Chapter 54
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Morwyn.
—From Lyvia’s list.
Lines of blazing rubelline stone glowed red in the darkness that enveloped the lowest level of Mount Telum’s dungeon.
A cage surrounded the Stone Witch as she sat covered in her own filth and reeking like rotten flesh.
Half her teeth were gone, and what could be seen of her arms and face were marbled with fresh scars.
That scratchy, straw-like gray hair was cut short against her scalp, and her nose had been hacked off.
The Stone Witch’s violet eyes stayed fixed on me, and I felt a gentle tap once more.
“Hello, Death Digger, it’s time to pay. The debt you owe grows heavier each day.”
The stone-on-stone grinding of her voice was somehow more sickening as she spoke it with half her teeth. My gut twisted at her words, and Astraeus stiffened next to me.
Undo it for us, she’d said, all those months ago in Odessa. Undo his treasons. What had he done? Who had done it?
I eyed the cage containing the powerful witch.
Built with rubelline stone, or at least enough of it to render her powers somewhat null.
She could still reach me, mind-to-mind, but she couldn’t speak to me.
Was this what had drained Saros of so much power?
He was strong, but he seemed weaker in the tower after his shield had fallen.
“I will,” I replied, still unsure what I had agreed to all those months ago. “After you tell me how to defeat Dark King Daimos.”
A soft chuckle gurgled from the other side of the bars.
“What you need is me,” she said, her pale, sickly gums peeking out from beneath her lips. “To help, I must be free.”
“You’ll help us defeat the dark king?” I asked.
“It’s my right to take his soul,” she hissed in the darkness, “for cursing me with the power he stole. He tricked the old king into protecting his home, for he knew I’d return to take back the throne.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked softly, the pieces of a complex puzzle slowly starting to come together. “Who are you?”
“The power of the seasons remembers well. Undo it now, and I need not tell,” she whispered.
A hand gripped my elbow, and I turned to face Astraeus, eyes narrowed in warning, “Don’t do this, Lyvia.”
“The Bonder has no choice,” the Stone Witch cackled from the other side of the cage. “She has a debt to pay, sworn with her mind’s voice.”
Astraeus stilled before turning toward the witch.
“You swore an oath to her, mind-to-mind?” he breathed, keeping his eyes on the witch.
My throat bobbed. “I made a deal with her at Odessa. She’d warned us the ashen were coming. And I needed to access my powers. I don’t know what she did, but I agreed to undo it for her in exchange for her help.”
“How did she help you?” Astraeus’s eyes were as depthless as the night as he turned them back to me. The rubelline stone brightened the red in his dark hair and cast his skin in a crimson hue.
“I...” I stuttered, searching my memories. “I…I honestly don’t know. She said she’d send a sign from Aelius’s brow, and then…”
Astraeus palmed one of the two rubelline daggers he always wore as he angled himself between me and the witch.
“And then the Sending occurred,” he answered for me. “The moons crossed in front of the sun, creating a twin eclipse. The event that shouldn’t have taken place for another two years. Yet somehow…”
The Stone Witch cackled from across the chamber.
“Clever, clever pirate lord,” she whispered. “When he discovered it was gone, the good king roared.”
“Discovered what was gone?” I asked.
“The Celestyn Bone,” Astraeus answered. “She had it. And she used it to manipulate the twin eclipse last spring.”
My mouth hung open.
“The Celestyn Bone can—”
“Move celestial objects,” Astraeus murmured. “Break worlds.”
“Where is it?” I turned back to the Stone Witch.
“Saros spent much power in binding me here. But I’m stronger than he thought, aren’t I, dear?”
A sharp hammer pounded in my mind, vanishing as quickly as it arrived.
“Stop doing that,” I hissed through my teeth, rubbing the space between my eyes. “I swore no air oath to you.”
“No,” Astraeus breathed beside me. “You bound yourself in another way. With your mind’s voice. Something older, something deeper than even an air oath. There’s no getting out of this. It’s why she can still reach your mind, even through the rubelline cage.”
Fuck.
Could I use my powers to cut this type of bond? What would the risk be? Would the physical blow hit my mind instead of my body, since it was sworn that way? A plunging feeling entered my chest at the thought of risking my mind…
I eyed the star-shaped divot in the center of the cage and cocked my head as I examined the lock. There was something familiar about…
Astraeus placed a white shard in my hand.
I snapped my face at him, and the corner of his lip twitched.
“You took this from Saros’s tower,” I snapped. “This was on top of his staff.” My brows narrowed as I scanned the pirate.
“Seemed like it could be important,” he murmured, his eyes still on the Stone Witch.
“Thief.”
“Bonscaíh.”
His eyes slid to mine before darting to my lips. I ignored the look and heaved an exasperated sigh. Well, fuck. If I tried to ignore the Stone Witch and pretend we’d never found her, she’d simply mangle my brain with whatever mental link our deal had created. And I couldn’t risk damaging my mind…
“Do you need me to—” Astraeus began, his brows tilting up as he lifted a hand.
“No,” I cut him off. No, I could do this without him.
I muttered the rubelline spell beneath my breath before placing the key inside the lock, twisting once as the glowing red light went dark. Soundlessly, the iron, rubelline-laced cage melted into the ground.
The Stone Witch inhaled deeply and blinked as she sat on the floor, waiting for me. Astraeus’s glowing blade was at her throat a moment later, his eyes on me.
This could be a mistake…
The Stone Witch’s violet eyes glowed a soft pink above Astraeus’s rubelline dagger. My gaze drifted to the pirate standing guard, lingering for a moment on his scarred lower lip, before meeting his stare.
His dark eyes dipped in soft confidence as they held my gaze. “I’m with you. You are not alone,” he said, his words escaping in a breath as if they’d waited there for years. The strong column of his neck bobbed as his eyes held mine, their marbled gray illuminated in the rubelline glow.
A distant memory caressed my consciousness, and I blinked, something reluctant inside me softening. I pulled my gaze back to the witch, reaching deep within my well of power and tugging on a note of Transcindiel. It lifted an ear, cocking its head at my call.
My mind drifted to the ashen as I reached out with that little strand of golden power. It floated to the Stone Witch, curving back and forth, examining the creature.
Ever so gently, it landed atop her head. I did my best not to jump as it recoiled, as if disgusted with the result of its power ages ago, but it stayed focused on her. I pushed a little harder as I reached for the amplifier around my neck, its power warming my chest.
The Stone Witch closed her eyes, nodding as I pushed more power into her. I spiraled the Transcindiel around her until she was encased in a web of golden light. The Obscura sat at attention beneath my veins, watching its twin work while preparing to unleash itself should anything go wrong.
My chest sizzled beneath the amplifier as the Transcindiel’s light spun faster and faster before it suddenly retracted. I fell back as the force of the power’s retreat hit me.
Long, gray hair splayed on the dark stone, surrounding the naked women. She blinked, violet eyes darker as she pushed against the floor and stood.
A gasp escaped as I took in her ethereal face, the delicately pointed ears, and the eight-pointed, luminous star shining from the center of her bare chest.
My pulse paused as realization hit me. At whom, exactly, stood before us beneath Mount Telum.
Mystic. Bellator. Queen. Prophet.
Olienna.