But perhaps, Acacius could apologize.
He rubbed the tip of his index finger to his thumb, assessing the invisible boundary line around the cottage.
Knowing Finnian, he has spells set up around the perimeter.
It would be a hassle to get through them, and setting them off would most definitely create commotion that would only cause his older brother a headache.
You are set to destroy it, like you do everything else.
Iliana’s harsh truth branded down his middle like he’d swallowed a piece of hot metal.
Appearing on Cassius’s doorstep would only disrupt the peace that he had created for himself.
Acacius let out a stale breath and looked up at the sky. The evergreen treetops swayed in the light breeze, rustling the snow from their weighted branches.
He couldn’t take the constricting knot in his gut any longer, allowing time to pass without fixing things between him and Cassius.
You are not too much.Marina’s words came back to him.
He peered out at the cottage again. He might not have believed Marina’s statement, but he could tellshebelieved it. That was enough to convince him to move forward.
Even if it was just to come face-to-face with his brother and apologize, he could immediately leave after?—
“Acacius.”
He froze, his boots buried beneath winter’s soft blanket. The blood drained from his face at the sound of Marina’s resonant, beautiful voice breaking around his name.
“Come to me.”
White-hot frenzy burned through his system. She wouldnevercall for him, not unless something had gone wrong with Soren.
His heart pounded, blood swimming in his ears as his divine power wrapped its jaws around him, leaving behind Augustus without a second thought.
33
CALAMITY
Acacius
The summons ledhim to a wooded area outside of Tenebris, where the daylight met the permanent darkness atop the frosted peaks and tall, dense pines.
Where we danced.
Pressure built in Acacius’s chest.
Marina’s nightrazers filled the clearing, birthed from a vaporous fog spread across the snow. It writhed and jutted into violent spikes, spearing the flashing replicas of Soren that the nightrazers did not eviscerate themselves.
The creatures swam from the darkest point of the fog, its mass lapping thickly in place. It was as if they were protecting it.
Acacius’s pulse pounded harder in his ears.
She had to be there with the child.
Anxiety burned in his veins.
Why wasn’t she fighting?
A shadowy creature tore its talons down the side of one of Soren’s illusions, exposing mangled meat and flesh.
