Chapter Sixty-Three Stellen
Chapter Sixty-Three
Stellen
Weakness will only get me killed.
I lean heavily against the wall of ice I created across the entrance to the catacombs beneath the Sacred Stone Temple.
Pressing my closed fist to my cold heart, I can’t stop the hollow snarl rising to my lips.
I’ve stayed too long in the catacombs. Far too long spent trying to regain my strength. I calculate it’s been three days since I went to the village on the western coast where the Oracle was hiding. Three days since she slipped through my fingers.
I came to the temple to study the ancient scrolls for clues as to the meaning of her command:
Come for me when the stars go out, she said.
Then, an assassin came for me, his wooden-handled blade striking so close to my heart that I slipped into unconsciousness, sinking toward death.
Only to be wrenched back to myself by the crying voices of my ancestors and a boom that had crashed through my heart. Music that demanded I defy death. My icy heart obeyed the call, even though I have no idea what magic brought such music to my ears.
That was yesterday.
It’s taken me a whole day to regain enough strength to consider leaving the catacombs.
I have no doubt my heart is damaged. The full consequences of this are now a darkness hanging over me. A noose that could close around my throat. To reveal any physical weakness to my people, even to my General, Lilis, will only give them hope that they can kill me.
I take a last glance back at the adjoining room on the far side of the catacombs, where the crystal coffin housing the Oracle’s late father rests.
I placed the assassin’s wooden-handled dagger inside the coffin beside the knife that killed the Oracle’s father. Nobody will be able to steal the knives, not unless they want their hands to shatter on the ice with which I sealed the coffin.
Squaring my shoulders and closing off my expression, I lift my hand from my chest and prepare to break through the icy wall that has protected me while I recovered.
It’s far too thick for any other Frost Fae to break.
Allowing my icy power to flow to my hands and then up my arms to my elbows, I take another breath, harden my resolve, and smash my fists into the frozen surface.
The wall shatters. Chunks of ice crash across the shadowed stairwell that leads up to the temple’s main room, a simple hall whose beauty is in its stained-glass windows, which extend along both sides.
Making it to the top of the stairs, I’m acutely aware of the increasingly hard thump of my heart, a loud beat in my sensitive ears, warning me of an exertion I wouldn’t have experienced before the knife attack.
I have no time to catch my breath.
Lilis waits for me within the hall, the filtered purple and pink light shining through the stained glass windows flickering across her pacing form.
She jumps at my appearance, one hand snapping to the sword at her back, her purple eyes bright, and her silvery hair flying about her face. “My lord!”
I stride past her, ignoring the sharp assessment she gives me as she lowers her head and shoulders into a deep bow.
“My lord,” she says, “there’s been a development.”
With my acute hearing, I pick up the threads of deep tension in her voice. Unusual for her. She’s normally flawlessly calm.
She hurries out after me as I step across the entryway and onto the snow-dusted path at the front of the temple.
The final rays of sunlight sparkle across the snow.
My wolf waits for me beside the path, her head already raised, her soft growls reaching my ears.
Warning growls.
Slowing my pace, I take another look at my surroundings, assessing the barren slope stretching out ahead of me.
The few leafless trees along the path, their gray boughs dripping with icicles.
The temple is situated on a high enough hill that I can make out the sparkling city in the far distance and the palace at its center, its frost-blue stone never so beautiful as right before the sun sets.
Lilis’s quiet footfalls tell me she’s right behind me.
“Speak freely,” I command her.
Her words come quickly. “Beasts have been sighted at the edge of the northern wilds.”
My eyes narrow at this unwelcome news. The creatures that inhabit the wilds rarely venture south. The last time they made their presence known, it was a bloodbath.
“How many?” I ask as I continue toward my wolf.
“Reports from villagers are unclear. As few as ten. As many as thirty.”
I reach my wolf, whose soft growls continue rumbling through the air.
Once again, I consider how low the sun sits on the horizon. How soon before night will fall.
Mere heartbeats.
“How many soldiers have you sent north to protect the villages?”
“Two legions,” Lilis replies.
Not enough.
As the sun’s final rays drop below the horizon and the stars begin to shine, I shake my head. “If the beasts want blood, those soldiers are already dead—”
I flinch as dark light spears across the air, spreading from the south-west.
Lilis shouts, hunching low, her face upturned to the sky.
An unnatural darkness streams toward us, pouring across the sky like black blood, covering the atmosphere with a canopy that casts us into instant night.
With it come far-off screams, but not of fae. My hearing tells me these screams are otherworldly.
Dark creatures shrieking for the blood they crave.
In that instant, the stars disappear, concealed behind such a black veil that it’s like a weight falling across my shoulders.
The stars have gone out.
I’m struck still at the breathtaking memory of the Oracle’s command to me.
Come for me when the stars go out.
Well, the stars have fucking gone out.
Which means, if my logic is correct, her death could be imminent.
“Lilis,” I hiss through the dark. “Get back to the palace. Gather the army. Prepare for bloodshed.”
Bloodshed from vampyrs. Bloodshed from the northern wilds. Bloodshed from this fucking curse.
Lilis immediately leaps to her feet, racing away along the path.
My wolf is already at my side, her snarls increasing.
Did she sense the darkness in the air?
Does she hear the irregularities in my heartbeat?
As I leap onto her back, I remind myself:
Fear will not control me.
No more.
Leaning low over my wolf’s neck, I acknowledge the danger we’re about to head toward. “You will need your courage now.”
Her response is to gnash her teeth at the air, welcoming the promise of battle.
As she launches herself into a run, kicking up ice and snow, a cold smile grows on my lips.
No matter the darkness I’m about to face, no matter what physical pain I might have to push through, I will seize the Oracle.
I will destroy anything and everything I have to, and I will make the Oracle mine.