Chapter Forty-Four Sylas #2
A little girl plays with the Deathbringer, who beams as she picks her up, whirling her around, hugging her, making her laugh. Out here, she isn’t the Deathbringer from our textbooks; she’s just a mother spending time with her daughter.
A branch cracks, and Alyria sets Viola down.
In a second, she morphs from a loving mother to the legendary mage I know. Scar is perched on her left hand, and the right holds Viola against her leg. A slow shuffle of leaves later, and she lowers her guard.
“Tobias,” she exclaims. “How did you—”
“Why did you leave, Aly?” His voice breaks. When he comes into the frame, I don’t question who he is. Tobias Corvi. Viola’s father.
“I couldn’t do that to her.” She tucks Viola behind her. “She’s a cross-mage, Tobias.”
“Gods, she looks like you.” He kneels, placing his arms on his knees. At first, Viola hesitates, but soon, she runs to him, giggling. He holds her for what seems like hours.
“I know.” The Deathbringer softens, but she doesn’t lower Scar. “But she has your eyes.”
“The whole world is looking for you, Aly,” he says softly. “Come home. We’ll seal her death magic if we need to, but please come home.”
“She has a right to both classes of magic.” Alyria approaches them with caution. Slowly, she kneels in front of him, her hand reaching for his face. “How did you find us? Did Lily tell you?”
“Willow.” He chokes up at the name. Gods, she doesn’t know.
“Lily… and Willow, they…” he trails. “Lily was killed in the cata-combs, likely by poachers. Willow tried to resurrect her, but she released Grimm from Faro’s Cuff instead.
My mother sealed her soul across six relics.
Everything is falling apart. Han is inconsolable…
the children ask for their mother every day… ”
“No.” Her hands clasp her mouth, and she shakes her head as tears fill her eyes. “No, Tobias. No.”
Her shoulders shake as she sobs; the air is charged with a raw heartbreak that makes me want to reach for them.
With his free arm, Tobias reaches for her, and she leans against his shoulder, staining his shirt with her tears.
Viola plays with her mother’s hair, unaware of all the tragedy around her.
My heart shatters at the sight of what could have been for Viola.
She deserves this family, not the repugnant excuse of a life she was forced into.
Right when I think the memory is over, a quiet shuffle draws my attention. My hand hovers over the hilt of my dagger, forgetting once more that I stand here, a prisoner of the past, unable to change anything.
Scar’s golden eyes narrow. She slithers down the Deathbringer’s arm, fangs out, ready to strike.
“Mom.” Tobias kisses Viola’s head before handing her over to Alyria. Stepping in front of them in defense, he opens his palm. “What are you doing here?”
“Give me the child,” says Rhea Corvi. “I promise to keep her safe. You do not understand what’s at stake.”
Alyria hugs Viola tighter, shielding her from her grandmother. “I’ve kept her safe and hidden for two years, Rhea. I don’t need help, especially not from a purist.”
Tobias’s fingers move. “Leave, Mother.”
“You do not understand.” Rhea splays her fingers. Around her, an army of undead takes root. “That child is the only way to prevent our world from falling into darkness.”
That child. Viola isn’t an object. Her small hands clutch her mother’s neck, her big brown eyes widening at the undead.
Run, I want to yell. Rhea Corvi hasn’t come to negotiate.
“Gods, save them,” I plead in vain to the Gods that stood by, watching this wretched woman steal everything from Viola.
“I love you, Aly.” Tobias throws one last look over his shoulder, pausing on his daughter. “Maybe in another life…” he says, his eyes holding years of regret. Then he turns back toward his mother, his sadness replaced by the same fierce determination I see in Viola’s eyes.
Then they’re gone.
My gut wrings in worry. I know this is Viola’s memory, and it isn’t finished yet.
Now Viola sits alone in the hollow of a tree trunk. She wraps her hand around her knees, her eyes pressing together at the slightest sound. Haal, she’s just a baby.
The frame moves, and Alyria stabs Tobias straight in the abdomen. He doesn’t flinch. He pulls out the knife, and there’s no blood. It takes me a moment to realize that this isn’t Tobias at all, not anymore. Rhea Corvi stands in the back, watching them with interest.
My stomach turns. Suddenly, I’m gasping for air. In the moment I did not see, she killed her own son and used him as a puppet to fight the mother of his child.
But the Deathbringer earns her name. Scar drops the undead faster than Rhea Corvi can summon them, and Alyria is relentless. She lands punches and stabs, and the puppet of Tobias doesn’t graze a single hair.
Rhea plays a dangerous game. Every time Alyria goes for a hit, she inches closer to Viola. But Alyria is faster. She stabs puppet Tobias in the neck and lunges for Rhea, throwing her to the ground and knocking her unconscious. Instead of getting up, Alyria’s body is still, over Rhea’s.
Maybe I’m foolish, but a part of me hopes the Deathbringer escaped, that she really did go into hiding all these years, plotting how to get her daughter back.
“Mama,” Viola screams, but it’s too late.
Alyria’s white dress blooms red, the tip of an undead’s claw protruding from her back. Scar slithers over, hissing as she looks back and forth between Alyria and Viola. The aspier is torn between staying with her Aspieri and bonding with her legacy. But Viola’s too young to bond.
“The time will come, Scar.” Alyria’s words weaken. Scar approaches her, gently rubbing her head against Alyria’s cheek. Haal, have mercy on the Deathbringer’s aspier. She gives her a final nod, a final look, before coiling herself into a stillness that would last twenty years.
“Mama,” Viola cries again.
Alyria drags herself off Rhea’s unconscious body.
The crimson of her blood stains the grass as she crawls to her daughter.
Huffing out labored breaths, she digs her elbows into the ground, pushing her body forward until she reaches Viola.
But now, she can’t lift herself up, can’t give her a final hug.
Viola throws her arms around her neck, and with one final push, Alyria drags her arm over her.
“Being your mother is the greatest honor of my life,” Alyria croaks, the light leaving her eyes.
“Sylas.” Paltro is shaking me. But all I see is Viola’s arms around her dead mother’s neck. She was raised by her parents’ murderer, who still failed at hiding her. The cuff she wears killed my mother and both of her own parents.
She can’t possibly know any of this, and now… I’ll have to tell her.
“Snap out of it, Sylas,” Paltro urges. He taps me on the cheeks.
The cluttered office comes into focus again, and the faint smell of mint assaults my nose. I open my eyes and wish I hadn’t. My face is wet with tears.
“We don’t have the luxury of grieving, son.” Paltro wipes his eyes. “Sierra’s dead relic was stolen. Bring me Viola’s cuff before it falls into Delaney’s hands.”
My heart is fighting between what I know to be true and what I have been taught to believe. Viola isn’t like Rhea or Delaney. She is my Viola. But her cuff killed my mother. That despicable relic is the only remaining obstacle for Delaney to resurrect her daughter.
“Willow released Grimm,” I say.
“Yes, Tobias confirmed it in the memory.” Paltro pulls down his map with the red crosses, the same one I saw here weeks ago.
“I believe that Grimm is tethered to Willow, but we don’t know where he is.
We don’t know what he looks like. Your father was investigating when he died.
The red crosses are all the places we think he’s been. ”
Dad. Another person Grimm probably took from me.
Paltro breathes in. “Get me that forsaken cuff, Sylas, so we can put an end to this. Without the cuff, Delaney can’t bring Willow back, and Grimm won’t be able to regain his body.”
“Of course, Uncle.” I leave his office with the promise of putting an end to twenty years of murders because of revenge. Viola will understand. She has to. But am I ready to forgive that her cuff killed Mom?