Nevermore (The Never Sky #2)

Chapter 61

61

V esalia’s smile was sharp, a cutting curve of crimson lips that held no warmth. Ancient eyes, gold and glittering with malevolent amusement, tracked my every breath, my every shudder of impotent rage as we stood side by side in an alley that faced Prospector’s Pointe.

“You see now, don’t you? The truth of the twin brothers. Both liars. Both manipulating you for their own gain.” She paused, tilting her head. “Tell me you see it, Huntress.”

“Go back to whichever hell you crawled from.”

She glared, her eyes practically molten gold as she seethed, leaning forward to grab the collar of my cloak. “And what will you do if all the gods abandon you? Foolish mortal. Open your eyes to what’s happening. The Fera is real. The threat she poses is real. Or have you forgotten you have a standing bargain with Reverius and you’re running out of time? Lie in your grave like a victim or crawl out of it.”

In a twist, I broke her hold and moved away. “You’re a liar. You’re all liars. You play games you think we’re too stupid to see.”

“Move away from her, Paesha. She’s not your ally.”

I whipped around to see Reverius standing there, hands in his pockets, leaning against the brick. He stepped forward. Gone was the tender lover, the studious husband. In his place stood a god, ancient and unyielding, his power crackling like a gathering storm as he spoke. “You think you know the truth now? You think because you’ve seen a few scattered memories, you understand the game being played?”

I shook my head, fighting back the swell of emotions threatening to break free. The confusion. The betrayal, the evisceration of everything I thought I might feel for him. I’d meant to be strong. To stand and fight against him for every one of my past lives, but I could hardly manage more than a whisper. “I don’t understand any of it.”

Vesalia hissed, her eyes flashing with restrained fury. “Don’t speak to her as if she is a child, Reverius. She deserves the truth, not more of your honeyed lies.”

Reverius rounded on her, his lip curling in a sneer. “And you think you’re the one to give it to her?”

“At least I don’t pretend to love her, only to betray her at every turn,” Vesalia spat.

Reverius looked at me then, letting the truth hang in the air.

“Say it,” I whispered, opening my heart for the final blow. “Tell me it was all a lie.”

His cruel smile turned my stomach. “I do so love my masks. But you already knew that.”

To hear the truth spoken so casually was like plunging into an ice-cold lake. He’d only pretended. None of it was real. Not one second. Not one kiss. Not one promise. I wanted to scream, to rage, to let the agony inside me pour out in a flood of bitter tears. But I stood frozen. Numb, as if my soul had been hollowed out. “Then your realms can fucking burn, but I guess that’s what you wanted all along.”

I turned and walked away, and neither of them tried to stop me. Though I could feel Thorne’s gaze on my back, and I hated that I knew it was there. I hated him. A flash of movement caught my eye. Likely the whole reason Vesalia had chosen this spot. She’d wanted me to see him. Across the square, a familiar figure emerged from the shadows cast by the looming buildings. Archer, his blond hair gleaming in the muted light, strode towards Prospector’s Pointe with a purposeful gait that filled me with concern.

He clutched a dagger. His knuckles were white around the hilt, his jaw clenched with determination. The haunted look in his eyes mirrored what I thought mine might look like. A soul shattered beyond repair.

Before I could move, before I could even draw breath to shout his name, the square was consumed by the deep, steady pounding of drums. Cold dread settled in the pit of my stomach as I turned toward the sound.

Farris and his Cimmerian guard marched into the square. The prince rode at their head, astride a massive black horse, his cloak billowing behind him like a banner of shadows. And Thorne hadn’t cared at all. Hadn’t made a single move. Because if it didn’t serve him, it wasn’t his problem. Archer wasn’t his problem. Wasn’t even his friend. But he sure as fuck was mine.

And in that moment, I knew what Archer intended to do. Knew it with a certainty that ripped my heart from my chest. Farris had taken Harlow’s life long before she’d died. He’d lived the life Archer believed his sister deserved. Farris had taken advantage of every privilege and every power, while those around him had suffered. While she suffered. And he would never let that go.

I ran for him, desperate to reach him before he could do something that would surely end in his own death. The world blurred into a haze of muted colors and muffled sounds, narrowing down to the single, unwavering focus of reaching Archer before it was too late.

“Archer, stop!” I screamed. But he didn’t hear me over the pounding of the drums and the clamor of the crowd. Or perhaps he chose not to, too lost in his own grief and need for vengeance.

I pushed myself harder, my lungs burning, my muscles screaming in protest as I wove through the throng of people. I broke through the last line of spectators and stumbled into the open space before the prince’s procession. Archer stood feet away, his body coiled with tension, the dagger glinting in his white-knuckled grip.

“Please,” I gasped, reaching for him. “Don’t do this. She wouldn’t want this. You’ll die. There’s no escape here and you know it.”

His eyes met mine, a storm of grief and rage warring within them. His voice was a broken rasp as he spoke, each word laced with a pain so raw, it stole my breath. “She and I were born of the same cloth. We were a pair. Two halves of a whole. And she spent her life in misery because of him. He took something so precious from her, she never recovered. Because of me. Because I was a foolish kid with a big mouth. He destroyed her. Shattered her spirit until she was just a ghost of herself. And she died with that sadness still haunting her. I know you saw it, Paesha.”

I grabbed his arm, pulling him from the edge of the opening, though he didn’t come lightly. “Let me tell you something. It’s important and you’re not going to believe me, but you must. I know your heart is hurting right now. I know you buried your sister this morning and you feel like there’s no life beyond grief. But I promise there is. I know this because…” I stared into his watery blue eyes, willing myself to speak the truth. “I’ve been to Death’s Court. I know Death. And her heart is no longer suffering there. Death would never allow that. And if she chooses it, she will reincarnate and she will live another life. She will be happy again. I promise. Last night was not her end.”

He shook his head. Unwilling or unable to believe me, I wasn’t sure. “You’ll never understand. No one will.”

“Think about what Harlow would want. She loved you more than anything in this world. She wouldn’t want you to throw your life away for revenge.”

“You don’t get to stand there and talk to me about what she would want. It doesn’t matter anymore. She’s gone. And maybe not by Farris’s hand or order, that revenge will come as well. But this. This is more. He deserves to pay for all of her sadness. Every day she suffered without her power, every day she was sad was his fault. And I’m done walking around the truth. I’m putting both of my siblings in the ground today, Paesha. And you’re not going to stop me.”

He was going to die. I was going to stand here and watch him die, just as his sister had. And what would Thorne do? Would he stand in the shadows of the alley and watch it too? Would he watch me? Was there a thrill to my heartache he fed from? Fury, deep and raw, heated across my skin. Every place he’d touched me burned. Every promise he’d made turned to ash. Because he could have saved her, too. And he didn’t.

I turned back to the prince’s procession, the cheering crowd fading to a distant hum. Farris sat with a triumphant smile as he waved to the masses. He lifted the severed head of some great beast, its lifeless eyes staring out at the sea of adoring faces. The Silks roared with bloodthirsty glee. I hated all of them. Everything about this world. This city.

The world slowed. The drumbeats faded to a distant echo as the cheers of the crowd muted to a muffled hum. Colors bled together, blurring at the edges until everything was cast in a strange, otherworldly haze.

Farris’s triumphant smile froze on his face, a grotesque mask of arrogance and cruelty. Even his billowing cloak hung motionless, as if caught in an invisible breeze. I turned to Archer feeling heavy and sluggish, as if I were wading through thick syrup. His anguished expression was etched into his features, a portrait of grief and rage frozen in time.

“What’s happening?” I tried to ask, but my words came out as a distorted whisper, the sound swallowed by the eerie stillness that had descended upon the square.

“This is the end of your path, Huntress.”

I whirled to face Vesalia, the movement painfully slow.

But then it flickered. The hold she had on time, wavering. I’d seen that before. In Death’s Court when Reverius had spoken to me in my mind. There’d been a flicker then too. An obvious weakness through a show of great power. I looked back at Farris, remembering Reveruis’s words that day. The amount of power the goddess used to bring a mortal to this realm was vast. She will feel the loss of that for centuries.

Realization struck me like a blow to the chest, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place with sickening clarity. The flickering, the weakening of magic, the muffled sensation that had permeated this realm since my arrival, it all traced back to the prince. Farris. He was the key, the lynchpin.

I whispered, the words heavy on my tongue. “He’s taking too much. Draining the magic even when he can’t figure out how to use it for himself.”

Vesalia’s smile widened, a predatory flash of teeth. “Yes. Now you see what you must do. You must find what is lost to others, Huntress.”

“Does Farris hold his power in his blood or in his soul like I do?”

The goddess smiled and reached into her flowing robes to reveal a long, black dagger. “In his blood, of course. Bring me the power and I will show you how to return to Quill.”

Time burst free of her hold, and I snatched Archer by the collar. “You want to kill the prince? Fine. But we do it together.”