Chapter 187
Chapter 187
Damien didn’t speak for a long, suffocating moment.
The cabin of the transport seemed too small, the air too thin, the silence too heavy for the three of them. Siena could feel Damien’s pulse where her hand still gripped his sleeve—fast, uneven, a storm breaking against the edges of his self-control.
Alec swallowed hard. “Your brother is dead, Damien.”
“Yes,” Damien said finally. His voice was low, brittle. “He is.”
Siena’s breath caught. “Then… what did the scout see?”
Damien’s jaw clenched. Hard enough that a muscle in his cheek twitched.
“Something wearing my brother’s face,” he said. “Something that should not exist.”
Alec dragged a hand through his hair. “Oh, that’s comforting.”
Siena didn’t speak. She couldn’t.
Because she could still feel the echo of that presence—the same darkness that had clawed through her vision, the shadowed smile, the child’s scream.
Her stomach churned.
“Damien,” she whispered. “If it’s not your brother… who is it?”
He didn’t look at her.
He didn’t have to.
She saw the truth in the rigidity of his spine, the way his eyes darkened, the tension burning through him like a fever.
“You know,” Alec said quietly. “Don’t you?”
Damien exhaled once, slow and lethal. “I know enough to say this: we are not facing a man.”
The transport hit a bump so violently Siena lurched forward. Damien caught her instantly, one arm wrapping around her waist, pulling her into him without thought.
Her breath flattened against his chest, trapped beneath the heavy rise and fall of his breathing.
For a heartbeat—one dangerous, intoxicating heartbeat—it didn’t matter that the world was collapsing around them.
It didn’t matter that something monstrous wore his brother’s face.
All she felt was Damien.
His hand splayed against her lower back.
His heartbeat thundering through her.
His breath brushing her temple.
The intensity of him wrapped around her like heat and danger and want.
Then Alec cleared his throat, loud and pointed.
Damien’s eyes flicked to him—cold, irritated—but he didn’t release her right away. His hand lingered at her waist, thumb grazing the curve of her hip in a slow, unconscious stroke that made her throat tighten.
Alec shifted in his seat. “Do you two ever take a break from—whatever this is—long enough to focus?”
Damien didn’t blink. “No.”
Siena elbowed him sharply.
He didn’t even flinch.
But his mouth curved in the faintest, most infuriating smirk against her hair.
She pulled back from him, heat rising in her cheeks. “Focus. Both of you.”
Alec gestured at her. “See? Voice of reason.”
Damien countered instantly. “She’s the only reason I haven’t thrown you out the back door.”
The transport hit another jolt. Siena grabbed the seat to steady herself—and Damien’s hand closed around her thigh to steady her, his grip tight and possessive.
Her breath hitched.
And Damien heard it.
His fingers tightened a fraction.
Slow. Deliberate.
Her pulse spiked so violently she felt lightheaded.
Alec stared at the ceiling. “I swear, I need noise-canceling armor.”
Siena pushed Damien’s hand off her thigh, though her body disagreed with the decision entirely. “This is not the moment.”
“Oh,” Alec muttered. “But there will be a moment?”
Siena shot him a death glare. He held up both hands.
Damien leaned in close to her ear, his breath warm on her skin. “When she wants there to be.”
Heat rolled through her so fast she nearly forgot how to breathe.
Alec groaned loudly. “Unbelievable.”
Siena smacked Damien’s arm. “Can we please focus before I start throwing both of you out of the transport?”
Damien finally straightened, expression shifting back into lethal clarity.
“Fine,” he said. “Then we address the real threat.”
“The… thing wearing your brother’s face,” Alec said.
Damien nodded.
Siena pressed a hand to her chest, willing her heartbeat to settle. “If he’s connected to the child somehow—”
“He is,” Damien said. “And if he’s targeting you—”
“He is,” Siena whispered.
“—then this isn’t resurrection.” Damien’s eyes narrowed. “It’s possession.”
Alec stiffened. “That’s worse.”
“It is,” Damien confirmed.
Siena felt cold seep into her bones. “Because it means someone powerful enough to bend the dead—or whatever he is—has been orchestrating this from the shadows.”
Damien looked at her slowly. “Not someone.”
Her stomach dropped. “Leona?”
“No,” Damien said quietly. “She’s not capable of this. She’s working for someone.”
Alec swore under his breath.
Siena’s fingers curled into fists. “You think he’s controlling her?”
“I think,” Damien said, “that he’s using her the way he intends to use the child.”
Siena’s heart stuttered. “To do what?”
Damien looked out the small transport window as torched ruins blurred past.
“Remake the empire,” he said. “In his image.”
“But… who is he?” Siena pressed. “If he isn’t your brother—”
Damien turned back to her, eyes darker than she’d ever seen them.
“He’s the one my brother feared,” he said. “The one who corrupted him before he died. The one we thought had been locked away centuries ago.”
Alec leaned forward. “Damien. Stop speaking in riddles and say his name.”
Damien inhaled.
Slow.
Painful.
Deadly.
“Rath,” he said. “The Fleshbound King.”
A chill ripped through Siena like ice water.
Alec’s face drained of color. “That’s—he’s a myth.”
“No,” Damien said. “He was. Until now.”
The transport slammed to a stop.
All three of them lurched forward.
The door was thrown open before Damien could reach for it.
A guard stood there—pale, shaking, eyes wide with terror.
“Lord Voss—” His voice cracked. “The ruins—”
Damien gripped his shoulders. “Spit it out.”
The soldier choked on a breath.
Then pointed.
Damien, Siena, and Alec stepped down from the transport—
—and froze.
The ruins sprawled before them, jagged stone and broken towers silhouetted against the dying sun. But that wasn’t what made Siena’s stomach twist violently.
Dozens of Fleshbound constructs marched in rhythmic formation, their skin stitched, their limbs elongated, their faces stretched into masks of agony.
And in the center—
Siena’s blood ran cold.
A man stood atop a shattered pillar, wind whipping through hair black as midnight, shoulders broad, posture almost languid—as if he had all the time in the world.
His eyes lifted.
Right to her.
Not past her.
At her.
Her heart slammed against her ribs so hard she staggered back.
He smiled.
A slow, deliberate curve of lips that looked wrong. Too familiar. Too cruel.
He lifted a hand.
Siena’s breath cut off as invisible fingers wrapped around her throat—not choking her, but caressing. Testing. Feeling.
Damien moved so fast the air cracked around him, stepping between her and the man’s gaze.
Instantly, the invisible grip vanished.
The man tilted his head.
Damien snarled, voice a dark growl Siena had never heard from him before. “Get. Out. Of. His. Face.”
The man’s smile widened.
“Oh, brother,” he said, voice carrying effortlessly across the ruins. “I’ve missed you.”
Siena’s heart plummeted.
Alec froze beside her, eyes wide. “That… that is your brother.”
“No,” Damien whispered. “It’s not.”
The creature wearing his brother’s face spread his arms.
“And you brought her to me,” he purred. “Just as I hoped.”
Every muscle in Damien’s body coiled.
Siena grabbed his arm. “Damien—don’t.”
The creature’s eyes snapped to her.
And he whispered, almost tenderly:
“Little mother.”
Siena’s blood turned to ice.
Damien lunged.
A roar tore from him—raw, primal, murderous.
The constructs surged forward in a tidal wave of flesh and claws.
Alec grabbed Siena, yanking her backward—in the same instant the ground beneath their feet trembled violently, cracks splitting outward in a widening arc toward her.
Siena stumbled, losing her footing—
—and the earth caved beneath her.
She fell.
Screaming.
Darkness swallowed her whole.
Damien’s voice tore through the air, a sound she had never heard—pure terror.
“SIENA!”
She tried to claw at the collapsing ground—
But something caught her ankle.
Not Damien.
Not Alec.
A cold hand.
Clawed.
And a voice echoed through the darkness as she was dragged deeper:
“I told you you’d feel what comes next.”