❝ Pain was my fuel, until the fire began bleeding from my veins. ❞
The girl without a name.
The black-haired fiend devoid of fear.
The sharp-tongued scoundrel always ready with a trick up her sleeve.
Thief and street rat Azura knows how to hustle a...
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◢✥◣ PREVIOUSLY... ◥✥◤
Azura confronted Palmira and Erasmus, demanding answers about the things the emperor told her. Palmira reaffirmed the things the emperor said, that he was a god and that Azura's marks were made to kill the unkillable. She confirmed that she had been pulling the strings behind the Empire, that she had orchestrated the attack on the Order to push Azura into action and had lied about Suri's death. She claimed that the Tacree Kingdom didn't heed her warnings about the true dangers in the world, which is why she used the Empire to destroy them. Then she brought out an injured Ari who she knew had been snooping around.
༛༛ ༛ ༛༺༻༛ ༛ ༛༛
Palmira steps around Ari, her skirts a flowing river of moonlight around her. She approaches me, her gaze on my face, sparks of flame in her eyes. "You are an enigma, Azura of Yetok."
My breath hitches at that. My home. A home I see in glimpses, nightmares, screams echoing around me, grapes crushed beneath my boots, spilling like blood on the emerald grass.
"I thought I knew what you were," Palmira continues, stopping before me, a full head taller. "A little girl that stumbled upon a power she had no right to steal." She curls her fingers around my uninjured hand and I let her, trembling too hard to fight her. The touch is gentle, almost worshipful as she peels away my glove to reveal my markings. "These aren't yours." She touches an embedded golden line on my skin, curving around my thumb, the glow of it reflecting on her dark skin.
The touch makes my stomach roll.
"But perhaps I was mistaken."
"What," I say through gritted teeth, "do you want?"
Palmira smiles at me, a wicked thing, full of unwanted promise. "I want you to realise the full potential of your blood. By my side."
"You made me an offer once before and look where it got me."
"But you didn't know then, did you? About this flame in your veins, nor the true meaning of the mark. Think of what we could accomplish."
"Yeah," I say, my eyes narrowed as venom drips from my lips. I pull my hand away from her and step back. "More innocent people dying is what will be accomplished."
She lifts her chin but I can see she's not giving up so easily. Her mind has been made and she won't let me out of this web she's weaved. "I needed an army. I needed the people to bow again to strengthen Rupteran. I needed people afraid."
"You've never said why."
"Because there is a silent war that has been raging for millennium, and it's time mortals win it."
I scowl at her, the words only adding to my confusion. "You're still not making sense."
Palmira turns and lifts her hand, gesturing to the stained glass of the ballroom where the gods are depicted, Lucifer and his wings of black among them. "You now know the gods are real."
