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That bit of information brought a fresh wave of dread. “Oh. Shit.”

Not good. Seriously not good.

“So, this is why Aidan’s scared of The Wheel,” I said.

“With The Wheel sealed away, he can be the one true deity,” Gavriel replied. “With it open, he will be claimed.”

I wish it would open right now.

He continued. “We called the song Blood Melody, since it was spun from the blood of every seraphim in the world. Unfortunately, the deities discovered this and brought down a terrible injustice upon our heads. We were immortal, yet not invincible. Death by violence ended us in the form of a meteor shower directly from Heaven. Upon impact, the meteor changed the nature of our domain, creating the storms and the ash, permanently strangling all life from it. Every seraphim died that day, and knowledge of us faded, The Wheel lost to the shadows.”

Sadness dragged talons across my heart because of the thick cloud of loss and what I’d never see.

“I’m guessing Aidan found The Wheel, then?” I asked.

“He found the key to unlocking its location,” Gavriel answered. “An indestructible key he hid in desperation.” His sigh conjured a gust of wind to rustle the leaves on the olive tree.

Aidan mentioned a key in Silv’s memory replay.

I swallowed a dry lump, in desperate need of a beer. “Does… Does…” I didn’t want to ask this. “So, does Caer want The Wheel?”

“Yes. She means to steal your seraphim essence to find it.”

If I wasn’t stuck in this crouch, I would have collapsed. A type of grief bore down on me. For trusting her, for what I’d just lost.

She’d played me. Aidan had been right.

“I’m a puppet,” I whispered.

“You are the ultimate weapon, the last remnant of Blood Melody.”

My chest was a mess of anxious knots. “I’m a song?”

“No. You are entwined with it.”

Can someone wake me up now, please?

“Much like Caer managed to wander oblivion to find her hope in you,” he said, “this fragment of me also drifted and faded, clinging to the hope of sharing this message with you.”

I recoiled from his words a little.

I don’t like this. “How did this essence thing happen to me?”

“You were born on the banks of River Celestia, a story you must ask your parents to divulge. The last twin to arrive, as bright as a star, full of promise. I attached myself to you, gifting you with blood and song. At the same time Caer swooped in, suppressing me, using her song to manipulate you to open her glade. But now I have finally reached you.”

My damn head spun like a tumble dryer.

“Caer will find the magical means to take the essence from you, find the key, and use The Wheel to dominate all.”

This couldn’t be right. None of this was real. A trick to throw me off the path, to severe ties with the elf deity.

“But she⁠—”

“Helped you see Aidan’s lies?” he interrupted. “What about her own?”

My stomach sank.

Puppet…