Page 103

Chapter

Seventy

Liv

“Eyes down, Olivia. Don’t react, Olivia. Blend in, Olivia.” These were the lessons passed on from my sister Rebeka. For all her betrayals, her advice of blending in had kept me alive in the Endless Forest. Too bad I no longer had that option.

I backed away as the glowing orb floated toward the edge of the platform.

He was here.

Had it been Rem who had done this? Put the magic of the Ikhor inside me, telling me to wake the Aspis and giving me a death sentence?

“Ikhor,” Rem commanded. The glowing light stretched and grew, forming into a tall golden figure, lithe like a dancer, standing over ten feet tall. “What is this, I hear? You wish to return our magic?”

The buzzing intensified as the bright light ebbed, leaving him standing solid before me, gazing in that unblinking manner that set me on edge. I reminded myself that his children claimed he was good. Ouras’s warning that he would kill me may have been overly dramatic.

Rem’s golden glow had once been so bright I could hardly look upon him. His presence had caused me pain. But no longer. My magic hummed in response to his presence, wild but not debilitating. Interesting.

Rem didn’t move, yet his eyes narrowed a fraction, giving away his annoyance with me. “I know you. I’ve seen you before.”

I didn’t answer.

“ Don’t speak your name to the gods, even if they ask ,” the Oracle had told me.

“The Guardian City,” his layered voice echoed.

My heart skipped. I didn’t dare breathe.

“You were with the Guards.” Rem barked a laugh, reverberating in an array of tones, none of them pleasant.

“I thought you were a pure-blooded child, carrying magic in you. There aren’t many left, but I know when I meet them.

How wonderful. The Ikhor was right there with me, and I had no idea.

Clever girl. You have something that belongs to me. ”

“No,” I whispered.

This was what I wanted, right? I had planned to return the magic, but some part of me screamed not to give it to Rem.

Run, Liv. A warm presence wrapped around my heart, and my mother’s voice rang clear in my mind.

“You called for a god.” Rem tilted his head like an animal, sizing up its prey.

“I came for Mayra. But I didn’t call?—”

“You call with your heart. Your intention was to speak with a god. I am here. Why are you looking for us? What do you need with my brethren?”

“I want to return the magic.”

No, no, NO! It was a second voice in my head—not one I recognized.

“I was told to find the gods.”

“You seek to find Erabas, then.”

“You know where he is?”

Rem was like stone. Solid. Inhuman. “No one does. He is gone.”

“Did you kill him?” I clapped a hand over my mouth— wrong thing to ask.

Rem’s glow intensified. “You fail to understand why you are here. The Ikhor, full of rage and hate. Every time, it’s the same, and the lessons are never learned. The mistakes of our children live on in you.”

“How do I carry anyone else’s mistakes? I am not bad or evil.”

“Have you not destroyed? Killed? Hated? Things never change. Times were dark when four gods ruled. Four powerful beings who disagreed on how the lands should be controlled. The gods have done their duty to do better for their children, yet you all fight and cause so much destruction.”

“You say times were dark. Was that because of Erabas?”

Rem tilted his head to the other side. “His world was anarchy. It was chaos. Mine is peace, where hate and war are brought to heel.”

The Desert Eagle claimed that in a lawless land, the crimes were out in the open. But that was not how the Guardian lands were run.

“Peace? Doesn’t look that way to me.”

“And who are you to judge? A nameless legacy that harbours the magic brimming with the same chaos. You’re an endless cycle, damning this world.

Even now, you’ve brought war to the shrine of my beloved sister.

The Guardians are here. They have met with your friends and are putting them in their place. ”

The Guardians . Not the Guards. Falizha and her crew were here?

“Maev—”

“Who are you, Ikhor? Why do I not sense the touch of a god on you? Unless … unless you have escaped your little prison.”

All the fear within me went still, focused on the god before me. “Prison?”

The door to the prayer chamber opened behind me, and I turned in time to see surprise flash across the face of someone I hated more than anyone else.

Falizha Ravin.

She ignored me, bowing to her god. “Father. I did not know you would be here today. You have blessed us. We have discovered the Guards have betrayed our people. I have come to reveal them as traitors and finish the Ikhor.”

Rem held a hand to his heart. “My child, what has become of the Guards? I have been told of their intent to turn on the people and help the Ikhor.”

Falizha’s mocking smile drifted my way. “They are being rounded up. My brother’s new weapons are proving useful in putting them in their place.”

“I leave you to it, then. I will speak with the Ikhor. I wish to hear its excuses for mercy.” Rem waved a hand, dismissing Falizha.

I needed to get to the others, to Maev, and I ran, but a strong wind kicked up. The door slammed before I could reach it, cutting off the screams coming from the main chamber. My heart seized.

It sounded like Nuo.

Leave. Run, the voices in me demanded, and I whipped around to find Rem leaning over me. I stumbled back, pressing myself against the door while he inspected my face. He stood toe to toe with me.

Do not falter. The dark voice said.

“It doesn’t want to be returned,” I whispered, sensing the magic raging against Rem’s presence. “The magic is corrupted. It doesn’t want to be given back anymore.”

The blacks of Rem’s eyes swam with stars, like the darkest parts of the night sky. “What do you know of the magic’s intent?”

“It’s not a part of you anymore.” I gritted my teeth against the growing hum. The vibrations of Rem’s magic pushed against me, rattling my bones and stealing my breath. “The magic is fighting me.”

“Humans have not yet learned from their mistakes. The cycle of hate and war is their punishment for their greed.” Rem stood straight.

“The magic doesn’t think . It doesn’t want or need.

It can’t be returned to me because it’s full of human hate.

It is no longer compatible with my true, benevolent nature. ”

Rem’s response surprised me. I was on Aethar lands. Did he think I still believed the Guardians’ teachings that the Ikhor was evil? The tales of the Ikhor were a lie, so why did he believe them?

I fought against his presence, the cords on my neck pulling tight. “By coming here to speak to one of you, am I not proving that people have learned? I don’t want power.”

“Your reasons are selfish,” he hissed. “You’re trying to rid yourself of the curse. To save your own life. I feel the amount of hatred you harbour within your heart.”

Curse ? What curse?

I took a shallow breath, holding back my retort because Rem was right. I was selfish. I wasn’t here to save the world—maybe a handful of people.

If I couldn’t help myself, however, I had to help my friends. “The Guards. They aren’t turning on their people. They are helping me to return the magic, not go against the Veydians.”

The god took careful steps about the chamber, never taking his eyes off me. “If the Guards were innocent, they would not be questioning the nature of the Ikhor. They would be helping the Aspis defeat it.”

“I am not evil! I am not possessed. They are innocent of the crimes Falizha claims.”

Rem’s mouth twitched, and he stopped pacing. “Are you not possessed? Look how you lose control around me. Look how you react to my presence. I am a god—you should bow before me, yet here you are, standing as if you are my equal. All these years and nothing has changed.”

I lifted my hand to shield my eyes, catching a glimpse of my glowing bracelet. Next to Rem, the glow was so similar. The magic hummed as he hummed.

I sucked in a sharp breath—Ouras hadn’t glowed like Rem.

My earlier theory came back to me. “Did you create the Ikhor?” I stared into the black abyss swirling around his inhumane, golden glare.

Rem was so still he became a statue—like Ouras had been. “What are you insinuating, girl?”

“I’ve seen images painted of the Ikhor—glowing, like you. The magic I possess came to me, glowing like you. I don’t think the stories of the first child are true.”

“I think you’ll find yourself harmed if you keep talking.”

Everything in me froze at the threat. Even the voices stayed silent, scared of the warning in Rem’s voice.

I swallowed my fear. “Then answer me this—am I the first to try to return it?”

Rem’s laugh was like ice cracking on a lake. “Of course, you’re not. Mortals. Always trying to save each other. It’s pathetic.”

“Isn’t that proof we are good?”

So much for being a benevolent god. He insulted his children— or at least the children of his brethren.

“Why haven’t you taken it back? History says the gods haven’t even tried.”

“History is written by those who win , girl. It is what I say it is. I don’t want the corrupted magic you carry.”

I swallowed my surprise. Rem was admitting he’d altered the truth, that history was what he had made it. “You’re the reason the cycle doesn’t end. Not the hate in human hearts.”

“And those that discover the truth find themselves meeting an untimely end. My children carry out my desires and erase the truth. There is no need to instil fear in those who remain. They shall continue to believe there is a chance the gods will take the magic back, and one day, this will all be over.”

“You control the Council.” I didn’t understand his reasons, but I was piecing together that Rem was keeping everyone in the dark. “That’s why no one lives to tell the truth? The Guards, the Aspis, the Ikhor. You kill them.”