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“Shame.” Nothing human of the queen remained in that response.

Barrett clenched his dagger tighter. Rebel released a deep growl, hackles rising, and my own rose with it. Angelborn burned across my back, but we needed answers first.

“You need to tell us of Annellius,” I demanded, and those dark, soulless eyes flicked to mine.

“What of your treasure-hiding ancestor, oh child of wings?”

I picked apart her poetic way of speaking. “Annellius is responsible for hiding the emblems, then?” It was something I’d been considering. That the previous carrier of the Angelcurse had found the emblems and taken to hiding them. Only, I could not decipher why. “And you knew of this?”

I gripped my necklace, but Kakias watched my other hand. The one bearing her family ring.

“Annellius was a fool,” she said, dragging out each word. “He had so much power at his fingertips; if only he had stretched out and seized it.”

“Annellius had been greedy. He did take that power, and it drew his death.” That was what he had said during the Undertaking. It was what the files on his life and death had confirmed.

“You are as delusional as he was.” Kakias laughed. “History is written by the survivors, girl.” I wasn’t sure how that mattered here, but I tucked it away for later. “Annellius’s life held so much possibility, and all he cared about was getting rid of it. Doing what was right.” Disgust twisted her features, and the scar across her face that normally looked painted on moved with it.

Annellius hid the emblems because he thought it was right?

Kakias was veering away from my questions, stare glazing over. There was not much awareness left in her. I needed to be blunt.

“How did you know him? Annellius lived long before your time.”

Kakias sighed, an exhausted sound, and she finally gave us an answer as if it would take too much energy to hold things in any longer. “I was not alive when your ancestor was, but my power was. Before it was shed unto me, this magic saw many millennia. It lived in another until the day I was called. When I made a desperate deal and was needed for a fate—when an Angel attempted to turn me into something I could never be.”

Barrett and I exchanged a confused glance, but we’d have to untangle the cryptic hints in that explanation later. Energy was slipping for the queen with every word.

“Why did you need me? Was it only Angelblood?”

She inhaled and exhaled heavily. “The agent that activates it”—another breath—“confirmed the ritual.”

“What is it?” I urged, desperation dry in my throat and tingling in my fingertips.

Kakias’s voice croaked through cracked lips. “You are not asking the right questions, little Angel child.”

My mind raced, but I wouldn’t show how clueless I was. Instead, I pulled another thread.

“How did you get the crown?” I asked.

“Found it to control the armies. I did not know what it was.”

“Why did you not go after the emblems sooner? Surely something so powerful could have given you the immortality you sought.”

“They could not,” she breathed. “But I learned at Daminius they could be used against me. I wanted them then, but only you could find them.” She took another large inhale, the sound ragged. “I was supposed to. But it did not work as the Angel hoped.”

I was needed for a fate. An Angel attempted to turn me into something I could never be.

Bant had tried to turn her into a chosen. He had tried to turn her into me when he shed his power into her.

Perhaps after Annellius failed, the Angel’s vengeful desire against Damien rose. He wanted the pride of having an Engrossian be the Angelcursed. Wanted one of his own to fulfill the task.

But it didn’t work. Kakias had never been able to locate the emblems, and even if she had, she clearly was not interested. When she gave up her soul to receive the keys to immortality, she lost that desire.

Kakias’s eyes slipped closed for a moment, and it was clear she was done speaking.

And if she was done being helpful, we were done with her.

Whatever had happened when the khrysaor crashed through the glass ceiling of Ricordan’s courtyard and Sapphire transformed into her pegasus had ignited the final piece of the reversal ritual. We needed to decipher what it was. But for now, Kakias no longer claimed immortality, and the magic she had conducted was quickly taking a toll on her body.