Page 277 of Lady of Starfire

Where had Idris gone?

He’d pulled a short sword from his side, but there was so much godsdamn fire everywhere he couldn’t see anything but black and orange flames.

Until they all suddenly went out, pitching the chamber into darkness.

He clutched Tava closer to his side. The only sound was labored breathing before the cave was illuminated once more by soft glowing flames above them. Cyrus’s doing Callan realized a moment later. But then—

“Drake?” Tava asked, her tone full of confusion.

Callan turned to find Drake kneeling on the ground beside Balam, a dagger protruding from the center of his chest. Eyes scanning the room, he found Idris and Orvyn unmoving on the stone floor as well.

“Are they…dead?” Tava asked.

“They cannot be,” Callan answered. “I am still alive.”

“They are dead,” Drake said, lifting his gaze to Tava.

“I don’t understand anything that is happening right now,” Cyrus said, propping the flat of his sword on his shoulder.

Tava took a tentative step towards her brother, but stopped, still clinging to Callan.

“He said…” Drake’s eyes dipped to Balam’s body once before meeting Tava’s gaze again. “He said that he’d made a vow to our mother. That he’d vowed we would never know the pain and suffering she had. He was drawing something on his arm. I don’t know—”

“Where?” Razik demanded, striding forward from where he’d found his way to Eliza’s side. The general was clutching at her left side, and she gave Callan a tense look.

“I have never seen a Mark like that before,” Razik said, crouched over Balam and examining his left arm. “This one, however,” he added, pointing higher up to the inside of his bicep. Callan couldn’t see anything. “This is a Blood Vow Mark.”

“To who?” Drake asked.

“No way of knowing now, but from the sounds of it, I would say it was to your mother,” he answered. “A Blood Vow demands fulfillment.”

“He said he couldn’t save her, but he’d promised to save us,” Drake said hoarsely. “He finished drawing on his arm, and then he pulled this dagger from the air. It all happened so fast.”

“That is a deathstone dagger,” Razik said, eyeing the weapon. “Are you saying he stabbed himself in the chest?”

“He did,” Drake said. “And then the other Lords just…dropped to the ground.”

“He somehow transferred the life bond to himself,” Razik muttered, back to studying the invisible Mark that was apparently on Balam’s forearm. “That shouldn’t be possible, but there is no other explanation.”

“Are you saying Callan does not have to give up his life?” Tava asked, her voice trembling for an entirely different reason now. “Is that what you are telling me, Razik?”

“It would appear that way,” Razik confirmed. “It would seem that the male who raised you cared for you both very deeply. More than he cared about what he was sent here to do.”

Cyrus let out a low whistle. “If that’s true, Sorin is going to be pissed he didn’t get to finish off Mikale.”

“He wasn’t going to finish him anyway if we’d actually killed Callan,” Eliza said, rolling her eyes. “Sorin got his vengeance and more. You know how he gets in the black rooms beneath the palace.”

Callan had no desire to know what that meant. Ever.

He turned back to Tava, opening his mouth to say something, but paused when his gaze snagged on her amulet. The white sapphire itself was still there, but the swirling mist inside it no longer was. He picked it up between his fingers. “I guess it was not simply the Beta’s flair.”

She smiled, fresh unshed tears glimmering in her eyes as she let out a breath of laughter that Callan felt in the depths of his soul.

“Razik?” Hale asked, drawing all of their attention to him. He jerked his chin to the mirror gate. “Do you know what is happening here?”

The mirror gate was no longer a mirror, but instead it was a swirling mass of black with what appeared to be white lights among it. They were moving so fast, Callan couldn’t make anything out. Just glowing blurs among the darkness.

“I do not know what is happening,” Razik said, pushing slowly to his feet and reaching for Eliza. “I would suggest we not be here when whatever is going to come through arrives though.”

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