Chapter 54
Rylee
Baydel’s mind is a fortress, a mass of steel doors and black rock. Everything about his mental shields is a warning I feel in my bones: Run away. Run far away.
I don’t. Can’t. Instead, I use Pierce’s power, slipping inside the cracks like the tiniest of spiders.
Glistening silver doors line the pathways of his mind, everything locked up tight. Frost crackles along the outside of the doors, icicles dripping from the tops like tears.
I shiver, my mental presence feeling the cold bite.
There must be a hundred doors that I can see, all down different hallways that spread out into four sections.
I blow out a breath. Of course the answers wouldn’t be sitting here like floating visions, immediately pointing to whatever it is I need to know. Goddess damn it. I’m tired.
I reach for the door nearest me, pushing it open with little effort. My fingertips sting from the snap of cold, but I immediately forget it as the door shuts behind me.
“Please, stop!” A little boy is crying, writhing on the ground as another young boy stands over him.
They look alike—one is slightly taller, but they share the same features. Elongated face, green eyes, blond hair.
Recognition hits me after another moment. The crying boy is Baydel.
And the boy above him must be his brother, from how alike they look.
“Please,” he cries again.
The older boy slaps him across his face so hard it splits his lip.
I flinch, backing away from the scene as if that will help the hurt.
“Weak,” the older boy says. “That’s all you’ll ever be. Even Mother thinks so. You’re nothing like us. Too much like our father.”
Baydel wipes the blood from his mouth. He’s trembling, tears streaking down his face. He doesn’t attempt to get up. It’s like he’s done it before and knows exactly what will happen.
“I do like using you for practice, though. Mother says it’s important to practice.” The boy leans down, his face an inch from Baydel’s. “You like to help me practice, don’t you, Baydel?”
Baydel doesn’t meet the boy’s eyes but dips his head. “Yes, brother.”
“Say it.”
“I love to help you practice.”
The boy smirks, satisfied with himself. “Good. We’ll begin again. This time, try not to shit yourself.”
I swallow hard, emotion clogging my throat as the brother closes his eyes.
Baydel screams, his eyes glazing over as he sees something I can’t. Terror rolls off him in waves. Sticky, heavy terror. The suffocating kind.
Young Baydel soils himself.
The brother laughs.
Either emotion or mind control, I’m not sure which. He was born with this power?
What—
I fall backward through the door, something forcing me out. My heart is heavy, but I push on to the next door. My hand shakes as I shove it open and walk through.
“You’re excited, right, Baydel?” An older man sits in a small boat, smiling down at a young Baydel, though a few years older than the last memory. The two are looking toward the horizon as the boat dips with the waves of what looks like the ocean of Sapphire Cove.
“I am,” Baydel says.
“We’ll do well here,” the older man says. “We’ll do well and then come back. It’ll make your mother and brother so proud. You’ll see.”
Baydel turns away from the man, who can’t see the darkness lining his youthful features as he shakes his head. “I don’t ever want to go back,” he says under his breath—
I’m shoved out again, the effect jarring like a punch. I pick a different hallway, assuming this one is comprised of more of Baydel’s past. It’s not what I’m here for.
I go to the second hallway, electing to go to the farthest door, hoping there’s some semblance of order here. I shove through it.
“You can’t possibly expect me to go along with that,” Baydel says. He looks much like the man I know as he speaks to . . .
Evaluna.
“Don’t you want better for him?” she asks, a soft, loving smile on her face.
That smile and the simple nightgown she wears, her hair down and freshly brushed, make her look almost mortal.
She stands before him in a bedchamber. “This will ensure there’s not an imbalance.
I’ve told you before, the Fates will not take kindly—”
“Damn the Fates,” Baydel cuts her off.
“Baydel,” she says in warning. “For Jax. We can give our power to the realm. Enrich its soil, its waters, the very atmosphere even more than we already have. It will level the balance for everyone. No more power struggle. No more infighting. You know I don’t want him to grow up in that kind of world. For any of them to.”
“You and the others have already created the terms of the Choosing for them, and they’re barely three years old,” Baydel argues. He’s pacing now. Visibly agitated. “There won’t be an imbalance then. Isn’t that enough?”
“I thought it might be,” she says, looking like she’s questioning herself.
“It will be,” he says, returning to her. He takes her hands in his. “We don’t need to abandon our power to live a good life with our son.”
“But the fighting,” she says. “Between all of us, and now with the whispers of unrest with the demis . . . I can’t stand it.”
“I know,” he says. “But they will not struggle with such things. When the time comes, they’ll have one mate. No power struggles. She’ll ground them, just like you and the others intended it.”
Evaluna doesn’t look convinced. “We sense more,” she says. “Something awful is coming. I can’t risk Jax—”
“You won’t. He’s safe. I would never let anything happen to him.”
She studies him, then her shoulders drop. “Will you think about it?” she asks. “Please, Baydel? I know in my heart it’s the right path.”
He nods. “I will consider living as a mortal with you,” he says. “But only if the time should come that we truly need to—”
I’m shoved out again, my head spinning. Evaluna wanted to abandon her powers and live as a mortal with Baydel? For Jax? What awful danger could she sense? The war with Erithmore? The one we can’t find record of? Or was it the demi uprising?
I swallow hard, racing to the next hallway. I dip into the first door—
“You found me,” Baydel says, standing in a darkened alleyway in what looks like Obsidian City.
“I never lost you, baby brother.” The boy from before, Baydel’s brother, is older. While he looks like Baydel, there’s something about him, something . . . other. Maybe it’s his eyes? They have a sheen to them that’s almost gray over the green now.
And there’s a man between them, on his knees, bound and gagged.
“Why are you here?” Baydel asks, barely acknowledging the other man. “Never mind. Release him.” He points to the man, who is staring up at him imploringly.
His brother shakes his head, stepping around the man and toward Baydel. “Not so scared anymore, are we, little Baydel?” He smirks. “Smart move, mating a goddess. Never thought you’d manage to gather powers of your own. But I’m still Mother’s favorite.”
Baydel rolls his eyes. “You always will be.”
He reaches out a gloved hand toward Baydel, who jerks away from his touch. “Relax.” He laughs. “If I wanted your measly body control powers, they’d be mine.” He slips off the glove, waggling his fingers at him.
What? What does he mean, his powers would be his?
“Why are you here?” Baydel asks again.
“Why wouldn’t I be here?” he asks, turning back to the man on his knees.
“Lumathyst has prospered. And your mate and her friends have made this an absolute breeding ground for powerful beings. Demis, you call them?” He sucks in a loud breath, reaching his hand toward the man’s neck.
“I can practically taste them.” He eyes Baydel. “Let’s see if I’m right.”
“Don’t—” Baydel is cut off when his brother grabs the bound man by the throat.
The man seizes, as if the touch is lightning. Then his eyes roll back in his skull, his entire body convulsing. He’s not making a sound; he’s clenching his jaw too hard against whatever Baydel’s brother is doing to him.
He releases him, and the man falls to the ground in a heap, his skin leeched of color in the most unnatural way.
Oh my goddess. He looks exactly like the people we’ve been finding throughout Lumathyst. The ones we assumed had taken too much Tox. But this . . . What did he do to him?
“Mmm,” he moans, head tipped toward the sky. When he looks back at Baydel, his eyes are brighter green than they were before. “Tasty.” He snaps his fingers, and fire dances on the tip. “Look at that,” he says. “What a useful tool that demi possessed.”
That demi . . .
He . . . he drained his power?
How can he do that?
“Think of the feast me and mine will have.”
Apprehension bursts on the back of my neck.
“You can’t,” Baydel says, flicking his wrist.
The brother flinches, then laughs maniacally. “Not bad, baby brother. But not good enough. You’re still weak.”
Anger rages over Baydel’s features. “I’m no longer the brother you once knew.”
“Sure,” he says.
“Leave,” Baydel demands. “You’ve had enough fun. Take your people out of my kingdom and go back to Erithmore. You’ve already left too many bodies—”
“Or what? You’ll sic your mate on me?” He tilts his head. “You haven’t yet,” he continues. “There must be a reason.”
“I don’t need her to fight my battles—”
“But you do,” he cuts him off. “That must sting. Having your power so easily stripped from you.”
“How did you know she could do that?”
“I know a great many things,” he says. “Siphons know all about taking power.”
Siphon? That’s what he is? He mentioned his people . . . Are there more like him?
“She’s not a siphon. She’s a goddess,” Baydel argues. “There’s a difference.”
“Power is power. She giveth, she can taketh away.” He eyes him. “I bet she already has.”
Baydel is silent.
Another laugh. “How that must irk you. To taste greatness, and then poof—-
nothing. Think of what she’ll do if you upset her. If she grows bored with you.”
“Enough.”
“I could help you with that problem,” he says.
“I don’t need your help.”
“Sure you do. That’s why you haven’t told her about me. Told her about the presents I’ve been leaving in your streets.” He casts a look toward the dead demi behind him.
Baydel narrows his gaze but doesn’t argue.
His brother grins. “What if she decides your thirst for power is too much? What if the others decide they’re done with this realm and return to the celestial plane with the Fates? They’ll take your powers with them.” He tilts his head. “You’d beg for my help then.”
“Help with what?”
“With keeping you in power,” he answers. “I could do it. You know I can.”
Baydel scoffs. “What would be your price?”
He points at Baydel before slipping his glove back on. “You remember how much I love bargains—”
I’m shoved out of the doorway, like some magical force has thrown me from it. My head burns. Baydel’s brother is a siphon from Erithmore? And there are more like him? My knees shake as I stumble, running right into another door . . .
Baydel is in a room I’ve never seen before, lifting the lid on the decorative box holding the Athanry elixirs. He picks up the first vial, uncorks it, and spills a clear liquid inside. He gently swirls the mixture, then recorks it and places it back in the box.
“Are you sure?” Frenrick asks him.
“Yes,” he says. “She’s defiant. She fights me at every turn. She’s unwilling to pay the price for greatness. She has no concept of sacrifice.” He shakes his head. “Had they only Chosen Margreet, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
“If the princes find out—”
“They won’t,” Baydel snaps. “It’s miraculous to survive the transformation into immortality. They’ll think she perished in the process. They’ll have another Choosing. And I’ll make sure they Choose right this time.”
The Occuli dips his head—
I’m pushed out of the doorway and drop to my knees in the hallway.
Baydel’s memories spear me from every direction. The conversation with his brother. The bargain they were preparing to strike. The poison. His mention of sacrifice.
A deep sense of foreboding chills me to my bones, the questions swirling into a whirlpool of terror.
I squeeze my hand, concentrating on drawing myself back and back, as far away from here as I can.
I open my eyes, no longer in Baydel’s mind.
I’m at the table, playing a game with Pierce.
I stand up so fast I knock the chair over.
“Darling?” Pierce is on his feet, Axl and Kal coming toward me, too.
I don’t really see them. Not as I spin around.
Not as I shove past the other kings and knock Margreet out of the way.
Not as I grab Baydel’s throat with both hands and squeeze with all the force of Kal’s power.