Page 64 of A Spell of Bones and Madness
“It was my task, no one else’s,” Ember refuted.
“And where did that get you, Ember? You could have been killed!” She had never seen the commander this angry before.
“I almost was,” she whispered.
“Excuse me?” Katrin hacked out. “What do you mean you almost were?”
“I ran into Father. At least I think it was Father. He didn’t know who I was—kept calling me that name, Lady of Spring. He put a knife to my throat and began to choke me and then he just disappeared.”
“He tried to kill you and then just left you there?” Ander asked.
“Because he took it. He left me there alive because he took that gods-damned relic. Father never should have entrusted me with it, what did he think I could do?” Ember ranted, stomping over to the edge of the lake.
“You lost it? Ember, you should have never been out there alone!” The vein in the commander’s forehead began to pulse, his skin turning a crimson hue.
“It’s fine, Ajax.” Ander’s tone was silencing. Well, that was a first, Ember never expected him to take her side, especially against his oldest friend.
“Fine? Not only could Aidon have killed his own daughter in his delusions, but we also lost the one thing that could keep him alive. Or are you forgetting an all-powerful Olympi is after us all!” Sarcasm laced through Ajax’s final words.
“It is not the only thing.” This time it was Katrin who spoke, her hand clutched around the necklace she always wore. A single blue stone hung next to the gold pendant she usually wore. “We might have something that could trap him—his soul, at least. Buy us more time to find the relic again.”
“Is that what I think it is?” Ajax asked.
Ander nodded his head. “But we must hurry. If Kohl or, gods forbid, Hades himself gets a hand on the bident before we do, it will be too late.”
“What is that?” Ember stuttered, staring at the captivating crystal.
“Something you do not want your sister to have to use. Let’s go, it is a day's walk to the caves and we need all the time we can get.” Ajax brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear. “Never do something like that again, alright? I cannot lose you, not now.”
Ember looked into those downturned eyes, Ajax’s hardened jaw, and nodded.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Kohl
Gold chains clanged against each other from where they hung in Kohl’s outstretched palms. The metallic bindings were lighter than he thought they would be, feeling like nothing more than pieces of fabric dangling down toward the ground. If he had not seen the cursed metal work on Ander in the dungeons of Alentus and beside him now on the most powerful goddess in Odessia, he would believe the myth to be a ruse, but Kora’s labored breathing echoing off the damp cavern walls were a clear sign the cuffswould do their task.
Thick red blood still hissed and sputtered against the cuffs Kohl attached to Aidon’s wrists and ankles—binding him to the equally auric throne the unconscious Grechi lay upon. Snake bites lined his forearms and calves, forming patterns that wove into flowers and vines. Blood poured from the wounds as the black creatures continued their work—never healing, not with the onyx, oily venom that dripped from their glistening teeth. The mixture of the two liquids seeped into the stone below Kohl’s feet, heating against it before transforming it into that same power-absorbing substance that now bound both gods before Kohl.
Light so bright it could have been the fire of the sun itself pulsed out from Kora’s heaving chest, taking with it the radiant peachy glow that usually painted her skin. In its place was left a pallid, ashen sheen, skin barely stretching over bones. Her pleas still echoed in Kohl's mind, but he could not turn back now, not after what the vision had shown him—the ways his people would be tortured, the souls that would be stripped from them and corrupted into the power that fueled the Grechi. Instead, he would destroy them—the beings that for so long ruled without balance, caring only for their own. His father had been right.
Kohl pictured the look on Katrin's face—because she would arrive within these tunnels, and soon, from the way the voices called to him. Maybe she would regret choosing that insolent man over him now that her parents' lives were in his hands. What would she think as she watched helplessly as Kora and Aidon were slaughtered? Would she loathe him more than she already did? Try to cut through the veil Hades had shrouded the dais in? No magic, god-born or other, could break through that impenetrable shield. She would try—Kohl knew that—and possibly extinguish all herpower in her attempt to save the two broken beings before him. Good riddance. Kohl hoped she drained her well of power, used every last drop when it did not matter so when thethysiawas complete, when he was gifted his reward for raising his lord, Katrin would not be able to stop him from the one thing that mattered most. Killing the Prince of Nexos.
He would leave her with nothing, no one. Maybe then she would know how he felt these past months.
Picking up the humming bident, Kohl began to chant. The end was near for the Grechi. The fallen would rise.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Katrin
Rot and copper filled the air at the entrance to the small mountain. It was different from the caves Katrin came to know so well in Alentus. Those had been welcoming, a respite from a rainy day, a home to the wildlife that roamed the lush grounds below. These were like death itself—bone-rattling, damp, lifeless. It wasn’t surprising that this was the home to such a wretched being.
From what Leighton described, it would be a rather short but winding journey to the center of the mountain where the sacrifices were made. His warnings still echoed in Katrin’s mind—the way the voices would call from the very walls of the caves, the illusions that wove through the slithering passages, the madness onewould fight within the darkness. Haunting, destroying, ruinous madness.
Katrin was used to it—the darkness that ate away at your soul, the voices that begged you to end yourself so they could be free. Soshecould be free. She had learned to conquer them, to push them aside as nothing more than whispers. Falsities that would only bring her unnecessary pain. From what she heard of Ember and Ajax’s time in Aidesian, they had mastered a similar feat. At least Katrin could only hope so.
There was no guiding flame to help them navigate the rocky pathways within the cave, only the small swirl of light Katrin was able to conjure thanks to Ander’s training over the last weeks. It circled her palm and fingers like a torch, but it was still limited—radiating only a few feet in front of them. Only enough that they would not stumble over the uneven earth. Ajax trailed behind them in his shifted form, needing less light due to his heightened senses. At least, that was what he'd said. Katrin suspected that there was perhaps more to the decision that went unsaid. That it was not only about how he could better protect in his wolf form but who he could better protect.
