Page 88 of Hallowed Games

He stood, staring at the heap at his feet. The Pater rolled to his side, his expression stunned. He was trying to crawl now.

Sion’s amber eyes met mine again. “This one dies easily, but he always comes back from the dead. None of us know how to stop it. And that was my entire purpose here.” Gold flecks pierced his black stare.

On his elbows, the Pater pulled himself toward the torchbearers. “The Archon protects me,” he rasped.

Sion let out a low, dark laugh that sent an ice-cold shiver up my spine. Then his smile faded. “There is no Archon!”

His blasphemous shout echoed off the temple walls. I stared, stunned. I’d never heard anyone say such a thing.

“And if the Serpent exists,” said Sion, “I am he. Am I supposed to feel guilt for being better than mortals? Is it my fault you’re all sad, slow, and pathetic? I didn’t create you to grow more decrepit day by day, and yet the Order seems to believe I’m responsible for your mortality. They tortured me for decades.” His voice softened. “I know, I know, that was before your time, but you carry on their traditions so faithfully, don’t you, Pater?”

He crouched down by the Pater’s side and dragged the man closer to the hole, so that his head hung over the depths.

“Do you see the face of the Archon?” asked Sion. “Do you see?”

“I see the Archon,” breathed the Pater. His voice shook. “I see the face of the Archon before me! Glorious Archon!”

“It’s supposed to drive a man mad. But the thing is, you already are.” Sion gripped him by the robe and dragged him over the edge, shoving him into the pit.

His scream echoed off the dome, then grew faint as he fell.

“Daft cunt.” Sion dusted off his hands on his robe. When he turned back to me, he curled his lip to show one of his fangs. “Don’t be relieved. He’ll be back. And when he is, he will send the entire Luminari force after both of us. Thanks for that. I was able to deceive him for years, but I think stalking into the temple with a giant crevice where my heart should be pushed the bounds of credulity a bit too far, don’t you?”

Anger still skittered along my bones. “Why would you tell him about Leo?”

He leveled his piercing stare on me, his body completely still. “I didn’t. That was the boy’s uncle. Hamelin. You can’t trust anyone in Merthyn, don’t you know that?”

“Where is Leo?” I demanded.

“Still in Eboria with his wretched plague-sore of an uncle.” He narrowed his eyes. “Though again, Leo will probably be one of the first people the Pater will pursue when he returns after what you just did. He’s going to have a real vendetta against you, do you realize that?”

“Yeah. He was about to burn me at dawn, so I was aware of his distaste for me.” My nerves crackled. I had to get out of here.

“Maelor was supposed to get you out.” An edge cut through the smoothness of his voice. “He told you that, but it wasn’t good enough for you, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t.” My fingers slid over my bloody pommel. “Because you two were going to let everyone else burn. There’s a boy here hardly older than Leo. You think I could leave him to suffer the flames?”

He folded his arms, looking bored with the conversation already. “What difference does it make?” That lilting Lirion accent tinged his voice. “You’re all mortal. They’ll be dead in the blink of an eye, no matter what happens.”

“‘Dead in the blink of an eye’? That’s not how it seems to us.” I took a deep, shaking breath. “And when it comes to your secret mission of learning how to kill the Pater, it doesn’t seem like you were making much headway on that front, were you?”

Shadows spilled off him, ice-cold on my skin. “We were the reason Eboria was prepared.”

“We can’t keep letting all these Penitents die while you try to figure out how to kill him. We need a new tactic.”

He started to circle me, and amusement danced in his metallic eyes. “Who the fuck is we? Have you just appointed yourself head of the resistance? How interesting.”

I stared at him as he prowled around me. His movements were so eerily smooth.

“How exactly were you able to deceive the Pater?” I asked. “You seemed like an evil creep the first moment I met you. You don’t seem remotely mortal.”

“Thank you.” He went still, then cocked his head. As he took me in, his eyes looked heavy-lidded, almost seductive. “I have ways of bending people’s minds to my will. I can convince them of the reality I want them to see. But it has its limits.”

“The Archon cursed me after I left an offering out in the woods for the old gods. If there is no Archon, how did I end up cursed?”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Is that really what you think happened?”

“It’s logical. I was cursed immediately after leaving food out for the old gods.”

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