Chapter 409: Vengeance Road
Chapter 409: Vengeance Road
Ian re-entered the cell where Thalia was and hugged her. His eyes shed silent tears on the top of her head.
“I really wanted you to tell me that you still felt something, Thalia. And I needed it to be now. Can you make the effort to do that for me?” Ian pulled away and allowed her to see his tears. “Tell me that you remember our love. That you remember our son? Do you remember the words we exchanged on our first nights together? Words that surpassed anything I ever dreamed of hearing from you? Please, Thalia... Tell me something now that will stop me from handing you over to Firecold.” Ian took a deep breath at the silence and Thalia's vacant, indifferent gaze and hugged her again. “Goodbye, Thalia. I don't want our paths to meet again. I don't want to remember you. I don't know how to put into words the pain I feel knowing that I won't be the one to stay with you, Thalia. I won't be the one to offer you the life you deserve. Perhaps, at one time, I was the person who could lead you to good and happy experiences, but I'm not that man anymore. I know you'll forget... Perhaps, inside, you'll retain a little of the essence of my words. I will marry another woman, have children, but I will never stop loving you. No matter how much I hurt you. You will always be the only woman in my heart.” He said and, stepping back, kissed her forehead and left.
...
Ian returned later and took Thalia to the room where her father had been taken by the Firecolds. Maxwell, Donald, David, Naya, Anna, were all there to say goodbye to her. They all hugged her and noticed with regret the resignation in Ian's eyes when she showed no reaction. Ian called out for the leader of the Firecolds and he appeared accompanied by two Firecolds who looked at everyone with a debauched look of victory. They threw bags of food on the ground.
“Dog food.” One of them said sarcastically and Baron glared at him disapprovingly before turning to Ian.
“I'm not coming back here until I've completed the city you'll be taken to after leaving here with your people. I want to remind you that all the previous rules must be observed. I'm not staying here to protect you from the hands of the Firecolds. Don't try to venture outside. There is nothing left. The world is desolate. The buildings show only their blackened carcasses from the explosions and there is nothing left to salvage. I'll keep an eye on what happens here, but I want to devote myself to my heart and I won't be able to with it split in two and still having to lead the Firecold people. So take care of this place. I'll arrange for food to be sent to you.” He looked at Thalia and the Firecolds positioned themselves one on either side of her. “Goodbye.” He said and snapped his fingers, and disappeared along with the Firecolds accompanying him and Thalia.
...
Thalia was abandoned on a dirt road. She stood up and looked around, still unsure if she was alive.
She looked around her. It was a strange place that didn't match the description given by the leader of the Firecolds. There was a high wall, which Thalia quickly calculated to be at least seven meters high, smooth and impossible to climb, surrounding the place on all sides and a wire fence separated the road from what looked like a huge lake of dirty water on both sides. There was only one way to go.
She walked along the road, thinking of the dagger she had found weeks ago in the children's room and which she had hidden among her own clothes. No one was suspicious, as she didn't change her expression or come out of her lethargy while doing these things. She also found traces of the Bruma ring in Zoe's crib and knew what she had to do. It was a relatively easy task. When she was alone, she broke open the container with the trace of the Mists' magic, she slipped the dagger into that magic and after watching it glow green for a few minutes, she took the dagger and put it back in her belt.
At first, Thalia believed that that dagger was just a fantasy of her mad mind, because no one else noticed its presence in her body, but when she was locked in the padded cell, she had precise visions of that knife. And even as she saw the pain shining in Tayme's furious eyes, she saw herself thrusting that dagger mercilessly into the Firecold leader's chest. It was the only weapon capable of killing the leader of the Firecolds and Thalia began to entertain the idea that by killing him, all the Firecolds would die, without guidance and lost in their own uncontrolled ambitions.
Thalia still didn't know how she would get close to him, but she hoped that the opportunity would present itself one day. All she could think of to help fate was to be obedient and docile, until he believed she posed no risk to his own kind. The hardest part was pretending she wasn't in front of the creature she hated most in the world, but she had to be ready to be used by him, until that long-awaited day presented itself before her eyes.