Malakai smirked. “Yes, that is who I mean, except not like in the play. He was a ruthless blood mage. Blake’s great-great-great-whatever grandfather, which of course means he inherited the bloodlust.”
“My line is cursed,”Blake had said, his eyes glazed and narrowed as he looked away.“Descended from the gods and cursed to desire more than a mortal life, triggered by mortal desire.”
“Triggered by mortal desire,” I whispered.
Malakai looked thoughtful. “Yes, I do recall reading that at some point. So it was you who triggered his bloodlust.”
I glanced at Blake, recalling the red around his irises. I did this? I made him crave blood?
“He will only continue to desire it more,” Malakai said. “Until he gives in. Especially your blood.”
My everi faded, my thoughts scattered, and my arms fell limp at my side.
Malakai neared me but I didn’t move.
“I will be back for you, eventually,” he whispered, then disappeared into the night.
Chapter 36
Misbegotten Traditions
ANNA
As the days lengthened, my mood only darkened.
Blake left Nightfall for the Realm, speaking only with Roslyn before his departure, with no word as to when he would return.
He was looking for Malakai.
According to Roslyn, he shouldn’t have been able to enter the rift to return to Nightfall—but somehow, he had. I was no help solving that mystery and I couldn’t get my mind off that night. I was drowning myself in books and scrolls in the library, reading anything with a scrap of information about the blood affinity Malakai spoke of. Blake’s red flecked eyes were wildly different from the steel gray. I couldn’t shake the image. It worried me at my core and the only coping mechanism was to try to understand what had happened and what had become of Malakai.
He was planning something—I could feel it. But what was it? Was someone going to disappear again? And for what? Was he using them for blood?
Roslyn was as critical of my obsessive research as she was worried, telling me I should be focusing on my studies.
I didn’t care. Blake left without saying goodbye, without telling me when he’d return, and without reassuring me that everything was going to be okay. Did I even want him to reassure me? He hadliedto me. For solong. But it was complicated—I hadn’t known anything back then, so to tell me he was there the night my mother died, and that he had no real answers for my missing year probably would have made me hysterical. My anger had come and gone quickly, though, replaced by one of the most confusing feelings I had from that night—the feeling of being safe in someone’s arms.
It had been him—Blake. I wanted things to get different, but if I had a choice in what I would change, Blake keeping this from me would be low on the priority list.
No—until I had a solution, I wouldn’t stop trying to fix whatever had torn him away from me—I was tired to everything being torn away.
Sofucking tired?—
“You are not looking in the right places,” a deep voice called over my shoulder.
I startled and found Everson behind me.
He was stoic and annoyed as usual, and I turned around to ignore him. I still largely held him responsible for Skylar and Cody being gone.
“It is the Aurkai leader’s library that you want,” he said.
I gaped, too shocked to turn around. “You mean Ezreal Kalmont’s library?”
Everson said nothing, but the moment I heard footsteps, I whipped around.
“Wait!”
He paused, never turning back.
