Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

The pond was a frozen void. Cassiel cast out his blue flames and they illuminated the trail of blood leading to Dyna’s sinking body. She wasn’t kicking, or flailing. Only sinking. Diving as fast as he could, Cassiel begged her to swim. To fight. Her incoherent thoughts barely reached him. She smiled, trying to comfort him as if she knew this was the end.

Don’t stop fighting!

Cassiel caught Dyna’s floating form and immediately felt her gown weigh them down. He ripped open the gown’s bodice, yanking it off her. Underneath was her fae armor. Kicking off the lakebed, he swam back to the surface with her in his arms. He broke the surface with a coughing gasp. The ice had melted with the blast of his fire. It forced him to kick his numb legs for the shore. Their friends ran to meet them, the Valkyrie swooping down to join. Sowmya came limping out of the trees with Yelrakel’s help, ripping arrows out of her wings.

“Take her!” Cassiel said, once he reached the bank.

Zev grabbed Dyna and laid her over Cassiel’s coat left in the snow. He dragged himself out next to her. She was beaten and bloody, her lips frozen blue. So deathly pale, she already looked dead. Her leg was broken and bent at an odd angle.

“Gods, what happened?” Lucenna said.

“The guard,” Cassiel said, glaring at the body left on the frozen pond. Crystalized blood pooled around him.

Lucenna removed the water from Dyna’s lungs. She still didn’t move. Cassiel grabbed her wrist, checking for a pulse, but their bond was already weakening. He pressed an ear to her chest, listening for her heartbeat. Terror filled him when he didn’t hear it.

“She’s not breathing!”

“She’s frozen,” Klyde said behind them. “You need to resuscitate her.”

Zev reached for Dyna but Cassiel shoved his hands away. He leaned Dyna’s head back then began blowing air in her mouth. He pumped her chest in counts of three, then continued giving her air. “Don’t you dare die,” He told her angrily between breaths.

Despair sunk in his bones as he desperately worked on Dyna. Her body jerked with each pump against her chest. He stared at her ashen face, for any sign of life, but she was motionless.

“The bond?” Zev asked him frantically.

Still there. Fractured and fading. Cassiel laid his head over her chest, listening for a beat. He found none.

“The bond!” Zev shouted.

“It’s—” Cassiel grunted in pain, a hand flying to his chest at the puncture of agony. He managed to stay conscious, but he was grasping to his desperation. “Come back, lev sheli,” he begged shakily as he pumped her heart.

But as he continued working on her, he groaned a broken cry at the bond fracturing further. Air. Compress. Air. Compress. Her ribs cracked beneath his force.

Zev stared at his cousin. “She…she’s…”

“Don’t say it,” Cassiel growled.

Dyna looked to be asleep, but she was as white as a ghost. He sealed her frozen lips with his and forced air into her lungs, counting as she had taught him.

“You are not allowed to die, Dyna. You said you would hear me so listen to my voice. Come back. Come on, damn it! Please!”

She heaved a gasping cough and water gurgled out of her mouth. The sound nearly toppled him. Everyone exhaled audibility with relief.

Cassiel rolled her over and patted her back. “Lev sheli,” he breathed and caressed her cold cheeks. “Open your eyes for me, love.”

Her lashes fluttered weakly. He took her face and pleaded for her to look at him.

“Cassiel…” she faintly rasped, too weak to open her eyes.

He squeezed her tight against him. “Stupid human, you almost left me again,” his voice cracked. He thought she was uncontrollably shivering but it his body shaking against hers.

“I heard you…” Was all Dyna managed to say before falling unconscious again.

Cassiel wrapped her up in his coat and brushed her wet hair from her face. His silhouette flared with his fire and he placed a hand over her chest, willing her his heat and taking her pain.

Dyna’s crown laid half buried in the snow some distance away. The glinting sapphires stained with her blood. It filled him with a coalescing rage. He may as well have delivered her to them himself. The others backed away as blue fire licked along the ground forming a circle around them, its intense heat drying his clothes and hair.

“Your Highness,” one of the Valkyrie called to him where she and another inspected Zekiel’s body. “My lady slit his throat but he’s still alive.”

He was content to hear that. “Good. Take him to the cells.”

The Valkyrie lifted him and carried him off the lake.

Whether Dyna forgot the only way to kill them was through the head or the heart, or if it was intentional, he now had the chance to deal with Zekiel himself.

Cassiel looked to Yelrakel. “Where is my father?”

“As soon as Skath retreated, Amriel insisted the High King be taken to his chambers immediately as a precaution.”

Cassiel’s eyes widened.

Amriel.

“Keep her warm,” he told Zev. “Valkyrie, with me!”

He leaped into the sky. He sped for the manor and flew to his father’s room to see him arguing with his uncle. They were perfectly fine. Amriel must have flown off as soon as he realized Zekiel was compromised.

Cassiel landed on the balcony and ran into the room. “Father.”

His father turned to him, his mouth curving in an almost smile, before it was wiped out by shock.

A form swopped out of the shadows for Cassiel. He turned, the sword already coming for him.

His father’s shout rang through the room.

A force tore Cassiel away, and he crashed into the bookcase. His head spun, vision skewed as he tried to sit up. Then he saw the blood at his feet. Lord Jophiel choked on a cry, and Cassiel looked up. He froze, his mind and heart stopping. Amriel’s blade—the blow meant for him, was pierced through his father’s chest.

The Valkyrie crashed through the windows and Yelrakel tackled Amriel.

Cassiel caught his father’s falling body, and they sank to the floor together.

Yoel heaved a wet cough, blood trickling from his mouth. “Dyna?”

“S-she’s alive…” Cassiel said shakily.

Yoel smiled, sighing. “I’m glad.”

Cassiel’s fingers trembled as he lifted his father’s coat to see the wound on his chest. It wasn’t healing. Blood continued to spill, painting his clothing red. His heart. It must have been…

Still, Cassiel cut his hand and poured blood over his father’s wound. Willed it to heal. Prayed for it. His internal cry of torment reached into his chest and squeezed his lungs, desperate for a miracle. But as all the other times, Elyōn didn’t hear him. “The Gates…”

His father shook his head, already knowing what he would ask. “You cannot return a life that was given, Cassiel.” He reached up to touch his wet cheek. Every breath was a struggle. A cruel pull against his ribs. “Most people live only once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

He shook, his vision blurring. “No, Father…you have to stay.” He felt like a child again, saying what he had wanted to tell him all those years ago. “Please don’t go. I cannot do this without you.”

“You can. I know I failed you, Cassiel, and I am so sorry for all it. And I am sorry that I have to leave you again, but I know you can do this. Whatever you face or whoever you become, your reign will bring the people of Hilos a new future.” Yoel’s hand glowed bright against his face. “Some will resist. Some will bend. But in time, the Realms will fly with you. In time, you will help them…see.”

White light flared into his vision, the room fading from existence. Cassiel’s mind flashed with memories he didn’t recognize. Memories of a life he lived ages ago. Then he found himself in the castle gardens within Hilos.

The sound of distant laughter reached him. A familiar sound that made his breath catch. Cassiel followed it down the gravel path through the flowering bushes, and he saw her. His mother. Elia’s long black hair shone beneath the sun as she twirled beneath the fruit trees. Her blue gown flared around her bare feet, swaying with the motion. Beside Cassiel was his father. He sat on a blanket in the grass, watching them both with a soft look Cassiel had never seen.

His mother smiled lovingly at the bundle in her arms, a baby with a head of dark hair. She nuzzled his cheek, peppering him with kisses before lifting him in the morning air. “My dear Cassiel, from the moment you arrived, you’ve been my joy and my blessing.”

Cassiel gasped a breath and found himself back in the same room again. As the memory faded the ascension passed to him. The power rushed through his veins, filling every corner in his being, filling the last missing piece until it settled with a familiar weight. Power radiated off of him as a crown of cerulean flames formed on his head.

Yoel brushed the tears he hadn’t felt escape on his cheek as divine light began to surge from his silhouette. “Elia loved you so very much. If you find her…please tell her I kept my oath…”

Then his hand dropped. His chest fell still. Eyes emptying of life. Light blazed off his father’s body as he was called back to Heaven’s Gate. The light grew brighter until he was glowing as much as a sun. Then it faded.

And he was gone.

His father left him behind again, and in his absence, all Cassiel found was grief. His fists shook on the cold floor.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. They were supposed to try to understand each other, to recover that which they once lost. And now that opportunity had been lost, too.

It had been taken from him.

“Yoel was well loved by the Realms and we will mourn his loss,” Jophiel said, his voice strained with emotion. “And by his grace, the divine reign has returned. Elyōn, bless the true High King of Hilos and the Four Celestial Realms.”

Armor clanked as the Valkyrie and his uncle lowered to one knee, bowing their heads to him. “Long may he reign,” they said.

Long may he reign…

It was an echo of what Cassiel had heard once before. It was something said for every king, but the words disturbed him. He noticed then, his ring was glowing.

“Every Hyalus tree is now lit in honor of you,” his uncle said. “They are proclaiming the new sovereign to the Realms.”

Exhaling a heavy breath, Cassiel rose to his feet and turned to his court. They waited for his first words. For the leadership that would pave the way of their future.

“This won’t go unanswered,” Cassiel said. “Whoever had a hand in this will learn that I am the new age.” The promise blanketed over his sorrow, sealing the oath. “Valkyrie.”

The warrior females stood at attention.

“Your king calls upon you. Not a command but a request for your loyalty. Will you serve?”

The Valkyrie beat a fist over their hearts three times. The sound of metal against metal reverberated through the room.

“We have sworn fealty to the crown and now to you,” Yelrakel said. “Our lives are yours, My King.”

“Then I name you my Royal Legion, for I trust none other than you. Go, and spread word of the assassination of my father—and of my Queen.”

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Cassiel straightened his shoulders. “As far as anyone knows, Dynalya Astron was killed today. You are all sworn to this secret upon the pain of death. That is my command. I deem it at this hour, so my will be done.”

They bowed. The Valkyrie soared off the balcony into the dark skies to do his bidding, with the exception of Sowmya and Yelrakel.

Cassiel glanced at Amriel where they had him bound and gagged on the ground, Yelrakel’s boot digging in his back. It took all he had not to behead the male right there. Though his insides burned, his voice remained completely calm. “Make sure this traitor is comfortable in the dungeons until I’m ready to see him.”

Yelrakel yanked Amriel to his feet.

“I want names. See that he gives them.”

Her chin dipped in a dutiful nod, her severe expression promising to do what was needed. They dragged him away.

“I’m sorry you came into the throne this way,” Lord Jophiel said, grief aging him as he gazed at the spot where his brother vanished. All that was left were a few smears of red. He exhaled shakily. “Yoel had imagined a different coronation for you.”

Inside, Cassiel’s ever present flame cooled to ice with a coming decision. “As I’m sure those who sought to end me imagined a different outcome today.”

“Cassiel, I know you are angry, but now is the time to mourn.”

“I don’t wish to mourn. All I want is blood.” He left the room to find his friends waiting outside in the hall. From the looks on their faces they knew what had occurred.

“Lady Dyna is in your chambers,” Rawn said softly, lowering his head. “We removed this off her ankle.”

Cassiel briefly looked at what he was given. He put it in his pocket and entered the dark room with only the fireplace lit. Zev was there as his wolf, keeping guard at the foot of the bed. He offered a soft whine in condolence and silently slipped out of the room. Noemi stood from the chair next to the bed, bowing to him. The door shut gently behind them.

Cassiel took a seat by the edge of the bed and took Dyna’s small hand in his. He watched her chest rise and fall with steady breaths. Cuts and bruises riddled every part of her body. A bandage covered half of her face. Cassiel gently removed it to expose the torn up flesh on the right side of her temple, her eye already blackening. Taking the twin knife from his boot, he sliced his finger. Ever so careful, he caressed his blood over the wound. He healed every hurt he could find one at a time, watching her skin weave itself until nothing was left but his dried blood.

All of his life, he kept losing what mattered. It began with his mother, then his father, and his place in the world. When he found Dyna, he had finally gained something. But then they nearly took her from him too, and he knew it wouldn’t end here. Like in their past life, her death was the cost of being with him.

For she was his treasure and his weakness. Cassiel brought her hand to his lips.

The fear for her life surfaced again and uncovered a truth he had long known, but didn’t want to see.

She would never be safe with him.

At the realization of what he had to do a tear spilled down his cheek. Then another. And another. Until Cassiel folded over and wept.