“What’s wrong with you?” she whispered.
His golden gaze burned into the black stone floor of the cave in front of them. “Right now? Everything.”
From the back of the cave, a yellow-orange glow grew within the darkness. Cheyenne looked up and watched the massive creature made of fire and thick black smoke emerge from some hidden recess in the cave’s walls. It was at least thirty feet tall and had tongues of fire dripping from its broad shoulders. Four arms extended at its sides, two of its hands splayed out, the fingers tipped in black claws that trailed thick lines of smoke behind them. The Sorren Gán might have had horns, but then again, they might have been smoke. Clawed feet stomped across the ground, making it tremble beneath them. The lake of fire shuddered, and two massive, fiery wings spread from the Sorren Gán’s back with a fan of more black smoke before settling against its sides again.
L’zar kept his head bowed, clenching his jaw so tightly he thought his head would explode. The first time was for me. This time, it is for Ambar’ogúl. Fuck taking the throne, but I won’t let the place burn before I leave it forever. His balled fists ached, and still he didn’t look up at the Sorren Gán stalking toward them. He sure as hell could feel it.
The fiery beast let out another low, ominous chuckle. “I enjoy this sight very much. Now tell me why you’re here.”
“We need your help.” L’zar swallowed. “I need your help.”
“With the afterbirth of the foulness your sister spawned.” The Sorren Gán stopped yards in front of them, casting burning light over the kneeling drow. The smoke wafting off its body was so thick, Cheyenne expected to choke on it at any minute. “Tell me why you wish to have this threat subdued, L’zar. We both know you do not seek the O’gúl Crown.”
“No.” L’zar bowed his head even lower and pressed his fists against the stone.
Cheyenne shot him a sideways glance and tried looking at the Sorren Gán but couldn’t face the blazing light. L’zar is bending the knee. Why?
“I don’t want to rule,” the drow continued. “But I don’t want to see Ambar’ogúl destroyed, either.”
A flaming tail lashed out from behind the Sorren Gán and struck the stone floor with a burst of sparks. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want to be remembered as the Weaver thief who brought an entire world to its knees. Not like this.”
“Wrong.” The beast stepped closer and snorted a thick plume of rancid black smoke into both drow’s faces.
Cheyenne turned her head away from the worst of it and caught a glimpse of her father’s fists and arms through the dispersing smoke. Shit. He’s shaking.
“You’ve had time to practice your lies, little drow,” the Sorren Gán rumbled. “But not nearly enough to make them convincing. Tell me why you want to save this world.”
L’zar’s lips trembled when he opened his mouth. He pressed his lips together and glared at the floor in humiliation. “It’s my daughter’s legacy. She deserves all of it. I owe her that much, at least.”
Cheyenne’s eyes widened despite the smoke stinging her eyes. First time I’ve heard him own up to anything, even if it’s under duress.
“Hmm. Yes.” The Sorren Gán chuckled again and stopped looming over the kneeling drow, taking a step back. Its wings shot out again, fanning more smoke through the cave, and its other two fists opened to stretch clawed fingers in anticipation. “Honesty is your weakness, isn’t it, little drow? Your inability to humble yourself makes you weak. That is why you’ve come to me again. Someone has to make you face your trembling terror. We made you strong before, did we not?”
L’zar glared at the floor, his jaw clenching and unclenching.
The flames around and within the Sorren Gán erupted with a roar. “Did we not?”
“Yes!” L’zar breathed heavily now, pressing his fists into the stone floor so hard they bled.
Cheyenne wrinkled her nose at the smell. What the hell happened between these two?
“And now you return for more of the same.” The Sorren Gán extended a hand toward L’zar as if it meant to rest the fiery paw on the drow’s hand, but it didn’t. “Why should I travel such a long way to Hangivol? It means nothing to me if the wealth of magic your sister pilfered destroys one city or a thousand. The magic will find me anyway.”
L’zar’s head lifted an inch, and he managed to settle his gaze on the creature’s clawed, burning feet. “Name your price.”
“You know I require something now.”
“Yes.”
Cheyenne flinched away from an unnaturally long tongue of flame licking toward her face.
“This daughter of yours is different,” the Sorren Gán growled. “You knew I would want her.”
L’zar straightened and turned toward Cheyenne. “That’s not what I had in mind.”
“Nor is it something you would refuse me, hmm?”
Cheyenne stared at her father. He better say something.
L’zar swallowed and opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“L’zar.” She raised her eyebrows.
His upper lip twitched as he stared into his daughter’s eyes. “You’ll be fine.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
The Sorren Gán thundered with dark laughter. The sound echoed through the cave and made the floor tremble as much as the creature’s footsteps. “Your loyalty pleases me very much, L’zar.”
“You can’t bring me in here and toss me to this thing as a quick snack!” Cheyenne leaped to her feet, blinking away the tears against the smoke spewing from the Sorren Gán’s body. “I’m not doing this.”
“You have to, Cheyenne.”
“No, I don’t. You have to grow a conscience and a goddamn spine. Look at you. You won’t even get off your knees to give me up. I came in here willingly, but not as a fucking sacrifice.”
“You don’t have to be willing,” the Sorren Gán growled. “He wasn’t the first time.”
“What?”
The fiery beast laughed again, shaking the cave around them.
“I’m done, L’zar. You can follow me out or stay here and die on your
