Chapter 36
Chapter
Thirty-Six
Kohen returned in the morning without another Draemornian to interrogate then kill, which was bad. That meant that the fucker got away and was on his way back to Draemor to disclose our location.
Beaumont would be here for me in no time. And without a plan to stop him or a way to destroy his Hykah army, we were completely screwed.
With the added pressure, I was beginning to think that I wasn't as strong-minded as I had thought—that maybe the others had been right in using caution with me all along.
“So much for a kingdom to keep Maeve safe,” Delani muttered. She was scared. We all were, but unlike the rest of us, she had no power and no combat training. She was essentially defenseless aside from us as protection.
“Once Beaumont finds a new enchanter, he’ll be here for Maeve,” Archer said flatly.
It was nice of him to join us seeing as he had seemingly been in hiding as of lately.
I couldn't say I blamed him. I thought about how angry I was at Sebastian for hiding things from me, I could only imagine how Archer felt in regard to what his dead, conniving wife had been keeping from him.
He stood in front of the lit fireplace in the common room. The heat wasn’t needed, but the ambiance added a nice touch to the dreary conversation. “Lucky for us, enchanters are scarce. I doubt he has found one yet,” my father supplied.
“How scarce are we talking?” Sawyer questioned.
Archer shrugged. “I suspect there are maybe ten on this continent, but who can be sure?”
“Why would he bother waiting? I feel like he might just decide to come for me sooner and hold me until he finds an enchanter,” I added. “Hasn’t he wasted enough time while waiting for me to come to him?”
“That is possible. But you are unpredictable and more powerful than I think he realizes. Holding you until he is ready for you would be unwise, even I know that,” Archer responded.
For some reason, anger flared inside of me.
I could see where this conversation was headed—straight into yet another waiting game.
“So what, we just wait and see if he comes for us? No! Have we not learned anything over the past weeks? Beaumont would bring the Hykahs with him, and we have no idea how to kill them. I’m not risking any of your lives by sitting here waiting around. I have an idea—”
Sawyer shot to his feet, storming across the common room, straight for me. “No one wants to hear your self-sacrificial plans, Maeve. We’ve all been doing everything in our power to keep you safe, and we sure as hell aren’t going to stop now. We aren’t giving up.”
“You didn't even hear what I was going to say,” I shot back, rising to my feet and settling my hands upon my hips.
“I don’t need to. I know how your brain works. You're going to suggest giving yourself up so we can all be safe and blah, blah, blah,” Sawyer snarked while the rest of the room fell silent.
Despite our height difference, I did my best at getting up in his face. “And is that so wrong? If I give myself to Beaumont—”
“If you give yourself to Beaumont, then he’ll turn you into one of the things we are trying to figure out how to destroy,” Sebastian jumped in, now positioned with his arms crossed by Sawyer’s side.
“Not if I kill him first,” I scowled in Sebastian's direction.
“I love you. So godsdamn much. But how has that plan worked out for us so far?” he responded, Sawyer nodding in agreement,
Sebastian crossed his arms over his chest. “As I’m sure everyone else is, I’m with Sawyer on this. No one wants to hear your ideas if they involve risking your life, which I know that they do. And if you can’t get on board with that, then you don’t get a say in what happens from here on out.”
Everything within me shattered at the statement. “What?” I stuttered, my eyes sinking into my cheeks.
“You heard me,” Sebastian snapped back, clicking his tongue.
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am so incredibly serious, love,” Sebastian deadpanned, his glare daring me to try and test him.
“You aren’t in charge of me,” I snapped, to which he bit back a cocky smirk.
He stepped forward, dipping his lips to my ear and lowering his voice. “I beg to differ. And I know you would, too.”
Despite the immediate release of lust within me, I still shut down, my brain collapsing and my heart closing off. Anger consumed every inch of my body. “You know, I see the resemblance now.”
He stepped away and cocked his eyebrow in a way that dared me to say what he knew I was going to say.
“Between you and your father. Trying to control lives that aren’t your own,” I seethed. By trying to take away any say I had in this, he was following right in his father’s footsteps.
Sebastian’s jaw ticked, though before he could comment by putting a voice to his pissed off expression, Pia joined the ever growing army against me. “Sorry, Maeve. But sometimes it seems like you have a death wish. I’m with them on this, too.”
Maybe it was everything coming to a head, but her being against me as well made me blow up.
“I don’t have a death wish, but I think you all do.
” My arms wide, I gestured around the room.
“I don’t want to die, but the last thing I want is for any one of you to die for me.
None of you asked to be dragged into this mess.
Hell, if I’d never even met any of you, you would all be safe and happy.
Jocelyn would be alive, my mother would be alive,” my eyes welled with tears as I turned to Sebastian, “and you wouldn't have been tortured and almost killed in Draemor if we had never met.”
I drew a deep inhale to help me continue my rant, but Sawyer slapped a hand over my mouth, taking his turn to speak.
“If we had never met you, Beaumont would still be creating Hykahs, he would still be trying to claim the empire, and Jocelyn and your mother would still be dead. Us knowing you has nothing to do with that. Does it raise the stakes a bit? Sure. But I’d rather risk my life every damn day than have never met you, and I know everyone in this room agrees. ”
“I don’t,” Kade mumbled, but I could tell by his tone that he was kidding.
“That’s not even true, and you know it,” I cried back, hot tears clogging my tear ducts, though I refused to let them fall.
Sawyer lowered his voice. “Let's figure out how to destroy the Hykahs, then go from there.”
“Archer is right. Beaumont probably isn’t even back to Draemor with a new enchanter yet.
We can send some guards into the forest and at the first sign of trouble, we’ll be prepared,” Sebastian added, his tone also more calm than it had been prior.
He was no doubt ticked off over my comment, but I didn’t have it in me to care.
I was having deja vu, and I’m sure they all were, too.
“I feel like we just keep going in circles, creating plans that fall through and arguing with each other about whose life is more important.
It's exhausting!” I protested, sucking in air before continuing to shout.
“So you are actually suggesting that we wait to see what happens?” I asked Sebastian for clarification of the stupid idea.
“Yes. For a little while. In the meantime, we will read through that text about the markings that I showed you,” Sebastian began, reaching an arm out to me, which I dodged, “and we can try to find out more information about the Hykahs.”
I had a few ideas of my own, but no one was going to like them. If it came down to saving my loved ones, I would happily give myself over. But I refused to become one of those things, so I had a few backup plans.
Idea number one—I would pack up and leave in the middle of the night for Draemor.
Alone. I would make sure to give myself to Beaumont long before he and his army began their journey to Lumosia.
They would come here anyway no doubt, but it would give my friends time to flee and find somewhere safe.
I would follow his rules for as long as possible, then, when I got the chance, I would kill the sick son of a bitch before he could turn me into one of his mutants.
Idea number two—the same as plan one, except if I couldn’t kill the sick son of a bitch, I would kill myself. Without me to turn into a Hykah, his plans would need to be reevaluated, thus giving my friends more time to stop him.
Idea number three—the darkest, and more sickening idea was to end this entire thing right now by ending myself.
I didn’t want to die, but at this point, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be for the best. My friends would be safe for the time being, during which they could kill Beaumont.
I fully believed that the biggest risk to their lives wasn’t the Hykahs or Beaumont. It was me.
None of the ideas solved the Hykah issue, but they solved the me issue, and I was the match to the flame in this situation.
The more I weighed my options, the more appealing option three became, which scared me.
I hadn't felt that urge in years, and the thought of it coming back was more than unwelcome.
Regardless, there it was—the invisible thread between life and death that I balanced on and a pair of shears waiting for my hand to cut it.
All three ideas sucked, but I didn’t see any other options that involved keeping the people I cared about unharmed. So if it came down to it and we started seeing even more signs of trouble, I knew what I had to do.
“We can also look into what Leighton said about you. We can go through her things, maybe there was something she didn’t show us,” Kohen piped in, breaking his usual silence.
“Whatever,” I growled, pushing my way between Sebastian and Sawyer so I could get the hell out of there. “This is my life, too, you know,” I turned to add. “And if anyone should get a say about what happens to it, it should be me.”
“You can say whatever you want.” Sebastian's eyes narrowed as he took a step towards me. “Doesn't mean we have to do what you say.”
“Okay Aldous junior,” I shot back, knowing the immature words would sting, but still not giving a single fuck.
I mumbled to myself through the halls and all of the way to my room.
Once comfortable in some loungewear, I settled into bed with the book on the markings. I flipped to where I had left off, my vision instantly hooked on the text.
There was nothing that could be considered beneficial on the first few pages, but the introductory line of the following chapter caused my grip to tighten, leaving fingerprint indents in the parchment.
Legend claims that the markings of the gods are never seen on a mortal.
This is not due to the fact that the markings don’t exist, but rather the theory that those who bear them are not truly mortal.
There is currently no record that confirms the existence of these markings, though there is also no record denying their plausibility.
My head jolted back. Was this saying that I was no longer mortal? Because that made no sense. I almost died. Clearly, I was mortal.
Skimming a few paragraphs down, I kept reading.
Once cleaved from its original corpse, a soul cannot be retrieved. A soulless corpse will remain forever soulless. Though the soul can roam or go beyond the veil, it can never return to its original host. Once a vessel has lost its soul, it has been lost forever.
An immortal soul, such as the ones belonging to the gods, cannot go beyond the veil while attached to an immortal body.
However, if the immortal soul is unlinked from its vessel, and relinked to a mortal one, the soul loses its immortality.
If the mortal housing the soul dies, the linked soul will go beyond the veil with their original one.
When an immortal corpse loses its immortal soul, the corpse itself becomes mortal. Nonetheless, no mortal corpse by origin—even with the gain of an immortal soul—will be capable of achieving immortality.
Laying the book on my stomach, I focused on the stillness of the ceiling while I climbed through the ladders in my brain.
The way I was drawn to the Draemornian back in the interrogation room. The way I saw into his mind when he was dying.
The way my skin and hair glowed was very reminiscent of how Blythe’s entire body shimmered when she transferred her starlight to me.
Leighton’s statement about godly energy.
I shot upright, the book flying off of the bed. Oh. My. Gods.
Maybe the answer had been right in front of me all along—so clear that ignoring it made more sense than believing it.
Though I did not accept the claim of being a goddess, Blythe was one. And if she and I truly shared the same energy as Leighton suggested, then maybe I was something similar. Something not nearly as holy, but more forcible than other mortals to walk the earth.
Amidst my momentous revelation, the door swung open, startling me.
Sebastian frowned as my frantic gaze startled him.
“What is it?” With a snap of composure, his face fell entirely serious.
“I have a theory.”
His attention flickered between my serious expression and the book. “About?”
I didn’t stutter. “I think I know exactly what the markings mean.”