Chapter 64 June
JUNE
The truth.
June pushed to the front of the crowd, trying to get a closer look.
Too late, she’d forgotten she’d been hiding, and Kidan’s eyes locked on her.
Shock wrote itself on Kidan’s face, then a flash of relief.
It was gone quickly, a mere reflex, but June clung to it selfishly. Kidan still cared about her. Worried.
You’re only making this harder, his voice returned. You should have killed her.
June shook her head, fisting her hands.
When she lifted her chin, Taj’s autumn eyes found her. He blinked rapidly, warm colors swirling in his eyes. Was he disappointed she’d left without saying goodbye? Did he hate her now too? She looked away before she found out.
Susenyos lifted his shirt and turned, exposing his lower back. The three deep red claw marks marred his brown skin.
“This is why I left.” He exhaled.
Compulsion marks… No.
Taj untied his headband next, revealing the same horizontal marks. A ringing filled June’s ears.
Slow, thrumming with danger.
I have a hideous scar, he’d told her, but this went beyond that.
Taj was meant to exist in this world, in the golden sunlight of Uxlay, never in the folds of her nightmares.
But he’d crossed that threshold, stared into something unspeakable, and was suffering greatly for it.
June’s heart constricted, staring at the small smile on his face. His resignation to his fate.
There was no salve, no remedy to heal this. A tremble started in her knees.
Iniko muttered something and pulled at her flower-shaped collar, exposing the slender neck now ruined with marks.
It’s on all of them.
Her sister’s attention was fixed on the scars, confusion clear in her gaze.
Kidan could never hide when she loved someone.
It was in the creases of her brow, those harsh lines on her forehead, the drawing of her square shape.
Even now, her body was poised, ready to launch herself before any threat.
As if she knew, deep down, nothing in her life was safe.
A stone sank in June’s gut.
“I left you all because—”
“He left you all because—” Taj cut in, stepping forward and making Susenyos’s eyes widen.
The tremble traveled up June’s body, to the base of her spine.
Susenyos flashed before Taj, seizing his shirt. “You’re not doing this. This is my sacrifice.”
“Yos?” Kidan said, slight alarm in her tone. Susenyos stilled, not looking back at her. A struggle played on his face, before his eyes hardened.
Lusidio places those compulsion marks to hide his true identity.
They’d die if they spoke of it.
June wrote those words years ago, kneeling before a stone pillar. Her fingers streaked with ink, sometimes tears. All her life, she wrote and she listened.
But what good was her knowledge if she didn’t share it?
Taj gave his friends a final, heartbreaking look and faced the throne.
For a second, his warm gaze found June. Something delicate went through them, a conversation between their souls.
He was about to die. Without a goodbye, a single complaint.
She hadn’t known Taj long, but she felt a strange sort of connection to him.
Everyone else disappeared, smudges in her periphery as she glimpsed the longing in his gaze, a wish for another day or hour.
Still, there was no anger, no resentment.
He wanted to be where the knives fell, absorb all the impact and contain it to himself.
A piercing thought stole her breath.
This is how I will die too. Without telling the truth buried deep inside me.
And for the first time, anger vibrated in June’s bones. It washed over her in sudden, unrecognizable waves, stirring the urge to fight back. To steal back a day or hour. Whatever little time she had left, she wanted to fight.
Without giving herself time to think, June bolted forward, one step, two, three, until she was standing in the very center.
Every head in the vicinity, including Kidan’s, was turned toward June. Taj’s bewildered eyes fixed on her. Her back grew hot with Samson’s and Arin’s attention, but she forced herself to speak.
“I will tell you what those marks mean.” Her voice floated across the wide space. Don’t think, she told herself. Just speak quickly. “Lusidio is not a vampire like all of you. His true name is Varos the Night Lion, the First Immortal, the Unkillable.”
June’s heart thundered like wolves running through the wild. Sweat coated her palms. She focused on the wall at the back, fists bunching her skirt on either side.
You cannot expose yourself, the furious voice shot forward, but her secret wasn’t worth their lives.
“The Six Manes of Blood are real,” she continued, feeling like she was back in class, answering the professor’s questions.
“They hide in the world, among us all. Varos places those compulsion marks on anyone who has discovered his identity. After they speak of him, they’ll die.
It’s how he’s managed to remain a myth for this long. ”
The words settled slowly, like fog on a moor, growing more haunting with each second.
Most of the Nefrasi would recognize the myths from Ye Abyssi Tarik. The Six Manes of Blood were a plague upon the world. Varos, especially. He fed not only on human blood to sustain his immortality but on all life—plant, animal, and the very earth.
Utter and complete silence.
Kidan’s mouth was slightly ajar.
“June,” Samson said from behind, her name a wound on his voice. “What are you…”
June swayed a little, her tongue dry, but she forced herself to stand still. Study the tapestry on the wall, count the tassels on the edge.
“Enough, June,” Samson said, now angry. “You don’t know what you’re talking—”
“Let her finish,” Arin cut in swiftly. Her clicking steps drew closer, and the hairs on June’s neck rose. “I’m curious to hear how she knows this.”
June winced.
You see? You’ve exposed yourself !
Her gaze went to Taj, the pure shock on his face. The scars on his forehead. A prison, just like the one she was in. She drew courage from him.
“Rasi,” she said, recalling the recently deceased vampire. He’d given up his immortality for a young nurse, and June had helped with the transformation, holding his hand. “He was compelled as well but told me before he died. He knew the truth about Varos.”
Rasi was the gentlest of them all and she hated using his memory like this.
Kidan studied June with something like astonishment, a new light touching her face for the first time.
Respect shone in his Susenyos’s face.
“Thank you, June,” he said, his voice different. “I’m in your debt.”
Kidan whipped her head to him. “So it’s true?”
June lowered her head as whispers arced in the room.
Samson’s sudden shout made her flinch. “A lie. June, have they threatened you?”
“No,” she whispered.
Samson stormed toward her, and she shrank, waiting for his pinching grab.
He hadn’t made it two steps before Warde blocked his path, his bones clinking.
It never failed to surprise June how quickly Warde always reached her when she was in danger.
Samson snarled at him to move. Warde was a mountain of strength and he refused to budge.
He only listened to June.
I’m fine, she spoke into their bond.
Over Warde’s shoulder, Arin’s gaze was piercing. A corner of her mouth had quirked. “What are we to believe?”
“Believe in the power of a Sage.” Determination laced Susenyos’s words, cutting through the dense silence. “I will use it to defeat Lusidio and restore us to our greatness. You heard what awaits us.”
June tracked the floor, the confidence leaving her at once.
“And how will you become Sage?” Arin asked, looking to the crowd. “We’ve heard myths and empty promises but only one thing leads us. Only one thing is solid and true.”
Susenyos nodded, and unleashed his two jagged blades, the sound whistling through the air. “I’ll prove my strength to you. I’ll fight anyone who wishes to challenge me.”
Arin’s lips curved like she’d been waiting for this.
No… this wasn’t what June wanted.
Warde pulled June aside as Samson stepped forward. He spun a gear on his left forearm, making the silver shield raise four sharp spikes. He cut his tongue, turning them poisonous with his blood.
June’s heart plummeted. She didn’t want to see this fight.
It wasn’t safe here. June rushed to grab Kidan’s sleeve and exit but her sister tugged free.
The Adane House silver pin came away in June’s hands, a knife twisting in her chest. Kidan didn’t say anything, merely regarded June for a long time, full of questions, and faced Susenyos, making it clear she was staying.
A spark had taken to Kidan’s eyes, pure fire.
As if she wanted to witness the brutality that’d take place.
June stumbled back, trying to shake the image.
See the hunger in her eyes.
“Begin.” Arin moved up the stairs and sat in the chair.
The moment a blade sank into flesh and a cry pierced the room, June turned and wound through the crowd, rushing out the side door.
This is nothing to the violence that’ll come, the man in her mind said, furious again. You’re only wasting time.