The temperature in the room drops several degrees.Outside, I hear the wind pick up, rattling the windows.Nature itself responding to the weight of what Prophet is about to tell me.
“The Khorvath,” I say.
“Yes and no.”Prophet pulls another book forward, this one bound in what looks disturbingly like skin.“The Khorvath is what it became.What it was originally...that’s more complicated.”
He opens the book, and the pages are filled with illustrations that move, living ink showing creatures of ice and shadow, towering forms that hurt to look at directly.
“In the beginning,” Prophet says, his voice taking on a rhythmic quality, “before humans walked the earth, there were the Primordials.Beings of pure elemental force.Fire and water, earth and air, light and dark.They shaped the world according to their nature, and for a time, there was balance.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’ coming.”
“But,” he continues, “one of them went wrong.The entity tied to winter and endings became obsessed with entropy.With the idea that everything should return to the cold, silent void from which it came.It started consuming other Primordials, growing stronger, more twisted, until it became something new.Something hungry.”
The illustrations show it happening, a beautiful crystalline being slowly corrupting into the nightmare I saw at the homestead.Black ice and malevolence given form.
“Heaven intervened,” Prophet says.“They couldn’t destroy it, Primordials can’t truly die, so they did the next best thing.They bound it.Sealed it beneath the ice in what would eventually become Alaska.”
“How?”
“With a covenant.”He pulls out another scroll, this one covered in names written in blood.“They needed anchors.Beings powerful enough to hold the seal in place.They made a deal with three species: vampires, shifters, and humans.”
My hands clench into fists.“What kind of deal?”
“Your kind provided the immortality, vampires who would live long enough to maintain the seal across centuries.Shifters provided the strength and connection to the land.And humans...”He pauses, finger tracing down the list of names.“Humans provided the bloodline.A family chosen by angels, blessed with divine protection, and tasked with one purpose, to guard the seal and ensure the Khorvath never wakes.”
“Wardens.”
“Exactly.”Prophet looks up at me, and his eyes are sad.“For three thousand years, it worked.The bloodline passed from generation to generation, each warden born with the mark of their covenant.Not visible usually, but always there.Always connecting them to the seal.”
“Until the permafrost started melting.”
“Until the permafrost started melting,” he confirms.“The physical seal is weakening.The bindings are fraying.And the Khorvath felt it, felt its chance at freedom.So, it did what any intelligent predator would do.It went hunting for the one thing that could either strengthen the seal or shatter it completely.”
“The current warden.”My voice comes out flat.Dead.“Tessa.”
“Tessa,” Prophet agrees.“The last of her bloodline.The final anchor.If it kills her, the seal breaks completely.If it claims her...”He trails off, but I can fill in the rest.
If it claims her, it can use her power to free itself.Use the very thing meant to bind it as the key to escape.
“How do we stop it?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?”Prophet sets the scroll down and leans back.“The original seal required willing sacrifice from all three species.A vampire, a shifter, and a warden, all choosing to bind themselves to the Khorvath’s prison.They died in the process, but the seal held.”
Ice floods my veins.“You’re saying we need to sacrifice Tessa.”
“I’m saying the prophecy requires a warden’s willing offering.”His voice is careful.Measured.“But prophecies aren’t always what they seem.There might be another way.”
“What way?”
“I don’t know yet.”He closes the book, and the moving illustrations freeze mid-motion.“But I’m working on it.The bond you created with Tessa...it might be the key.Vampire and warden, bound together.It’s unprecedented.”
“Or it’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
“Both can be true.”Prophet stands, moving to the window.Outside, snow has started falling in thick, heavy flakes that shouldn’t be possible in late afternoon.“Heaven is watching, Vex.They’re waiting to see what you’ll do.Whether you’ll sacrifice her for the greater good, or whether you’ll damn us all to save the woman you love.”
The word hangs in the air between us.
Love.
