Page 71 of Lies That Bind
My heart beat frantically in my chest. I reached for my sword, only to find it wasn’t there.
Last time, I’d had a sword!I should be in battle mode, ready to fight for my life, but instead, all I could keep thinking was how I couldn’t believe Kohen killed me.
I’ve seen myself make love to you under a bed of stars, and I’ve heard you cry out my name, begging for more.
No matter how much I want to kiss you right now, this isn’t where we have our first kiss.
One day, you will beg me to protect you.
This is the last time I kiss you for a long time.
It ends with you as my wife, Aisling.
Every prediction he ever made about us swirled in my head until my heart felt like it would explode.
He lied. He fed me lies until I was putty in his hands. A sob ripped from my throat as the fireball slammed into me, knocking me back. Pain seared along my skin, and I cried out, helplessly batting the fire with my hands.
That did nothing. It consumed me, and I was suddenly trapped in the most horrific pain I’d ever experienced. My skin scorched, peeling as my heart wrestled with Kohen’s betrayal.
“Liana, no!” I cried to her. She’d told me once that the fire beast was a part of her. Maybe I could reason with it.
Then I felt her, faint and weak but all around me.
‘Use your power.’
My power?
My power!
Of course. Last time, I’d told the fire beast to stop, and it had, and Liana thought it might be because I’d used the thrall.
“Stop!” I cried out, throwing my power wildly around me.
The fire blew outward, but only for a second before consuming me again.
“Stay back!” I cried, and the fire retreated but hovered around me as if it would engulf me at any moment.
I felt the edges of my mind fray as I pushed my power into my command for it to retreat, but the beast kept pushing against me.
It wasn’t this hard last time. What was going on? Arms, feathers, and eyeballs could be seen floating in the fire, and I was horrified to recognize one of the eyes as my own.
I knew I had to focus, I knew I had to fight, but the reality was… I was heartbroken. I was barely able to keep my concentration on the beast before me because my mind was with Kohen. My heart was with Kohen.
“Why?” I asked the fire beast. “Why does everyone I love betray me?” I didn’t feel like my normal self here. I felt raw and vulnerable and… was I crying? I didn’t cry. I wouldn’t cry for Kohen!
I screamed in a wild rage and brought my arms down as if they were swords, cutting the beast in half with my mind. It gave a high-pitched shriek and lunged for me again, this time as two halves.
I snapped then. Whatever shred of my humanity remained went feral. I leaped off of the cloud I was standing on and dove for the fire monster. It sandwiched me on both sides, singeing my skin again, but I was ready.
I exploded like a firework at the summer solstice. I lit up the sky, becoming one with the fire beast. I became fire, fighting the beast with its own medicine. I burned through it, getting hotter and bigger, until the entire sky was on fire.
I was filled with so much rage that even death couldn’t hold me. I knew then that I had to live so that I could go back and kill Kohen. It was now my greatest mission to see him beg for his life and admit that everything he said to me was a lie.
The last thing I remembered before my fire consumed the beast was screaming into the sky as my heart wept.
I vowed then and there to never love again. Not for as long as I lived, even if that was forever.
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