Page 25

C lang. Clang. Clang .

The booming of gongs echoed at a distance, vibrating through the hard ground below Evan and up his tied legs. With every clang, a nerve pulled inside his skull. Eyes still shut, his head rolled to the side, groaning softly as an ache throbbed in his temples. A series of curses rose in his throat, but when an unfamiliar voice spoke up from not so far away, he shut his mouth and pretended to be unconscious.

“We still have a day left. Why would the Lord drag him here already? He’s a risk to keep around.”

Another annoyed voice snapped, “Don’t question the Lord’s actions. Are you tired of living?”

“I’m just saying. What if he starts stirring up trouble? Because his guard was down, he could be fooled once with a Numbing Spell, not twice. The Lord is not here. What if he wakes up? There will be no way to subdue him."

Evan didn’t need to guess who they were talking about.

The last thing he remembered was slumping against Aaron before everything went dark. So Aaron had used the Numbing Spell to freeze Evan’s body and knock him unconscious. That made sense. If it wasn’t Aaron, no one could’ve used such a pathetic spell successfully on Evan. He would have sensed it coming from a mile away.

“There’s Thousand Knots binding him. He won’t be able to use his powers,” the annoyed voice stated. “And without his powers to boast, he is just a pesky ant. And we’re the boot.”

Evan shifted slightly and felt the scraping of a rough binding around his wrists. He tried to summon his spiritual energy to his fingers, but it simply orbited his core, unable to surge forward.

Thousand Knots was a spell-woven rope used to suppress the spiritual powers in an individual. The spells woven into it were ancient and meant for powerful beings, so a mortal could barely break through it on his own.

Evan’s eyes rolled behind his closed lids. Then his brows furrowed.

Did he just call me an ant?

As if in response, the other voice scoffed. “Oh, please, even without his powers, he’s cunning enough to find a way out of everything.”

Admiration combined with bitterness poured from the fellow’s mouth. As if he couldn’t stand the sight of Evan but couldn’t ignore his capabilities either. What a conflicting feeling.

The annoyed voice replied, monotonous, “What a shame this admirable ant is going to become the conduit of destruction. Though I still believe he is being overestimated by everyone.”

Evan’s heart stuttered.

Conduit of destruction? Were they still talking about him?

Just then, as if sensing his trouble, something soft brushed his nose. Evan stilled. He cracked open one eye and peeked at what had bumped him.

A tiny ball of black smoke the size of a baby’s fist floated in front of his face, swaying giddily. When it saw his eye open, it bounced with a familiarity Evan couldn’t reciprocate. He stared at it for a while, a bit wary. It was so tiny, perhaps a child spirit. But what was it doing here? And why was it sticking to Evan like he was its mother?

The two voices were still talking shit about Evan while he was busy wiggling his nose and trying to shoo away the child spirit when a third voice chirped up.

“You shouldn’t talk about people behind their backs.”

Upon hearing that familiar voice, Evan stilled.

Oh, no.

One of the men scoffed, “We’re not talking behind his back. He’s lying right here. And even if we were, what the hell can you do about it?”

The chirpy guy didn’t take it to heart. A smile was evident in his voice as he replied, “Talking about someone while they’re unconscious is even more shameful.”

“Shut up!” The annoyed guy snapped. Footsteps crunched across the floor as the man approached the chirpy guy. “Shut your mouth, or I’ll pull your tongue out and shove it down your throat.”

Evan closed his eyes tight, mentally chanting. Don’t say anything else. Please shut up.

But Delos, being himself, simply chuckled. “My, my, aren’t you a bit too young for such a temper?”

That stumped the other guy into silence.

By his outward appearance, this silver-haired dude was barely an adult, but he spoke as if he was already sixty. Being addressed as “young man” by a guy who was evidently younger infuriated the already pissed man.

Before he possibly acted on his threat of pulling out Delos’s tongue, Evan shifted from his place, coughing out loud to draw attention. Flipping onto his back, he groaned, “Too fucking loud.”

Everyone froze. Silence descended.

Evan opened his eyes to the night sky scattered with innumerable stars, a few storm clouds hovering in their midst. He was lying on a stone bed built between four slender trees like a four-poster bed. He turned his head, glancing at the two men dressed in rich purple cloaks.

There were torches perched along the trees, high enough that they didn’t shed light onto their cloaked faces, but low enough that the path was lit and visible. Their bodies were stone still, in defense mode, as if Evan was a wild animal who’d pounce on them at the slightest shuffle.

To add to their dread, Evan cracked a dark smile. “Hi.”

Like a key being turned in their system, the men turned and marched away from the stone bed, steps hurried. They disappeared towards the direction where the gongs were still booming between brief pauses.

Evan dropped his smile and sat up, staring at his bound hands in his lap, the dark rope thick, oozing a faint scent of foreign energy. The ball of black smoke sat on his shoulder, snuggling against his shirt collar.

Without paying it any mind, Evan turned to Delos, who was grinning at him. Even sitting cross-legged on a stone bed, ropes binding his upper body to one of the four slender tree trunks, his silver hair and bright face didn’t lack a bit of the usual glow.

“You scared them away, Evan. I was trying to make friends,” Delos shook his head, enjoying a private joke.

“You were trying to get your ass kicked,” Evan scooted on his butt to lean back against one of the trees adjacent to Delos’s. “Why are you smiling? How did you even end up here?”

Aaron had brought Evan here, no doubt, under the influence of that thing that was controlling him. But he couldn’t have taken Evan out of the house because Xen was lurking outside the front door. Maybe Aaron had opened a portal and transported them here. It would have been impossible before because of the talisman hanging above the front door of the house. But that was ripped away, probably by Aaron himself.

Delos shrugged. “I was just taking a stroll through the woods. And these people captured me out of nowhere, saying I was suspicious. I still don’t understand the logic.”

“Who takes a stroll in a forest in the middle of the night? Of course you seemed suspicious.”

“Oh,” Delos blinked thoughtfully, then chuckled. “Well, at least you have company now.”

And what was that logic?

His calm aura was steady, unperturbed even while being bound to a tree. If he made it out alive, Evan made a mental note to ask Delos of his origin. About who he really was.

“How did you end up here?” Delos asked.

Evan slumped against the tree trunk, blowing out a long breath. He’d ended up here because he misplaced his attention on the wrong topic and underestimated a threat that was lingering right in front of his nose.

He should have dealt with Aaron’s Binding Spell and released him before trying to plan how to stop the sacrifice and save the people. And now he was dumped God knew where, with no one but a silver-haired airhead at his disposal who didn’t understand the severity of their situation.

How had he ended up here?

“My bad luck, I guess,” Evan replied.

Delos quirked a brow, then dropped his head with a smile. “Did you know that Luck and Fate are twins? Born of the same mother, Life.”

There he went again, straying towards strange topics of discussion while they were tied up in a forest by a mad cult. For someone as uptight as Evan, it was difficult to imagine from where such blind lightheartedness rose in people at such terrible timing.

Even though he was in no mood for idle talk, he engaged Delos because, well, there was nothing else to do. “I didn’t know that.”

Taking that as a sign of confirmation, Delos continued.

“While born of the same mother, the two sisters are as far apart from each other as they could be,” Delos wiggled his mud-splattered white boots as he mused. “While Fate weaves a life into a straight thread that eventually reaches one fixed outcome, Luck will diverge threads into forks, forcing one to make a choice. And every choice would lead to a different outcome.”

Evan wasn’t surprised. He knew Luck was a bitch.

“It’s said that both the sisters have never agreed on anything since the beginning of time. And probably never would,” Delos sent a grin Evan’s way.

The way he spoke of the sisters seemed like it wasn’t a legend from a storybook, but something real he’d personally experienced. That made Evan a little uncomfortable for some reason. “I see.”

Looking around the forest area, Evan squinted in the dark, trying to recognize the place where they were held captive.

It wasn’t a part of the Dark Woods for sure. The storm clouds still hovered in the sky, so it was definitely not inside an array like the Enclave Passage, where the sky was clear.

“What is this place?” he mumbled.

The gongs rang out again, and Evan’s head whipped in the direction. The torches perched on the trees paved a clear way through the forest, disappearing somewhere around the curve of thick trees. Faint voices echoed nearby, muffled under the booming of the gongs.

Evan strained his ears and picked up a few broken words.

Spell chanting.

He turned to Delos reflexively as if he were the bearer of all knowledge. “Where are we right now?”

Delos was bobbing his head to some silent rhythm and spoke without missing a beat. “A little further inside the boundary of the Old Temple.”

“We are?” Evan looked around again. “Where is the Old Temple?”

“Gone. It was burnt down.”

Evan was taken aback. “Burnt down? When? I saw it just a few days back,” he paused. “Who did it?”

Delos’s lashes lowered. “Your friend.”

A sharp exhale left Evan.

Of course Aaron burnt down the Old Temple. No, not Aaron. That thing controlling him, that was responsible for it.

Evan dropped his head back against the tree. “Why…?”

“It’s not his fault,” Delos smiled sympathetically. “I believe there was something in the temple that Xen wanted, but Aaron had already gotten to it. And later, the temple went up in flames.”

“But why did Aaron burn down the temple?”

“Oh, Aaron didn’t,” Delos mused. “By your friend , I meant Xen.”

Evan blinked, then his nostrils flared. "Of course. My friend ."

It made sense now why Xen had stuck around after Evan had returned from the Enclave Passage. When Zeev’s curse broke, they probably turned the temple upside-down looking for Reth. And when he found it was gone, in his rage, he burnt down the temple.

But if Xen had not found Reth, that meant their blood bond was still alive. Which was a relief.

Wait, what?

“We’re a few dozen meters away from the Old Temple, near the Tomb,” Delos said.

“The what?”

“The Tomb of Ascension.”

Evan’s eyes instantly darted towards the path lined with torches leading into the unknown. Only, now it was known.

The Tomb of Ascension, the ancient host of a powerful summoning array that could summon all gods and demons alike.

Cold sweat broke across Evan’s forehead, and Xen’s words haunted past his ears.

“They want to awaken something.”

This was it. The most fitting and accessible area in all of Emberlyn to perform an awakening ritual.

The Tomb of Ascension was once a one-way route for otherworldly beings to visit the human realm, until a bolt of lightning from heaven struck and broke the summoning array. But in that witch’s grimoire, she’d mentioned that she was able to repair the broken array of the tomb with her blood. Which meant the Tomb of Ascension could now essentially summon anything. God or ghost or demon.

No wonder the Covenant of the Nightshade’s temples were never found. It was because they didn’t have one. Instead, they mended the broken tomb and turned it into their cult’s shrine.

But why was Evan here? As a sacrifice? Or perhaps to keep him from disrupting the ritual?

Seeing the wheels spinning in Evan’s head, Delos prompted, “It seems they’ve preponed the Bloodbath ritual. I heard it will now take place tomorrow rather than two days from now.”

Evan groaned. “Fucking great.”

But he swiftly straightened when footsteps echoed at a distance, moving closer. A tall silhouette emerged through the narrow, torch-lined path, followed by another limping shadow. Backed by the golden glow of the burning torches, the tall figure looked ethereal for a moment. That was until his face came into the light and Evan’s furrowing brows dropped.

“Aaron…”

It was, indeed, Aaron. But he’d never looked less like himself. The blue eyes that once mirrored the calm depths of the ocean now glowed with an ominous purple light. On his forehead was a symbol, drawn in what looked like blood.

All those years Aaron had stuck by his side, Evan had wondered on multiple occasions what it would feel like if he disappeared, and Evan was once again left to his own devices. He’d always assumed it would be a little inconvenient for a few days...but then he’d get used to it. That he'd fall back into his old, lonely life patterns.

Only now did he realize how awfully wrong he was.

Aaron was Evan’s only friend. A true friend who didn’t overlook his quirks but accepted him whole. Weirdness and all. A friendship like that...it was worth holding onto.

A package deal, if Aaron were to describe it himself.

Looking at him now, under the influence of something sinister, staring down at Evan like he wanted to crush him, hurt Evan more than it frightened him. It was like a moment of epiphany, something that rooted Evan’s determination to save his friend firmly to the ground.

“You haven’t changed one bit,” Aaron broke the silence, still looking at Evan with a hint of displeasure but a smile contrastingly pleasant.

Evan didn’t even try to understand what he was talking about, staring at him with a blank face. The ball of black smoke nudged Evan’s ribs, rubbing against him as if in reassurance.

“How long has it been since we last met? Hmm, far too long,” Aaron strolled forward, stroking his stubble. The purple light flared in his eyes as he stepped closer. “Did I keep you waiting?”

Evan’s lashes lowered, not wanting to look at that familiar face with such an alien expression.

Aaron chuckled softly, mistaking his avoidance for submission. “Well, one thing surely hasn’t changed. You’re a meek little thing without that puny demon on your side.”

Evan’s eyes flashed up. There was a hint of annoyance rising in his face at the mention of Xen. No, at the mention of the word “puny.” As if he was offended.

Did the thing controlling Aaron know Xen? Did it know he was talking about an Eternal? If it did, how could it possibly describe him as that? Exactly which part of that massive beast was “puny”?

Before annoyance could get the better of him, Evan took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. “Aaron, snap out of it. Do it yourself, because if I have to, it’s gonna piss you off.”

Aaron’s grin widened, enjoying the reactions he was eliciting from Evan. “So obvious, little boy. No wonder Xen is still clinging to you. Tell me, did you form a blood bond with him already? Or did he force it like he did in the past?”

In the past?

Evan’s irritation blazed. “What nonsense are you spewing—”