Lightbringer (Empirium #3) - Claire Legrand Page 0,221

each other. I can’t do this without you. And without me, you’ll be truly alone. They will never accept you. He will never accept you. They will spin new lies every day. They will smile to your face, and then, when the door has closed, they will whisper in fear of you and plot against you, and children will shudder at the mention of your name. You know this. Even him.” He shook her hard. “You know this.”

“Stop,” she gasped, her voice trapped in her throat. His mind slurred her thoughts. “Let go of me, please!”

“Never again, Rielle. Look at what you’ve made me do. I didn’t want this.” His mouth moved down her neck, his teeth scraping her skin. His presence was a fog in her mind, spreading fast. Soon, it would cover everything. She was helpless against him. When she reached for the empirium, her fingers met mud.

“Mine,” Corien murmured. His hand tightened around her throat.

As he moved back to her mouth, the birds shrieking at his back, she caught his little smile of triumph, the flash of his teeth.

She found a faint thread of strength and slammed her hands against his chest.

At once, his coat burst into flame. He lurched back from her, screaming, and tore it off. The white shirt beneath it was a wet field of red. Thin curls of smoke rose from his charred flesh.

His eyes flew to her, white with rage. She looked behind her, searching frantically for Eliana. Corien’s visions had vanished. No beetles, no tearing beasts. There she was, still fighting. Her hands blazing, her heels throwing sparks. Made of light, her daughter, and faltering not even once. What a fearless woman she had made.

Rielle laughed, choking on exhausted tears.

Behind her, Corien spat, “You are an abominable creature.” He grabbed a chunk of her hair and wrenched her to her feet. He stank of burnt flesh, and still he was beautiful, his cheekbones painted with soot, his lips flushed from heat and desire.

“I know this,” he said, “and I know every corner of your savage heart, your capacity for cruelty, your caprice, and yet I love you still. I would have you right here if you would let me. Fear you? I exalt you. Remember what I told you?” He laughed, tightening his grip on her hair. “You could burn me a thousand times, and I would still want you for my own.”

Rielle strained to hear the sounds of Eliana fighting. How beautiful they were, like every song she had ever known.

“I have loved you, Corien,” she said, breathless with pain, with a new, muddled understanding. Each of Eliana’s blazing strikes struck like a bell inside her, fighting to wash her tired mind clean. “I have trusted you. Part of me will always belong to you. But not all of me.” She stumbled on the weight of her tongue. “You saw that I was afraid and worked to keep me that way. You saw that I was lonely and reminded me of it every time I thought of leaving you.”

He laughed, stroking her cheek. “Listen to you. Queen of my heart. Is the pain making you delirious? Reject them, as you meant to, and I’ll take away everything that hurts you. Rielle.” Tears in his voice. “Please, do this for me.”

Rielle’s vision pulsed black. Corien’s hands were gentle at her throat, and yet she reached for her power and could not find it. That shove, that bloom of fire on his clothes—she could find nothing more. Her mind was full of him, and if there was anything left of herself, she could not see it. Somewhere, Audric was screaming for her, but it was no use. Corien was inside her, and he would never leave, not now.

The world spun, tossing her. She sagged against Corien’s bleeding chest, her eyes fluttering shut. What bliss, to let him hold her. He had promised he would take away the pain, that she would never be alone. Perhaps it was all right to believe him. Strange, that she could have thought otherwise.

Corien kissed her hair, her cheeks. “My love,” he whispered, a smile in his voice. “There you are. You’ve come back to me. Very good, Rielle.”

Then, abruptly, relief.

Something cold and sharp dropped between them, severing the cords that bound them. Rielle fell to the floor, and Corien staggered back from her.

His furious gaze shot to the terrace doors.

Huddled on the floor, head pounding as if it had been pummeled for hours, Rielle shivered on