Unlike Nylicia, I can now have the being I’m becoming mated to, but at what cost? Mavrak will finish breaking free if I give in. He’ll do anything to possess her.
I should know. I feel the same way.
Nylicia knew all this. Before she set this up, she knew this would happen to me. For millennia, all she’s done is hound me about learning to take control.
About owning what I truly am.
Guess she got tired of my refusals.
I swear my vision turns red as I materialize into the valley. On top of the cliffside overlooking the temples, I finally find my most treacherous of friends.
She rolls her eyes, no doubt hearing that thought, then returns to her previous task—staring down into the valley, eyes fixed at the very back where Zexistr’s ridiculously large temple lies.
More precisely, at the empty spot next to it.
“You might get away with playing these types of games with him, but not me. Do you hear me, Nylicia?”
“Zeniel,” she sighs, head falling back. “I hear you even when I don’t want to hear you.”
“So you have been ignoring me!”
“I’ve been doing what’s necessary. As always.”
I appear before her. For a second, I forget that she’s technically a projection and try to grab her shoulders.
Her eyes flash angrily at my attempt. “Calm the hell down. This doesn’t have to end horribly for you.”
“You’ve taken my choice away!” I roar, my fucking heart breaking. “After everything, Nylicia—”
“You’ve given me no choice!” she yells back, and for a split second, I can almost believe she’s as broken up about this as I am.
Doubt it. “Are you that desperate to have Mavrak join your war?” The words are hissed out through my clenched teeth.
Her eyes flash again, this time with pain. “Oh fuck you. You know you mean more to me than that.”
“Then why?” I growl, hands fisting. “Am I not enough? Why do you wish for Mavrak to obliterate me and return?”
She moves around me, the skirt of her dress flowing like smoke around her legs. “That is not your destiny. Evesse is.”
I turn to track her movements. “He will finish rising if I have her!” The certainty of this can’t be denied. She’s what brought him out.
Nylicia glares at me. The audacity of this female. She does this to me and has the nerve to act as the injured party. “It has always been your destiny.”
“For me to die? For Mavrak to return?”
She shakes her head, disgusted with me. “That’s not what I’ve been telling you all this time.”
“You ask the impossible! For me and Mavrak to unite? Vengeance and Tranquility?”
Her answering smile is almost maniacal, and I sort of flinch at the way her multi-colored eyes sparkle. “Exactly. Do you have any idea—”
“I am not one of your experiments!”
“No. You are half of one of the most primal beings in existence, and you have one of two destinies before you. Either you grow the hell up and take control of this, or it’s going to take control of you. And it’s going to break you.”
It’s like getting smacked in the face. Slowly, the logic of what she’s saying starts to leak in.
Nylicia turns from me. I stare at her profile, bared by her intricate up-do. Her long, dark bangs frame either side of her face.
It’s a beautiful, exotic face. Very few would ever guess the ruthlessness within. “Be honest with me. Does my gaining control of this benefit the war against the Aviraji?” Yes. That is the difference between my friends and me.
I know which side of the war she’s definitely on.
Also know how far she’s willing to go to win it.
She scoffs, her expression becoming lost in a beam of sunlight that breaks through the clouds and pierces her see-through form. “You know it does.”
“So you did sacrifice me on the off-chance that this would work. Tell me, female, are you ready to deal with the consequences if it doesn’t?”
She moves out of the sunlight so that I can see her form once more. “Sadly, I have more faith in you than you do in yourself. Besides, it’s the only way to have her. And we both know how much you want her.”
I shake my head and turn to stare at Mavrak’s temple.
A black-and-red, looming monstrosity. Not that it isn’t beautiful. It’s sheer size is what makes it so intimidating. Like the gothic version of the Kandariya Mahadeva temple in India.
A temple for Tranquility never manifested itself here, in the Valley of the Gods.
In hindsight, I’m an idiot for not realizing what that meant.
Nylicia comes to a stop next to me. “You inspired how many religions based on acceptance?”
I scowl. “I’m the first one to admit that I’m a freaking hypocrite.”
“Well, it’s time for you to learn to not be one. If you want her, you have no choice. Talk to Vedlyl. He can give you tips to get you started.”
“Really? Him of all beings? Be serious.”
“I am. He might not be a fully united, balanced being, but he’s way more ahead than the rest of you are.”
My jaw twitches. “If I lose control to Mavrak, in Vedlyl’s presence, his death will be beyond painful. You know this.”
Her sad eyes meet mine. “I know. But if it comes to that, he’s another one that brought it onto himself.”
That just angers me all over again. “Not all of us are like you, Nylicia. We can’t all go back to being evil and be okay with it.”
The same betrayal I’m feeling flashes in her eyes. A bone-shattering look of pain.
Damn it, what have I done?
Before I can open my big mouth and apologize, she faces me once more, her eyes glowing. “You should consider yourself lucky I’m not a pussy like the rest of you. Do you have any idea what type of being I would be if I didn’t accept it and work with it?”
She disappears without another word.
That logic that had begun to leak in finally pierces through my emotions.
I can have Evesse. We can be together.
My friends don’t have to die.
All I have to do is learn to control the uncontrollable—Mavrak, the war demon God of Vengeance.
I honestly have no idea where to even begin.
Three days later
The day Evesse dies.
“They’ve taken them.”
All I can do is stare into the white eyes of my friend Ianthen, confused.
I did it. Everything I was asked to do. I didn’t run. I stayed. Tried to help my friend end up with the female he’s mating to.
Dyletri is in the same exact boat as me. Not only does sacrificing Ismini mean he’ll die, too, but not doing so means chaos.
I remained here, looking for ways to try and control Mavrak, all while helping the others prepare for an apocalypse.
Dyletri hasn’t admitted it out loud, but we all know the truth. He isn’t going through with that sacrifice. He won’t be able to.
So we’ve been preparing to deal with the consequences.
I remained and began exploring what I never explored before: the possibility of uniting with that creature inside me.
Now this is happening? “What do you mean, they’ve been taken?” In the back of my head, Mavrak’s frantically trying to sense Evesse.
He can’t.
I can’t.
She’s no longer on the dimension.
And neither is Ismini.
Instantly, my entire vision bleeds red.
Ianthen’s expression changes from sympathy to caution.
Because the secret is out. They all know. They heard me confess to Dyletri.
Evesse broke Mavrak out of his prison.
“I was trying to find Enteax and Lisrn and ended up finding them all together. They took them. Disappeared after—”
The world around me seems to shake with mine and Mavrak’s fury.
The change that comes
over me is instant. So instant that Ianthen jumps back and materializes his black-and-blue armor.
I materialize mine, too, and when I look down at myself, I’m not surprised to find my red-and-blue armor missing.
In its place is an armor I’ve never seen but one that I somehow recognize.
A red-and-black armor.
“Zen? You in there, bro?” Ianthen asks me cautiously.
Only one word leaves my mouth. “Where?”
He blinks at the two voices leaving my throat. “The neighborhood they live in. Astoria.”
On my way out, I storm past Dyletri, one look at his face confirming what I already knew: he felt that Ismini’s missing.
At his questioning glance, I say, “Evesse is gone.” I don’t stop after that, my mind on getting out of the compound so that I can dematerialize straight to Earth.
By the time I make it outside, Ianthen, Dyletri, and Cyake are with me.
It breaks my heart. If Mavrak gets out, they’ll all be dead.
But there’s no focusing on that now. All that fucking matters is finding my female before anything happens to her.
An hour later, with the sins of an entire city bared before my eyes, I run through the streets of Queens, rage a vicious cloud all around me.
Where are you Eve? Gods damn it. There must be a trace of those bastards. Something that can give me a hint where they took the girls to.
I pass one of the small brownstones, and from within I hear a small girl’s wails.
Her pleas for her father to stop hitting her.
He isn’t just scolding her. He’s punishing her. Beating her senseless.
The snarl of an animal leaves me, but I can’t stop. Even if I wanted to let Mavrak out, we’re both too obsessed with finding a—
I turn the corner and slam to a halt at the sight of Dyletri.
At the tinny, overwhelming smell of blood.
Ismini’s blood.
I must appear beyond alarming at this point. What other explanation is there for the fact that Dyletri is still standing there?
Despite the scent of his mate’s blood, he can’t seem to move at the sight of me. “Zen?”
“I’m still here,” I reply in my new duo-toned voice.
That’s as far as our conversation goes. In the blink of an eye, we both flash into the alley.
Fucking . . . hell . . . all that blood . . .
Dyletri falls backwards against me. I scramble to grab him, but he’s bent over by some unseen force—
When his jaw unhinges and he begins spewing out blood, I can’t move from the shock of it.
There’s already police tape here. Humans are stirring inside the buildings. “Ian! Cy! Get over here!”
They arrive in a swirl of noise, but I lose track of what’s happening around me. My senses expand, and a scent I hadn’t picked up on before reaches me through the smell of all that combined blood.
The fury rises in me, like the lava in an erupting volcano. It lashes out of me in a black energy wave that sends Dyletri flying into the building behind him. “Evesse was here.”
Fear unlike any I’ve ever felt pierces me. The seconds seem to speed up into a brutal blur. I hear the others discussing that the females were taken, but I . . . I can’t . . .
On the side of the building, right next to the spot where I smell Evesse the strongest, another scent registers. “Lisrn. I can sense him near Evesse’s signature. If he touches her . . . if any male ever touches her against her will again . . . ”
It isn’t my secret to tell. I shouldn’t be speaking aloud. Can’t control it. Can’t control anything.
This entire fucking Universe will die if something happens to her.
Yes. Yes, I agree. Nothing is worth existing without that female. We will kill it all in her name. Her memory. For her, I’ll let my powers of Tranquility die in a maelstrom of blood.
Cyake starts speaking, trying to finally use his powers of Fate, trying to stop what’s happening—
Dyletri’s body reacts to the death of Ismini first.
Within milliseconds, I feel it.
The death of my own R’ma.
The entire world disappears under a tidal wave of never-ending agony and rage.
My mouth opens on a roar, signaling the world that their death is due—
What feels like a building slams into my face, and the last thing I feel is the fury at my vengeance being denied.
Then it all goes black.
– Utorou. The Dream Realm. Portal to the Haklanayas.
“I’m doing double-duty so let’s make this quick.”
I’m on my knees, surrounded by pure darkness. Shaking.
Shattered.
My mate. They killed my mate.
Nylicia appears before me, calm as can be. I bare my teeth, preparing to flash out of here. Find her body. Destroy her once and for all for allowing this to happen.
“By the gods, you mated males are psychotic. Here, hurry, so we can get them back.” A spiraling portal appears behind her and she waves her hand, the image morphing to one of Evesse. “You know how it goes, Zen. If I told you this—”
“Of course!” I slam my fist into the pitch-black darkness beneath me. “Just tell me what I have to do to get her back and I’ll follow you anywhere.”
“Their souls are still in the vortex. You’ll need to fly there and get her soul so I can reform her body. Take a plane. Mask your energies. Don’t let the Fates realize you’re there ‘till it’s too late. Now go.”
I’m lifted off my feet, flung through the portal, and back into the waking world, Mavrak still howling inside me.
CHAPTER 4
– Renentr. The Underworld
NYLICIA
S parks of color—aqua, pink, hazel, light blue and a few hints of deep red—come to life, shimmering as they travel across smooth, black marble. I stare at the wall with my head tilted to one side. Running my finger across the reflective stone produces the effect once more.
So fucking pretty. Shiny things are my shit. Always have been; always will be.
And, hmm, look at that. Even as a ghost, I still affect things.
Well, I’m not a ghost, not precisely. Fucked-up circumstances require for me to remain hidden.
Hidden and trapped in my own flesh-and-blood body. A decayed, shriveled up, barely alive, pathetic excuse of a body.
All I can show anyone on this plane is a projection of myself.
For now. The wheels of destiny are shifting once more. The higher powers are finally getting their asses in gear and doing what needs to be done.
Of course, that didn’t come easy. I had to fuck with them for an eternity. Mess up their plans, show them that they, just like everything else in existence, must bow down to me.
But sixteen-thousand years later, they’ve finally gotten the message.
Well . . . that, and I’ve promised to deliver the thing they want above all else in this Universe—their leader. Their handler. The one being that can ease their suffering.
The one male they yearn and ache for above all others—Cyake.
Soon, he’ll be more.
Soon, so shall I.
I’ll be back in my full, heart-shattering, majestic glory.
Soon, I’ll have vengeance on those that screwed me over in the first place. And not even Fate or Destiny can save them from me.
Hands on my hips, I turn. What the hell must I do to get the attention I deserve?
Crius’s powers are too strong for me to just flash into the Abideos. He needs to open the damn portal for me.
I purse my lips, and spin my head slowly to look at the Sivigh. It remains motionless, the doors to the underworld sealed.
Where is Crius and that stone face of his? Why hasn’t he come to greet me yet?
Oh, but I know. I know exactly what the fuck he’s up to and how often he’s been doing it.
I shake my head, amused at the God of the Underworld’s idiocy. I could sneak in there and castrate him,
and the only thing that would get in my way is the hand he’s using on himself.
Again.
Honestly, how many times can a being jerk off before it’s no longer enough?
I laugh. Nervous laughter, really, since the images in my head are kind of traumatizing. The sheer amount of masturbation I’ve been forced to watch recently is disturbing, even for a bona fide voyeur such as me.
“Nylicia, your laughter is obnoxious. It’s annoying me.”
I stop laughing and purse my lips once more. “I was wondering when you’d realize I’m here. How dare you ignore me this way?”
I walk towards the Sivigh. It doesn’t morph, merely opens and allows me inside.
Crius’s voice booms from within the walls as I pass. “I knew you were here the whole time.”
“So like I said, you were just ignoring me. I’m hurt.”
“No one could ever ignore you, Nylicia.”
Smiling, I dematerialize into the Abideos and lock eyes with him. He’s sitting on his black throne, the insolence pouring off his aura.
As it always does.
“When are you going to stop being a fool?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
My eyebrow arches at that. “Don’t you?” I take one look around the massive place. The Aristis glow white, illuminating the black marble walls and floor.
Ugh, the black everything to be honest. It reminds me of my prison—home—whatever. The place is positively morbid, except for the Aristis—crystal-like balls with souls locked in them—that fill almost every niche I can see. Billions of them.
‘Cause that’s the funny joke about humanity’s belief nowadays. They think the world has never been as populated as it is today.
Every single soul here once lived on Earth and worshiped the jackass in front of me as the God of their afterlife. That’s how they ended up here when they died.
My eyes land on a few that will become very important in the coming months. An exceptionally bright one on the far left seems to call out to me. As if it knows its time to be reborn is coming.
Eyebrow still raised, I glance at the empty dais in front of Crius and make damn sure he can see the look on my face. Everyone knows which Aristi was kept there until a few weeks ago.
Ryze Series: Books 1 & 2 Page 27