Chapter 9
DEZ
The entire atmosphere felt suffocating with the thick tension that lurked in the air.
Naaz returned to the castle and retrieved me with his shadow walker.
We were then brought to my courtyard as the rest of our brothers arrived.
Every pair of eyes landed on the man standing at the center of us, with iron chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles.
I had been pissed when I woke from the damned sleeping draught that D had forced me to take, but any anger I bore for him and Cassius quickly simmered away into the fury I had for Cain.
Even with my aching limbs and churning stomach, I could find the strength to kill him if I wanted to. And I did want to. But, of course, we had no idea what that would do to Morrigan.
Gods… I could smell it on him… Smell her. The bond was evident—like an invisible cord tied around his essence. I felt it somehow. Though, I didn’t feel it with Naaz, Eris, or Cassius.
A sudden woosh of air, and Kaiden appeared beside Naaz, his hand wrapped around a young woman’s arm. She looked frightened, a common feeling people seemed to show around Kaiden. Naaz had told me where Morrigan was.
I should tell them what really happened all those years ago…
Everyone was so confused when they found out where she was—thinking the gate had been severed. I knew better, but I wouldn’t dare speak of why or how. I made a promise that day, one I swore I would take to my grave.
But knowing Morrigan was there…
Gods… I could only pray that our mistakes wouldn’t fall onto her shoulders, just as everything else had. She was innocent. If he…
We just have to find her before he does.
“Let’s go,” Kaiden hissed at the young girl, making her cower even lower than she already stood. She couldn’t have been much older than Morrigan, and maybe that should have peeled away at my “bleeding heart,” as Kaiden likes to call it. But when it came to Morrigan…
I think we had all reached a mutual understanding of the lengths we would go at this point. Even if the rest of them wouldn’t vocalize it, with her gone for nearly a month, it had affected each and every one of them.
“W-We will need to go through the tunnels,” she whispered. Kaiden gave her a light shove forward and allowed her to lead us to the entrance.
My blood crawled with tiny needles through my arms as we made our way through the forest. I wasn’t sure how I would react to anything inside.
And as we came to a stop in a small clearing, I felt my heart beating rapidly in my chest. Suddenly, Kaiden offered his hand to the seer, and I tilted my head in question.
“What are you doing?” I asked him. But as she made a small cut along his palm and turned it over, allowing the blood to drop onto the ground, I felt my breath hitch. “Kaiden…”
“Not right now,” he snapped over his shoulder.
Cass moved closer to me, getting a better view of both the seer and Kaiden. “I thought the tunnels could only be opened by—”
“The blood of a god,” the seer whispered nervously.
Everyone stilled, refusing to speak. Though, Cain had a slight smirk on his face as he stared at them.
“How did you get into the tunnels, Cain?” I asked in a low voice. He shrugged, refusing to answer, and we all stumbled a little as the ground began to vibrate. “We’re going to want answers, Kaiden,” I called to him.
His head turned toward me. “So do I, Dez.” He turned back toward the hole that had formed in the dirt, and I watched him slowly walk down the inclined patch of grass into darkness.
We walked through the tunnels for what felt like half an hour.
I had this eerie feeling that continued to follow me down each path.
This place had once been created as a safe haven for what Rosina thought was love.
It turned into a massacre. I remembered the day Rosina was taken—it was something I’d never forget.
Ryuk dragged her down here, and insisted that we be present.
When he stabbed her with the obsidian blade, I…
I remembered the shattering feeling I had as the light faded from her eyes.
She never looked away from him. Even as her body trembled and her skin lost all of its once-beautiful warmth, she kept her eyes on Ryuk, and lifted her hand to his face to touch him one last time.
I spared a glance at Kaiden. Perhaps he was a descendant, like the gifted once were.
It would make sense as to how his powers were so much stronger than ours.
It wasn’t uncommon for the gods to birth children with mortals when they first created this world.
They had been on the earth far before we were born.
Perhaps one of his ancestors was the direct son, or daughter, of one of the gods.
But if that was the case, how could his blood be potent enough to open the tunnels?
If just any descendant could do it, surely someone would have found this place by now.
I glared at the back of Cain’s head. Too many secrets. Though, who was I to talk?
We suddenly came to a halt as we entered a large room, but I remained at the back, still halfway in the hall.
Everyone’s eyes seem to have shifted to the left, staring at something.
Kaiden’s eyes were hard and glazed over, but his hands were balled into fists at his sides.
Even the seer seemed to take in a shuddering breath as she placed her hand over her heart.
“What is it?” I asked, and Kaiden’s eyes slightly widened at my question.
He turned around to face me. “Dez, I need you to listen to me,” he said, moving through the frozen bodies that stood around us.
“Aisha bless us…” Cassius whispered, then his eyes shot toward me as well. “Kaiden, he won’t be able to handle seeing this—”
“I know!” he snapped back at Cassius just as he reached my side. “Please, Dez, just this once… I need you to trust what I say—”
I didn’t let him continue.
I shoved my way past him. Past Cass, who reached an arm out to stop me. Past Eris, who whispered a plea for me to stop. What could possibly be so bad that I couldn’t deal—
As I turned the corner, I halted so fast that I stumbled onto my ass. I couldn’t breathe. Someone reached for me, but I swatted their hands away as I backed up until I hit the stone wall behind me.
“No,” I whispered to myself. “No… No… No…”
“Let’s keep going, Dez,” Cass insisted.
I started hyperventilating as I stared at it. Kaiden mentioned that he had kept Morrigan somewhere, but he never explained… Iron chains hung from the ceiling, broken. And on the ground was a large… a large…
When Cass knelt beside me, I let him wrap an arm around me this time. “Listen to me, Dez. We are going to find her. She is going to be okay.”
“A cage…” I whispered to him. “It’s… It’s a bird cage, Cass.”
I wanted to feel anger. I wanted a raging fury that I could descend upon Cain but I… I felt nothing. It was like my entire body had shut down as I stared at the cage on the ground, tilted over and half broken from whoever ripped it from the chain.
Cass lifted me, helping me stand and keeping a hand on me as he motioned me forward.
Where did everything go so horribly wrong? I thought to myself, as I imagined what she would have looked like in there. All the nights I woke with aching limbs—like there were bruises all along my arms and legs. Gods… she had slept in there…
Even the strongest of people can only withstand so much before they break. If we did find Morrigan, how much of her would be left?
We reached a small room where the seer stopped and opened the door.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Cain scoffed somewhere behind me.
I jerked to look at him, but Cass kept me forward. “Morrigan,” he reminded me. “That’s all that matters right now. He will be dealt with.”
Yes, he will, I reminded myself.
“E-Each of you has a small essence of one of the gods,” she whispered to us. “I will n-need blood from you all.”
We each pulled a dagger from our belts and made a small cut into our skin. She had us press against the wall on seven different points, before the seer made a slice on her own palm, and connected each of the spots into a seven-pointed star with her blood.
“Dētegere,” the seer whispered. It was the language of the gods, old and forgotten. We had been required to learn it as their chosen successors. It meant: to reveal, to uncover.
Quickly, the seven points of blood burst into tiny flames that quickly danced along the lines, connecting until a bright light formed at its center. It illuminated the entire tunnel, almost blinding me.
“I’m sorry,” I heard the seer whisper, but her voice sounded far away. Slowly, the sounds of screams penetrated my ears, and my limbs felt as if they were on fire. It was the most excruciating pain I had ever felt before. “They chose her.”