Scotty didn’t even want to let her mind go there. She turned, a bit unsteadily, to Eva. “How’s she doing?”
Eva smiled weakly, her eyes still closed, her head still resting on Logan, who held her so tightly it was a wonder she could breathe. “I feel better. Tired, but better.”
“So…” Limos absently rubbed her forearm, where the glyph of her hell stallion used to be. Scotty couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Like her brothers, Limos had been linked to her warhorse for thousands of years, and even though it had been a carnivorous monster, its death at Lilith’s hands had been hard for Limos. “Where is Harvester’s Grace?”
“I can’t see it.” Idess sounded worried. “I can feel it, though.”
Aleka paled. “But we don’t have Harvester’s blood,” she croaked. “We’re done. She’s gone.”
A pall fell over the room as months of hope crashed and burned.
Tears stung Scotty’s eyes, and exhaustion sapped her energy. She barely made it to the couch before her legs gave out.
“This can’t be happening.” She wished Blade and Mace were here.She should have insisted that they be allowed to attend.
Raika studied the blood on her finger, fascinated by a drop that dripped down her knuckle. “Lilith just went to the top of my Most Wanted list.”
“She wouldn’t be on any list if your father had destroyed her soul instead of releasing her from Sheoul-gra,” Scotty snapped.
Raika turned, her body taut, her expression unreadable. “I know.”
Dammit. Scotty knew that what she’d said was unfair, but the pain was so raw that when she opened her mouth to apologize, all that came out was a sob.
“It’s over,” Aleka said numbly. “We’ve lost her forever. All we needed was a drop. Just…a drop.” She covered her face and wept.
Scotty wanted to hug her sister, but Aleka spun and rushed for the door.
“Wait!” Reseph caught Aleka by the elbow. “I think I can help.”
Scotty leaped to her feet. Well, she tried, but she felt so slow. This was hitting her hard. “How, Uncle Reseph?”
He swallowed. Looked down at his boots. “When I was Pestilence…” He took a deep, ragged breath. “Pestilence drank a lot of blood. It’s how I knew Lilith was here tonight. Some blood splashed on my mouth. I…tasted her.”
The horrors her uncle had committed when his Seal had broken, unleashing the evil Horseman, Pestilence, upon the world, never stopped. Scotty had a hard time imagining him capable of some of those atrocities, but she knew they’d happened.
“I carry the blood of everyone Pestilence fed from inside me. Harvester…she was one of them. If Harvester’s Grace can find it, I’ll gladly drain my body of every drop.”
With that, he slashed his arm open from elbow to wrist.
Idess let out a surprised breath, her gaze locked upward. “The Grace is forming again.” As Reseph’s blood poured out onto the floor, her gaze followed what Scotty assumed was Harvester’s Grace. “It’s swirling around Reseph. I think it’s looking for what it needs.”
As one wound healed, Reseph made another. And another. His slashes grew more vicious with every slice of his blade.
“Reseph?” Scotty stepped toward him, but Limos snagged her shoulder.
“Don’t,” she said quietly.
“But—” Holy shit, he was literally hacking at his arm now. His expression was one of pure anguish, and his eyes burned with unholyhatred. Hatred of himself. On his knife arm, his stallion raged, the glyph bucking and kicking. “What’s happening?”
“Something that’s been coming for a long, long time.”
“I don’t understand.”
Her father’s hand came down on her other shoulder. He looked sad, but he made no move to stop his brother. “He’s purging his sins. One of them, anyway.”
Reseph crashed to his knees in the rapidly expanding pool of blood. Head bent, he sagged, the knife falling from his fingers. Blood ran from dozens of wounds in his arm, on his torso, and even his chest. How many times had he stabbed himself? How much pain was he in, both physically and mentally?
“Idess?” The layered, 3D tats on Thanatos’s throat writhed as he looked over at Mace’s mom. “What’s happening?”
