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Chapter

One

Nuo

“ N uo,” Liv cried out. “Stop this!”

I couldn’t think. I couldn’t process. My mind faltered over what was happening—what I had been trying to prepare for. Brekt was becoming the Aspis because the Ikhor had woken it.

And it was his fucking girl.

Everything was a lie. We had taken her in, healed her. Brekt had told me to trust her, as she was the girl he’d seen in his visions. He was in love with her.

Cursed Night, what had we done? The betrayal was carving a hole in my heart, while Brekt’s dying was breaking it.

“I didn’t know!” she pleaded. “I didn’t understand.”

A circle of dead earth, crusted black with ash and smoke, surrounded the Ikhor. Fire had erupted from her when Brekt was attacked, killing everyone around. The bodies closest to her smouldered, sending a terrible smell across the field toward us.

Yet Liv remained untouched, her clothing in perfect condition.

“How could you not know?” My hand shook as I thrust it towards Brekt. “He did!”

Brekt was fighting for control. His chest rose and fell, and his laboured breathing told me he couldn’t pull air into his lungs. Blood poured from his heart while scales formed over other parts of his body. My chest was being ripped apart as if a blade had gone through mine as well.

“Don’t speak to her, Nuo. It’s not Liv,” Brekt choked out.

The Ikhor had come and was already burning the earth. And the first one she punished was the man who fought to keep her safe.

I gripped one of my blades. “Already, it’s trying to deceive us.”

“It is me,” Liv pleaded, her brows drawn together.

Brekt’s skin flaked away, each piece equal to the horror choking the life out of me.

They turned into smoke, churning and shredding like the embers of the fire, and I was helpless.

I’d done everything to stop it. I’d searched for another way.

There was no transferring the power to a new host. There was no bringing him back after he was gone.

What was I supposed to do now? I could fight, and I could kill … but I couldn’t stop the will of the gods.

Brekt’s lips curled back in a snarl—a sound I’d never heard, even when he threw himself at his enemies. Fangs grew from a mouth that was wider than it should be.

I turned to face the evil. We would fight now. If his last wish was to end the Ikhor, I would follow him to that death.

But my rage matched my growing fear.

“You liar!” I made it several feet on wobbling knees before I stopped.

“No, Nuo. I didn’t know.” The Ikhor trembled.

Was the magic wreaking havoc on the body of its host, just as the Aspis was wreaking havoc over Brekt?

How long had she known? Since the moment we met—that’s why she was in that cave, so that we would find her.

The rage became a monster inside of me. It paired well with the horror of seeing Brekt withering. “You knew! You knew, and you said nothing. He’s known for years, so don’t lie to me.”

Brekt had revealed his secret when we were younger. The dreams, the power—he knew he was the Aspis. It ruined his life, knowing he would barely live it.

Brekt’s eyes shuttered. More skin flaked away to reveal scales.

“Nuo.” Tears welled in Liv’s eyes, her lower lip quivering.

No . Stop calling it Liv .

I searched its face for the lie. For the ghost of my friend … but I couldn’t see one from the other.

“Don’t you come closer,” I spat. “You don’t get to touch him. You’re going to kill him. You’ve already killed him.” My voice broke, and I looked away from it, but the sight closer to me was worse. “You will never get to him, Ikhor.” It was a promise I would make for Brekt.

“Stop, Nuo,” Brekt moaned, hands coated red and holding his chest. “We knew this was coming. Control yourself, be ready to fight.”

Even in his final moments, he remained demanding. He kept his composure as if it were a fight we would walk away from together.

We always walked away from a fight together.

“I’m not ready. How could I be ready for this?” He knew me. He knew I was not prepared. I suppressed the urge to vomit.

“You have to be.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Bastane’s voice pierced through the night. I had forgotten the others—the Aether on the field and Falizha’s horrid presence. “We could have helped. We could have figured out who she was.”

“How?” I scoffed.

“I saw her react to magic when Rem was in the city. Only I thought she was the Aspis. You should have told us it was him.” Bastane’s face twisted.

How dare he feel pain. He thought he was tormented by Brekt dying? Bastane was the one who told Falizha about Liv. He brought us all here—he was the reason it was happening now.

“And give more reason for the world to cast me out?” Brekt growled, “Another way to be used as a pawn for the Days?”

Bastane knew the Council’s hatred for Brekt. They made every attempt to stop us from becoming Guards. Legacies of Night weren’t the only ones hated by the golden Council.

Brekt was losing his balance, trying to hide the pain, but I saw every one of his tells.

“I chose to live with the little time I had in peace. It was bad enough I was chosen as a Guard, constantly controlled by the Council.” Brekt leaned forward, spitting out blood, his mouth stained red.

The fingers clutching his chest lengthened as claws curled from his fingertips.

Gods, how could I endure it?

Across the field, an Aethar, who was painted blue, approached the Ikhor, tugging on its sleeve. They spoke softly, so I couldn’t hear.

“Olivia?” Even I heard the hate in my voice. How long had she been in league with the Aethar?

Liv paled when she met my gaze. “Nuo, no. It’s not what it looks like.”

“This whole time. You’ve been siding with those bastards this whole time!” The Aethar had killed my family, leaving me to be orphaned and raised in the worst, most unloving place to exist. And then I’d welcomed and made friends with Liv, one of them.

“I haven’t. I promise.” She was a good actress, fooling even me.

“Then why are you using the magic of their leader? Why are you standing with them? You’ve betrayed us. I lost my brother today!” Pain sharpened my words like blades. “This is your fault. You will pay for it.”

The Ikhor searched for an ally, panicking. The other Guards held their positions. Kazhi watched Brekt with a horrified expression—she hadn’t guessed he was the Aspis.

“Go, Olivia. You won’t get far once the beast wakes,” Brekt warned.

My mouth fell open. What was he doing?

“Brekt,” Liv cried.

How could he let her go? We needed to stop her.

“She’s not leaving this field. The Ikhor is ours,” I said, “the rest of the Aethar too. They’ve killed everyone I loved. I will hunt down every last one of them tonight.” I lifted my blade, but it was torment trying to hold the thing steady. “You know what I do to Aethar, Liv.”

Brekt bent over again, groaning. Pieces of him kept flaking away, revealing more of the Aspis with every passing second.

My fingers trembled around my blade as I swallowed around the lump in my throat, my vision blurring. Not from tears, not from smoke. It was pure, uncontrollable pain taking over my senses.

“Nuo,” Brekt said, barely above a whisper.

My attention shot to him, but it wasn’t entirely him anymore, and I couldn’t think of a thing to say.

His eyes shuttered, his throat moving as he struggled to speak. “You remember what I asked you?”

I flinched. “You can’t be serious. Not after what we learned. You can’t ask that of me.”

“Use your head. It always worked better than mine. Don’t make decisions from your pain. If it’s her, please do as I asked.”

I held my breath, refusing to let his words sink in because it was then that the last pieces of Brekt fell away. The last bit of skin turned to dust, revealing scales beneath. I reached out to the brother who was no longer there, and as Brekt faded, so did every shred of goodness within me.

The iridescence of his eyes flashed one last time, the fading brown winking out before it turned to yellow—to the eyes of the Aspis.

Citrine eyes with sharp vertical pupils turned toward me and my body jolted.

Brekt’s face elongated, his nose transforming into slits as his ears drew back and twisted into spiralled horns.

I recoiled from the man I had grown up with, who was transforming into a creation made by the gods themselves.

It was in pain. Its body stretched and curled like a wounded snake, chest rising and falling as it tried to catch its breath between hisses and whines. Then it collapsed, a black snake coiled and asleep.

Time stopped.

What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? I always had an answer, but this time, all of my insecurities came crashing down— Weak-blooded Sea-leg. No real power— I could do nothing to help. I dropped down beside it, feeling the heat of the Aspis’s body, shaking it—but it had gone still.

I searched for help as the world spun … and in the haze, Liv was there.

“Liv, come. Stop this.” I held out a desperate, shaking hand—a final lifeline.

She had to be in there. She could stop it, right? Love fixed these things. A million tales told stories of lovers ending a curse. She hadn’t lied. She was my friend. Brekt was falling in love with her.

I could forget what she’d become if she saved him.

She had to save him.

I held my hand in the air, waiting, urgent and insistent. She could?—

“Nuo, I—” She stumbled away.

I grabbed the still form of the beast. “Liv? Liv, he needs you. We can find a way to stop this.” I put my weight over it, trying to stop it from growing.

Liv had to come help. She was my last hope.

I couldn’t catch my breath, knowing I was running out of time. I could fix it. I could fix anything. I hadn’t fought all those years for Brekt to die this young.

“Don’t be a fool, Nuo.” Bastane stood behind me, and I battled the urge to stab him. He didn’t understand—we needed to stop the change. “That’s not her. Look what she’s done. The dust around her.”

I searched Liv’s face and waited to see who would answer—my friend or my enemy.

“I’m sorry,” she said, closing her eyes.

She stepped toward the blue woman.

Every. Fucking. Part. Of. Me. Raged.

Brekt was dying, right fucking here! She had the magic of the gods, she had the power to stop it!

She lied. Tricked us. Led us here!

The Ikhor must have been working with them from the start—Bellum, the villages in the jungle—it had the Aethar come to this field to help it end and kill Brekt.

I screamed. It was impossible to hold in the cracking, earth shattering hatred.

Brekt was gone, and his lover was the reason why.

“How could you! You side with the Aethar, and we are done. You are dead to me.” I made a promise. To it. To myself.

“Nuo, I will find a way to fix this.”

“You’ve already been corrupted. The lies began a long time before the evil possessed you. I will find you, Ikhor. I will find you and make you pay!” My hatred had such force it charged the air, poisoning it and making it impossible to breathe.

The blue Aethar grabbed the Ikhor and tugged it away from the burning corpses. I didn’t blink, horrified and unbelieving, as they faded into the smoke and orange glow.

But I understood what I had to do.

As the faint outline of the Ikhor was engulfed in a cloud of fire, I shouted my promise for the world to hear. “You better run as fast as you can, Olivia, because I will follow the beast, and I will be there when it kills you!”