Page 20 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)
“As you all know, you’ve been gifted Death Magic of various kinds from the Gods as a reward for winning the Choosing,” Winston starts to explain.
“So it was Death Magic that I sensed?” Raiden asks.
Winston nods, “Yes. It would appear that Coen can travel to the Spirit Realm. He caused quite a stir showing up like he did. Fortunately, I got to him before anyone could really panic.”
“It was pretty insane,” Coen mutters as he pulls me back into his arms, my back to his chest so that I can still see everyone. He continues, “I thought I was dead for a moment.”
I squeeze his arms. “That must have been terrifying.”
“Sorry, man,” Reed mutters with a frown.
Coen shrugs, “It’s okay. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn’t. Thankfully, Winston showed up really quickly as well, and stopped me before I could have a full freakout.”
“And before anyone else could freak out,” Winston adds.
“Thank you,” I tell him. Then sensing that Coen is done with the topic, I add, “I know you said you were going to be gone for a while, but it feels like you’ve been gone forever.”
He grins, “Well, I was in talks, or rather arguments, for quite a while. But as I understand it, you now know who your parents are?”
I nod. For some reason, I feel suddenly nervous and really unsure as I reply, “The King and Queen of Trieneliea.”
Winston nods, “Yes, that’s right, and because you know that and you’ve already gotten your wings, I can now tell you that as you know your mother was an angel, and you take after her.”
I smile, “Yeah, we figured that out by putting several clues together. That book that you translated for us was extremely helpful.”
“Good, I’m glad.” He grins.
“Do you know what kind of supe my father is?” I ask.
Winston’s eyes narrow slightly, and I’m assuming it’s because he’s unsure whether he can tell me or not.
“Your father is a Sicarius,” Winston tells me. He adds, looking relieved, “Oh good, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to tell you.”
“What’s that?” Raiden asks, which is a shock to be honest, because he knows a lot about a lot.
“A God killer,” Coen surprises me by replying. When we look at him with surprise he just shrugs, “I stumbled across it in some research that I was doing.”
Winston nods, looking impressed, “Yes. You are right. Sicarius are demons that are strong enough to kill Gods. Your father is one of the last ones left, and the only known Sicarius.”
“Why is he the only known one?” I ask.
“Well, as you can imagine, they were very sought after at one point. There have been many wars fought against the Gods over the millennia, and Sicarius’ were one of the only supernaturals that could go up against them,” Winston explains.
“So, they were hunted,” Griff summarizes grimly.
“Yes, and those who survived the massacre went into hiding. Neith’s father is the only one that we know exists, for all we know, he could be the last one,” Winston explains.
“So, both of my parents were extremely rare?” I ask.
“Yes,” Winston replies. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a couple more things that I want to look into. It appears that, as usual, you’ve not done what was expected of you, and it’s thrown a wrench in things.”
I wrinkle my nose in confusion, “Huh?”
Winston chuckles, “Nothing to worry about. I will fill you in as soon as I have something to tell you.”
With that, he disappears.
I shake my head, “Well, he’s as helpful as always.”
“At least he could tell you some things,” Raiden points out, “although I have to admit that it is frustrating when he just disappears like that.”
I nod in agreement.
“So, you can go into the Spirit Realm,” River says to Coen with a grin.
Coen chuckles, “Apparently so. It was super weird. At first, it looked just like any other realm. I appeared in this massive field, but there were people having picnics and enjoying the day.”
“Why did you think that you were dead and not just in another realm, then?” Ransom asks curiously.
Coen tenses slightly, “I saw my sister.”
“You have a sister?” Doc asks.
“Had,” Coen clarifies.
Everyone’s expressions fill with understanding.
“Shit, I’m sorry man, I should have got that sooner,” Doc apologizes.
Coen shrugs, “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister,” River says gently.
I can still feel the tension thrumming through Coen’s body from where he’s standing behind me, as he replies, “I don’t like talking about it, and it happened when we were kids. She was murdered.”
I squeeze his arm, “I’m sorry, it must have been really difficult to see, Nina. Did you get to talk to her?”
His arms tighten around me, “I didn’t. But she looked happy.”
Raiden winces slightly, “I don’t know whether you will be able to find her again.
It’s really rare that those of us who can cross over to the Spirit Realm are allowed to see our lost ones.
I don’t know why it’s just the way that it works.
I tried really hard to find my mom when I realized that I could travel to more than one layer of the Spirit Realm and quickly realized that it wasn’t possible. ”
Coen nods, “Thank you for telling me before I got my hopes up. I think maybe it would bring too much pain for the both of us anyway. But without you telling me that, I probably still would have tried to find her again. I’m just grateful that I got to see her, and that I now know that she’s happy.”
Reed nods, “I’m really glad that you found some peace.”