Celeste's POV
The horses didn't stop. I wished they would. My legs felt like they were being pulled out of their sockets, and every time the horse took a step, a sharp pain shot up my spine. The dirt under us wasn't red anymore. Now, it was black stone. It was shiny and hard, like frozen ink. It looked slippery. I gripped the saddle horn so hard my knuckles turned white.
I looked down at my hands. They were just hands. Pale. Small. Dirty. There was no black smoke coming out of my skin. There were no dark veins.
Maybe I'm just losing my mind, I thought. Maybe the sun in the desert cooked my brain and I saw things that weren't there.
But then I smelled the blood. It was on my dress. It was on Athan's face. The way that rebel had flown backward…that wasn't a trick of the light. I had done that. A knot tied itself in my stomach. It was a weird feeling. I was shaking because I was scared, but deep down, in a place I didn't want to admit to, I felt... something else. Pride?
In the palace in the clouds, people looked at me and saw a broken bird. They felt sorry for me. But back there? Those men were terrified.
Athan rode next to me. He was like a statue made of salt and blood. He didn't look tired. He didn't look like he had just killed a dozen people. He just looked ahead.
"Are you going to tell me what that was?" I asked. My voice cracked. I hated it. I sounded like a child.
Athan didn't even turn his head. "Later."
"I want to know now," I said. I was surprised by how loud I was. "I'm the one who did it. Whatever it was."
Athan finally looked at me. His gold eyes were heavy. They weren't mean, but they were so intense I felt like he was reading my thoughts. "You saw it. I saw it. The others saw it. That is enough for now. Grip your reins, Celeste. The road gets worse."
"That's it? That's all you're going to say?"
"Yes."
He wasn't being a jerk, exactly. He was just being... Athan. He didn't use five words when one would do. I bit my lip and looked away. I had a million questions. Am I a monster? Is my father going to send an army? Why did you catch me when I fell? I kept them inside. I didn't want to give him more reasons to think I was weak.
The air started to change. It got hot. Not a nice, summer heat, but a thick, heavy heat that smelled like burnt metal and rotten eggs. The sky above us turned a dark, bruised orange. We rounded a tall rock, and I pulled on the reins so hard my horse let out a huff.
"Oh no," I whispered.
A giant canyon split the world in half. It was so wide I couldn't see the other side through the haze. And at the bottom... it wasn't water. It was a river of liquid fire. It bubbled. It popped. Great clouds of white steam hissed into the air. Stretching across the gap was a bridge made of black iron. It was jagged and sharp.
"The Gate of Teeth," Athan said.
"We have to cross that?" I felt the sweat start to itch under my hair. "It looks like it's going to melt."
"It won't melt. Don't look down."
"I am definitely going to look down," I muttered.
I followed him onto the bridge. The iron groaned. It was a deep, low sound that I felt in my teeth. The heat hit my face like a physical hand. I felt a bead of sweat crawl down my back, making my silk dress stick to my skin. I couldn't help it. I looked down.
The lava was moving. It was beautiful, in a way that made me want to throw up. It was so bright it hurt my eyes. I felt a dizzy pull in my chest, like the fire was calling to the shadow inside me.
"I told you not to look," Athan said.
Before I could snap back at him, he reached over. He grabbed my horse's bridle. He didn't say anything, he just pulled my mare closer to his massive black stallion. Our legs brushed together. He kept his hand there, steadying my horse as we walked over the screaming fire.
His fingers were inches from mine. He was so warm. I couldn't tell if the heat was coming from the river or from him.
"You aren't a prisoner here, Celeste," Athan said suddenly.
I looked at him. His profile was sharp against the orange sky. "The contract says I am. My father sold me. That's what a prisoner is."
"Contracts are for lawyers," Athan said. He looked toward the end of the bridge. Huge gates were coming into view. They were made of bone and dark metal. "You are my wife. In the Underworld, that means you own half of everything you see. Including the fire."
I blinked. Wife. I hadn't really used that word in my head. I thought of myself as a trade. A bag of grain. A peace treaty. "The people won't like me," I said, my voice small. "I'm an angel. Well, half of one. I have no wings. I'm just a mess, Athan."
Athan stopped his horse. We were at the end of the bridge now. The gates started to open. The sound was like a giant screaming.
"Look at them," Athan commanded.
I wanted to hide. I wanted to pull his heavy black cape over my head and disappear. Behind the gates, there weren't just buildings. There were thousands of demons.
They were terrifying. Some were tall with horns that looked like polished glass. Others had skin the color of ash and eyes that glowed in the dark. They wore leather and silver chains. I braced myself. I expected them to boo. I expected them to laugh at the wingless princess their King had brought home.
Then, a roar went up.
It was so loud it shook the bridge. The demons started hitting their spears against the ground in a steady rhythm. Thump. Thump. Thump.
"What are they saying?" I yelled over the noise.
Athan looked at me. For a second, his face softened. Not a lot…he didn't smile…but the hardness in his eyes faded. "They are calling you the Unbroken."
"Why? I haven't done anything."
"Because you walked through the blood and stayed on the horse," Athan said. "In this world, we don't care about wings. We don't care about what you were born with. We care about who survives. You survived the desert. You survived the rebels. You are standing on your own two feet."
We rode into the city. It wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be a cave, dark and damp. But the city was made of black glass. It was bright. It was loud. There were markets with strange fruits and people laughing in the streets. It wasn't cold and quiet like the palace in the clouds. It felt... alive.
I felt a strange warmth in my chest. It wasn't the lava this time. It was the feeling of being seen. Not as a mistake. Not as a broken thing. But as someone who belonged.
We reached the inner courtyard of the palace. It was a massive tower of black stone that seemed to go on forever. Athan hopped off his horse before it had even fully stopped. He walked over to me.
He didn't wait for me to ask for help. He reached up, put his hands on my waist, and lifted me down.
He didn't let go immediately. He kept his hands there, his thumbs brushing against the leather of my belt. I looked at his chest. I could see his heart beating under his armor. It was fast.
"The palace is yours," he whispered. His breath smelled like mint and something sharp. "Go inside. My servants will take you to your rooms. Clean the blood off your face. Eat something."
"Where are you going?" I asked. I felt a sudden spike of panic. I didn't know anyone here but him.
"I have to speak to my generals," Athan said. He glanced at his shoulder. The cut was deep, and the blood was still seeping through. He didn't seem to care. "And I have to deal with the messenger from the sky. Your father's man is waiting."
"Will you come back?"
Athan leaned down. His face was so close I could see the gold flecks in his eyes. "I always come back for what is mine, Celeste. Don't forget that."
He turned and walked away toward a group of demons in heavy plate armor. I stood there for a minute, just breathing. The air was thick and tasted like iron, but I didn't mind. I looked at the black glass walls and the flickering fire. I was small. I was out of my element. But for the first time in my life, I didn't feel like a disappointment.
A woman walked up to me. She was tall, with silver horns that curved back like a crown. She bowed so low her forehead almost touched the stones.
"This way, My Queen," she said.
I followed her. The inside of the palace was different. The walls were cold obsidian. The floors were covered in thick, purple rugs that muffled our footsteps. It was quiet here, but it felt powerful.
The woman led me to a massive set of doors. Inside was a room larger than my father's entire throne room. In the center was a bed made of dark wood and velvet. And in the corner, a bath was already steaming. It smelled like roses and something spicy.
"The King says you are to rest," the woman said, bowing again. "He will join you when the moon is high."
She left, closing the doors with a soft click.
I sat on the edge of the bed. I sank so deep into the velvet I thought I might disappear. I looked at my hands. They were covered in dust and dried blood.
I stood up and walked over to a tall mirror in the corner. I looked at myself. My silver hair was a mess. My lips were stained red from where I'd bitten them. I looked like a girl who had been through a war.
Then, I turned around. I pulled the back of my dress down just enough to see.
The scars were there. The jagged, ugly lines where my wings should have been. But in the orange light of the Underworld, they didn't look like scars anymore. They looked like silver lightning.
I touched the skin. It didn't hurt. I felt a small pulse in my blood. A flicker of shadow moved under my skin, near my wrist. It was waiting.
"I am not a princess," I whispered to the empty room. "I am a witch…or an angel ummm I'm an Angel Witch"