Son of Saints: A Dark YA Fantasy Adventure: Renegade Guardians: Book Two

by Kyra Quinn

  * * *

  Seth stood waiting in front of her door by the time Aster arrived back home. He scowled as she approached, a half dozen roses clutched in his hands.

  “It’s about damn time.”

  “Sorry,” she said, her voice empty of any trace of remorse. “Had some unexpected business to attend to.”

  “In the middle of the woods?”

  Memories flashed through Aster’s mind like live-action plays. She clenched her jaw. “You’d be surprised what might attack in these woods. Let’s get this spell going, shall we? The sooner we find Lili, the sooner we can return her to safety.”

  She could tell Seth wanted to protest, but he pressed his lips into a thin line. “I couldn’t recall if you said six flowers or six petals, but I thought it best to be on the safe side.”

  Aster shook her head and pushed past him to open the door. “How did you swipe so many?”

  “I didn’t. The woman who owns the garden, Lady Alesana, is sweeter than sugarcane. She gave them to me after a lovely chat about her late husband and the fate of his soul.”

  Night had fallen in their absence. Aster strolled into the darkness and shouted, “Lights!” The candles affixed to the walls flickered to life, an intimate glow cast over the entryway. She turned to Seth and arched a brow. “I don’t follow.”

  “Does it matter? I found your flowers, no?”

  Aster hesitated, chewing her lip. “I suppose. My altar is upstairs. Let’s go figure out where Lili is and bring her home.”

  They scurried up the stairs, Aster leading the way with Seth on her heels. She took a moment to appreciate Seth’s company. She had no idea where he had located the roses or why he seemed so eager to help, but his presence had saved her hours of precious time. Regardless of what might lie ahead, at least she didn’t have to face it alone.

  “This is where you do your witchy magic?” Seth asked, his eyes flickering around the cozy altar space. “How fascinating.”

  Aster’s lips quirked. “It’s normally more organized, but it appears Lili searched through my things during my absence. Did you expect something more demonic?”

  “No, not demonic. But I’d always pictured female blood mages chanting their dark spells naked in the moonlight.”

  Aster snorted as she tried to imagine Madre or any of the stiff mages from her coven the way Seth had. “Blood mages aren’t fond of song or dance, even in patron to the gods. And it isn’t the moonlight that amplifies their powers. It’s the darkness.”

  She set to work searching for the rest of the ingredients to the spell. It took her ten minutes to locate the small jar of myrrh and another fifteen to locate the only map she’d ever invested money in. She dropped the ingredients on the table and set to work measuring them out.

  Seth eyed her with skepticism. “When was this map drawn? The dawn of time?”

  “Something like that,” she mumbled, uninterested in his quips. She’d performed her first tracking spell at only nine after the first time Chay had stolen away from the Grove while everyone else slept. Her hands shook as she worked to ignore her sister’s ghost haunting her memories and focus her attention on Lili.

  “Stay here,” she said. “I need to fetch something of Lili’s to track her by.”

  “Anything you need me to do?” he asked. The chipper tone of his voice boiled her blood, as if they were baking a cake instead of bartering for dark magic with stolen blood.

  “Yes. Remain silent until the spell is complete.”

  Aster scurried up the remaining half-flight of stairs to the cozy room she’d set up for Lili. She frowned when she reached the open door and brushed her fingers against the frame. Wherever Lili had disappeared to, she’d left in a hurry.

  Aster swept her eyes over the unmade bed and pile of laundry on the floor. Though any item Lili had touched should suffice, items with a personal connection produced stronger and more efficient spells.

  Unfortunately, Lili had arrived at Aster’s door with little to call her own. The clothes on her back were borrowed from Remiel or Viktor. Aster’s chest ached as she stepped into the room and laid her palm on the pillow.

  Aster’s eyes stung with tears she’d never allow to fall. She had promised to protect Lili, but she’d failed her, just as she had failed Chay. And for what? She hadn’t found a replacement for her gem, only the dangerous amulet she knew nothing about. Every decision she had made in the last few weeks had blown up in her face and hurt the people she’d wished to help.

  Madre’s voice crept into the back of Aster’s mind. “Vile, wicked girl with a soul kissed by shadows. You will bring nothing but suffering to the world.”

  “Shut up!” Aster’s voice echoed through the empty room. She marched over to the pile of clothes folded on top of the chair and snatched the first thing her hands found, a grey wool sweater she’d loaned Lili to enhance her silver eyes. She clutched the soft fabric against her chest and hurried back downstairs.

  Seth must have noticed the tears in her eyes, because he jerked his head away the moment his eyes met hers. He folded his arms over his chest as she jumped over the last two steps to join him on the mezzanine. “Everything all right, love? No cute stuffed animal or journal?”

  “No time for sentimentalism when the world is ending,” Aster said, her voice lighter than she felt. She paused in front of the cauldron and clutched the sweater as a dull ache settled beneath her ribs.

  “Well?” Seth pressed.

  She tossed the sweater into the cauldron and closed her eyes. She’d return to the mountains of Redwood when they finished saving the world and obtain another. Sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.

  She added the pre-measured ingredients to the cauldron one by one, first the rose petals and last her vials of blood. When she finished pouring the sticky red liquid around the sides of the bundle of fabric, she snatched the matchbook from the table and lit one of the flimsy wooden sticks aflame.

  “Via lux semita!” She tossed the match into the pot. Thick flames leapt from the rim of the cast iron pot. Aster’s hands trembled as she snatched the shimmering ruby crystal from the table and held it over the fire. She repeated the spell twice, her voice firmer with each chant. Seth stood next to her with his jaw open as the flames danced in the reflection of his almond eyes.

  The thin gold chain clutched between her hands shook as the gem vibrated. Aster held her breath as she took slow, measured steps to the left until the crystal dangled inches above the map. It swirled in a circle as the magic searched for Lili’s energy. Aster’s heart pounded so loud it mimicked tribal drums.

  The chain jerked as the tip of the crystal plunged itself forward and into the map, poking through to the wooden table beneath the thick parchment. Aster and Seth leaned forward in unison as they studied the map.

  “What the Fey is she doing there?” Aster mumbled as she rubbed her hand over the crystal.

  The gem had plunged itself into a small village between Raymere and Starbright. Aster had never visited the area, and the jagged tip of the crystal had rendered the name illegible.

  “How far is she from here?” Seth asked.

  “A couple day’s travel on foot at least. I do not understand how she made it all the way out there so fast.”

  “Are we certain she’s traveling by foot?”

  Aster pinched the bridge of her nose. If only. But she had spent enough time with the headstrong camphelem to know how ambitious Lili was, and how little she enjoyed following orders. “I left no money for a train. She had to have flown there. But she doesn’t have much experience with flying. What if she’s hurt?”

  “We can figure it out after we find her.”

  Aster arched a brow. “Why are you so willing to help me?”

  He shifted his weight, his hand massaging his elbow. “We all have people we care about and wish to protect. Are we ready to depart?”

  Aster shook her head. “How do we know she won’t fly away again before we make it? By train we won’t a
rrive before the next sunrise.”

  “Leave it to me,” Seth said, his fangs glistening in the candlelight as he smirked. “I think you’ll be grateful to have a man of my talents in your midst.”

  * * *

  Aster paced around the mezzanine, her knuckles white as she wrung her hands. Every creak of the floorboards and walls sent her heart galloping until she realized the front door hadn’t opened. If Seth didn’t return soon, she’d strangle him with her bare hands.

  Seth had left over an hour ago with a vague promise to return with “the fastest transportation in Astryae.” Aster knew that wasn’t possible—blood magic offered the fastest method of travel—but she’d let him go, curious what solution he’d uncover. She had expected him to return with a stolen horse and carriage or news of a hidden path. Something quick and simple. But the longer Seth remained gone, the more dread crept into her bones.

  The angel’s visit lingered on her mind. As if the demons hadn’t posed enough of a challenge. Not long ago, Aster wouldn’t have lifted a finger to stop the end of days. Her time away from the coven had shown her the coldness of the world. Narcissism had consumed society, everyone only concerned with their own self-interest and limited world view. Did any of them deserve to live when they so often caused their own destruction?

  But her newfound fellowship had given her something she never thought she’d experience again after Chay’s death. Some eccentric semblance of a family. Morrigan had always loved her despite her imperfect past decisions. Lili and Viktor had never questioned where she came from. Seth had grown on her in their brief time together. With the burden of loneliness lifted from her shoulders, life had blossomed into something worth fighting for.

  She ran her hands down her face and groaned. No matter how hard she fought to do the right thing, no matter how hard she tried to keep those she cared about safe, trouble followed her like a shadow. She could fool Seth or Lili about her nature, but the universe saw the monster locked away inside.

  “Sweet shadows, kid, come on.” She tapped her foot against the ground. “Please don’t die. I need no more blood on my hands.”

  She had more than her fair share already, more than sweet Lili or Seth and maybe more than the battle-hardened Viktor. Her thoughts flashed back to the first day she’d met the ex-angel Remiel, the way he’d demanded to know how many innocents she’d bled out in sacrifice to her dark gods.

  She’d answered the sanctimonious fallen angel with a half-truth; until the holy woman she and Viktor had bled out in the woods of Carramar, she hadn’t taken a single human life in the name of magic since Chay’s death. Before her sister’s death, however, was a different matter.

  Aster had blocked most of those memories from her mind in the years she’d spent away from Starbright. The part of her desperate for approval and love had died the night she watched Daeva’s monsters drag her sister’s soul to the Shadowrealm. The rules, the Coven, and all that went with it could perish in holy fire for all she cared.

  Not that Madre or anyone else in the coven had ever endorsed she and Chay’s reckless abandon for dark magic. Aster’s nose curled as her mother’s old motto floated into the back of her head. “Blood magic is cursed magic, unless the sacrifice is pure.”

  She hadn’t coined the term herself. Madre didn’t have an original bone in her body. She’d stolen the catch-phrase straight from the preface of the Forbidden Scriptures, though most of the coven had long since abandoned the archaic teachings of the text.

  Madre, and most other mages in the coven, had interpreted the phrase to mean the mage needed to open their own veins for the strongest magic. What sacrifice could be more holy than self-sacrifice? If the gods loved anything, it was a martyr.

  Chay had ideas of her own about what the mysterious text meant. She had pulled Aster aside on the eve of her fifteenth birthday, her eyes glistening with excitement. She leaned in inches from her face and whispered, “Are you up for some mischief?”

  Aster’s heart raced just as it had that night. It had been their secret phrase for years. An open invitation between sisters to abandon the rules and formalities of the coven and sneak into the Grove to explore as girls, even if only for a few hours. Madre had caught them more than a dozen times, but they’d gotten away with more than twice that. They never stirred up too much trouble, mostly roaming the streets of Starbright and gaping at how the other Feyfolk lived so freely while they hid away inside the Grove.

  Yet something about that night stood out as different to Aster. Something about the hopeful way Chay bounced on her heels and waited for an answer set Aster on edge. She had too much energy for a normal night of mischief, the glint in her eyes dangerous. Aster opened her mouth to ask what she had in mind, but the answer flew from Chay’s mouth like water gushing from a geyser.

  “I met someone. A blood mage from another coven. He will show us how to strengthen our magic. We’ll command power Madre has only dreamed of.”

  At fifteen Aster had sensed something wrong about her sister’s plan. But it was all happening too fast, and she couldn’t find the words to voice her objection. She’d shoved away the alarm bells in the back of her mind and agreed when Chay asked her to meet in front of the mausoleum.

  At first, the murders came easy to Aster. Chay’s mysterious new boyfriend, a tall and scrawny prick who introduced himself only as Talon, did most of the heavy lifting to secure the blood for their experiments. Chay had sworn to Aster the unwilling donations came from men the world was better off without, rapists and murders and those who harmed others for their own gain. She accepted her sister’s explanation without question, eager to dull the guilt twisting and tugging at the knots in her chest. With each murder they committed, Aster found it a little easier to sleep after if she told herself they were doing terrible things for an admirable cause.

  At least, until Talon’s choice of victims shifted, and the necromancy began.

  The front door swung open, Aster’s trip down memory lane shoved to the back of her mind as she sprang for the stairs. She found Seth waiting at the bottom with his foot on the first step. His short, dark hair was tangled and wind-tossed. He smoothed his wrinkled shirt and shot her a winning smile.

  “My lady, your chariot awaits.”

  Aster rolled her eyes. “What is it, then? What have you found?”

  “Ever ridden on the back of a pegasi?”

  A nervous giggle erupted from Aster’s lips, the sound awkward and strange in contrast to her racing pulse. “The pegasi are extinct.”

  Seth held up a finger. “Almost extinct. Few enough in numbers that most never encounter one.”

  “But you’ve located two?”

  “Not exactly. The pegasi and the children of the night have an unspoken understanding between them. Both feed on blood, and both prefer to live in the shadows.”

  Aster shook her head, unable to believe what she was hearing. “The pegasi were peaceful creatures of the light. They fed on leaves and berries—”

  “You’re thinking of unicorns, dear, which are extinct. The pegasi are one of Zanox’s finer creations, creatures of pure shadow and chaos. Come, I’ll show you.”

  He beckoned her towards the door, but Aster hesitated. Not from fear—she’d never allow some sheltered bloodsucker to intimidate her—but something glued her feet to the floor. She shot a glance upstairs towards her altar and said, “Wait here.”

  She raced back up the stairs two at a time, her lungs ready to explode when she reached the mezzanine. She fingered the stolen amulet beneath her top but resisted the urge to remove it. She had already danced with the darkest magic Astryae offered and escaped unscathed. A necklace seemed trite in comparison.

  Seth scowled when she returned. “Ready?”

  “Lead the way.”

  Seth had stashed his new winged friends deep in the woods to the west of Carramar. Aside from the chorus of crickets and an occasional snap of twigs, they trekked through the frosted forest in silence. Thick vapors of smoke escaped
her nostrils with each breath. She pulled her thick wool cloak around her shoulders and prayed their brisk pace would warm her blood.

  Aster had expected to find a pair of winged white horses. Instead, Seth took her hand and led her over to two of the most massive black mares she had ever seen. Their sleek midnight manes fluttered beneath the moonlight as if made of smoke. Each horse appeared at least three times her size, one of their legs double her height. Two sharp horns the size of her hand were tucked behind their tall, pointed ears. A soft crimson aura surrounded the beasts. Their eyes glowed red as they snorted and stamped the ground with enough force to vibrate the soil. Feathered wings stretched out from their backs.

  “Sweet shadows,” she whispered.

  Seth laughed. “Far from the unicorns you’d imagined, I know. This is Cinder and Fayde. They’ve agreed to help us find Lili and bring her home.”

  “Agreed?” Aster dropped her voice, self-conscious. “As in, you can understand them?”

  Seth blinked. “Of course. It takes practice and time to forge a bond with the creature, but these guys are old friends.”

  Aster hadn’t realized Seth had any friends, let alone friends outside of Killara. She wanted to ask where he’d found them or what they wanted in exchange for their help, but the pendant against her chest served as a reminder that each precious minute counted when it came to finding Lili. The longer she remained lost in Astryae on her own, the higher their chances of losing her to the angels or demons grew.

  “What do we do now?” she asked. “Climb on his back?”

  “Her. Cinder can be headstrong and doesn’t warm up well to new people, so you’ll ride Fayde. Come, my lady. We have an abomination to save.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Predator or Prey

  The least personable or friendly of the gods, Osius presides over the dominion of endings and death. However, he is also the guardian of time.