into my brain. I cannot shut those off, just as I cannot escape the remaking of my body.
She is breaking me apart particle by particle, cell by cell. And if her experiment doesn’t succeed, then this will be my un-making instead.
How efficient.
Just one missing ingredient—human, her demonic voice echoes in my head.
But the infusion of human into your body is not simple. I must tear you apart at every level and piece you back together again into a functioning whole.
Try not to die in the process, Creature.
I grit my teeth and lock my jaw.
I can endure this. I must!
I want to become what she is trying to make me. If this experiment succeeds, I could become even stronger than she. If it doesn’t succeed…
No, I can’t think on that.
I must survive this. I must find a way to protect my son.
Since Medusa has been so thoroughly erased from the Universal Balance, you no longer have the fragments of her soul within you. I am well aware of that, Creature—that you are no longer on her leash.
On any leash.
But that will change. I will remake your mind just as I am remaking your body.
No.
No, no, no.
I try to shake my head in denial, but even that small movement is unavailable to me.
I won’t let her control my thoughts. I finally have my soul back. I’m wholly me again. I’m not anyone’s Creature.
I’m Erebu. Son of Tal and Ishtar. I have a sister. A son.
My will is my own, even if my body is trapped. I won’t be controlled that way again. I will fight it with everything I have!
Oh, my poor deluded Creature. Don’t you know that you have always been mine?
Even when Medusa commanded you, it was I who pulled her puppet strings. Any freedom you think you might have now that she is gone is mere illusion.
Test me on this, I dare you. It will be entertaining to watch you struggle not to betray your friends. But you always will in the end.
Never! I won’t!
You brought the Pure and Dark Ones to my doorstep, did you not? You helped them cut off Medusa’s head, eliminating her once and for all.
And freeing me in the process.
Who do you think put the thought in your head? Who do you think put the thought in the Paladin’s head to help you?
No…
It’s not true! Dalair and I are free! Medusa is dead! Dalair is safe!
You will never be free, Creature. None of you are safe. And now you have put the Paladin exactly where I want him.
Let the games begin.
I open my mouth to unleash a furious roar.
But no sound comes out, the tubes in my neck choking me. And even if I could scream my agony and rage, who would hear me?
No one.
No one will save me. It’s pointless to hold out for a hero.
But somehow, some way, I will save myself. I will survive this.
And I will make her fucking pay.
Chapter One
Thousands of miles away, on top of a jagged, soaring mountain whose snowy caps disappeared into angry clouds, someone raised their head and paused.
In the midnight darkness they listened, as a streak of lightning split the heavens, forking through the skies before it descended into the churning seas below.
What was it they heard? Through the earth-shaking thunder and the pounding rain. The slash of wind and the crash of tides.
A low moan of pain.
A ragged, tortured breath.
The echoes of someone hurting, carried to them on stormy gusts.
But, no.
There was no sound beyond the deafening boom of thunder and the sheeting rain. It was all in their mind.
And yet, they listened. They heard.
They could not unhear the unraveling of a kindred soul.
Without conscious thought to guide their actions, the being stepped to the edge of the unforgiving cliff—
And dove.
A moment before the crushing tides would have swallowed them whole, they unfurled their gigantic wings.
With one, two, three mighty flaps, they gained tremendous altitude and speed, their destination unknown. Their only thought was to reach the creature who was hurting…
To assuage the blood rage broiling through them and destroy anyone and anything in their way.
*** *** *** ***
Sophia opened her eyes and slowly blinked the lingering vestiges of sleep away.
Though she’d been awaking to the same sight every time she opened her eyes after brief stolen naps, it never ceased to amaze her that she was really here.
With him.
Dalair.
But…
It was also not Dalair. Merely his shell.
A broken, healing body imprisoned tightly by Rain’s zhen, the sentient strands of her cut hair that