Page 8 of Ignite
The edges of the Vale peeking through the image begin to fade, and all that’s left is her. My little princess, my brilliant warrior.
Lunaria leans in closer, so close I can see the flecks of gold in her hazel eyes.
She’s here to take me home, to set me free.
“How are we getting out?” I rasp as a softclickcomes from her unlatching the first shackle.
Please be real,pleasebe real.
Her eyes shoot up to me, wide and scared. “We’ll figure something out,” she stammers and turns her attention to getting the chains off of my right leg.
My heart sinks, and my stomach twists as if I’ve been kicked. Lu wouldn’t come here without a plan to get out. She’s smarter than that. My Lu wouldn’t make it to the Vale and then not know how to escape it. This Lu looks too frightened, too uncertain and weak. And Lunaria is anything but weak.
I bite my tongue until a metallic taste fills my mouth, forcing myself to remember this isn’t Lunaria. This is another one of Vidaris’s games, one I’ve started to slip into thinking is real more and more—if only for a moment.
I won’t let Vidaris win. Not today.
The fake Lunaria blinks, her long lashes brushing against the tops of her cheeks. “Graylen?—”
“No,” I snarl. The word is like a blade punching into my gut. This isn’t real—she isn’t here. “This isn’t real.” I repeat the words aloud, hoping that if I say it enough, I won’t forget.
Her head snaps up, and tears line her eyes. She quickly gets to her feet, her hands sliding onto my bare chest. “How could you say that?” she demands. “I love you,pleasebelieve me.”
She reaches a hand up and caresses my face, her palm soft and gentle.
Vidaris is in my head—causing me to see images of Lunaria, ones that are nearlyperfectlyaligned with the real her. Bile creeps up my throat at the thought of Vidaris being able to see into my mind, to know Lunaria in a way she shouldn’t. It’s either that or she’s able to watch her somehow, and I don’t know which is worse.
The disgust building inside of me pauses as her fingers lightly play with strands of hair that go past my ears. I close myeyes, reveling in the feel of her touch—even if it isn’ther, I can still pretend that it is. If only for a moment.
“You’re not her.” My voice is a whisper, hate dripping into every word as my eyes slowly open. Lunaria’s expression warps from sad and desperate into a knowing smirk. “You’llneverbe her.”
She sighs and drops her hand by her side, her body morphing back into the soul-sucking bitch that has me trapped here.
“Ah, ah,” she scolds. “Such an angry little Aegis.”
My nostrils flare, fury coursing through my veins once more.
This has been one of Vidaris’s favorite forms of torture over the past several days—or has it only been hours? There is no rising and setting of the sun, just an endless red sky and blood rain that comes more often than not.
The second I let an ounce of emotion slip through my carefully guarded face, she would pounce. But her morphing into Lunaria and pretending to be here to save me did the trick, if only for a second.
She decided that she didn’t just want to hurt me physically; she wanted to break me.
Well, good fucking luck with that.
The mirage of Lunaria in front of me screams as an arrow whizzes over my shoulder and lands in her chest. I grunt and struggle against chains of ice. Another arrow glides over my shoulder, this one slicing into her neck. Blood spills from where the arrow is lodged, and her screams turn into garbled cries as she falls to her knees.
Not real, not real.
A growl rips through me, rumbling low in my chest before working its way into my throat. My breath comes out heavier as her gaze meets mine, her eyes wide and panicked. I clench my jaw, trying to focus on any memory I can think of to ground me—to find something real.
But whatisreal?
I think of Lunaria in my arms as we lay together in the damp cave. It was the night I became hers—the night I gave myself to a woman who had owned my heart from the moment her eyes met mine.
Before Vidaris tried to take her. Tried tohurther.
I don’t regret pushing Lu aside and ending up here, but she sure as fuck is going to be pissed ashellat me for doing it. Still, I would rather bear her wrath than see her get hurt. I couldn’t have stopped myself if I wanted to.
