Page 331 of Of Sins and Sacrifice

“W-what…” I gulp down. “You meanallSons of Tenebreis consume souls? Even now when they’re trapped in Tartareia?”

“Why do you think they have demon thralls, Minerva? They are using them as proxies to get them souls when they are unable to.”

“But that means… Mine…”

He rolls his eyes in exasperation.

“You were the one who noticed the missing souls at the military base. How you did not think of it before is beside me.”

“But the greed demon…”

“You know as well as I do that this happened before the greed demon appeared.”

“But—”

“You may continue in denial for as long as you would like. Frankly, I do not give a damn about you. Valerìon, on the other hand… I am interested in him.”

“Why? It can’t bejustbecause he’s a Son of Tenebreis outside of Tartareia.”

“That is not for you to know. Alas, I have spent far too long in here. It appears duty calls.”

He turns to leave.

“Wait! You’re leaving me here? Like this?”

He stops just in front of the exit.

“Well, no. Tomorrow you will be taken to the public square for your execution. I did mention it will be a public execution, no?”

My lashes flutter in surprise—though at this point, why is any of this surprising?

“Public execution?” I stammer.

“Aperion must know we do not abide any rule break. Your death will serve as a good example for it,” he says. “I look forward to killing you. Until tomorrow.”

With that, he leaves the room.

Sleep doesn’t come easy.Though I know I should be resting after the continuous torture I endured, the thought of what’s going to happen tomorrow keeps me awake and perpetually petrified. Yet it’s not dying that scares me. That should be fairly quick—after Azerius has paraded me around the main square so everyone is aware of my sins.

No, death does not scare me, which is surprising in itself considering how much I’ve agonized over the act of dying. It’s the thought thathemight die again that terrifies me.

Because if Azerius is so interested in Marlowe, he will most likely use this opportunity to draw him here, using me as bait.

Marlowe might be a Son of Tenebreis, but he is undoubtedly no match for Azerius.

No one is.

Perhaps I should spend my last waking minutes contemplating my life so far and how blind I’ve been to what was there in front of me from the beginning.

Perhaps.

But I find that I don’t have the energy to care that Marlowe is or isn’t a demon. The missing souls in his basement make sense now, as do the missing souls from the military base. But he needed them. Azerius himself said that it’s not always malicious. Sons of Tenebreis need those souls to survive. How can I condemn him for doing what I, too, have been trying to do all this time? Surviving…

I am disappointed he never trusted me enough to tell me. Not in this life when he did not remember, but in the past when he knew fully well what he was, what I was. He knew everything and yet he kept it from me. Perhaps he knew far more than I ever did, at his advanced age and such.

That gives me pause. He’s over seven thousand years old? Though still hard to believe, retrospectively, I can see the instances in which his maturity and experience shone through.

Wait a moment, though!

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