by Kate Martin
There had been stories of divine intervention happening at burnings; seraphic sightings that had believers and non-believers alike shouting to Haven in the streets.
By the time they reached the square, it was near impossible to get a place to see anything. Carma rudely pushed through the crowd until they came to something resembling the front. The two stakes at the center had a wide berth and a number of soldiers stood sentinel to keep the spectators—and the devastated families—at bay. Already bound to the stakes, the two accused stared out at the crowd with expressions that could not have been more different. One sobbed, calling out in love to her family and pleading and praying for Haven to deliver her from this injustice. The other stood silent, resolute, eyes closed.
When Alec was close enough, he felt the unmistakable pull of another like himself. Sensing it as well, the man at the stake opened his eyes and stared straight at Alec. His brown eyes were pools of eternity; tired, sad, and relieved. Alec knew that look. Before Bri, before being given something worth protecting, worth living for, he had seen that same look every day in the mirror. He nodded to the man—Haldris, he believed his name was—and silently wished him well. In response, the hint of a smile graced the man’s face and he closed his eyes again.
Alec remembered the last time the world had turned on the soulless, nearly three hundred years prior. A zealous priest king had blamed them for a drought. And one hundred years before that, people had sought out demons left and right to give up their souls in exchange for power and favors. Mortals were strange beings.
The executioners came forward with the torches. A herald read aloud the accusations laid against the convicted and detailed the appointed punishment—to be burned at the stake, until nothing remained but ash.
Bri pressed against Alec’s chest, keeping away from the multitudes of people who gathered in close. The cold had turned the tip of his nose red. “There are children here,” he said, his anguish coupled with disbelief. “People have brought their children to see.”
Alec didn’t have a satisfactory response, so he gave none. He had been around too long for people to surprise him. There had been times in history when children had not only watched such atrocities, but also taken part in them. Alec leaned in close to whisper in Carma’s ear. “The moment we see what we’ve come for, I’m getting Bri out of here.”
“The moment we see what we’ve come for you’ll have to.”
Simultaneously, the pyres were lit, and the crowd went silent but for the crying of the woman’s family.
“She clearly has no mark,” Alec said. “How was she found guilty?”
“See the back of her hand, there?” Carma pointed, though the gesture was useless. “A long scar, faint, but visible. Some marks are less obvious than others, and mortals are stupid.”
Though the smoke had begun to rise, he could just make out the scar. “No one’s mark is that small.”
“Perhaps they think she has hidden it somehow. You know how these things are, Alec. People get something into their heads and they convince themselves that a lie is the truth.”
It took the flames only minutes to catch and begin to spread, flashing unnatural heat through the winter air. Both victims coughed and choked on the smoke, and the heat had already caused them to perspire. The woman cried and called to Haven, begging for mercy. Haldris remained silent. Alec wondered what it felt like to have such hot flames licking at your legs, for the burn to begin. It would be a slow death. Only a blessed item from Haven itself could have sped the process.
Bri pressed a gloved hand over his mouth and nose. “Nothing has changed,” he said, his voice barely audible. “They’re not coming.”
“Give it a moment more,” Carma said. “Seraph are a dramatic lot. They will want this remembered.”
Alec snorted. “Or they won’t show at all.”
A young man broke through the line of guards, rushing the stake at which the woman was tied. He cried out for her, reached for her, in his hand a silver orb that had been carved with the holy inscriptions of The One. The guards grabbed him, but not before he had the crowd’s full attention, and not before he had thrown the holy talisman into the flames. As he was forced back, a few people cheered his heroics and his piety. The woman amidst the flames cried out in pain, the flames higher, but managed to scream her gratitude in a hoarse voice.
It was then the first lights appeared; two bright balls, like small suns, on either side of the woman. Whispers rose up as the city dwellers took notice, pointing and gasping. The lights burst, growing and blinding everyone, then faded into the glory of two illuminated silhouettes. Wings stretched out behind them, and the woman’s screams gave way to blissful silence. A soft breeze permeated the conflicted air as her bonds were cut. The woman collapsed, caught by gentle, havenly arms. The flames were doused, the woman was steadied on her shaking legs, and then the two apparitions were gone.
Carma hardly moved as the scorched and trembling woman was taken from the pyre by the soldiers and delivered to her family. “Dramatic indeed. Made their point, did they not?”
No one could say anything else, for Haldris was engulfed in flames at that moment, and his screams filled the air.
Though he would have rather stayed and seen Haldris to his end out of respect, Alec turned immediately and hauled Bri free of the crowd. Carma followed. When they reached the carriage that was waiting for them at the edge of the central district, Bri clutched the door, breathing hard and repressing the urge to be sick. Alec stood beside him, offering silent comfort, as Carma caught up.
“They won’t be interfering with proper justice, it seems.”
Carma removed her hat. “Did you expect differently?”
“No, I suppose not. Though I thought maybe they would have spared that woman some suffering.” Haldris is happier now, anyway.
“They want people to know the power of Haven. I’m surprised they didn’t make a speech.”
“They don’t have time for speeches.” Bri leaned heavily against the carriage. “There are burnings happening everywhere. Not all the innocents are being saved.”
“Not all? How? How could they let something fall through the cracks like that?” Alec asked.
Bri shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I do,” Carma said. “Haven is a world of heavy planning and everything in its place. The task force for this situation is only so big, and others will not join in.”
Opening the door and ushering Bri inside, Alec shook his head. “Sometimes I don’t wonder why you left that place.”
“I was always certain of my decision.”
Later that night, back in the safety of the manor, Alec sat in the dark while Bri fought the remnants of his latest nightmare. Not talking about them was no longer an option Alec provided. This one had starred both Bri and himself at the stakes. Bri was still sweating from the imagined heat.
“How could anyone watch that, and then turn someone in? How?”
“Different reasons. Some think they’re doing what’s right. Others do it as revenge. People are petty, Bri, and others still don’t know how to think beyond what they are told.”
“I don’t think I’d be able to send my worst enemy to the stake.”
That, Alec didn’t doubt for an instant. “You’re a better person than most.”
Bri reached for the glass of water he kept by the bed and managed not to spill it despite his shaking hands. “I still don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t. Which is something I’ve been thinking about.”
“What do you mean?”
“Considering your past, you’ve grown a lot more trusting than I would have thought possible. On one hand, I’m glad, but on the other… You can’t trust people right now, Bri. No one. Not even the human servants in this house. They don’t know the truth, and if they found out, they might turn us all in.”
Setting the glass in his lap, Bri looked at Alec with an expression of deep consideration. “You’re not talking about
our servants though, are you?”
“I know she was the one to warn us, but—”
“Ella won’t betray us.”
“Trust no one, Bri. No one. Not until this is over. No one aside from me and Carma.”
“Not Picadilly? Mrs. McCallahan? Brannick?”
“You should never trust Picadilly.”
When Bri turned away, Alec suspected he wasn’t thinking about any of the people they had just named.
“All right. I’ll be careful.”
Gods, Alec wished he didn’t have the sudden feeling that Bri was keeping something from him.
— CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO —
In the dark, Lillianna watched Kai work. Grand gestures made in sweeping lines along the blackened stones, and small pulls created runes at corners. All around, shutters had been closed tight and doors locked. No candles burned, no street lamps illuminated the night. Above, one-half of the moon shone down with limited light. Lillianna turned her face to that light, closing her eyes and feeling its power on her skin. A cool heat, so unlike Hell, yet it called to her through the darkness. The scent of smoke and burned flesh was still on the air, and the pile of ash and charred wood beside her that had once been the final moments of a soulless life radiated lingering power. She had not been there to hear the screams, but she sensed their echo. She also smelled the stink of Haven and their interference.
Kai stood, blood dripping from his wrist, although he clasped it tightly with his other hand. He did not step back to survey the labrynth he had scribed, he never did. Always confident. Always right. He simply faced her, pale from blood loss and nights of endless work. “It’s not enough.”
“What do you mean it’s not enough?”
Coating his left hand in his own blood, he knelt and pressed that palm to the ground, setting the large labrynth all around him alight. The ash that had blackened the square shot up into the air, gathering like a cloud above their heads, then turned darker, thicker, until it burst and black rain splattered down upon them both.
Lillianna wiped at her face, then licked her fingers. Blood. “Did you have to make such a mess this time?” He had been extracting blood from the ashes of the burnings for some time now, but never with such theatrics. She preferred when he worked the magic so the ground began to bleed.
Drenched in the dark rain he had made, Kai’s pale flesh looked even more stunning in the moonlight where it showed unblemished. “It is not enough. This was supposed to be the last time. The final piece. There should be blood and we should be bathed in it. Instead, I am short one sacrifice.”
Being covered in blood did not bother her; the itch that came with wanting more, however, did. “You mean to tell me that those damned seraph have cheated me out of my success?”
Reaching into his pocket, Kai drew out a long swatch of linen and began winding it around his bleeding wrist. “I cannot do this another night. Nine nights in an unbroken pattern, that is what the ritual takes. This is the ninth night. It is now, or we start all over again. And if we do that, then it will be weeks from now, because I cannot bleed myself again and survive intact.”
“Do I hear you admitting to weakness?”
“No other witch could manage nine nights of scribing. It is not weakness when I have already surpassed every other bloody scriber in this realm.”
She could feel the faltering in his heart, tied as it was to one of the nine that beat within her chest. He spoke the truth. She needled him only because she could not help herself. It was in her nature. “Then what do you propose we do?”
“Get me a body. It’s blood, or nothing.”
A quick spin gave her a full view of the square. No living soul wandered nearby, she would have felt it. They were all locked up within their homes. Not impossible, but so much more trouble than grabbing a whore or beggar from the streets who wouldn’t be missed. A turn or two down the street, however, would most likely gain them what they sought. “Wait here. I’ll get you a body worth bleeding.”
Tying the knot of his bandage off with his teeth, Kai barely acknowledged her.
Barefoot, for it was how she preferred to be with the silence it garnered her, she padded down out of the main square and onto the streets that would be bustling with activity come sunrise. Another trickle of blood rolled lazily down her face and she wiped it away, cleaning her fingers once more with her tongue. She had just detected the faint warmth of a human soul a few blocks away when the steady clack of boots and muffled screams of terror floated towards her on the air. Sure she knew the source, Lillianna stopped and waited.
His scent reached her next, that familiar blend of brimstone and power. She had been wary of taking him on all those centuries ago when he approached her, asking to serve as her right hand, and even as her consort. She knew Olin from their days in the white Haven, and he had never been one for taking orders, but his ambition and drive were admirable, and valuable. She took the risk, sleeping with one eye open. Yet, he had proven himself a loyal and attentive servant. And he proved himself thus once more. When he finally appeared, coming around a corner like a wolf who wished to pass as a merchant, it was with a body slung over his shoulder.
“I understand you are in need of blood,” he said.
“And just how did you know that in such a timely manner? Kai only just figured it out himself.”
“Kai is slow to read his own calculations. There were to be two burnings today, one got away. The result is not hard to guess.”
She could have kissed him. “How brilliant you are sometimes.”
He leaned in close, his lips passing over her ear, smearing the blood and sending delightful shivers down her spine. “I’ve invested much into this plan over the years. I’m not about to see it fail now.”
“You will make an admirable consort to a god.”
He smiled, licked some of the blood from her throat, then continued down the street the way she had come.
Kai was lying flat on his back in the middle of the empty square when they arrived, still covered in blood, his eyes closed, his fingers tracing small patterns into the cobblestones that occasionally flared with life.
Olin dumped his acquisition beside him. Lazily, Kai opened one eye. “I see you found a body.”
“I did. Now get to work.”
Rolling onto his side, Kai placed himself face-to-face with the young man, studying him. His eyes were open, unseeing, and his mouth sagged. Kai pulled at his eyelids. “He’s dead,” he said.
“Still warm. The soul hasn’t been reaped yet.” Olin toed at the body until it was on his back.
“It works better alive.”
Lillianna itched with impatience. “We do not have time to make a scene. Get it over with.”
Kai sat up, and tapped a bloody finger to the center of the recently deceased’s forehead. “Sometimes you take all the fun out of things.”
“Stop wasting time and act while it’s still fresh.”
Grumbling to himself, likely cursing Olin, Kai began furiously scribing and drawing runes onto the stones.
Lillianna was beginning to feel uneasy. “The seraph will notice in the myst if you do not hurry. And we don’t’ want the reaper showing up either.”
“They won’t see this. I’ve made sure of it.” Then Kai disappeared behind the pyre.
It was a long wait before he appeared again, coming directly to Lillianna’s side. Once again wrapping his wrist, he looked paler than before. “You should do it,” he said. “Empty the body onto the labrynth. I’ll do the rest.”
Pulling the same knife from her belt that she had used in the temple, Lillianna felt the power come to her and grow with each step she took. When she crossed the lines of Kai’s labrynth, they flared, welcoming her. The spell had been attuned to her power. The hearts that sent their beats to her chest raced with excitement and her vision stained red. When the blade slipped through the corpse’s chest, past hard ribs and into that once-beating heart, Lillianna gasped at the rush that ran like a wave over her
entire being. Her body shifted, taking its true demon form, then reverted back, cycling in and out of her two bodies as if they were two streams that ran together. She drank of the horror that had taken place hours earlier at the burning, spilling off site of the pyres, and grabbed hold of the soul that lingered in the body, allowing it to pour into her mouth and down her throat like a rich wine.
Her fingers released the blade, sliding past flesh and bone until they found the torn muscle that had only recently ceased to beat. She massaged it a moment, compressing and releasing it in a mockery of its natural rhythm, then in one swift motion crushed it completely. More power surged through the air, converging at her center, then flowing downward with the force of a deadly whirlpool. It sank further and further into the ground, pulling the blood with it until she was dry, the body at her fingertips was dry, and the stones beneath her feet were dry. Then the world went quiet, calm. The power was still, though she felt it swirling under her, waiting to follow wherever she would go. She opened her eyes to see that the mortal had become a dried out husk. Flicking the flesh from her hand, she withdrew and turned to face the two men she had chosen to help her ascend. Olin nodded, pleased with the progress.
Kai looked ready to collapse, but smug and power-ridden. “Now that’s what I call a spell,” he said. “It’s finally time.”
It was a waiting game, and Gabriel hated waiting. Yet there was no choice. They knew Lillianna sought to gain godhood, but not when or how. Her army was ready to move at a moment’s notice, but even that was uncertain. Depending on Lillianna’s plans, going in alone may prove more beneficial. Gabriel anxiously awaited the moment to strike.
For too long now Gabriel had heard the worst of it from her superiors. Michael wanted results. She stared at the large pile of his letters, arriving at least once a day, all saying the same thing. Do your job.