Weapons, check.
Bag of homemade and stolen food that we'll be punished severely for if it's found out, check.
Fae runes, check.
Needy ghost who is now trying to tap on my shoulder, check.
And finally, one mysterious, clear shard.
Check.
"Maven." Lillian's voice stops me as I walk toward the door.
When I glance at her, she looks more ardent than I've ever seen, as if she's trying to communicate something important but doesn't know how.
"The gods haven't forsaken us. That's whyyouare here. You are a long-awaited blessing—I wish I could tell you just how important you are, little raven."
Right. Because the freedom and lives of thousands rests on my doomed shoulders.
No fucking pressure.
I leave without another word. Two hours and several close calls later, I make sure the coast is clear before limping out of a cave mouth toward the misshapen, ancient stone buildings. By this point, I'm trailed by a handful of murmuring specters who gravitated toward me when I passed them in the twisted woods on the way to this compound.
No fires are lit here. The place appears silent and empty.
Amadeus doesn't bother posting guards at any of the human compounds because everyone knows that if they try to leave, there is nowhere safe to go. The fiends that run amuck in thisrealm will devour them long before they can make it to the Divide.
Even if they did make it that far, humans aren't strong enough to survive passing through that thick barrier of magic into the mortal realm—not without extreme magical interference from something like a lich. It will have to be thinned and weakened significantly for the mortals to get through when the time comes for my gambit.
In the meantime, they feel safest in their compounds, where the permanent magic wards keep out the wild dangers.
Not that "safe" actually fucking exists, but everyone takes what they can get here.
As I near a crumbling wall of stones, a shadow moves nearby. I whip out a dagger, expecting to behead a vampire or dismember another Undead, but the thin, one-armed figure steps forward so I can see it better.
Felix looks more gaunt than ever, which is saying something. I assume he's giving his scant portions of food to his sick mother. His father was devoured by the Undead six months ago after breaking his leg doing manual labor in the citadel, so now Felix is the unofficial leader of the humans here.
"If it isn't thetelumherself," he greets. "Hi, there."
I bend to yank a severed claw from the back of my thigh, trying not to visibly grimace at the pain. Gods, that hurts. It's going to slow me down on the way back. I also have several gouges from harpy talons on my left arm, which haven't stopped bleeding.
The fun just never ends here.
"I know you avoid talking like the Undead avoid direct sunlight, but how about a simple hello? It's called small talk—and you'll have to use it to blend in after you're sent to the mortal realm,” he points out. "Which meansspeakingto people, oh horror of horrors."
I drop the bag of supplies at his feet without a word. Felix picks it up, and the way his face brightens at once makes me wish Lillian could've been the one to deliver it. She's the one who secretly bakes things for the humans, and I'm sure she would appreciate Felix's look of pure gratitude far more than I do.
Shows of emotion aggravate the Undead and many types of shadow fiends—hence why, much like myself, Felix grew up suppressing his expressions. But right now, he's plain emotional as he hugs the bag of stolen food to himself with his one remaining arm.
"Thanks. Seriously, you have no idea what this means to us. To me."
Felix getting sappy is fucking weird. Things must be worse off for the humans here than I realized. I look away, waiting for him to compose himself so we can get down to business.
A couple of the ghosts whisper unhappily, trying to pass through me like I'm the solution to their restless fate. All I feel is the slightest chill. Felix doesn't see them, of course. He clears his throat and glances at my bleeding arm as he sets the bag down again, opening the top.
"I'm glad you came, but cover that up before the scent of blood lures vampires. You'll get the people I care about hurt if you're not more careful."
There we go. That’s the Felix I know.
