“To dominate and destroy, you mean,” Harm threw the whip on the floor and got up to stalk over to him. “All you do is destroy!”
“Did you miss the giant god-dragon eating the world, Your Highness? Unless you want to kill it, you need to let me go,” Ashiyn said as his eyes narrowed at her. “I’m getting tired of everyone commenting about my destruction when that’s exactly what this world needs.”
“And who released that beast?” Harm growled.
“That was me,” Ember piped up from the doorway as he entered. He looked hale and healthy again, no worse for his death by Sihtaar.
Ashiyn was almost disappointed to see his son had revived. “See, it wasn’t my fault, after all,” Ashiyn said with a smug smirk. It earned him another fierce slap across the face from Harm. The blow stung but hardly registered with the way the rest of him hurt.
“It’s still your fault. You sired Ember and took the sword out of its prison!” Harm grumbled.
“You’re his mother. So, it’s your fault, too?” Ashiyn snorted and glanced to his son. Ember leaned against a wall and seemed to be enjoying this battle between his parents. So much for Ashiyn’s faint hope that Ember had come to help free him. Ashiyn pulled back to dodge another slap, then summoned his magic. He ripped the chains apart as his magic enhanced his strength.
Harm scrambled back as he advanced on her. “Impossible. Your magic is supposed to be chained.”
Ashiyn ripped the bands from his wrists and tossed them aside, then he cracked his knuckles. “You think me fool enough not to anticipate you would someday capture me? Where is Soryn?”
“Somewhere you’ll never find him,” Harm said, her tone ominous. “You care about him, so I’m going to take him from you and destroy your life like you destroyed mine.”
Ashiyn summoned all his magic and used it to slam Harm up against the wall. When Ember tried to come to her assistance, Ashiyn shot a blast of magic at his son and knocked him out the door. Then he slammed the door and used his magic to hold it shut. He put a hand around Harm’s neck, choking her. “Listen, woman. I’ve put up with your hatred for thousands of years now. You seduced me, remember? You wanted Ember. You need to stop blaming me for giving you what you wanted. Stop blaming our son for turning out like me. I am tired of this feud.”
Harm gripped his wrist, trying her best to pull his hand away from her neck as she struggled. She wasn’t strong enough.
Ashiyn waited until she almost lost consciousness, then released her neck so she could gasp for air. “Where is Soryn? Take me to him and I might spare you one more time, depending on what you’ve done to him.”
All color drained from Harm’s already pale skin, but she narrowed her cold grey eyes at him and spat in his face. “He’s dead.”
“You’re lying,” Ashiyn said, annoyed. “Take me to him, or I will crush your entire kingdom into dust and feed your people to the god-dragon.”
The threat to her people seemed to get through to Harm more than any threat against her ever could have. Dusting herself off with as much dignity as she could manage, she marched to the door.
Ashiyn released the door and flung it open as she reached it. There was no sign of Ember now. Not surprising, his son had a cowardly streak. No doubt Ember had scrambled into a hole like a little rat.
Ashiyn followed Harm down the stone corridors. He hadn’t realized the elves kept such a large dungeon. The deeper they went, the worse the cells became. They were filled with devices of torture for which even Ashiyn could not the imagination the use of. A knot started to form in Ashiyn’s stomach. He knew Soryn had been tortured before they came to the room.
Soryn hung spread-eagled upside down from chains on the ceiling. The elves had used something to display his true celestial form, and his beautiful wings were broken and tattered. His skin deathly pale and Ashiyn couldn’t see him breathing.
Ashiyn didn’t even spare Harm a glance. He shoved her out of the way and used his magic to snap the chains holding Soryn just as he reached his friend, so he could gently lower Soryn to the ground. When Ashiyn’s magic picked up a faint heartbeat, he rested Soryn on the floor and stood up.
Harm saw her death in his eyes. She turned and tried to run. She didn’t get far before she screamed and fell to her knees. Ashiyn used his magic to turn her inside out. Her tortured screams rang in his ears long after she had collapsed in a bloody pile of gore. Even that didn’t feel like she’d suffered enough for what she had done.
“Ashiyn?” Soryn croaked, his voice breaking. That was all he managed before drifting back to unconsciousness.
Ashiyn turned back to his friend, then knelt to pick him up. Magical transportation was very costly and normally not worth the effort, but in this case, Ashiyn did not hesitate to use it. Without a word, he summoned magic to teleport them to Sia’s cave and carried Soryn inside. Once again, he flung books off the desk with his magic, and laid the dying magus there instead. “Sia!”
“You have to stop doing this,” Sia grumbled as he floated through the air to them. Even he seemed shocked at the extent of Soryn’s injuries, too shocked to do anything but react and immediately use his magic to heal.
Once Soryn was in stable condition, Sia floated around the desk to hover in front of Ashiyn. “You should release me and take
