Page 22 of Feathers and Thorns

“What will become of us?”

“Is there nowhere else we can go?”

“What would the Architect have us do?”

They all looked to their leader, at a loss for how to save their realm.

“My dear brothers and sisters,” he addressed them with great reverence, “to save our world, I require but one thing from you all.”

The air practically buzzed with their anticipation.

“Tell us, great one,” an urgent voice broke from the crowd.

Adriel nodded in acknowledgment before speaking again.

“All I need is your blood.”

* * *

Luscinia looked on as her brothers and sisters walked forward, one by one, and offered their palms to Adriel. He slid the blade across their skin, and they fisted their hands over the Oculus, coating it in each of their blood.

She leaned against her mate, Abraxos, who stood at her back.

He brushed her silver hair aside and kissed her affectionately on the neck. “All will be well, my beloved.”

A single tear fell from her amber eyes as she turned to him. He brushed it away with his thumb and planted another kiss on the crown of her head. She nuzzled into his chest, her heart aching for what was to come.

“Celandine should be here.” She sniffed. “She was so much stronger than I.”

“You doubt your own capabilities. She was strong of heart; you are strong of body and mind. Whatever comes next, be it winds of frost or mountains of fire, I will follow you into the fold until I am no more.”

Her heart constricted as she looked into her mate’s soft gray eyes. “Until we are no more.” She bowed her head.

“Until we are no more,” he replied, embracing her.

His long brown hair brushed against her cheek as his strong arms enveloped her. Then their eyes turned back to the scene unfolding in the center of the arena. The final mated couple had returned to their original position as Adriel lifted the knife to his arm. He plunged the blade deep, slicing halfway from his wrist to elbow, bathing the Oculus in a scarlet pool. The act made Luscinia wince. How one could do that to themselves she would never understand. She silently thanked her father that her and her followers had been able to resist Adriel’s orders.

Though they were made to obey the Architect, Adriel was unaware that demands could be resisted based on the way in which said command was worded. For instance, Adriel had asked all mated couples to stay behind; however, he had not specified where and for how long. This allowed Luscinia and Abraxos to remain in the shadows and avoid partaking in the horrific scene in front of them.

She held on to her mate tighter, forever grateful she’d had him by her side these last eighteen years. He was a few hundred years her junior, yet this was but a blip in their lifetimes. She had known more joy and love in these last eighteen years than she had since her creation.

He had found her during a particularly dark time and had brought her back into the light. If one were to gather all the poetry written in all the worlds combined, the words would still not be enough to describe how deep their bond was.

A sharp wind blasted around them, and Luscinia’s eyes shot open. She had let her lids fall shut while nuzzling her mate, and her pupils dilated as she paid witness to what lay before them.

The mated couples stood still as statues, their gazes turned upward, awaiting their fate. Adriel stood atop the stone table, holding the Oculus upward, eyes closed, deep in thought. The artifact hummed so loudly that the entire arena began to vibrate. The excess blood that had pooled around the stone slab seemed to flow backward, absorbing into the metal.

Adriel’s hands shook as he put his vision to the front of his mind. When his eyes opened, the whites were gone, leaving behind a black void.

The lavender sky was now a dark gray, and angry clouds rolled across the expanse above them, frothing like the mouth of a great beast ready to strike.

Suddenly, Adriel dropped the Oculus as though the metal had burned his fingertips. The silver eye sat face-up on the stone, waves of power flowing off of it.

Luscinia’s sterling hair lifted as the first swell reached them. The couple turned to face it, eyes wide and hands clasped. The second wave brought with it the scent of old magic, of scrolls and parchment, of the lingering smoke after a candle had long burned out. The third crackled around them like an endless shower of sparks, making the hairs on their arms stand on end. The fourth and final wave nearly caused Luscinia to double over, for it brought with it the stench of death, of black magic pulled from the dark places of the world. Places long since forgotten.

Luscinia heaved, and Abraxos covered his mouth with the sleeve of his tunic, stifling a cough. They knew they should leave, escape from this place before what Adriel had decided would come to pass, but they could not look away.

The waves seemed to splash up the sides of the colosseum before cresting and falling back down, the power slowly ebbing back into the Oculus as though the tide was being pulled back out to its home at sea. Then everything went quiet.

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