Page 25 of A Trial of Two Worlds
“Your Highness!” a male exclaimed, grasping my smoldering flesh and forcing me to my feet. The pain from my burns brought me back. “You need to escape! We can’t lose you, too!”
I blindly followed his lead, retreating to the main doors and jumping through the fires once more to the Summit entrance.
My heart shattered as the vision of Castor and Gunnar replayed inside my mind, a well of sorrow and regret drowning me on solid ground. The chasm of grief tore through me as a dark void settled in my center.
My brother and Gunnar were…
I couldn’t breathe.
My brother was dead. Gunnar was dead.
“Witnessing this is far better than anything I could’ve hoped for.”
Anjani…
I would eradicate her existence in this life and the next if it was the last thing I did.
Without warning, the sound of a blade slicing through flesh and bone rang out, followed by the muffled screams of death and a stream of crimson flowing toward my feet. Turning, I gasped in sheer horror at the sight of Adohan and Idris’s headless corpses splayed across my own steps.
“The twins are already handled,” Anjani said.
White-hot rage clouded my vision as I looked up to see none other than Anjani with a blood-soaked blade, with Rhett and Seamus standing on either side of her.
I lunged for them, summoning Valencia to my hand as I charged forward.
“Fool.” Anjani laughed as she snapped her fingers.
My eyes sprang open, and I vomited across the cobblestones. My limbs convulsed uncontrollably as I struggled to remain upright.
I half-heartedly glanced at the burns along my arms. The pain of my wounds was the least of my concerns.
“Dreams can become reality when properly enticed within the confines of your mind,” Anjani said in a low voice.
Rhett and Anjani were both inside the cell, but I couldn’t muster the strength to attack. My chains were latched to bolts in the rock, and I was still shaken from the illusion, unable to right myself just yet.
Fucking hell, I watched them all die.
Everything about her illusion somehow seemed so real.
How?
“You record everything we needed?” Anjani asked Rhett. “The tonic seemed to help strengthen my magic.”
I glanced sideways at the scroll keeper. My eyes burned with disgust and swirling rage.
“It was masterful,” Rhett said with an all-knowing grin, jotting notes on parchment. “Losing your hand has not hindered the cunning nature of your magic, it seems.”
Anjani scowled at Rhett, retrieving the torch that aided in the burns coating my arms. She walked to thedoor of the cell and held it open for her companion to pass through before locking it behind them.
“Oh, just wait,” she purred in delight. “Wait until I add your pretty little mongrel of a mate to these illusions.”
I growled at her, baring my teeth, unable to restrain my wrath.
“Protest all you want. You won’t even know it’s happening. This was a mere stop in our journey to break you from the inside out.”
“You can… try,” I rasped, forcing myself to sit upright.
“You do see the irony in this. Don’t you?” Anjani asked with an inquisitive grin.
