Magnus

When I made it to the top of the bars, I kept my legs and one hand locked on them. From here, the mark was only a foot away from me. I stretched out with my free hand and felt over the symbol. I’d expected it to be etched into the ceiling, or maybe branded onto it, but it was smooth against the sandstone, almost as if it were a part of it.

Frowning, I pulled my hand away and examined the marking more closely. “There has to be a way to break it.”

Rereleasing the bar, I used the side of my hand to rub at the mark. I scrubbed until my skin scraped off and my blood stained the ceiling, but the symbol remained untouched.

“You know,” Wren said, “I think if it were as simple as rubbing a piece of the symbol away, they wouldn’t have put it within easy reach of the bars.”

I didn’t reply as I rubbed harder, but the mark remained fully intact. Drawing my fist back, I ignored the discomfort in my body as I battered the ceiling. My knuckles broke open, more blood spilled free, but I ignored it as I was determined to tear through the symbol and rip it to shreds.

Minutes later, sweat slid down my cheeks, my battered body ached, my hand was broken, and I hadn’t made so much as a scratch on the surface. The only difference in the marking was my blood drying on it.

“No!” The scream tore my attention away from the symbol as the word rebounded down the hallways and echoed throughout the ruins.

Amalia! I recognized the voice instantly and the anguish in it.

What had they done to her? What were they doing to her?

I’ll kill them ALL!

Releasing the bars, I landed on the ground as her scream reverberated in my head. My shoulders heaved, and my horns curved away from my head. The still new sensation of them sliding forward was strange, but it came with a rush of power that I felt all through my body.

“Who was that?” Wren stared at the back wall of her cell as if she could somehow see through it. When her head turned toward me, her eyes were haunted, but then her jaw dropped. “Magnus, your horns!”

I have to get out of here! I have to get to her!

Clutching the bars again, I forgot any pain as I ascended and, without thinking, battered my horns into where my blood stained the ceiling. Whereas my fists had failed to penetrate the symbol, my horns caused bits of sandstone to break free and rain down on me. I pulled my head back and slammed my horns into the ceiling again.

As more dust broke free, the bars wobbled and a faint grinding noise sounded from somewhere above me.

“Magnus,” Wren said slowly. “I… ah… I’m not sure that’s a great idea. It sounds a little—”

The rest of her words were drowned out when I rammed my horns into the symbol again. My horns took the brunt of it, but this blow jarred my spine all the way to my tailbone. Head throbbing, I pounded the ceiling with my horns again.

I don’t care if I break every bone in my body, I’ll destroy this thing.

Pulling my head back, I was about to ram the symbol again when the low grinding noise became an ominous groan.

It’s booby-trapped.

I had only a second to register this, release the bars, and lunge toward the front of my cell before debris broke free from above to pelt my shoulders and back. A chunk of building the size of a boulder hit me between my shoulder blades and knocked me to one knee.

When another one crashed onto my other shoulder, I fell to my knees. Debris piled up on my back so fast I was certain it would bury me alive. Dust clogged my nostrils and filled my mouth when I drew in a breath.

Choking, I tried to spit out the cascading rubble, but there was no escaping it. My next breath brought the debris all the way into my lungs.

“Magnus!” Wren’s scream barely penetrated through the thunderous clatter of my grave falling around me.

Amalia! I have to get to her.

The thought of her gave me a fresh wave of strength. When I stretched my arm out, my fingers curled around a large rock, and I used it as leverage to pull myself out from under the crushing weight of debris. Rocks slid away from my back as I strained to pull myself forward inch by excruciatingly slow inch.

And then, some of the weight gave way enough for me to scramble to my feet. The rubble causing the floor to rise beneath my feet forced me to run in a hunched-over position toward the front of the cell. I would have only one chance at freedom before everything collapsed on top of me.

Lowering my shoulders, I ran full speed at the bars.

• • •

Amalia

Pride lifted my mother’s head from the ground and held it before me. I recoiled from her unseeing eyes and gaping mouth.

“Are you going to tell me no again?” Pride asked as he waved her head at me.

He wanted to see me break and watch me crumble, and I was so close to doing that, but I couldn’t. If I did, he’d destroy me, and I would never give him that satisfaction.

“You bastard,” I whispered.

My father lunged for the head, an inhuman sound issuing from him. His hand snatched at the air and came up with nothing as Pride swung it beyond his grasp.

“Give her to me!” my father bellowed.

I winced at the raw agony pouring from him, but gradually his sorrow became replaced with a building rage that would make the erinyes proud. And the erinyes demons more than lived up to the name the humans had given them—furies.

When my father leapt at Pride again, I dove forward and wrapped my arms around his waist. I managed to stop him from grabbing the horseman. “Paupi, please no,” I pleaded.

The death of my mother also doomed my father, but I craved a few more minutes with him, and I did not want Pride to destroy him. The lump in my throat threatened to choke me as my father’s emotions poured from him. My parents had spent over eighteen thousand years as each other’s Chosen.

I could only hope Magnus and I might have the time they’d shared, but to lose someone after so many years, and after enduring so much with them, was a loss I couldn’t fathom, but I felt it from my father. He may still be breathing and speaking, but he was essentially a living corpse.

When my father struggled to break out of my arms, Nalki intervened and helped me restrain him.

“No, Eron,” Nalki murmured. “Your death will solve nothing.”

My father collapsed like someone pulled the bones from his body. Sobbing, he gathered my mother’s body to him again.

“Now,” Pride said, his eyes focused on me. “Will you take us to them, or shall I get your Chosen?”

Around me, the shock of some of the jinn was fading to become replaced with disbelief and anger over the murder of my mother. Their postures were rigid as they glanced from my mother to Pride and back again. In his arrogance, Pride miscalculated the depth of the jinn’s loyalty to each other compared to him. And so had Olgon as some of them turned angry eyes toward my uncle.

But not all of the jinn were angry; some were fine with what happened, and they would allow Pride to do as he pleased. Olgon was one of them. The knowledge his brother would die hadn’t fazed him.

“Child—”

A sudden vibration rocking the ground caused Pride’s words to break off. I stared at the rocks beneath my knees, half expecting the ouroboros to have returned to life and burst from the rocks.

Embracing my father, I pulled him closer, and Nalki released him. My heart thundered in my chest. I waited for a fissure to race across the ground as the earth split apart to swallow us whole. Maybe the Abyss finally had enough of being abused and decided to destroy us all. I wouldn’t blame it if it had.

My father shook in my arms, but his tears had dried and his eyes burned with rage. Except this time, he wasn’t glaring at Pride. No, he focused his hatred on Olgon.

The rumbling became a crescendo reverberating throughout the valley and quaked the walls behind me. Debris broke free and bounced down the wall before pelting my back. My father grunted when a large stone caught him in the head, but he didn’t attempt to protect himself from further injury.

I tried to pull my father away from the rubble jarring loose behind us, but Pride remained in our way, and I didn’t want my paupi anywhere near that monster. Beside us, Nalki hunched over and threw his arms protectively over his head.

What is going on?

I folded myself over my broken father to protect him from the more massive falling rocks and gritted my teeth when they pelted my back. And then, the rain of them eased, though the ground still quaked. I chanced a glance up to discover Nalki leaving himself less protected as he knocked some of the larger rocks away from us.

Then, the ground heaved and thrust us all forward as a rending noise filled the air.

“Amalia!” my father cried. He wrenched free of my arms, threw himself over me, and pinned me to the ground. This brief return to reality for him wouldn’t last, but this glimpse of the man he’d been before these bastards destroyed him was wonderful to see.

Then, the ground stopped shaking, and I found the ensuing quiet nearly as terrifying as the disturbance.

Lifting my head, I looked up in time to see rocks and sand blow outward from the ruins. The thick cloud of debris exploding over the top of the crater sent some of the jinn scurrying away as boulders whistled through the air before crashing to the ground. Rocks hit the monolith and bounced away, but none of them left so much as a scratch on the metallic surface.

“Magnus!” I screamed, somehow knowing he’d done this. “Magnus!”

Clawing at the ground, I started to drag myself out from under my father when he released me. Probably because he wouldn’t have let anyone stand in his way of getting to my mother.

I leapt to my feet as more boulders crashed into the pit, shaking the earth and leaving craters in the ground. A few of them nearly took out a couple of jinn, and Sloth finally stirred on his mount. When he kicked his horse, it grudgingly plodded forward.

Without thinking, I ran toward the path where they’d taken Magnus. I went to dodge around Pride, but his hands fell on my shoulders, and he released a bone-chilling snarl. His fingers digging into my collarbone pierced my flesh and drew blood. Before I could formulate a thought, my feet left the ground.

Lifting me, he flung me away as if I weighed no more than a pebble. A scream lodged in my throat as the world whipped around me and the wind tore at me. The ground became a dizzying blur until I had no idea where I was.

And then I hit the earth.

Breath burst out of my lungs when I crashed onto my side, and my back screamed in protest as I skidded across the ground. The rubble still raining down from the ruins pelted me; I threw my arms over my head to shield it before I crashed into the rocky base of the monolith.

Lying there, I panted through the pain in my ribs as I tried to get my bearings. Overhead, the cloud of smoke cleared to reveal more of the red sky, but from my angle, I couldn’t see what happened to the ruins.

Turning myself over, I clawed my way up the pile of rocks until I arrived at the top and settled only a foot away from the monolith. My heart sank when I finally saw the ruins again.

Or at least I saw what remained of them.

A perfect single square piece of the three-story section had collapsed. If anything was in that section, it was dead.