Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
WOLFE
Elariya rushed into my arms when I walked into the living room.
I caught her automatically, pulling her close, avoiding the concerned faces around me of my friends and comrades.
Merciless gods.
After the battle that just happened, it felt good to have my wife back.
Back and safe and home with me.
For a moment, I buried my face in her hair and simply held her. The honey scent of her was a moment of escape. When I lifted my head again, I’d have to face the cruel reality that lay before us.
“Wolfe,” Elariya whispered against my cheek and pulled back enough to look at me. “Are you okay?”
I pressed my forehead to hers. “I'm here now.”
I inched away, sweeping my gaze across the room.
Everyone was here. I paused on each of their faces.
Alaric. Garrick. Bastian. Arielle. Kaem.
They’d all gone pale. The knot in my stomach tightened. There was no doubt Elariya had told them who were up against.
Arielle looked the most terrified. I expected that. Apart from Elariya, she was the youngest and didn’t have the same experience as the rest of us who’d lived for centuries and seen beings like the Deathless disappear into myth.
Honestly, we were all too young. Even Kaem at eighteen hundred years old.
"What do they know?" I asked Elariya quietly.
“They know what you know.” Her expression sobered. “We waited until you got back before discussing anything further.”
A muscle ticked in my jaw. “Good.” There was no point speculating until we had all the facts.
"I have a lot to tell you."
"We need to speak. Preferably in the Hollow Room. And we need the Seer.”
One by one, they nodded. Then, together, we made our way below.
I reached out to the Seer before we arrived in the room, beckoning her to come. I was glad when she responded, speaking in my mind.
She was already waiting in the center of the room when we arrived.
From the ashen look on her face dimming her skin, I could tell she knew what was going on, too.
“I saw them,” she declared, her voice trembling. “They were here in Galaythia.”
Experience had taught me that when people like her look scared, it was never a good sign.
“Yes,” I replied.
We gathered around her. She focused on Elariya.
“Come forward, child.” She beckoned her with a soft wave of her delicate fingers. “Tell us what you know.”
“You probably all need to sit. This is going to be a long one.” Elariya glanced at the others.
They sat on the floor. I remained standing near her and the Seer.
Elariya began. She told us about the cottage and how Thayden, his father, and—surprise, surprise—Prince Maelor had summoned the Deathless.
Zyrra and two others. I wasn't as well versed on them as someone like Kaem, but I knew there were three of them. The first of our kind. The purest bloodline.
And they took pride in that. Too much pride.
Enough to wage wars against mixed bloods and other races throughout the magical realm.
Elariya told us about the acolytes. Those who saw without eyes and spoke without lips. She described another being, too. A creature who must have been the soul-weaving necromancer.
They'd been behind the disappearances. The rituals. The bodies. Everything.
Then she recounted the sacrifice of the handmaiden and the mention of the eclipse.
By the time she finished, the Seer looked worse—a physical manifestation of how I felt.
In the back of my mind, the same question kept surfacing.
How had we missed this?
We'd spent months investigating and found nothing.
Not a single clue beyond the certainty that a dark power was at work. If not for Elariya, we'd still be stumbling around in the dark.
But it wasn't entirely our fault.
Everything connected to the Deathless had been erased.
Every tome.
Every record.
Every mention.
Gone.
There was nothing to find.
Which explained why they had remained hidden for so long and why they could evade beings like the Seer.
The lack of a magical signature made sense now, too. The Deathless wouldn't leave traces of ordinary magic behind. They'd leave something older.
Something we'd never thought to search for because no record of it remained.
Silence filled the room for a moment, allowing the tension to cling to the air.
“What are they?” Elariya asked. “You all look so terrified.” She looked around at everyone then focused on me.
“They are First-Age Elder Fae. Three siblings. One female, two males, born of the original bloodline from elf-kind.” The Seer held our gazes.
“Their names were lost throughout the ages and they simply became known collectively as the Deathless. One is a master of illusions. That would be Zyrra. From the little I know, she can copy a person and everything about them down to their memories. But as Wolfe explained the other day, the person needs to be dead. As for her brothers, one has power over life and death, and the last has power over the soul.”
“Why didn’t we know about them?” Elariya asked. “They sound like beings we should know about.”
"Knowledge of them vanished after the War of the Third Age, a war they started in an attempt to return the world to the purity of the First Age."
“Purity?” Elariya looked more unnerved.
“They believed the world had become corrupted by mixed bloodlines, the vampyres’ thirst for immortality, Seers who saw too much, lesser races, and humans.
The world was evolving. Magic began to change.
They saw it as corruption and wanted to rid the magical realm of anyone who didn’t fit in.
” She paused to bring her hands together, the bell of her sleeve rustling against the movement.
“The Deathless were among the first to agree to the Veil.
Humans carried no magic, and the Deathless believed they had no place in the magical realm.
But their hatred did not stop there. Once the humans were separated from us, they turned their attention inward to eradicate the corrupted.
They and those who worshipped them called it preservation.
The rest of the realm called it extermination.
It was. Everyone came together to fight.
After their defeat in the war, all kingdoms of Vaelthorne agreed to tarnish every record about them and their gruesome crimes. Over the ages, they became forgotten."
Elariya’s brows furrowed. “But clearly, they didn’t die.”
The Seer shook her head. “They were weakened enough to be considered dead. But they cannot be killed. Their abilities over life, death, and the soul made them impervious to harm. The old kings did the only thing they could by draining them of their power and imprisoning them beyond the living realms. And sealed the prison with the Ring of Kings.”
Elariya looked at me, then, her face paler than ever.
Yes, that ring.
The very ring that tied our fates together. Mine. Hers. And now everyone’s.
This was always above me. I knew that.
I’d just never imagined that when my father was murdered and the ring taken that it would be tied to any of this. The Deathless shouldn’t even exist to me.
“That’s why they want the ring?” Elariya gasped breathlessly. “But they must have broken free somehow. I saw them. All of them.”
“No,” Kaem cut in. “What you saw were manifestations. Even Zyrra. Her power would have allowed her to project her essence and inhabit the body she chose to copy. But she is not really here.”
“Correct.” The Seer nodded. “They remain imprisoned. But it appears their followers have been hard at work to revive them. What we’ve been seeing have been revivification rituals. They’ve been stealing souls, feeding on them. Now they are taking human blood, souls, and essence.”
“Why involve the humans?” Arielle cut in. “Why not more magical beings?”
“My dear girl, humans possess something immortals do not. Their lives are brief. Every emotion burns brighter because of it. When they love, they love deeply. When they grieve, it consumes them. Their souls carry a potency that immortal beings simply cannot replicate. It’s energy.
Something potent the Deathless can use to help them to rebuild. ”
Arielle and Elariya glanced at each other.
“The fact that they have now manifested suggests someone has been helping them for a long time,” the Seer added.
“Dreynthor had been plotting for ten years,” I said.
Her expression grew grimmer. “I’d say it was a lot longer than that. More like… two hundred years at the very least. I also believe the idea to revive them may have begun with him. Only a Nightblade could have instigated their awakening, because of the bloodline.”
Bastard. “He wanted to rule Galaythia and my father stood in the way.” All my life, I had suspected as much.
Yet somehow, Dreynthor had proven even more dangerous than I’d imagined.
“Nightblade blood is connected to the ring. He may not have been able to wield its power, but one drop of his blood would have been enough to weaken the seals that bound them and begin the revivification process.”
“Indeed.” The Seer dipped her head. “The ring was forged by the first Nightblade kings using dragon magic and their own blood. So, sealing the prison with the ring also meant binding them with Nightblade blood. Dreynthor is the only Nightblade I can think of who had motive for wanting to release the Deathless.”
“And with his help,” I muttered, “it was only a matter of time before they grew stronger.”
“Strong enough to break free?” Alaric asked, looking from me to the Seer.
“Yes. But not without help.”
“The eclipse?” I supplied, as the pieces began forming together.
“Yes. Magic is stronger during rare celestial events.”
“Like the Phantom Moon,” Bastian offered. “They used that, too, didn’t they?”
The Seer nodded.
“The rebels became more active during that whole time,” Alaric surmised. “And Dreynthor faked his assassination attempt.”
“Yeah, to cover up what they were really doing,” I muttered.
“An eclipse always happens a few weeks after the passing of a Phantom Moon,” Garrick added. “There must be something special about this one. They would have had at least three Phantom Moons in the last two hundred years.”