22. Kyros #2
“What are you sorry for?” I ask, holding her chin and forcing her to keep her eyes locked on mine. They roll into the back of her head, and her arm falls limply to her side as she says one breathless word.
“Astraea—” Her eyes flutter closed as she loses consciousness again.
My gaze remains fixed on her like that for a long moment.
Lost to what she could have meant… Is she sorry for Astraea?
Finally, I lift Colette into my arms with a grunt and push myself up from the floor.
Ruaan and Astraea back out of the doorway, allowing me to pass, and I lay Astraea’s best friend back down on the bed.
I turn to ask Ruaan what the fuck she was talking about, but Astraea moves quickly to her friend's side. She crouches down, her face a jumble of questions and sorrow. She takes Cole's hand in hers and pries open her fingers. When she turns around and puts her hand palm up, I get a glimpse of something metallic. It’s an intricate silver chain and pendant, and it’s one that I know well.
My brows drop in confusion as my mind whirls on the reason, unless the magick I had felt on the necklace previously…
“What is it?” Ruaan asks.
“My necklace.” Astraea pauses, her eyebrows drawn as she looks at the broken silver chain and then back to her friend struggling just as much as me to understand what had Colette so upset.
“I realized it was missing just before I opened the portal. It must have fallen off when I was in here after training.” Astraea shakes her head as though doing so will make it make sense, and Kaeleith steps up to her side.
She reaches out for the pendant, and Astraea looks up to meet her round, clouded eyes, placing the pendant into her knobby fingers.
A sigh comes from the old dweller before she shakes her head and places a hand on Astraea’s shoulder.
“She has been protecting a secret that was not hers to tell.” Kaeleith’s forlorn features worry me. I stand there a moment longer, staring down at Colette and the confusion rippling through Astraea in waves as Kaeleith ambles from the room.
Colette's eyes move restlessly under her eyelids as Astraea pulls her friend's hands into her own… Pressing my lips into a thin line, I tear my eyes away from them.
“Stay here and keep them in your sight.” I order Ruaan. He narrows his eyes but doesn't give in to the urge to be an arrogant bastard; instead, he quietly responds with a curt nod. I stride into the living room to confront the dweller.
“Aye, I can feel the dark energy coming from you already. May as well come out with it,” she says without looking my way.
I watch Kaeleith silently as she flits through the room packing up items into a satchel and cleaning up remnants of the cooking we had yet to eat.
Though her fingers are knobby with age, they move deftly, flipping through items on shelves and choosing whatever ones she sees fit.
My brows drop as I consider what it is that is making me so angry.
“You know of the necklace.” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. It’s not a question.
“I do.” She says simply, and I wait for her to continue. When she doesn't, I grab hold of the bag she is continually filling and slowly force her to look at me.
“Is there something you need to tell me, Kaeleith?” Luckily my voice doesn't betray me as I ask the question as softly as my growing anxiety will allow.
Everything about this moment has me nearly holding my breath with apprehension.
I had a suspicion the necklace was important, but what does she mean that Colette was keeping a secret that was not hers to tell, and how is it tied to Kaeleith?
“I crafted the magick that the necklace is imbued with.” She admits.
I had a feeling the false King was sitting on more than I knew all these years, but to have a pendant imbued with magick such as this?
And by none other than the dweller that has trained me in several elements of my life.
She holds up the necklace and lets the chain fall free so it hangs from her gnarled fingers, swinging like a pendulum.
“Well, I fear that the girl is going to bring more danger to our realm now that her magick has fully manifested, even if she doesn’t wish it.
” Kaeleith shakes her head, looking down at the necklace that swings between us.
“I made a grave mistake all those years ago, and I tried hard to rectify it the best I could… but fate has a way of making things that are meant to happen come to fruition.”
“Why did you craft this necklace?” I ask, brows furrowed, and doing all that I can to keep my voice from rising. I reach out and take the dainty broken chain.
“I was the Royal Seer who foretold the vision of the coming of tides. The wave of darkness is still on its way, Kyros. And if the magick she wields gets into the wrong hands—it will be the death of us all.”
Those words echo through my mind like a death knell.
She will be the death of you. She will be the death of us all.
Karnnen had warned the same thing, only saying that it would be Astraea, not the magick she has running in her veins.
I thought then that it was proverbial, a metaphor.
Kaeleith hands over a tome I hadn't realized she had grabbed from the shelf, and I brush my hand over the front, clearing the dust from the red leather-bound book.
On the front, a gold mandala; under that, two words. A name.
The Zavian. Prophet of Zameil.