Chapter 12 Sylas
~Sylas~
I jolted awake, lurching up with a heaving gasp as a rush of power shot through my system.
Panting and sweating, I swung my head from side to side, unnatural energy infusing me like a massive bolt of adrenaline making my body vibrate.
“It’s okay. Breathe. Slowly, for the love of fuck.”
That voice.
I turned to see Kai there at my bedside.
Bedside?
What was… I was… this was the infirmary inside the Guardian Compound.
Fuck.
I was here?
After I’d performed the highly illicit Auctoritas Mortis?
And violated the sanctity of the Valley of the Dead in such a profound way to pull Velra the fuck out of there?
I swallowed hard, fighting to quell my panic, to compartmentalize like I always did so fucking well. But I couldn’t… that barrier… it was gone.
I managed to croak out to Kai through a severely dry throat, “It’s been a long time since I’ve woken up to you beside me.”
He didn’t bite back like I’d expected.
Like Kai Hunter would.
Especially whenever I referenced that. It always got under his skin. Always.
That strange non-reaction from him had me almost as unsettled as being here inside the Guardian Compound after what I’d done.
“Why are you… what’s happening?”
“You are recovering from pulling Velra from the Valley of the Dead and killing yourself in the process. As for why I’m here, the surface reason is that you marked me as your next of kin. According to the timestamp, you did so right after you confessed your sickness to me.”
“Yeah, I did.” I frowned. “Surface reason?”
“The deeper reason is that with what I’m about to convey, you need it to be me who is here with you. I suspect this scenario occurred to you when you marked me as next of kin.”
He was being cryptic.
Kai was straight down the line. He didn’t beat around the bush, especially not when it came to transmitting information.
He gestured at my body.
I looked down to see that I was near-naked, apart from a pair of white boxers, and I was being fed my own serum from six different tubes embedded in my veins.
Yet, I was still partially desiccated.
A chill rolled through me. “It’s reached that point.”
“Yes, my friend. It’s no longer sustainable.”
“Performing Auctoritas Mortis pushed it too far.”
He reached out through the open Restoration Chamber and grasped my arm. “There’s a decision that needs to be made. It’s why they’ve woken you up.”
I looked past him, noticing the Healers milling around in the background.
“And what might that be?”
Even as I uttered the words, I already fucking knew.
Of course I did.
I was a highly-learned magic-wielder, Master of Death Magic, member of Arcanum Order, and I’d been studying my specific sickness for a long while.
“Sylas.”
“No. No.”
“Waking you up is only temporary and it can’t be done again. Not like this. Not with you being as you are.”
“How long can they hold it for?”
“A couple of hours at the most are the projections.”
“This… decision.” I swallowed hard. “This decision you said you woke me up to make… and…”
Our eyes locked.
“Sylas.” Emotion welled in his eyes, an extremely rare thing for Kai.
But with this… it cut at him more than even a close friend being in jeopardy. This hit right at the heart of him. We were the same when it came to this.
To our magic.
“Tell me,” I forced out.
The moment the words were spoken would make it undeniably real.
And I guess I needed to hear them to be able to do it, to accept that it had actually come to this.
He shifted his weight and grasped my hand, weaving his fingers with mine, struggling to meet my eyeline.
“This sickness… the infection… it’s magical in nature.
The damage to your body is its interaction with the magic running through your blood.
And such potent magic at that. It’s why it worsens when you expend great power. ”
He knew I was already well aware, but he was telling me anyway, because I needed him to.
He tightened his hold on my hand. “As such, the only way to spare you is to remove the magical elements.” He swallowed hard. “To bind your power.”
“No more magic?”
“No more magic. It will be completely inaccessible to you, only able to be unbound by a being of Celestial blood.”
“How long?”
“Until we find a necromancer who can perform the spell. Or until an alternative solution is found. Cassius has already been searching out necromancers, but he hasn’t found anyone viable yet who can perform the spell.”
I frowned. “How is that possible? This is Cassius. With his power, he can sweep vast areas at a time and—”
“They were all dead. He’s located four and they were all found murdered.”
“Somebody is actively trying to stop me from being cured?”
“We don’t know the reason at this juncture, but it’s up there as a possible explanation for these murders, yeah.”
“Without a viable necromancer, there’s no way to cure me, to fix this. I could be bound for fucking ever, Kai. Even the backup plan of sacrificing somebody—Sorin was Cassius’ idea—wouldn’t be viable now, not after the violations I caused inside the Valley of the Dead earlier.
“Days ago.”
“Days? That’s how long I’ve been out?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.” He shifted his weight. “There’s always a way. You know that just as well as anyone. You’ve achieved what others had believed impossible many a time.”
That had been different. They’d believed it to be impossible, I never had.
But Kai was an optimist—in his unique dark and twisted way, but an optimist nonetheless.
That wasn’t me.
“Either I live without my magic, or I let myself die.”
He eyed me warily. “Sylas, if you die—”
“If I die normally—not like the way I did to pull Velra out—like a necromancer, with magic still in my system and what’s left of my necromantic core, I won’t become just another of those roaming, lost spirits in the Valley of the Dead.
I am a Master of Death. Being in the realm of the dead, I’ll be able to exert free will, to exist there as I so wish. ”
“Your body here will be done, though. The rot will be irreversible. The only way you could be returned to the mortal plane would be as Animated Fleshwork.”
“Then, of course, I wouldn’t attempt to return. And I know that you would stop any misguided attempts to resurrect me in that case.”
“You’re talking about Lazriel.”
“I have no doubt he’d fight like hell to bring me back. Velra and Cassius can both see reason, but Lazriel… it’s much harder for him to see reason through love.”
“That’s right, you infuriating, stubborn, reckless, know-it-all motherfucker… I love you. I fucking love you and I can’t lose you either. Do you understand me?”
“I love you, too. Truly, deeply, and maddeningly.”
“Then please respect that.”
Lazriel’s words to me just before I’d gone ahead and performed Auctoritas Mortis.
“How are they?” I asked Kai.
“Velra has healed. Cassius is well. Lazriel is protected.”
“I’ve never heard you dance around things the way you have been during most of this conversation.” I shifted my weight, as much as I could with the six tubes pumping my serum through my veins. “What’s happened? To Lazriel?”
“I’ve been told that I can be a brutal bastard with my desire to get to the point. And it may have been impressed upon me by Ari that it really wouldn’t go over well with this particular conversation.”
“I see. Cute. Very cute—especially for you.”
He gave me one of his vicious glares.
“There it is. More of that, all right?”
“You don’t want my gentle side?”
“When have I ever?”
“This is different, brother.”
“Yeah, it is. And that’s why I can’t have you be too. Not the way you treat me, nor the way you interact with me.” I sighed. “I am sick, and I’m feeling the full force of it. I can’t keep pushing to get information out of you. You don’t want me stressed out, I get it. But I still need to know.”
“It’s not just that. I don’t want your choice here being influenced.”
“You mean you don’t want me trying to use my magic.”
“Yes,” he admitted.
“So, something has happened to Lazriel?”
“He is safe. But he’s also gone.”
“Gone?”
“He managed to access your Blood Trace results you pulled from him. He then had a magic-wielder assist him with tracking his father. He’s with him now. With The Shadowed. Deep underground. Unreachable. He headed out to obtain information on Puritas and to try to find a cure for you as well.”
“Fuck.” I scrubbed my hand over my face.
“He’s safe, Sylas. And this is obviously something he needs to do.”
“Yeah… I know. I know it is. I just…”
“The four of you need to be together right now, especially in light of everything. I get it. Believe me. And you will be. Sometimes, however, there are individual journeys that need undertaking before that can happen. Without that, the bond can become unstable. Toxic, even.”
“And Velra? Her magic and abilities? In light of her trauma? Fucking dying again… and because of that motherfucker, Sorin?”
“According to Cassius, she’s faring well, considering.
There have been some issues, but he’s with her.
” His lips quirked. “And, strangely, he’s actually opened up.
He even went to Warlow and Cornelius for help, swallowed his pride.
All for her. It resulted in the two of them being allowed to frequent Mordrek Mountains where she’s been releasing a lot of pent-up magical energy and training with Cassius as well. ”
“Pent-up magical energy and training… so she’s spiraling.”
“They visited Lazriel’s mother and obtained the names of enemies related to Lazriel’s late stepfather, Jason Strickland, and Velra was determined to go after them. She obviously wasn’t in the right frame of mind to do that so Cassius redirected that ferocity to this. At least for now.”
“Fuck… so much has happened while I’ve been… incapacitated.”
“None of which could have happened without the sacrifice you made, without what you did.”
“What about Puritas?”
“Still active.”
“A major reason why I can’t just allow my magic to be taken from me.”