OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 1

OceanofPDF.com

Ada

“Little one.” Dark and gutting, a voice broke against my earlobe, its sinister undertone promising a thousand agonies. “Do not believe I will let you escape me.” A grinding scoff, followed by an odd wheeze of air. “You are shackled to me forevermore, and death shall be your collar.”

Body benumbed, paralyzed, only my mind reeled at the threatening words as I gaped unblinking at whatever came into view. Soft light bathed my surroundings in glimmers of orange. They caught on the golden threads embroidered onto hundreds of pillows in a pile before me, all draped in rich dark red and forest green damask. Tangled limbs and grinning faces poked out from between them, where naked people lounged, chuckling as they stared at me.

All but one.

A bare woman dangled by a noose from a rafter. She twitched and tossed at the end of a rope between the stone frame of a tall, arched window. A line of them overlooked some sort of sprawling garden, where red and yellow birds as big as ravens squawked and whistled in oddly-shaped trees. Heavens, what kind of place was this? A madhouse?

“Quite so,” a man whispered into my thoughts, the gentle resonance in his voice like a lure promising salvation. “Madness shapes the pillars of my court, and insanity its walls. Excuse Leandra and her poor manners… hanging herself in front of my visitors without even greeting you first. So tiresome, this woman’s fondness for dramatics, as though she couldn’t just quietly slit her wrists. But I ought to be grateful for the hanging. Not as messy, easier on my rugs to be certain.”

Court? What court?

“The Court Between Thoughts.”

No, that couldn’t be.

The last thing I remembered was… a dark felt hat. Pa standing in the frame of our hut. Light reflecting on something. Metal, perhaps? And then… nothing.

What had happened?

I was shifted, and my eyes landed on lush carpets that covered yellow stone, the rich tan fabric stained red in large puddles here and there, with smaller specks around it. Blood?

How did I get here?

I tried to glance around, but cold apathy froze my entire body into stillness. Why couldn’t I move?

“Dreadful, is it not, little one?” A menacing whisper tickled around my temple, its familiarity distorted by a noisy heave, like air sucking into a broken bellow. “This twilight state of half-existence, aware enough for your soul to agonize over it but… Ah! Too detached from your form to escape it.”

I didn’t so much recognize the voice as I did the smooth cadence it held, and how it sustained its fine composure while slithers of dread burrowed through my unmoving body. It belonged to the kind of man whose roar scared you, but the true terror lay in his unfazed silence.

Enosh.

My God.

My husband.

My… master?

Coldness dug its claws deeper into my flesh. Why did this word resonate in my core like the echo of a persistent prayer? Did it even matter? Shaken and disoriented, I just wanted him to put me in a nest of pelts and feathers, curl himself around me like armor, and stroke the shell of my ear.

I wanted to say his name.

Lips remained stiff.

A strange voice, so unlike my own, resonated from deep within me instead.

Master!

“Yes, I am your master.” Enosh clasped my chin, bringing my stiff, dry gaze to meet the cold silver of his stunning eyes set into a ghastly face, one half torn by gaping wounds. “You shall long for me, obey me, and serve me for eternity. And you shall worship me, for I am your god, the keeper of your flesh and bone.”

His voice barely registered as nausea clung to the back of my throat. What had happened to him?

Nothing but white bone remained where the wing of his left nostril should be, along with cartilage that clung to a string of flesh. Soot covered much of this half of his face, hiding the pestilent, blistered skin beneath. Something had stripped his jaws to bone and teeth at the far back of one joint, leaving a hole for his breath to wheeze through with each inhalation.

“What to do with my faithless wife, hmm? Ought I to weave you into my throne one joint at a time?” He took my heavy hand and placed it onto the only remaining trace of his humanity, his warm cheek, and the cleaner trails where something must have washed the soot off the unmarred side of his face. Tears? “Shall I shatter your bones into hundreds of pieces as I had to do with mine, so your treacherous beauty will grace it right alongside your terrible betrayal?”

Betrayal?

Cold dread burrowed between my ribs and black fog smothered my thoughts, provoking memories of utter savagery. The rrk of cotton ripping, the shk of metal sinking into flesh, the rust-stained handle of a knife. Smoky tendrils eclipsed any coherent thought. I understood none of this. What was going on here?

“Shall I tell you, wife, of the many atrocities they have imposed upon me in captivity while you pondered stew? Will knowing burden your conscience with guilt the way your disloyalty wears me down with the urge to punish you?” He lowered his monstrous face to mine, nuzzling my cheekbone with the hard, crusty remnants of his nose. “I spent nearly a fortnight in the ceaseless lick of flames, my face burned away by priests in never-ending agony, safe for the three times they decapitated me. Once to note just how my head would return; twice for the mere entertainment of it. And where were you, dear wife? Where. Were. You?”

Captivity. Flames. Priests.

Fear trickled across my scalp, pooling inside my head until my thoughts drowned in another blur of memories, only to emerge painfully clear—the attack in the forest, Enosh’s capture, how I’d fled to Elderfalls, Pa’s sickness, and… and my delay. After weeks of captivity—while the god was undoubtedly contained by fire—he must have escaped the high priest.

Only to find me gone.

Enosh stared down at me, the accusation of treachery edged into his cold, glaring mask of bitterness and disdain. He thought I’d broken my vow, but hadn’t I tried to return to him?

Some memories came back to me now, but more remained a tangled mess. I understood where I was, but I couldn’t recall how I’d ended up in Enosh’s arms in the first place. Had he come for me? But if so, why had he brought me here of all places?

“Because he just can’t let you go,” Yarin whispered into my thoughts before he gave his true voice resonance. “Her mind is such a racing mess, I can barely distinguish one thought from another as her soul clings to my voice, shifting into my kingdom.”

And what a beautiful voice he had.

It called to me with its soothing intonation and calm undertone. “Let go,” it beckoned, lulling my mind into a state of peacefulness. So I did, allowing myself to drift and float away.

Beneath me, the body of a woman came into view, battered and beaten. She rested on trembling arms that lifted her as though offering herself to the heavens. I… I knew this woman.

Yes, it was me.

How strange I looked.

How little I cared.

Mud streaked my face and a wet, brown leaf clung to my black strands. A pink wound cut across my cheek, barely healed. Even against the warm light from the candles flickering in the chandeliers above, deep shadows cast across my otherwise pale features. Red stained the cotton of my blue dress around the belly, the fabric shredded. I didn’t move. Not even my chest lifted as though… as though—

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Where do you think you’re going? Unfortunately, I traded your soul away,” Yarin whispered before he resonated the room with his airy lilt. “One soul in exchange for ten corpses, as promised. And what a poor deal this suddenly turned out to be, for we both know I could have demanded thousands over the course of eons for this one.”