Chapter 63
Scraping grated against my ears, and I whipped my head to the side, finding Vaeron racing forward, sword drawn. White and silver merged in a blur of magic.
“Don’t!” I yelled, jumping forward.
Just as a different blade sliced through the air at my back. I whirled, finding a male Demon standing there, canines flashing. He moved in a blur of shadow, clashing with Vaeron.
Incandescence snapped out and ripped me away from the Demons while my mate fought the male. Maariya shrieked something in Demonic at him, but he didn’t look her way.
The impact of their next blows jarred my teeth.
Maelsar raced around the bend, mess of pewter hair clinging to his brow. His power wrapped around the High Priestess, shoving her off to the side. The Demon female screamed at the sight of her friend tangled in my mate’s magic.
Lyriasthe gripped my arm, nails digging into my skin. “No, no, no,” she whispered, the words strangled and strained.
Maariya’s teeth dug into her own flesh, clawing blood to the surface. Kiira twisted toward me, pleading through a gag between her lips.
My mate opened his mouth, the air around us sucking to a single point in his throat.
“FREEZE.”
The Demons halted, ruby dribbling out of the corners of Maariya’s mouth. Vaeron wasted no time in running the male through, decorating his sword in garnet. Horror wrapped around my ribs and squeezed.
“Don’t hurt her,” I pleaded into Vaeron’s mind, racing forward as he pulled his blade free. The male dropped to the ground with a thud that churned my stomach, having been released from the thrall of the Command.
The High Priestess’s sobs grew more fervent, and I cut a sympathetic glance in her direction. I hated being complicit in the restraint and terrorizing of another female—but it was necessary.
“Why not, little fugitive?” Vaeron snarled, his eyes narrowing on me.
“Kiira sent her here to speak with me. They want peace too.”
His expression didn’t change.
“And you believed that trap? There was someone above waiting to kill you!”
“I know you’re angry and scared for me, but please just listen. That is Maariya, and she is the High Priestess’s closest confidante. The reason they’ve been taking prisoners is to offer them sanctuary once the war is over. They don’t want to kill us all.”
Vaeron’s nostrils flared as we remained locked in our staredown. “Again, you believe this?”
“Yes.” I wanted to throw my hands in the air, but I refrained. “Because she also told me that some of the Angels and Demons are mates.”
Shock radiated down our bond even though Vaeron’s face remained glacial. “Now is not the time for a joke.”
“I’m not, and neither was she. You should have seen how nervous she was to say it to us. They don’t know that we aren’t like Stadiel and Iaoth. It was a massive risk telling me that.”
He was silent for a long moment. “She lives, but,” he whirled on the High Priestess, glaring at her like she was nothing more than a pig tied up for slaughter, “if you do not cooperate with us, she will die. I will torture her, slowly, in front of you.”
The High Priestess nodded, black hair tangling around her face from the force of it. I knew it was all posturing, and yet my stomach roiled at the thought.
What if it truly came to that? Would we be any different from those we sought to overthrow?
With a sigh, Vaeron released his Command. Maariya tripped forward, spluttering blood. Maelsar cuffed her in silver immediately and sat her in the snow beside her High Priestess.
Lyriasthe darted forward and threw her arms around her intended’s neck, and he hugged her back, lifting her feet off the ground. She giggled and smacked him, and he put her down.
“Ready the horses. We have two prisoners to account for now, and we’ll need to redistribute the weight,” he told her.
She nodded, and they kissed briefly before she hurried off. Maelsar grabbed the two Demons and directed them toward the fallen aspen.
My mate stepped closer, the heat of him radiating into me. Stormwood and sweat filled my nostrils, and I savored it because it meant that Vaeron was alive and here with me.
“Now the real battle begins,” he murmured, his eyes searching mine. The cloud cover broke overhead, revealing the moon and a brilliant array of stars. “Are you ready for what’s next?”
“I’ll be their realm saver,” I told him, conviction threaded in my tone. “The Angel-Demon mates…it goes against everything we’ve been taught. But you already carried the blood of both. This is further proof that the divide was always designed and never natural.”
Vaeron’s eyes searched mine. “We cannot tell Iaoth about them, though. It will only incense her.”
“How will we convince the Angels to surrender their beliefs about Demons? Especially the unholy trinity. To be mated to one…” I trailed off, not needing to finish the thought.
We both knew they’d be put to the sword immediately.
We’d be put to the sword immediately. Such an abomination should not exist. The words rang clearly in my ears as if our Angel priestesses were speaking them even now.
Hatred for the people sharing our continent outweighed all belief that mating bonds were the most holy blessing from the Goddess.
“We will find a way. Together.” Vaeron’s lips pressed to mine, and I sank into his embrace. He rested his forehead against mine. “Always together.”
“Always,” I promised. The scar over his eyebrow warped, and I blinked, black edging in on my periphery.
It seemed the Goddess would speak to me whether I wanted Her to or not.
“Vision,” I croaked out as my spine snapped straight.
Vaeron captured my waist as my head lolled back and I fell into the future.
Crystal chairs swam on the fringes of my sight, and I sat upright, head whipping around the room. Silver bound Seers to their seats, and white poured from the center of their chests into a swirling mass in the center of the Divine Atrium.
No!
I shot to my feet, searching for Iaoth. But there was no sign of her. Or any Sightkeepers, for that matter. Heart hammering against my ribs, I raced from male to female, checking them for signs of life.
All were breathing, but it was shallow.
I tried to shake them, but my hands passed through air.
“My darlings.”
I spun around, finding the Korona at last. But every Seer was too far gone to register her presence.
I blinked as she stepped into the center of the light, haloed as if she were the Goddess herself.
Her fingers ran over a massive crystal, clearer than anything I’d ever seen.
It was as if water had frozen over and been carved into a smooth, polished ball.
A prophetic, almost divine energy radiated from it, sending a chill skittering down my spine.
Because this was the same stone from my previous vision of Iaoth.
“You’re filling it so, so well. Give me everything you have,” she cooed to the group who couldn’t hear her.
I raced forward, toward the evil monarch and the strange rock. If I could knock them both over, perhaps it would break the trance.
Yet when I was mere moments from touching it, darkness swallowed me whole.
With a gasp, I shot back into the present.
“We have to get back. Now. Before that happens.” The words tumbled out of me before I’d even registered that I’d said them. The clarity was so high, I was certain we had a week at most before it would come to pass.
“Are you able to move?” Vaeron asked me.
I nodded, blowing out a shaky breath. He straightened me, and I rolled out my neck and shoulders, trying to stop the body-wide tremble from breaking free. “Did you See?”
“Aye,” was my mate’s grim reply. “But we don’t have time to examine it now.”
“We need to send word to someone at the palace who can protect them. Maybe Ithuriel?” Panic edged into my tone. The Seers couldn’t be drained like that. They didn’t deserve to be punished for a gift they never chose.
“I need to contact Oshenai and confirm Ishim’s death. Have Maelsar help you with a covert message to his father. He was sympathetic toward us after the trial by light. I trust him more than any other noble.” Vaeron glanced toward the sky. “Where are Ilae and Ysolthe?”
As if he’d spoken them into existence, a hum filled the air overhead, and the two legendary birds landed on the fallen log across from us.
He strode toward them, tension in his every step.
“This is the most crucial part of our plan. Everything has to unfold perfectly. Your note cannot be intercepted.”
“I know,” I whispered. Yet fear for the others who shared my powers had dug into my marrow, and all I could think about was the crystal. Vaeron tugged parchment and charcoal from his pocket and handed them to me.
I beckoned Maelsar over, and together we wrote Kisst Caerelith an urgent plea, including information about the stone I had Seen. While I rolled it up and secured it to Ysolthe’s leg, Maelsar grabbed the two Demons and took them to the horses.
I sent my bird an image of who I wanted her to find, hoping my memory was clear enough from Heraphia’s funeral. “Fly fast, girl. I need your strongest wingbeats.”
She clicked, and I scratched behind her antlers. Once Vaeron finished with Ilae, we stepped back, allowing them space to take off. Yet they lingered together in that moment, beaks rubbing. Softer clicks passed between them. All I could do was watch in awe at their love.
Angels and Demons were not the only intelligent creatures in Keleti.
Finally, they broke apart, and Ilae departed first, headed back to Baelii. Ysolthe shot straight overhead, disappearing into the distant snowclouds.
“Come on,” Vaeron murmured, capturing my hand and guiding me away from the cave.
We found Lyriasthe on her horse already, Maariya in front of my friend and the High Priestess in Maelsar’s saddle.
Lyriasthe’s sharp gaze swept over me. “What did you See?”
“Later,” I told her, swinging onto my mare. She tossed her mane as if she too sensed the urgency. I jerked up the hood of my cloak, flakes falling fast and hard again.
Shouts dragged our attention uphill, to where the battle still raged. More cries rang out, closing in on us.
“Let’s go before the Demons catch up to us,” Vaeron snapped, a dangerous edge to his tone.
Heart beating a staccato rhythm against my ribs, we rode downhill, our horses’ hooves sliding against slippery rock.
And as we descended the mountain, back to the most painful place in existence for me, I prayed to the Goddess that we made it in time to save those Seers.