Soul of Shadows

Two weeks after the Karmona attack…

Tatiana

The wind howled, sending a wave of snow as thick as my bedsheets flying into my face, and I lifted my makeshift, handsewn scarf over my mouth and nose, the fabric struggling to keep the heat in, and leaned back against the fallen pillar of stone I sheltered under, hearing the crunching footsteps of people approaching. Peering out long enough to spot the light of their lanterns, which were down the street, I slid back into place, shaking my head at the Faery beside me, her face falling. There were six people out there, working together to hunt and kill anyone they could find- Too big of a group for just Myr and I to take on by ourselves.

Myr shivered, hiding the small basket of food she had managed to scavenge behind her, the glint of a sword shining down the street, followed by the scream of somebody begging for mercy. We winced, knowing it was pointless to intervene, and a second later, there was a ‘THUMP!’ in the snow, the group shouting orders to each other to keep searching.

With Karmona’s Port laying in ruins, Ressila unable to repair it with the fierce winter storms whipping the waves into a furious mess, supplies had dwindled quickly for The Borderlands, and with it had come a show of survival as old as time itself: People killing each other for food.

Tugging Myr closer, I glanced around for a place to hide, spotting a small alcove between two pillars, where the house had collapsed in on itself, and dipped my chin to it, Myr nodding wordlessly.

We tucked the basket in first, shoving it as far into the space as we could, hearing the creaking groan of the pillars beneath us, and Myr, pulling her cloak over her head, followed it.

‘Where are you?’ Lucifer’s voice was quiet in my mind, Myr reaching out a hand to pull me into the space as well, revealing the partially-crushed remains of a living room, the back half of the house mostly standing. It was a living room and dining room, complete with two dust and snow-covered grey couches, the fabric beginning to mould after two weeks of continuous damp, three bookshelves, their contents thrown around the room, a small pile having been stacked beneath a table. Somebody had been sleeping there, their blood-stained bedroll still laid out underneath the table, beside the books, an emptied bag beside it, a handful of pencils and a sketchbook scattered across the floor. It was open, revealing a hand-drawn map of the ‘new’ city of Karmona, certain houses marked out with circles and symbols designed only for the writer to understand- Marking where supplies were, maybe?

Myr, hunched over, made it toward the back of the room, opening a small cupboard and rifling through it while I covered the entrance with an old bookshelf, shoving it over so only a small wind blew snow in through a hole the size of my clenched fist, knowing that if it covered the entrance too-perfectly, it would alert the group outside to the fact that there was a shelter here. Conditions were grim in winter even with the city running perfectly, but with it in ruins, people were dying.

The floor had been scratched and dented in the collapse, and the roof above our heads had bowed, making it impossible to enter the room at the back of the dining room, the door buckled in on itself.

A broken fireplace sat two metres away, and I scrambled over to it, peering up. The chimney was clogged, bricks and wooden beams filling it completely, and I cursed under my breath, glancing over my shoulder to the now-hidden entrance as the shouting grew louder. They were outside, blocking our only exit out should they realise where we were, which meant we had to hide. If any of them were to peer in through that fist-sized hole, they would spot us immediately.

Shuffling quietly over to Myr, I grabbed her hand, pulling her with me and quietly flipping the table, the top of it facing the doorway and forming a small wall for us to hide behind. As a last thought, Myr darted forward, grabbing the basket and placing it in her lap, hiding it from sight with us.

Hunching behind the table with her, we tucked our legs in, and I replied, ‘We’re in one of the collapsed Manor homes. There is a group out here killing anyone they can find for food.’

My Connected swore, and I added, ‘We should be fine for now, we’re hidden well. Myr and I will wait for them to pass and then come back. We found some supplies, but not enough for everybody.’

One of them shouted, spotting the blocked doorway, and the light of a lantern filled the room, Myr clamping her hand over her mouth, the both of us holding our breath, Myr inching for the weapon on her belt.

Locking eyes with her, I shook my head, lifting my other hand to my lips in a ‘Quiet’ motion before gripping her hand, and one of the Fallen Angels outside hissed, “Is there anything in there?”

The lantern light remained, somebody squinting in the room, searching for supplies. Time slowed, stretching out for an eternity, and I felt my legs beginning to cramp by the time the lantern peeled away, the room going dark again, the person replying, “Nothing I can see worth breaking in for. It’s just a ruined house. You can’t even access the kitchen.”

They grunted in annoyance, shouting orders for the group to keep moving again, their footsteps shuffling away, and Myr slumped in relief, shifting as though she meant to move. Counting the sets of steps I could hear, I snatched her wrist again, shaking my head and desperately mouthing, “Wait.” Only five footsteps had left, when I could count six people carrying lanterns earlier.

Only seconds later, the lantern light returned, and I heard the owner of it sigh in disappointment, having expected us to have emerged from our hiding places, before they too, strode away.

Gulping, I handed the basket to Myr again, her face pale, the realisation of what might have happened sinking in, and I whispered, “We need to keep moving.”

She nodded wordlessly, rising on trembling legs, and I scrambled for the book, tearing out a page and copying the map as quickly as I could, including the symbols. If they were a different language, Jason would be able to decipher them. If not, then we could still investigate.

‘Taking the original map would have been quicker,’ Lucifer remarked as I tucked my copy into the waistband of my pants, and I shrugged, replying, ‘I didn’t want to leave them without their map.’ If it was the only thing keeping them alive, then I didn’t want to be the person to take that chance away.

We had lost enough people to the battle, too many people, for me to take another out of nothing more than selfishness.

Outside, there was a loud ‘BANG!’, followed by the groaning of the very ground itself, and Myr darted back to my side as the pillars above us shifted, moaning under the weight of the collapsed house, the group of people beginning to shout.

There was a clashing of swords, like they had encountered an enemy, and I felt something sink into the air around me, sharper than knives and dark as shadows.

The light vanished, the noise of the storm lessening until there was nothing but silence outside, and Myr shuddered, whimpering.

Reaching for a blade on my belt, knowing it would be pointless, a single symbol coming to mind, I gulped, the screams dying away, shadows sweeping in.

Destiny had not made an attack, or even an appearance in Karmona since the symbol she had left at Seth’s funeral, warning us of an Immortal War, or perhaps declaring it on us. We weren’t sure yet. Cain had been unable to find her in the forest, or any sign of where she may have gone, and with no appearances, we hadn’t been able to ask.

From the shadows roiling outside, and the prickling feeling on my skin of something darker than Hell, I had a feeling she had made her first move. Outside, there was a wet ‘SQUELCH!’, another person screaming, and Myr began praying to the Fae God, bowing her head over her clasped hands.

Rising to my feet, banking on the idea she wouldn’t attack an ally, I made my way toward the window only to see that where the street had laid before, there was nothing more than empty space, like she had called the night sky down to her. With the powers she possessed, it wasn’t impossible, not when she could create and destroy worlds. No planets sat in that darkness, though, and within it, sending spears of my magic through it, I could feel her. She was standing outside, her powers stretching away from her, filling the street, and there was a body at her feet, the blood pooling around her. There was rage and pain surrounding her, and, I realised, my eyes filling with tears, grief.

“Destiny?” I called into that darkness, Myr jolting from her prayer at the noise and screaming for me to come back before I could get hurt, and I sent a glimmer of my magic toward her, trying to catch her attention.

She turned slowly, the darkness peeling away to reveal her standing in front of me, and again I called, “Des, come over here!”

Her face remained emotionless, her hand lifting at her side, and a wave of her powers slammed into me- I woke up with a gasp, Lucifer helping me sit up on the side of the bed, the lantern light from Cain’s singular lantern as he strode across the front yard, patrolling, stretching across the room- the source of the light I had seen in my dreams.

“You were having a nightmare,” Lucifer breathed, rubbing my back and draping a blanket over my shoulders, Myr mumbling something incoherent in the corner, half-awake from the noise. Rolling over in her ‘bed’, she tugged the blanket higher.

Dropping my head into my hands, I gulped, breathing, “It was Destiny, she was attacking the city, and I tried to help her, but she went after me.”

“She declared an Immortal War on you,” Tiskial groaned from the floor, his arm wrapped protectively around Ash, who had been bundled in blankets, having caught a cold, “I would be having nightmares like that, too.”

“Have you?” I whispered, the Fae warrior sitting up and shrugging, dodging the question to instead say, “Listen, a year-and-a-half ago, we were battling her. She became an ally for a while, and now we are back to fighting her. I think she’s reverted back to old habits because she was in the Manor again.”

“I would have thought she would be smarter than that,” Lucifer remarked, and Tiskial sighed, “She’s coming from a household that revolves around deceit and manipulation. Spending time away from it may have helped her become more human, but it also meant she forgot that she can’t trust them.”

“So we need to get to her again?”

“We need to see where this goes. Fighting back will result in us being hunted. The fact that she’s declared an Immortal War on us shows that she’s already volatile. If we push too far, too fast, she will end us.”

“You seem quite certain of that,” Lucifer said quietly, and the Fae warrior replied, “She has more than enough power to kill us. Did Cain find her in the forest?”

“He called it off, for some reason. Merry went with him, and both of them came back looking pale.”

“Have we questioned either of them about why?”

“We’ve been too busy trying to survive, Tiskial. With the Port destroyed, The Borderlands isn’t getting supplies. Already, Tatiana, Myr and Ash are finding less and less food each time they go out.”

We had begun rationing, only two meals a day unless you were a child, and each meal was no larger than your fist curled up, normally comprised of rice and whatever tinned and jar-kept goods we could find. Lucifer was right- We had been finding less and less food, and more bodies in the street. People were beginning to attack each other for supplies, and Ressila wasn’t doing anything about it.

The Queen of the Northern Isles still had food on her table, so it didn’t matter if everybody else in The Borderlands didn’t.

“More than that,” I said, placing my hand on Lucifer’s shoulder, “We know what Cain is like. He won’t talk unless he wants to, and Merry is in a similar mindset right now. Even if we asked them, they wouldn’t say anything.”

“Do you think they saw something?” Tiskial asked, and I pressed my lips together. It was unlikely… Merry and Cain had spent the rest of the funeral hunting for Destiny in the forest, and seemingly found nothing. After half an hour, Cain had called off the search abruptly and they had returned to finish the rest of the funeral. If they had seen anything, they had kept it between them, although I couldn’t think of a reason why Cain wouldn’t want to find Destiny.

He had spent the last two weeks patrolling outside the house, Merry swapping shifts with him, and nobody was able to enter or leave unless they had their visual permission. No letters, no word-of-mouth, only straight from them and face-to-face.

The crackdown on security hadn’t gone unnoticed by others, either, even Senias remarking on a visit that Cain had seemed more tense than usual.

“Maybe.”

Arching an eyebrow, Tiskial sniped, “Maybe? That’s all we have to go on?”

“I can’t say for sure, Tiskial! Cain and Merry have both been acting odd lately, but Merry has lost his brother and Cain is dealing with his guilt of causing Seth’s death, so neither of them are in the right headspace to be questioning about Cain’s potentially-evil cousin and Merry’s technical sister-in-law.”

“I’m going to go ask them.”

Tugging a shirt on, Tiskial rose from the floor and strode out before Lucifer or I could caution against it, and I scrambled across the bed, peeling the curtain back to watch the lawn.

Cain was still making his way through the snow, his lantern held high and the sword on his back glinting, and with him was Merry, following close behind.

The door opened, both males swinging to check nobody was breaking in, and Lucifer placed his hand on mine as Tiskial marched across the lawn, crossing his arms.

Cracking the window open enough that I could hear them, Cain’s reply floated up, his voice full of ire, “Destiny isn’t our enemy, Tiskial!”

“I wasn’t saying she is! I just wanted to know if you saw anything in the forest at Seth’s funeral.”

Merry coughed, Cain looking over to him, the two of them exchanging worried glances, and the King of Ordeallan shook his head, saying, “That’s the problem. We didn’t see anything other than the symbol on the tree. If Destiny had been there, I had seen nothing to indicate it.”

‘That symbol is still there. Senias visited yesterday and said that it hasn’t faded at all.’

‘So Destiny is in the area?’

‘Possibly. It depends on how powerful she is now, and what the range on her new powers are.’

If she was being kept on a leash by the Manor, they wouldn’t let her wander too far. Had Merry and Cain come across some of the Caliem soldiers and not wanted to intervene? She wouldn’t want to leave Seth’s grave, either, I could imagine.

Who had been the one to tell her that her Connected had died? I didn’t want to think about how it would have to feel, the pain she might be going through right now, and alone. We weren’t there to help her deal with any of those emotions, and I knew her father wouldn’t be there for her. Grief had shut him down centuries ago.

Now, it might entirely wipe Destiny out, if we didn’t find a way to reach her and help her.

Tiskial sighed, running a hand through his hair as he said, “I’m sorry about the questioning… I just can’t believe any of this is happening.”

Merry gulped, turning away to wipe subtly at his eyes, and Cain, his voice thick with tears, replied, “It’s fine. Get some sleep, Tiskial.”

Holding a hand out for the lantern Cain continued to hold high, the Fae warrior said, “No, you go get some sleep- Both of you. I will continue the watch.”

Merry didn’t wait for a second order, rushing for the house, continuing to wipe at his face, and Cain sighed.

“Put some warmer clothes on first, and then I will go to bed.”

Snatching the lantern from the King of Ordeallan, Tiskial snapped, “I’m fine, Cain! Go to bed!”

Closing the window, Cain trudging back toward the house, I sighed, “I’ll visit Seth’s grave today. I want to see if anything is different, and… look for Destiny, I guess.”

Lucifer’s hand was warm on my back, speaking under his breath so as not to wake the others, Cain’s footsteps outside the door, “Are you sure?”

“I want to help her. She’s our friend, and she must be going through so much right now.”

My Connected simply pressed a kiss to my temple, laying back down in the bed beside Venali and sleepily replying, “Then I will go with you.”

*

The walk back up to Seth’s grave was as miserable as the first day we had made our way up, Lucifer, Tiskial and Myr behind me, Ash too ill to come along, and I tightened my coat around my body, shivering in the cold.

There were no fresh footprints in the snow, indicating that nobody had been here recently, and Tiskial murmured from behind, “There are no scents here. The wind must have cleared them out.”

In truth, coming out here had been a risk, a storm building overhead, the air electric with its power, but it had been a necessary one. Already, it had been two weeks since Seth’s funeral, and with no way of knowing when Destiny would launch her first attack we were going in blind. Finding her, or at least clues to where she could be hiding, was our top priority.

Pausing at the tree, I brushed my hands against the shadowy symbol, the bark beneath the same, rough material as the rest of the tree, and Lucifer said, “Nothing seems to have changed. The symbol is the same.”

Standing as close as I was now, I could feel the power around the symbol, my hands tingling, and I gazed up at the tree, the branches obscuring the darkening sky above, Tiskial kicking a rock not far away.

Faeries could tap into nature, on select occasions, provided the energy was great enough. This… Well, when would it be any greater?

Closing my eyes, I sent myself tumbling into the roots beneath my feet, tunelling down through the dirt while remaining, physically, where I was. Rocks flew by me, buried in the soil for thousands of years, untouched by anyone, and I darted up, instead, racing along the tree trunk, aiming for the symbol Destiny had left behind, her one and only calling card to us, her former friends. Everything was peace and love and asleep, how nature should be, until I hit it.

The symbol was nothing more than hatred given a form, and a grief deep enough that I shuddered- Leaning on the tree for support, my hand flew to my mouth, stifling the gasp that threatened to reveal me as I gazed at the cliffside, my friends and allies before me.

Cain was about to begin reading a speech, looking out over those people, and my eyes fell to the grave behind him, squinting to read the words as my heart began hammering.

Xarran had to be lying. It wasn’t Seth’s grave, even if his name was the one carved into the surface, and as Cain began speaking, I shook my head, curling my fingers into the tree trunk, the bark cool compared to my heated body.

Each word was true, but a lie at the same time. My Connected didn’t need a speech talking about how brave he was! He wasn’t DEAD!

He couldn’t be dead! Xarran had just been lying to get back at me for what had happened with Selphien. He hadn’t liked Seth, that was all!

The truth was in front of me, though; in the way my friends and allies wept, or the way Cain’s voice broke over certain sentences in a way that only happened when he was genuinely upset. I knew that. I had spent centuries trying to teach him to utilise it in his deceits with me, but he had never been able to replicate it until he was ACTUALLY upset.

Which meant- Which meant that it wasn’t a lie, or a trick, or a ploy from my allies to use Seth as some sort of Assassin. Somehow, my Connected had been killed, leaving me behind. Had he not cared enough to stay and wait for me?! Had Seterial done this, to get back at me for that pitiful Archangel losing his wings?!

Why bother giving me a Connected if I wasn’t allowed to keep him?! It wasn’t fair! There had to be a way to bring him back.

Necromancy was dangerous, and if Cain, who was an expert, wasn’t giving it a shot it meant there was little chances of it working anyway.

The Archangels wouldn’t help me, and neither would the Lords of Hell.

Think! There had to be something! I didn’t gain the power of Daemonium for nothing!

Daemonium… There WAS a way to bring Seth back.

Jezebel, Lazarus and Nazareth had said that the winner of the End of Days Legacy would be able to do whatever they wanted. All I had to do was kill Jezebel and Nazareth.

Lazarus was dead, which meant he was out of the way, and I didn’t need a God of Daemonium to be an effective Assassin. Win the war, and Seth could be brought back by me, with nobody to tell me otherwise, not when winning made me a Goddess of Daemonium. If I had to end the world to do it, so be it. I didn’t care much for it anyway. My Connected, however, was a different story. I would need the Sacreds, and the Stones, to complete the ritual, though. I would just have to bind myself to a Demon Lord, maybe the Septem Peccatis, instead of the Dark God of Daemonium. That meant stealing them from my friends, and thankfully, I knew where they were.

The people in front of me would do anything to stop that war, though… Grinding my teeth together, I looked over each of them again, Cain’s speech coming to a close soon, and exhaled. Killing them would be necessary only if they got in my way. I didn’t want, or need, to make an enemy of them, but how did I stop them?

Poddux had been scared of me and that power. If I could somehow scare them into backing away, I could play out the End of Days War with them away from the firing line. I had to be convincing, though. If they so much as CONSIDERED I didn’t mean my threats, they would come looking for me, likely to fight with me.

I couldn’t risk that. Jezebel and Nazareth were too powerful for them to fight back against, and my allies would only be hostages on a battlefield. I could see that, in the way Sellan now limped to the front, covered in injuries and now missing his wings, and in the way Merry held Karla upright. They weren’t strong enough to fight that kind of war. Hell, they had failed to kill me in their war against… me… Tatiana and I had never finished our Immortal War. If I restarted it, they would scramble to rebuild themselves, giving me precious time to hunt down Nazareth and Jezebel while they prepared for an imaginary war I never intended to complete. How could I be convincing without imposing on the funeral? I didn’t want them to see me like this, all scarred up and without Lazarus’ mirages or fancy clothes to cover them.

Immortal War declarations weren’t delivered in person, anyway, and if I left the symbol Demonic-beings normally used, Cain would recognise it. He could explain it.

Then he could go back to being with his own Connected while I fought for mine.

Pressing my hand into the tree, I clung to that bitterness, using it to carve that symbol into the tree, having realised that rage was the only way I could control Daemonium’s power without owing it something in return.

I had to tap into it.

Strangely enough, and perhaps with a little bit of guilt, I realised it wasn’t that difficult- to be mad at the people in front of me, to even hate them a little bit.

The symbol darkened, becoming a shadow, a little piece of me withering away inside at the thought of declaring a war on my allies.

Until I remembered why I was doing it, because Seth was dead, and nothing was worth it without him.

Cain was finishing his speech- I didn’t have time to hang around, and they wouldn’t want me here, anyway.

I fell back from the tree, unaware of the tears streaming from my eyes until Lucifer was demanding to know what was wrong, Tiskial and Myr rushing to my side.

“Destiny is going to use the End of Days War to bring Seth back. If she wins, she becomes a Goddess of Daemonium, and nobody can stop her from doing what she wants.”

“How could you possibly know that?” Tiskial demanded furiously, and I replied, “There’s an imprint left behind by her powers, like a memory she tied to it. It was her, watching the funeral happening, and the thoughts in her head were exactly what I just said, that if she scared us away from her she could get to the Sacreds and complete the ritual.”

Tiskial cursed, Myr striding over to the grave and kneeling before it. For a moment, I thought she may have been praying, until she slowly called, “Tatiana…?”

We rushed to her side just as she held up a clear glass box, a silver lock glinting in the light, a rose nestled within, wards carved into the petals. Gulping, Myr choked out, “Seth made this for Destiny. It was a gift for her, to keep her safe.”

“Her way of mourning him,” Tiskial muttered, plucking the glass box from Myr’s hands and holding it up to the light to examine it, the petals glowing in the weak light, revealing the wards.

“It’s sad.” My words were lost on a sudden howl of wind that whipped our cloaks around, Tiskial lifting his face to the sky and musing, “It’s like the storm Destiny made when Seth and Lazarus fought.” Turning, we gazed over at the deep black, furiously-raging clouds, and I clicked my tongue.

The Fae Warrior was right- the storm swirling over the city seemed too perfect, a pure white fog suddenly descending on the city, leaving us blind up here, the city now hidden from view; there would be a sharp rise in crime now, since it was the perfect conditions to stea- “Shit.”

Myr and Tiskial swung, expecting an attack, both of them demanding, “What?!”

“Destiny has made the storm so she or Lazarus can steal the Sacreds. I was planning on moving everything tomorrow.”

“How could she have known that?”

“She was an Assassin who was skilled enough to buy her way into Tarvenia during our first battle. Nothing stops her from purchasing eyes from Ressila this time.”

A portal whirled open, Tiskial placing the box back on the grave, shoving Myr and I through the portal where we landed in a dark, waterlogged sea cave, the entrance half-submerged by waves. They crashed against a line of rocks, preventing them from flooding us and the locked, gold and pearl chest sitting on another rock behind us, Tiskial’s voice echoing as he said, “I hid everything in this cave.”

“Everything?” Myr hissed, “Why the Hell would you put it all in one place?”

“Everything but the tree, which is in-”

There was the scuffing noise of a shoe against rocks at the front of the cave, and Tiskial drew a sword, Myr stepping beside me, our hands lighting up.

Vines sprouted at my feet, preparing to ensnare anyone who got too close, and a dark shadow entered the cave, a light appearing- Myr threw one of her blades, which whipped toward the shadow, who caught it, swearing, their light filling the cave and revealing- “Destiny!” I cried out at the same time she hissed, “You three! Of course it’s you three!”

She was wearing a slim, black uniform, a built-in mask covering the lower half of her face, and she lifted the blade Myr had thrown, twisting it until the iron blade glowed in the light, muttering, “A Demonic-being killer. Clever.” There was something different about her, the look in her eyes hardened with pain, and what I could see of her skin, which was nothing more than a thin slice where her eyes were, was smoother than before, not to mention paler.

“You taught me well,” Myr sung, stepping forward and sliding the rest of her weapons into their sheaths, holding her hands up and saying, “We missed you, Des.”

Destiny exhaled, tossing the blade aside, saying, “Step aside. I don’t want to have to kill you, Myr.”

“What?” Myr breathed, “We aren’t enemies, Des.” I could hear Myr’s heart hammering in her chest, in tune to Tiskial and mine, Lucifer questioning, ‘Why are you panicking?’

‘Destiny is here. We’re talking to her.’

‘Why are you afraid?’

‘Because that nightmare might have been true.’

My Connected went silent, his mind panicking alongside mine, and a minute later, he breathlessly said, ‘I’m coming. Senias and I are coming.’

“Yes we- Stop calling me that,” the Princess of Hell pleaded, “And we are enemies, so step aside, because I like all of you enough not to kill you.”

“Wo-ow,” Tiskial whistled, stepping in front of Myr and twisting his sword playfully in his hand, his voice high-pitched as he mocked, “I like all of you enough not to kill you. The war camp really DID soften you up, didn’t it, sweetheart? You normally wouldn’t have bothered with warnings.”

“Move, Tiskial,” she snarled, the Fae Warrior lifting his blade into an offensive position, playfully snapping, “Make. Me. It’s been a while since we had a training session-” The Princess of Hell struck so fast I thought it was her power at first, Tiskial landing on his ass, his sword clattering to the ground beside him, Destiny snarling wordlessly, the hilt of her dagger pointed at Tiskial- like she truly didn’t intend to kill him, only shove him out of the way.

“Yes, it HAS been a while,” she sighed disappointedly, “You’re not normally that easy to knock over.”

Turning to Myr, she raised an eyebrow, and Myr gulped, pulling a handful of daggers from their sheaths and sadly saying, “I’m not moving, Des. Knock me over if you need to, but you would have to kill me to stop me completely.”

Studying the blades, Destiny remarked, “Those won’t help, Myr. Please just step aside. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Behind her, Tiskial was slowly, silently rising to his feet, lifting up his sword and lining it up for the perfect shot, the pointed end aimed directly at Destiny, a pained look on his face.

None of us wanted to hurt her, but if she was going to take the Sacreds and upend months of work and sacrifice and death just to bring her Connected back, then we would have to.

He swung the blade at the same time Myr threw one of her daggers, and I shrieked a warning too late, Destiny simply ducking and rolling out of the way.

Myr’s blade struck Tiskial in the shoulder, his blade sailing harmlessly overhead, flying from his hand when his hand twitched with the pain, and I raced to their side, Myr screaming in panic.

Grabbing Myr, I pressed her hand against the wound in Tiskial’s shoulder, the dagger embedded right above his heart, and Destiny raced by me, reaching for the chest. Waving my hands, those vines rose up around her, and she swore, darting between them awkwardly until one wrapped around her ankle, tripping her. She hit the ground, slicing the vine open with a dagger and snarling at me, reaching for the chest.

The tips of her fingers brushed against it when I tackled her, wrestling her hands away from it and shouting, “Stop, Destiny! The others might be afraid to kill you, but I’m not!”

Power snapped and popped around me, the air flooded with it, and the light was smothered around the cave, Destiny purring back, “Good, because neither am I, Queen of Tarvenia.”

Myr and Tiskial were shouting, pleading for Destiny to stop, and I slammed my fist into her blindly, hearing her grunt in pain, the light returning just in time for me to see her swinging a dagger at my face. It sliced across my cheek, narrowly avoiding taking out my eye.

Throwing myself back, I landed on the ground, and she rose to her feet, pieces of rock rising from the cave and wrapping around my wrists and ankles, preventing me from moving. She stalked forward, no emotions visible in her eyes, and I screamed, “Don’t let Daemonium take control of you! You’re better than that, Des! We are allies, Destiny! Allies! Seth wouldn’t want you to do thi-” A snarl erupted from her throat, her lip curling back to reveal her teeth, and she strode toward me, Tiskial and Myr similarly pinned in place, their cries filling the cave only to be swallowed by the waves outside. She flipped a dagger in her hand, her powers wrapping around it, and it shifted, becoming a sword as she knelt beside me, raising the sword up and saying, “Nothing personal, Tatiana.”

“Des, don’t!” I screamed, what felt like my entire life flashing by. I couldn’t die here, with Lucifer and Venali back in the house! Before she could crash it through my throat, something on her wrist beeped, and she swore, tossing the sword aside, the blade shrinking back into a dagger again, before she ran for the chest.

It, and her, vanished in an explosion of shadows just as Lucifer, Cain and Senias raced into the cave, a Division of Aos Si soldiers behind them, their weapons already raised, and I sobbed in relief, shaking against my binds. They examined the cave, four of the soldiers rushing to Tiskial’s side, a Fae healer already pulling the dagger out and weaving their magic through the wound while another two cut Myr and him free. Myr threw herself over me, crying, and Tiskial, along with the Fae healer, disappeared, heading back to the house to finish the healing. Senias and Lucifer ran to my side, my Connected panting in panic, examining me for wounds with wide eyes before I gasped, “I’m fine, but she got the chest.” It was hard to breathe, adrenaline rushing through me, making me feel as though I were drowning underneath the ocean outside.

“Forget it,” he growled, “We can hunt her down later!”

Cain gulped, scanning the cave for Destiny before bending to pick up the blade she had left behind, and I shook my head, hoarsely saying, “She attacked us, Cain.”

“This is Inferos,” he remarked, holding the blade up to the light. In his hand, Inferos now glinted, and I gasped, “Why leave Inferos behind, but take the chest?”

“Panic. She must have known we were coming.”

Plucking a handkerchief from his pocket, Cain wrapped Inferos in it, sliding the cloth up the blade before unfolding it, revealing a light purple liquid on the cloth, and he clicked his tongue, cursing under his breath as he said, “Watered-down Belladonna. She was going to poison you.”

“Nobody got cut?” Senias called out, and Myr shakily breathed, “Tatiana did.”

“What?” Lucifer gripped my face, turning it to examine the cut on my cheek, and Cain said, “Get her to Jason NOW. Senias and I will continue searching the city for Destiny.”

“Cain,” I choked, “She attacked me. She’s not an ally anymore…” Senias slammed his sword down onto the rocks pinning me down, Lucifer scooping me up and urging me not to speak, a portal appearing behind us, the rest of the Division stepping through.

His eyes were pained as he replied, “I know. I’ll bring her in for questioning if I catch her. If she has to be killed, I will do it.”

Carrying me through the portal, I closed my eyes, trying to breathe slowly, knowing it was important to stay calm, Lucifer’s heart racing in his chest, whispering for me to stay with him. Cain had said the poison was watered-down. That meant it wouldn’t be as potent. I was going to be fine.

Destiny, despite attacking us, had made it clear she didn’t want to kill us, hence why she had watered the poison down before using it. She had wanted to slow me down, the poison beginning to make my body feel heavy, not kill me.

We raced through the Manor home where Jason was staying, the Vampire-Fae appearing beside us, a bathrobe cinched tightly around his waist, a cup of tea in his hands.

“Another Seedling?” He questioned curiously, unable to see my face, and Lucifer placed me down on one of the spare beds, gasping, “Belladonna poisoning.”

“Belladonna? How on Earth-” He placed his cup of tea down on a nearby table, reaching for a bag of items, and Lucifer took a seat beside me, clasping my hand…

*

The click of the bedroom door opening had me waking, my eyes feeling swollen and my skin clammy, a bandage wrapped around my arm, where a small, clear pipe jutted out from my skin, siphoning my blood into a jar on the table, Jason entering the room with an apologetic wince, whispering, “I’m sorry, Queen of the Sun Palace. It wasn’t my intention to wake you.”

Opening my mouth to speak, I earnt a swift shake of the head from Jason, who added under his breath, “Talking will be very painful. Your tongue was swollen, and you suffered a reaction to the watered-down Belladonna. Luckily, I was able to halt that reaction.”

Nodding thankfully, I turned to look for Lucifer, spotting him, Venali nestled in his arms, curled in a chair, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders.

“He hasn’t left your side. Cain came by with Venali and dropped off a message. They didn’t find her, but they have expanded the search to the rest of the city. Ressila is unaware, and Cain wants to keep it that way.”

I nodded again, having expected as much. Destiny would have returned to Daemonium with that chest, preventing us from going after her.

Jason had saved my life, and the life of my Connected, the exhaustion and worry on his face remaining even in his sleep, Jason adjusting the blankets around them both before turning to me, a wince on his face.

“While you were under the effects of Belladonna, you… revealed something to Lucifer. I would like to predate this conversation by saying that he insisted he wasn’t mad, or hurt. In fact, he suspected it for quite some time.”

My heart skipped a beat, and I sucked in a breath, arching an eyebrow curiously. There weren’t many secrets I kept, especially from Lucifer. What kind of secret could I possibly have revealed? Pulling up a chair, the Vampire-Fae Shaman took a seat at my bedside, changing the almost-full jar out for another, empty jar, asking, “How long have you known you had the same death Magic Dell did?”

No… I couldn’t have revealed that!

I hadn’t wanted to reveal it!

Gulping, I looked around desperately for a pencil and paper, Jason summoning both with whatever Magic he possessed, handing both to me. Scribbling a quick explanation, my heart hammering, he took it from me, reading aloud, “Since I was a child. I didn’t want anyone to know.”

He hummed like he had known it all along, before saying, “You also admitted to killing Lucifer’s uncles in the Sidhe Hills. Mind telling me when that happened?”

Thinking back, I wrote, “Three, maybe four weeks ago. Does Lucifer know?”

“Yes. His father sent him a letter two weeks ago demanding to know where both were and accusing you, specifically, of murdering them, as according to a witness who supposedly saw you. Lucifer didn’t bother to reply, but he told me after your revealing the truth that he had suspected it ever since Venali had been born with death Magic- The sort of Magic that requires a parent to have it, unless you get very, very lucky genetically.”

“Is Lucifer mad?”

“No. He’s not. In fact, he was more relieved to finally hear the truth than anything, although he is amused he had to find out while you were high as a kite and in-between regaling us with outlandish tales about what you could see in the room with us. For everybody’s sake, do not become a writer, Tatiana.”

I snickered, my hand flying up to my throat as it burned, and Jason nodded, sighing, “It will take three days for you to recover. Get some good, proper rest. Lucifer and Cain will take care of everything else until you can recover fully.”

Before he could walk away, I scribbled one final thing down onto the paper, his eyes flicking over it, becoming mournful.

“Yes, she did attack you. The remaining Generals in the war camp are debating tonight if they will consider it breaking the treaty you gave her.”

They would kill her if they decided she had broken the agreement they had laid out. The agreement that her crimes, and the crimes of her Guardians and cousin, would be forgiven if she helped us had worked only if she didn’t betray us.

And now she had betrayed us. Her attack, and attempt to murder, us had made it clear that she didn’t consider us allies anymore.

Unfortunately, what the Princess of Hell hadn’t thought of was that it meant Cain was no longer forgiven, making him a traitor to the realm… What if the Lords and Ladies in Ressila’s court, and those who remained from our courts, hunted him down and arrested him?

Gulping, I sat up in bed, quickly scribbling, “I have to go. Cain is in danger.”

Jason, frowning, murmured, “Yes, he would be. I had not considered that. He cannot stay here, and neither can his wife. Being the King and Queen of Ordeallan, they will exile and kill both of them.”

But where would Cain go? There were no other cities remaining in The Borderlands!

Unless he went to Tarvenia. Maybe he could go to Selphien’s city. They had formed an alliance, after all, and Ressila’s court wouldn’t think to look there.

Grabbing my cloak, which I wrapped around my body as fast as I could, my muscles aching, I leaned down to press a kiss to Lucifer’s cheek, writing to Jason, “Where is Tiskial?”

I would need his help to take me to Tarvenia, but he had been injured by Myr in the fight. Clearly, he wasn’t being treated by Jason anymore, which meant he was being kept in a different house, and without the time to explore all three of the Manor homes, I needed directions.

“Tiskial is in Destiny’s Manor home, recovering from the wound he received. He won’t have use of that arm for quite some time, at least until the wound heals.”

“But can he use Magic?” I wrote, Jason shrugging and saying, “I don’t see why not. Tatiana, you need to be careful.”

Nodding, I waved my hand to brush his concerns off, before grabbing the sheet of paper back and scribbling, “What do you mean?”

Raising an eyebrow, the Vampire-Fae Alchemist replied, “Desterium attempted to kill you. There is nothing to say that she won’t do it again. In fact, I would go so far as to not travel alone, or in any group smaller than three.”

“You really think she would kill us?”

“She nearly did. You were poisoned by Belladonna. Had she not watered it down, you would have died almost instantly.”

I clicked my tongue, wincing at the pain the simple movement caused, and Jason led me back toward the bed, gently suggesting, “Remain in bed for the time being. I will go to Cain and Adelia, and warn them of the danger they are in from the other Lords. You need to stay here and rest.”

Had the blankets not been so soft, and my body so sore, I might have argued back, but as it was… Sighing soundlessly, I sunk into the sheets, sighing in relief, and Jason summoned a small bag of warm coals, wrapping them in a cloth before placing them at the end of the bed, near my toes. The warmth of the coals, paired with how exhausted I was from being poisoned, worked its magic, and I felt my eyes beginning to drift shut, Jason heading for the door, a second blanket draping itself over me…