14. Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Viola
M ace spins around, his eyes wild as he looks at me with rapt attention. Blood covers him, smudged on his cheeks, and a stained blade with a glimmering green gem in the hilt still clutched in his long fingers.
He is a beautiful nightmare.
And he is mine.
I take three steps towards him into the home that is crawling with plant life and Spring magic. The smell of blood in the room overpowers everything and spins my head as it calls to me, beckoning me for a taste. Instead of giving in, I wrap my hand around Mace's neck, pull him towards me, and kiss him, pushing every emotion I've felt for him since I left his side into his mouth with my own.
He groans low in his chest and wraps his arms around me, pulling me flush to his hard body and deepening the kiss. "You fucking left me," he says, pulling away from me. "After everything. After all we said, all the promises we made. You fucking left me." I would be an idiot to miss the hurt in his voice, the echo of the words in the chasm of his emotions caused by me.
"I did," I say simply, pulling back from his arms to look him in the eye. "I got the information I needed and more. I got so much more. It was worth it. But I am so sorry I left you." I look at Plume, Morrow, and Tulip, all of whom are staring at me with a mix of relief and anger. "I am sorry I left all of you. I was never in any danger, but it still was not enjoyable. But I'm glad I went, and I don't regret it."
"Lola, how can you say that? They trapped you there, didn't they?" Tulip says, approaching me and grabbing my hand. "How could you leave us?"
"I got the journal, Tulip." I look at Mace, his eyes wide in shock. "Well, I didn't get it, actually."
Zeph steps forward from where he had been standing, unnoticed, in a corner. "I did."
Four sets of furious eyes whip towards Zeph, who has his hands crossed in front of him. He isn't making eye contact with any of them, instead, looking at me under his lashes with his head slightly downcast.
Tulip drops my hand. "You brought him here?" She steps back, stumbling into Morrow's arms. "How could you, Viola?"
"It was the best decision," I respond simply. I beckon Zeph closer to me, and he takes a step further into the home. Mace moves in front of me, blocking me from him.
"Brother," he sneers. "What are you doing here?"
"I go where she goes," Zeph answers softly.
"You are delusional, brother. Viola does not love you. You will never be with her," Mace scrubs his face with his bloody hand, unnoticing as he smears the gore across his pale flesh. "How are you still so deranged to think this will end well for you?"
Zeph winces, rubbing one arm with his hand. "I deserve that. But make no mistake, I am not here because I am in love with Viola. I am not in love with her at all."
"Then why are you here?" Mace asks again with a scoff.
I gently push Mace to the side and step beside him, looking at my friends. "He's my high priest."
Again, the room falls quiet, everyone staring at me. "Bullshit," Morrow says, shaking his head. "Absolute bullshit."
"The draw," Plume says quietly. "You have the draw?"
Zeph nods to his friend, holding his hand over his chest. "The moment I saw her there, it snapped into place."
"Linna was in love with Solarius," Plume says, looking at our friends, "and people thought it was a perversion of the draw."
"Are you saying Zeph acted the way he did because the draw made him think he was in love with Viola?" Mace asks skeptically.
"No, he did what he did because I all but rejected his draw." I look at Tulip, her face stricken. "When he saw me with Mace since I hadn't accepted his draw yet, Zeph perceived it was a rejection. Rejection of a draw can drive a priest to insanity."
"I read it in multiple books, and I still didn't connect the dots," Zeph says quietly. "It wasn't until she rejected me to my face that I realized it." He looks around the room, making eye contact with everyone. "I fucked up. I cannot apologize enough for the pain I caused. Especially you, Tulip," he says, eyes on her. "I will not blame the draw. I made my own decisions. Even if the draw enhanced those feelings, I could have done more to fight it. I know I will never be able to erase what I did, but I hope one day to earn your forgiveness."
He sighs, collapsing on a threadbare brown couch. He told me about the walking he and Cirrha did today, and I know he is weary from it all. "I don't expect any of you to embrace me with open arms. But the Shadowweaver is my God, and I, her priest. She needs me in this stage of the journey."
Everyone is silent; the only sound is the sporadic dripping of blood from the chair the slain man stays adhered to.
"I have a lot to answer for." When I break the silence, all eyes spin on me. "I fucked up. I know that. And while I don't regret it, I do regret that it caused you fear, pain, and strife. These past two weeks could not have been easy on you."
"Fifteen days," Mace says quietly.
He was counting the days away from me.
"For fifteen days, I didn't know if you were okay. I didn't know if you chose to leave me. To leave us. I didn't know until just a few hours ago." He holds up his arm, where Shadow is wrapped tightly. I stroke the snake's head, and it unwinds, climbing up my arm and resting around my neck.
"Shadowweaver," Morrow says, stepping towards me. "That was fucking stupid."
"Agreed, Morrow."
"But you got the journal?"
I nod, and Zeph pulls the journal from his pocket and hands it to Morrow .
"And not only did you take the closest thing Himureal has to a high priest, but you found your own?"
Another look at Zeph, and I nod my head again.
Morrow sighs, shaking his head, his braids falling into his eyes. "I can't condone you leaving us without a word, but in the end, it seems you made a decision that will work in our favor. As soon as we get the Spring artifact and journal, we will have everything we need to bring back the other Gods."
He pushes past me towards the door, then stops and spins around. "But you were fucking selfish. I don't know the full reasons why you left, and you can bet your ass you're going to tell us fucking everything that happened while you were gone, but that was fucking selfish. Do you even know what that did to Tulip? To Mace?"
I drop my head, for once feeling genuine guilt about my mistakes. "I know, Morrow."
"You don't, though. You don't know the fear and worry. The way they shut down. Do you think any of this," he gestures at the dead body, the blood in the room, "would've been Mace's doing if you had stayed with us?"
"You should've stopped him! I never wanted this for any of you!"
"You should have been here to bear that burden, then! You don't get to leave us and then be upset at the harm it caused!" His voice is raised, and he's angry, snarling. "You're supposed to be our God. Our savior. And you left us. You abandoned us just like the Gods before you."
"I left for you!" My voice is raised now, and I step away from Mace to face Morrow more clearly. "To find out why the banishing happened to begin with. To know once and for all if we were making the right choice."
"You left for you, Shadowweaver!" he yells, getting in my face. "You could have waited for us to ask the other Gods, but you had to hear from Himureal because you are enamored with him!"
"Out of my face, Morrow," I say, stepping toward him and pushing his chest. A credit to his bravery, he does not move. "I had every intention of coming back. Himureal and I did a soulbind that he would tell me everything I needed to know, and I would come to no harm. I thought I covered my bases."
"What happened then?" Tulip says softly, stepping up beside Morrow. "If you soulbound him, shouldn't he be dead?"
"Turns out, drugging me and locking me in a slag-coated cell for fifteen days doesn't count as harming me." Mace grabs my hand, which I didn't notice had been tapping a furious pattern on my thighs. "I made every effort to ensure I would come back." I sigh, leaning my head onto Mace's shoulder. He stiffens and then pulls me closer to him after a moment. "Himureal told me a lot, things I needed to know. But you should all be aware he is getting dangerous, and Ytopie doesn't seem to mind."
"What do you mean?" Plume asks, eyes on Zeph. They're soft, the affection she's always had for him shining through.
Zeph stands and crosses to his friend, taking her hands in his own. "Plume," he says softly. "I need you to take a deep breath for me. "
The Spring fae's eyes widen, and I can see her hands shake within his. She shakes her head, whispering softly, "No."
"He killed Loris in front of the entire city, Plume. And they still support him"
Plume's body immediately crumples, but Zeph catches her and holds her up. "No, no, please don't tell me that, Zeph."
I forgot when Zeph told me that Plume was right there with them throughout their lives. She was the third point in their triangle. Her body shakes with sobs, a keening wail leaving her throat. "I never got to say goodbye," she cries, burying herself in Zeph's shirt.
Zeph brushes the back of her hair as she cries, silent tears dragging down his face. I look at Mace and see his eyes are red-rimmed and glassy. He may not have been close to Loris, but he sees the pain it has caused Zeph and Plume.
"Tell me what happened, Zeph," Plume sniffs, looking up at him.
His voice is shaky as he replies. "It won't make a difference, Plume."
Her shrill voice echoes through the small space. "I deserve to know!"
So there, in the small home filled with flowers and plants, a dead man tied to a chair, Zeph shares his story. All of it, from when we left the garrison until he saw me in the cells. When he gets to the part about the tournament that led to Loris' death, Plume's sobs start up again.
"It was my fault," Zeph says quietly. "I planned the tournament, and people died. People with families and lives to live. And Loris. Fuck, I left Taegan without Loris."
Surprising me, Mace steps to Zeph and rests his hand on his shoulder. He dips his head to his brother. "I know a little something about the guilt that comes with orchestrating something that causes the deaths of others," he says quietly.
Zeph looks up at Mace, and I wonder now how anyone could think they were anything but brothers. Despite Mace being tall and lithe, with dark hair and creamy skin, and Zeph being shorter and bulkier, with his auburn hair, tattoos, and ruddy skin, their green eyes and sad smiles are exactly the same.
Mace looks from Zeph to me, his eyes soft. "Loris knew you were a God."
"He did," I say with a soft smile.
"He knew what he was doing."
"He did," Zeph says.
The grief of the moment stretches between us all, punctuated by Plume's soft sniffles as her tears begin to slow. "How is Taegan?" she asks when she's calmed down.
"Devastated," Zeph tells her. "But he's determined to finish what Loris started. I asked him to come with us, but he's staying behind to grow support for the Shadowweaver."
"We need to get out of here," Morrow says, reminding us that we've been standing in a house with a dead body. "What's our cleanup plan here."
"I'll take care of it," I say softly. "Get anything we could want or need out of here."
The man didn't have much, but we did find a canteen and pack for Zeph, a dagger, and a journal filled with healing recipes. Plume flips through the pages. "These are botanical remedies that can be enhanced by magic! I've never heard of such a thing."
"Bring it with us," I say, closing the door behind me. The house is made of stone, but the interior is not, so I set fire to it and then combine Shadow and Light within myself to pass an illusion over the structure so no one in the city will see. After an hour or two of waiting, the wood door crumbles and falls, revealing a smoldering and charred interior. I fill it with flurries of snow, which melt on contact and cool the fire.
"Now, let's find a place to sleep and eat," I say, satisfied that our tracks have been covered.
"We have a place," Mace says, leading us back into the city. He looks back at me with a smile and I pick up the pace, walking beside him. "I missed you," he says quietly so the others won't hear.
"I missed you too."
"You were fucking stupid, numen."
I laugh. "I know, Mace."
"You could have been gone a century, and I would still have been here waiting for you."
I take his hand in mine, squeezing tightly. "I know, Mace. I know."