Chapter 529: Abandoned
The sudden, crippling cold forced me back into my body, and I awoke with a gasp. Sweat streaked my body, yet I was racked with chills, shivering so violently that I’d already exhausted what little strength I’d managed to recover from resting. It felt as though I was back in the slave wagon in the middle of a snowstorm, frost coating my hair and fingers turning numb with frostbite.
The fact that I’d regained consciousness at all was surprising. I’d half expected myself to drift deeper into the darkness, perhaps never to wake up. But the thought brought less fear than I expected, my heart so filled with sorrow that there wasn’t room for much else.
The two apostles were gone, vanished without a trace. They claimed to be scouting out the fort while I rested, but I found it much more likely they were fleeing, getting as far away from the city as possible. Everything I’d seen, all the inconsistencies in their behavior, made their intentions clear. I was too unstable to keep in the camp, too dangerous to their army. But unleashing Haven here? Suddenly, an intimidating fortress and overwhelming defenses became a deathtrap where the shadows themselves did the dirty work.
The realization hit me with the force of a physical blow. I had been used, manipulated, and abandoned. And in the process, I had become an instrument of destruction, a harbinger of death for an entire city. The weight of it all was crushing, and I felt a sob rise in my throat.
Why did it have to be Luke? Was this Fate’s way of teaching me I had made a mistake? That trying to trust someone would only end in suffering?
No, that wasn’t fair to him. Luke wasn’t anything like Soltair. The Sun Hero promised me everything, from love to protection, yet had sold me to a monster the moment I became inconvenient. Luke hadn’t promised me anything, and had made it very clear he would do anything to bring his vengeance down on the gods. I wasn’t betrayed, I was sacrificed. All Luke had done was to keep his word.
But that didn’t make me feel any better, and I curled up, shivering. Tears began to trickle down my cheeks. I had been fooled by our entanglement into trusting him. I thought he felt the same as I, that there was something binding us together. I didn’t know what it was or what I had actually felt for him, but it had obviously been a lie.
The room filled with swirling shadows, billowing out like black mist. The cold within my body wasn’t just a feeling anymore, either. Small swirls of frost coated every surface, creeping across the sheets and growing on the walls. Though my wards kept the literal cold from touching me, the bitter chill within only rose, until my breath came in shallow gasps, my mana far away and slippery.
It appeared before I fully registered it, standing halfway between me and the door—a Remnant.