Xander held up the set of vials around his neck, and theyclinked together. He always only wore one but had taken to a second since their stint in the Accursed Wastes. Damien thought nothing more of it than added precaution, but with a keener eye, he looked closer, and one was…well, it was different.
“You did wonder how I found you all those times, didn’t you?” Xander tipped his head. “I feared you would feel it when I siphoned out your blood during our little sparring match, but I must have numbed you up just right by stabbing you in the spine. You didn’t even notice the preservation spell I used, too distracted by your own, petty thoughts. I’ve wanted to use this so many times, but I needed to save it for when I finally had Archie and the talisman in the same place, but it issoworth it.Sanguinisui, shut up and go free Birzuma.”
Archibald stiffened, and his body turned, marching toward the sapphire crystal.
“Sanguinisui, stop,” Damien growled, and Archibald fell still. So, they could both command the king through the talisman, then.
Kill him.
His rage returned, and he strode across the room, glass cases and artifacts shattering as he went. Before Xander could react, Damien stood before him, a hand wrapped about his throat. “I should use arcana to avenge her, but I would rather choke the life out of you while your pathetic body attempts to heal itself. I wonder how many times you can survive.”
Lifted from the chair, Xander kicked feebly in the air, but Damien’s noxscura was all over him. Never had he been so powerful.
Destroy him.
Damien squeezed, and Xander’s hands came up to his arm, holding on so weakly. “So…upset,” he choked out. “Why?”
Vision tunneling, he felt Xander’s life being crushed beneath his hand then relented just enough for the blood mage to beginhealing.
Xander sucked in a breath, face reddened. “I’ve freed you,” he coughed, “from your weakness.”
Annihilate him.
“No.” The priestess’s words were louder in his mind than E’nloc’s, and Damien released him in earnest. Xander crumpled into the chair, gasping and shaking. “Loving Amma never made me weak.”
Xander’s body heaved as he caught his breath, hands on his neck. His own arcana crawled over him, mending, and he turned his eyes up to Damien. “You can’t,” he said, but with none of the conviction his voice always held. “Neither of us can.”
Damien simply shook his head, and for a brief and painful moment, he felt sorry for the other blood mage. His fingers clenched, wanting to take him by the throat again, to put him out of his misery.
“I can bring her back,” Xander admitted, gaze held on Damien’s threatening hand. “The resurrection spell, from the Lux Codex.”
Of coursehe could. The bastard had kept the book once they abandoned him, and he would never waste something so powerful. But it still seemed impossible. “You need luxerna for that spell, and you can’t even touch the stuff.”
“But Pips can, and she’s been carrying it around for me. Stole it off your kitten, in fact.”
Where Amma had gotten luxerna in the first place was a mystery, but then he wasn’t that surprised she came across some and pilfered it. “Then do it. Now.”
Xander straightened, features shifting from nervous trepidation back to cunning. “Ah, but first, you have to free my dear, old mother.”
“Fine.Sanguinisui, release Birzuma the Blasphemed from her occlusion crystal.”
Archibald’s body stiffened again and continued to the far side of the vault where the demoness’s sapphire stood.
“Wait, what? Just like that?” Xander stared after the king. “You’re going to give me exactly what I want?”
“Yes. Now, give Amma back to me.”
“Sanguinisui, wait a moment, Archie.” Xander leaned back into the chair. “You do realize that the moment that asshole finishes the ritual and Birzuma gets out of that crystal, she’s going tokillhim.”
Damien nodded. “Sanguinisui, free Birzuma.”
Xander scoffed. “Sanguinisui, hold on! I need to know that you grasp the gravity of this, Bloodthorne. I can only resurrectoneperson, and if it is your little baroness, Archibald will remain very much dead, leaving nobody to free Zagadoth.”
“Yes, whatever.Sanguinisui, get on with letting Birzuma out.”
“Sanguinisui, just one more moment!” Xander pushed himself from the chair, meeting Damien’s gaze, standing but an inch away. He was getting just what he wanted, the asshole, but he was going to be a dick about it because he knew no other way to be. The man didn’t look like he was enjoying it though, setting his jaw tight. “You know she is the reason, don’t you? The reason forallof this.”
Damien’s chest prickled, eyes snapping to the sapphire crystal and the shadow inside.
