Chapter 50
Cal
“I don’t have time to talk,” I said as Liara led me to a room off the main foyer. The entire back wall was a bar, the shelves behind it laden with at least a hundred bottles of liquor and wine. Liara’s fingers skimmed over them until she plucked a bottle of red wine from its spot.
“You don’t have much of a choice,” she answered with a shrug before she reached for a goblet beneath the bar. “Drink?”
“I don’t dr–”
“Whiskey it is. Cyen?” Cyen’s spindly finger pointed to a bottle a quarter of the way down the bar and he hummed when Liara grabbed it. “Cyen has the best taste in liquor.”
“The best poison is the sweetest,” he rasped, watching as Liara produced four more goblets from behind the bar and filled each with a brow-raising pour.
Liara slid the goblet toward me, but it remained untouched. “I didn’t come here to drink. ”
“We’ve met, you know,” Liara remarked, disregarding my statement. “Well, indirectly.”
My brows furrowed as she distributed the other goblets to the Blood Saints sidling up to the bar. “What do you mean?”
“Contrary to popular belief, we Saints do not pull as many threads in the Human Realm as many think we do. But Soren, Saint of Heaven, and I have a unique ability to peek in, if you will. Take little glimpses here and there. It’s how we decide where a human goes upon their death.”
“We’ve used that to our advantage here,” Faldyr said with a curt nod. “Any time we peek in, it opens a pathway, so it’s been done sparingly, and it hasn’t been done for years now.”
“The storm that seemingly came out of nowhere the day your brother Tobyas fell from the cliff?” Idros said, and my eyes flew open.
“The storm had already formed, but I gave it a nudge when I received Noros’ prayer.
Well, he wasn’t Noros anymore. And the day Petra’s house caught fire, as well. Noros prayed then, too.”
“Petra’s sword skills may have received some help from me,” Faldyr added.
Cyen tipped his head back, slugging down his whiskey like it was water before he gestured to Liara for another pour. “And knowing Onera,” he started, “she’s cast her will once or twice.”
I shook my head. This was not the subject I wanted to discuss. “I came here with one purpose. I need to get to the Darkness Beyond.”
“You mentioned that. Are you sure that’s the only purpose of your visit?” Her eyes trailed to my hand, where Aegrabane hung at my side.
“I… Yes.” Should there be another purpose? “I’m going to kill Malosym.”
A chuckle sounded from all sides of me, incredulous looks following close behind. I felt like a fucking child.
“You truly believe you can end his life?” Liara asked .
I drew Keeperslight from its sheath, surprised to find that it, too, had its own humming energy, though it was different from Aegrabane’s.
Faldyr stepped forward, his thick, salt-and-pepper eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the blade. “What the hell is that?”
I raised it in my grip, the unassuming blade gleaming in the low amber light. “This blade is imbued with the power of the Daughter of Katia. It’s called Keeperslight.”
Silence fell as the four faces staring at me went slack. It was Idros who stepped forward first, his hands extended and brows raised. “May I?”
I handed the blade over, my eyes firmly set on where the steel met his palms. Idros stared at it in wonder, his eyes narrowing as they trailed up and down the length of the sword.
He passed the blade off to Faldyr, who wasted no time standing back and readying the sword in his grip.
With lightning fast movement he swung the sword through the air and a trail of flames sparked to life, licking over the steel before winking out.
With wide eyes, he stared at Liara. “He’s telling the truth. ”
“Of course I’m telling the truth,” I snapped, impatience flaring to life. “I just traveled by driva all the way from Araqina and through the Iron Rise. Now, can you help me get to the Darkness Beyond or not?”
“We…” Liara started, her face unreadable as her eyes darted amongst Idros as he held Keeperslight, Aegrabane in my hand, and my face. “No one ever thought of that,” Liara breathed.
I inclined my head, my patience wearing even thinner. “Thought of what?”
“Imbuing a weapon with her power. How did she even think of that? How did she manage to do it?”
“Painfully.”
“So she knows the truth, then?” Liara asked carefully. “Noros told her? ”
The truth? My mind scanned through everything I knew, the thousands of possibilities of what this truth could be. What truth could she possibly be referring to?
“What truth?” I finally asked, my jaw tight.
“That she’s the only being capable of killing Malosym.”
“That was assumed.” But Liara’s eyes flicked away again, moving to the other Blood Saints, and I grunted in frustration. “Can someone just fucking tell me what you’re referring to?”
“You don’t know?”
My free hand clenched into a fist at my side. “What don’t I know?”
I waited, every muscle taut as Liara took a deep sip of her wine, gulping until there was nothing left. Then, she reached for the bottle, refilled her goblet, and drained it again. She glanced quickly between the other Blood Saints. “Can we tell him?”
“Noros was the one who made the promise to Katia, not us. And we were cursed not to reveal his identity, but if it’s already been uncovered…” Idros trailed off.
Faldyr’s fingers moved over the imbued blade, testing to see whether it was cool enough to touch. “Petra is the only one capable of killing Malosym.” His eyes flicked to me. “Because they are of the same bloodline.”
I blinked slowly. “What are you talking about?”
“Malosym created Katia. That is no secret, though it’s not widely known. But even though Katia has renounced her connection to Malosym, as Katia’s daughter Petra is still of Malosym’s bloodline,” Faldyr said.
My hands tore through my hair. She was his descendant.
But before I could question it further, Faldyr continued, “And according to the laws of the Old World, from where Malosym originates, Holy Beings such as Malosym and the Saints can only be killed by someone in their own bloodline.”
A small part of me sighed with relief. Petra couldn’t die at the hand of an Occulti or human. Only Malosym. “But…that do esn’t make any sense. He tasked me with killing her,” I stammered, my memory pulled back to the first day I crossed paths with her on the Eserenian waterfront.
“Before her powers developed, yes?” Cyen asked.
“Well, yes, but–”
“You’ll soon learn the ins and outs of the Holy Beings of both the New and Old World,” he offered as the only explanation. “She could be killed by a human before her powers developed.”
“I…” I started, my head a hurricane of unanswered questions. “So she’s the only one who can kill him.”
“Yes,” Liara answered, and something in the tone of her voice made that small bit of relief dislodge from its place. “There is, however, a caveat. It will require so much of her power, she will burn herself out.”
That was it? That was the caveat? “She’s burned herself out plenty of times before. I’ve always been there when she loses consciousness,” I answered.
“No,” Liara said, her voice suddenly softer. “She’ll extinguish herself completely.”
My posture stiffened, my voice low when I finally spoke. “Are you saying it’ll kill her?” Liara’s quick nod was her only answer. “But… Why?”
“You must understand, Malosym’s power is ancient.
And Petra… She’s neither human nor Saint,” Cyen explained, his head moving side to side as if he were searching for the easiest way to explain this.
“It would make sense you wouldn’t have this knowledge yet, as humans are forbidden from such truths.
She’s something else, something not yet seen in the New World.
She is the product of that ancient power, rooted in a world long since burned, and the product of this New World and its laws. ”
“You say she’s something else as if you have no idea what she is at all.”
“We don’t,” Idros answered. “Not really. It’s an intricate predicament. ”
“This doesn’t make any sense,” I whispered. “Fucking Saints.”
“That’s us,” Liara quipped.
Realization hit me like a hammer to the back of the skull. I jolted as the pieces snapped together, the full picture finally clear in my mind. “If he attacks while I’m gone, she’ll have no choice but to use her powers. I have the imbued blade.”
Liara straightened, her wine goblet hitting the bartop with too much force. “We can’t get you to the Darkness Beyond. There’s no way through for you.”
“There has to be,” I demanded, my voice suddenly harder. “I came all the way here. There has to be a way through.”
“There isn’t,” Liara answered, her face grim.
“I need to go,” I breathed, taking back Keeperslight from Faldyr’s grip, and sheathing it at my side.
“I need to get back to her.” Saints, I was fucking stupid.
I was so, so fucking stupid. And she was going to die because of my foolishness.
I’d get back to Taitha and Obitus and I would fly straight for Araqina.
“You’re going out there?” Liara called, trailing behind me as I stalked toward the door.
“Of course I am.” I’d gladly die cutting through the entire horde of Occulti if that’s what stood in the way of me getting to Petra.
I swung open the towering arched door and gritted my teeth when I saw the Occulti were still crowded in the same spot.
I took a left, finding a few stairs down to a separate courtyard out of the view of the Occulti.
I’d cut through there and get a head start.
The Blood Saints followed close behind me. “Not advisable,” Liara chimed in a singsong voice that was so out of place in our current surroundings it felt like jagged metal on my nerves.
“Let him go, Liara,” Idros objected. “We’ll see him again, someday.”
They wouldn’t. Not with the promise I made to the Sanguilite. But I kept my mouth shut as I drew Keeperslight from its sheath again. With Aegrabane in my right hand and Keeperslight in my left, I had the best chance at making it back to the Iron Rise.
Testing the weight of the imbued blade, I swung it through the air and the entire length of steel erupted into flames. My eyes widened as fire cascaded over the metal, as if the source of the fire was in the metal itself. It was, because of Petra.
My fucking miracle of a woman.
Down the stairs, through the courtyard, straight to the barrier. If I could just get a thirty second headstart before the Occulti noticed me, it would–
“I think we should tell him the whole truth, Liara,” Cyen mumbled, cutting through my thoughts and stopping me in my tracks.
I whirled to the Blood Saints. “What the fuck else is there?” I bellowed.
“Come back inside,” Liara urged.
“ No. ”
“Fine. I’m sure we’ll be seeing you again soon, then.”
I came close to opening my mouth and asking if Miles was here, so close to broaching the subject I could taste the fear of her answer on my tongue, but I turned away. And with all the power of Aegrabane and Keeperslight, I sliced through the barrier and sprinted into Occulti territory.