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I shifted my weight, harder this time, twisting my hips and dragging him off centre.

We hit the floor with a heavy thud, air rushing from his lungs as I landed, straddling him. His hands came up immediately, gripping my arms, trying to shove me off⁠—

I sang. That primal thing inside me rising with bared teeth, hungrier than I had ever felt it before. His eyes glazed over, that iridescent sheen slipping across them in a beautiful shimmer of submission.

Distantly, I heard the other guard shouting, and without thinking, my hand lifted towards him, gripping the water swirling through his body and forcing it into his lungs with one violent flick of my wrist. His body convulsed, water bubbling from his mouth as he dropped to his knees.

Veins bulged in his forehead, skin turning dusky before he dropped to the ground.

Drown them all, the thing inside of me purred. And how could I deny her? After being caged within the soul relics for a thousand years, she deserved to live.

I lowered myself over him, my breath skimming his skin as my nose traced the line of his jaw. He stilled beneath me, caught under the weight of my spell. My song filled the silence, before my lips brushed his. My tongue slid against his in a slow, intoxicating rhythm. His wrists were already in my grasp before he realised it, guided together and pressed above his head, pinned effortlessly to the ground. I held him there as I deepened the kiss, my body anchoring him in place.

Power slipped through me, pouring from my lips into his, not just taking his breath, but everything beneath it. His strength. His pulse. His life. Until everything he was, became a part of me.

I sat back on my heels, chest heaving as I stood from the ashen husk of a body at my feet.

“Beautiful. Reckless. Completely fucking unhinged,” Helion groaned with a wicked smile. “You really are perfect.”

Guards flooded into the room. I glared at them, spinning around like a caged animal. I could kill them all. Bring them to their knees. And I wanted to. To see the life bleed from their eyes and feel their power swimming through my veins.

An invisible force slammed down on me. Power suffocated me, squeezing the air out of my lungs. It pinned me in place. I struggled, but I couldn’t move. I was a statue made of broken songs and formidable hope.

Astaroth strolled into the room, an almost bored expression on his face as he examined his nails.

“The trials have not yet started, yet there are two dead bodies blemishing my floors,” he said, tilting his head as though he didn’t understand.

Chapter Thirteen

Grounded in Deceit

Lyra

Ibared my teeth at the god of the Seven Hells, his white suit jacket pristine as he strolled into the room.

I wanted his blood to bloom through it like a rose seeing the first morning of spring.

“You poor, vicious thing,” he tsked, looking down at me where I struggled uselessly against his power. “You do not think you belong here, do you?”

He pulled a gleaming white blade from beneath his jacket and I froze.

My heart stammered uselessly in my chest, the smallest blade sending it into a frenzy of nerves. The air became too thin, and my vision darkened at the edges.

Astaroth knelt in front of me, milky eyes gleaming with curiosity as they took in every indication of trauma.

He reached forwards slowly, careful not to startle me as I forced the air in and out of my burning lungs.

In one fluid movement, he gripped my shirt and slashed. My eyes crashed shut, expecting the familiar sting of a blade drawing blood.

But nothing came.

I opened my eyes. He had cut my tunic, revealing my cleavage, and I gritted my teeth.

Pluck the eyes from his head for looking at what is not his.

The cold bite of the blade pressed between my breasts, right over the greyish birthmark that looked like a flame. The same one I had seen on Riven’s torso. His knife puckered my skin with just enough pressure not to break.

“You bare my mark. Destined to be punished for your crimes.”