22. Twenty-Two

Twenty-Two

I ran from the Morgan compound until I reached the lake. The clearing was still, not even birds chirped in the forest. My sigh misted in the cold dusk. I sat on a dry-looking rock and pulled my knees to my chest while I caught my breath.

I thought I could handle the corruption. I thought I’d be able to resist it. And now people were dead. My men were injured.

They’d seen me turn into a monster.

I buried my face in my knees.

The corruption would be inside me forever. I only had two choices: risk everything and take off the bloodforged iron or keep it and stay cut off from my hunter powers. The abilities that made me special. The abilities that made me valuable to Cyrus’s team. Without my hunter blood, I wouldn’t be able to take down wards or fight with them.

“Hey,” Skye said, and I nearly fell off the rock.

“You scared the shit out of me.” I pressed my hand to my racing heart. “Next time, step on a twig or something.”

“I thought you’d sense me approaching,” he said. He took in my new jewelry. I dropped my gaze to the snow at his feet. “Bloodforged iron?” Skye sat on the rock next to me.

“Yes.” I twirled a ring on my thumb. It was too big. “What are you doing here?”

“The last time I ran from a hunter compound into the woods, you followed me. I figured I’d return the favor.”

“Thanks, I guess.” I didn’t know what to say to that. “But you can leave now.”

“I get it.” Skye shoved his hands in his pockets. “Wallowing is usually a one-man game.”

I frowned. “I’m not wallowing.”

“Then what were you doing in the cold-ass woods all alone?”

“Meditating.”

Skye blinked slowly. “We both know that’s a lie.”

“Is there something you came out here to tell me?”

Skye sighed and ran a hand through his untamed blue hair. “I thought I might be able to talk to you about what happened back there … with the corruption.”

I searched him for any injuries. Either he’d healed himself or he’d come out unscathed from my corruption bomb.

“I know what you’re going through.” Skye looked away. Our sides touched. “I told you a little about what happened when my magic awakened. The day of the massacre at the Northern Temple.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Maybe it will make you feel better.” Skye ran his fingers through his hair again. “Fuck. Even if it just makes me feel better. Now be quiet and listen.”

I pressed my lips together.

“Shael and I saw just about everyone we knew die that day,” Skye said. He spoke like he was telling a fairytale. Fiction. Something that happened to someone else. “The followers of the heretic killed some priests, but we were the ones who destroyed the entire temple. My storm flooded the town, my earthquakes swallowed buildings whole. Shael’s magic awakened that day, too. We killed the followers of the Heretic who stormed the temple, as well as many who survived them.”

I held my breath.

“After that day, I vowed two things. I’d never lose control again, and I’d kill the heretic. If I’d had bloodforged iron like you do, the control part would have been solved a lot quicker.”

I snorted, surprising myself. I slapped my hands over my mouth.

Skye smirked and finally looked at me again. “That’s what all that bloodforged iron’s for, right? You don’t want to lose control again?”

“I could have killed you.” I dragged my hands down my face. “I did kill a lot of others. How am I supposed to go back there?”

“I’ve spent my life trying to make up for what I did. Trying to avenge those who died in the massacre. One day, I’ll fulfill my vow. Now, get that cute butt up and do the same. You’re stronger than any of us.”

“I’m not.” I gazed down at my hands. My veins were dark below my pale skin. “I don’t even have my hunter abilities anymore. I’m basically human. The bloodforged iron cuts me off from everything that makes me … special.”

“Don’t be stupid, Arsyn,” Skye said.

I opened my mouth to retort, but he kept going.

“You’re special without your magic. I’ve never met anyone like you before. You’re dangerously compassionate, obnoxiously stubborn and foolishly brave. You’re all that without your hunter abilities.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not sure whether to thank you or hurt you.”

Skye laughed. Had I ever heard him laugh before? The sound was like gentle music.

“For once, just thank me and give me your hand.” Skye held his palm out to me.

“What?” I just looked at his hand. “Why?”

“After all we’ve been through, you still don’t trust me?” Skye raised a dark blue eyebrow.

I bit my lip. “I do trust you.”

More than I wanted to admit.

I slid my hand into his warm one. My skin began to tingle, starting from my fingers and spreading up my arm. I watched as my skin knitted together on the back of my hand, sealing cuts and leaving only small pink lines where they’d been. Then his fresh, frosty magic surged and filled me. The feeling swept through my body like the waves of the ocean, stealing my breath and catching my heart in a riptide.

When it was over, I stared at Skye like a dumbstruck schoolgirl. I lifted my other arm and inspected it.

“You … you healed me,” I sputtered, then chuckled. “You actually healed me.”

Skye licked his lips and fought the smile that lifted his elfin features. “Yes, you said that already.”

“That shouldn’t be possible.”

Skye shrugged. “I figured since you were ‘basically human,’ cut off from your magical sponge powers, my healing magic should work on you.”

He scratched the back of his neck. But he didn’t let go of my hand.

It physically pained me to admit it, but maybe Skye was right. I could make up for what I’d done. I could make things right. I had to. I owed it to them all. To Max. And most to Ari.

I jumped to my feet, pulling Skye with me. “You’re right. I may be doomed to an eternity of corruption and darkness, but that doesn’t mean I can’t right my wrongs before I surrender my soul to the void.”

“Not exactly what I said, but I’m glad you’re back to being more yourself.” Skye squeezed my hand. “You’re annoying when you’re being stubborn, but you’re even more annoying when you pity yourself.”

I rolled my eyes, but I let hope and peace fill me for the first time since Sebastian had infected me.

Enoch had restored Ari’s soul once. He could do it again.

“We’re safe here. For now. The dark hunters likely took their captives to some base of operations.” Max stood at the table in the Morgan great hall’s main room. She looked exhausted, but her jaw was set.

The guys gathered around, sitting at the table and in the armchairs scattered around the room.

The great hall hadn’t changed at all since I’d left. Even the lopsided circle I’d carved into the wood of a support beam was still there. I never did have my mother’s artistic talent.

Firelight and dim lamps lit the large space. My father had hosted many meetings and visits here. I’d always thought of this room as cavernous and lifeless, but with my guys filling the space, it felt almost cozy.

Skye was tending to some of Felix’s deeper wounds on the carpet in front of the fire while I paced circles around them. Felix didn’t seem so pale in the firelight, but he’d been badly injured.

Felix grimaced as Skye dabbed salve on a puncture wound in his shoulder. I quickened my pacing.

Cyrus leaned back in his chair at the head of the long table watching me. “And the Morgans?”

“They will no longer underestimate our enemy,” Max said harshly. “Many are eager to go after the dark hunters to get Elias back, but I convinced them to let us formulate a plan before taking any action.”

Cyrus rubbed his temples. “A plan. All of my men are injured and one of them is ...”

“Sebastian took his soul with that staff,” I said, slowing my pacing. The roaring fire in the great hall’s hearth illuminated Cyrus’s chiseled features.

His brow furrowed. “The staff?”

I nodded. “My family kept it for generations as a ‘gift from the angels.’ Sebastian took it during the battle and—”

“A reaper blade.” Cyrus tapped the table. “Of course. All it takes is a single touch to steal a soul and store it within the vessel.”

Quillon whistled. “That explains why our resident prince of darkness is even quieter than usual.”

“And why he was trying to kill us,” Skye added as he pulled out a rolled bandage.

Quillon picked at his nails. “Yes, that too.”

“Ari’s soul prevented him from being like the other undead.” Skye began wrapping Felix’s shoulder. “Removing his soul also removed his link to the Aether, to the daeva well, and his mana.”

I sat on the ground in front of the fire and stared into the dancing flames. “All that’s left is the corruption.”

Quillon quirked an eyebrow. “He’s harbored corruption all this time?”

“Yes,” Cyrus said, his deep voice reverberated through the room. “Ari’s soul was returned to his corrupted body. It never truly leaves the host until the body rots away. It’s an incurable parasite.”

His words sank in. I’d never be cured.

Quillon finally broke the silence. “So, the legend of the Wraith is true. The corruption drove him mad. He was killed and revived by the bennu Luminary and Enoch.”

“Well, we know where to find Enoch.” Shael’s ember eyes glowed with hope.

“But the Luminary?”

“The Luminary isn’t a Runemancer,” Cyrus said quietly.

“But you are,” I answered. His eye twitched. “You carved the rune on Ari’s chest to bind his soul.”

“It’s not so easy.” Cyrus’s hand closed into a fist on the table. “We need Ari’s soul. I’m rusty on reaper operations, but I believe it’s stored in the reaper blade Sebastian wielded.”

“Shit,” I said. One thing at a time. “Enoch will know what to do. We just need to wake him up.”

I looked at Max. She appeared overwhelmed. I knew how she felt. There was so much that hunters missed because they refused to break their isolation. “Do you think a blood Morgan would help us?”

Max cleared her throat. “I believe so. If the reaper might be an asset, the Morgans will do anything to get their patriarch back.”

I jumped to my feet. We could wake Enoch. “Surely a primordial being would be an asset. Even a Morgan should be able to see that. We should head back to the Arden compound.”

“Not so fast, Arsyn,” Max said. “We can’t all go, and we need to stick together in case Sebastian wants to finish what he started. We have too many wounded. Too many close to death.”

I deflated. “Fine. I’ll go on my own tomorrow. Can you find me a Morgan willing to help? After everything, I’m not sure I’m the best ambassador.”

“I understand. Leave it to me.”

“Matriarch,” Cyrus interjected, “did you manage to follow the dark hunters as they fled?”

“When they reached their vehicles beyond the woods, they were headed east on an old logging road.” Max gazed meaningfully at me.

East.

“The Castelle compound.” I chewed my lip.

Sebastian’s old stomping grounds, and where he massacred his family. Strange how so much time had passed. So much was different, but here we both were. Staying in our old family compounds.

If what Cyrus said was true, then Ari’s soul was there in Sebastian’s compound, trapped in the reaper staff.

“Where is he?” I asked. “Ari?”

“He’s in a bedroom down the hall,” Quillon answered, “chained to a particularly sturdy armoire.”

I instinctively felt for him with my awareness, but I felt nothing.

I couldn’t feel any of them. The bloodforged iron was like a cold, solid wall between us. Cyrus’s normally warm, sunny aura was gone. Shael’s turbulent aura was invisible. Quillon’s delicious magic was out of reach.

Max stepped closer to me and hugged my shoulder. “Get some rest. Your father reveled in impressing visiting hunters. There are plenty of comfortable rooms.”

“No,” I blurted. There were too many memories in this place, and now with Ari chained up down the hall ...

“It’s your home,” Max said.

“Not anymore.”

Max nodded slowly. “I’ll find something else for you.”

“And us.” Cyrus stood. His deep voice melted my heart. “We’re not leaving her.”

“I’m not sure any of the cottages can sleep six people.”

“I’m used to sleeping in chairs,” Skye said. He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Shael. “Shael can sleep pretty much anywhere.”

Shael stretched and yawned. “He’s right. As long as I’m close to my Enchantress.”

“We’ll camp if we need to,” Felix added, testing his freshly wrapped shoulder. “I love sleeping naked under the stars.”

All eyes turned to Quillon.

Quillon shrugged. “I’ll take one of the comfortable rooms you mentioned.” There was a thump from below the table. Quillon grunted and raised a finger. “I rescind my earlier statement. I will also sleep on the ground at the feet of my mistress.”

Max chuckled. “I see why you like them, Arsyn. I’m glad you have people to take care of you. Even if you think you don’t need it.” She nodded to the staircase. “Go ahead and have a shower while I find somewhere for you and your harem to sleep.”

My cheeks flamed as she walked away.

Skye froze mid-ointment application. “What did she call us?” He seemed angrier about this than the time I accidentally spilled coffee on his favorite text on sacred earth elemental imagery.

“What else would you call us?” Felix chuckled and winked at me. “Aren’t we all madly in love with the same woman?”

I buried my face in my hands. Did he just used the “L” word? So casually?

Shael’s hot skin touched mine as he wrapped his arms around me. “I’d prefer boyfriends.”

“Boyfriends?” Cyrus’s face scrunched like he’d tasted a lemon.

Quillon crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Technically, I’m her husband.”

“Gods!” I slipped out of Shael’s arms and made for an escape up the staircase. “We are not having this conversation now.”

“We don’t have to. I thought I made our arrangement clear when we married.” Quillon’s reply carried up the stairs behind me. “You’re ours.”