Eldritch (The Eating Woods, #2)

by Keri Lake

“The will of your god will be your demise. For, one day, it is you who will become The Banished. Maledicio tej’per nomed vetusza deosium.” I curse you by the name of the ancient gods.

“Yours is not derived from the sun or moon. It lives in the heart of Aethyria. It is the molten blackness that pumps through the veins of our world. Few gods take physical form, but this one lives within you.” Zevander puzzled his words. “Who?” “Deimos. The god of sablefyre and destruction.”

A smile slipped across Ravezio’s face, making him seem far less bothered by his injuries than he first appeared. “Women love a flexible lover. Ask your mother.”

I’m not a victim, he assured himself. Almost believing that. “I wanted this,” he said into the universe, the tears in his eyes betraying his words. “I deserve this.” I deserve this. He covered his eyes with his palm, forcing himself to remain silent when a sob punched at his chest to be set free. Be a man. Don’t break.

A savage growl tore from Lilleven’s throat, and teeth bared, she lunged toward the girl. “You ugly witch!” Zevander shot out his palm for the Aeryz glyph, and the impact knocked her backward, into the street. Shouts and screams drew his attention toward a carriage barreling toward her. “Lilleven! Watch out!” her brother screamed. The squelch of squished meat and crushed bone was a harrowing echo beneath the screams of townsfolk. The rogue carriage, with its two massive horses, trampled the girl.

“I call it inspiration. Each piercing will come with an enchantment. A promise that you will carry to the afterlife. After tonight, you will never know pleasure without pain. Love without suffering. You continue to defy me, but this is when I take everything from you.”

“You’re a fate I never dared to dream, moon witch. The stars I was never meant to grasp. But seeing how this gluttonous world devours the unclaimed, I’m calling you mine.”

The lorn. The beautiful goddess from afar. The only times he’d ever prayed to the gods were a desperate plea to return to her in Caligorya. She was his secret. A precious treasure in his miserable existence that he longed to protect and keep for himself.

So does he not remember her or? why havent they spoken about it?

“It’s best not to see,” he said, more for himself. Knowing the malice behind those marks, the ignorance and cruelty, stirred rage in his heart. “Light illuminates the horrors that the darkness shields from us.”

His cloaked version raised a hand again, sending another blast of flame toward her. Just as before, Zevander lurched, taking the brunt of the fire across his back, as he stared down at her beautiful face.

“As I hung from my chains like carrion for the vultures, she spoke to me. She gave me the will to live. Don’t take that away!” “You were never here this eve. In your mind, she burned at that stake. Now, sleep, Zevander. Sleep.”

Screams rose above the clamor of bodies running amok. In the doorway, stood Zevander and his massive scorpion. It shrank just enough to fit through the entryway, then expanded to its usual colossal form. “Who in God’s name is that?” Corwin asked, his voice shaky. “The reason she’s not interested in you,” Aleysia answered.

“Choose what? They would’ve found a reason to burn you for something. They never bothered to know your heart.” He drew a dagger from his hip and held the pointed end of it over his own heart. “Do it. Shove it into my chest.” He forced my palm over the hilt. “I’d sooner suffer the pain of this blade than see the hate in your eyes.”

I frowned. “Have you dreamed of others and gotten ideas?” “Yes. All of your personalities. My favorite is anger. She’s lovely in dreams.” As he bent low to kiss me again, I turned my face away. “I’ve changed my mind. You can cuddle with the rats on the floor.” He chuckled. “And stir your jealousy? I know better.”

He trailed his fingertip down my temple. “I would call you the soft glow of moonlight in a pitch-black world. A prayer I never spoke aloud, but somehow the gods answered anyway. The strike of lightning I dare to behold without flinching.” His brow flickered as he ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “The reason I breathe.”

“You will. And if the fates are kind, our paths will cross again.” I threw my arms around her, holding her tight to me, the feeling that I might not embrace her that way again tearing through my chest. “I love you.” “Only a fraction of how much I love you.”

“The guilt you’ve carried all these years, the hell that lives inside your mind, has grown like rot inside of you. Vaelora, poor Vaelora.” Cadavros’s voice was a distant sound beneath the thud of blood pulsing in Zevander’s ears. “The father you couldn’t save. The mother and siblings you couldn’t protect. And Theron. She killed him when he spoke for you, when he willingly chose torture to ensure your freedom, and your mind cannot forgive you for it. The absence of vivicantem brought it to life with such scathing clarity that you can’t even face it.”

“It is time to embrace those flames. To remember the pain you suffered while two kings watched in apathy. An assassin does not feel empathy or guilt. He neither mourns nor loves. This self-destruction ends now. We have a ward to destroy.”

“Yes. I was born a spindling. Not even the king is privy to my past.” It made sense now, why a mage as powerful as Cadavros would criticize the king and highbloods. Why igniting the vein may have once been important to him for innocent reasons. Good reasons.

I shook him, a sharp gasp of a sob tearing from my throat. I clenched my teeth, biting back the emotion, refusing to accept that he was gone. “Wake up, Zevander! Wake up!” I shook him again, harder, my voice splintering beneath a wretched pain that threatened to tear me open. Still, he didn’t move. Didn’t gasp for breath. His skin grew colder, his face, paler.

“No, no, no. Breathe!” I pounded my fist against his chest. “You promised! You promised you wouldn’t leave me!” I pressed my lips to his, forcing breath in his lungs. “Wake up!” Hands fisting his tunic, I hauled his upper body just enough to lift his head and cradled him in my lap. My body shuddered with another sob, and I tipped my head back, the anger pounding through me in violent waves. “Morsana! Give him back to me!”

“Because you know the pain.” While unnatural for Zevander to be so tender toward another woman, a part of him reserved only for Maevyth, he somehow knew it would be the only way he could make her understand. “You’ve had your heart ripped open by brutal hands. And even if you threw me into the darkest abyss, tore me limb from limb, I would find my way back to her. If I had to crawl through the cold and hollow belly of death itself, I would find a way to return to her.”

“I will grant you until the time she transcends, when she and I will become one.” “How will she transcend?” “Through death. She is fated to die.” As a mortal, Zevander knew his time with her would be cut short, but her words struck panic in his chest. “How?” “Go now, Zevander Rydainn. We will meet again.” She faded, leaving him a dark void that swallowed him whole.

“Please. Do it.” A tear spilled down Ravezio’s temple and Zevander turned away, nostrils flaring as he fought to hold himself together. He nodded. “Thank you …” Ravezio wheezed and sucked in another rattling breath. “For your…friendship.” “Dormisz qumeht lunadei, meh’amij.” Rest with the gods, my friend. Zevander rose to his feet and held a trembling hand out to the man he’d known as a brother. One who’d never hesitated to fight on his behalf. He closed his eyes and summoned the flame.

“Don’t you dare let go! Please don’t let go!” I screamed, my voice echoing around me. “I love you. You hear me? I love you, Zevander Rydainn! You hold tight!” “Through every…thread of fate, I have loved you. Please … live.” He let out a grunt and his hand slipped from Dravien’s. Then mine. A single brush of our fingertips like smoke across my skin. Time slowed around me, my heart caught in my throat.

Death would be easier, he thought again. A thunderous roar from above invaded his mind and Zevander peered up at two glowing eyes watching him from the edge of the cliff. How that damned thing had traversed the boundary was a mystery he didn’t have the energy to ponder. Raivox roared again, flapping his wings and leapt into the air, hovering over the chasm. A smiled tugged at Zevander’s mouth. “Hello, shitbag. Nice of you to show up.”