Page 176 of Alchemised

She seized so violently that her head slammed against the window, nearly knocking her out.

Her ears were ringing from the blow, and everything seemed to slow, her panic giving way to a slow lucidity.

Kaine wasn’t going to come in time.

They’d used up all their luck surviving this long. Half a day short, and it had run out.

Atreus dragged her upright again. “I’m no fool.

Everyone knew there was a spy among the Undying in the year leading up to the Eternal Flame’s defeat.

The Resistance knew too much. The High Necromancer suspected that one of his most trusted had betrayed him, but they were never identified.

They are the piece that remains unaccounted for.

The evidence is undeniable. The massacres and acts of sabotage that were so uncharacteristic of the Eternal Flame.

That person was responsible for the bombings, including the one that destroyed the West Port Lab.

They disappeared after the final battle only to reemerge shortly after you did. You know exactly who it is.”

Helena tried to twist free, fingers clawing, trying to reach his face. Contact was all she needed, but Atreus crushed his weight against her burning shoulders, forcing a strangled scream from her. There were black spots in her vision.

“Tell me who it is.” He shook her.

“Kaine will be killed—if you hurt me,” she choked out. Her body was going numb, sinking her into a dissociative shock, as though she were a prey animal already hanging by her throat.

“The High Necromancer will forgive my means if I find the killer,” Atreus said. She could see his face reflected in the glass. His eyes had a burning look of utter desperation. It was strange how reminiscent of Kaine his expressions could be even in Crowther’s face.

“Kaine will survive. He can have more children,” he said.

Helena’s head grew light. She could hardly breathe in the smoke. The room was engulfed in flames behind them.

Knowing she’d never see Kaine again, she couldn’t help but look for any traces of him in Atreus. There was a similar evasiveness of their eyes in the way they spoke. The same look of furious desperation that Kaine wore all too often when he was cornered, when he thought he had nothing left to lose.

Despite their contempt for each other, Kaine had inherited his fatal flaws from his father.

Enid had been everything to Atreus, and now she was gone, and he was left grasping after shadows.

What would Kaine be like with someone who glimmered with constant reminders of what he’d lost? Perhaps something like Atreus, who could neither stand his son nor stay away.

She finally understood.

“He’s going to kill Kaine … if you don’t find the killer, isn’t he? That punishment—it wasn’t just because of Hevgoss, it was a warning for you, wasn’t it?”

Atreus’s expression turned black. He shook her so violently she nearly fainted. “Who is the last member of the Eternal Flame?”

“He looks like your wife, doesn’t he? It’s the eyes and mouth; they’re so much like hers. He’s all you have left of her now. But every time he sees you, he hates you with your wife’s eyes.”

Atreus raised his hand, ignition rings glittering.

“I’m the one who blew up the West Port Lab,” she said quickly, before the rings could spark.

“I used to help Luc study pyromancy theory. I wasn’t supposed to, but he did better with companionship, so I studied it, too, even though I didn’t have the resonance.

I used those principles and theory to design the bombs, and then I used necrothralls to plant them.

Because I am the last member of the Eternal Flame. ”

She drew a deep breath. “But you’re right—there was a spy. I was his handler.”

There was a flash of triumph in Atreus’s eyes. He saw victory in his grasp.

“But you won’t save Kaine by finding him. The killer you’re searching for is your son.”

Atreus stared at her dumbfounded before his expression contorted into fury. He forgot his pyromancy. His fingers wrapped around her throat. “My son would never ally himself with the Eternal Flame.”

“Yes, he would. He hates Morrough,” she rasped out. “He always hated him. Did you never wonder what happened to your family after you were arrested?”

Atreus sneered at her. “Nothing. When Kaine killed the Principate, my failure was forgiven.”

Helena shook her head. “Then why is there an inert iron cage in this house, and a transmutational array carved into the floor? Why are all your servants dead? Do you really think someone like Morrough was understanding during all those months before Kaine went back to the Institute?”

Doubt flashed across Atreus’s face.

“He kept your wife in that cage; he tortured her. He made her watch as he ripped out your son’s soul. Kaine killed Apollo trying to save her. And it was all your fault.”

“You’re lying!”

She knew she should go for the kill, but she wanted to hurt him.

She grabbed hold of his head, even though her shoulders screamed in protest, and shoved her resonance through his skull. He was too startled to stop her.

She’d never used any type of animancy on a lich before.

It was easy, like shoving her hand into a rotted gourd.

There was a simpleness about the mind; it lacked the noise of the truly living.

Atreus’s thoughts were linear, flattened.

They all ran towards Kaine and Kaine alone, because that was all he had left of Enid.

She knew that when Kaine had checked her memories, she could feel his consciousness, his emotions. There was no reason why she couldn’t push her own memories through that connection instead of looking for Atreus’s.

She wanted him to know. To understand the consequence of what he’d done.

Her mind was a cacophony of rage, and she shoved it all through Atreus’s skull.

Kaine was kneeling in front of her as she was reaching towards him.

“Did—did any of them say anything that could incriminate you?”

No. That wasn’t what she wanted to show him. She tried to focus.

Kaine kissing her, hands cradling her face, pushing her back onto the bed, his body over hers, pressed close.

Her memories were so disjointed and overlaid, she wasn’t even sure if that memory was old or new.

“Your soul has been ripped out of your body. With time I think it will reintegrate, but initially it would need to be secured, like—like the servants’ souls are doing to the phylactery.”

“A sacrificial soul.”

She nodded, unable to look up. “The person would have to be willing.”

Not this. Enid. Something about Enid.

“My life was blown apart when I went home at sixteen, and everything I did from that point on was trying not to lose the only thing I had left. When she died—it didn’t matter …”

She could feel Atreus’s shock, his outraged disbelief. He tried to tear free, and she nearly lost her grip. The connection between their minds turned red.

Kaine’s face, clearly younger, his hair still dark, appeared in front of her, fury radiating from him. “Who do you imagine was alone with the High Necromancer when word came that my father had been caught and confessed?”

Atreus stopped struggling. Helena’s lungs were fighting for air, but she was lost in her memories, trying to crystallise them.

“I’d hear her screaming for hours sometimes.”

Searing heat was swallowing her, but Helena wouldn’t stop.

“She kept saying it was all her fault, and her heart stopped—”

Helena was jerked up. Her head lolled back, and everywhere she looked fire was crawling across the walls, consuming everything.

A pale face loomed in front of her. She struggled to focus.

“Hold on.”

The voice was distorted, but she knew it. She reached out dazedly as Kaine’s face flickered in her vision.

“You came—” She reached for him. “I guess you always do.”

“Hold on, I’ll get you out,” he said, pressing her hand down and pulling her close.

Something painfully heavy was wrapped tight around her, and he lifted her into his arms. She arched in agony as his arm pressed against her raw shoulders, but he gripped her tight, carrying her through the flames.

The hallway was thick with smoke, fire creeping out from her room, but he didn’t stop until they were outside.

She gasped the clean, fresh air greedily as he laid her down.

“What happened? What did he do to you?” Kaine’s hands were shaking so hard, he couldn’t form a stable resonance channel.

Something huge and black suddenly closed in on her, blotting out the sky until Kaine snapped an order and Amaris backed away.

Helena couldn’t manage words. Her lungs kept spasming for air, and everything was swimming. Breathing made her want to scream from pain. Kaine kept asking questions, but her mind struggled to focus.

Atreus came staggering out into the courtyard. His face was streaked with smoke, and his expression alight with rage.

At the sight of him, Helena clutched at Kaine’s arm. “He knows about your mother. I’m sorry. I told him.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said as he stood.

Black smoke was filling the courtyard as if the house were a smouldering corpse.

“Why didn’t you tell me what happened to your mother?” Atreus asked, his voice a low snarl.

Kaine faced him, his shoulders stiff. “What difference would it have made?”

Atreus lunged at Kaine. “You should have told me. She was mine!”

Kaine sidestepped, but not as easily as he ordinarily would have. The movement was stiff, his fingers spasming unnaturally. Helena caught sight of his face. His eyes were aglow.

“Yes, and what a terrible curse for her that was. You told Morrough, after all. You never cared what rumours they spun in the city, but you told him about her, that she was everything to you, that you’d do anything for her.

She was your proof of how loyal you’d be to the cause.

” Kaine’s voice was filled with fury. “Do you think he cared how long it took for torture to break you? No. All that mattered was that you broke, and she was right there. Your most treasured possession. You loved her right into her grave.”

Atreus’s long, thin, spider-like fingers curled, ignition rings gleaming on his hands.

Kaine laughed bitterly. “They must have found you terribly amusing when they brought you back and you stayed loyal. And you called me the dog.”

Atreus’s grey skin purpled with rage. “You should have told me.”

“Why? What would it have done if I had? What grand vengeance would you have exacted that I should have risked my work to tell you?”

“What work is that? Crawling, snivelling between the legs of Holdfast’s pet whore?” Atreus sneered at his son. His rings flashed against each other.

Kaine’s resonance split the air. The spark of fire hung in place as Atreus flew in one direction, and his ignition rings were ripped into another. Atreus hit the gravel, skidding several feet. The flames vanished. When he lifted his head, purple blood seeped from gouges down one side of his face.

“Oh dear,” Kaine said, standing over him, pure malice in every word. “Seems you’ve lost your fire again, Father.”