“As you said, I have walked this continent for hundreds of years. I have learned a few things.” I did not dare tell them how I knew. I would take that knowledge with me to meet my Dark God when my end finally came.
“If I allow you to pass through my gate now,” they said, tapping a finger against their lips, “I will demand two future sacrifices in return.”
I exhaled slowly. I should have had terms ready. But the idea hadn’t formed until I was there before them. I’d have to do what I could with what they’d presented.
“But neither of those sacrifices will be my coven, nor my… Kyrelle.” I did not have a word for what Kyrelle was to me. Ancestor, relative, not sister or niece or—it did not matter. So long as neither she nor my coven could be taken from me, I would manage. There was nothing else that mattered to me.
Xyta nodded, though their muddy blond brows drew together. They’d hoped I would not figure out that loophole. “And what shall your punishment be if you refuse either of the future sacrifices I demand?”
I knew there was only one answer they would accept. “My life.”
Xyta’s smile made my stomach turn. Not just because it belonged to my father, a man I’d longed for in life and hated in death. But because of the joy they found at the prospect.
Even in the rage I’d felt after maiming Rylynn’s betrothed, I had struggled with the covenants of my kind. The revulsion that filled every pore of my being proved that, even now, I was lessthan. I might gain my place back with my coven, but I still would not fit with them.
Garrick was right. My heart still ruled me, even if it did not pump the blood through my veins.
It did not matter.
They were the only sisters I had left. There was no place for me but with my coven. A witch without her coven is nothing.
Xyta licked their lips. “Do you agree to my terms? Even knowing the price will be twice as painful?”
I did not tell them that nothing could be more painful than what I’d already endured. That this bargain saved the only two things left on this cursed continent that I cared about. If they could not see that in my mind using whatever power or magic they possessed, I would not give it freely.
“I agree.”
Xyta waved their hand, and the passageway opened.
I braced my hands on the arms of the chair, shoving it down past my hips as I stood. I finally let myself look to Garrick. He was closer. When had he gotten closer? How had I not heard it?
He waited just above the lowest level of the arena, his intense gaze focused wholly on me. I tried to reflect back the words he’d give me.Xyta is a bored immortal. All they want is entertainment.I’d given it to them in the form of a bargain. I hoped for Garrick’s sake that whatever they asked him to sacrifice, he could give it.
Then I turned and walked through the passageway before the bloodthirsty deity could take back the bargain we’d made.
I waitedin the darkness on the other side of the passageway. I could see the light at the other end, smell the cold mountainbreeze that beckoned me to freedom. A false freedom, at that. It would take at least a fortnight to reach the Devotion Gate, but reach it I must.
Garrick would appear. If there was anyone suited to go through the gates, to conquer all seven, it was Garrick the Red. The legendary,half-faebounty hunter.
I’d asked for his motivation for attempting the gates, and he’d given me a damning secret instead.
Alize no doubt knew about his birth. He’d been sent to Balar Shan so that he might know his father… a father who had done unspeakable things to his mortal mother… a new rage formed in my veins, as bright and sharp as any frost I’d ever shaped for myself.
I was not the only one in Velora who blamed the fae for the death of the continent and loved ones. If the world knew of Garrick’s parentage, he would be killed. If Nash learned of it… Garrick could take Nash. He’d proved that again and again.
But Nash had also shown that he was able to convince others to join his cause. If he could convince Alize to ally with him, it might be enough. Enough magic, enough malice, to kill a witch and a half-fae bounty hunter.
The odds were infinitesimal. Alize did not like Garrick, that was clear from their exchanges, but she’d never shown any violence against him.
And yet.
I would keep Garrick’s secret.
There was more at play here than I was able to fully comprehend. The gods themselves had a stake in whether a supplicant made it through the Seven Gates. If I was playing games with the gods, then it was possible the other supplicants were as well.
I leaned my head back against the dark stone, letting my eyes fall closed as I waited.
A minute or an hour or an eternity later, the stone shifted and heavy footsteps I would have recognized anywhere approached.
