Ilyana steps up by his side. “He has a valid point, Llyr. You knew the outcome when you agreed to do this.” She places a hand on his shoulder.
“What will it be? We will not repeat our offer.” Marduk turns his attention to Seniia and Vilder.
“As much as we appreciate it, we will have to decline,” Seniia says. “We are with her.”
Marduk’s mouth presses into a thin line. “Your mother will not approve.”
“My mother has long stopped paying attention. I doubt she’ll start now.”
A flurry of shadow and light blurs my vision, and the next thing I know, all three C’elen are flung through the air like rag dolls, their bodies tumbling end over end, landing with a sickening thud on the frozen ground. I wince, my stomach lurching.Are they still alive?
Llyr sits up and rubs his head, blood running down his forehead, and Marduk jumps to his feet with predatory grace, but Ilyana remains still. Upon seeing her, Llyr rushes over to her still form, kneeling by her side. He closes his eyes for a moment, and then Ilyana stirs, blinking her eyes open, and Llyr helps her stand. She raises a hand toward Llyr’s head wound, but he waves her off. “Later.”
“Aster.” Marduk’s voice could have been carved from stone.
Frozen bone cracks under Aster’s heavy boots as he moves across the field toward where he carelessly threw them.
The archers turn toward Aster, but he barely shoots them a glance before he turns his attention back to the three C’elen.
“Your strings are as long as a bad year, and unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it.” He stares Marduk down, death itself written across his features. “Yet.” His voice is tight with barely suppressed rage.
Arrows whiz through the air.
“Aster!” My scream echoes through the night, the chilling sound barely registering over the thud of three arrows piercing his torso. I needn’t have worried though. Aster pulls them out and tosses them aside as if they’re nothing but a nuisance. His upper lip curls back, revealing his canines as he turns toward the archers and knocks them out with a flick of his wrist. He gives the three C’elen an incredulous look.
Llyr, at least, has the grace to look sheepish.
“Give us our powers back,” Marduk growls. “Gods, Aster, we are supposed to be on the same side. Your father—”
Aster seizes Marduk by his collar and hoists him up. “My father can burn for all I care.”
Marduk’s expression doesn’t shift by so much as a muscle twitch. If he’s surprised by the outburst, he doesn’t show it.
Llyr’s gaze flickers between me and Aster, uncertainty etched across his ageless features.
“You are willing to give up your elevation to higher god for her?” Llyr’s voice is barely above a whisper, but it carries the weight of mountains. “How? Why?”
Marduk, despite hanging two feet off the ground, holds firm, his jaw clenched, unyielding. He lifts his chin, his face hardening into a mask of chilling pragmatism.
“I do not know what your objection is—you are only to gain from this, after all—but Ilyana is right. Llyr knew what he signed up for; she was sired to be sacrificed. What is one life compared to the greater good of all?” The callousness in his words is matched only by the unwavering conviction blazing in his eyes.
“I cannot tell you what one life is, Keeper. But I will tell you whatherlife is.” Aster tightens his grip on Marduk’s collar, pulling his face closer. “The loss of her is a constant, soul-crushing agony, a relentless, throbbing ache. It’s a fresh wound, a searing burn that never heals, and it has left me in agonizing pain every single dayfor a millennium. I don’t know if your sorry mortal existence understands this, but eternal life means eternal pain, a never-ending misery pressing me down, stealing my breath, and slowly, ever so slowly, driving me into insanity.”
The fiery heat of his words consumes me, every syllable a brand searing into my skin.
Vilder lets out a low whistle while Seniia sighs softly next to me. I shoot her a glance from the corner of my eye. Her hand flutters to her heart, eyes glazed with romantic longing. I shake my head at her antics.
“Emotions should be controlled,” Marduk says, stepping away from Aster, who’s finally released his grip on him. “Being ruled by them? Void! See where that has gotten us!” He narrows his eyes at Aster. “So please excuse my lack of interest in your little romance,” he sneers, “because Rea is slowly being eaten by the Void, and you were the one expected to save it!” The weight of the world seems to press down on his words.
When he puts it like that . . .
“I’ll give my life,” I say before courage abandons me. Marduk is right. What is one life if this beautiful planet can survive? If I don’t, a lot more people, humans and Reans alike, will certainly die.
“Oh no you will not,” Aster snaps at the same time Marduk says, “Thank Zerex she is coming to her senses.”
Llyr takes a tentative step forward. “Laïna—”
“Don’t you dare be a fool too, Llyr!” Marduk throws his hands up in the air. He looks to Ilyana. “Talk some sense into him, will you?”
