Six
Imade my way out of Pica’s residence and through the forest path that led to the other cottage. I was unsurprised to find each of the guys right at the other side of the path. They hadn’t even stepped foot inside the cottage, apparently. Snow was dusting their hair and clinging to their robes.
“I took care of Pica,” I explained. “There won’t be any repercussions if we’re attacked and have to disappear. I think seeing how I changed Emmy has changed something in her, too. She sees me differently.”
“You represent a hint of something she has lost,” Aros replied as we all turned toward the cottage. “You’re a remnant of the happily-ever-after that she had schemed up with Rau. He was her family, and you were supposed to be a part of that family too—so when he was taken away, only you remained. She has fixated on you for that reason.”
We reached the main room of the cottage and I noticed Donald sitting by the fireplace, her back straight, her hands on her knees, and her eyes fixed unblinkingly forward.
“After seeing what you did for Emmy, you became something different in Pica’s eyes,” Coen said, shaking out his robe and moving toward the fireplace.
I followed him, and we all took up positions around the fire as Donald jumped to her feet and quickly hurried out of the way, positioning herself behind one of the lounges instead. We were supposed to be preparing, but there was an unspoken need among us to settle for a moment, to check in with each other.
“She’s also not stupid,” Rome warned. “She hasn’t asked any of us for details about Rau’s death. She hasn’t even asked where his body is—”
“Whereishis body?” I cut in, blinking.
“We locked it in Sienna’s vault,” he replied calmly. “But the point is that she hasn’t asked. She hasn’t mentioned it, which means she probably knows it was you. That puts her in a strange position. On one hand, you dragged the man she loves into the imprisonment realm and killed a portion of his soul. On the other hand, youreturned. You brought yourself back … and if you can dothat, you might be able to go in again and bring her child back.”
I frowned, an uneasy feeling settling within me. “So I caused her to lose one great love, but I present a chance to save another, even greater love?”
A few grumbles of agreement met my question, and I frowned harder, pulling my feet up to the comfortable cushion of the couch and tucking them beneath me. Coen was to my right and he pulled my knees over his lap, settling his big arm over my legs. On my other side, Aros laid a soft woollen blanket over the three of us. Yael was standing by the fireplace, his arm braced against the mantle, his attention on the fire. Rome was nestled into an oversized armchair, his fingers drumming against his thighs, his expression restless and thoughtful. Siret was pacing before us, but wasn’t agitated or anxious. He seemed to just want to stay in motion.
“What exactly is our aim here?” I found myself asking. “Staviti will never justagreeto leave us alone. He won’t stop until we stop him, but how can we destroy the Creator? And if wedo, what happens to Minatsol and Topia?”
“I think we all have different goals,” Yael admitted, turning away from the fire to fix me with green eyes that swirled with the reflection of the simmering flames. “Cyrus wants to destroy Staviti—to end his tyranny on the worlds—but that’s how Cyrus was designed. He’s a being of justice, and he has judged Staviti to have done too many unspeakable acts to be allowed to continue.”
I nodded, agreeing with his assessment of Cyrus. “And what’sourgoal?”
I caught the smiles that Rome and Siret tried to hide. They liked that I referred to us as a single unit.
“Our goal is to protect you,” Coen answered quietly, his hand shifting on my leg, pulling me in closer to the warmth of his side. “That has always been our goal.”
I was troubled, but I wasn’t sure why. I wanted to protect myself and the people I loved, but there was also something more. There was a mystery I needed to solve. The shadowy form of Jakan haunted me, and the insistent prodding of my mother’s thoughts against the barrier that I had constructed in my mind spurred me toward some kind of a decision. I didn’t just want to be safe—I wanted more than that. Wrongs had been committed, and I wanted to put them to rights. Staviti had killed many people in his crusade to be the most powerful man in the worlds, including my mother, my sister, and his own brother, Jakan. He had trapped the souls of countless dwellers, turning their bodies into empty vestibules of service.
“There’s something I haven’t told you all,” I muttered. “When I pulled the piece of my mother’s soul back to Minatsol, she cried out for Jakan. She didn’t want to leave him. They loved each other. In all my life … I’ve never seen her care about another human being like that—especiallynone of the men that she slept with.”
“You think he might be your father,” Siret mused.
“I just don’t understand how,” I replied. “How did her soul end up in the imprisonment realm? How did they even meet? He said that he had been watching me through the mortal glass, but I haven’t spent that much time on Topia … and he acted as though heknewme. As though he had known me for a long time.”
“If he had a soul-bond with your mother at some point on Minatsol, that part of her soul would have been dragged to the imprisonment realm with him,” Aros said thoughtfully. “And if she does have a soul-bond with him, then he might have been able to see and hear you through her eyes, for most of your life on Minatsol.”
“But it only goes one way,” I argued. “The soul-bond. You guys can all read my mind, but I can’t read yours.”
“It goes both ways, actually,” Yael said. “But the bond is different with us. We think it’s because a piece of you is inside five of us—it changed the nature of the link to flow in one direction.”
I nodded, my mind whirling around as I tried to fit all the pieces together. Time was running out for us to continue this conversation, but I couldn’t pull myself away. I could feel a realisation teasing me, just out of reach.
“Donald sometimes has … moments,” I whispered, turning to look at the server standing behind us. “A real thought will shine through and I’ll see a hint of something coherent. Somethingalive.”
I stood then, and rounded the chair, pulling her hands into mine. She stared at me blankly.
“Is the Sacred One hungry?” she asked. “Does the Sacred One require me to do laundry? Do the Sacred Ones need somegods-damned peace and quiet?” That last part had been delivered with an attempt at a gravelly accent. I was sure that she was repeating a request that Cyrus had given her many,manytimes.
“I want to know if Jakan can hear me,” I replied, tearing down the barrier between her thoughts and mine.
“That name is forbidden, Sacred One.”Jakan is a man. Jakan is a god. Jakan is … here.
