Some of the tension bled out of her shoulders while she glanced at the rune. “Oh! I’ve never seen that one before.”
Once more, I stared at her in shock. How could she not know this? I visited many Sanctums over the years, each of which had their own custom practices. But this was standard.
“Then I’ll have to make sure you all learn it before I leave,” I replied.
On instinct, I wove another sigil on her. This time, she didn’t balk, content to look at it with curiosity. Vivian didn’t have to say that she didn’t know that specific protection. Very few knew of it unless you belonged to an extremely limited circle of initiates.
We mounted our Galadias and took flight. Although short, the journey felt like it dragged on forever. When the silhouette of the Duskwallow Graveyard finally appeared on the horizon, my stomach twisted with apprehension. I had never set foot in this God forsaken place, but I had seen many drawings, photos, and maps of the area. Everyone involved in the arcane world had heard of the horrors of Hemdell Manor, its terrifying crypt, and the graveyard that sprawled near it.
Thankfully, it was only 3:00 PM, which gave us at least another three hours before the sun would begin to set. It wasn’ta lot of time as no one in their right mind would be caught lingering in Duskwallow after sundown. With Elliot still being a novice, I prayed that a simple binding would suffice for us to be able to drag him out of the graveyard. With luck, he would merely be possessed by a weak demon that would take no time to cast out.
A weak demon who managed to cause multiple clerics to disappear?
Something wasn’t adding up. A part of me wished I had investigated further before heading out. However, time was of the essence, especially with an exorcism taking place in one of the most horrendously cursed places in the entire region, if not the entire country.
We landed outside what remained of the graveyard’s gates. Countless wards and protections prevented the abominations dwelling within from leaving these grounds. Pasha didn’t need to be leashed. I merely gave her another treat and whispered gentle words as I caressed her scale-covered neck. Hopefully, Vivian’s own mount had been properly trained. The Galadias would wait for us in this safe area until nightfall, at which point they would fly back to the Sanctum on their own, unless we summoned them back.
I raised a palm in front of me and invoked a flame.
“You’re a fire mage!” Vivian exclaimed, surprised.
“Yes,” I replied absent-mindedly.
“You scry that way?” she asked, taking a step closer to peer into the flames.
“Yes,” I said, annoyance seeping into my voice.
“How are you—?”
“Hush!” I said in a slightly clipped tone. “Let me focus.”
Images appeared in the flames. Blurred at first, they grew more precise, although they kept a dreamy edge to them. It felt as if seeing through the eyes of an insect flying through thegraveyard. I didn’t have much to go by to track our target, but the images moved steadily in a very specific direction. My heart sank when the dark building of the crypt loomed closer and closer. Then to my utter relief, it moved past it and continued towards a much larger one at the far back. It took me a moment to realize that it was the crematorium, which had also served as the grave digger’s house centuries ago before this place literally went to hell.
However, dark smoke swirled around the building in my scrying image. It wasn’t smoke in the real world, but a warning that something terrible was either currently occurring within it or awaited us the moment we arrived.
Taking a deep breath, I marched with determined steps into the graveyard.
Chapter 3
Lyall
For the thousandth time, I glared at the clock. It was a little after 2:00 PM, and I couldn’t decide whether to go to Duskwallow as per my mother’s request. My reluctance annoyed me all the more that I already knew I would go, if only out of sheer curiosity. But my rebellious side wanted to refuse simply to make a stupid point that I couldn’t be told what to do.
Why am I always so obnoxious?
I didn’t understand my need to cause mayhem, be difficult, and be contrarian just for the sake of it. For the longest time, I blamed it on whatever bad genes my sire had passed on to me. But it was a shameless lie that even I was too embarrassed to try to hide behind anymore.
Heaving a sigh, I shifted into a Gharlakan and took flight towards one of the many portals scattered throughout the Shadow Realms that would enable me to cross the Veil into the Mortal Realm. Not for the first time, I seriously envied my brother Pharos’s ability to teleport between worlds without requiring the use of portals.
The whole way there, my mind continued to mull over what my mother’s real agenda could be. She had absolutely no use for the peony flowers that grew in the graveyard. That meant her request had to be some sort of workaround for the Covenant, which you could sometimes bypass by being clever.
For example, I couldn’t verbally or otherwise warn someone that they were about to step into the trap of a shapeshifting abomination. However, if I happened to walk ahead of that person while ‘minding my own business,’ it could ‘accidentally’ prompt the beast to reveal its presence by targeting me instead as the closest potential prey. If that enabled that person to turn tail—thus saving them from a certain death—I couldn’t be accused of breaking the Covenant. It wasn’t my fault the beast chose to step out of its hiding spot.
Which brought me right back to why my mother was sending me to the graveyard. Who was she trying to help? Could this be the next step required to save Ranael?
She said that my love for him touched her deeply.
Could that be a hint that I was getting closer to getting my brother back? My heart soared at that prospect. Nine Hells, how I missed him. Of all my siblings, he always made me feel loved, accepted, and not judged. Over the last couple of years, I had grown closer to Pharos. He was nice, but a little too self-righteous. Actually, that wasn’t a fair label. But as an Angel of Death, Pharos tended to be a bit too much of a rule follower and was both excessively sweet and protective.
