Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-Four
We dragged the bodies of Lucidius and the Engrossian guards into the hall to give ourselves a semblance of peace, but their blood left a red trail as a reminder through the cavern.
I set the former Revered’s body apart from the others and stood over him for a moment. Skin pale from blood loss, darkened eyes staring into the unknown, he looked more Engrossian than ever. Still, I crossed his arms over his chest and lowered his eyelids before turning my back on him forever.
When I returned, Malakai remained kneeling beside the puddle of his father’s blood, the curve of his spine and drop of his head forming the image of a broken soul.
Firelight danced across the crimson in a breath of life, but his tear-lined eyes were unseeing.
Despite it all, he mourned his father. Or maybe, he mourned the man he once thought his father was and the life that had been ripped away from him.
“Thank you,” he muttered, raising his eyes first to Rina and then to me. “I could not have done that myself.”
Rina relaxed, as if she had been awaiting a blow of anger and those words set her guilt free. She nodded, and something about her seemed different, but I could not place it.
My hands shook at my sides as the realization of what I had done—who I had killed—sank into my bones.
Not only because Lucidius had been the Revered, but because he was Malakai’s father.
No matter his despicable actions, that fact would always remain true.
Looking at Malakai now that the heat of battle had calmed, seeing how broken he truly was, I worried how my decision would affect him.
Neither of us spoke for a long moment. We exchanged gazes hardened by circumstance. Then, he looked back to the puddle.
“What happened?” Tolek’s whisper was a knife through the tension and shock radiating from us all. He dropped to his knees beside Malakai and slung an arm around his shoulders. Cypherion sat on Malakai’s other side.
Malakai shook his head, eyes clenched, the pain of it all still too raw to share.
So, I did it for him. My friends and sister were silent as I exposed the truth of Lucidius and Kakias’s plans.
Where Malakai had been for the past two years when they believed him dead, his father’s secret family, and everything that had happened since I said goodbye to them atop the volcano.
Through the story, everyone unconsciously drifted closer to Malakai, as if to shield him.
I even divulged my secret—the Curse I’d hidden from them and how it was lifted. There were a number of outbursts at that.
“This entire time, you were going to die.” Rina gaped. The pieces clicked to place in her mind. My insistence throughout the journey, my decisions that were somehow rasher and more reckless than usual.
“I should have told you, but I needed you all to remain normal.” Be strong when I could not.
Anything else would have been admitting I might not survive to see my mission completed.
My eyes stung, speaking to all of them but mostly to Tolek.
“I should have told you when you touched my blood. But I hoped I’d survive—to fix it. ”
“You should have told me even before that,” he said, but there was no anger in his voice. “You should not have felt the need to fix it alone.”
The effects must not have had time to take root in his veins before he completed the Undertaking. I thanked the Angels for that.
“I don’t understand how, though,” Cyph said. I only shook my head, having no answer.
The only piece I left out of my explanation was the mention of the Angelblood in the Alabath line. That was my secret to be picked apart and deciphered down the road.
Malakai did not move as I spoke. He simply stared at his father’s blood as it hardened into the rock floor.
Tolek and Cypherion remained at his side.
I watched the spot where Tol’s arm draped across Malakai’s back, hand gripping his shoulder, and two pieces of my still-broken heart ached at the sight of them together.
“But how are you all here?” I asked when I finally tore my eyes away.
“It seems you weren’t the only one destined for the Undertaking,” Jezebel answered.
“Lucidius forbade the ritual,” Cypherion elaborated, the fire dancing in his blue eyes like a beacon against the crystal sea, “not for the well-being of Mystiques, but to our detriment.” His gaze met mine, shoulders squared and jaw tight.
“It was a guaranteed way to ensure the Engrossians rose above us.”
I nodded as the deceit deepened. Lucidius had betrayed so many people.
“How did you get here, Rina?” I asked. “You can’t have completed the Undertaking.”
She shook her head. “When they went into the volcano…I couldn’t wait up there, feeling useless.
I thought there might be another way in, so I started down the switchbacks, and at the spot where we nearly fell, I noticed an inconsistency in the rocks.
The side is false, and it opens into a slim tunnel.
I think that’s why the pathway was so weak.
I crawled through it and trusted my instincts.
Prayed to your Angels and Spirits that I would survive and let their gentle hands guide me—or whatever it is you guys say.
” Her tone was dismissive, but when her eyes met mine I saw pride in those dark irises.
Malakai’s voice was cracked and haunting when he said, “That’s how they came in.
The Engrossians. They couldn’t go through the top of the volcano, so they built that secret passage.
We need to seal it.” His words were listless, his eyes distant, but he was speaking, which lifted my battered heart slightly.
Rina responded quietly, “Yes, I assumed so. There were a number of discarded weapons in the entrance.” She gestured to a dagger sheathed on her own hip.
I embraced my bold and fierce friend, squeezing her tightly to me. She who had no responsibility to our people, yet risked everything on this journey. She who was not privy to our secret rituals, yet entered the volcano fearlessly.
Perhaps that needed to change.
“What do we do now?” Jezebel looked to me, along with Tol, Cyph, and Rina.
Swallowing my hesitation, I pushed my shoulders back and assumed every bit of authority that rightfully ran through my veins.
“We’ll need to summon the rest of the Mystique Council.
” I assumed Lucidius sent them away. He likely had not invited the Chancellors of the minor clans to Damenal either, in order to avoid exposing his plan.
“A meeting will need to be held to discuss everything that unfolded tonight. Let’s send messages to each clan leader and host a Rapture—”
“We can forget about Kakias,” Jezebel interrupted at my mention of the official meeting.
“That wretched bitch,” Rina whispered.
“I cannot believe I didn’t kill her.” Tolek shook his head.
“No, Tol,” I said. “What you did was more than enough. Malakai and I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for you.”
He gave me one of his soft smiles, but averted his eyes quickly as Malakai squeezed his shoulder in gratitude.
“If it wasn’t for all of you.” I looked among the four people who had given so much for this mission.
Without them, I would not have survived even the first few days of the journey.
Hectatios’s and Glawandin’s messages from the Undertaking came back to me, and I smiled at the forgiveness and trust that forged these relationships, tying us together for every challenge ahead.
“Thank you.” The words would never be enough, but I had a feeling I would be repeating them often—particularly now that they knew how much I’d hidden from them, yet they had not turned on me.
I continued, “We’ll include the Engrossians in the Rapture.
Kakias likely won’t attend, but it needs to appear as her choice to the minor clans.
” My friends murmured their understanding.
“We’ll need to notify our own families of our safety and tell them we’ll be staying in Damenal for the foreseeable future.
” Looking to my sister, I added, “Everyone who worked with Lucidius will need to be questioned in order to confirm that the corruption stopped with him.”
Her lips pulled into a line, but she nodded. I prayed to Damien that our father was innocent. But it was a problem for a later date.
My voice was quiet on the last instruction. “And we must dispose of the bodies.” We had to burn the Engrossians outside of the volcano, or their spirits would remain here for eternity. I would leave the decision of Lucidius’s fate to Malakai.
“We can take care of the Engrossians,” Cypherion said, pulling Tolek to his feet, and they nodded in agreement when Rina said she’d assist them. Jezebel offered to hike to Damenal and secure the correspondence we needed.
That left Malakai and myself.
He lifted his eyes from the patch of crimson steadily sinking into the floor and met mine. The hollowness that lingered behind that stare crushed the piece of my soul tethered to his, and the threads within me stretched at the pain.
It was everything from the past two years—the torture, the secrets, the death of his father—swallowing him whole. And in that moment, it threatened to break me, as well.
But I couldn’t let it.
There was so much that we had avoided since reuniting. Everything that drove a wedge between us, making me feel more distant from him than ever. Before anything else, we had to discuss this betrayal that was now festering in our bond, rotting more by the second.
We locked eyes, unsaid words passing between us. I nearly sank to my knees under his broken stare, but I held my ground, looked into the dim forest green of his eyes that I had missed so thoroughly, and nodded once before turning to leave the cavern.