Martin backed away. “You’re a monster. You killed all those people.”
Xariel held up his hands. “Did you see me throttle anyone? Cut any throats? In fact, I think I saved two on your behalf, or have you forgotten already?”
“The demons. You control them.”
Fire flashed from Xariel’s eyes. “How dare you call them demons! Those people were very much like yours once except for appearance and favoring the night. They were left with nothing. Do you blame them for turning into animals, feeding on what little magic they can find that won’t alert that vile creature to their presence?”
“But those were innocent people they killed.”
“It’s no worse than will happen when yourLadybores of them and leaves again.” Xariel charged forward, grasped Martin’s collar, and slammed his back against a tree. Eye to eye, he sneered, “There is no Lady. It came to your realm where you embraced a lie. It usurped your deity and fed on your adoration. But mostly fed on your magic, eliminating any who might stand in its way.”
“Thomoth.” Martin’s hard swallow didn’t clear his dust-dry throat. “We will beat it.”
The man barked out a laugh full of bitterness. “Who? You and the few remaining guardians? If six thousand of our best and brightest failed, what chance have you?”
Six thousand?
“Let me ask you—what has Dmitri shown you? Parlor tricks?” Xariel stepped back. Green flames danced over his gloved fingers. “Runes, signs, divination? They are nothing when it comes to the creature’s power. Where do you think that power comes from? Fire rages and destroys, but it relies on what it burns for its existence.” Xariel swept his arms out to the sides. “This! This is what happens. Thomoth sucked the very life from our realm, as it will yours. I’ve spent eons trying to overcome the runes keeping me here. And now I have. The foul creature won’t do to your world what it did to mine.”
“But then why kill the people?”
“To feed the hungry. It’s not flesh and blood I long to save, but my home.”
“This one isn’t that bad.”
Xariel scoffed, full lips twisted into a bitter scowl. Blackened timbers littered the ground, the trees standing dead around him. The whole area appeared devoid of life. Even the ocean waves ceased their rolling. “Now, do you understand?”
“But… those things! You control them. Make them stop.”
“I don’t control them, can’t you see? They’re the bitterness left behind after ruin. Pity them more than you fear them.”
“You’re not like them.” No scales, no purple eyes. A powerful glamour. Except for his beauty, most wouldn’t notice if this… man strolled through the city. Was it wrong to think of this man as beautiful, this evil being who’d released destruction on Martin’s city? Possibly his village. The man lied about not controlling the demons—he had to be lying. After all, he walked right past them, and they paid him no mind. They called him master.
Yet, he’d saved Dmitri and Peter. Why?
In the mountains surrounding Martin’s old home grew a beautiful blue flower, so lovely any who saw one wanted to pick it and take it home, were obsessed with the notion until they did. Prolonged contact caused death.
Yes, beauty and danger often traveled hand in hand. But, once the plant withered and died, Da had brewed tea from its shriveled leaves and cured many an ailment among his people.
Beautiful, dangerous, but in the end—useful.
“No, I’m not like them.” Xariel let out a sigh. “The one many of your kind dedicate their lives to isn’t anything from your world. I don’t believe it thinks of itself as male or female. It’s old. Older even than me.”
Older than him? Xariel appeared of an age with Martin himself, but hadn’t he admitted to being much older? “How old are you?”
The man gave a bitter smile. “Older than I have the right to be.”
Not an answer. “What do you intend to do?”
After a long moment of staring out to sea, Xariel murmured, “I intend to destroy the entity, freeing your world, this one, and many more.”
“How?”
“By destroying its anchor.” He fixed his gaze squarely on Martin, the sorrow on his face replaced by determination. “The ones you call the Chosen.”
Cere!
Chapter Thirty-nine
