Chapter 4
ERIS
We landed somewhere deep within the forest, not too far from Dez’s castle.
I knew it was his castle from the amount of flowers still freshly bloomed in the grass.
Rosina had taught him that trick when they first selected us as the successors.
Since then, not a single winter had gone by where frost touched his land.
Though the air felt crisp and cold, every inch of the castle grounds was lush with a vibrant green.
“There are only two entrances to the tunnels,” the seer explained, clutching her cloak tightly to her chest. “Ryuk destroyed his sometime during the war, but Rosina’s has remained open.”
She paused at the center of a small clearing and, immediately, I knew that we had arrived.
Compared to the thick, full grass around us, the ground here appeared more…
worn. Anyone with enough tracking skills could discern that someone, or several people, had been here recently.
I knelt down, tracing a finger over the flattened grass.
I could feel my jaw tick as the realization sank in. “This entire time…” A bitter taste leeched itself to the tip of my tongue. “How did Dez not know people were here? Right here! How could he not—”
A hand landed gently on my shoulder just as Naaz stepped beside me. “Calm down before you alert someone. One of them could still be out—”
“No one is nearby,” Kaiden interrupted. When I looked up, shadows clouded his eyes to the point of total darkness. Two empty voids remained, consuming every inch of white. Then, he turned to the seer. “Open them.”
Something in the way the seer stood had me convinced that Kaiden was right when he first visited her—the slight hesitance in her grey, worn eyes…
like she didn’t want to take us to find her.
I just couldn’t place why she felt that way toward us.
Surely she couldn’t believe that we were more dangerous than Cain—the man who not only kidnapped their “queen,” but also killed every last priest, priestess, and servant in his own palace.
“What are you waiting for?” I asked her, tilting my head to the side as I rose slowly. “Open the tunnels.”
Her lips parted to speak, but closed just as quickly as they pressed into a thin line. Then, she turned to Naaz, as if he was the most reasonable one to address. He probably is, I mused to myself.
Finally, with a deep, hollow breath, she began, “You must all understand… We are descended from Minerva herself, the mother of all prophecies—she who threads the stars in the direction of their paths.”
Her grey eyes flickered between the three of us as a small frown tugged down the corners of her lips.
“There is what you believe her purpose to be, what the gods believe it to be, and what the stars have truly chosen for her.” Those cold eyes landed on Kaiden, unwavering in their surety.
“We have always provided guidance to those who seek, but our loyalties lie with the protection of this kingdom. Of its people.”
I allowed myself a step closer, nearing Kaiden as I stared at her. “Then, you should have no problem returning Morrigan to where she belongs.”
A cruel laugh escaped her lips in a ragged breath. “And you think that is with you, My Lord?” Stretching out her bony fingers toward Kaiden, she shook her head. “A darkness is coming, and your gods will not help you then.” She lowered her hand, palm upward. “Your dagger, please.”
Slowly, Kaiden removed the dagger from his side and placed it on her open hand. “Our gods,” he corrected, one eyebrow raised in question.
The mistake she made didn’t seem to go unnoticed by any of us, but I chalked it up to an old woman with a mind that’s been pushed well past its use.
In response, the seer only smiled, not answering him as she turned the blade and grabbed Kaiden’s wrist. Before any of us could react, she made a quick slice across his palm.
“What the fuck was that—”
“As I told you before, My Lord,” she spoke over Kaiden, twisting his hand down, and we all watched in confusion as his blood slid down his skin and dripped onto the ground, “blood is required.”
“I thought you said the blood of a god was require—” Naaz stopped speaking just as the ground began to vibrate beneath our feet.
It shifted, rolling loose pebbles and leaves across the flattened grass.
Within seconds, a small opening appeared in front of us.
The dirt sunk in, creating a hole that widened just until it was big enough for one of us to fit through.
As the debris cleared, the grass angled downward like a ramp, and the faint glow of light poured out through the darkness.
It looked like a torch hanging along a wall in the distance.
“You will find what you need down there, but not what you want.” The seer took a step away from the tunnel, motioning for us to walk forward. But as Kaiden took the first step, one of her hands wrapped around his arm. “Forgiveness, My Lord. Not only for yourself, but you must also forgive her…”
“Forgive her for what?” he asked, the shadows receding just an inch at the mere mention of her. Morrigan.
Before she responded, her eyes began to glow. The grey turned to white as they shone against Kaiden’s suffocating dark aura. Her voice dropped to a strange ethereal whisper.
“It began with seven, and it must end with seven.
So whispers the wind in the halls of the heavens.
Count not the stars that shiver and fall.
For one lights the path, and one ends it all.
When shadows grow long and the seventh bell tolls,
the circle will tighten around wayward souls.
Seek not the dawn when the night grows riven.
It began with seven… and it must end with seven.”
When the light disappeared from her eyes, the old woman turned and walked into the trees without another word. I stared, dumbfounded, at Naaz and Kaiden, waiting for one of them to speak, but they were about as speechless as I felt.
“Well,” I broke the silence, “that was fucking creepy.”
Both Naaz and I held a torch in our hands, but Kaiden remained in the shadows.
We had been walking for a few minutes, greeted only by silence and empty halls. Built into the walls were rooms that resembled cells. Only, instead of iron bars, metal doors stood in their place. We hadn’t found a single person inside any of them.
I didn’t know whether to be relieved that we hadn’t encountered anyone yet, or concerned.
With nothing else to listen to but my own mind, I couldn’t help but recount what had just happened before the entrance opened. Blood. I glanced at Kaiden’s back, his markings secreting a darkness that hovered like smoke above his shoulders. Kaiden’s blood.
“The blood of a god,” I whispered to myself.
“What are you going on about?” Naaz asked, quiet enough that Kaiden didn’t seem to hear.
I leaned in, hoping to keep our conversation private. “The seer had told Kaiden that only the blood of a god could open the tunnels.”
Naaz glanced up at Kaiden in front of us. “But his blood opened—”
“Exactly.” I felt my limbs stiffen a little, suddenly feeling like the person before me—whom I had known for more than three hundred years—might have been hiding something from us. Something really fucking important. Because if what the seer said was true…
A loud thump echoed nearby, and all three of us stopped in our tracks. Someone was nearby. Neither Naaz nor I risked using our magic, not wanting the glow to reveal our position even more. Instead, we both reached for our daggers as Kaiden’s shadows slid down to the floor.
“Put out the torches,” Kaiden whispered over his shoulder.
It took only a single glance to extinguish the flames, quick enough for the light to not have been seen from my eyes. With Kaiden’s darkness consuming the tunnel, we followed closely behind, ready to draw our weapons at a moment’s notice.
As we grew closer to the sound, I could hear a faint groaning.
Whoever it was sounded to be in pain. That wouldn’t matter for much longer.
I was sure that Kaiden would end them before we even had the chance to ask any questions.
Just as we reached the room it seemed to be coming from, Kaiden turned to peek inside, and his shadows dropped instantly.
“Kaiden?” I asked, whisper-yelling from behind him. “Kaiden, what is it?”
The whites of his eyes returned slowly as the darkness retreated, and he gaped into the room with an expression that made my blood feel cold in my arms. Is it her? Did he find her?
If it was, the look on Kaiden’s face made me almost not want to see for myself.
I shoved him slightly to the side, risking a glance into the room, when my mouth fell open. On the floor, bloodied and bruised, lay a beaten-down Harley.
He looked…
Gods…
He looked dead.