Chapter 47
Betrayal Bone Deep
BLAKE
The last blood mage hit the ground, mask shattered, eyes already glazing. My sword arm dropped. I was nearly depleted of everi. The ballroom was unrecognizable—bodies lay in dark heaps across shattered, blood-stained glass.
It reminded me of the day I fully awakened my everi.
Isabella, unable to look away from the carnage, was panting hard, her blade still dripping with fresh blood. She was far more of a warrior than I had expected.
“Come on,” I said. “We need to catch up to Anna and Caelan.”
She nodded but then her expression hardened abruptly.
The same moment, an intense pressure closed around me. It was like I was near the rift all of a sudden. What was this? My body was thrumming as if liquid fire were rushing through my veins even as the temperature around us dropped.
Neither of us moved, trying to sense where they were. Everi was flooding my veins when something moved in the shadows. He was like a wraith—tall, masked, and cloaked in black.
I could not believe the pressure of the everi radiating from him.
Who was this?
He was nothing like the rest of them.
And it wasn’t good.
“Isabella, get out of here,” I muttered.
She had not made it one step before he raised his hand.
An odd marking on his wrist caught my attention.
It was not familiar. The burst of his everi from his outstretched hand was immediate and punishing.
Isabella was thrown back, hard, into the wall, the impact caving in the stone where she struck it.
I summoned what remained of my everi, but it wasn’t much.
Fuck.
I could not follow his speed as he sent a blow to my stomach that I could not block. I hit the floor, winded, unable to move.
The blood mage stepped forward, arm raised for the kill.
Then—steel clashed against steel.
Someone blocked the blow, cloak still rippling from their lightning speed.
“Still getting yourself into trouble, I see.”
Malakai.
My lungs seized, the sound raw and guttural. “Kai—what the hell are you doing here?”
He did not answer. He was engaged against the masked mage—agile, fierce, focused in a way I had never seen him.
Then it hit me.
A pain. Not from the outside, but from within.
A sudden, stabbing rip through my chest—burning, numbing and paralyzing. It was as if my everi was imploding at my core.
I gasped and staggered.
The masked blood mage faltered too.
Something was wrong. It was Anna’s everi—it was screaming.
What is happening to her?
Malakai twisted to look at me, his expression grim. “Now I understand,” he said. “It was all to separate her from you.”
“She is with him,” I said, the words thick in my throat. “Caelan.”
At that name, the masked mage stiffened. And without another word, he vanished, leaving behind only twisting tendrils of black smoke.
Malakai’s eyes narrowed. “I knew that bastard was up to something. He must be a mind walker. He set me up for this, but I did not realize it until I was in the Realm. It is why I came back. I wanted to beat the shit out of him for trying to make me look guilty. I did not imagine he was the one behind it, though—I thought he just hated me.”
“Caelan?” Isabella asked. “What do you mean?”
“I have to find her,” I said, trying to sense her everi again.
I turned to Malakai. “Take Isabella. Get her to the portal.”
He nodded. “I will, but I am not doing this for you. It is to repay my debt for attacking her.”
Isabella gasped.
“Then you and I are square,” he said, looking at Isabella.
Her expression darkened. I nodded, indicating she should trust him.
Malakai turned his back on me. “Let us go.”
Isabella gave me a wary look but followed.
“Malakai,” I called.
He paused.
“Why did you help me?” I asked.
He didn’t respond for several moments.
“Because I could not let you die before I see you suffer,” he said.
His words struck like a physical blow.
“What is it that I have done to you that is so unforgivable?” I sneered.
Malakai turned, his eyes a deep red and narrowed in anger.
“My entire life, you have been oblivious to anyone’s pain but your own,” he said.
“And when I needed you the most, to be the friend I have been for you, you are distracted by the shiny new toy. If you were paying attention at all, you would have seen through this plot against me—instead, you let me take the fall. Next time, it is your turn.”
I stood there, stunned, watching as he disappeared into the corridor.
Malakai’s words stung as I tried to focus on Anna’s everi. The sudden crescendo of pain sliced through my chest again. I hung onto her everi letting it guide me to her. It was intense, vibrant, and warm. I wasn’t an expert at everi sensing, but with Anna, it was easy.
The catacombs were pitch black and I felt my way along the wet stone walls.
What the hell would he bring her down here for?
Fucking Caelan.
What was he up to, and why take Anna?
Anna was unique, and her everi potent, but she was still inexperienced. What reason could he have to cause all of this to get to her?
And Malakai.
Was he telling the truth? Did he not have anything to do with the missing Initiates? Could Caelan have done this?
The faint glow of torchlight and an agonizing scream accompanied the searing pain that shot through my chest.
I clutched my chest and ran.
Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw before me.
The room was expansive with a stone slab at the center and five pillars surrounding it.
It was lit by five glowing stones, four of which rested in the bound hands of the missing Initiates.
The fifth was a green glowing crystal that sat in a sconce that was bound with rope to the pillar.
It burned the brightest. Anna’s amulet from the play—why was it there?
At the center was Anna, unconscious on the stone slab, her chest covered in red. Caelan sat atop her, blood flecked across his face. He held a bloody dagger in his hand; his clothes covered in blood.
Fury overtook exhaustion as a burst of my everi flooded the room. The glow of the pentagon around them shook and flickered before reforming.
“The barrier is made of her everi,” Caelan said without looking at me. “If you destroy it, you will kill her.”
My veins were pumping viscously.
I touched the glowing shield, feeling Anna’s spirit within. She was unconscious and her chest was a mess of torn, blood-stained fabric.
A deep stabbing pain barreled through me as I watched Caelan drive the dagger into her chest again.
Fury exploded as I yelled, forcing my everi toward Anna, drilling it throughout the barrier.
“It is futile,” Caelan said. “The gem is almost filled.”
Gem?
Shock set my nerves aflame as I looked at the glowing green crystal that burned the brightest—Anna’s amulet. He couldn’t mean a soul gem? Such stones were rare and to hold a mage’s soul was rarer still.
I pushed through more everi, weaving it through deeper and deeper until I could finally feel her presence.
Relief rushed through me as Anna’s eyes shot open. A surge of adrenaline, my adrenaline, was shooting through her.
“The chains, Anna! Cut them! Dagger!” I said, pressing her mind with mine, desperately trying to connect to her subconscious.
With lightning-fast reflexes, she wielded my everi like it was her own and sliced through the chains restraining her.
Her arm shifted, catching Caelan off guard. The dagger never left his hand as Anna wrestled with him before the dagger’s blade was buried between them, their hands wrapped around the hilt. Anna’s eyes slipped closed and her grip slacked.
No.
This could not be happening.
Malakai was right.
I had been distracted this year. How could I have missed this? Caelan was nothing, a lower La’Thenyen of one of the nomadic clans of the south. And he had orchestrated this right in front of me.
Fury coursed through my veins as I flooded Anna with my everi, carving it from deep within dormant parts of my soul, paralyzed as I watched her.
Was I too late? Was the soul gem already filled?
Neither of them moved. The dungeon cell held its breath as we all waited in a terrifying stillness. I could not lose her like this—not now. Not after everything that happened before. I already failed her once; I could not fail her again.
They were bound there in a tragic embrace when Caelan faintly let out his breath. It sounded like a single heartbeat reverberating across the silence before it flatlined.
It echoed around us like an omen as the glowing pentagon between the bodies strung to the pillars faded.
Caelan slid to the floor with a thud as I rushed to Anna.
I pulled her into my arms. Her wounds were severe and grotesque.
Her body was limp and unresponsive. They appeared to have been healing rapidly, over and over, until her everi was nearly depleted.
The most recent stab wounds were bleeding profusely.
I couldn’t see where to apply pressure and focus everi.
“You know our world is doomed,” Caelan said, his voice quiet and fading.
I glanced at him on the floor. He was pale, his hand still loosely gripping the dagger embedded in his heart.
“Is that why you did this?” I spat. “A pathetic attempt to shield a dying world from its doom?”
Caelan tried to laugh, but it was a strained breath. “I would never have sacrificed her life for that. No. Her power is real. She could have saved my people; shielded them as the Realm collapsed around us.”
“Why do you think that?” I asked. “There is no doubt she is unique, but that kind of power? No one has that.”
He started coughing, a wet, deathly sound.
“Adara did,” he whispered.
“You killed them and would have stolen her life based on lies from a thousand years ago?” I seethed. “You are lost and your people will suffer more for it when news spreads of what you have done.”
Caelan’s eyes were hollow.
He was no longer hearing me anymore.
“Beware the Void.”
I felt Anna’s wounds finally closing and continued to drain my everi into her body, repairing as much of the damage as I could.
I glanced down at him and his face was still.
A whimper sounded and Anna jerked, a small cry leaving her lips.
“Anna?”
Her eyes were still closed but she was whimpering in pain. I reached out, summoning the amulet from the claws clamping it to the fifth pillar. It slammed into my hand, hot and glowing.
Inside, Anna’s soul swirled like a galaxy. I held it close to her, reaching with all my power to reverse the flow of her everi. My flesh was burning but I didn’t let go of it, forcing her everi to return to her body. I could feel it; I was so close—a burst of energy exploded around us.
The amulet shattered and the pain was gone.
There was only darkness now.