*

  Beneath a sky that burns and weeps, where silence crawls and terror speaks, a mother of darkness cims her throne, in suffering carved, in agony sown. The butcher writhes, his flesh undone, his sins id bare beneath her tongue. His screams, once fuel for cruel delight, now swallowed whole by endless night. She feasts upon his tattered soul, a wretched thing, no longer whole. Yet death will not his penance bring… for mercy is a fragile thing.

  *

  ---

  The air was suffocating as Lilith sauntered through the dim corridors of the cult’s hideout, her naked body glistening with streaks of blood that painted her pale skin in morbid artistry. The coppery scent filled the air, mingling with the faint, intoxicating notes of the haunting tune she hummed under her breath. Her hips swayed hypnotically, her every movement exuding a deadly elegance that seemed both unnatural and irresistibly alluring.

  Therin followed behind her, his feet dragging as though shackled by chains of fear. His eyes darted nervously to the blood trailing in her wake, a reminder of the carnage she had already unleashed. He dared not speak. Her aura. Dark, lustful, and suffocating… made every breath feel like inhaling ash.

  “Are you enjoying the silence?” Lilith’s voice broke through his thoughts, silken and dripping with mockery. She didn’t turn to face him, her focus instead on the path ahead. “Or perhaps you’re hoping that if you stay quiet enough, I’ll forget you’re here?”

  Therin swallowed hard. “I—”

  “You,” she interrupted, her tone sharpening like a bde. She stopped abruptly, and he almost collided with her back. Turning her head slightly, she looked at him over her shoulder, her crimson eyes glinting with cruel amusement. “You should be grateful. I could have ended you like the others.”

  Therin flinched, images of his fellow cultists fshing through his mind… their screams, the grotesque ways in which she’d torn them apart while her lips curled in perverse delight. “Please, Subject 17—”

  Lilith’s ughter was sharp, cutting through the stale air. “Subject 17,” she repeated, rolling the words on her tongue as though savoring their bitterness. “Such a pathetic name. A bel for something weak. But do I look weak to you now?”

  Therin stammered, struggling for words, but Lilith stepped closer, her bloodied hand reaching up to caress his face. He froze as her nails, sharp as bdes, trailed down his cheek.

  “No,” she whispered, her lips curling into a predatory smile. “I am not Subject 17. I am Lilith. Queen of demons. Mother of darkness. The embodiment of everything you tried to create.”

  Her other hand moved to his chest, pressing down just enough to make his knees buckle. She leaned in, her lips brushing against his ear. “And you, Therin… you’re nothing but a stepping stone.”

  Therin’s breath hitched as she pulled away, leaving him trembling in her shadow. Her humming resumed, chilling in its simplicity, as she continued walking toward the altar chamber.

  He followed, though every instinct screamed for him to run.

  When they reached the chamber, the oppressive air thickened further. The altar stood in the center, illuminated by a dim, unnatural red glow. Ysara’s body y atop it, twitching and writhing as her transformation continued. Her veins pulsed with an eerie light, and her expression was caught somewhere between pain and ecstasy.

  Therin’s eyes widened in shock, but Lilith paid the sight no heed. Instead, she turned to him with a smile that sent shivers down his spine.

  “Do you like my handiwork?” she asked, gesturing toward Ysara. “Your little girlfriend is coming along quite nicely.”

  Therin tried to respond, but the words caught in his throat.

  Lilith tilted her head, feigning concern. “Oh, Therin,” she purred. “Are you afraid? Or is it awe? Perhaps a bit of both?”

  Before he could answer, she reached out and grabbed his face, her fingers digging into his temples. He cried out, but the pain was short-lived. Reality fractured, the chamber dissolving around him as Lilith dragged him into her dreamscape.

  The fiery sky stretched endlessly above him, its infernal glow bathing the ground in an ominous light. The massive oak tree stood before him, its twisted branches writhing like living things. Its bark was bckened, its roots seeping with blood that stained the cracked earth.

  Therin fell to his knees, the oppressive heat pressing down on him. “Where… where am I?”

  Lilith’s ughter echoed through the dreamscape. She appeared before him, her form shifting and surreal, her crimson eyes glowing brighter than ever. “Welcome to my world,” she said, spreading her arms. “Do you like it? This is the hell you helped create.”

  He tried to crawl backward, but the roots of the oak shed out, binding his wrists and ankles. Lilith approached him, her movements slow and deliberate, her smile growing wider with every step.

  “You enjoyed breaking me, didn’t you?” she asked, crouching before him. Her fingers trailed across his chest, drawing blood with ease. “Every scream, every tear, every drop of blood… it was all so entertaining to you.”

  “Please,” he gasped. “I-I was only following orders—”

  Her sp was swift and brutal, the force snapping his head to the side. “Liar,” she hissed. “You reveled in it. I saw the way you smiled. The way your eyes lit up when I begged for mercy.”

  Therin sobbed, the sound raw and broken.

  Lilith’s expression softened not with kindness, but with twisted affection. She cupped his face, her thumbs brushing away his tears. “Don’t cry, Therin. This is a gift. I’m giving you what you gave me. A lesson in suffering.”

  The roots tightened their hold, pulling him closer to the base of the tree. Lilith straddled him, her nails digging into his shoulders as she leaned in. Her lips brushed against his ear, her breath hot and intoxicating.

  “Pain,” she whispered, “is a beautiful thing. It strips away the lies, the masks, the illusions. It reveals who you truly are.”

  She continued, her voice trembling with mock vulnerability. “You tore me apart, body and soul. And now…” Her breath sending a shiver down his spine. “Now I’ll do the same to you. Piece by piece.”

  Therin sobbed, his voice breaking as he tried to plead. But Lilith silenced him with a finger to his lips, the gesture almost tender. “Hush,” she murmured. “Don’t spoil this for me.”

  And then she began.

  The darkness thickened, swallowing Therin whole.

  The moment he tried to move, iron bit into his wrists and ankles. Shackles cold, ancient, heavy with runes that pulsed like veins beneath the surface. A stone sb pressed against his back, rough and damp with something warm.

  Blood.

  His.

  Panic cwed at his throat.

  He knew this pce.

  A ritual chamber. His ritual chamber.

  Candles flickered in the abyss around him, their fmes twisting like living things. And standing above him, bde in hand, was…

  Himself.

  A younger Therin. Eyes bright with curiosity. Lips curling into that sickeningly eager smile.

  Just like when he had carved into her.

  Therin screamed.

  His younger self merely hummed in amusement, lifting the dagger. A cruel, twisted thing—bck iron, its edge uneven as if meant not to slice, but to tear.

  "Don't be afraid," the younger Therin murmured. "I only want to see."

  The bde descended.

  It punctured his chest, sliding between his ribs, slow, deliberate.

  Therin's body arched, agony erupting through his core. He gasped, choking on his own breath, but the chains held firm.

  The dagger twisted.

  Fire ignited in his nerves as his younger self pried the wound open with bare fingers, pulling his flesh apart like damp parchment.

  "Fascinating," the younger Therin whispered, his voice ced with the same excitement he had spoken with when he had studied Lilith. "Did you know the body can still feel after it’s been fyed?"

  Therin convulsed, his screams turning hoarse.

  The younger Therin leaned closer, his fingers now pressing against his still-beating heart.

  "How long do you think it will keep beating once I remove it?"

  His hand cwed deeper—

  And then the world shifted.

  No longer was he bound to a stone sb.

  Now he was standing back in the dreamscape, his body whole, but trembling, drenched in sweat.

  And Lilith stood before him, watching.

  She tilted her head, crimson eyes gleaming with satisfaction.

  "Did you enjoy reliving your work?" she purred.

  Therin fell to his knees, gasping, sobbing.

  But Lilith wasn't done.

  She descended upon him, pinning him down with inhuman strength. Her nails dug into his skin, raking deep, but she wasn’t after his body.

  She was after more.

  Therin barely had time to beg before her lips parted—

  And she sank her teeth into him.

  Not into his flesh.

  Into his soul.

  Agony unlike anything he had ever inflicted crashed over him. It was not pain of the body, but of the essence… something deeper, rawer, something that shouldn’t even be possible.

  Lilith devoured a piece of him, drinking in his suffering like the finest wine.

  Therin felt himself unraveling. His thoughts, his identity, fraying at the edges, slipping between her fingers. He was diminishing.

  She moaned against his throat, her voice ced with pleasure.

  "Mmm," she sighed, licking her lips as she pulled back. "You taste like fear."

  Therin’s screams echoed through the dreamscape, a symphony of agony that seemed to feed the hellish oak. Lilith reveled in it, her body shivering with delight as she inflicted torment after torment.

  By the time she was finished, Therin was barely recognizable. A broken shell, his soul shattered, mind frayed.

  His vision dimmed. His body convulsed once, twice… then fell still.

  Not dead.

  But less.

  Less than what he had been. Less than what he ever would be again.

  Lilith sighed, satisfied. Her shes fluttering.

  Beneath her, Therin y unconscious, his face frozen in silent horror, his body trembling even in sleep. He was alive.

  For now.

  With a thought, Lilith returned back to the altar chamber releasing his soul from the dream world, his limp body colpsing onto the floor of the chamber. She stepped over him without a second gnce, her focus now on Ysara.

  The crimson glow around the altar had intensified, her transformation nearing its completion. Lilith ran a hand over the altar’s surface, her touch almost reverent. She gnced back at Therin, her lips curling into a smirk.

  “Thank you, Therin,” she said, her tone almost mocking. “You’ve been so… entertaining.”

  She turned back to the altar, her gaze locking onto Ysara’s trembling form. With a satisfied hum, she climbed onto the altar, straddling Ysara as she leaned down to whisper in her ear.

  “Now, my dear,” she murmured, “it’s your turn.”

  And with that, the hellish oak tree loomed once more, its roots reaching out to cim another victim.

  Queen

  .