I choked, tears springing to my eyes.
It was real. An absolute certainty. I’d felt it roll through me.
He was really back.
Had he been… saved sooner, and I’d just felt it now because I’d been too weakened before? And maybe he’d even been too, depending on how he’d been brought back.
But… how had he been resurrected?
Hold on.
Those words from Ketheron and Ambrose to me that day when I’d performed Risen Reckoning for the first time slammed into me.
“Do you really think even Ryker Morgan or the entire Guardian Movement can stop your dad?” Ketheron had spoken.
I’d startled at his words and also the look in his eye. He’d even winked at Ambrose.
“Ketheron,” Ambrose had cautioned.
“What?” I’d pushed. “What did that mean? My dad doesn’t possess unlimited power.”
The two of them had exchanged another loaded look.
“What’s going on?” I’d pressed further.
“Let’s just say that it’s not always about power alone,” Ambrose had answered.
Ketheron had then added, “It’s got a lot to do with smarts and thinking ahead… contingency plans, tiny god.”
I frowned as I recalled all of that.
My dad had put contingencies in place even for his own demise, ways that wouldn’t impact the Valley of the Dead?
Or… Ambrose had.
In this particular case.
With the Spiral Thorn.
Because with his abilities, the black magic, he’d… paused the kill intent?
Something along those lines?
But to do more than that, to then bring my dad back… he would have needed to warp Ruxnoth’s magic.
That shouldn’t have been possible. It was the main obstacle I’d run up against when I’d been trying to figure out how to defeat Ruxnoth while he had that unique ability to twist, warp, transmute his magic.
But for my dad to be alive now, with all of that in play, it pointed straight to that.
Ambrose had warped Ruxnoth’s warped magic.
Oh fuck—that was it!
What Ruxnoth had done was a violation of the balance.
For so many years now, Ambrose had been so dialed into that, so connected to it. So he’d been able to use it and actually wield it to undo the violation. Being able to do that shouldn’t just be rooted to that particular scenario with my dad. This could actually be the key to undoing the most dangerous thing about Ruxnoth—the reason he couldn’t just be overpowered by other True Celestials like Ariana Martel and Ketheron.
I squeezed my eyes shut as emotion got the best of me and cut into my thoughts.
