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Ny
Even in her mind, she cried. The grief was more raw there. No inhibitions. No physical limit to how loud she could scream or how deeply sobs could rock her body. No one to hear her, look at her, punish her for what could not be contained. Dr. Aster had used a scalpel. And he’d handed Hellix a whip.
What do you fear?
Ny
What else do you fear? There is more. Deeper.
An ancient memory surfaced. Ny
She’d used her powers. Only thirteen years old. A house demolished. A woman dead.
Some things are too dangerous to set free.
Among the Tigony, she had been suspect because of her mother’s indiscretion with Ny
No . . . dead.
Ny
Then let go.
“Let go? I have nothing left! Why am I here, if not for my son?”
You are here because you have no choice.
Certainty began to seep deeper and deeper. It slid like molten rock through her veins, arteries, and every pinched little capillary.
“No choice?”
No choice. Let go.
“My son!”
Will be returned to you in one year. Remember?
“One year.” She was slipping. Even Leto’s ethereal presence had faded, as distant now as a man waving across a vast chasm. “I must fight.”
With your powers, Dragon King. Harness it. No distractions. Join Leto in victory. You are Ny
That name didn’t sound right. She was spi
The promise will be kept.
“And I will burn down this hellhole.”
Of course not. This is your home now.
Was it? Ny
The dull bronze light faded. In its place, a rush of stinging energy burst to life. She shrieked. It surged through her limbs, shot out her fingers and toes. Even the ends of her hair lit and lifted. She ran through her thoughts, hearing bittersweet memories that gouged her heart into crimson strips.
Memories. Deep memories.
The first time . . . she’d exploded. And her mother had been put to death.
Ny
She grabbed at flashes of remembered light. Caught every strand. Formed electric pulses into potent, controlled beams. From her eyes or from her hands, she was in control. A sense of power unlike any she’d known filled her chest and made her laugh. When was the last time she’d had control? All she knew was that it felt good. Right.
Devastating.
She closed her hands, her eyes, and breathed out. Her raw gift was tamed. She coiled it back within her breast. Even among that vacant, formless place, she remembered Leto’s snake tattoo. Now she had a serpent, too. Waiting to strike.
But a trade, Ny
Ulia’s voice was whip-sharp now. An undeniable command.
At first, the only sound in that infinite space was Ny
She felt her mother’s touch across her cheek. “So beautiful, my child. You will not be ignored.” Then . . . that touch was gone forever.
Caleb next. Oh, Caleb. His quiet voice never entirely left her thoughts.
At the bookstore where they’d met. “Would you like to get a cup of coffee?”
At the topmost pod of the London Eye, on their first vacation together. “Will you be my wife?”
At an outdoor altar in Central Park on a su
Their first kiss as husband and wife. Gasps of passion. Groans. Awed whispers in the night. So many plans.
And the best. The most perfect. The hardest to hear again. “It’s a boy, Audrey. Our son.”
After Jack took his first breath on a gusty cry, their nighttime whispers had been for him, about him, centered on keeping their little family happy and whole.
Her mind was crying again.
“Hush, now,” she’d whispered while trapped in a cell in Aster’s lab. Jack’s baby-fine hair had smelled of antiseptic and iodine. “Everything will be all right.”
She’d lied to her boy. Nothing was all right.
Everything will be all right. The voices . . . That pain is gone now.
Yes. Gone now. Thankfully gone. The painful weight Ny
The space was empty now, quiet now. What had been there? She’d lost something.
Just the pain, child. You’ve only lost the pain.
“What do I do?” she called into the black. “Ulia, help me!”
You will fight for the glory of the Asters. Keep your promise.
Relief washed her like a cleansing rain. Her skin was new. Her mind was clear. Her gift was ready to surge. She would wield it as easily now as Leto swung his mace and circled the Cage with unimaginable speed.
Leto. Holding her.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I promise.”
Although she could no longer remember what promise she’d made.
♦ ♦ ♦
Leto stroked back the sweat from Ny
The strangest Cage match of his life.
The consequences extended beyond wi
All he could do was tend to the woman he held. He focused on Ny
He wanted the cause to have been his touch.
“Promise, promise, promise . . .”
Her chant grew stronger as her body began to still. More voice. Less frantic fighting. Leto exhaled against her damp skin. He forced his muscles to release. Slowly. The adrenaline rush of combat, no matter how strange, began to ebb. First his legs, where hers no longer kicked. Their limbs were sticky with sweat. Locked together. Then his arms—softer now, as she eased back. His chest became her wall, although he remained hyperconscious of the damage done to her back.