Chapter 27 Twenty Seven

Chapter 27 Twenty Seven
Cupid

"Get up," Dragus commanded, his tone leaving no room for argument.

I rose on shaky legs, my knees aching from kneeling on the cold stone. “Thank you, my king.”

He gestured toward the massive table and I moved closer, the leash trailing behind me as a reminder of exactly how trapped I was.

The table was covered in maps; dozens of them, layered and overlapping, some rolled at the edges, others pinned down with weights.

But it was the largest one that caught my attention, spread across the centre of the workspace.

It was a map of both realms; Nexium and Heartwalker territories—but with a level of detail that I had never expected.

And it wasn’t just the major landmarks and borders either, but everything. All of our hidden sanctuaries and secret meeting places. And most damning of all, the magic hotspots in the human realm where love lived naturally.

I leaned closer, my eyes widening as I recognized locations I'd visited myself.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, where centuries of proposals and declarations of love had created a wellspring of magic so potent you could practically taste it in the air.

The Lovers' Bridge in Venice, where couples attached locks and threw away the keys, binding their hearts together in a ritual that fed the magic for miles.

The cherry blossom gardens in Kyoto during spring, when young lovers confessed their feelings under falling petals.

Even smaller, more obscure locations were marked: a particular bench in Central Park where a widower visited his late wife's memory every day for forty years.

A lighthouse in Maine where a lamp keeper had waited faithfully for a sailor who never returned.

A theatre in London where star-crossed actors had fallen in love across a hundred performances.

These were places I had been a million times, places where I had made countless love matches with humans that I decided were the perfect fit for each other.

"I see you've noticed the exceptional detail," Dragus said from behind me, his voice rich with dark satisfaction. "We have your fellow Heartwalker Lyriel to thank for that."

Hearing his name out of Dragus’ mouth was… indescribable.

Lyriel. My childhood best friend who'd kissed me outside the Council chambers on the most important day of my life, who had defended me before the gods at the risk of his own life, who had looked at me with such warmth and devotion.

My best friend who'd betrayed me.

I'd suspected it, of course. I had overheard him talking to the Nexium soldier that first day I'd infiltrated the castle.

But some part of me had still hoped I'd been wrong, that there was some explanation, some reason that would make it all make sense.

But this, all these hyper-detailed maps littering the table, this was proof enough.

Lyriel had followed me around that day. And all those times we'd "run into each other" while I was working, all those casual conversations about where I was headed next.

In each of those moments when I'd thought I was reconnecting with an old friend, he'd been studying me instead. Learning my routes and noting every location where the strongest of love magic pooled and concentrated.

And then he'd sold that information to the enemy. But why? What could possibly have led him to do something so evil? I wondered.

"But what do these maps have to do with your plan?" I asked, doing my hardest to make my voice strong despite the circumstances.

Dragus moved to stand beside me, one hand reaching past to tap a series of marked locations.

"They are as useful to the end as they will be to the beginning," he said cryptically. "Tell me, little Heartwalker. Do you know what the most difficult aspect of defeating your kind has proven to be?"

I shook my head, not trusting myself to hold back the curses filling up my mouth.

"Your numbers." He said it simply, matter-of-factly. "There are far too many of you, sprouting up everywhere like persistent weeds, spreading your affliction of love and light."

He frowned deeply in distaste. "We Nexium Dragons have developed increasingly effective methods of causing your magic to fail, of breaking your bonds and spreading despair. And yet it is never enough. For every Heartwalker we eliminate, three more rise to take their place."

I bit back my retort of, “Well, isn’t it obvious? Of course, there are so many of us!”

It was only natural that we should outnumber them, that love was stronger than hate, and that we would always rise again.

No matter what deluded ideas of strength their kind had, at the end of the day their power would always be temporary. Love, on the other hand, is everlasting.

Instead, I asked carefully: "Then what are you planning to do about it?”

His smile was cold and sharp as a predator's.

"Total obliteration, naturally. The complete and permanent eradication of your entire species." He turned to look at me directly.

"But then I realised what a tremendous waste that would be. Why spend decades slowly hunting down every last Heartwalker across both realms when I could instead use your numbers to my advantage?"

My throat went dry. "How do you mean?”

"By transforming Heartwalkers into Nexium, of course."

I had to pause to wrap my head around what he’d just said to me.

"That's impossible," I said immediately, my voice full of disbelief. "It cannot be done. We're fundamentally different species, created by different gods with opposing natures. What you're suggesting defies the very laws of—"

"Does it?" He turned to face me fully now, and there was something almost like excitement in his burning eyes.

"That girl you only just escaped from in the washroom; Cersei, my most devoted servant until her recent... lapse in judgment. She was my first and only success.”

The floor seemed to tilt beneath my feet at hearing that. There was no way he actually meant that. “You’re bluffing,” I whispered under my breath.

"She is perfect, is she not?" Dragus continued, his voice dropping to a dark, intimate tone. "Loyal beyond question. Ruthless when necessary. Every bit as efficient and deadly as any naturally-born Nexium, if not more so."

No. No, that couldn't be…

But even as I tried to deny it, pieces clicked into place with horrible clarity.

My mind flashed back to the way Cersei had seemed too different from the other Nexium. More refined and so much more graceful than the rest of them.

That much should’ve been clear, the strange quality to her eyes, how she had somehow been capable of crying. Despite the fact that it was impossible for Nexium to feel anything other than rage, let alone sadness so deep it caused them to weep.

I had sensed something familiar about her without understanding why. And now I finally did.

"You're lying," I whispered, but my denial sounded weak even to my own ears.

Suddenly his hands were all over me. One tangling roughly in my hair, tilting my head back to expose my throat.

The other pressed flat against my stomach, pinning me against the edge of the table so I couldn't escape him.

"Would you like me to demonstrate?" he murmured against my ear, his breath hot on my skin. "Transform you right here and now and turn that light inside you to darkness? Make you mine in every possible way?"