Page 195 of Eternal Ruin

“I killed my brother to continue Yonas’s will.” The Last Sage’s voice hardened. “Our burden is to walk this life alone. The First Sage understood that love focused on only one person was the root cause of evil. An abomination like Varos the Night Lion was created because his own brother loved him so much, he drained all plant life, all human life, to revive him. He broke all laws for one soul and was punished for it. A Sage can never be blinded by one person. So yes, you must kill the person you came into this world with, forsake such selfishness. You must take on the stranger, the child, the woman, the man as your family. Understand the loss of one finger should cut as deeply as the loss of a hand and protectalllife. You mustunderstand and grieve true loss without being consumed by it. It is that single sacrifice that allows a Sage’s powers to exist in this land. It is what will help you kill all evil.”

Kill all evil.

He could tell her this a thousand times, but it did not matter. She would never kill Kidan.

June shook her head violently. “I can’t do it.”

“Foolish girl!” he roared, making her whimper. “If you do not fulfill your duty, all of our binds here will unravel. The lineage of Sagehood will cease to exist. Varos and the Manes will reduce this land to ash!”

June trembled in the sunlight. The earth beneath her was snow. She shook her head repeatedly.

I can’t do it. I can’t do it.

“Foolish girl. You need to see.”

“No.” June’s spine locked. “No, I don’t want to. Please.”

The Last Sage’s memories of the horrific war between dranaics and humans wrapped around her, a thick black smoke choking her nostrils and mouth. June gasped and fell forward onto her palms. The grass disappeared, replaced with wilted Abyssinian roses and blood. The agonizing scream of men and the whistling sound of a blade ruptured all around.

Not real. Not real.

It was helpless, though. Whether real or not, the atmosphere of this much pain made her cells contort and whimper. June got to her feet and ran, stumbling over wounded bodies and reaching hands, trying to find the sun and warmth.

A cloaked figure broke the horizon, tall and faceless, with long knifelike claws.

Twin red eyes peered out of his dark cloak.

Varos the Night Lion.

June’s heart seized. He was never alone. Four more shadowed figures appeared at his side, each carrying a different silver weapon.

Ralonar the Venomous Lion.

Lidia the Split-Tongued Lioness.

Helenik the Horned Lioness.

Nira the Silent Lioness.

Only one person was by June’s side. Demasus the Fanged Lion, facing the approaching death with his own silver blades.

Their faces were always hidden from June, a blur of shadow and mask. The Last Sage hid them from her on purpose, to hide her from their wrath, and because she hadn’t earned it yet. Only after she killed Kidan and ensured the continuity of the cycle of Sagehood would he reveal their faces.

“Because they will be the only faces you will see from that moment on,” he’d told her. “Until the day you die. And if you do something foolish, like seek them out, you will die. And all will be lost.”

All June knew was Demasus had skin the shade of mahogany. He cut through the horde of dranaics with incredible speed, then he melted into smoke, and June was alone. She fell to her knees, the grass wilting and leaving only black rot. A malevolent power she couldn’t see but sensed like sweat on skin rippled through. Varos wanted to consume her entirely, break her mind and spirit.

Finally, when June could no longer bear it, she screamed.

“This is what will be unleashed on us if you don’t do your duty!” the Last Sage boomed. “You must kill without malice, for good. For our legacy.”

June kept screaming as the cloaked figure scraped against her flesh, inside her brain.

“Please, please, stop.”

It never did.

The vampires were Varos’s army, sired with darkness and blood. The Last Sage had his own people standing as well, men and women armed with nothing but impala horns and armor—Mot Zebeyas.