24. Tezya
TWENTY-FOUR
TEZYA
I headed back to the war tent after Dovelyn finally drifted off to sleep. Hours had passed, making it closer to dawn the next day, and I hadn’t seen Rumor since.
Dovelyn’s eyes were bloodshot from all the crying. If she remembered what she’d been chanting, she didn’t say. The only thing she kept repeating was, “Please don’t die.” She’d pleaded with me for hours, sobbing and repeating the same three words over and over again, before finally accepting my answer that I wouldn’t.
I didn’t know what the damn prophecy showed her, but I felt responsible. Dovelyn didn’t want to find the grave. She didn’t want to uncover the prophecy, and I practically forced her to by making Dravenburg take a vote. I knew she’d be outnumbered. That everyone would want a chance at an advantage against the King.
I hadn’t realized it would affect her this much. Maybe this was why our mother took away Dovelyn’s memories in the first place. Maybe she didn’t take her own life to spare me from the prophecy, but to prevent this from happening to Dove, and I ruined everything .
My sister’s suffering was because of me.
It’s not your fault, Scottie’s voice filled my head a moment later. I glanced up and saw her standing at the entrance of the war tent. She was looking right at me but hadn’t opened her mouth, our connection doing the work for her. I couldn’t muster a reply because we both knew it was. Instead, I gave her a weak smile and took her hand in mine before walking into the tent together.
Scottie had changed into new clothes, but there was nothing we could do to hide what we had done earlier. We never got the chance to clean up the tent after hours of using it, and it showed.
Dravenburg glared at me the moment we entered, and I swore his ears were producing steam. “You completely ruined it. You ripped my map.”
Scottie winced. I squeezed her hand but didn’t let go. “Actually, it was my map,” was all I said as I led us toward the front. Every Advenian important to the camp was either sitting or standing inside. Scottie’s cheeks were flaming red by the time we made it to Dravenburg.
Relax, it’s fine. We did nothing wrong, I told her, gesturing for her to take a seat.
Tell that to Dravenburg. I’m pretty sure he wants to kill me right now.
I laughed out loud and everyone turned to look at me. Dravenburg did look ready to murder us, and Savannah kept staring at the map and frowning. I took the seat next to Scottie, forcing myself not to think about what we’d done earlier. I was half tempted to kick everyone out again, but I knew Dravenburg was right for calling a meeting—we needed to talk.
I pushed my thoughts of her away. Getting a hard-on in the middle of the meeting wasn’t high on my list.
Instead, I focused on how we could win this war, preferably before it even began. I didn’t particularly want to fight the men I trained from the Luxian army, and the fewer battles fought, the more lives saved. Some of the soldiers from Lux would probably switch sides once they realized what was happening, but most were loyal to the King.
Dravenburg cleared his throat, starting the meeting. “For anyone who didn’t witness it, can someone recite Princess Dovelyn’s words ?”
Savannah uncrossed her legs and leaned back in her chair, reaching for a piece of paper she had folded in the pocket of her jeans. “I wrote it down after about the tenth time Dove chanted it.” Her father nodded for her to read it. “The world must start anew. Forged in peace, one shall be born with the powers of two. Light and Dark will come together. The chosen one will be the tether. Beneath the Goddesses’ feet, is the information you seek. To manipulate Pylemo’s gifted fire, the son must use it against his claimed sire. But without a sacrifice from Light and blood spilled from Dark, the chosen one will lose his spark.”
Everyone was quiet, letting her words sink in. I hadn’t been able to process it until now. All my focus went into making sure my sister was okay. But now I couldn’t stop thinking about what winning this war—what killing the King—would take.
“Well, the beginning is pretty obvious,” Kal spoke. “Tezya was born with two powers, and he helped shape Brighta, bringing Tennebrisians and Luxians together. He also possesses the Goddess’ favored ability of fire, and his claimed sire is the Lux King, so Tezya needs to be the one to kill him. What I don’t get is, what’s the sacrifice from Light and blood from Dark?”
No one answered as her question settled around the room.
“We need to go back to Lux,” I finally said.
“Are you crazy?” Scottie seethed. Her hair whipped across my shoulder as she snapped her head in my direction.
“We don’t have a choice, Rumor,” I answered gently. “I’ve used my fire on the King countless times. He also possesses the ability, as well as air to make shields, so it does nothing to him. We need to figure out what Dovelyn was alluding to. She called it Goddesses’ fire, so it has to be something more than me just using my ability, and I think the answer is in Lux.”
“I agree with Tezya,” Wells said. I hadn’t noticed him standing there until he spoke.
“Wells.” I smiled as I stood and walked toward Savannah’s younger brother, clapping him over the back. He pulled me into a hug, tucking his head into my shoulder. Dravenburg, Wells, and Sav were the only mortals in the camp. Most of the time, I forgot Savannah wasn’t one of us with her reckless behavior. But looking at Wells, it was undeniable. He was as human as you could get.
“I’ve missed you, Tez.” He smiled as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with one finger. He looked nothing like his sister. His brown glasses matched his spiral curls atop his head. His eyes were the same shape as Savannah’s, but where her coloring was a hazel-gray, his was a pale brown. They stood about the same height and both had lean frames, but Savannah was corded in muscles from years of training with Advenians in the rings, while Wells was all skin and bones. The only things he lifted were vials and serums in his lab. The only real resemblance they had to each other was their skin tone. But Savannah’s skin was tanned from hours under the sun, while Wells was naturally dark.
“Save the greetings and pointless chit-chat for later,” Dravenburg grumbled, rubbing his thick, graying beard. “Why do you think he should go, Wells?”
“Because the Lux King needs to die, and the answer on how to do that will be at the Goddesses’ feet.”
“There are many statues of Pylemo. How do we know they’re referring to one in Lux? I’m sure Tennebris is loaded with them too,” Rainer said, pulling his hair up into a high bun—his telltale sign he was concentrating.
“ Ex Cinere Renasci. ”
“What—?”
“It means rebirth from ashes,” Wells answered Rainer. “It’s the name of the statue by the bay. Pylemo is the Goddess of fertility and Tezya’s ability is fire, so that statue is the most logical choice.”
Dravenburg stiffened. He was furious when he first discovered Arcane used to sneak him into the Luxian city any time the King was in Tennebris for meetings. Everyone knew Wells and Arcane had a past. They still loved each other, even though neither of them would admit it.
“I agree,” Kallon said. “The statue was built in honor of Lakimi, and it’s the only statue that depicts her bare feet.”
I hated that particular statue. My old room overlooked it, and with my heightened senses, I could depict the exact details of the golden memorial.
Our history claimed Pylemo birthed the lesser Goddesses during the first ever Lakimi, and in honor of them, she decided to give us the gift of fertility too. It was the reason the statue was created, but I’d always felt it looked out of place amongst the simplicity of the bay. She was portrayed completely naked standing with her hands raised toward the sky while the twelve lesser Goddesses all bowed at her feet.
To me it looked like the lesser Goddesses had their noses forever stuck in the dirt and was a constant reminder they weren’t seen as Pylemo’s equal. They were supposed to be her children, that only together, with all twelve of their strengths combined, could they equate to her.
“You don’t actually believe what Dovelyn was saying, though, do you?” Rainer asked. “She was talking nonsense.”
“Not nonsense, but riddles, and yes, I do believe it,” Wells shot back. He normally remained quiet during these meetings, never uttering a word, if he even managed to leave his lab to attend them in the first place. He hated the attention they brought and hated crowds even more. But I was thankful he was on my side. I had to find out how to use my fire to defeat the King, which meant I had to go back to Lux. And I knew Wells wanted the same thing, just for more personal reasons.
“If the only way to kill the King is through whatever is at her feet, then it’s worth the risk,” Wells continued. “If Tezya can bring it back to me, I can properly examine it…”
“ Worth the risk? ” Savannah interjected sarcastically. “You’re talking about sending Tezya into a lion’s den where everyone will be after him. The King probably has a reward on his head so high that any friends he had in Lux would turn on him. And to make matters worse, none of you even know what you’re looking for. What if it’s nothing? What if it’s not even an object?”
“So Tez goes in strategically. He can be in and out before they even see him coming.”
“All this is going to do is get him caught,” Savannah spat at her brother.
“Dovelyn said it was the only way to defeat—”
“Killing the Lux King isn’t going to magically make Arcane come back to you.”
Silence filled the room. I knew this was the one subject Savannah and Wells never agreed on. She hated that her brother fell in love with the eldest Luxian Prince. She supported him during their short-lived relationship, but ever since things ended badly, she’s never forgiven Arcane for hurting him.
Even though there’s only a year difference between them, she took on the protective older sister role a little too seriously. Not that it wasn’t warranted. My brother could be a selfish dick at times, and I knew when they ended things, neither of them were the same afterward.
“Arcane is easier to manage than my father,” Dovelyn said. Everyone turned to look at her as she entered the tent. Dark circles were painted under her eyes, and she was thinner and paler than normal. “And what I said earlier was true. We need to kill the King. He’s too powerful.” She turned to look at me, and my heart sagged in relief. It was the first time all week she was speaking in coherent sentences. “I know you, Tez, and I know you’re going to go after this prophecy with or without my help.” She turned away to scan the rest of the room. “So if there’s a sliver of hope my brother can come out of this alive, then it’s worth the risk. We need to find whatever is at the Goddesses’ feet to see if it can save him.”
“What answers do you think it will hold?” Kallon asked, and everyone collectively held their breath, wondering if Dovelyn knew more about it.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, but I’m praying it will tell us what it means by a sacrifice of Light and blood spilled from Dark.”
“There’s no way of knowing until we go,” Wells said.
Kallon nodded. “If we’re lucky, it’ll be both—how to save Tezya and how to kill the King.”
“What are the King’s powers?” Sie asked, speaking for the first time. I looked over at him. Peter and him both had cuts and bruises scattered across every inch of them. Sie’s knuckles were scabbed over, and the blonde was sporting a busted lip, a swollen eye, and a darkening bruise over his throat. The pair honestly looked worse than when they came back from the prison.
Dovelyn glanced at him. “Everything. He possesses everything . Any ability in Lux that exists, he has. And now he’ll want her .” Everyone’s eyes turned to Scottie. “We’re all targets, but getting her back will be my father’s number one priority. He wants Arcane to continue his experiments on her, to see if he can create a reverse serum to make himself stronger. He wants her enhancement. It’s the only ability in Lux he doesn’t have yet. But he’ll also want her back to set an example. She was his prisoner, and he lost her. He can’t stand to look weak, so he won’t stop until she’s in chains by his side again. ”
My sister didn’t admit Rumor was also his top priority because he doesn’t know the truth. The King still believes her lie that the prophecy is about Scottie and Sie, and with Sie out of prison, he will make it his mission to kill him and capture her before it can happen. I closed my fist over our bond. For the first time in my life I regretted that I kept who I was a secret because now it was putting her at risk. If he knew I was the one the prophecy was about, he wouldn’t be going after her.
“What are you suggesting?” Kallon asked Dovelyn cautiously.
“We use her as bait.”
“No,” I cut Dovelyn off at the same time Sie did.
She huffed. “Calm down. She won’t get caught. We need Arcane distracted long enough for Tezya to go to the statue. He’ll be anxious to get back in our father’s favor after he lost her on his watch. By now, the King knows she’s missing, and Arcane is suffering because of it.”
Wells’ brows furrowed before he directed his gaze toward the ground, staring at his high-top sneakers.
“You just want a chance to search for Brock again,” Rainer said, tucking a loose spiral curl behind his ear that fell out of his bun.
Dovelyn shrugged, not bothering to deny it. “And you don’t? He’s your friend too, and he’s being tortured. We need to get him out of there.”
I grimaced, my heart aching for my best friend or whatever was left of him. “I agree. We need to look for Brock when we go. But we go in with a solid plan. If it gets too risky, we leave.”
“I’m in,” Kallon said, but I could tell Rainer still wasn’t convinced. He wanted Brock back just as much as the rest of us, but he was always the most hesitant—the most cautious out of the group—especially if there was a potential of getting caught. It was good. Sometimes the rest of us were too rash. We’d act without thinking of the consequences, and Rainer taught me to center myself, to think everything through before I went head first into something.
“What’s your plan?” I asked Dove. “And we aren’t using Rumor as bait, so think of something else.”
“I’ll do it,” Scottie said next to me, and I tensed. “If being a distraction means we can find the answers to…” She paused. “I’ll do it.”
The answer to keep me alive was what she didn’t say. I hated how Dovelyn was convincing everyone my death was inevitable. But if I had to sacrifice someone from the Light Kingdom in order to save myself, I wouldn’t do it. Even if that meant I had to die alongside the King. All I wanted to know was how to use my fire because what I had now wasn’t enough.
“I don’t like the idea of using you,” I said out loud. Then only to her, I added, We don’t even know if I’ll die, just because Dovelyn thinks so, doesn’t mean it’s true—
“I want to help,” Scottie said, cutting me off. “I’m going with. You can use me in your plan, Dovelyn.”
“Great. Here’s how it’s going to work. Kallon portals us in, and I’ll use my ability to cast invisibility over us. As soon as we get to Lux, we separate. I’ll go to the castle and search for Brock. Scottie goes to the ocean side to draw Arcane out. Kallon and Tezya will go to the statue by the bayside. Once you two find what you need, Kallon portals you guys to Scottie, then to me and Brock.”
“How are we going to stay invisible if you’re separating from us to find Brock?” Kallon asked. “I know you can separate your magic, but we’re not going to be staying in one place. It’ll be too much for you to divide your ability between three different spots.”
“And how do you expect Rumor to lure Arcane out without getting caught?” I added, not liking her plan one bit.
Dovelyn crossed her arms, then shrugged. “I can manage the three locations, but I’ll train Scottie with her enhancement until we leave. She can link to my ability within the radius I’ll be traveling. She was already able to do it the first day I trained her with objects I shielded.”
“An object and moving people are entirely different things—”
“I can do it,” Scottie interrupted me. I searched her mind, testing the limits of our new connection. She was confident, yes, but it derived from determination, not experience.
“It’s out of the question—”
“She stays invisible until the last second,” Dovelyn cut me off. “We all go to our spots.” She pointed to three spots on a larger—newer—map of Lux that Scottie and I hadn’t ruined. “Kallon already has portals created in these areas.” She traced her fingers over the locations. Lux was crawling with portals Kallon had made over the years. “I’ll get a head start. Just give me enough time to search for Brock while you two make your way to the town’s center by the bay. Go into the side streets, and spread rumors that someone who looks like Scottie is in Lux. The news will travel to Arcane. After that, Scottie will unlink her invisibility.”
“No,” I said. “There are too many variables.”
“Then pray Pylemo is on our side. If things go wrong, Kallon can portal to us immediately, and we’ll all leave.”
“There’s no way of keeping Scotlind safe during this—”
Kallon cut me off, asking her own question, “And how will we communicate if we’re all in different areas?”
Dovelyn shrugged. “I’d heard rumors you two were busy while I wasn’t feeling like myself.” Scottie stiffened next to me, my senses and our connection radiating to her. I could tell she was uncomfortable with the direction this was going. “I was hoping now that you’re bonded, you could help with that. How strong is it? Do you have telepathy?”
“Yes,” I admitted, ignoring the death glare Sie was giving me. “But it’s not reliable. We don’t know how it works yet.” Scottie and I hadn’t even been able to discuss the changes that were happening to us. Hell, it hadn’t even been an entire twenty-four hours since we created the bond. Sometimes our minds just found each other, but I didn’t know how it worked yet. I didn’t even know if it was something we could control. “I don’t know if there’re limits yet. It might only work in close proximity.”
“Then test it here before we leave. See how far you can go while still being able to communicate, and we’ll make sure not to go a step further than that.”
“You can’t portal back here,” Dravenburg said. “I won’t allow it. If you’re followed, you’ll be bringing the enemy to our camp. You can risk yourselves for this if you want, but you won’t risk the standing of this camp, my people, or my children.”
“If we don’t come back within twelve hours, then assume things went south,” Dove said. I was surprised by how much she was acting like her old self again, considering she’d been unconscious just hours before. “Dravenburg, you can move the camp to the backup location if we don’t return. Only Tezya knows where it is in our group, and he can’t be compelled, so everyone in the camp will be safe.”
The backup camp was a good call. Dravenburg and I made it decades ago, and we were the only ones who knew the exact location. It was significantly smaller than this one, and only had the bare necessities, but it would keep everyone safe if Brighta was ever discovered.
“Okay,” Kallon agreed. “I’ll go over all my portals with Tezya and Dovelyn before we leave. We’ll confirm we weren’t followed before coming back to the camp.”
Everyone nodded.
“Great,” Dovelyn clapped her hands together. “It’s settled then. We’ll go once we hear word that the King is leaving the city. He’s going to have to travel to Tennebris soon to meet with Synder. So then we’ll only be risking Arcane.”
“And his second,” I said as everyone turned to me. “There’s no way he’ll leave the city unprotected. He’ll leave Athler in charge like he always does. Rumor isn’t going up against them alone.” I knew I couldn’t stop Scotlind from going, but I wasn’t about to agree to a plan where she’d go up against them by herself.
“I’ll go,” Sie spoke. “I can compel anyone that sees us to forget we were there. It will still give us the element of surprise.”
“Your compulsion won’t matter. Every Luxian guard is wearing Alluse now,” Rainer said. “At least the ones in close proximity to the King. After you guys left, Athler and the King ordered every Alluse citizen to come to the castle the night he found out you guys escaped, and most never returned home. I don’t know what happened to them.”
“Shit,” I cursed. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?”
“Honestly, I forgot about it. A lot happened after you left. The King kinda went crazy.”
“You should stay behind, prince,” Dovelyn said to Sie. “If you can’t use your compulsion, you won’t be of use to us.”
“I can teleport,” he said. “If you plan to use her as bait, I’ll watch her. If Athler or Arcane get too close, I’ll teleport her away.” He met my gaze before he added, “We both don’t like the idea of using her as a distraction, and with the plan you have now, you’re leaving her vulnerable. You need me.”
Scottie’s eyes widened at the realization he would still choose to protect her even after she picked me. Hell, I was surprised by it. He met her shocked stare for a moment before looking back at me.
“You need me,” he said again, and I did.
“Fine,” I said, ignoring the shock from Scotlind next to me. If he was going to offer her any kind of protection while I was going to be on the other side of the city, I’d take it.