“I know,” she assured, hugging me tightly. “I am neither completely here, nor am I wholly there. I’d never allow myself to be separated from where I belong, not when fate is so capricious and the visions are so unclear. Seek me where you cannot enter. Eliminate the elements forming the dread that penetrates your mind. I am there and here, but I am fractured to be ubiquitously present in both.” Her words were barely loud enough for me to detect, but I heard them as clearly as if I’d thought them in my own mind. “It’s okay.”
I held her securely against my chest, gliding my hands over her soft tresses. I had missed her entire life, and now even more, maybe even all, was being stolen from me. A shuddered breath left my lungs, carrying with it the sob I’d been trying to hold in.
“I won’t do this.”
“You will,” Kahleena said with courage, and bravery coating her tone. “He’s not lying about what he intends to do,” she cautioned, drawing back to smile tightly. “I was wrong about him. The visions . . . they’re hard to decipher sometimes. When they come, they’re like watching movies without knowing the context or subtitles.”
“Visions change with the choices you make,” I revealed quietly, clutching her hands to feel her near to me. “Fate and destiny are never set in stone until you cement them there yourself. I will not choose your life over theirs, though. You’re my bright-eyed girl, Kahleena. You’re the same little girl who fought against death in infancy, and won. Your life has been limited, and I won’t choose to cut it short. He can kill me, and you can live for me. Okay?” I whispered brokenly, fighting the pain tightening my throat, hindering my words.
“No,” she exclaimed frantically. “No, he cannot have yours, Mother.” She pivoted, peering across the area to where Arius watched us with an annoyed look plastered on his face. “She chooses me, Arius.”
“Touching, really.” He snorted without moving from where he reclined on a makeshift throne of crystals and rocks. “But I’m afraid that isn’t how this works. She’ll either choose from the options I have given her or you all die.”
Kahleena turned back to me and huffed through her nose. “You will choose me. I know you don’t want to speak the words, but think about it for a moment. I am no longer a child like the others he threatens and the one you have yet to meet. They have yet to begin their lives. I have lived, and while my life has been sheltered, I have not wanted or needed for anything. Destiny reminded us daily that you fought to protect us, as well as the entire world, from being victims of vengeful, spiteful gods. I am not afraid to die because, in death, there’s no pain. Death is merely the start of a new, beautiful beginning. You taught me that, and through the stories Destiny told me of you, I learned to be as brave and fearless as the woman who fought gods. I am your daughter, which is an honor I have not taken lightly. This isn’t our goodbye. It’s merely a see you later, Mother.” She leaned in and spoke in a strange, foreign dialect that sent pain slamming between my temples. “You will understand when it is safe for you to do so. Don’t fight me on this because I’m much stronger than you. You must only find me,” she whispered, stepping back to smile wistfully at me.
I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand, fighting the urge to unleash my power and bury that smug bastard under a ton of stone and dust. Kahleena offered me an impish look that told me she felt my rage and helplessness combining into a storm that would easily be unleashed on the prick who expected me to announce my choice.
“Tick-tock, Momma,” Arius stated, strolling toward us. “Choose or I will choose for you.”
My hold on Kahleena’s hands tightened, and I searched her face as the message she’d whispered in the strange language played on repeat within my mind. The air that left my lungs was ragged and stiff. Anguish cut through me while I took in her features, committing each to memory.
“Now, tell your lovely daughter that you don’t choose to save her.”
“I love you,” I cried, fighting the internal battle that raged within my soul.
She smiled as tears glittered in her star-filled eyes. “I love you too. Tell my father and the boys that this isn’t goodbye. Tell them I love them, and that we’ll be together again soon.”
I yanked her into my arms as I whispered her name. “Kahleena.” It was barely audible, and yet the room spun violently around me. The hold I had on her weakened, and the same weightlessness that had brought me here assaulted me again. A strangled sob ripped from my throat as I collapsed to my knees on the floor of Ryder’s office.
“Synthia?” Ryder’s rich timbre sounded, and I lunged without warning. I shot toward Zahruk, slamming the hidden dagger into his chest as he thrust his concealed blade into my shoulder. “What the hell?” Ryder howled, hurdling over the desk to grab me and yank me away from Zahruk’s paralyzed form.
The door to the office crashed open, and power flooded in before shadows of wispy tendrils advanced over the carpet. They slithered around Zahruk, covering his eyes and ears to block out his senses.
“Never a dull moment in this place.” Spyder snorted and leaned against the door frame. Shadows continued to eddy around his silhouette for a moment before his eyes returned to their natural color, and he smirked. “You seem to have a fucking infestation, Ryder.”
Lucian materialized beside me, grunting as he dropped to his knees and tore Zahruk’s knife free from my shoulder. I gasped, desperate to draw air into my lungs, and relief washed through me as I regained use of my body. Lucian’s midnight gaze slid over my face before drifting to my swollen abdomen.
“What the fuck is happening?” Ryder demanded, slipping his worried gaze over my face before setting it on his brother.
“Seal the palace and place your most trusted men at the portal you designed in the lower level,” Lucian instructed, swiveling as Lena arrived at the door to the chamber, cradling her perfectly rounded baby bump with one palm while Benjamin rested in the crook of her arm. “We need to talk, and your wife is bleeding. Call a healer and then locate somewhere to put your brother where he cannot see or hear anything that’s happening in the palace. He’s compromised, as is anybody who’s come into contact with the toxic shit slithering out of the prisons.”
“Kahleena,” I uttered while planting my palm against the wound, which was spilling blood.
“What about her?” Ryder inquired tenderly, sliding his hands beneath my legs and back to hoist me into his arms. I gasped at the pain of being jostled and then winced at the twinge of discomfort in my lower back.
“He’s going to execute our daughter because of me,” I confessed, resisting the sob building in my chest. “Arius ordered me to choose between her life and the lives of the babies in this room. I didn’t have a choice, Ryder,” I exclaimed before powerful, grief-swollen sobs stole the breath from my lungs. “I think I just killed our daughter.”
Chapter Seventeen
Lucian and Spyder had begun testing everyone inside the castle, starting with everyone who’d been in the office. Ryder paced incessantly beside me, ranting and raving as I relayed what had happened. He’d been utterly incensed that, once again, his pregnant wife had been taken by our enemies. He’d demanded the entire medical staff be tested twice before he’d ordered they check me to ensure nothing was wrong.