“Poor Marco,” I spat. “Surely he doesn’t have much time left…” Savoring the taste of him, his ki and all that I’d refused, I let the Glaith bite my palm. Fed it everything that spilled over, keeping my bloody promise, no matter how much it hurt to do so. “Well… If he can be saved at all, of course.”
At this, Asher’s attention splintered. The warrior broke with a roar that hurt my ears but filled my tainted heart with glee. Thrusting me back, he turned to collect his dead. Sweeping a muscled forearm beneath lolling head, he breathed life into slack lips.
And then he did a thing he had no rights to. A thing meant only for the Goddess’ chosen few—those named Trila-Glís, who could both store ki, anduseit.
He took from the well of ki shared between us, took what I’d stolen to free black wings, and gave itbackto Marco.
Gasping, I stuffed the Glaith back in my pocket, trying to cut him off from using my power. To thwart this lesser victory and make him feel the same loss I’d been forced to endure.
But the captain took no notice of my effort, for it was notmyki he used.
It was his own.
I stayed only long enough to see the soldier gasp awake, watched the color return to his lips before I fled to the shadows. Back from where I’d come. To the rebels. Running as fast as my legs could move, I didn’t stop until I could go no further. Until the very ki in my blood ran dry and the temptation to seize the Glaith was on me once more.
There was only one place I could go. One being in all the world that could shelter and feed what I’d become. The great-grandmother oak. And even in the throes of ravenous madness, I knew.
I couldn’t do this alone.
But I had been tethered by promises made to the dead and the taken. Leashed and enslaved without the ability to barter or negotiate.
Don’t drop the Glaith. Keep the scientists free to fight another day. Don’t allow yourself to be made a slave to a treacherous Elite with a pretty smile and tasty ki. And never,evertell another about the dark Truth squirming and writhing inside me.
I thumbed the branded letters below my knuckle, scowling into the night. All four promises couldn’t exist at once. I couldn’t keep anyone safeandhide behind the Glaith, but neither could I drop it and expect anyone to survive the fallout—and that was to say nothing of the thousands of other refugees choking the wood or the ki-mad captain coming for my blood.
There would have to be compromise.
And it would have to be now.
I knelt at the grandmother’s many feet, humbled. Shaking and sweating, gasping for breath, I knew it wouldn’t be long before Asher was after me again. Already, I could feel his fury rising. Oh, he’d saved his precious Marco, all right—but he’d never make the same mistake again. Wouldn’t underestimate meorgive me the advantage of surprise. I was sure of it.
Worse, he had an army of ki-wielders to my three Triloth and a scattering of semi-functional gadgets.
Expelling a brittle laugh, I pressed my forehead to that ancient wood.
No, I couldn’t do this alone. “I need…” I swallowed, throat aching around shards of broken glass. I needed anally. One who could accept what I’d become without judgment. An ally who’d take the corrupted ki festering in my heart and ask for more, allowing me to retain my freedom.
At my touch, the great-grandmother oak—whose trunk couldn’t be ringed by a dozen outstretched hands—leapt in greeting. Answering my call. Ancient, she was connected to all things, and all things in this wood belonged to her.
The heartbeat of the forest, lacking a pulse.
It was enough to humble. Enough to bring tears to my eyes, and with a final shuddering breath, I thumbed the captain’s brand on my right middle finger, then plunged my hand into my pocket. Withdrawing the first of my promises and the only one I intended to break. In defiance of past experience, the Glaith glittered in the grandmother’s shadow.
Virgin Glaith no more. Filled with ki both Priestess and Elite, but ki all the same.
“Don’t know what I’m doing,” I whispered, inspecting the ore for obvious flaws. “But I can’t… I need help.” Swallowing back the urge to scream myself hoarse, I set the Glaith to the grandmother’s thick skin. “I can’t do this alone. We need sanctuary. We need”—I grimaced, pressing, trying to crush the Glaith into dust—“a sentinel.”
While the grandmother didn’t fight back, trying to pass stone through wood was a ratherstrenuousask. Almost asking the impossible, really, except of course, I knew it wasn’t. Knew it had been done several times before, and so I ground my teeth and forced everything I could spare into the Glaith. Risking everything for a whim, I broke my promise. To sacrifice the High Priestess’ Glaith was to leave myself vulnerable to both the temptation to feast upon ki the others needed to live, and the seductive manipulations of one Caledonian Captain of Special Forces.
His monogram winked at me, taunting, back-lit by Glaith beginning to overheat beneath my palm. Showing clean through twisted skin as new sweat built atop the old.
The captain felt my effort, used the bond he’d left lurking behind my ribs to try to pull me back. To stop me.
It was his second mistake, for through him, I had enough to build the vehicle of our freedom.
With a sigh, the grandmother accepted my offer, taking the flames of blue, green, and purple into her mighty trunk. Dissolving the stone before my eyes, her new pulse fluttering through leaves and tiny, invisible root fibers.
She waseverywhere!Her roots were spun throughout the entire forest, connected to everything. Connecting me toeverything. Lending a home to a rare and dangerous thing stained by moonlight and pitch.
