Page 175 of Amethyst and Iron
I choked as a glamor fell away.
And what was left in its wake made me sick to my stomach.
“Fuck… is that… fifty… fifty was the amount seeking sanctuary… is that… it’s… oh my God.” I slapped my hand to my chest, digging my fingers into my skin, even as they shook from the brutal shock of it, from the horrific sight.
“No.No,”Lazriel snarled, his claws shooting out, his fangs dropping.
Cassius shook his head, grimacing.
Spread over the area were fifty piles of ashes, severe scorch marks encircling them and serving to frame them brutally.
Fifty beings, fifty innocent people, fifty lives… just nothing now.
“They just wanted sanctuary,” Ketheron uttered, a tear trickling down his cheek. I went to him and took his hand and he turned to me, more tears falling. “They were eradicated just forbeing hybrid creatures, just for being them.” He looked back and forth from me to Lazriel. “Like us.”
I squeezed his hand and he dropped his head onto my shoulder.
Cassius walked by us, stroking my hair on his way, before kneeling down by the fallen, scanning everything in a very telling silence.
He didn’t need to speak to it when it came to me.
I could feel it through the Soul Brand.
Pure, unadulterated rage.
It was why he hadn’t said anything.
We’d come here to reel in Ketheron, but now… now I could feel his strain.
And it spoke volumes.
Cassius was always so collected, so controlled.
But this horrific attack combined with the implications that it had on a personal level to me, Lazriel, and Ketheron… people he cared for dearly… it was challenging all of that like never before.
Kai joined him, crouching down also. “This is Risen Reckoning. Being used against the living in a way it should never be.”
“Yes,” Cassius rasped. “Intense necromantic energy is present.”
“Necromancers are in hiding following the string of brutal murders of their kind,” Kai said. “The coincidence isn’t lost on me. Neither is the fact that Sylas isn’t here with you.”
“The situation is complicated and evolving,” Cassius told him.
“A situation that has just traumatized Nyx, has shoved Ariana into the thick of it and many of her family members, too. So tell me now, is thishim?Is he alive?”
Cassius sighed and rose back to his feet. “Yes. It’s him.”
“Morien Morgrave has been resurrected?”
“He has.”
“Does Sylas know? Is that why he’s not here?”
“You know he’s currently powerless, right?” Lazriel said, striding over, not liking Cassius taking the brunt of it.
Kai scoffed. “That wouldn’t normally stop him.”
I patted Ketheron’s hand and walked into the fray, stepping right up to Kai. “Sylas is aware. Only recently aware, so you can calm down where that’s concerned. He’s been seeking answers, trying to find solutions. As you know better than most, that takes time—and caution. He didn’t come to you because of your ties to the Guardian Movement. He’s in a precarious position. If it was outed to Ryker and his associates that Morien walks the earth, especially with Sylas currently powerless, they would have locked him down.”
