Chapter 43

I t was eerily quiet at the back entrance to the temple's library, and there were still no guards in sight. They had been so very careful as they moved through the temple, waiting for something terrible to finally show itself.

He wasn't just going to assume that it was the work of the Dark Army, because in times past, it had been his own faction or the witches that had meddled with the darkness. Regardless of who was behind this, good blood had been spilled here. Years of service to this place by the people who maintained these grounds had ended in horrible deaths.

The Dark God had seemed to work his influence through every faction lately. It had been the humans at the uplift, then his corruption had spread through the witches, and then the son of a bitch had turned Gideon's own faction into traitors. They had sided with the Dark God so that their hearts would never stop beating. It had cut his soul into pieces as he took them down, one after another, in the Amethyst Palace to show that the Dark God had lied.

Veles was never going to protect them.

Torin had taken care of most of them, shattering their disloyal dreams of immorality with the swords that were always strapped across his back. They had folded like a stack of cards under his wrath, and they had not risen despite the deals they had made. Death had been the only thing they had been promised that day. Gideon had both envied and admired Torin as he watched him brutalise his brethren without blinking an eye. He made it look so easy. He made it look like he didn't even think about what he was doing as he ended their lives to protect Emara. And Gideon often wondered if Torin suffered from the same night terrors he did. The screams, the swirling black portal that led to the abyss of the underworld, the destruction, the blood, Emara's choking, his brother begging the Supreme not to kill her but to take him…

"Over here," shouted Sybil, pulling Gideon away from the nightmare of his memories. She was in a corner of the tremendous library.

His team had split up around the library, and as he heard the fear in Sybil's voice, he knew it had been a mistake to leave her with someone else.

Gideon, Kellen, and Marcus ran over, meeting from all different sections of the space to find the tiny earth witch leaning over a body. Her hands were on his chest, and she was already pressing healing magic into his heart. But he was grey and frozen in a time before now. He was certainly not alive. She whispered something to the Gods, and her eyes closed. Her small hands shook, already covered in blood. Sybil couldn't mend what lay bleeding under his robes, and that would shatter her.

Gideon wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her up, leaving the man on the floor. It was then he saw a crest on his chest. He was a retired hunter. He had to have been a credible warrior of Thorin to have been granted retirement here.

"Do you recognise the crest?" Kellen asked.

"I do. He is of Clan Brownclad, a clan almost gone with time." Marcus leaned over him, brushing his hand over the old hunter's eyes, and whispered, "May all the stars in the Gods' sky guide you back home."

Marcus turned to head back in the direction of the stairs to the second floor.

"No, wait," Sybil called out and moved from Gideon's embrace. "Look what he is holding."

She glided forward, her gown smeared in blood. As she kneeled again, she pulled out a crumpled ball of paper that was tucked into his sleeve, the corner of it sticking out.

"It's a drawing," she announced, and then turned to face him. Her vast green eyes flashed with something unfamiliar to him, and he took a step towards her, as did Marcus. Kellen remained rooted close to a large bookcase, watching the grounds around them. "It's from the Book of Light," Sybil choked out.

Marcus blew out a whistle. "Shit the bed."

Gideon could feel his brow pull down. Although he was versed in the books of his teachings, he was ashamed to say that he'd thought the Book of Light had been a myth. A journal kept from the beginning of time, handwritten by the Gods themselves, couldn't be read.

"Gideon…" She turned to him, her voice breathless. "This piece of scripture is so old; I can feel my magic calling to it and it's calling back. I can feel the ancient magic lingering in the ink. This wasn't written by an empress or a Supreme. A God has written this." She turned the single page over to reveal a scripted passage. "It's even marked down the bottom as a passage from the Book of Light."

"It can't be a coincidence that he is holding it." Marcus looked at Gideon, and a rake of goosebumps littered his skin. "But surely if that scripture is from the Book of Light, it wouldn't still be in his possession."

Marcus's head tilted. "Not if the thing that killed him overlooked what it was, too thirsty for death and too stupid to see what was in front of him.

Kellen left his post and moved closer. Gideon moved to stand directly beside Sybil, so close he could feel the heat from her skin touch his. He looked down at the ancient page in her hand. "What does it mean?

"I can't work it out here." Sybil's hands ran over the wrinkled paper again.

"It has clearly been ripped from a manuscript," Kellen waded in. "So where is the full book?"

"Why would there be pages of an ancient manuscript shoved up a dead man's tunic sleeve?" Gideon asked.

"Because he was trying to protect what he could," Sybil whispered.

Concern pushed through Marcus's dark features, and he moved uneasily. "Do you think he was trying to hide the Book of Light when the Dark Army found him? Could it still be here?"

A tear ran a track down Sybil's face. "He most certainly died trying to protect something." Her moss green gaze gently lifted to Kellen before asking, "Can you do something for me?"

Kellen hesitated for a second. "Yes?"

"You have magic, right?" Sybil asked outright, and Kellen's eyes widened at her being so direct. "Maybe the magic that runs in your veins will be old enough to feel this kind of power. Seers are of such ancient magic that they can bring forth things my elemental magic can't. I think you could help." Her stare burned through Kellen. "Can you place your hand over this page and tell us if anything comes to you?"

Kellen's lips parted like he was going to protest, but he ran a hand through his dark brown hair and then held out his hand. "I don't know what I am doing."

Sybil placed her hand over his, and his unusual eyes locked on to hers. "I am not versed in the magic of a True Dreamer, but I will help guide you anyway I can."

A few of the other men looked on, intrigued by what was happening. Sybil's lips parted as she closed her eyes, Kellen copying her. They were vulnerable in this state, and Gods knew what still lurked here.

Gideon looked up to where the other clan members stood watch, and he nodded to them to keep their posts. Sybil began to chant something in a language that was unknown to Gideon. The lanterns of the room began to flicker, and he looked all round them as an easy breeze blew whispers through where they stood—spirit magic

"Breathe," Sybil coached Kellen. "Let your magic come to you in a daydream and push it forward into my mind."

Kellen's chest began rising and falling more quickly and his eyes scrunched shut, pulling lines onto his face that were not there before. His body jolted slightly and his head threw back.

"Be careful, Sybil," Gideon said. "He doesn't know how to harness anything yet. He has never practised."

Her gaze met his and she nodded, confident in her ability to keep Kellen safe. Kellen's head turned to the side and his hands began a shake that led all the way up his arms. He noticed Sybil's grip tighten around his brother's.

"I can…I can feel…something," Kellen panted, his eyes scrunching up.

"Good. Now explore that feeling. What does it show you? Call it forth, like a spirit."

He craned his neck at an uncomfortable angle. "I can't see anything; it's dark. It's more of a feeling."

"Ask your vision to come forward into the light. Speak to it like I speak to my earth magic. Encourage it forth. Hold its hand."

Gideon hadn't considered Kellen's magic to be as simple as that or as similar to elemental magic. This could be a dead end, but it was better that they tried everything that they could whilst they were here than nothing at all.

Kellen's grip tightened on the paper, and a transparent glow peeled from his body like a ghost of the Otherside. Gideon stumbled back, and Marcus swore under his breath. He had never seen anything like it before.

"Kellen," Gideon breathed, "you are glowing."

A few of the men around them muttered.

"Yeah, I tend to do that," he quipped, his eyes still shut.

"By the Gods," Marcus whispered.

"Don't panic," Sybil coached. "That's a good sign. Your magic has been ignited."

Suddenly, Kellen took a breath and stepped away from Sybil, breaking their magical bond. Sybil stumbled back a little, but she caught herself as the jolt of magic left her body.

Kellen turned to face Gideon, his face too pale. "What is it, Kellen?"

"What did you see?" Sybil asked.

Kellen's eyes met Gideon's. "I saw Balan. I saw the King of the Underworld."

"Balan is here?" Sybil squawked.

A cold shiver ran over the whole of Gideon's body.

"But how can that be?"

"Get them out of the Mother God's tomb." Kellen gulped, trembling. "Get them out."

"What?" Marcus stepped forward to comfort him.

"The others—get them out of that fucking tomb!" Kellen screamed. "It's a trap. They need to leave the Stone. Balan has been waiting for the Protection Stone, and they used Emara to open the door to the tomb. This mission has been a trick." Gideon's blood ran cold. "Marcus, sound the horn."