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Chapter

Sixty-Three

Nuo

“ A map of shrines? That’s their big idea? I always knew the Aethar weren’t intelligent.” I was pacing between the trees while Brekt explained what he’d seen in the Sea-legs crypt of a home.

We were on enemy lands. With little warning, they loaded airships with Guardians, supplies and Deathmakers.

We spent two weeks travelling over the massive sea between continents.

The attacks from pirates were endless, yet we always held them back.

When the Aethar wastelands came into view, the Guardians on board lined the top deck, gaping at a shore lined with green.

Trees larger than our northern forests swayed from the salty breeze.

The wind on board wasn’t enough to drown out the whispers, the questions, the anger.

“The shrines on their map aren’t shown on the ones we’ve seen,” Brekt said. “There’s a reason they aren’t shown, I’m sure of it. I want you to call for Mayra. I want you to check the shrines for drawings, paintings, anything that might tell us how to find the gods.”

That stopped me. “Me? Why would I do a thing like that? Mayra’s a god. She’s not going to come for a legacy with weak blood like mine. She never has before.”

“We need someone we trust to call her, ask her to help Liv and me. I will stress the me in that statement.” Brekt watched me go back and forth, making a path in the dirt. “We can’t tell just anyone the Ikhor and the Aspis are working together or that we are trying to find the gods.”

Kazhi was climbing one of the tall Aethar trees to get a strange-coloured fruit growing up high. “Get your head out of your ass, Nuo, and help them.”

I was restless. I was always restless lately, but if I stopped moving, the tension in my chest would set in. I rubbed at it, trying to stop the pain from building. Brekt noticed, and I shoved my hands in my pockets, ready to deck him if he made a comment.

“I will be given a copy of this map?” I asked.

Fruit dropped all around us, and Brekt reached out and caught a yellow one, peeling it. “Yes, they’re making one as we speak. Or perhaps that was yesterday.”

I continued wearing a path in the dirt. “Then you can tell that blue fucker to give back my other map. She stole it from me.”

Bastane stood in my path, stopping me. “No more names. You stole what was hers, too.”

I shoved him away. “Stop playing hero to every woman you see.”

Brekt took Bastane’s side. “They are helping us. And Liv is going to get an apology, too. You are going to make it up to her. Both of you. All of you.”

Bastane was wise enough to look ashamed, but I was livid that this was the reunion I got after another three weeks of him being gone.

“ I need to apologize? You’re insane.”

Brekt turned his anger away from Bastane. “I know you. I know who you are underneath your act. I can only imagine the apology she deserves.”

Unbelievable. “You going to make me?”

Brekt drew up to his full height. “If I must.”

I squeezed my fists, then let them go. Even though I was pissed, I never imagined we’d be able to fight again.

“And what do you want me to say? ‘Sorry, I didn’t kill you when I promised I would? Sorry that I trusted you and let you in, only for you to betray me and take off with my enemy like I meant nothing after you gained all the power in the world and you left me to mourn the closest and oldest friend I’d ever had?

’. Is that the apology I am supposed to give her? ”

Kazhi whistled from up in the tree, but Bastane had the good sense to stay quiet.

Brekt lifted a brow. “You don’t have to be so wordy. Though I know you usually can’t contain yourself.”

“And will you demand from your one and only that she apologize to me?”

Brekt jabbed a finger at me. “I expect she already has an apology written and practiced. She cared for you. Be a man, say sorry, and makeup. I won’t have either of you wasting time. We don’t have guarantees about what will happen tomorrow.”

“I don’t make any promises.” He always asked too much of me. This was one thing that might be impossible. Forgiveness was never my strength.

“Nuo doesn’t always follow through with his promises,” Kazhi said. “He promised to kill her and didn’t. He saved Bones when you came back as a creatureman. So don’t waste your time getting him to make commitments to an apology now. Bones is tougher than that anyway—she doesn’t need words.”

A fruit landed on my head. “Ow!”

“Smarten up.” Kazhi was lost in the leaves, and I grabbed the fruit that had hit the ground and threw it back at her. There was a loud thud. “Dammit Nuo.”

I grinned. “My aim never fails, Kaz.”

Bastane was staring daggers at me. “I grew up with women, Nuo, and saw how badly they can be treated. Don’t be an asshole.”

“Enough,” Brekt said, stopping the fight.

We were all on edge, Kazhi having warned us that Falizha would come snooping soon.

Brekt refused to reveal he’d returned and would be leaving shortly. “I will ask for your map, Nuo, and bring you the new one. We will look for clues on how to gather the gods and give the magic back. Liv wants us to leave Rem for last as Ouras warned her that Rem would kill the Ikhor on sight.”

“Why would he do that? But Mayra won’t?” Bastane stepped away from me, peeling his own fruit, and I continued my pacing.

“Liv thinks Rem is up to something. That he might be the cause of the Ikhor’s creation.”

Brekt had told us of the Aethar’s theory, how she thought maybe the Ikhor was made by Rem and the Aspis made by Ouras. If that were true, it would mean Mayra was dead like Erabas.

“In the meantime,”—Brekt threw his peels away as he spoke, and my chest tightened, knowing he was about to leave—“figure out what the Ravins are planning, listen for any word of the Aethar’s brother. And try to find out what’s going on in the north. I want to know what they’re up to.”

“Kaz, did you get a count on the crates they’ve brought with them?” Bastane tilted his head up to her.

“I stopped counting after fifty.”

Brekt popped a piece of fruit into his mouth. “You say this weapon shoots faster than an arrow or cannon?”

I ran a hand down my face. “Faster than your eyes can track. And the impact causes enough damage to rip a big hole in the chest.” I massaged mine again, worrying.

“And you believe Liv’s friend might have survived that?” Brekt frowned.

I shrugged. “I thought I saw him moving once he hit the ground. Kazhi thinks they were keeping him alive to get him to talk.”

We were silent, unsure of what to do next.

“Can you use your magic to help us get more information, Kaz?” Brekt asked.

She jumped down, landing next to Bastane.

“I can’t use magic around the Ravins. I don’t know if they are the purebloods setting Veydes on fire.

If they can use magic, they can sense mine, remember?

You could sense it, too, mighty Aspis. It was a power you were born with, not from the beast. Your shadows are a natural part of you. ”

“How do you know for sure my abilities are magic?”

“I feel it when you disappear from sight. You’re heightened senses are part of being a Night-leg. But the shift into shadows is magic. I’ve met many Night-legs in my day, so I know what it feels like. It’s a slippery feeling.”

Brekt’s jaw went tight. “You’ve met others? Killed them?”

Kazhi eyed each of us through her lashes. “I’ve killed many people, some who didn’t deserve it. But I’ve snuck many more away from Veydes to safety. When I was hired by an unknown agency, I was asked to target Night-legs. I made it look like they died. Many are safe and are serving a better cause.”

“This rebellion you spoke of.” Brekt leaned against the tree, playing with the fruit in his hands.

“Correct. Which you are welcome to join at any time. All of you. As I know, we are done with the Council and are loyal to each other until the end.”

“Loyal enough that you’d tell us of your past?” Brekt dared.

I stopped pacing. Kazhi had refused to tell us, but would she do the same for Brekt?

An agonized expression crossed her features, but she shook it off. “It was a long time ago. I lost those I loved. I turned rotten.” She narrowed her eyes at me.

“I get your point,” I muttered. “If we can keep you for years without holding your secret past against you, maybe you can get over that I went a little dark.”

Kazhi tilted her head.

“Okay, I was a nightmare. Wasn’t a hired assassin, though.”

“No, you just killed for the joy of it,” she said.

Brekt sighed. “We all have been shitheads, one time or another. Even me, I kept everything from you two.” Brekt spoke to Kazhi and Bas. “And we can’t forget that Bastane went to Falizha for assistance in waking the Aspis.”

Bastane groaned, “Thanks for bringing me into this. If I could go back in time, I would.”

I snorted. “I hope they don’t write in the history books about the biggest fuck ups in the long lineage of the Guards.”

“They might,” Bastane said, sighing.

“Whatever. I’ll just find the books and rewrite them myself.”

“If you live.” Kazhi was picking seeds from her teeth. “Which, with the amount of people Falizha brought, you might not.”

“Thanks, Kaz. But you forgot, my best friend is the Aspis. I can sic my big black-horned buddy on them.”

“I don’t do tricks.” Brekt glared.

I waved a long strand of my fruit peel his way. “Come on, boy. You can beat them. I bet you’d sit and roll over if the Ikhor asked you.” Seconds later, I dodged a fist going for my stomach, laughing. “You got slow floating around in the sky all those months.”

“I don’t need speed, idiot. I have claws and teeth.

” Brekt gave up, sitting on a rock across from Kazhi and Bastane.

“Another thing, the Sea-leg, Cal, mentioned the Lost Lands. He was talking to Liv about them, and based on his study of maps, he thinks they are in the north, protected and hidden by magic.”

Bastane scratched at his jaw, while Kazhi considered what Brekt had said.

“Come on, you two,” I groaned. “Do I have to put everything together? The north? Like maybe where Aeden has been constantly setting off to?”

“You mean experiment on magycris and these weapons?” Bastane’s brows knit in confusion. “Bones never mentioned anything like that. She didn’t know of magic or anything of the outside world. How could someone hide airships going back and forth and a place where they tested weapons.”

I was twirling my knife again, thinking. “We don’t know how big the Lost Lands are. BB?—”

I stopped, sucking in a breath, waiting for the others to taunt me. How did I make such a slip?

“The Ikh—” Fuck me. “ Liv never went far past her own village.” I kept my eyes on the ground as I paced. I didn’t want them to see the rollercoaster that was my mind.

“I like your train of thought, Nuo.” Kazhi broke the silence. “Let’s use that as a working theory. Maybe these maps we’ll be given will show more than just the shrines.”

The others stayed silent as I paced, and I could sense Brekt itching to leave again. I didn’t tell him to go. He was a grown-ass adult and could do what he liked.

“Tell Bones she better be practicing her swords,” Kazhi said, her voice going soft. She shocked me by walking up to Brekt and patting him on the arm.

His face went slack at Kazhi’s show of affection .

“I will,” he replied.

Liv was aware of the rebellion Kazhi was part of. Brekt was aware now, too. We were all carrying secrets again, but this time, they weren’t from each other.

“And tell her thanks for the crystals. I want more,” she said.