“You can, and you will.” Azric walks across the stones until he’s standing next to me. “I’d show you how if I could, but I simply can’t fight while controlling it. My powers are…limitedfor manipulating flesh and bone. This isn’t even the primary danger you’ll come up against in the next trial. Your teammates will help you, but you need to be prepared to survive on your own.”
He takes a deep breath, and out of nowhere, Inni says, “Just tell the girl. You demand trust from her, yet you don’t offer her any? Why?”
Azric turns to the red dragon, anger on his face. “Because reasons don’t matter. She won’t even understand them. The important thing is knowing what must happen going forward. That means she needs to stand alone against all the threats she could face in the arena.”
He turns to me, and true concern is etched across his face. “I told you I’m helping you, that you matter to saving Nyth. I’m willing to risk a great deal to help you. Do you need more information than that?”
I know the answer that I’m expected to give him. I also feel like I can trust him not to hurt me in front of our audience. He may lie about a lot of things, but something tells me that dragons don’t. “I may not need more information, but I do want it.”
He smiles from me to Inni and says, “See. She doesn’t need it. The less she knows, the safer she is from anything that comes after the trials.”
When Azric turns back to me, he says, “I swear by everything I am, I will do everything in my power to keep you alive. All I ask is that you promise to do as I say, even if it goes against everything you believe to be true.”
I hesitate.Don’t forget that you can’t trust any of them.My father’s words echo in my mind, and Azric sees that hesitation. “You don’t have to do anything yet,” he says. “But there will come a time when I’ll need you to trust me. You’ll see.”
I stare into his eyes as I say, “I will consider trusting you, Prince of Bones.”
He says nothing for several moments, and we just stare at each other. Then, fast as ever, he reaches into my cloak and pulls out the ermine pouch I’d stolen from him. I react as quickly as I can, but I don’t snatch them back from him quickly enough.
He takes a step back, a smile on those all-too-beautiful lips, and he holds the pouch up. “I told you I’d explain what these are for if you found them, and I always keep my promises. These three beads were given to me by Caeldra when I was presented to the gods by my parents. Each of the gods gave me a gift, some that are dear to me, and others that are more of a curse.”
Hepours the glass beads into his hand and breathes on them. A hint of a flame passes over them, and they glow with a decidedly unnatural light, very different from any glass I’ve ever seen before. It’s like someone stole three stars from the sky and trapped them in glass.
“Caeldra is the Goddess of Silences and Shatterings,” he continues. “It sounds like a uniquely stupid thing to be the goddess of compared to Death, Storms, or Darkness. The thing is that she holds the Godhood of Change, and for those of us who believe that we can change the future, her powers are of the utmost importance.”
I don’t interrupt. The Priests have our thoughts on the gods based on what we’ve heard and seen, but no one would know more than Azric other than Caeldra’s champion. He breathes on the beads again, and this time, a hint of shadows flows over them, and suddenly, they glow with a black light similar to the Mark of the Cloak when it’s activated.
“Silences are the moments when something is about to change. The quiet before the storm. The silence of the forest when something terrifying is waiting just beyond the firelight. The moment right before a child takes his first screaming breath.
“They are the moments when the path of a person’s life can diverge. Will the storm turn or break before it destroys the lighthouse? Will the person recognize they’re in danger? Will the monster decide to watch rather than attack? Will the child take that breath? Will he fade back into the Void?”
He slips the beads back into the pouch. “The moment destiny is decided is the shattering. After that, destiny is known, but during that silence, things can change, and even Saelira doesn’t know which way things will go.”
I frown. “What does that have to do with the beads?”
“Those beadscreatea silence, and when they break, there’s a brand new shattering, one that did not exist along the paths of destiny. Those three beads can change even Saelira’s prophecies.”
I blink as he hands them back to me. “Saelira’s prophecies cannot be changed,” I whisper. “Everybody knows that.”
He shrugs and turns around. “Saelira can only see the path that is laid out. Caeldra can break that path. These beads would allow even a little Priestess to do the same thing.”
“Then why hasn’t she stopped the prophecy that a god will die? Why hasn’t someone forced you to use one of these beads to change the future?”
As if he hasn’t heard me, he walks to the opposite end of the roost, and it only takes a moment for me to follow him. When I’m standing beside him, he says, “Because no one knows how altering the path forward would impact the future. The Godhood of Change doesn’t have access to foresight like some of the others. She may try to change things, but she might make them worse. You can be sure she’s watching everything, hoping she’ll recognize the moment she can save the god destined to die. It simply hasn’t happened yet, or she missed her chance.”
He turns to me. “They’re useless to me, but I think you might have a much better chance of finding a good time to use them.”
I cock my head. “Why? Why me?”
He runs his nail over my cheek until it’s right next to my eyes. “Because your eyes are blue and mine are orange. That’s all I’m going to say for now. It’s probably best if I bring you back to my uncle, unless you want me to heal your cracked rib. I’m sure it’s hurting you quite a bit.”
The thought of him running his hand up my stomach to touch my ribs makes me shiver with heat. “No thank you. I’ll take one of my potions for that.”
He steps so close to me I can feel his body heat radiating. “You’re a strange human, little Priestess.” He runs his hand over my throat, his fingers brushing against the same spot he’d left a handprint. “You want me like all the rest of them, and you don’t even know why you should be afraid. Yet, you still push away from me. You still deny me.”
The memory of his kiss right before I passed out flashes through my mind. The way it had felt like his soul had flowed into me, had become a part of me. I had been swallowed up in that kiss. I’d lost everything I am to it.
I push away from him. “I refuse you because you’re the Prince of Bones. We are allies, Azric Cyrus, nothing more. That’s only because neither of us has another option. You are the strongest ally I could have, and I guess I’m the only person who can do what you want. That doesn’t change who you are, though. You are Death’s champion. Why would I want you to touch me? Why would I want to become closer to you in any way?”
