Page 131 of The Lost Reliquary

The recoiling that follows their discovery is borne on that surprise, like a rush of fresh air into my lungs as the searing light recedes. Distantly, I feel one of my guards tighten their grip on me, though I’m not struggling, relieved as I am to still be myself. The world clears slightly, Innara’s singed features tightening with Tempestra’s bewilderment.

Again, I feel the grip of the guard, fingers digging into my flesh meaningfully.Insistently.It takes every ounce of will I possess to turnmy head, toward that helmed head, through whose slits I find Avery’s familiar eyes gazing back at me.

How—?

I don’t have time to understand more than that he’s here, and that if he’s here, the only reason must be to rescue me. To keep me and my crucial knowledge from Tempestra-Innara.

And that he’s too late.

I try to tell Avery this, to form the words, but only see his lips spread in an apologetic smile a heartbeat before I feel the knife slide between my ribs.

Fifty-one

When you strike, strike true. An enemy is never more dangerous than when in the desperate haze of survival.

—PRIOR PETRONILLA

THERE ARE GOOD WAYSto be stabbed, at least in terms of survival. Ways that are the least likely to result in damage that can’t be repaired, missing those vital organs and arteries.

That’s not how Avery stabs me.

The divine light breaks away fully, releasing me, the comparative darkness of reality so thick it might as well be night.

Or maybe it’s simply shock.

Either way, I fall. I simply… slip, plunging away from Tempestra-Innara’s reach to the ever-welcoming stone floor.

Strangely, my immediate concern is for Avery. Forget how he got here—who knows what tricks his boss has managed to learn over the centuries. But crossing the Goddess in their own Cathedral is not, historically, a survivable action.Run, I want to cry, before the flame takes him too, but I can’t move, can’t speak. Briefly, I wonder if he struck so true that I’m already dead.

But then the pain comes crashing in.

Oh yeah, I’m still alive.

“Lys!” Nolan calls my name, somewhere beyond my field of vision.All I see now is Tempestra-Innara, face twisted with unimaginable fury. And it’s aimed at Avery. He drops the knife, takes a step back.

He’s dead. Worse, if this was some desperate act to keep my awareness of Osiron secret, he’s too late. Not to mention that, while the Goddess was kind in allowing me not to show up to my own party a battered mess, all they have to do is complete the ritual and I’ll—well, my body—will be as good as new.

But Avery isn’t afraid, or disappointed. Instead he appears… expectant?

Three loud knocks sound on the Cathedral doors.

The Goddess’s face changes again, disbelief mixing with the prior anger. They aren’t looking at Avery anymore. They are looking at nothing. And then, slowly, their gaze drags toward the doors.

Beyond them, Nolan moves toward us. He shoves Avery out of the way and drops to his knees. Arms wrap around me, lift me up. “Lys—”

“All of you, stop!” Tempestra-Innara throws up one singed hand. “Be still. Besilent.”

Their will is obeyed.

Except by me, who coughs quite painfully, though I can’t exactly help it.

I manage to twist around a little. The doors. Everyone’s attention is on the doors to the Cathedral, now open, one man standing beneath their pointed arch.

Rion is gone. Whatever they’d been holding back radiates now, and there is no mistaking the deity who stands before us.

The Whisperer has come to Lumeris.

“You.” One word falls from the Goddess’s lips, flutters over us, and spreads through the Cathedral like sorcery. People shift uncomfortably, but no one understands what is happening, not yet. Especially Nolan, who is staring at the person he knew as a bookseller with damn near comedic confusion.