his goddess mother.
“Meren,” Reven whispers in my mind.
The remnants of Reven I can feel disappear like a snuffed-out candle. Gone. Dead or buried, I don’t know which—sucked inside the king.
Eidolon falls to his knees, visibly drained, even sickly with it, his entire body shaking and covered in sweat. He stares at me for half a heartbeat before he glances over my shoulder. I know my friends are coming for me. His face contorts with rage, and I know why.
I have his Shadows now.
“This isn’t over,” he says.
