That broke my healing heart a little, knowing how he thought of himself. I shook it off, though. He was right, sending someone to Aird was our last shot. And if we were going to try, it had to be the most persuasive person.
I exhaled, acceptance spreading through me, and my eyes found Tolek.
He stepped forward. “I’ll go.”
“Are you certain?” I asked, biting my lip.
“Anything you need.” He nodded, and Malakai stiffened, eyes narrowing, but I shut out everyone besides Tol.
I was reluctant to let him go, not because I didn’t believe in himbut because he steadied me. Without him here, I’d be incomplete. But I couldn’t put that need first.
I squared my shoulders. “You’ll leave in three days. Take three warriors—ascended warriors—with you. No more. We don’t want them to know you’re coming if we can avoid it.”
“As you wish.” He bowed slightly, then left the room.
A pit widened in my stomach with each step echoing down the hall. I took a deep breath around it, filling my lungs to the point of bursting, ignoring the sensation of a blade dragging its jagged edge against my heart.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ophelia
The rose scentof the candle I’d lit brightened the early afternoon and my spirit with it. Propping open my second book of the day, I nestled into a chair in my office. The table was strewn with stacks of books on the Angels and what lore we were allowed to study of the other six clans. From the Mindshapers’ meditative therapy to the Seawatchers’ Isla Trysva—their version of our Undertaking—I was determined to absorb as much information as possible in order to figure out what I was meant to unite.
Empty dishes dotted the space between my notes, remnants of the past two days. Aside from training and war councils, I’d barely left the room.
I thumbed through the opening pages ofLegacies of Deities, settling into the introduction. It spoke of the Angels in life and theorized where they may have come from given they were the first warriors. By the time it summarized their ascension to the heavens, the candle was burning low, afternoon fading toward dusk.
They were power solidified within the body, blood threaded with pure ether and bones riddled with bits of magic. The seven former warriors became something other, never before seen, and were gifted beyond imagination. When they ascended, the Angels left pieces of themselves behind, tendrils to be found within their descendants and fossilized?—
Glass shattered somewhere outside.
“What in the Spirits?”
I tore from the room.
Voices rose from the second-floor landing, and with a rocketing heart rate, I recognized two of them.
When I rounded the corner, it took me a moment to figure out what I was seeing.
Malakai threw himself at Tolek, who caught him, slamming back into the wall. Frames rattled, and a bust of some warrior—I didn’t know who—crashed from its pedestal to the ground.
Tol brought his fist into Malakai’s side. It looked like more of an effort to ward him off than to injure him.
“Tell me the truth!” Malakai shouted. He swung a fist into Tolek’s jaw, a spray of blood flying from Tol’s mouth. The droplets arched through the air, landing at my feet, tainting the white marble.
Through the swelling lip, Tol yelled, “I don’t know what the fuck you want me to say!”
Malakai grabbed his shoulders, pulled him forward, then shoved him into the wall. “Tell me what’s been going on with you two!”
You two? Who—what?
The only person I’d seen enrage Malakai to anywhere near this level was Barrett, but there couldn’t be anything going on between Tolek and the prince.
No, I’d know if something worththiswas going on. But who could Malakai feel so strongly for that it was worth fighting his oldest friend?
The only possible answer came to me in a crushing wave, drowning out the blows and shouts.
One bout of life-changing shock as I understood.
