29. Twenty-Nine

Twenty-Nine

“I love what you’ve done with the place,” I said as I followed Sebastian through the old Castelle compound.

Much of it was falling apart from a decade of abandonment, but tarps stretched over damaged roofs and broken doors revealed occupied sleeping quarters. Tents filled any space that was empty. Dark hunters lounged around the yard, drinking and talking. They’d recovered quickly from Sebastian’s psychotic display. Everywhere I looked, dark hunters seemed to be relaxing or partying like drunk college students on spring break. One even wore a bikini.

All of them stopped whatever they were doing to bow to Sebastian as he passed. He may have removed the hunters from the rigid hierarchy, but apparently he couldn’t remove the rigid hierarchy from the hunters.

“Thanks.” Sebastian took a deep breath and surveyed the compound. “We had to rebuild after Draqaar. Valeria wanted to escape to Porada, but I insisted on Earth. I have too much unfinished business here, and I knew many hunters would join us.”

He looked at me, and I couldn’t help but shrink under his gaze. His eyes had returned to their usual silver, but the darkness still clung there.

“I knew you would join us eventually, too.”

He made my skin crawl.

I kicked at a rock on the path. “I dreamt about you.”

“I know,” Sebastian said. “The dark mana connects us, but there were times when I couldn’t reach your mind.”

When I first put on my bloodforged iron. When the Aegis men were with me.

“So those dreams …” I bit my lip. “That was really you? Not just dream-you?”

“Sometimes.” Sebastian’s lip curled. “But their presence always drove me away from you.”

I thought back to the doubts the corruption put in my head. The thoughts that plagued me for months. Quillon always said the best lies were ones where you told the truth.

“The Aegis men wanted to control my power. It’s the reason they sought me out in the first place. The dark mana showed me.”

If I couldn’t convince him, it was all over.

I took a deep breath and ground out, “ You are the one who will change the worlds.”

Sebastian pulled me to a stop beside him. He wrapped his callused hands around mine. “I’ve been waiting so long to hear you say those words.” He squeezed my hands. “But now we can be together. We can change the worlds together.” His eyes searched mine. “Or we can say fuck it and escape to the woods like we used to.”

“You mean leave all this?” I gestured to the compound.

“I’ll be anywhere with you. Do anything to be with you.” Sebastian beamed, and my heart squeezed painfully in my chest. His endless dedication and almost innocent boldness reminded me of another time. Another Sebastian. “It’s always been about you, Syn. Even before you showed up at that bar in the mountains. A lovely ghost. Everything I did was for you.”

“I see that now.” I swallowed thickly and resumed walking.

He killed his family for me? Raised undead for me? What did that even mean?

A thin woman huddled naked, chained to a training dummy. Dried silver blood covered the cuts and teeth marks on her dirty body. Her bones were visible through her skin.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her. “What did she do?”

“She refused our gift,” Sebastian replied cooly.

My knees wobbled, but I quickly recovered. This was the fate of the stolen hunters. Food for the army. Raw mana was more potent. More powerful. My stomach churned.

The great hall’s weathered limestone tower rose above the compound. As we continued towards it, we passed more captured hunters lining the walkway and huddled against buildings, clinging to the sparse shade.

“How many are there?” I asked, trying to sound casual. “You conquered many compounds. Did you bring them all here?”

Sebastian smiled at my compliment. “Many of them.” His smile twitched. “There were more, but we’ve been running low on blood to feed them.”

I kept my face carefully neutral and nodded.

I stopped dead in the yard. A hunter was tied to the sacrificial posts. The thick rope dug into his wrists, holding him suspended on his knees in the dirt. His head slumped forward, concealing his face in peppered silver and gray hair.

But I recognized him immediately.

Elias Morgan.

His breastplate and duster had been torn off and sat in a crumpled pile next to him. Dozens of slash marks covered his dirty, sunburnt skin. Had he been hanging at the posts since he’d been taken two days ago?

Sebastian grabbed a handful of Elias’s hair, pulling his head up. “Wakey, wakey, Elias. Say hello to your daughter.”

Elias’s eyes went wide as he spotted me behind Sebastian. “Arsyn?” he rasped, like he hadn’t had water for two days.

“She’s come to join us,” Sebastian gloated.

Elias’s expression hardened, and he looked away.

Ouch.

Whatever. I didn’t care what Elias thought of me. I was here to retrieve Benoi’s staff and bring down the wards. Elias wasn’t my concern. That’s why Genny was here.

Sebastian let go of Elias’s hair and pulled a knife from his belt, quickly slashing Elias’s cheek. I bit my tongue painfully, but Elias didn’t flinch as his blood began streaming down his jaw.

“When I captured him at his compound, I tied him to the sacrificial posts and let everyone drink their fill. It’s what he did to your mother, after all.” Sebastian stepped toward me. “It’s what I thought they did to you.” He ran his hands through his hair, matted with blood. “I imagined it over and over.”

He whirled and slashed again, this time through Elias’s shirt, opening a wound on his chest.

“The way the blood left your soft skin.” He slashed again. “The way life left your shining eyes.”

Sebastian unleashed more slashes.

I could do nothing but watch. Pain lanced up my arms, and I realized I’d balled my hands into fists. My nails bit into my palms.

Elias was quiet during the torture, but he spit out blood as Sebastian licked his blade.

“Just kill me,” Elias said. “You have no honor.”

“Kill you?” Sebastian laughed. “That would be a gift. I want to make you suffer for what you did to Syn. For what you did to me .”

Sebastian raised his knife, burying it to its hilt in Elias’s hand. I flinched, my stomach roiling. Elias groaned. That seemed to encourage Sebastian.

“It’s your fault she ran away.” He pulled the knife from Elias’s hand and buried it in the other. “ You made her run. We were supposed to be together.” Sebastian twisted the knife. “None of this would have happened!”

“Sebastian!” I yelled, stepping forward. I placed my hand around his on the knife’s hilt and pulled it out. “You’re going to kill him.”

Sebastian looked at me. His eyes had gone black again. “You’re right. I have so much planned for him. It would be a shame to kill him early. Sometimes I get too excited.”

Sebastian placed his hand over my heart. My breath hitched as the heat of his palm warmed my skin.

“The gift has grown inside you, too. I can feel it.”

“The corruption?” I asked.

Sebastian’s brow creased. “But it’s weak.” He studied the bloodforged iron chains around my neck. “You reject it?”

“No!” I said. “Just … after what happened at the Morgan compound, the others were afraid of my power. I had to appease them somehow.”

Sebastian squeezed my hand until it hurt. “I’ll never force you to make that choice.”

I already had made my choice. And I was choosing death over the corruption.

I bit my cheek until the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. Pain. Pain grounded me. It was familiar.

Sebastian reached behind my neck and unclasped a necklace. “You’re free here. Let’s get this off you.”

Sebastian methodically removed every piece of iron from my body and stuffed them in his pockets. It was as if he could sense the stuff. He even found the stud earrings. The corruption swelled in me. It seeped into my blood and took over like a dark cloud eclipsing the sun.

Sebastian’s fingers brushed my wrist as he worked to remove the last piece. I sucked in a breath as he slid the iron from my skin, setting the corruption free. I squeezed my eyes shut as it expanded inside me, as if it were stretching from a long nap. Then it shot through my body, setting my nerves on fire.

After days without feeding, I was too weak to resist it.

I opened my eyes to Sebastian’s smile. He inhaled, as if savoring a scent. “There it is.” He cocked his head at my dull veins. “When was the last time you fed?”

“A couple of days ago.” I scratched my scalp. Tingly pins and needles pricked at every inch of my skin. The simple movement took the last bit of my energy. I let my arm fall back to my side. “But it’s worse than that would normally be. I think the corruption fed on what little raw mana was left inside of me while it was trapped by the bloodforged iron.”

Corruption hit me first as my aura senses started to come back. It hung stagnant in the air. Elias’s aura was a silver light in the darkness, even as weak as he was.

He watched the interaction with shielded interest.

Dozens of weak hunter auras brushed against my skin. The captives. The scent of rose mixed with the rotten smell of corruption, making my stomach churn.

Another silver light, brighter than the others, caught my eye.

Genny.

I quickly averted my gaze. Hopefully, Sebastian hadn’t noticed. I had to be careful not to give her away. Another aura brushed my back. Far too close.

I spun around. My jaw dropped. “Ren?”

“What are you doing here?”

“I was going to ask you the same question.” I kept my gaze carefully on his face. If Genny was still nearby, I could only hope she could contain her rage and avoid any premature penile mutilation.

“What are you doing away from your Aegis dogs?” He glanced between Sebastian and me.

Sebastian crossed his arms. “She’s joining.”

“And you believe her?” Ren’s lip curled.

“You’re not exactly a wiz at reading people. That requires something called empathy.” I smiled coldly. “Not sure you’re familiar.”

Ren’s face twisted as he moved closer to me. Sebastian stepped between us. His black aura surged around him like the arms of a pissed-off octopus. Ren staggered back.

I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him. The corruption made it even harder than usual. It really did tempt me to give into darker urges.

I squinted at Ren’s aura. There was less corruption than the other hunters Sebastian had recruited. “So, you turned? Recently?”

“Last night.” Ren crossed his arms. “After Genevieve chased me out of the house with a bloody knife, I figured I wasn’t welcome in the Morgan family anymore. Not that I wanted to stay, anyway.”

Shit. Had that been before or after Max spread the word about the plan to attack?

“Genevieve crawled to you after what happened, didn’t she? I saw her going to Rosco’s cottage when I left.”

“She did. We had a great slumber party. Pillow fights, hair braiding, even a little spin the bottle.” I winked at him.

“Shut up.” Ren sneered. I wasn’t sure if it was the corruption or his stupidity that spurred him on, but it seemed he couldn’t help himself. “Unless you want to end up like her.”

I drew my blade and held it to his throat. Ren gripped my wrist, but I easily overpowered him. I was still weak, but already my strength was returning as the corruption grew inside me, pulling in the dark mana around me.

Genny’s bruised and bleeding face flashed in my mind, and my hand shook with the desire to draw the bastard’s blood. “Were you here to witness what happened to the last guy that threatened me, or did you arrive late to the party?”

Ren stayed quiet. Maybe he was smarter than I gave him credit for. I glanced down at his hands, hovering over his blades.

“Your fingers.” I narrowed my eyes, counting twice. “Word on the street is you should be down a few digits.”

“Don’t trust everything you hear.” Ren flexed his intact hands.

“The gift restored his body,” Sebastian said.

“Neat.” I pulled my knife from Ren’s throat, twirled it in my hand a few times and sheathed it in one fluid motion. I was far from full strength, but it felt good to be capable again. I’d felt so weak with the iron, so ... useless.

Sebastian began walking towards the great hall again.

I followed him up the stone steps of the old building. Sebastian opened the hulking doors, and my heart stuttered.

A woman sat at the head of a long table. The Patriarch’s old throne. A thick cloud of purple mana hung around her. Her red velvet gown flowed down her body and pooled on the floor. A thin veil covered her head, cascading over her shoulders in a river of silk. Delicate lace accented her flowing sleeves and high neckline.

She turned to us. The candlelight glinted off the gold mask that covered her entire face. Her shrewd purple eyes took me in, the only part of her visible beneath silk, velvet, and gold.

“Ah. A guest?” She spoke, but the bronze lips of the mask didn’t move with her words.

It was her . Disgust turned my stomach.

“Valeria.” Her name was like chalk on my lips.