16. Sixteen

Sixteen

As quickly as the light had flared to life, it died. Enoch closed his eyes again and was still.

I summoned my mana and channeled it into my hands. Maybe if I gave him mana, he’d be better. He’d be able to tell me what to do. How to fix everything.

Only a few drops slipped through before the corruption rose like a tsunami. It rushed through my veins and clogged my barriers. Sweat gathered on my brow as I tried to fight it back. But it was too powerful.

Enoch’s hand twitched in mine.

I can’t take ... Enoch’s voice was quieter, weaker ... must be given.

“I’m trying to give it to you!” My voice cracked. I dropped to my knees in frustration.

Dark mana burst from me, unbidden. It slipped through my barriers and pulsed in the air like the power that rippled at my contact with Enoch. But this was different. Darker.

I raised my hand in front of my face. The veins had grown blacker. “The corruption’s ruining everything.” I closed my hand into a fist. My fingernails bit into my palm.

Sebastian. Sebastian started this. He infected me. It was all his fault.

I was so close to solving the mana drought. The answer was right in front of me, lying on the dirt. But I couldn’t do anything.

The corruption warmed my blood until I felt like I was burning up. Sweat ran down my body, chasing pins and needles and chills.

I could match Sebastian’s power now. That was the gift the corruption was giving to me. I could face him. I could end it all.

“It will cost you more than you know,” Ari said aloud. “You shouldn’t use corrupt magic anymore. It’s already begun to take control.” His unpracticed voice was gravelly in the small space.

I pressed my cool hands to my burning temples. “Get out of my head.”

“Your barriers are open,” Ari rasped. “You’re projecting thoughts. Hard not to listen.”

“Well, try.” I reached for my barriers, but the corruption still clogged my channels. I couldn’t close them. I jumped to my feet and strode past Ari.

“Don’t go up there yet, Arsyn. I can feel the corruption taking hold inside you.”

I was stronger than he thought. He saw me as this breakable girl. But I wouldn’t let this control me. I wouldn’t let anything or anyone control me anymore.

“Stop trying to control me.” I spun to face him. “Just because you couldn’t handle the power doesn’t mean I can’t. Unlike you, I haven’t gone on a killing spree.”

Ari flinched. I slapped my hands over my mouth. He ducked his head until I couldn’t see his eyes anymore.

“Ari, I—”

The shadows thickened, and Ari disappeared, taking the light with him.

I was alone in the darkness.

My back pressed against the bloodforged iron bars. I slid down until my butt hit the cold ground. I gripped the metal bars above my head and breathed deeply of the stale air. I closed my barriers with the help of the bloodforged iron. The corruption slid back to the shadows. Waiting.

“Shit.” I wrapped my arms around my legs and buried my face in my knees. I’d messed this up. I’d messed everything up.

We were so close to what we’d been chasing. Enoch was just feet behind me, but I’d never felt so far away from the goal. Or from myself.

Footsteps creaked on the floor above, and bright golden light flooded the basement.

“Of course you went straight into the mysterious cellar.” Cyrus climbed down the stairs. “You didn’t come back, so I came to find you. Is Ari here?”

Cyrus’s light rune blazed on his chest. He paused at the desk. His brow furrowed as he picked up the journal and flipped through the pages.

I hung my head. He thought hunters were bad before, but what would he think of us when he found out we were the reason the Aether was dying? When he found out we were the reason his people weren’t reincarnating?

“Arsyn?” He dimmed his light and knelt in front of me. “Say something. I think I prefer you when you’re nervous and talk too much.”

What could I tell him?

Cyrus gasped. “Is that—”

“I tried to wake him.” Tears wet my eyes. I wiped them away. “I tried to give him mana, but I couldn’t.”

A warm, callused hand cupped my chin, gently lifting it until Cyrus’s face filled my vision. “Why couldn’t you? Do you need more? Take it.”

A tear escaped my eye, but Cyrus wiped it away with his thumb.

“It’s the corruption,” I forced out. “It won’t let me.”

Cyrus’s lips set into a grim line.

“Ari said even death didn’t get rid of the corruption.”

“He was returned to his body. Corruption infects the body, not the soul.” Cyrus looked away, as though looking at me was too painful. “Some bennu were infected during the reign of the Corrupt Luminary, but they were reborn cleansed of its taint.”

We were silent for a moment. Drawing the same conclusion. I was doomed. I couldn’t be reborn into a fresh, uncorrupted body like a bennu.

A strange peace filled me. I’d always known I’d die a horrible death while I was still young.

I may have been marked for death, but I wouldn’t go down easily. I’d take Sebastian and Valeria with me.

“It must be given,” I whispered under my breath. I had to give him mana. My eyes widened. “I have a crazy plan.”

Cyrus winced and helped me up. “I already don’t like it.”

I had nothing left to lose.

I smiled wistfully. “You’re gonna hate it.”

I kicked my feet over the edge of the compound wall. The Grays were already settling into the Arden compound. They’d shoveled the walkways, and smoke rose from the cottage chimneys that lined the main path.

The gates opened, and a pair of hunters walked inside, dragging a deer carcass. Red streaked the snow behind them.

I tapped my fingers on the icy stone wall.

Enoch had said it must be given. He must have been talking about mana. Mana was life. He’d been starved of it for decades. If we found a way to give him mana, he’d wake up. He had to.

But since I couldn’t give it to him, we had to find another who could. And there was only one family of hunters that had that ability.

Max joined the others gathered on the steps to the great hall. I hopped down from the wall, hit the cold snow and rolled to my feet.

Cyrus crossed his arms as I climbed the steps.

“What do you have to show us?” Quillon asked. He brushed snow off the shoulder of his thick trench coat. “Cyrus was quite cryptic when he demanded we gather here.”

I pushed through them and into the great hall. “Follow me.”

“Where is she going now?” Skye sighed.

I opened the trapdoor by the cold fireplace. I climbed down into the cellar, and away from the concerned mumbles of my team.

“Is that a dungeon?”

Quillon hesitated. “I’m not particularly fond of spiders."

Eventually, they followed down the steep staircase behind me. Cyrus activated his rune light, and Quillon turned on his daeva light contraption.

Max pulled out a flashlight. “What the hell?”

“Are these cells?” Shael asked.

Quillon touched a bar and pulled his hand back, hissing. “Wait.” He turned to me. “I’ve felt that before.”

“Bloodforged iron.” I was filled with nervous energy as I waited for their reactions. I wasn’t sure how they were going to take all this. Both the news and my plan.

Quillon tilted his head at the cells. “Now, what were they doing with these down here?”

Max’s gray eyebrows drew together. “What’s bloodforged iron?”

“Iron forged with hunter blood.” I pulled down my jacket’s collar, revealing my braided iron choker. “Morgans wear it to help control our extra ability. It dampens a hunter’s power,” I gestured to Quillon, “and it seems to hurt otherworlders. I thought it was a Morgan family secret until recently. Apparently the Ardens knew about it, too.”

Max shook her head. “I was never told about it. Why would they keep it a secret from others in the family?”

“Because,” I said, making my way farther into the dark cellar, “they had another secret.”

Lights followed me as I stepped into Enoch’s cell.

“What’s that?” Skye asked.

Shael stepped into the cell with me. “A dead body?”

“Our missing reaper,” Cyrus supplied.

Shael knelt beside him, conjuring a small fireball in his hand. “Why does he look dead?”

“Reapers can’t die.” Cyrus sighed. “They are primordial beings. They just starve until they become ... this.”

“I think he needs mana,” I said. “But I couldn’t give it to him.”

Skye gazed at me skeptically. “Why not?”

I lowered my head. “The corruption wouldn’t let me.”

The room was silent. I hadn’t told them how much the corruption had taken control, but if I couldn’t even give someone mana, they knew it was bad.

“Wait.” Max shone her flashlight at me. “You’re … corrupted? Like Sebastian and his hunters?”

I nodded. Max lowered her flashlight to the dark gray veins on my hands.

“Well, how do you get rid of it?”

I let out a dark chuckle. “That’s not an option right now.”

“Can we give him hunter blood?” Max asked, putting away her flashlight and pulling out a pocketknife.

“I don’t know.”

She crouched beside Shael and flipped the blade in her hand, pressing it to her palm. She nodded at Shael, and he opened Enoch’s mouth. Blood pooled around the blade, and Max let a few drops fall between Enoch’s shriveled lips.

We waited, but Enoch didn’t even flinch.

I sighed. Here came the part they really wouldn’t like. “We need a Morgan.”

All eyes flew to me. I tried not to shrink under their weight. We had no more options.

“They’re the only ones that can give him mana like I can.”

Shael stood. “I thought Elias would rather shove a blade in his eye than speak to an otherworlder he wasn’t actively trying to kill.”

“Good memory,” I mumbled. “That’s still true, which is why I’ll be going in alone.”

Cyrus ran a hand through his hair. “The last time you saw Elias Morgan, he drove a sword through you.”

I shrugged. “I survived.”

“Barely!” Cyrus exclaimed.

“You’ll have the Grays with you.” Max stood, and Felix handed her the silk handkerchief from his suit pocket. She closed her fist around it. “We’re no Morgans, but we can hold our own. Perhaps we can make Elias see the threat that faces the Order. And his family.”

“He does seem to hate Sebastian,” Shael added.

Max nodded. “Elias blamed Sebastian for Arsyn’s death. And now that he knows she’s alive, he blames Sebastian for leading her away from the Order. Elias is a vindictive bastard. Perhaps he’ll do it just to destroy Sebastian.”

“Am I the only one with any sense here?” Cyrus’s nostrils flared. “You aren’t going anywhere near Elias Morgan again.”

“We’re so close.” I stepped toward him until we were inches apart. I needed him to understand how important this was. It was worth any price. My pride, my dignity ... even my life. I pointed to Enoch. “That’s our answer to all of our problems. Right there.” Tears pricked my eyes again. “I can’t give him what he needs, but I know who can.”

A muscle popped in his jaw.

“I can’t get rid of this corruption.” My throat closed up, but I forced it out. “We need a Morgan. A different Morgan. Or else we’re just waiting for the corruption to take me, Sebastian to wipe everything out, and for the Aether to die.”

Cyrus blew out his breath, stirring my hair. He blinked slowly, and when his glacial blue eyes opened again, they seemed darker. Sadder. “You’re not going alone.”

“I know, I’ll have Max—”

“No.” Cyrus brushed my wild hair out of my face. “I’ll be at your side. Always.”

A big hand squeezed my shoulder. Pine and citrus mana leaked through my barriers. “We’re all with you, no matter what.”

“Even if it’s a terrible idea doomed to fail,” Skye added. “We’ll be with you to clean up the mess.”

“Now,” Quillon clapped his hands and rubbed them together, “let’s get above ground and away from the mostly dead man.” He pressed his hand to my lower back, guiding me to the stairs. “Shall we?”

My heart grew heavier with each step. I could feel the distance between Enoch and me like a string pulling tight. He called to my power, and my mana answered. Was this what it felt like to have an Ancient? A god?

A young hunter boy knelt at the hearth as I emerged from the cellar. He struck his flint and steel, but the spark fizzled out before it could light the straw. The deer I’d seen hunters dragging into the compound lay on the long table.

The others climbed up after me. Shael approached the boy was still trying and failing to start a fire.

“Allow me.” Shael conjured a fireball and flung it at the logs. The stack burst into flames.

The boy’s singed eyebrows rose as he broke into a smile. “Cool.”

An older woman ushered us to the table. Dark, rusty red hunter marks covered her wrinkled skin. She wore full hunter leathers like the others and, despite her slight limp, I knew she could still hold her own in a fight. Elders that couldn’t sacrificed themselves for the strength of the family. “We’re preparing the deer for lunch.”

“Tabatha is our family’s last elder,” Max whispered. “You’d better do as she says.”

I saluted Max and followed the old hunter. If she was an elder, she had just as much power as Max in the family. We took our seats at the end of the table. The fire warmed my back.

Tabatha picked up a small knife and began cutting up the deer’s belly with shaky hands. I looked away. I could carve up a person with a smile on my face, but watching an old lady skin an animal made me queasy.

Felix rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt and stood. He gestured to the knife. “May I?”

Tabatha considered him for a moment before handing him the knife and sitting down.

“You have marks as well.” Tabatha’s dull gray eyes took in Felix’s exposed forearms. She ran a finger over the back of her wrinkled hand, tracing lines of tattooed dots. “Ours represent kills. What do yours represent?”

I held my breath. Felix’s marks were a sensitive topic for him.

Felix held his hands out, palms up. He closed his eyes, and his lips moved silently. I’d seen him pray to his Ancient before like that. After a moment, his eyes opened.

“Our people aren’t so different,” Felix said before he got to work. And he worked fast. In just a few strokes of the knife, the skin was nearly off. He rolled the deer over with bloody hands. He sighed and pushed a lock of his inky black hair out of his face, smudging it with blood. “Each mark is a sacrifice. Druids who gave their lives to increase my power.”

“Hunters, too, carry the burden of such sacrifice,” Tabitha said. I squirmed under the intensity of her gaze. “It’s a heavy burden, indeed, druid.”

I glanced around the room. Skye sat as far away from the elder as possible. Quillon had pulled out a deck of cards and was playing a daeva game with Shael, who by the look on his face was losing. Cyrus watched Felix and Tabatha, his expression thoughtful.

Shifting shadows in the corner of the room caught my eye, but when I looked, nothing was there. My stomach tightened. Ari still hadn’t come back. I could only hope I hadn’t messed things up too much.

“My son was one of the rebels,” Tabatha said. Felix’s grip tightened on the knife. “We all do what we must to survive. And we must all live with our decisions. Or die with them.”

Felix nodded and prepared the deer in silence. Tabatha began roasting the meat and Shael jumped at the opportunity to play with fire.

“Now, this part has to roast slow, so not too much flame on this one,” Tabatha instructed. She pulled slices of meat from the fire as the rest of the Grays joined us.

“Smells great in here!” a middle-aged man exclaimed. He hesitated as he took in the table, already filled with otherworlders and Tabatha working with Shael at the fire.

“Sit, Matthew,” Tabatha barked. She set a steaming platter of meat on the table.

The man, Matthew, shook his head and took a seat across from me. “I’ve never eaten with an otherworlder before.” He pulled out his knife and skewered a chunk of venison before taking a big bite. “Eaten an otherworlder, sure, but never with an otherworlder!” He laughed at his own joke, choking on the bite he’d taken.

The other hunters froze.

I covered my face with my hands, dreading whatever came next. Tension filled the room.

I flinched as Quillon laughed, and the others quickly joined in. Even Cyrus cracked a smile.

“I ate a hunter once as a dragon,” Felix said. “Bastard gave me indigestion for a week!”

A new round of laughter erupted. A hunter slapped his knee, and Matthew wiped tears from his eyes.

What in the four worlds was happening? At least Skye was acting as I’d expected, arms crossed and scowling.

But maybe Felix was right. Hunters and otherworlders weren’t so different. Maybe, just maybe, we had a chance at saving the worlds.

I just hoped my father had developed a sense of humor.