Chapter 12
SORROW
The tales of royalty overflow with betrayal, backstabbing and blood.
Brother turns on brother, sister poisons sister.
Then there was Varro, so convinced Evella blessed him with immortality, he killed his own infant, only for his immortality to be promptly disproved by his grief-stricken wife.
The annals of history are filled with gore and I see no reason why the monarchs of the future won’t continue to entertain us with their bloodthirsty battles for power.
— ARABELLA HAWKINS, PROF. OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF TRESPIA
Air flooded my lungs. I rolled onto my back.
Half-coughing, half-gasping, blinking up at the blotched ceiling.
The hazy forms of the white-washed wooden beams swam violently as my throat burned with a ferocity putting the flames of Vyrus to shame.
My chained hands slammed against my heaving chest. Beyond were screams, shouts… snarls.
My head twisted to the side. Damn my sight. A grey lump, ready to lurch, growled as I rolled over.
Pablo.
His name died as a cracked whisper on my lips, my throat constricted, my body convulsed as I coughed again. Light flooded the mausoleum, but my mix of blotches, watery eyes and muddled thoughts meant it was a struggle to make sense of what was happening.
A figure, broad, male, stood with one arm raised.
Following the line of his hand, my eyes widened as another figure twisted high in the air.
My breaths evened out and although my body was bruised, I twisted onto my front.
Pushing myself up, I called the wolf again.
The scene blurred into a hazy focus. Squinting, I gasped as the Anomaly who’d crushed my lungs spun, Hawk twisting his hands in time to his rotations.
I rose higher, eager to witness the Anomaly turn blue as their chokes echoed around the mausoleum. My pulse skittered. Hawk was a Deviant, and a powerful one. Why on Eusis would he keep a gift like that secret? I snorted and Pablo stopped snarling, racing over as I buried myself in his musky fur.
‘I can see why you like this so much,’ Hawk said, the Anomaly spinning upside down as the mariner’s arm looped in a circle. ‘Watching their lungs empty, those eyes bulging, while they desperately claw for a fraction more life? Exhilarating.’
The Anomaly uttered a feeble choke.
‘What’s that?’ Hawk continued, righting the Anomaly and placing their feet down on the floor, chuckling. ‘Stupid me. Can’t speak, can you?’
The Anomaly slumped to the floor, gasping, his legs kicking out. A feral grin spread across my face. Pablo licked my cheek as I tried, and failed, to rise. Hawk strode towards the Anomaly, stopping in front of him and crouching down. After our argument, he’d still come to my aid.
Why?
He shoved the groaning Anomaly. ‘I’ve despised your type since the first star burnt.’
Hawk stood and my head drooped as he stepped back from the Anomaly.
Pablo licked my face again and I swallowed against the pain, tugging the wolf close.
Hawk held his hand out, and a shiver tore through me.
The mausoleum, already frigid in the early autumn light, had turned to ice.
I squinted as he spread his fingers out, the Anomaly rolling before him.
‘Send Evella my love, won’t you?’ he said.
His fingers snapped shut, and with it, the Anomaly’s head exploded in a mass of striking blood and dark meat.
A dry scream stung my throat as shattered chunks of skull and trembling flesh slapped the ceiling with sickening thuds.
Blood, crimson and steaming, gleamed in the fragile light of morning.
Scrambling back, I held my hand over my mouth.
This was no average Deviant. This was a man with intense power; a power he’d meant to keep a secret.
I’d just witnessed the dark extent of his abilities.
I was chained. Trapped. Vulnerable. Pablo whined, tucking his head into the crook of my neck as Hawk turned to where I sat.
Bile swamped my throat, my back slamming into the sarcophagus.
Hawk stepped forward. I tugged on the chains. If I could just get them off…
He crossed his arms, nostrils flared.
‘Sorry, sweetheart.’ He crouched down, and through the swirls I noted the furrowing of his already lined brow, the wry grin on his face. ‘Thought you were still out for the count.’
‘You’re…’ Gods, my raw voice cracked as I tried to raise my chin. ‘You’re a Deviant… You’re—’
The smile slid from his face and I cursed my words. He reached forward, grabbing the cuffs on my wrists, tugging me towards him. ‘What makes you say that, then?’
I barked out a dry laugh, wincing at the sting. ‘You crushed his head.’ I nodded my chin in the direction of the Anomaly behind him.
‘Whose head?’ He narrowed his gaze at the cuffs, testing them as though he could simply slide them from my shaking wrists.
‘Him.’ I swallowed against the pain. ‘The air-stealing Anomaly.’
‘Oh, him,’ Hawk slipped one of the cuffs from my wrist, over my knuckles.
‘What? How?’ I stared at my wrists, at the marks where I’d tried in desperation to remove them.
He slipped the second over my knuckles, relief flooding me, before gripping my hand and squeezing.
My violet gift swirled, as though they’d lain in wait for the myriad of corpses surrounding them.
I clamped them down. I’d no desire to return to the palace with centuries-old monarchs on my heels. ‘How did you…’
My hands flew to my throat. The burning? Gone. Hawk smiled, offering me his hand as though he hadn’t just healed me. Accepting, we stood and I braced myself for the gore beyond him.
Then my heart stopped as I stared at the floor, where only moments before, the decapitated Anomaly’s body had spewed blood. ‘He was no problem. Pablo scared him off.’
Words failed me. Pablo took his place under my fingers as I scoured the space for any sign of the dead Anomaly. I knew my sight was rapidly fading, but the blood, the flesh, the actual fucking body?
There was nothing.
Hawk peered into my face, a glint lighting up his eyes.
‘All right there, Villente?’ he asked as I stared at him, my mouth gaping. ‘Look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
A flicker of savage hope ignited in my chest. The world struggled on the precipice of war. With those gifts, he’d be able to help us defeat her. Guide me as I sought the elusive balance.
I’d get Matthias back.
I dragged in a huge breath, setting my shaky gaze on his, the rage building at the sight of his smug grin. We were both acutely aware of the depth of his lies. I crossed my arms, ignoring Pablo, nudging my hip.
‘You’re a Deviant.’
He shook his head before taking another swig of his damn bottle. Where had that come from?
I let out an exasperated breath. ‘Deny it all you want, but I know what I saw. What I heard—’
‘Sure about that?’ He opened his arms wide, backing away to the open door. ‘From what I saw, he’d denied you oxygen. That can do a lot of damage to a person.’ He tapped the side of his head. ‘Up here. And please don’t take this the wrong way, but your sight can’t exactly be trusted, can it?’
Smug git. I wasn’t about to have him twist this back on me. I stormed forward, slamming my finger into his solid chest.
‘You’re a Deviant.’
He laughed, turning away from me.
‘Damn you, man, what are you? Who are you?’
He halted in the doorway. I couldn’t make out the message in his eyes.
‘I’m an old, drunk sailor, desperate to wash away the memory of a lost love.
’ He lifted the half-empty bottle. ‘I avoid your sort like the plague you are. Now, sweetheart. I’m heading back to the palace for a sleep, after which I may or may not just get back on my boat and leave you all to your little squabbles. None of it means anything anyway.’
He was lying; he had to be. He staggered into the door frame, chuckling away to himself.
‘Please,’ I cried after him. ‘If you’re blessed, you can help. Help us, help me.’
I stormed forward, raising my hand to block the sharp light as the low sun assaulted my eyes. He turned back, his eyes a solid black. I gasped, fighting the urge to recoil from whatever the damned hell this man was.
‘Blessed? Don’t ever call me that again.’
I shuddered at the warning in Hawk’s low tone.
He was a Deviant, but he was also the biggest shithole I’d ever come across. A muscle ticked in his jaw as he stared at me, as though he dared me to speak again.
He snorted, moving aside to let me through the door. I closed my eyes for a second, relishing the chill breeze.
The gravel crunched as Hawk staggered away, heading away from the main palace. I cracked open one eye as he lurched perilously close to the brambles.
‘I’m a queen,’ my voice trembled. ‘I can order you to serve me.’
He barked out a laugh. ‘Only one woman ever won the right to command me, and it’s certainly not you, Villente.’
My fists clenched and unclenched at my sides.
A Deviant with the power to kill the empress from a distance?
Destroy her and set my husband free. Allow me to balance my gifts.
Could I simply watch him walk away? Even if the man was the most insufferable creature I’d ever had the displeasure to meet, he could end all this.
He was a path I hadn’t considered. Had Evella sent him to me as a blessing? An answer to all my problems?
I huffed a laugh. A test of my faith?
Striding back to the palace, I planned to unleash every creature within the keep on Danté and, after that, I’d try to persuade Hawk.
Again.
I’d face every God time and time again to get Matthias back. How hard could one damn Deviant be?