Page 404 of Alchemised
Her ears were ringing from the blow, and everything seemed to slow, her panic giving way to a slow lucidity.
Kaine wasn’t going to come in time.
They’d used up all their luck surviving this long. Half a day short, and it had run out.
Atreus dragged her upright again. “I’m no fool. Everyone knew there was a spy among the Undying in the year leading up to the Eternal Flame’s defeat. The Resistance knew too much. The High Necromancer suspected that one of his most trusted had betrayed him, but they were never identified. They are the piece that remains unaccounted for. The evidence is undeniable. The massacres and acts of sabotage that were so uncharacteristic of the Eternal Flame. That person was responsible for the bombings, including the one that destroyed the West Port Lab. They disappeared after the final battle only to reemerge shortly after you did. You know exactly who it is.”
Helena tried to twist free, fingers clawing, trying to reach his face. Contact was all she needed, but Atreus crushed his weight against her burning shoulders, forcing a strangled scream from her. There were black spots in her vision.
“Tell me who it is.” He shook her.
“Kaine will be killed—if you hurt me,” she choked out. Her body was going numb, sinking her into a dissociative shock, as though she were a prey animal already hanging by her throat.
“The High Necromancer will forgive my means if I find the killer,” Atreus said. She could see his face reflected in the glass. His eyes had a burning look of utter desperation. It was strange how reminiscent of Kaine his expressions could be even in Crowther’s face.
“Kaine will survive. He can have more children,” he said.
Helena’s head grew light. She could hardly breathe in the smoke. The room was engulfed in flames behind them.
Knowing she’d never see Kaine again, she couldn’t help but look for any traces of him in Atreus. There was a similar evasiveness of their eyes in the way they spoke. The same look of furious desperation that Kaine wore all too often when he was cornered, when he thought he had nothing left to lose.
Despite their contempt for each other, Kaine had inherited his fatal flaws from his father.
Enid had been everything to Atreus, and now she was gone, and he was left grasping after shadows.
What would Kaine be like with someone who glimmered with constant reminders of what he’d lost? Perhaps something like Atreus, who could neither stand his son nor stay away.
She finally understood.
“He’s going to kill Kaine … if you don’t find the killer, isn’t he? That punishment—it wasn’t just because of Hevgoss, it was a warning for you, wasn’t it?”
Atreus’s expression turned black. He shook her so violently she nearly fainted. “Who is the last member of the Eternal Flame?”
“He looks like your wife, doesn’t he? It’s the eyes and mouth; they’re so much like hers. He’s all you have left of her now. But every time he sees you, he hates you with your wife’s eyes.”
Atreus raised his hand, ignition rings glittering.
“I’m the one who blew up the West Port Lab,” she said quickly, before the rings could spark. “I used to help Luc study pyromancy theory. I wasn’t supposed to, but he did better with companionship, so I studied it, too, even though I didn’t have the resonance. I used those principles and theory to design the bombs, and then I used necrothralls to plant them. Because I am the last member of the Eternal Flame.”
She drew a deep breath. “But you’re right—there was a spy. I was his handler.”
There was a flash of triumph in Atreus’s eyes. He saw victory in his grasp.
“But you won’t save Kaine by finding him. The killer you’re searching for is your son.”
Atreus stared at her dumbfounded before his expression contorted into fury. He forgot his pyromancy. His fingers wrapped around her throat. “My son would never ally himself with the Eternal Flame.”
“Yes, he would. He hates Morrough,” she rasped out. “He always hated him. Did you never wonder what happened to your family after you were arrested?”
Atreus sneered at her. “Nothing. When Kaine killed the Principate, my failure was forgiven.”
Helena shook her head. “Then why is there an inert iron cage in this house, and a transmutational array carved into the floor? Why are all your servants dead? Do you really think someone like Morrough was understanding during all those months before Kaine went back to the Institute?”
Doubt flashed across Atreus’s face.
“He kept your wife in that cage; he tortured her. He made her watch as he ripped out your son’s soul. Kaine killed Apollo trying to save her. And it was all your fault.”
“You’re lying!”
