“Me. Tova. The Dyminara. The Athatis wolves. Our people. Our queen. Your mother. All dead because of you.”
Aya blinked, and the Persi stood before her, blood staining her brown skin as it dripped from the left corner of her mouth. “The Second Saint, come to abolish darkness.” A laugh cracked from Lena’s chest, and that blood sprayed from her lips with the force of her scorn. “When will the realm realize the truth, do you suppose?”
Lena staggered a step forward, and then another, until she was right before Aya, her hands fisting in the fabric of her shirt. Aya tried to jerk away, but her feet were anchored, held in place by…
There.
Tova, her fingers locked around Aya’s ankles, her grip iron even in death.
“You are no saint,” Lena hissed, her body swaying into Aya’s space, her face so close Aya could smell the iron that coated her teeth. “You are not chosen. You arenothing.”
There was a hand on her throat, and Aya tried to wrench it away, but she couldn’t grasp it. Not here in her dreams.
“You are nothing,” Lena said again. But it wasn’t Lena. It was Evie, her face haloed by the sun. Distantly, Aya could hear the waves crashing against the side of their stolen skiff.
That hand clenched tighter, and Aya’s lungs burned.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Her vision went dark, her mind sliding toward unconsciousness again, until there was—
Nothing.
Part One
The Dark Saint
1
The Conoscenza spoke of the darkness of one’s spirit as a demon to be battled. A fate to be avoided. Athingto be destroyed.
For Will, it had long been a threat that lingered within him, try as he might to rid himself of it. But as he crouched behind the thick trunk of an evergreen somewhere in the southeastern range of the Malas, cloaked in the black of night, the darkness stirring in his soul was no longer his enemy.
It wasn’t even a friend.
The darkness washim.
For once, he relished it.
Will crept forward, his steps silent as he approached the guard settled against the tree a few paces away. The man’s back was turned to him, his gaze fixed on the clearing just beyond where they stood.
Will’s arm wrapped around the soldier’s chest as he yanked him away from the tree trunk, his other dragging a knife across the man’s throat. The guard’s surprised gasp dissolved into a garble of air and blood.
He was dead before Will could lower him to the ground.
A rustle sounded to Will’s left. He could just barely makeout another choked-off sound, followed by the soft thud of a body being lowered to the forest floor.
Aidon had found his mark, then. Good.
Will continued forward, his grip tightening on his knife as he moved through the thinning trees toward the clearing. He was close enough to make out the flickering light of a fire.
Raucous, drunken laughter erupted from the soldiers gathered around the pit—eight, Will counted, all dressed in the deep navy of the Kakos soldiers who had invaded Dunmeaden.
Just as Aidon’s scouting had confirmed.
