“I have been alive a very long time.” He rubbed his face. “And we must be careful, lest we choose the wrong fork in the path.”
“What are you saying?”
“You cannot return the gemstones to the gods. Do not trust them when they say they will leave Endir alone. They want to destroy every last human in this world. And they will return here once they destroy Talaven.” His eyes land heavily on me. “The mortals of Teine are in grave danger. Which means, so are the rest of us.”
A shiver of dread scraped down my spine. “They gods want to kill the humans here?”
“They wish to destroy all of humankind.”
Gaven let out a low whistle. “Well then. I think there’s only one thing we can do in this situation. We must evacuate the city before dawn.”
“And how do you propose we do that?” Fenella asked, scowling. “You don’t think the gods will be watching?”
“Luckily, I know a secret way out.”
Twenty-Six
Fiadh MacCain
THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO
Distantly, I knew I was still alive, though a part of me had died when the god took over my body. Half my soul had gone to be with the stars. The other half was stuck here, unable to do anything but witness the world pass me by. Like I was a ghost.
A ghost stuck inside a body that was no longer hers.
At first, I screamed. I shouted and raged and wailed against the monstrous creature controlling my limbs, my eyes, my heart. But soon, I realized it was hopeless. I didn’t even think the creature could hear me. If she could, she never reacted to my wailing.
Perhaps she liked the sound of pain.
I would not know if she did. I couldn’t hear her thoughts.
And so I watched as the creature watched my sister. They’d been travelling together for days. Orla hadn’t seemed to notice I was any different, and the two of them had discussed nothing that might reveal it. Smart of the creature. She always steered the conversation toward other things when it was necessary.
So far, she had done nothing to harm anyone, let alone my sister. But I didn’t like the way the creature was looking at Orla now, at her pale, sleeping face, and at the way a strand of her hair curled into her eyes like a crescent moon.
“I need your help,” the creature whispered. “I cannot do this without you. I don’t have the edge.”
I knew she wasn’t talking to me.
The creature pulled a glittering gemstone from her pocket and examined it beneath the light of the moon. It wasn’t the one I’d been carrying, but another. Even in my strange, minuscule existence, I could feel fear. And it consumed me now.
“No,” I said, pleading with the creature to hear me this time. “Please, leave her be.”
But if the creature could hear me, she didn’t care how much I pleaded or cried or begged. She flipped the gemstone in her hands, then placed it on the ground beside Orla’s head. From her pocket came another stone, then another, until she’d spread thirteen of them across the parched grass.
“I could give life to some of you,” she whispered as her fingers danced across the gemstones. “Bringing only the good into this world. We could help these people, give them peace and courage, abundance and health.” Her fingers paused when they reached one slightly darker than the others, and her voice suddenly went hard. “But they do not deserve it.”
I felt her heart pounding—my heart. She snatched the darker stone from the ground and pressed it against my sister’s forehead.
“No,” I moaned. “No, please.”
But it was already too late. The gemstone vanished into Orla’s skin. Whatever it was, it was part of Orla now.
* * *
The creature sometimes slept. It seemed to be the only thing she required, other than water and the occasional meal. I quickly gathered it was my body that caused her need for food and rest. She might be an immortal being from the clouds, but my body was fae. We lived longer than humans, but we were not immortal.
Still, I could feel a new strength in my bones. A fresh energy that buzzed like lightning. Colors were brighter. Sounds were sharper. From a mile away, I could spot a rabbit in the grass.
