Chapter 28
Terra
Elias’s class is my least favorite. Not only because I have to watch him kick everyone’s ass in an effort to teach combat, but also because his movements and attacks are documented so carefully beneath his tight black shirt.
I’m not used to seeing him without his vest and cloak. He’s been so busy these last few weeks that I’ve hardly seen him, spare the night he watched Raine fuck me.
I watch intently as my assassin easily throws another male student over his shoulder, his stomach muscles flexing and recoiling as he straightens. Elias hasn’t even broken a sweat yet. It’s a fearsome thing to think about; even the second-year students can’t land a hit on him.
My eyes linger over the senior class as I think about their time here. There’s only a handful of them left, all ranked Polaris, Ekko, and Cosmos; the lower ones must’ve been all wiped out. All their eyes are gray.
That thought unsettles me and I think of the Blood Crowns exam swiftly approaching.
“Terra.”
My name leaving Elias’s lips startles me and I straighten my back as I meet his gaze.
“It’s your turn,” he says as indifferently as he does with the other students. I hesitantly make my way up to the front of the group. My breaths thicken the air with white plumes. He kicks my ass every single time.
A fresh blanket of snow arrived last night and training in the courtyard has been wearing us all down. It’s freezing out here; Elias’s three-hour class is hell.
I stand awkwardly, trying my hardest not to look at Elias with the longing I feel deep in my core. He raises his hands into the familiar fighting stance and lunges at me with frightening speed.
I fall back on my ass to duck from his assault. He lands on the ground behind me and snaps at me, “Again. Don’t avoid the attack, block it.”
Standing and wiping my pants, I let out a sharp breath. “I can’t. I’ve tried to block you, but you’re too brutish.”
He leans in close and pulls me in by the collar of my cloak until our noses are a breath apart. For gods’ sakes, why is he so provocative when he’s being mean? “You will. Or you’ll die in the second exam. You’ll all fucking die if I don’t start seeing some improvement.” His voice is raspy and cruel as he says the latter, looking at all the students behind me, specifically the Dvars and the Tauri. “You think this is a game or just some silly training, but your survival depends on this. Every decision you make is life or death.”
Elias stalks over and grabs one of the smaller Dvars students, a boy from Lamnah with dark hair and very frightened eyes. My stomach curls as Elias places the student before me.
“I’m going to attack with the intent to kill this boy, and unless you can stop me, he will die.” Elias turns callously and walks twenty feet away to resume his attack stance.
My heart drops. “Wait. No, Elias, stop!” I scream but it falls on deaf ears. His face is stone; it’s obvious he’s made up his mind.
The sound of my teeth gnashing together makes my throat constrict. I fist the boy’s tan cloak and throw him down to the ground behind me as I step over him. My arms lift instinctively and a veil of darkness clouds over him as Elias crashes into me with a frontal attack. Dark strands of my hair whip furiously into the air with the force of his strike.
A sharp grin lights Elias’s face and he lifts his hand to attack with his Shadow this time. My eyes flick down to the boy with horror; I know what happens when Elias uses Velis.
Hot, sticky liquid spatters across my back and soaks my hair. My legs tremble and I turn in time to see the skeleton of the boy still sitting, flesh and skin ripped away from the white bones as if stripped by acid. All the organs and vital components still lie beneath unharmed.
Before his blood can trickle like rain around us, something cracks inside me, desperation or fury, I’m unsure. Seeing the heart inside the boy’s skeleton is still intact, I press my hand to the skull within a fraction of a second.
I’ll need to go deeper in your soul to reverse time on this one, Amser mutters indifferently as if it sits upon a throne inside my spirit and dully watches my life like it’s some disturbing opera.
I close my eyes and open the doors inside myself, feeling as Amser sinks further inside and an enormous surge of power befalls my heart.
Time is my power and I’ll use each second as carefully as I can.
The crimson snow around Elias and me pulses like a living beast and then reanimates into threads of veins and flesh, muscles weaving back into themselves and connecting back onto the bones. The boy’s skin returns like an unwrapped present being glued back together in perfect pieces within the blink of an eye.
Just as swiftly as Elias dismantled him, he’s whole again.
The Dvars boy blinks and falls to his knees, piss yellowing the snow at his pant legs. The class is silent. I’m not sure there are words to say after such terrible atrocities.
Elias tilts his head back and laughs. “Good, not exactly what I was trying to teach you, but I suppose in a way you succeeded at the task,” Elias mutters, tilting his head to the side and giving me a damning grin. He smacks the Dvars student on the back of the head and the man lets out a small gasp before looking at me with wide, brown eyes and dipping his chin.
“Thank you for saving me,” he says through trembling teeth before he gets up and staggers back to his group.
Elias ends the class after a few more rounds with other students, but wraps his arm around my shoulder so I don’t leave. I try not to think about what Edgar is doing while he’s skipping classes. He hasn’t shown up since the night on the bridge.
“I want to show you something today,” Elias says quietly, keeping his eyes on Alkrose. I look to the third floor where he’s staring and find Emerai watching us like a statue. His face is impassive, calculating.
Somehow, I manage to break the headmaster’s dreadful gaze and glance back toward the lake. “Show me what?”
Elias throws his white hood on and starts walking back to the castle. He extends his hand to his side for me without looking back and I can’t help but smile as I trot to catch up to him. I weave my fingers through his and look up at his sculpted jawline. His gray eyes flick down to me.
“I really shouldn’t be showing you this, but consider me a fool.”
A fool he is.
“Elias—”
“Shh,” he silences me as we come out the end of a portal. It’s dark and the air stings my nose with sulfur and ash. My eyes burn and my throat itches.
Where the hell did he bring us?
Amser is on high alert inside my veins, making the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Elias remains tense and quiet for a few minutes as he scans the area before he visibly relaxes and kneels beside me.
“This is the battlefront in our pursuit to win Whales of Tauh,” he says coldly. His eyes are red from the sting the air brings but it doesn’t seem to bother him. White strands of his hair get swept up in a gust of wind and his hood flies back.
“What? Why would you bring me here?” I ask, fear trickling through me like poison. Explosions rumble in the distance but the dust and dark keep visibility low.
Elias looks at me with dread. “I want to show you firsthand what is happening while we are at Alkrose. You see that wall?” He points south and I follow with my gaze.
Above the dark, cloudy dust is a wall ten times the size of Barkovah’s. The sky is auburn, muddied and dim with smoke and death. People are standing on the top of the wall, so far up they’re nothing more than specks moving about.
Elias grips my jaw and guides my attention back to him as I swallow thickly. “I’m sent here every day after class to try and get inside that godsforsaken city. Do you know what happens when I get inside?”
I nod grimly. So this is where he’s been…
He keeps his expressionless face smooth and says, “Exactly. Skyfell, Void, whatever Heirahians are calling it. The fucking last city of Heirah will fall.”
“I don’t understand, Elias. Why did you bring me here?” I whisper as a handful of footsteps run by us, ignorant of our presence.
His eyes soften on me and he lets his shoulders fall. Despair and regret mingle across his flexed jaw. “Because I think they’re going to send you here with me after the exam. The Blood Crowns is an extermination, and they want the Novas to be broken and whole, ready to deploy. With the two of us here, I won’t need to be in the city for the Void to reach the inhabitants inside. Our Shadows together will be enough to clear the entire city from this side of the wall.”
The sounds of fighting and shooting fade away as I stare into Elias’s gray eyes. “I don’t understand, Elias.” I shift to put distance between us, but he grabs my arm and stops me.
“I want you to be strong enough to stop me before they send us here.”
My eyes widen. Another gust of wind berates us, and I can hardly keep my eyes open. “How would I be able to do that?” I bite the inside of my cheek to quell the trembling.
“How else? If it comes to that, I want you to kill me.” The corner of his lip kicks up in a tired grin.
Bile crawls up the back of my throat and I shake my head. “I won’t?—”
“You’ll have to or the world will perish. This is the last stand for humanity, Terra.” Elias doesn’t look the least bit scared for his life to end. In fact, he looks pretty at peace with it.
“What are the other options? What if I can’t?” I grit my teeth and look away so he won’t see my tears building.
He laughs sarcastically and says, “If you can overthrow the headmaster and empress of Fernestia, then that’s a great start. Oh, and Dr. Cein, the master of the Shadows. Him too.”
It all sounds so impossible when looking at the big picture, but what if we took a few steps back? An idea sparks to life in my head and I look up at Elias so quickly he flinches.
“What if I can get your heart back? You wouldn’t have to obey them anymore.” I hate how despairing and in denial I sound, but if there is hope for Raine, why can’t there be a small flame for Elias too?
Elias scoffs, “It’s not possible.”
I shake my head. “Do you know that for certain?”
He stares into my eyes briefly and then firms his lips. “No—but Terra, the headmaster consumes our hearts. That’s how he?—”
“I don’t think he does. Unless you’ve actually watched him devour your heart firsthand. His Shadow most likely has it hidden somewhere. We just need to find it,” I say with more hope than I have.
Elias looks back toward the daunting wall of the city and grits his teeth. “Any idea where to start looking?”