“We know,” the demon inside Mother growled, shoving itself back into her body. “We are aware.”
“W-we started saving more elixir just for ourselves. We intended to do it only for a little while, but we couldn’t risk losing one of them, not again.”
The realization was like a knife into my chest. They’d done it because of Eden’s death. They’d done it because ofme.
“You are admitting to tampering with the Maker-given supply forfive years,” the Light Bringer roared. “I should refuse your right to purification. Perhaps eternal damnation would be sentence enough.”
“We love our children, my lord.”
“Lord, lord, lord,” Mother mocked. “He is not our lord. He is only Mithras.”
“We just wanted them to be happy and safe,” my father pleaded.
“What you wish for does not matter. Lest thatwishwould speak of Maker-given goodness.” The Light Bringer’s masked face was impassive, but wisps of fury lurked in his eyes and settled in his mouth. He motioned for Mother and Father to be yanked up by their bindings, tightening the rope enough that they wouldn’t be able to run. “Say your goodbyes. You will not get another.”
“I don’t want to say goodbye,” Elliot whispered hoarsely, tears sliding down his face. “I don’t even want to look at them. They’re not—they’re not Mother and Father anymore.”
My stomach churned, sick with guilt.
They had watered down the elixir to save us. Just two parents wanting to keep their surviving children safe in the only way they knew how. If Eden hadn’t become Corrupt—if she hadn’t died—then they likely wouldn’t have been driven to such desperate measures. They would have found another way.
“We don’t need to say goodbye,” I said stiffly, answering for the both of us.
The Light Bringer inclined his head, eyes softening slightly. “I understand.” He nodded to the nearest two legionnaires. “Escort them inside and guard the entrance.” To the rest of the Light Legion, he said, “Make camp in this clearing. At dawn, I will purify the Norhavellian Corrupt and right the wrongs of these demon-cursed sinners.”
Light from the torches and darkness from the encroaching night, mingling with the smell of woodsmoke, billowed through the sky as Mother and Father shouted at our backs.
“Forgive us.”
“Forgive us.”
“Forgive us.”
I made the mistake of looking back. I wasn’t sure if I was looking at my parents or the demons within them, but desperate, guilt-ridden words clawed up my throat—words I couldn’t say without risking suspicion. I shoved the sensation aside, unwilling to confront it, trying instead to focus on Elliot and failing at that, too. My head was throbbing, spinning, heavy.
Forgive me.
Forgive me.
Forgive me.
The Light Legion had ransacked our room. Paper, clothes, and blankets lay strewn about the chipped wooden floorboards, and a smell—a smell of something other, something not of our family—seeped through the space. Elliot rushed to his bed and curled against the wall, sobbing into his pillow. Two men stationed themselves in the stairwell, positioning their bodies so that they could see both inside the room and downstairs into the foyer. Their faces, partially covered by masks, lacked emotion or even a single distinguishing feature.
“Are we supposed to sleep now?” I asked, feeling strange. My head spun with something resembling amusement. Everything felt false. A distant, crazed vision never meant to last. “We will need elixir first.”
The legionnaires didn’t respond. Their golden masks cast such dark shadows over their eyes.
“Even if our parents are Corrupt, Elliot and I require it.” Words spun around in my mind, forming aimless, murky sentences—sentences I didn’t wish to bring into existence. And that word—Corrupt—tasted like bile on my tongue. “The Light Bringer said that our fate wasn’t decided. We need the elixir. As is proper.”
More silence. They did not so much as twitch.
“You must allow it, or else…” Or else what? I’d throw them in theimaginary dungeons of Norhavellis? Cook them into a stew? Banish them from our property with the pointy end of a spade?Control yourself.“I will get it myself from downstairs.”
The shorter legionnaire leered at me. His beady eyes shone in the faint candlelight as he handed me a vial from the pack he wore underneath his crimson cape. “Aren’t you an irritating one?”
I ground my teeth.
Control yourself, Esmer.
