10. Osborn

10

OSBORN

The hours I’d spent away from Deva had been the most excruciating moments of my life. I’d endured a lot of pain in my relatively short existence, but nothing compared to having her taken from me. To feel her agony while unable to reach her.

I wasn’t sure what sanity I’d been holding onto before the incident, but it had been absolutely demolished under the weight of losing her.

My starlight had died.

From the very beginning, I valued Deva’s life more than my own. Despite my desire to peel back her pretty skin to see what lay underneath, I hadn’t touched a hair on her head, wanting her safe. Protected. It had been one thing for her to take off on her own after we first met, but this time she’d been taken from me. Stolen from me and killed.

It had been my snapping point—the point of no return.

In the short period of time that we’d been reunited, I could feel something brewing under my skin and while I was attempting to maintain some level of normality in my actions and interactions, I wasn’t foolish enough to think it would last.

The minute we were around those that would do her harm, it would be absolutely impossible to remain like this.

Even now, as we scaled the slick rock wall, I found myself wanting to go in front of Deva. I wanted to protect her and shield her from anything that could take her from us. But if she fell, or missed a step, I wanted to be the one to catch her. Even if it meant falling myself.

It would be worth it to cushion her fall.

Deva was agile and moved so gracefully that it would’ve been easy to let my guard down, but I couldn’t. Her body had been through a lot lately, and I worried she’d hit a point where it became too damn much. The fact that she’d fallen asleep after she and Cage fucked was a perfect example of that.

I wanted to kill Cage for putting her at risk. What if her perfect moans had drawn the attention of Astaroth’s would-be acolytes, or creatures like the one we found dead? I shook my head, trying to physically dislodge those thoughts, and focused on climbing.

“Looks like it’s about twenty feet up until the ceiling crests into a landing!” Grimshaw called down to us. Deva was right above me, and my brows knitted together as she paused.

“Starlight?” I asked over the sound of rushing water.

“I feel something,” she murmured, tiling her head. “Familiar magic.”

Fuck.

We reached the landing, which appeared to be a dead end. We could see the source of the waterfall, a gush of water pouring from between two stones, but that was it. Except for the thing that had given Deva pause.

“Kazimir?”

The name alone had me letting out a snarl of anger, Deva’s body tensing. The sight in front of us was a gruesome one, even by my standards.

We’d obviously walked into a trap, but not one we needed to worry about. The idiot in question had already triggered it, his body stuck to a wall as something organic in nature fed on him. I didn’t have a better description for the thing because it was simply a mass of purple translucent skin that covered Kazimir’s entire body. It had no features with the exception of the multiple mouths attached to Kazimir.

“It’s a leech,” I said.

“No shit.” Cage whistled as if impressed. “That sucks.”

Cage didn’t make a move to help him, though, a decision I fully agreed with.

Deva, however, had other plans. She took a step towards him and I pulled her back, keeping her tucked against me. I didn’t care if the trap had already been activated, I didn’t want her fucking near that damn thing. Or Kazimir.

“Could be a trap,” Lazaro said indifferently. “Astaroth knows we know him.”

“Possible,” Grimshaw agreed.

“We have to help him,” Deva said, incredulous at our lack of concern.

“Actually, we don’t, little siren. He’s a piece of shit. Correct me if I’m wrong, Alek, but he’s part of Astaroth’s coalition, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Now that we’ve settled that, we need another plan.”

“We have to release him from that thing! I can’t just walk away,” Deva argued, guilt flashing across her face. “He may be an ass, but he doesn’t deserve this.”

“He definitely deserves this,” I countered, thinking about how he’d talked to Deva at school. But it wasn’t a surprise that she wanted to help—Deva had a soft heart that was absolutely beautiful, even if it was for the wrong person right now.

“Fuck it,” Lazaro muttered, almost immediately giving into her whim. Not that I blamed him. In a blast of power, she hit the creature with a bolt of lunar magic. The room shook, and when I smelled something burning, I hoped that maybe it would kill Kazimir. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the scent of human flesh. The ashes that exploded around him were purely from the creature Lazaro had meant to destroy.

Kazimir fell forward onto the hard rock, unconscious.

Deva moved to check on him, and I followed as she carefully navigated the space. Just because Kazimir had managed to set off a trap didn’t mean there weren’t more.

Grimshaw used his boot to turn Kazimir onto his back, Deva and I crouching down to inspect him. His shirt was torn to shreds, blood leaking from the circular wounds in his chest. The sores were covered in a green mucous film that I had to imagine would impede his healing.

I didn’t know that for sure, but it was one of those things that you caught onto when studying different healing methods. Any creature that left residue on you was for marking their territory, to poison you, or to stop your healing.

“We can’t leave him here.” Deva sighed. My jaw tightened when she looked up at me, already knowing what she was going to ask. “Will you help him? I just want to make sure that when he wakes up he can walk out of here.”

Right into Astaroth’s front lines.

Luckily, I was saved from answering when Kazimir started to groan. Grim took immediate action, surrounding him in shadows. A good thing, because Kazimir came up swinging—or he tried to.

Grimshaw’s voice was sharp as shadows surrounded him immediately. “Don’t even bother, Kazimir.”

“Where the hell did you come from?” he snarled, thrashing about. Why the hell he was angry was past me.

“Calm down, you idiot.” Cage rolled his eyes. “Deva here decided we should save you—it’s because of her we didn’t let whatever the hell was eating you continue. You should thank her.”

Kazimir shot Deva a scathing look.

“Say ‘thank you,’” Lazaro advised, prodding Kazimir in the rib with his foot.

“Fuck— thank you .” He winced as one of the wounds began to expand in size, the film eating away at the skin around it. I sighed and pulled out my backpack, removing a set of medical tools that I always kept on me.

Deva’s brows dipped. “I’m going to have Oz remove whatever it is that’s making your injuries worse.”

“Fuck that, I’m fine.” The way his eyes darted to me, his face paling notably at the tools in my hand, had a barely there smile pulling at my lips.

“Shut up,” Cage ordered as I held up tweezers and a scalpel. Using the scalpel to slice the edge of the mucus from his skin, I was able to get a grip on it with the tweezers, lifting it up and continuing to slice until it pulled away completely. I placed the goo to the side, only the first of what would end up being a very large pile. There were at least nine or ten wounds on his upper trunk alone.

“Why the fuck are you doing this?” Kazimir growled.

“Because you’re one of our classmates.”

Kazimir chuckled in a way that told me he was about to say something stupid. “I’m the reason you had to leave DIA in the first place.”

I took the scalpel and slammed it down into his leg at the reminder. His cry of pain not even registering as I used the tweezers to tug the mucus coverings off, no longer caring about his skin pulling or tearing.

“You motherfucker.” He fought to sit up, probably to lunge at me, but Grim’s shadows kept him restrained.

“What do you mean?” Deva asked, her voice carefully indifferent.

“Who do you think was doing Astaroth’s work from the inside? Who do you think he used to channel magic through Dylan? And the attack at the ball? The murders of the two unblessed students? I was responsible for everything Astaroth did on campus, even in other sect?—”

Kazimir’s words cut off as I pulled the scalpel from his leg and brought it to his throat in a quick flick of the hand, holding the blade right at his artery—poised for a fatal blow. The room was absolutely silent. Staring into his gaze, I saw the desperate need to die, his expression almost begging me to do exactly that. Instead I just held the scalpel there, waiting for Deva to respond.

“Why?” Deva demanded, her voice catching with emotion. “You hate unblessed that much? I don’t understand.”

“You don’t understand?” He laughed, groaning as I pressed the blade against his skin firmly, making a cut. “You understand perfectly, Deva. Astaroth doesn’t give you a choice in these things. And look at my reward!” He gestured manically to his body. “I’ve been one of his right-hand people, leaving DIA when the option was given so that I could work by his side, and he still made me go through his damn dungeon. It’s fucking insane. He’s psychotic.”

“That doesn’t explain why you’re helping him,” she said, face stony.

His anger faded momentarily as he closed his eyes, looking resigned. “Because he has my mom and sister. Because my dad used them as a bargaining chip for us to gain favor.”

Deva’s expression shut down at this new piece of information. I didn’t feel bad for Kazimir; I simply didn’t. There were many people who’d been threatened by Astaroth, whose family members had been killed by the bastard, who still didn’t betray their sense of right and wrong. It did explain why he did it, though.

“Would you be helping him if it wasn’t for that?”

Kazimir grunted as I removed the blade from his throat, blood dripping down his neck and onto the stone floor. “I have no fucking idea. I didn’t want anything to do with this shit?—”

I used my tweezer to pull off another piece of mucus, a blister popping from underneath it, as he cried out.

“No, I probably wouldn’t,” he ground out once his chest stopped heaving, “but I don’t get that option. Our main goal this entire time was to get you to leave campus, and you did. Mission accomplished. But I can’t even get to the bastard to get my mom and sister back without going through this damn place.”

Deva sighed, running a hand through her damp hair. “You know he won’t give them back, right? This is sort of his MO.”

“Don’t fucking say that,” he snarled. A rumble shook the cavern, sounding almost like an explosion. I’d heard a few smaller ones while Kazimir was talking, but I’d kept my attention on the threat to my starlight. We must’ve been closer to the surface than we thought. I pulled off another piece of film, eager for this conversation to be over so we could get the hell out of here.

“I promise you, going to him will only result in getting further wrapped up,” Deva insisted.

“So what should I do? What do you think is the right option, Deva?”

“Watch how you talk to zaya .” Alek’s boot pressed down on Kazimir’s hand, making him wince.

“You could help us,” she said. “I’m guessing you have a lot of updated information on Astaroth. We could use that.”

“I don’t want to work with you,” Kazimir bit out. “I don’t want any part of this shit. At all.”

“And I’m not sure I would trust him,” Grim pointed out. My thoughts exactly. I pulled off the last piece of mucus and put away my tools, wondering if I shouldn’t keep the scalpel out…just in case.

“The only way you’re ever going to get your sister and mom out of here is by taking him down,” Deva said, ignoring our input. “Take it from me—nothing you do will ever be enough for him to let you go. It’s why he’s amassed the army he has.”

Kazimir stared at her for a long moment before sighing. “Fine. Fucking fine.”

“You’re going to need to do a blood pact,” Cage said evenly. “We aren’t helping you or taking you anywhere until you do.”

Kazimir thrust his hand out, and a part of me relaxed. A blood pact would mean he couldn’t break our loyalty—or he would die. Literally.

As I finished putting everything away, I watched Cage cut Kazimir’s palm, using the blood to create a circle around him. I had never experienced the effects of a blood pact before, but if the scream of pain that came from Kazimir once the circle was complete and Cage surged magic through it was anything to go by, it wasn’t a fun experience. Somehow I liked the concept of blood magic even more now.

“When we get to camp, we can give you something for the pain,” Deva offered, her eyes on his actively bleeding wounds.

“We just have to find a way out of here,” Lazaro said, a distant crack of thunder making the room rumble.

Deva looked around. “What about where the water is flowing in?—”

A massive shudder went through the cave as rocks began to fall from the ceiling. In a fast move, I had Deva in my arms as I moved us against the wall to avoid falling debris.

“They must have started the attack outside,” Grim surmised.

“Stand away from that wall!” Alek ordered, signaling to Lazaro and Kazimir who were near the wall the river flowed out of. Right as another rumble hit, Alek threw a mixture of shadow and lunar magic toward the wall. The blowback was immediate.

A sonic-like boom threw us back as a thick crack spidered up the cave wall, splitting it all the way to the center of the ceiling. Light filled the cave, along with the sound of unmuffled explosions.

We sprinted toward the opening, and no sooner did I feel the wards drop away than Grim said, “Hang tight, portalling now.”

We had gotten Deva out—we were bringing our starlight home.

“We figured a distraction would help you escape. We haven’t launched the full attack, but we were monitoring for signs of your magic. We could feel it when you made the blood pact,” Cage’s father explained. I smoothed my hand over Deva’s hair before returning to the table where I had herbs and medicinal equipment set up. The familiar scents had me relaxing a minimal amount.

We were currently sheltered in our tent, having escaped the chaos of everyone trying to talk to us upon returning. Especially when they saw Deva, who’d been overwhelmed by the magic of the portal and had collapsed in my arms upon landing. Now I was just waiting for her to return to me.

“Surely he’s realized we’ve escaped at this point. I have no idea how he didn’t feel her awaken,” Grimshaw said.

“Astaroth joined his forces to the west of Carmina. He was gone for nearly twenty-four hours, according to intel,” Phelan replied.

I’d wondered how the hell he hadn’t felt the absurd amount of magic radiating off of my starlight. It was possible he’d warded the labyrinth so that he wouldn’t feel the magic of everyone coming and going through it, but still—that amount of magic would have been impossible to ignore.

“That timeline makes sense,” Kazimir said. He stood near the entrance to the tent doorway, not having been allowed to enter further than that. “I entered the compound before that.”

When Deva shifted in her sleep, I turned my head toward the others, wondering if it wouldn’t be better to tell everyone but the five of us to get out. Apparently I didn’t even need to say anything because upon watching Deva adjust, Grim’s mom spoke up.

“Let’s talk once Deva is awake. Give them all a minute.” Everyone filed out without complaint, leaving the six of us. Grimshaw and Lazaro looked over a map, while Cage was laying down, looking half asleep. Alek was the only other one who looked as alert as I was, and he was sitting on the other side of Deva.

“Focus on her,” Lazaro said when I started asking questions to assess the severity of their injuries. No one in our party had been seriously hurt, but their health was important to Deva, so it was important to me.

Content to focus on Deva, I applied a salve over her once injured hand. I was aware it was healed, but there were the faintest marks from the bites that I knew I could help. My attention stayed there for a long moment, vowing that I wouldn’t let my starlight get hurt anymore.

A man could only handle seeing that so much.

Deciding to spend the time waiting for her to wake by creating a new necklace for her, I gathered animal bones and human finger bones from kills I’d acquired before coming to DIA. I had cleansed all of them, and even I had to admit they would be a bit more durable than a necklace made of only animal bones.

I started by dipping each bone into a pot of black oil to seal them, then painted runes on them, working meticulously on each tiny detail. The others came and went in and out of our tent as the day passed, but when I was done everyone was back to see my creation.

“Looks good,” Cage said.

“Alot bigger than the other,” Grim added knowingly.

It was. It was much more noticeable.

Taking my starlight’s hand, I dragged a thin blade across her palm and collected some blood to sprinkle over the necklace. I paused, staring at the crimson liquid that welled up on my blade with fascination.

Silver sparkles swirled through her crimson lifeforce, a vital reminder of her life and the magic she held. My starlight truly had stars within her blood.