Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
NERISSA
Ten years in Pyracantha for the theft of restricted books and destruction of the entrance to the Rooted Section in the Living Library
– Official Indictment, signed by King Bayne Ravindra.
Nerissa – Onyx Tower, Kayj
Clamoring rose beyond the heavy black doors, drowning out my footsteps on the dark stone floor as I prowled through the halls of the Onyx Tower and toward the throne room.
I hated this place.
Death lurked everywhere, and my sunlight flared in defense at every shadow flickering in the corners. Lyvia never told me what happened here, but I knew.
The damage that had been done by Cyril… That sort of damage lingers in the eyes of their victims. It hovers like a wraith, waiting for a moment of weakness when its host has a lapse in mental control and seizes the victim, shoving those painful memories back into the light.
I grimaced as sound flooded my senses. The group beyond the doors was animated and loud. Their voices carried across the vast black stone that made up the throne room.
Lyvia sat at one of the oval tables, her face pale and her eyes darting to the people throughout the room, as if she didn’t know where to look. Her wan mouth parted, and her black brows tilted up. Her body and mind were in a clear state of shock.
Aeriden approached with a mug, and Lyvia took it without looking at him, the brother Dark King Daimos tricked her into thinking was dead. Aeriden’s chair scraped as he found a seat beside his sister. His blue eyes darted to her ears before he murmured quietly to her.
Isla’s hand was clasped firmly in Lyvia’s grip on her other side, and my chest warmed despite the I-told-you-so look she shot my way. Isla’s full lips pressed into a hard line as she dragged her amber gaze to Bayne.
My brother sat across from Lyvia, his back to me. Lida hovered a short distance away. A jab of guilt and pity hit me in the chest, and I offered Lida a brief nod as I rounded the table to face them.
I frowned as I registered Bayne’s face. His expression was pained and hard, and his eyes were unable to stop as they roved over the living darkness under Lyvia’s skin.
Someone had found her new clothes, it seemed, as she donned a fresh cream tunic.
The laces left little glimpses of skin at her collarbone where the Obscura and Transcindiel moved together. Had she even had time to bathe?
Lyvia’s eyes darted to mine as she attempted to answer a question from someone, bright veins of red spiderwebbing in the whites of her eyes, the only evidence she’d been crying.
“It’s time for Lyvia to rest,” I announced, tenting my hands on the glass table. “She and—”
I paused as I searched for Astraeus. My eyes caught on a dark shadow in the corner of the throne room. His arms were crossed in front of his chest.
My sunlight flared in defense as his dark eyes met mine, a stormy violence gathering behind them. Something was different with the pirate lord. Gone was the smirking captain, his swagger all but buried beneath the lethal intent sitting in his demeanor.
“I agree, but Selvina and the others are on their way,” Isla replied. “They’ll be here in a few minutes. And we have a lot to discuss…”
My lips pursed, and I sent a wave of irritation to the ice queen.
Selvina had been… difficult.
In no way did I deny her role in aiding our defeat of Dark King Daimos. And I knew we owed Lyvia’s life to her during her time at the Crystal Castle. But the white-haired, castle-loving, pretentious elf was pig-headed and loved her lavish life a little too much.
Was she a fellow Bellator? Yes.
Was she powerful? Yes.
Had she used her powers to heal thousands of humans and elves after Lyvia transformed them from their ashen forms? Yes.
Did she have a knack for organizing the refugees and caring for them? For ruling? Perhaps.
But she had been a fucking idiot to lead us all to that cave in the first place. We didn’t know how it had opened, but clearly, gathering there had been more than a coincidence, given the gate opened moments later.
And she preferred pretty dresses to training leathers.
A wave of warning shot down my bond with Selvina, smacking me right in the chest, and I chuckled at her threat.
I blinked as I felt a mental knock from my caeluma, and Aquila’s cast materialized in my mind.
My eyes opened to a cyclone of ash-like snowflakes spinning through the wind, the chill biting across my beak.
My eyes caught on the bright white of Nishanth’s feathers and her three riders as she landed in the courtyard of the Onyx Tower.
Selvina’s caeluma, her snowy mountain hawk, was far more likable. Nishanth was a vicious, ruthless thing, never hesitating to use the Ramadiel power against the monstrosities that flooded through the Vael Lacrima.
I shook my head, breaking the cast with Aquila and turning back to Isla.
“They’re already here,” I announced, crossing my arms.
The doors to the large room swung open, with Kresida and Vulcan joining the growing crowd.
“Watchers are set up for the next two hours,” Kresida murmured as she joined my side. Her face scanned mine, no doubt noting the smudged War Slayer paint and itching to fix it.
We couldn’t stop every creature from exiting the arch. We hadn’t the army, hadn’t the power. And during our breaks, we simply left spies hiding in the rocks, keeping track of the types and numbers of them entering our world.
Kresida had chosen to stay here on Kayj after the liberation of the slaves and the transformation of the ashen. As did most of the little team we’d become. How could they leave after what we’d seen?
Smoke stirred as Vulcan rushed past us and knelt next to Lyvia. The scarred half of his tattooed face stretched as an uncommon emotion surged into his features.
“Lyvia!” A cry came from behind me.
I snapped my head around to find the petite form of my cousin rushing down the hall as she shoved her spectacles up her nose. Carina’s light-brown hair still carried the tiny flakes of snow that had yet to melt.
Carina rushed to Lyvia’s side as the others flowed in, and the domineering throne room suddenly felt small.
I stepped to the head of the table and took a seat as Selvina and Ursa came up from behind.
Selvina’s light brows rose as she took in Lyvia’s form, her crystal eyes shining bright in the dim hall.
Her hand was clasped with her soulbound partner, Ursa.
Lyvia’s cousin.
The revelation had been shared after the night in the cave.
That Ursa, Eira’s sister, was in fact Lyvia’s cousin, one of the last of the Nataras.
Her parents had used the Transcindiel power on Lyvia as a newborn babe, changing her from elf to human, an attempt to hide her from Dark King Daimos.
And it had worked for twenty-two years after Lyvia’s adoptive father hid her in the Kingdom of Sultira.
A transformation that had, apparently, been undone with Lyvia’s trip through the gate.
Ursa dropped Selvina’s hand and hurried across the room. Her golden hair was tied tightly behind her head, showcasing the rough scars around her neck from the iron collar she’d worn for over twenty years.
Ursa, I liked. Unlike her wife, she was easy to work with. She was fierce. A fighter. And after years of living as a slave, she was quick to the blade. Her anger worked well alongside my own.
“Now that we’ve all—” I started once again, but the doors blew open one last time. My anger pulsed, and my molars scraped against each other. This was getting ridiculous…
Raek stormed through the doors, pulling up short as his sea green eyes scanned Lyvia, and he looked around. My eyes inadvertently shot to Vulcan as my second’s shoulders tensed, and a muscle feathered in his jaw.
The first mate of the Hydra paused mid-stride as he pulled his gaze from Lyvia, and he searched the room for his captain. Lord Astraeus pushed off the wall and adjusted his gloves. Raek’s shoulders sagged as his captain strode toward him, a man returned from the dead.
The pirate lord locked his eyes on Lyvia as he made his way across the room.
Lyvia’s agitated gaze calmed as she met his eyes, but her expression turned pained and the blood drained from her face.
Astraeus’s jaw hardened, but his brows softened as his gaze lingered on her.
He strode past the table. Raek fell in line with his step before exiting the vast chamber.
“This group has thirty minutes,” I declared at last, my frustration building at the constant interruption, and I pinned everyone with a look I’d used for hundreds of years. “And then we all leave Lyvia the fuck alone.” I nodded to my cousin.
“I’m sure you have much to share,” Carina began, her voice soft.
“But let me tell you a few things of utmost importance. It’s been three months since you left, and as I’m sure you noticed, the gate remains open.
The creatures using it to enter this world have decimated most of what’s left of Kayj.
We haven’t seen the return of any Embodied yet, but we always have watchers on patrol.
And when possible, we destroy the creatures coming through. ”
Lyvia’s brows pinched.
Ursa cut in, “The humans and elves you saved from the camps have been moved. Selvina turned the Crystal Castle into a shelter of sorts, though winter has been hard. We’re running low on rations.”
“Ronan said he’d send ships from Sultira with enough food and supplies to last a few months,” Aeriden explained.
“But only half have arrived. We’re not sure what happened to the others, and we haven’t heard from him since.
The orb upstairs stopped connecting to the one in Sultira after the gate opened, but we can still communicate with the elves in Lotrennia. ”
My stomach gave an involuntary flip at the mention of Ronan, and I slid the steel chamber of my heart shut, forcing unwanted feelings below waves of anger.
“We haven’t heard anything from Sultira since then,” Lyvia’s brother continued. “We sent the forty ships back with as many humans from the camps as we could, but no news on if they’ve made it.”
“Lotrennia has aided,” I cut in, my eyes darting to my brother’s face.
His nostrils flared, and he blinked once.
“Bayne splits his time between Kayj and Ayla. Lotrennia continues to die in our absence. And as his Soleia power seems more connected to the land than my own…” I trailed off, looking to my brother and waiting for him to continue.
“And my responsibility as king is to my people, but I’ll do whatever I can to prevent the creatures from coming into this realm. Queen Antares has helped as well.”
My hackles rose at the mention of my aunt/sister/evil incarnate.
“What of Drystan?” Lyvia croaked after an uncomfortable moment of silence.
I frowned at the hoarseness of her voice, as if she’d been screaming for the three months she’d been gone.
“We’ve had no word from Drystan since he vanished from the cave,” Carina answered. “And we’re still not sure how it opened or—”
“The gathering of the eight,” Lyvia cut in. She paused, her fist flying to her mouth as she proceeded to hack for several moments.
Isla leaned forward and offered her a rag. Lyvia wiped her mouth and pulled it away, staring blankly at the black sludge that painted the rag.
I blinked. I’d expected blood.
“The eight Bellator powers are required to open the gate,” Lyvia continued. “They had to be near enough for it to open. Olienna had the Palaega, and the Aeterna is here—”
“The Aeterna Bone is missing,” Isla cut in, her brows narrowing. “It was here, yes. But it disappeared after the gate opened. And Olienna is dead. We found her body…” Isla trailed off as the bronze of her skin lightened by a shade.
“Her body was…” I paused, forcing myself to remember the horrifying details of what remained of her body. “A husk. We’ve no idea what happened to her Palaega power.”
Lyvia paled, her throat bobbing slightly.
“Sintarrak killed Olienna,” she whispered, her breath escaping in a hush.
Despite never having heard the name in my life, the fire in my veins extinguished the moment it left her lips, and something deep and primal reared forward in defense. I opened my lips to question what the hell she was talking about, but she plowed forward.
“The Palaega is his,” she explained, her voice stronger.
“He must have found a way to take it back. And the rest of us were here on Kayj. It’s my fault.
I couldn’t help thinking of Drystan. Feeling as if he needed to be here.
I think I somehow called him to me,” Lyvia choked out, a devastating guilt riding her tone.
“Drystan is a Bellator. He harnessed the Advetis power, making seven. Which means someone had the Celestyn Bone.”