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It was as though the Empire’s soldiers moved not by their own will, but by someone else’s.
little Dread?”
mind-speaking was something the angels once did.
As always, she searched for his face in the necklace’s layers of wear, but while the winged horse was clear, the person riding it had been buried beneath the darkness of time, no matter how diligently Eliana tried to clean it.
“You were marvelous out there, during the race. I’ve never seen that kind of power. Rielle, it was beautiful.”
Eliana flashed Rahzavel a smile. “I am your doom.”
“Queen Rielle could have done it.”
You could come to me. And we could begin.
But the empirium does not simply wait for you, Rielle, he continued. It hungers for you. No one else will ever understand it as you can. It longs for you the way a lover yearns for his mate.
Don’t risk it, came Corien’s voice—tense now and unamused. You are powerful, but you’re not immortal. I could be, Rielle responded.
You’re an angel. His response, when it came at last, was toneless: I am.
She squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think about the sweet, lonely ache that lingered against her skin where Corien’s touch had once been.
Sometimes your goodness shines so brightly that I want to devour you. Maybe if I have enough of you, that light you shine will stave off the wickedness that lives inside me.”
I cannot resist you, he replied. Not you or your phenomenal mind.
“And when the Gate fell, He found me in the chaos, pointed to my thirsting heart, and said, ‘You I shall deliver into the glory of the new world,’ and I wept at his feet and was remade.”
my queen.
“I am Zahra,” the woman said, “and I am a wraith. And you are Eliana Ferracora, the Dread of Orline, the last of House Courverie, daughter of the Lightbringer, heir to the throne of Saint Katell, the true queen of Celdaria, and…” Zahra spread her long arms wide. Her dark smile was full of joy. “You are the One Who Rises. The Furyborn Child. You are the Sun Queen, Eliana, and I have come to bring you home.”
“Besides me,” Rielle said, “Atheria only lets two people touch her. Audric, and now…” She smiled as the beast nibbled at Simon’s hair. The boy went perfectly still and stood wide-eyed while Audric shook with silent laughter. “And now, it seems, your son is the second.”