Page 56 of The Blade in the Ashes
Hold.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Hold.
Breathe out.
“Feel better?” he asked when I blinked my eyes open.
He sat on his knees, leaning over me, so close that I could smell the smoky leather scent of his. It overpowered all the other oils and soaps in the bathing room. His hands still lingered on me, one on my shoulder with his thumb pressed into the hollow of my throat, the other around my waist.
“Get away from me!” I shoved him back with a desperate cry.
“Thea.”
“No!” I lifted an accusatory finger, leveling it at him. “You held me in that seat!”
My tears may have dried, and my breathing steadied, but the despair still lingered. The memory clung to me like an oily sheen I couldn’t wipe away from my skin.
“I was trying to protect you.”
“Were you? Or did it make you feel powerful to watch others suffer? Did it make you feel like you were better than them?”
Caldrius' upper lip curled back against his teeth in a snarl. “He’s aGod,Thea. I haven’t survived a millennium at his side by openly defying him.”
“Hyrax was killing him!”
Disgusted, I scrambled backward along the floor, needing to put space between us. My boot snagged on the skirt of my dress, though, and there was a sharp snap of tearing fabric. Caldrius eyed it warily before standing and offering me a hand. I stared at it as if it were a poisoned blade pointed directly at me.
It might as well have been.
He was nothing but poison to me.
“You would think that by now I would be used to the feeling of you betraying me,” I mused, not looking away from that hand as I hauled myself to my feet without his help.
Caldrius’ jaw clenched, his eyes darkening in anger. “How many times do I have tobegyou to forgive me? How many times do I need to prove that everything I do is for you?”
A scream bubbled in my throat, and I had the sudden urge to lash out. I wanted to force him backwards or send the palace quaking beneath my feet. I wanted to feel that connection to the other souls around me. I wanted to open a portal to somewhere, anywhere other than here.
I wanted my magic more than I wanted my next breath.
Clay had once told me that power stripping—severing a Descendant's connection to their ancestor and removing their powers—was a fate worse than death. I now understood why that was.
“I’m doing everything in my power to convince Hyrax to give you space and time,” Caldrius continued, anger coating his words. “It’s only because ofmethat he believes you will one day happily accept your role as his heir.”
How many other people in this castle believed that?
How many others believed I had abandoned my principles and my friends? How many believed that I was as vengeful a God as Hyrax was?
My hair snagged as I ran my hands over the crown on my head. My scalp protested unhappily as I ripped at it, tearing it free from the pins that had locked it onto me. “Am I supposed to thank you?”
“Actually?” His brows lifted. “A thank you would be nice!”
I moved without thinking, grasping onto the tiny decorative vase on the counter next to me and launching it at his head. He caught it without flinching.
“Burn in the Underworld!” I screamed, storming out of the room.
