Chapter 35 #2
Sara would call this unbecoming of an empath. Cruel, even. I don't care. I'm dragged to the front of the platform, forced to my knees. A blade presses to my throat. I stop breathing. I don't dare look up toward the Sages. Can't risk drawing attention to Malachi and Kage.
Constantine's lips curve. "You are Ada, then. Jordan's sister. A healer, if that man is to be believed." His smile sharpens. "I'm sorry there's no room for you on the stage with your friends. Yet."
My eyes narrow, then fly to my friends. Naima and Cas are livid. Margot is panicked, staring at someone near the stage. I follow her gaze to Bastian, who’s standing there, shoulders back, expression drawn.
My sigil burns again. He doesn't look happy. But his eyes aren't empty like Arlo's. And he's not doing anything to stop this.
"The next traitor pains me, truly." Constantine's pout is theatrical.
Disgusting. "This one has a gift he tried to bury.
Every touch reveals recent memories. Every intimate touch.
.." He pauses for the crowd's murmur. "Reveals everything.
Fortunately, Nicolas has a similar gift.
And has been very thorough in his service to the Council. "
My stomach drops. Nicolas. The Council member Bas was in love with. Bas, who has always had a poker face that could fool anyone, looks like he's fighting tears.
Guards close in. People he probably knows. People he called friends. All of this is sickening.
"I thought gifts didn't exist!" The words tear from my throat. "I thought the Council was against them! Why is Nicolas allowed to use his?"
The crowd stirs. Agitated. It doesn't matter whose side they're on. Noise is good. Distraction. Time. Anything that will help us.
Constantine's eyes narrow. "Silence!" He gestures to the guards. "Bring him up."
"Nicolas!" Bas breaks free, makes it halfway across before they catch him again. They cuff his wrist with ivory. He keeps fighting.
I reach for the bond, grasping for anything that'll keep me grounded. I let out a breath when I find it and feel the warmth. Then I hear gasps. Even Bas stops fighting and looks to the left. I turn and frown when I see a man in dark green and gold, like a Council member, walking over.
Constantine's strangled gasp beckons my attention. There's a look of awe on his face when he whispers, "Everlasting?"
My stomach lurches so hard, I double over. I hiss at the bite of the blade slicing into my neck. My hands land on the sand before my face hits.
I turn to look at this Everlasting. I don't know what I expected evil to look like. Not this. Not a regular man. There's nothing remarkable about him. And yet I can't look away.
"Why don't you tell him how you're his true heir?" someone shouts.
"Isn't that what you've been claiming?" yells another.
Constantine blanches. "No, no. I said I wished I were his heir!" His laugh is shaky. Desperate.
I look at Cato again. Watch the bottom of his cloak slowly fade. A mirage. Malachi's mirage. I bite back a laugh and push gratitude through the bond.
"Who did this?" Constantine roars, pointing at the spot Cato's image vanished from.
"Maybe it's the Everlasting punishing you for your lies!" someone yells.
"Who said that?" Constantine bellows, face red as he looks up at the crowded stands. "Traitors!" He whirls on Bastian.
"I've done nothing wrong!" Bastian spits. "I gave you everything! My whole life!"
Constantine's grin wavers. The crowd is turning. He feels it.
"What kind of leader uses his guards' thoughts against them?" someone yells.
"A cage!" I shout. "This whole place is a cage built on lies!"
"Silence!" Constantine's face contorts with rage. "SILENCE!"
I take a deep breath and try to focus on my serephony as Constantine looks around wildly. I lift my hands from the sand as if burned. There's so much anguish, so much anger, the ground is practically vibrating with it.
I think of what Kage said about the Bratus. What Jordi said about memory stones. Maybe both are down there. Maybe something worse.
"You were useful to me. That's all any of you ever were!" Constantine snaps at Nicolas. "Would you like to say anything to your former lover?"
Nicolas presses his lips together. Shakes his head.
Bas's shoulders shake with rage. The rage he was allowed while we were forced to swallow ours. I think of how angry he was as a child. How quiet he became after the Dueling Estate. None of it matters now. I may not care for him, but he doesn't deserve this.
No one does.
"Arlo," Constantine barks.
Arlo walks over with his bow and arrow and stands in front of the platform, just feet away from me, feet away from Bas.
I stop breathing when I realize what's about to happen. Still, I shake my head in denial. Arlo lifts his bow and nocks the arrow on the string, pointing it directly at Bas' chest.
"Arlo!" I shriek. “No!”
Margot lets out a guttural scream and crumples. The guards at her sides hold her up before her knees hit the ground. Naima and Cas yell at the same time.
"Arlo is a master archer," Constantine announces. "And he will bend to my will."
The guards haul me to my knees. I can't stop myself from looking up. Mal and Kage are there. Far above. Working on Freida's manacles. Anala and Sara are already free.
I see his face turn towards me. I hear loud thumps on the stage, the sound of everyone's gasp, and look to find two guards on the ground with their amulets nearby. I look at Mal again, knowing he's responsible somehow, and again, send him a burst of gratitude.
More time. Constantine claps his hands. New guards rush forward. They fall too. Again. And again.
"Who is responsible for this?" Constantine roars.
He looks up at the Sages' chains.
Empty.
I look up. No sign of Malachi or Kage either. Relief floods me.
Constantine screams for more guards. More drop. More rush in. A sick, endless game.
He turns back to the crowd, trying to regain control.
Shouting something about Arlo's skills. About justice.
My friends are shaking. Sweating. Bas's pants are stained at the front.
My sigil burns at the sight of it. Arlo lifts his bow again.
Nocks an arrow. Points. His movements are smooth. Mechanical. Empty.
"Arlo!" I shout, managing to crawl two steps before the guards catch me and plant me on my knees again. The blade knicks me again, spilling more drops of blood onto the sand.
"Remember who you are! He's using you! Lo! Please! Lo! Please remember!" I yell over, and over.
"Lo! This isn't you!" Bas shouts, his voice breaking.
Naima. Cas. Margot. All screaming his name. The crowd takes it up. A chant. A plea. Arlo's hand trembles. Something flickers behind those empty eyes. Horror, maybe. The horror he'd feel if he could feel anything at all.
"Please," I beg. "Please, Lo. Don't do this. Don't—"
Constantine waves his hand. "Release."
The arrow flies.
Bastian doesn't have time to scream. One moment he's standing. The next, he's falling backward, an arrow buried straight through his heart.
Margot howls.
The amphitheater erupts.
My sigil burns. Brighter than it ever has. So bright I think it might split me in half.
A scream rips through me as I dig my hands into the sand again.
And then I hear Constantine's voice again. "Get her up! Arlo. Your next mark."
When I lift my head, he's pointing the arrow at Margot's chest, and something inside me hollows.
I look up and see Mal fighting off guards near the tunnels. Kage's shadows are dimming, thinning from overuse. Then I feel it through the bond. A stab of pain. I look back at Malachi. See the gleam of ivory protruding from his side. He sways. His eyes lock on mine.
I tug the bond. Pour everything I have into him. Strength. Love. Whatever's left. A scream tears through me. My fingers dig into the sand. My sigil burns with the unfairness of it all.
It burns at Constantine's voice. At Naima's screams. At the sound of Veritas residents fighting their way out of the tunnels, joining the battle around Kage and Malachi.
I close my eyes and I open myself to everything. Every emotion buried in this ground. Every memory I helped erase. Every scream I helped silence.
I don't reach for a weapon. Don't reach for Malachi or the bond or the gifts I've spent my life hiding. I reach for the anguish. For the anger.
For every memory stone beneath this amphitheater. Every suppressed sob. Every swallowed scream. Every woman in Lunaris who bit her tongue until it bled because the sigil on her chest told her anger was forbidden.
That silence was safer. Every time she was told to follow rules without questions. Every time she smiled when she wanted to scream. I take all of it, until I feel like I'm burning inside.
Until the skin on my chest feels like it's splitting open and something is clawing its way out. And all that rage contained, that I've never been allowed to have, bursts.
The ground shakes. Cracks. I hear screaming. The crowd. Me. Something older.
"What is she doing?" Constantine's voice. Distant. Afraid. "Stop her! STOP HER!"
But no one touches me.
Deep in my chest, something ancient stirs. I feel the Shroud. Feel it lifting. Shifting. And then it's too much. Too much grief. Too much sorrow. Lifetimes of it.
Menace. Malachi's voice. In my head.
Mal? How?
The bond. He sounds tired. I try to open my eyes to look for him, but my eyes are burning. Ada, you need to stop. You're taking too much. You'll drain yourself.
I can’t! I don’t know how.
The ancient thing inside me stirs again. My eyes pop open. I look up and see shadows floating. And then my body rises.
Menace? He sounds drained. Wary now.
I try to find him in the crowd. I can't.
"Her eyes are flashing blue!"
"The true heir!"
"Impossible!" Constantine's voice cracks.
I don't mean to move, but that ancient thing guides me, and suddenly, I'm gliding onto the platform.
"Temp!" Naima's voice. "Your eyes!"
"Something is happening," Cas croaks out as he falls to the ground.
"No, no, no!" Margot cries. I see Arlo's bow and arrow, and his figure on the ground. His amulet. Was Mal able to take off his amulet?
Deep down, I panic. But the ancient thing is stronger. It won't let me waver.
This is Mortiana's message, I realize.
I open my mouth. Hear myself speak in a voice that isn't mine. Clear. Rhythmic. Commanding.
"If I am to become a legend, let it be known: I am Ada the Tempest. Chosen by the gods, along with seven others, to restore the balance."
I turn. Lock eyes with Constantine.
"I am Ada, the Wielder of Wrath. Daughter of Pia of Larimar. Liberator of the Shroud. Killer of the Everlasting."
The gasps wash over me. My vision darkens. My mind slips.
But I fight the current. Reach for the bond. It's weakening, thinning, but I tug hard. Find Malachi's eyes in the crowd.
And I add my own message to Mortiana's. "I am …” I pause. Darkness closes in, but I push past it. “I am Ada Temperance Acevedo. Cursebreaker of Tenebris."
And then, nothing.