Page 128 of Scorched Earth (Dark Shores #4)

KILLIAN

Even as his heart screamed in wordless fury and grief, his instincts took over. Killian caught hold of Finn by the arms, restraining him.

No, not Finn.

A blighter. Which meant every word Finn had said was the Corrupter’s.

“What are you going on about, Lydia?” the blighter demanded, mumming Finn with such perfection that Killian knew that Finn had likely been dead for every conversation they’d had.

That all the things he’d told the boy were words told to a spy.

And rather than recognizing that something was wrong with the boy who was like a younger brother to him, Killian had brushed him aside at every turn.

“It’s me.” The blighter’s face sagged with fear, his eyes skipping around the room. Everyone with a weapon held it in their hands, faces white with horror. “It is! I don’t know what she’s saying!”

“Stop.” Lydia’s voice was frosty as ice. “You will cease this farce.”

All the tension in the boy fell away, and the blighter that wore Finn’s face gave a sigh that was half chuckle, the voice that emanated from his lips like nails on a chalkboard as it said, “As you like, Your Grace. Though I would have enjoyed watching your companions tormented with uncertainty over the verity of your claim.”

“You mistake grief for uncertainty, for you have stolen someone dear to us.”

Killian knew that tone. Knew that in the depths of rage and despair, Lydia was descending to a place where she had the potential to become very dangerous. He could tell that Agrippa heard it, too, as he pushed Malahi away from the threat.

“But were you dear to him?” the blighter asked. “I dare say that even left to his devices, he’d have gladly revealed your secrets. You, who caused the only person he cared about to abandon him over and over.”

“Finn wasn’t like that,” Lydia hissed. “I never met a more selfless person, and I will not allow you to use his body.”

“Will you order Killian to cut off his head?” the voice asked, using Finn’s eyes to look at Killian.

“Burn his corpse? This boy, who you swore to protect but abandoned with little thought. Who you left to make his own way, fed and watered, but forgotten by the one who mattered to him most. He was easy to take given his propensity to seek out those in dire circumstances. He died alone in Serlania’s sewers.

Died in agony and in fear, then rose on my strings to listen to you prattle on about a thousand concerns, none of which were him.

What agony for him to watch you use his corpse to unburden your soul, with no care for how he suffered. ”

Killian clenched his teeth, hating the awful words because they were true. He had abandoned Finn to Sonia’s care knowing full well that she wasn’t who the boy needed. Had barely given him a second thought, every part of him consumed by other concerns. And because of that, Finn had died alone.

“Finn is gone!” Lydia snarled. “His soul is with the Six and his cares no longer of this world.”

The voice laughed, the sound grating and awful. “Are you sure about that, Kitaryia?”

“Yes.” Lydia’s voice was stalwart and certain, but Killian felt her waver. “There is no life in him.”

“Is a soul alive? Or is it, perhaps, something else entirely? Something that might be chained by the very power that puppets this body, made to watch while his friends turn on him. Will you lock him up, as you did dear little Emmy? Or will you order the one he loves like a brother to cut him down? Will Finn finally bear witness to how little he mattered to you both?”

Oh gods, no.

“Liar,” Lydia whispered. “You’re a liar. The greatest of all liars.”

The voice made a humming noise, then said, “Lies never hurt quite as much as the truth.”

Killian’s skin crawled, instincts screaming that the threat was no longer the blighter but Lydia. “Agrippa, get everyone out!”

A heartbeat later, Lydia lunged, wrenching Finn’s body from Killian’s grasp, her hands clamping on the sides of the boy’s head. “Let him go!” she screamed, her voice wrath incarnate.

All around them was chaos, Agrippa forcing everyone from the room as Lydia wrestled with Finn’s struggling corpse.

His eyes were bottomless pits, his screams of rage inhumanly loud, the sound piercing and cruel. Black veins rose to the surface of Finn’s skin, pulsing with a throbbing beat of a dark heart, the flow moving toward Lydia’s hands.

Then into her.

She screamed, and Killian clenched his teeth as black veins crisscrossed her pale hands, rising up her wrists. As she took death into herself and warred against it, drawing in life from across Reath to aid in her battle.

A battle he was helpless to help fight.

He lunged for her, but then Agrippa had him by the arm. “Don’t!” he shouted. “She can do this. She can defeat him!”

Lydia howled, her voice a mix of agony and rage. Then the black veins down her arm seemed to set aflame with brilliant light before disappearing entirely.

She’d won.

Finn slumped in her arms, the Corrupter vanquished from his body, his eyes once again a soft brown. But they were also glassy and lifeless.

Yet the determination on Lydia’s face remained as she reached out her left hand to the open air, her right pressed against Finn’s cheek.

One cannot heal death, and death to the healer who tries.

Killian lunged, reaching for Lydia to pull her free.

But he was too late.

He could not see the life that she manipulated, but he felt it.

The surge as she dragged upon all of Reath, the windows around them exploding, the pressure knocking him to the floor.

Holding him down and tearing at the fabric of his clothes, glass and shredded flowers swirling around them in a maelstrom.

Then everything went still.

Killian lifted his head, relief filling him at the sight of Lydia, alive, Finn’s body clutched against her.

His still body.

“Please,” she wept. “Please come back to us.”

Killian crawled on his hands and knees, ignoring the slice of glass on his palms, and took Finn from her.

“I’m so sorry.” Tears ran down his cheeks to splatter on Finn’s face. “I’m so sorry I abandoned you. That I didn’t listen. But I swear on the Six, it was never because I didn’t care. I failed you, and I’m sorry.”

“The Corrupter lied.” Lydia slammed her fists against the floor. “It was a lie, all a lie. Finn’s gone, they’re all gone, and there is nothing I can do to save them. Nothing. ” The impact of her fists cracked the tiles. “What good is all this power if I cannot save those I love most?”

Killian’s eyes went back to Finn’s face, which was so still despite being flushed with the life that Lydia had put into him. Life that was worthless without the soul that made Finn Finn.

Killian knew war. Had seen so many die, yet losing Finn had cut a piece out of him that would never heal. A piece that felt far too much like hope.

There was no sound in the room but Sonia’s weeping. Lydia’s ragged breathing. His own heart throbbing in his chest. As though the whole world stood still, watching this moment.

As though the Six were watching as well.

Then Finn sucked in a deep breath, his back arching and eyes snapping open. A flash of fear made Killian’s skin crawl, because if the Corrupter had taken Finn back again then Killian would have to take him down.

And he didn’t think he could do it. Didn’t think that his heart would survive turning his weapon on Finn.

Yet Killian still reached for his sword. Only for Lydia’s fingers to close over his wrist. “He’s alive.”

Not possible.

Bringing back the dead was not a power of this world. It was a power of a god.

Lydia was no longer bound by mortal rules.

Finn’s eyes met his. “Killian?”

“We’ve got you, Finn.” His words tripped over themselves. “We got you back. It’s okay.”

The boy burst into tears, and Killian pulled him against his chest. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay.” Finn could barely get his words out between sobs. “I could see everything. Hear everything. But it controlled everything, and it tells everything to her .”

“Her? You mean the Corrupter?”

“Rufina! She is twice touched by the Seventh God, and they are connected. She wields his power. Wields the death in the blight.” Finn sucked in a ragged breath.

“She knows Malahi and Lydia can fix the blight together, Killian. She knows you all plan to go to Deadground. She knows everything I saw and everything you told me.”

Killian’s hands turned to ice, his mind pouring over everything he’d told Finn. Worse still, everything that the boy would have overheard without anyone paying him any mind. The answer was damning.

“All the eyes of evil are focused on us,” Finn whispered. “And they are coming.”