Dawn of Ash (Imdalind, #6)(116)

I wanted to tell her to calm. After all, Edmund had no idea what power was walking into the room. He was about to find out, exactly as Ovailia was.

“Ovailia, what brings you here?” Edmund greeted us before the door had even shut, his eyes hard as he tightened a white robe around himself, clearly upset at being bothered without warning. I could already see him planning some form of punishment as Ovailia dragged me over to him, throwing me at his feet like a dog.

I howled in feigned agony at the movement, rolling myself into a tight ball as I sobbed.

“Sain was trying to hide in my room. He’s back.”

Edmund took a step toward me, kicking me over to face him with his bare foot as I continued to moan. My eyes were wide as I came face-to-face with the powerhouse of a man I had created.

“Hiding…? Sain?” Edmund’s voice was hard, and I cowered more, whimpering pathetically as he squatted beside me. “I didn’t expect you back so soon … and alone. What happened?” His temper increased with each word, the warning digging into me as I sobbed, twisting my body around to tremble beneath him, my cries drumming abrasively off the stone floor I lay against.

“Ilyan,” I gasped, tears and snot dripping off my nose. “Ilyan killed them all. I barely escaped.”

“Míra!” His voice was a shout, his anger boiling over.

After all, I had given him this plan. I had told him of its success. It was one, little lie.

“She made it. I saw her. Ilyan took the bait.” I didn’t know if that was true, but it didn’t even matter anymore.

Edmund’s toes tapped over the floor in front of my face as he bounced on his heels, obviously weighing his options, weighing his prospects. I could only pray it would go in my direction.

“Good. I would say that would secure both your lives … but you lost me fifty men, Sain. Fifty men you insisted would be safe.” His voice was a heavy weight against my back that pressed into me, his magic strong as his anger increased, as he made his choice. “You leave me no other option.”

Unfortunately for him, it was the wrong one.

“No, Edmund.” I spoke the words clearly, all trace of my shake, all trace of the role I had played for centuries gone as I uncoiled before him, my body unfurling to its full height, to its full power in one elegant move. Eyes hard, I stood to face Edmund, looking him in the eyes the way I hadn’t done in centuries. “You left me no choice.”

His eyes widened at what he was seeing, his jaw slack as he stepped back, obviously ready to attack, to call his guard on me, to beat me down in defiance.

I gave him a chance for none of it.

Without warning, my magic flared, a stream of red smacking into him as I threw him into the wall, his body colliding with the old, stone masonry with a smack.

His scream echoed around us as his guards moved to attention, only to have my magic move into them, freezing them in place as I brought Edmund back to me. His body was little more than a rag doll as he hovered before me, frozen.

My hands moved slowly as I reached into my pocket and produced the sliver of Soul’s Blade that I had pulled from Ovailia’s body.

“I had hoped to connect all the pieces before I did this, but you left me no choice.” With one wide swing, the shard of red cut through the air, glinting in the light before it disappeared into Edmund, slicing through flesh and bone to embed itself into his heart.

With a sound like he had been punch, Edmund gasped, his blood spraying over me as he coughed, mouth and eyes wide in horror. My magic seeped from the guards in one quick movement, every inch of my power concentrated on the man before me, on the blade that was connecting with his magic, freezing his magic, his body, his soul right where it was. I left him staring at me as his life slowly seeped away.

“Father!” Ovailia shouted in disbelief as my magic surged to its full potential, the strength of the power flooding away in a volatile wind, shielding us from the attacks of the guards who came to life within moments of my magic leaving them.

“Take care of them, Ovailia,” I spat, not daring to look away from the man I held before me.

“But, Sain—”

“Now is the time to decide where your loyalty stands, Ovailia. You can be this man’s slave and let him continue to destroy you, or you can be my bride and let me show you what power, love, and royalty really are!” I roared, specks of saliva flying over Edmund’s face with my temper. “Decide who you stand with!”

There was a pause so silent I wasn’t sure anyone was left in the room. For a moment, it was just Edmund and me, his eyes wide as life left him, as he tried in vain to understand what had happened.

“I choose you, Sain.” Her answer came moments before sparks of green flew around us, Ovailia’s magic erupting as, one after another, Edmund’s guards fell. The men he had trained so well were felled by nothing more than a little poison.

“Wonderful,” I soothed as the second to last one fell.

The last man stared at us in fear, his eyes darting around as he obviously tried to decide if he should run.

“Incapacitate the last one. Make him watch. I need a witness.”

Without question, Ovailia stepped away from me, the barrier I had surrounded us with fell to the ground as her magic wrapped around the man, pinning him to the wall with a thud.

“Hello, Damek,” she said, the venom in her voice taking my breath away.