The Touch of Salvation

27: Lightning

GOLIATH

A Few Hours Earlier...

Lucian is making the commands. I'm quiet but pensive. There is a subdued power within my silence and a darkness that consumes my very soul. The shadows speak to me, they murmur...they whisper in my ear and slither around my skin like a breeze. They've surrounded me in protection.

I didn't need the protection. My father once told me to never trust a survivor until I knew what they had survived, and now that I know Adalind was never the villain, but a beautiful survivor, nothing would stop me from saving her. I'd be her villain if she needed me to be. I'd be her hero, too. I'd be her fucking throne for her to sit upon and rule if she needed.

My shadows wave and then glisten as a new figure steps within them. There is only one other person that has ever been able to control them.

Nyx.

And here he stands, his face paler than usual. His eyes are deathly hollow. I flex my hand immediately missing the rings that I have only ever taken off a handful of times in my life.

Silver orbs snap to my hand and he seems resolved like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. "So, you chose her after all."

Within his voice is a taunt with a slight twinge of...something I can't decipher.

"She isn't who I thought she was."

He nods. "She's better." In the silence of the night, he gazes downward for a moment and when he looks up he looks as if he has made his decision. "Demise's head is not his own."

"What?" As I take a step forward I realize. It was him. It was his will the entire time. Demise wouldn't know if another was in his head because he was always the one in the heads of others. He was never the prey.

My hand reaches for his throat and he's weightless as I haul him upwards. He doesn't struggle as I have seen others before. His hands fall limp as he stares down at me. The hand on his throat is so tight, his skin cracks, and from those cracks pool out rivers of black. Black magic. Black blood. Silver stars.

"Why?" I ask him. He doesn't answer. I force him to the ground. "Why?" I repeat. The anger I feel is almost breathtaking and I am surprised I can hold onto it for this long.

"Adalind needs you," he spurts. More black magic spurts from him, now from his back. His eyes brighten.

"Where is she?"

"House of Nyght. In the highest tower. Ophir has walls around her fortified by magic, all of our magic. You can't get in."

"Why are you telling me this," I sneer. "Why hurt us and then help us?"

"Because," he hisses. "There was no other way to win this."

My brows furrow. My nose twitches. Sunshine. Daylight. "You were with her."

"You need to break the magic he uses and the only way to do that is to turn the night against him. Turn darkness into death, Goliath."

And then I realize. He led Ophir to his House in order for my power to be aligned with the House that he resides in. I release him and force my shadows away from me, opening me back to the House of Dae.

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GOLIATH

If the circumstances weren't so dire, I might find comfort in the House of Nyght. The stars are bright, the moons are well-seen, and the temperature is comfortable.

My hands press against the magic wall in front of me. It's completely transparent, and yet it won't let me through. Just on the other side, passed the city and nestled within the mountain, is that fucking tower.