Page 90 of Hell's Secret Omega

“Everything? Even his soul?”Kalad leans down, his unsettling blue eyes boring into Cyrus.

“Even me,” Cyrus manages through the sudden tightness in his throat.

“Hmm.”Kalad’s brow furrows.“You love him.”

“Will you help me or not?” Cyrus bursts out. He doesn’t dare name the thing in his heart—not while Mezor is still in the King’s grip.

“I will help you, little demon. He is my brother, after all. You seem to care for him very much, just as I do.”Kalad reaches out.“Take me to him.”

Cyrus grabs Kalad’s thumb and climbs into his palm. He whistles loudly and Ekko gives an answering cry above.

“Ekko will lead us there,” he says to the giant god.

A rumble of amusement thunders through the glade.“A rok. Very clever.”

Kalad straightens, lifting Cyrus high above the ground. With great strides he walks out of the pond, but strangely he leaves no footprints on the shore or in the delicate meadow grass. Theforest parts around them as Kalad enters. Trees bend their necks to clear the way for him. Kalad seems not to notice, his gaze fixed on the horizon ahead.

From here, the mountain is a distant spire haloed by Earth’s sky.

The steady stride and the whisper of wind through the treetops soon lulls Cyrus into a half-sleep. As he wavers between sleeping and waking, the wind turns to words.

“I mourned the realm when it fell to corruption…I turned away from everything.”Kalad is speaking into his mind, barely louder than Cyrus’s own thoughts. His words are full of sorrow and wonder, mixed with emotions Cyrus can’t untangle.“Time passed, but I knew little of the realm’s sorrows. Until I felt the prick of the world tree’s thorny roots. Then I saw your light through my slumber, curious and full of life. I’ve always liked human souls. I warned you away from it.”

“Why did you speak to me?” Cyrus mumbles, eyes still closed. “Why not Mezor?”

“I was ashamed,”Kalad whispers.“I saw the pain in his heart. But I saw hope, too—and a golden flower blooming.”

“The bond,” Cyrus realizes.

“Yes, a twin flower blooms in your soul. You are bonded.”

Another thought nibbles at him. “What would happen to Mezor if he left this place?”

Kalad is quiet for a long moment. He blows out a breath that stirs the trees, a deep sigh.“Long ago, we traveled freely between realms. My brothers sometimes took to their feet and wandered across Earth and Yden, curious to see new lands and meet new people. But never Mezor. Since the day of his creation, this has been his home.”

Cyrus curls his arms around his ribs. “I feel safest with him. If he stayed, I would stay by his side.”

“If you left, he would leave with you. I know him. Home is a feeling your soul knows—not a place.”

A feeling.He reaches for the bond, soaking in its faint warmth. Through it, he still hears Mezor’s distant heartbeat.

Chapter 49

MEZOR

Mezor floats in the aether.Hollows flicker in and out around him, disturbed by his presence. He sees both the empty void and the vast cave that cups the Hellspring, its surface rippling thickly like ichor.

Which vision is real?

He’s tired to the bone—tired of fighting, of aching, of waiting. He wants to let go. Yet something whispers to hold on.

Not yet.

In one half of Mezor’s vision, the King is seated on the long pier that stretches into the middle of the lake, his eyes shut. He sits utterly still. He’s waiting, too. Every few hours he gets to his feet and scoops out a handful of the black water, bringing it to his lips. It streams down his chin in evil strands, thick and poisonous now. Branok waits for the world trees to siphon more corruption into the Hellspring. The corruption will merge with his own power, becoming part of his soul.

When that happens, Branok will die. And so will Mezor. Together they’ll be reborn into something new. A simulacrum. A creature neither living nor dead.

The thought is curiously empty—he doesn’t desire it, but he doesn’t fear it either. Whatever is meant to be will be.At least Cyrus will be safe.

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