Runemaker, page 12
And as his reflection rotated, as his vision shifted to his mirrored self, he wondered if this had been the trap all along.
* * *
It should have felt momentous, this moment. The five of them together for the first time in history. The five most powerful creations in the world. The creatures who should make the world tremble. And they would, in time. But first—
“She has to be stopped.” Calum’s voice cut through the heavy silence of the room. Even though he stood tall, even though there was a fresh fire in his eyes, he still reminded Natasja way too much of a corpse.
My greatest triumph, the Dark Lady had called him. My triumph over life and death. Behold, the rise of a new savior. Though whether the Dark Lady had meant Calum was the savior, or she herself, Natasja wasn’t sure. All she knew was, for all of Calum’s vitality, something in him seemed sick with grave dust. They might all be other than human, but Calum’s inhumanity made her flesh crawl.
Almost as much as his proclamation. The reason they had all gathered here, in the outskirts of the world, without their Mother’s knowing.
It was heresy. Natasja had been turned only a few weeks prior, but it was clear that Calum was right. The Dark Lady had gone public, and the world ripped itself apart. Just as the Dark Lady had predicted it would.
In the ash, they will need a savior, she had told them. We are those saviors.
“She means to create more of us,” Desmond muttered. “Even now, she works on creating a sixth. She wishes to spread to every country, every continent.”
“She doesn’t want just to create us to spread Her word,” Natasja said. They all turned to her. They knew her well—after all, many had been turned with her watching on. “She seeks to perfect us.”
“Perfect us?” Leanna asked.
Natasja nodded.
“The runes she uses...she doesn’t fully understand them. With every creation, she gets closer to her true goal.”
“And what would that be?” Calum asked. “She has already reversed death.”
“No. She stalled it. When you were killed, the runes on your body kept your Spheres alive. You did not truly die—you were kept in stasis until you could be revived. Death only occurs when all five Spheres cease to function.” She paused. Should she tell him that even his “resurrection” was incomplete? That with his body so damaged, he would quickly begin to age and fade? No, let him believe himself immortal. It wouldn’t change anything.
“She will continue her trials until she has created the perfect creature—one who will never age, can never die, and can use both the Spheres and the runes. And then, she will have the process done to her, so she may outlive us all.”
That clearly struck a chord. Although none could use runes, all within this room thought themselves gods. Thought to be above law. But if there were creatures above them...if their maker suddenly became more powerful, then what? Then, they would be servants.
“And there is more,” Natasja said. “I know her. I know that once she has perfected the process, she will not stand to surround herself with imperfections. She will have us eradicated. All of us.”
Silence.
They stared amongst each other. Only a handful of weeks after their creation, and they already saw the end.
“So what do we do?” Desmond asked.
“We stop her,” Leanna replied. She turned to Natasja. “Do you still have connections within the Church?”
Natasja nodded.
“They have militarized since the Resurrection. They seek to destroy her. And her creations.”
Leanna mused, biting her delicate bottom lip.
“But what if we proposed a truce?”
“Truce?” Calum asked. “With the Church? You’re mad.”
“I am an opportunist.” Leanna looked at Natasja. As if there were no one else in the room. As if Natasja’s answers were the only ones that mattered.
“What if we offered a trade? We give them the Dark Lady. And in return, we do not step foot in their Septs, we do not attack any under their fold and they offer the same. They will see this as a victory. Their victory over the darkness. Immunity. Think on it—ages ago, the Church ruled all. Now, their influence has weakened. We would give them the world on a silver platter. They would allow us to rule as we will. Humanity can choose once more—serve the light, or serve the dark. They will finally be able to live their own fables.”
Natasja’s stomach churned. Such an emotion should be beneath her, should be impossible with her broken Sphere of Water swallowing such lesser despairs. But she had known Elizabeth, the Dark Lady, for years. She had been Natasja’s dearest friend. And now...
“How do we know a truce would hold?” Desmond asked. “If we kill her, they will just turn around and kill us. And why should we need their support in the first place?”
“We don’t, dear brother. We could kill them all without breaking a sweat. But then where would we be? This is much more fun. And as for killing her, well...who said anything about that?”
Leanna looked back to Natasja.
“I assume you have the runes?”
Natasja nodded, uncertainty clenching at her once more. She needed to feed. That was all. She needed to feed.
“Very well then,” Leanna said. “We will keep her...safe. Under our care. In stasis. And should they break their treaty, we will set her free.”
She finally looked to the rest of the room. “Are we all in agreement? We render the Dark Lady obsolete, and in return, we secure our places in history. We rule as gods, unimpeded.”
There was a moment of hesitation. And then, finally, the Kin nodded as one.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
DREYA
Kianna’s eyes widened the moment the final rune connected.
She inhaled.
“Oh,” she said. “Oh.”
Dreya set the machinery to the side and hid her slight smile.
“There is much you must learn,” Dreya said. “How to channel it properly. The extent of your power. You must remember, it is like training a new muscle—you will only be able to do a little before tiring. And if you pull too much, you could drain yourself. Earth causes very physical drawbacks.”
Kianna sat there, mouth slightly open, the Sphere of Earth timidly glowing in her belly.
“You better teach her quick,” Devon said as he stepped into the room. He looked between the two of them. Even if Dreya couldn’t feel her brother’s emotions, she would have known his agitation from the sparks flying around his clenched fists. “We’ve gotten word from the Prophets.”
“And?” Dreya said.
Devon shook his head.
He’s about to destroy everything, he thought.
Deep in her heart, Dreya knew that meant they were already too late.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
AIDAN
The vision broke.
Aidan turned, expecting the Kin to be holding a knife to his heart. But she merely sat in her high-backed chair in the corner, watching him with cold gray eyes. She didn’t even have a glass of fresh blood in her hand for the ambience factor.
“Where is she?” he asked.
He couldn’t even feel anger at the Kin’s betrayal. Hadn’t he done the same when promised immortality and power?
Now he understood why the Dark Lady wanted her own creations dead. They had handed her over to the Church. Or rather, they had done the Church’s dirty work for them.
Natasja stood slowly.
“She is here. I thought it best to keep her within my own walls. Until you, none had been able to find me, let alone get past the runes. I suppose I should thank Tomás for that?”
Aidan nodded.
“Am I the last, then?” she asked.
Another nod.
“I thought as much.” She began walking down the steps. “You know you cannot trust him, correct?”
“I don’t trust anyone,” Aidan replied. He gestured to the stairs. “That’s why I’m letting you go first.”
“And here, I thought it was because you were a gentleman.”
“Clearly you don’t know me very well.”
* * *
Aidan didn’t ask why the castle was empty. He figured she’d just grown bored or hungry and had started murdering her subjects—especially if she thought her own death was coming. Fire burned impatiently within him. He wanted to kill her and get this history lesson over with.
He wanted to find the Dark Lady so she would bring his mother back.
He was so close to getting everything he wanted, everything he’d fought and sacrificed for. So close. He just had to endure this a few more minutes, and he would have his mother back. A few more minutes, and he would have everything.
She led him in silence, first down the crystalline steps of the tower, back through the maze of frozen corpses and then into a dark tunnel leading far beneath the soil. Aidan did shiver, then. Being underground made him think too much of being snuffed out. It was almost as bad as being surrounded by water.
“In here,” Natasja said. She stopped outside the door. Silver runes covered every surface, from the wood to the walls and the floor. They whispered in Aidan’s mind, runes of concealment and containment, stasis and eternity.
“Open it.” He curled flame around his hands, casting the walls in flickering shadows and highlights. The runes seemed to writhe at his presence.
She nodded and placed her hand on the door. There was no magic. When the door opened, Aidan was almost disappointed.
It was a basement room just like any other. Concrete walls, concrete floor. A bare fluorescent bulb on the ceiling. Completely empty, save for the pedestal of stone in the center of the room. And on it...
Her arms crossed over her chest like a mummy, her long dress a deep violet. Her hair, the palest blond, spread in a halo around her head.
The Dark Lady.
He took a step forward. As the light from his flames shifted, he saw the runes that traced their way over every surface in the room, runes dug into the walls and stone. Runes to preserve, to protect, to hide away. Runes to keep her young and contained forever. Forever. Runes to protect her from magic, barriers that no mage could pass. These, he noted, were much stronger than the ones he’d crossed to get here.
“You’ve made her a prison,” Aidan whispered.
Natasja said nothing for a moment. Then, “I kept her safe.”
Aidan looked over his shoulder at her. She stared at the Dark Lady’s body, sadness once more filling her eyes. And once more, that made him think of Tenn. Trying to keep everyone safe. And failing.
“You betrayed her. That isn’t saving.”
“I did what we had to do. To protect myself. To secure my rule. That, I’m sure, is a motive you can understand.”
Aidan grinned.
“Yes,” he said. “I can.”
He pulled through Fire, drank deep of the eternal flame and sent it coursing through Natasja’s chest.
A flick of power. It felt like so very little.
And yet, when he turned his attention back to the Dark Lady, he heard the satisfying thud as Natasja’s corpse toppled to the floor.
“Your final sacrifice, Mother,” Aidan said, stepping toward the Dark Lady’s dais. “Now, it’s time you give me what you owe.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
TENN
“Now you understand,” Caius growled. “Now you understand why I had to hide away here, amidst you heathens.”
“But what happened to her?” Tenn asked. “She was human. She was part of the Church. So what happened after?”
Caius shrugged.
“Beats me. I ran as soon as the Church realized who she was. Knew they’d start drawing parallels, knew they’d come after me. All I know is, she pissed off the wrong people.”
“It doesn’t matter. Even if she was part of the Church, she’s dead now. She’s just a story.”
“You know that in your heart to be false.” Caius stared at Tenn, and in that moment he didn’t look like a mad drunk. He looked as wise as Dreya. “Evil never dies, Tenn. Think about it. The Church got in the Dark Lady the answer they’d always needed, a dark to their light. Why do you think there has always been an uneasy balance? Why do you think Septs are never targeted by the minions of the Dark Lady, when they refuse to use magic?”
Tenn looked to the amulet against his chest.
“I just assumed it was from this,” he muttered.
Caius grumbled, reached between the bars of the cage. And snapped the amulet from around Tenn’s neck. It felt like waking from a bad dream—the flood of familiarity and power as Earth and Water rematerialized under his senses. He gasped with pleasure.
Maybe he was as addicted as Aidan.
“This,” Caius said. “This is just a party trick. It doesn’t keep you from being murdered in your sleep by a dagger. No, the Church and the Dark Lady have an alliance. Somehow. And you don’t kill the person you hold an alliance with, no matter how tenuous.”
“You think she’s alive,” Tenn whispered.
“I know it. And so do you.”
Tenn swallowed.
“Do you know where she is?”
“No,” Caius said. “But I know she is gaining strength. Darkness stirs in the world, Tenn. And if you do not act fast, it will swallow all of us.”
His words speared Tenn’s heart.
Why me? Why does it always have to be me?
Before he could ask, Caius jerked upright.
“Company.”
Without another word, he turned and scurried off into the darkness. Tenn never heard a door open or close, but he didn’t hear Caius again.
He sank against the wall and closed off to the Spheres. He didn’t want to give away his ace. When whoever this was went away, he would make his escape.
Though where to, he had no idea.
Footsteps down the hall.
Many footsteps.
The door burst open, blinding him with light as the strangers crowded in.
No, not strangers.
“Dreya?” he gasped.
She barely acknowledged him. Just strode in with Devon and Kianna close behind.
“Where’s Aidan?” he asked.
“That’s what we are hoping to find out,” she said.
Jarrett, he realized, was nowhere to be found.
“Come.” Her words were rushed, and it was then he realized she was still open to Air, still scanning. She hadn’t come here under Jarrett’s orders. “We must get you out of here.”
Tenn opened to Earth and undid the manacles at his back, then crumbled the lock on the bars between them.
“What’s going on?”
“Didn’t you hear?” Kianna said. “The whole world’s turned upside down.” She opened to Earth and opened the cell door. Tenn gasped. She’d attuned? “And Aidan’s the one behind it. He’s been on a rampage, killing Kin left and right. We have to go. Now. Before he does something we’ll all regret.”
“But I don’t know where to find him,” Tenn said. It’s not like he had a rune on Aidan or anything.
Dreya looked at him with an eyebrow cocked.
“You found him before,” she said.
Tenn’s gut clenched. He’d told her he could find Aidan when he brought them to London. He hadn’t admitted he was chasing Tomás.
Tomás.
If Aidan was out killing Kin, he had to believe that the incubus would be at his side, guiding his hand. He had to believe. It was their only shot.
“Okay then.” He didn’t ask if they should bring Jarrett. It was clear Jarrett had already decided what side he stood on. And it most definitely wasn’t Tenn’s. Tenn pulled through Earth and scratched grooves into the stone at their feet, the runes of travel unfurling between them like a jagged rose. He brought the rune he had seared in Tomás’s heart to mind.
“Let’s end this.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
AIDAN
Aidan stared at the Dark Lady’s corpse.
He’d expected a sort of gravity between them. Or, at least, a gravity to her presence. After all, this was the woman who had guided him all this way. The woman who promised to turn back the hand of fate and bring his mother back to life. The woman who had set the entire world on a collision course with extinction.
And here, in this room, she looked like just another body on a cold stone slab.
“You’re still in there, aren’t you,” he muttered.
There was no response, but there didn’t need to be. He knew it was true. He knew it in the pit of Fire, in the strange resonance in his chest. Her face was pale and smooth, her hands delicate—painter’s hands, his mother would call them. Her dress was layered in deep violet silk, her hair so fine it reminded him of Dreya’s. Bloodred lips. Sharp, angular cheeks.
He stared at her, and he wondered how this woman, who looked to be the same age as his own mom had been, this frail, delicate woman, had sown so much destruction. She had become the face of evil incarnate, and yet she was stunningly beautiful. There was nothing truly malicious in her features. Nothing that made her to be a monster.
And yet.
Hadn’t he learned that evil could be hidden behind any beautiful mask? He reached up and touched his face, his scarred palms scratching against his stubble. If anything, he looked more the part of monster. The cuts and bruises from the Inquisition, the missing fingers, the lacerated Hunter’s mark, still pink and tender on his arm. He was the monster, and he would play his part.
He looked at the mark, at the runes he’d inscribed. Those had been her words. And also, not. They had been his, as well. He reached down and pulled at the sleeve of her dress, revealing her own mark. The runes scrawled across her forearm were similar to those most Hunters wore. Nothing special.
