Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen
Sierra
Brother. That one word rang around me with as much conviction as a death knell. Either they were siblings or, more likely, Phobius had previously been a Servant. The latter made way more sense to me, especially if what I’d seen in my vision was of Phobius standing before…
Wait.
That would mean Phobius was centuries old.
“I’ll have mercy on you, Omega,” the man made of midnight drawled. I stared at him, taking him in, looking at him with fresh eyes. Were he and Demos brothers?
Hanging on a cord around his hand were rabbits, and these he tossed on the ground by the fire. “While Demos prepares our meal, I’ll tell you a story.”
“Phobias—” Demos warned.
“No, it’s time she learned the truth about who we are and who she is.”
“What are you talking about?” I stood up and walked over to him.
Phobius was much taller than me, and being so near him right now, I had to tilt my head back just to meet his dark blue eyes. His hair was unfastened, its beauty hanging in a graceful curtain of ebony around his handsome face. As usual, I could scent nothing from him, no trace that he was even in front of me.
“I suggest you sit down for this,” he said with a smirk.
When I did no such thing, he shrugged. “Very well, then.”
“What…” The words died as his form blurred before my eyes, shrinking into a mass of color until all that was left was a flap of silky black wings, the wings of a crow. I didn’t feel the ground as my bottom hit it with a thump. A copper taste filled my mouth.
I had bitten my tongue from the impact.
I stared in disbelief at the crow a foot in front of me on the cave floor. Its eyes took me in, and I recognized that beady gaze. The first time I’d seen the creature was on a midnight, back on my balcony banister in the guest room of Goth Mor Helle.
“Fear.”
A caw answered me, and I could have sworn it was laughing at my reaction. I barely had time to process what exactly had happened before Phobius was standing before me once more. I scooted back as fast as I could until my back met rock.
“What are you?” Horror and fascination bled through my voice.
“I’m afraid the answer to that is quite convoluted. Let’s just say that Titus is filled with entities you humans would tear your eyes out from if only you knew.”
“Stop with the dramatics, Phobius,” Demos said. I had forgotten he was even in the cave with us.
I glanced over at him without a thought. He was in the midst of skinning the kills, readying them for the fire, his eyes on his work.
“Fine.” Phobius slowly walked closer to me, then sat down, legs crossed, hands relaxed on his knees. “That cantankerous old boot over there is my brother. By blood. What we are isn’t human, at least not in the way you classify human. We’ve been around for longer than you could possibly imagine. Like you, we live for a long time, but far longer. Your vision confirms this. That was me you saw. It was one of the times I’d been a Servant, and that particular day you happened to witness was indeed the marriage of King Gregoras marrying his bride, the future mother of Fadon, Ander, and Mari.”
The scent of animal fat tickled my nose, but hunger was forgotten as I tried in vain to follow the outrageous conversation that had me both riveted and terribly confused.
“Their marriage,” he continued, “was predestined, just like yours. House Trajan being the critical role in all of this, mind.”
“But I didn’t marry into House Trajan. Unless…”
“I see they took your osnat. I’m sure your husband will procure you another as soon as one can be found. He’s quite possessive, which is a family trait, it seems.”
Demos glanced sharply at his brother. “So it’s true? Lucius is the Heir?”
“It is,” Phobius answered.
“Why didn’t you tell me this months ago, Phobius?” Demos was washing his hands with the rest of the water from the canteen. “So much time has been wasted that you could have prevented.”
Phobius rolled his eyes. “You and I both know that things have to be set into place first. Had I told you, it would have unfolded much differently.”
Blowing out a breath in frustration, I clenched my fists. “Please don’t tell me this is about some white queen prophecy.”
Phobius had a look of surprise on his face. It almost made him seem normal.
“I see you already know what you are. Good. Saves me time, then. All of this is about one thing, Sierra. You leading Titus back to its rightful place and time. Man has abandoned the old ways, the true ways, the ways that protect Titus and keep it whole. Greed and conceit have weakened the bond, and if we’re not careful, if you cannot see to this end, then all hope is lost.”
“Are you saying the world depends on me?” I scoffed. “This isn’t real, is it? I suffered from hypothermia, and I’m somewhere in the middle of the forest, frozen and at Death’s door, right?”
When Demos and Phobius simply looked at me, the former looking worried, the latter seeming irritated, I asked it again. “Right?”
“I assure you. This is very real, woman.” Phobius dared me to argue.
“Melos,” Demos replied softly, coming up to me and scooping me up. “Me finding you in Providence wasn’t by chance but by choice. Auria and the others came to us with instructions to find you. Alpha Queen Mari had requested a bride, and while the Owl went to procure a candidate, I used the opportunity to carry out the elementals’ order and found you. You were not the original Fealty choice. I made that choice. I was told to find the strongest, rarest Omega in the land, and I found you just in time. I was to deliver you to the Heir of House Trajan. Though he wasn’t the right one, Ander’s meeting you set things in motion, and now here we are. But there is much to do. Something the Fates cannot show us, only in hindsight do we see. A lot of the things we’re telling you now we had to learn along the way.”
He looked at his brother with a scowl. “And some we had to hide from one another, it seems.” He cupped my cheek. “Is that why you ran, Melos? Because you’d learned Lucius is a Trajan?” he asked me, softer now.
A longing for Lucius threatened to drown me. I still had yet to reach down into the bond, to sweep my fingers into it and fill my hand with the essence that bound Lucius to me. Anger and resentment and self-pity was much too loud, screaming at me to not even consider trying it.
“Yes. He’s known all along that the dead king was his father. He had me fooled. He lied to me when he said he didn’t know anything about his paternity. And, no, he didn’t admit it, but I saw the truth in his eyes. He used me, and only the gods know what his intention is now.”
“Granted, Lucius is a creature of scheming,” Phobius joined in, butting himself into the bubble of intimacy Demos and I had made, “I can tell you, however, he truly had no intention of mating with you, Sierra. He tried to fight it, in fact.”
“How do you know him, anyway? What are you to him?”
“An advisor, I guess you could say. And a friend.”
“Does he know… what you are?”
“Only part. Besides Demos, you are the only one to know it in full. That knowledge, in the wrong hands, would mean our demise. It’s already dangerous enough taking flight.”
I thought about that, then stupidly it hit me. “You’re Neil’s pet.”
He made a face, and Demos laughed, something I rarely heard from him.
“I am no one’s pet, I assure you.”
I huffed. “Phobius, that was you on my balcony that night. Don’t try to deny it. In fact, I last saw Fear a few weeks ago!”
“Actually, I haven’t seen Neil since the night of the welcome feast in Ordelpho. Which was when I last saw you, before yesterday. It was when I’d returned from Odessia. Remember I had left, back in Port Minerva?”
I shook my head. “That’s not true, though. I saw you on the Freedom. You shared food with my…”
He smirked. “Oh, please do continue. With your what?”
“My owl.” I frowned. It was too much of a coincidence. Or was it?
Slowly, I turned around in Demos’ lap and looked at him. “If you’re brothers. And you’re not human…”
Demos cupped my face. “That was me, yes.”
Phobius cleared his throat. “Hate to break up this lover’s moment, but the rabbit is burning.”
Demos hastily got up, removing me from his lap. Phobius resumed the conversation once again.
“Once upon a time, King Gregoras was on his way to the Ongahri’s gathering called the Consortium. While passing through a town, his eye was caught by a pretty little omega who was selling flowers on the side of the road. The king stopped and purchased some, and after a long lingering look at her, he and his retinue marched off. But that night, the king slunk away back into that village, found the girl and raped her.”
I gasped, my hand coming to my mouth. “Oh, Gods. Lucius’ mother.”
“Indeed.”
“How do you know this?”
“He told me, bragged about it the next morning.”
“But… he was married!”
He gave me a droll look. “By the Wind, are you really that innocent? Where you’re from, men are that faithful? Truly?”
I felt myself blush at being made fun of. “I only mean that, well, Fadon’s nothing like that. Neither is Ander or Mari. And I just figured…” Just because he was king didn’t make him a saint, I thought. “Anyway, go on.”
“At the time, I was a visiting advisor, temporary. He had no memory of when I’d married him and his wife a century prior. In those days a Servant was always an advisor to the Ongahri royals. Gregoras was a braggart. I simply took note of certain things, watching and learning. Waiting. Something told me to keep track of this omega over the years. When she died, I found Lucius living with distant relatives, malnourished and neglected. He was a spitfire, even then.” Phobius seemed to find the memory a good one, because for the first time, a genuine smile lifted his mouth, transforming him from handsome to breathtakingly beautiful.
“Through the years, I watched still, and only when the king was on his deathbed did I tell him about the boy. Gregoras begged me to keep the boy’s identity and his part in his creation a secret. His wife had been dead for quite some time, and Mari had already been prepped to take the crown. Had Lucius’s existence been exposed then all of House Trajan would be threatened. A king from outside the fold? Never going to happen. And so I kept it to myself. Only when he was older did I introduce myself to Lucius, the Heir to the Trajan crown.”
“Does he know you know?” I nodded my thanks at Demos, who handed us our meal of rabbit served on skewers of sturdy twigs.
“No. He has no idea I know.”
I became silent as I thought over everything he’d revealed.
Beside me, Demos looked tense. “And is that information something you’re going to pull out of a hat at some point, Phobius?” Demos was angry, and I couldn’t blame him. Phobius seemed stuffed to the brim with secrets. He would have made a fine elemental or Sapera, I thought dryly.
“If things don’t go the way we need them to, I most certainly will.”
I shook my head. “Don’t. Mari is a good queen. Revealing Lucius’ true identity would serve no purpose.”
“Again,” Phobius said snuggly. “If it—”
I waved a hand at him. “What is the end result here? What is this all ultimately about and why me? What do I have to do with this? Seems to me, if the elementals wanted something done, they’d have the power and more to see to it themselves.”
“Because, my dear, there is another force involved, one from your darkest nightmares. Literally, if I read you right. You’ve seen him. And once we’re done eating, you’ll see him again.”
“This is a terrible idea,” Demos said for the fifth time as we sat around the fire. Demos had taken off his cloak and tunic, leaving him bare chested next to me. He hadn’t let go of my hand since after we’d finished eating. His aura had a certain desperation to it that scared me. Demos never showed fear in my presence, so much so that sometimes I questioned whether he was even human.
Which of course, I knew now he kind of wasn’t.
I didn’t know what to think about all they’d told me. A big part of me just kept brushing these unbelievable facts away to think on for later—or never—and just focus on the moment, because gods knew, each moment after I’d woken up an hour or so ago was one revelation after another.
Men who were not human, who could shift into birds, and who had been around long enough to be advisor to a king that had been born three hundred years ago.
And that horrible story about Lucius’ conception, his poor mother. I finally understood his hate, though. I would hate everything having to do with House Trajan, too, if I were him.
I focused back on the present with a shock when Phobius started undressing. Heat bloomed in my cheeks as I watched him disrobe. The strange yet beautiful markings on his chest were an exact replica of Demos’ markings, both in color and form.
Both brothers had explained that the markings were actually spells that, when invoked, gave them abilities that were tied to their natures: Seraphs. He and Demos were Seraphs… gods. I was vaguely familiar with the word from books I’d read in Father’s library. Beings of light and air, who in human form appeared with massive, feathered wings. Ethereal beings that showed up in the midst of epic battles and historical events. That was the extent of my knowledge, however. Like the elementals, they were mythical figures that lived in grand tales, not creatures who walked among us.
“Remember what we talked about, Omega,” Phobius said, ignoring Demos. “Do not approach anyone. Do not make a sound. Only use your senses.”
I nodded, swallowing down my fear. They had explained what they needed me to do, but not the why.
“What am I looking for and how will I know it when I see it?”
“When I was in Goth Mor Helle,” Demos said, “Lady Lordes said she’d seen you in the In-Between. We’ll be taking you to that exact spot where she found you.”
So that had really been Lady Lordes in my vision? “Wait. Where the crying lady was?”
They shared a look, Phobius nodded and said, “Yes. And anyone who happens to be near her.”
“Who is she? And she is in this In-Between, this realm you explained before?”
“That’s what we need to find out. But first, let’s try it this way.” Phobius held out his hand, and I reluctantly took it, feeling confused again by his omissions. His hand was warm and large and surprisingly gentle, exactly like Demos, who held my other hand.
“Okay.”
I shut my eyes and waited. This part had been explained. Like the rite of Delphos, I’d be taken on an inner journey. Except for wine, the brothers would use their… spells and words, which is what I heard now as they began to speak in a musical language I’d never heard.
Warmth spread through me, starting at my hands, then swirling to my chest, where it branched out like honey being poured into my very being.
The world faded away, or rather a doorway appeared. I stepped through it. All around me was silver, a sea of space. There was no scent, no sound, no air to touch my skin, just space.
Distantly, like from another room, I could still hear Phobius and Demos, their words a humming whisper. I waited. Nothing was happening. But then a whooshing sound came from behind me, and I willed my consciousness to focus there. A sliver of undulating color broke through the empty space, like a large tear in fabric.
The tear widened. Through it I saw a floor of snow. A forest.
Step through it. It was Demos’ voice.
And so I did. As soon as my whole body had entered the space, frigid air struck me.
Use your senses. Phobius.
Cold. Wind. Snow. Frozen sap. Fresh pine. Winter air.
Crying.
There.
When I located the place the sound was coming from, I headed in that direction, ignoring the cold as much as I could. It was hard, but I remembered that it wasn’t real. This place was a creation. A thought. Once I remembered that, I stopped shivering and wondered what else I could do.
Pushing off the ground with my bare feet, I lifted a few inches, willing my body to go higher, to contract smaller, small enough to be even a butterfly.
With a smile, I zoomed toward that painful lament, and when I spied its source, all traces of joy were erased. The woman I had seen in my vision was now encased in crystal, an icy globe made of frozen tears. Even though her form was hidden from me, her crying was as real as anything, growing louder the closer I got.
Stop.
Whether Demos or Phobius, it didn’t matter. I froze midair and hovered, trying to sense what it was that had them alert. The forest around me was hauntingly beautiful and so very real. Acres of snow covered the ground, mirroring the sky above. It was peaceful, but only if you ignored the crying.
Peace was quickly shattered, though, when a grinding metallic sound grated in my ear on my left. It was a horrible sound, a sound no living creature could tolerate without going mad. I was too terrified to turn in that direction, though, so inch by inch I pulled back, my gaze still on the sad woman trapped in her crystal cocoon.
The sound grew and with it my fear. If this place wasn’t reality, my mind was not buying it. In seconds, I dropped to the snow and landed hard, my hands braced out in front of me.
“I see you. Do you see me?”
The voice, the words wrapped around me, stunning me.
I needed to get out of here. Now.
“Demos! Phobius! Take me out… Now, hurry, it—”
That sound… I was fighting, scrambling, a tangle of limbs in the snow…
“Sierra, it’s over now, you are safe.” Demos’ arms were around me. I was heaving in fear, panic pumping like blood in my veins. “Shh. It is all right, Melos. You are safe.”
“No it’s not all right! Oh gods…. That sound…” Now I was crying in earnest, speaking gibberish. Phobius was trying to talk over me, but Demos only growled.
“She needs a minute!” Demos shouted. Then a beautiful sound I hadn”t heard in weeks greeted my ears. A purr. Deep and soothing.
“We don’t have even a second, Demos.” Phobius pulled me out of Demos’ arms and turned me around to face him, clutching me. It was such a shocking move that I immediately stopped crying. “Was there anyone there with you?”
“Leave her alone, Phobius.”
I put out my hand, still listening to that purr. As Jon had said long ago, the sound was meant for healing, and it lifted me out of my panic. “It’s okay, Demos. I’m okay.”
Phobius released me but took my face in his hand, his beautiful eyes boring into mine. “Answer me, Sierra.”
“No. I saw no one. Just—just her. In ice. No one else”
“And was there anything around her, anything that looked out of place?”
I tried to think past that horrible sound. “Snow. Trees. Cold air and wind and her crying. Nothing. And then…”
“And then, what? What, Sierra?” His voice was surprisingly gentle, as was his touch still on my chin.
“A man’s voice. Dark and—and… and velvet. Powerful. Everything.”
Phobius swallowed, then whispered his next words, “And what did that voice say?”
“He said ‘I see you. Do you—do you see me.’” Just saying the words had me quivering like a leaf in the wake of a storm. And with an oomph of surprise, Phobius held onto me as I threw myself into his arms.
Now two purrs joined in.