She glances at the hallway behind us. "We'll miss lunch if I share everything."
The rest of us make no move to stop her, not even the bottomless pit of a stomach that is Baelfire Decimus.
"All right." Maven lifts her chin. "Then you should know something that the Immortal Quintet has carefully removedfrom history. They made everyone believe they saved the mortal realm hundreds of years ago by valiantly driving back Amadeus and his forces and creating the Divide." She rolls her eyes. "The truth is, they took the coward's way out. The fight against the forces of the Nether was killing off the Four Houses, so the Immortal Quintet tricked an army of human warriors, both male and female, into going into the Nether as a diversion. Then they begged the gods to create the Divide. The gods obliged and fortified it by tying it to the life forces of the Immortal Quintet."
Crane considers all of that. "Then, if you kill the Immortal Quintet…"
"I'll unleash the Nether on the mortal realm," she says in the same tone one might say they're thinking of planting a garden.
My brows go up.
"Fucking fuck," Decimus grimaces.
Articulate to a point, that one.
"I'm not finished. The Immortal Quintet thought that the monsters and creatures of the Nether would devour those humans and then shrivel away without anything left living to feed on. They failed to take into account that the Entity has the powerful advantage of foresight. Amadeus captured that troop but allowed them to live. They were fed and contained, and they naturally started to multiply over time. Hundreds of years passed, and now the Nether is the way I know it: absolute hell, but with thousands of humans who are kept in compounds and treated exactly like animals. They're seen as a resource—the life to feed the death that rules there."
Maven looks out the nearest window, but her mind appears far away. "The first time I stumbled across one of the human compounds, I was on the run during a training exercise. Their condition was sickening. But even though they were worse off than me, the humans tried to help me. They were…kind. Horribly beaten and hopeless, but kind. Years later, whenAmadeus turned me into this and gave me my purpose, I realized that if I was fated to die anyway?—"
"Please don't fucking say that," Decimus grits, squeezing his eyes shut.
"Then I may as well take advantage of Amadeus's scheme and use it to save them," she finishes, looking at each of us. "I have a plan. I'm compelled to end the entire Immortal Quintet to unleash the Nether since Amadeus made that my purpose…but I'm going to leave one member of the Immortal Quintet alive. I'm going to weaken the Nether just enough for the humans to escape."
I consider this and put the pieces together. "Your blood oath is with those humans. You promised to free them from the Nether, didn't you?"
She nods, her jaw set in determination.
And just like that, my consuming obsession only doubles.
I knew Maven must have a strong reason, but knowing that my keeper has leveraged her terribly dealt hand in life in a gambit to save thousands from the king of the Undead…
I'm in awe of her.
And yet, at the same time, I can't bear knowing this.
"I see what Pia meant by your nobility now," Crane murmurs as if to himself, his expression softening. He leans against the wall, rubbing his temples. "But what happens once the humans escape, Maven?"
"If you're worried about the Nether consuming the rest of the world, I have a plan for?—"
Silas huffs. "What I'm worried about isyou.If you don't fulfill your purpose as a revenant, what will happen to you?"
Maven adjusts her gloves and smiles at us. "Nothing. I told you, I have a plan. I'll be fine."
Crane's jaw clenches tightly before he looks away. "Professor Crowley explained your unique magic, but what about thenecromancy? How can you use thatandcommon magic? Necromancy doesn't play nice with other magics. It shouldn't be possible."
"I agree. It shouldn't, but there were unintended side effects to their methods of making me into this. And beforeyoustart spiraling," our keeper goes on, raising a knowing eyebrow at Frost. "Nevermelt stabbed through a heart only works when there's an actual heart to stab. You aren't going to be the death of me."
He flinches, looking positively miserable. "We don't know that."
Decimus starts to say something else, but I'm distracted when I feel a sharp, painful ripple in Limbo from somewhere nearby. Several markings on my hands and neck light up. The severity of the ripple tells me that it has something to do with wisps.
Maven sees the markings light up and catches my eye. "Go. We can talk more about this later."
I don't want to go.
As the steward of Limbo, I always knew my time with her would be limited, but knowing Maven is in such peril…now even the idea of being apart from her for a second pains me almost as much as my curse.
"Crypt. Go." Her eyes are gentle.
