Thread of Ash and Fire

Ch. 58: The Very Depths of Hell

Anna couldn't breathe.

Eris's fingers were iron bands around her throat. The battle raged on around them, the sounds muted by the blood roaring in her ears. She swung her sword, but her movements were dizzy. Sluggish. Eris batted the blade away like a cat playing with a toy, and Anna watched God-Slayer skid across the grass.

Eris's green eyes were fresh poison. "There's something poetic about this, isn't there? Dying at the hands of a Delafort. Just like your parents."

Anna's heart leapt into her throat. She reached for her magic, but it was no use; she was scraping the bottom of an empty well.

"My lovely Annalise," Eris breathed, leaning closer. "You look so pretty when you struggle."

Crushing fingers squeezed her windpipe, and Anna choked, her hands scrabbling uselessly for her knife. She couldn't reach it. Spots exploded in front of her eyes in dizzying purple and green. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe.

Eris's breath was hot in her ears. "Close your eyes, Annalise. It's almost over."

Anna's legs kicked through empty air. Fire clawed at her chest, roasting her alive from the inside.

"Hush, my darling." Eris ran his thumb over her lips. "I'm going to taste you now. There's something so delicious about my mouth being your last memory, don't you think? In fact, I'll tell my cousin that just as I'm about to kill him." He leaned forward, his eyes dark and hooded. "Hold still."

Anna closed her eyes. She could feel the world slipping away, fracturing into glass pieces. No sword. No magic. Her last hope — her only hope — was her knife. Anna fumbled around her hip, her numb fingers sliding uselessly over her sheath.

Eris had the advantage in every sense.

Except for one thing.

Anna's hand closed on her knife. She cast her eyes skyward, sending up one last prayer. Please, for the love of every god listening, let that random man at a tavern be right.

She swung from the left.

The knife struck Eris in the neck. He stumbled back, his eyes flying wide, and Anna collapsed forward. She sucked in deep breaths, her heart racing. She couldn't get enough air. Couldn't breathe through the thin straw that was her throat.

Still.

She launched herself at Eris, attacking again and again. A blow to the chest. To the stomach. To the shoulder. Wherever she could reach him. But she always swung from the left: the one place where Eris couldn't see.

Eris slumped back, panting. His eyes were glossy.

His voice was a rasp. "How did you—?"

"Know?" Anna spat blood. "One of your advisors. You ought to keep better friends."

She grabbed the scruff of his shirt. Eris was heavy, but she held fast, fueled by rage and adrenaline. Her back gave a painful throb: a reminder of all that Eris had done to her. Vos es nuqum. She'd hated the words then, but now...

Now, Anna thought savagely, she would make them true.

"You're right." Her eyes burned with righteous fury. "I am nothing. I'm the darkness between the stars. I am the void in the sky, and the chasm in the earth. I am the very depths of hell. And now, I'm going to send you there."

She drove her knife through his heart.

Eris let out a rattling gasp. Panic flared in his eyes, followed by something else: a starburst of fear. And then he was gone, slumping in her arms, nothing more than a flesh-covered sack of bones. She let his body drop to the grass, wiping blood from her face.