Page 44

According to Madinia, I’m the dark god.

If not for the way the color has drained from her face, and the way she studies me from beneath her lashes—as if waiting for me to suddenly lash out—I might believe she was playing some kind of trick.

And yet, she’s not.

Beneath my shock, there’s a strange kind of certainty. That certainty is tinged with an ancient rage.

Hundreds of years spent wandering this world. The ones who did this to me willpay.

Madinia gives me a wary look and I open the door to the tavern. The building leans slightly to the right, as if even the foundation has given up.

“Three grimoires,” I say.

She nods, scanning the tavern. A lone man with a long gray beard sways in his seat near the fire, several empty glasses in front of him.

Striding across scuffed, worn planks, Madinia chooses a table next to the wall. Her eyes are shadowed, her fiery hair tangled, and she looks like she hasn’t slept properly for days.

Because she was busy running from me.

After she tricked me.

I scowl at her, lowering myself into the rickety chair. “And you’re suddenly going to help me. Why?”

The disheveled man gets too close as he walks past, leaning down to whisper some filth in Madinia’s ear. She pulls her knife, but I’m already moving. I slam my fist into his face with a satisfying thud, the sting in my knuckles a welcome distraction.

The man stumbles away, falling onto an empty table.

“Garit,” a voice calls. “You know better than that. Out.”

The man staggers toward the door.

I take my seat, and Madinia gives me a cool look, tucking her knife away. “A year before I landed on this continent, Vicana ordered an entire village slaughtered—men, women, and children—because some of them had given aid to Telanthris citizens fleeing Vicana’s invasions. They did nothing but offer food and water to innocent people, and Vicana killed them for it.”

My hand fists on the table between us. Madinia glances at it before meeting my eyes once more. “Someone who can commit that kind of brutality against her own people without the grimoire would become even more of a monster with it. According to the seer I spoke to, Vicana now knows where the grimoire is. Which means we have to beat Kyldare to it.”

“Because you’d rather risk giving the grimoire to me than to Vicana.”

A sharp nod, even as she glances away. Madinia has made her choice, but she’s not happy about it.

Because she’s convinced I will destroy this world.

I grind my teeth. “Did it ever occur to you that perhaps I’mnotevil?”

She looks down her nose at me. “You forget, I’ve felt the power in that grimoire. I’veusedthe power in that grimoire. And even from a distance, I could feel it…changing me.”

Yet she has no choice. Either I take back my own power, or she watches Vicana destroy this continent.

I lean back in my seat. “This is no longer your problem. Tell me where the grimoire is, and you can go about your life.”

She examines her nails. “I don’t think so.”

I clench my teeth until my jaw aches. Mules could take lessons in stubbornness from this woman. “Why?”

“Because I have a feeling you’ll begin to change as you get closer to the grimoire. As it calls to you. And if I sense you’re about to become a true threat, I’ll allow Kyldare to take it instead.”

I gape at her. “You’llwhat?”

She shrugs one shoulder. “I can steal it back from Vicana. Even if it takes years, I’ll find a way to take the grimoire and hide it again. But if you take it, there’s a chance you would destroy the world, Calpharos.”