Delani’s tongue shot out of her mouth as she knitted her brows.
“Anyways, according to what I read, the Hykahs are created when too much power is given to mortals.” Leighton looked at Kade. “Remember how the one we saw had a fistful of jewels? That much power stuffed into one body affects their entire physiology. The mortal body in its natural form can’t withstand that much godly power. It causes them to…change.”
What happens when too much godly power is forced into one body?Cicily had written that in the first journal.
“If a mortal body can’t physically hold that much power, then wouldn’t the things just die?” Sawyer asked.
“That’s what I thought, too, but there's another piece of this, which is how Venay came into play.” Leighton clamped her hands together behind her back and began pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace. “If you keep reading, there's something that looks like a spell, or an enchantment. I think Venay was doing something to the mortals before embedding the jewels into them. Something to preserve their bodies throughout the entire process.”
“Like what?” I asked, standing up and sitting next to Sebastian now that Pia had finished healing his shoulder. He tested the arm out by performing a deep stretch before putting his shirt back on.
“I’m pretty confident that she was removing their souls,” Leighton answered.
“What?” Kohen blurted, his shock evident.
Sebastian put an arm around my shaking body, pulling me back into his chest.
“Think about it. The power from one stone is harsh enough on our bodies, let alone the number the Hykahs have. Maeve, for example, has stronger power than all of us, and she had a hard time controlling it without draining herself until the markings that is. Right?” Leighton looked to me for approval.
With my nod, she continued. “For the Hykahs to control the power of that many gods, they need to notfeel. If they don’t have a soul, then they can’t feel pain or emotion, and their bodies are essentially just carcasses full of magic.”
“So why do they looked so fucked up?” Sawyer asked. “From what you and Kade told us, they’re taller than a normal person and have the weird, open-jaw distended-ribcage thing going on.”
“I don’t have a definite answer to that,” Leighton admitted. “The only thing I can think of is that the body needs to stretch and shift to accommodate the magnitude of power it's holding.”
“Can they hold more than five jewels?” Pia wondered aloud.
Leighton gulped and nodded. “The one we saw in the dungeon only had five but, if you read further through the notes, it appears Beaumont has been successful embedding seven jewels into one soulless vessel. And at the bottom of that page is a number. One hundred and forty.”
“What about it?” Sawyer replied.
“I think that is how many Hykahs he has created so far maybe,” she answered, unsure. “Though I could be wrong. Could be completely unrelated, but maybe not.”
My anxiety wrapped around me and squeezed. I pulled out of Sebastian’s arms to lean forward on the sofa, my hands clasped together. “Wait. You said you found out why Beaumont has wanted me so bad this whole time…why?”
My peach fuzz prickled as I felt Sebastian's sigh on the back of my neck while he brushed my hair behind my ear.
Leighton reached back into her pocket, pulling out another paper and crossing the threshold of the room to pass it to me.
As I read, my weak stomach made its timely appearance. My blood steamed to an unbearable heat, and my hand shook uncontrollably when I handed her back the parchment.
“He…He wants to turn me into one of them?” I shook my head, my hair falling into my eyes. “What good would I be without a soul?”
“You're the most powerful mortal on our continent, and probably the entire world,” Leighton replied softly. “If you were soulless, you would be the definition of unstoppable. As long as he learned to control you, that is. Without a soul, you wouldn't beyouanymore.”
My mouth went dry.
“And, if he adds the seven powers of the other gods to your soulless vessel, you would carry the power of all the gods,” she added, twisting the knife in my throat.
No, no, no. Seven lives—eight if you counted the loss of my soul—just for Beaumont to turn me into a shell full of raw power to use to claim the empire.
“We obviously won’t let that happen, Maeve,” Kohen added, no doubt noticing how my skin had lost every bit of its color.
“I think his original plan was to reproduce with you in the hopes of having offspring who were also gifted by Blythe, butnow that the prophecy has been fulfilled, there's less hope in that, and it also would have taken too long. He wouldn't have known if it worked until the child became of age,” Leighton stated, nodding her head in the direction of the notes Pia now held.
As if I swallowed my damn tongue, I couldn't speak.
“Any idea how long he has been creating the Hykahs?” Kohen asked, plopping onto the floor.
