Page 17 of Heir of Broken Souls

Ashti no milar, milan thalar alen,

Vithar enor, vethar nira milar.”

With my body, mind, and soul feeling reborn, my eyes lift to the last woman, dressed in a flowy red and pink dress. She offers me a tentative smile. And instead of speaking in the tongue of those before her, I recognize her words. They drift toward me, wrapping around my heart like a gentle caress as all seven slice their palms, hover their injured hand above me, and allow one drop of blood to hit me.

Open your eyes and come alive, golden one. It’s time for their demise.

The corners of my lips lift, and my body, despite the torment it’s experienced, feels feverish with energy, brimming with a sense of delight as my magic hums around me.

Alive and waiting.

I don’t have time to contemplate it, though, before something below me in the water clutches my waist and yanks me below the surface, taking my scream with it.

Chapter6

Delilah

Iwake with a start. Sweat glides down the nape of my neck.

Placing a shaking hand over my rapidly beating heart, I note that my chest burns with a fiery passion for the air that was stolen from it. And by the razor-sharp feel of my throat, I don’t doubt that what awoke me was not the sudden end of the dream but my own scream.

A shadow flies through the bedroom door to my left, and then gentle hands are cupping my cheeks and holding me close.

“What is it?” His eyes take on a manic glint as they search every inch of my body for injuries, his soul meeting me in my mind. When he pulls up short the gleam of fear recedes a fraction. “Was it the nightmare again?”

My eyes close on their own accord, my body shuddering at the reminder of the nightmares that have plagued me sincethatnight. “No, and I can’t believe I’m saying this but…Iwishit was the nightmare.”

Knox rears back. “What could be worse?”

Catching my breath, I allow my mind to try and process all I saw and felt. The whiplash of emotions throughout the dream felt so real, almost like it was a true place I could visit.

“I don’t know where to begin,” I answer honestly.

Knox cocks his head, his hands sliding from my cheeks down to my neck, gliding along the sensitive base, over my shoulders, and down my arms until they finally rest upon my hands. “Can I see?” he asks gently.

With a simple nod, his eyes glaze over.

Conjuring up the dream, it plays in my mind’s eye and instead of feeling everything I did while in it, I focus on Knox, drinking in my fill of him, this distraction allowing me to take in everything that he tries to hide. The day’s worth of stubble on his sharp jaw to the deep bags under his eyes from his many sleepless nights. The color that’s faded from his usual sun-kissed skin. The many crinkles in his pants and rumples in his white shirt.

When was the last time he changed?

Knox rips his hands away with a sharp gasp, his eyes widening. “It can’t be. That’s impossible. They…they no longer exist.”

My heartbeat crashes violently against my rib cage as I drink in the horror stretched across his face. “What?”

“Have you been in the library recently?”

“No.” Shaking my head, I rise on my knees—needing to move. “Knox, what is it? You’re scaring me.”

He’s suddenly off the bed and standing at my side. With a click of his fingers, my robe from the bathroom appears. Wrapping it around myself, I take a shot in the dark and guess. “You don’t think that was a dream?”

“I know it wasn’t.”

The certainty of his answer rocks me.

He takes my hand in his, and I’m shocked to feel the tip of his fingers as cold as ice.Where was he before I woke?

Knox pulls me down the corridor, his steps light as we pass the guest room Axel is still asleep in on our way to the stairs. At first, I’m unsure where he’s taking me until he opens the double doors to his library with a flourish.