“I’ve heard the rumors,” I snapped. “Are you going to deny them?”
He watched me for a moment longer before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He expelled all the air in his lungs with the exasperated breath of an overtired father. I waited. I was used to his displeasure and his disappointment. In fact, those were the only sentiments I seemed to illicit from paternal figures at all.
“What would be the point of denial?”Kleiospoke slowly. “You’ve already determined it to be true.”
“Is it?”
“It is.”
I'd suspected as much but the easy admission still shocked me enough for every muscle in my body to tense.
I wasn’t used to honesty, having spent my life knowing only what those above me deemed necessary for me to have knowledge of at the time. Cosmo had made a habit of spinning webs of lies so complex I doubted I would ever find my way through them even if I had remained in Sanctuary and grown to lead the House as he'd desired. ButKleiohad never lied to me, not truly, and especially not since he'd decided to risk his life telling me the truth about theGeistonly days ago. Those actions had seemed to form a sort of truce between us, an acknowledgement that we could tell each other the truth. Even though I knew Kleio harbored more secrets than I could possibly unearth, having lived hundreds, if not thousands, of years longer than I already, I felt as though I could, if not trust him, at least expect he wouldn't deceive me. And yet, I doubted. Because I'dbeen taught to. Because I knew what could happen when one did not.
“I want to see the cloak,” I repeated, doubling down on my determined stance so he knew how serious I was in my request.
“Why?” he asked simply, chin raised and eyes running over me in evaluation the way they often did when he found my behavior peculiar.
“Why,” I repeated, blinking in surprise that he would even ask. “I need to know,Kleio. If it’s her, if she’s out there—”
“She’s not.”
With that, he moved away from me, turning back to his papers as though he'd found my reason for wanting to see the cloak myself lacking in inspiration. As though he were disappointed in me for not having said what he wanted me to. I often got that impression withKleio, though I never understood exactly what it was hedidwant from me.It was like constantly failing a test I hadn't even known I was taking.
“What do you mean she’s not?” I asked. I rounded his table and pressed myself into his space so he was forced to look up at me. “You know where she is, don’t you?”
“I do, but I’m not entirely sure you’re ready to hear it.”
“Kleio,” I breathed and was surprised to hear my own voice crack as I did the most shameful thing I’d ever done. I begged. “Please.”
Kleiofrowned but I saw the way his shoulders slumped and knew he wouldn't deny me this small amount of peace.
Cosmo would have.
Even now, I couldn't stop comparing my mentor with my grandfather. Cosmo would've used this knowledge against me. Knowing he had something I wanted, he would've used it to get something from me in return. The way he'd tricked Adrian into agreeing to marry me. The way he'd tricked my mother into agreeing to train all the grandchildren. The way he'd tricked somany priests and acolytes and the heads of the other Houses into doing his bidding without even realizing they were.
I didn't know Kleio well, not yet, but he didn't seem to want that. He didn't keep secrets to use them against you later. He didn't lie with a smile on his lips just to see if you could tell he wasn't telling the truth. He didn't play mind games and trick everyone around him just to earn himself a formidable reputation for treachery. He seemed to know thingsdespitehis wishes. Like secrets and information just kept finding him when he wished they wouldn't. He carried them as a burden more than a gift. They weren't currency. They were obligations.
The way he was looking at me now, eyes full of a depthless sadness I wanted to turn away from, had me realizing all of that and more. How horrible it must be to live for hundreds of years and be cursed with the responsibility of educating younger, more hopeful generations about the dark truths of the world. How awful it must feel to look at someone and realize that, if they knew what you knew, they would be irreparably changed. He looked at me that way now. So I braced myself and waited.
“In the beginning, the abyss led to the wild land you now see beyond the walls of the city,” he explained. “Once betrayed, the Fallen fell into the wilderness where they were expected to wander until they died from the elements. It was a way to shame them for their failure to sacrifice that last bit of their humanity to join us, a way to make them suffer for lacking absolute faith in theGeist. But they didn’t die. They adapted. They survived. And they began to form units that came after us nearly as often as the humans but with the unfortunate added benefit of having the Blessings they were given in their Trials.”
I stared at him in shock.
“So we havetwoenemies to fear out in that desert?” I asked, gaping in surprise. With all the training I’d been put throughalready, no one had mentioned we were fighting this war on two fronts.
“No,”Kleioresponded, shaking his head. “The Fallen haven't been seen for centuries. Once they started taking up arms against us, Deimos and his council responded by holding Sanctuary hostage. They threatened to destroy the city and everyone inside. The Fallen…Sanctuary was their home. Most of them still had family there or descendants at least. So they fell back and Deimos, having learned from his mistake, never freed another Fallen to the wilderness again.”
“But then where—”
“I will not tell you that. I cannot. But she's alive, Dante. And she will be for a very long time.”
I stared at him, coming to terms with what he was saying.
“The tenth Trial,” I said slowly, understanding dawning upon me a moment later. “Immortality. She received the Blessing despite…”
“Being betrayed?” he asked, raising a brow as I flinched. “Yes. All of the Fallen receive all ten Blessings. A fact I’m sure Deimos would prefer to remedy but cannot.”
“He can’t change the Trials? He’s Lord of theGeist. Why—”
