Tynan’s eyes drew a long line from his fingers to my outstretched hands before meeting my gaze.
“Dead, of course,” he answered, his lips tilting. “You know this. It’s the only reason you are standing here. While I’m sure my sisters intended on drawing out his agony, their emotions often get the best of them. He died faster than they wished.”
My breath hitched as my chest tightened. Ganmira and Renova’s wrath had been palpable when Kellan drew them back with his rubelline daggers. And then they came for him… My mind blocked out the image of the hooks embedded into his abdomen, the blood pouring from the wounds… but I couldn’t shut out the look on his face as his dark eyes found mine.
Bonscaíh.
“It’s why you arefinallyhere,” Tynan continued. “Though I wasn’t expecting it to be him that drew you to me.”
My throat bobbed. “What do you mean?”
Ebony brows rose, lines of gray appearing on his forehead.
“We’ve always been connected, my dear. Death has always called to you. Descended from Enya, my first daughter. Born on the Sending, the one day the Realm of Vael dares speak my name. The one day every twenty-four years the moons named for my sisters cloud your world in darkness.
“Why do you think you’ve always been drawn to death? ‘Death Digger,’ Olienna called you.” He chuckled. “My, the way she screamed. He made sure we all heard it. My sisters may be malicious, spiteful creatures, but my brother is the most dangerous of us all.”
A phantom scream echoed in my ears. Had Olienna died when the gate opened?
His brother…The Sisters and the Brother. Tynan, Ganmira, Renova, and…
“Aelius?” I asked in a breath, fear fueling the adrenaline shooting through my veins.
Tynan rolled his eyes. “No. Though that one certainly has a temper.”
“Then who?”
“Sintarrak,” Tynan whispered, each of the consonants sticking on his tongue. “The thief of minds.”
The fog around me stilled its sluggish journey, and my powers quaked as he spoke the name. Olienna had harnessed the Palaega power… The power of the mind, to influence sleep and speak mind to mind, which meant…
“Another Embodied,” I choked out, my mind spinning. How many were there? We’d only ever worshipped four gods…
Tynan’s eyes drifted over my face as if reading the pages of questions flooding my brain.
“There were once many. You know the story.” Tynan inclined his head. The three forks of his tongue slipped between his teeth.
“The People of the Stars,” I answered, my mind whirring. Hadallof it been true? An entire history of a people hiddenaway inFabia’s Fables. Astraeus was one of the Starlings. They’d descended from the line of demigods, fathered by the Messenger who betrayed the superior gods,Sintarrak…
“You’ve met Sintarrak before.” Tynan smiled. The sharp points of his teeth dug into his lips. “He’s difficult to miss, what with eyes like stars.”
My stomach dropped.Silver eyes.
Those flashes I’d seen in the eyes of different faces, like living silver. The soldier in Mount Telum last year, when I’d been taken prisoner, and again in Stynguard. The mystic at the Eye of the Wood during the Awakening. And finally, in the Death Dunes at the celebration of Maadon. TheImpostor… The Messenger god…
“The Starlings allowed him access to your world by taking a piece of his power, so he’s watched from his world. He’s been watchingyou,” Tynan continued, his eyes narrowing.
“Why—” I choked on the word, my bravado fading as the enormity of the forces I was dealing with began to crush down.
“BecauseI chose you. You are my soldier in this war. You will defeat them, and then, you will free me.”
I blinked. “Free you?”
Tynan’s hands waved in a large arc overhead, and the hovering mist and smoke split, creating an unending column of clouds that stretched to infinity.
“I AM TRAPPED!” he bellowed, and power stretched from his form, thin ribbons of death exploding outward.
My powers reacted moments before his shadows slammed into my shield, and my feet slid in the sticky muck as the force of his wrath pushed me back.
