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I raise my atikas higher, my chin lifted in defiance. “You can try, but I’m not as weak as I was before, and now I have more allies.”
As if confirming my words, horns sound in the distance, groups of armed godsworn spilling from Maiwuri’s buildings, ready to join those here. There’s no sign of the ebiki, but they may be too far out in the water to hear the sounds of battle. No matter, my friends and I are enough to handle Melanis now. I subtly lower myself into a more grounded stance.
This action, for some reason, amuses Melanis, who flies lower. “Allies. Is that so?” she purrs. “Because I brought allies too.”
She smirks again, and suddenly, power begins emanating from her, so much more power than she herself could ever create. Vines slither down her torso. Sinister green vines, moist-petaled black flowers sprouting from them. Blood-eaters, the monstrous creations of Etzli, the goddess who feeds on behalf of the Gilded Ones.
Horror washes over me.
If Melanis is here, covered in vines and power, that means only one thing: she’s brought Etzli with her, and perhaps other Gilded Ones as well.
I whirl to the others. “It’s Etzli!” I shout. “She’s using Melanis as a vessel!”
“Perceptive as always, Nuru,” the goddess rumbles, her voice causing Melanis’s eyes to turn white as she flaps within fighting distance. “But all the perception in the world will not save you.” She gestures to the ground. “Rise!”
Blood-eaters immediately erupt from the soil, the vines swiftly wrapping themselves around my body. A few of the black flowers immediately begin snapping, moist petals seeking purchase through my skin to burrow their way inside me, just as the ansetha necklace once did.
Thankfully, I’m wearing Ayo’s armor, so their carnivorous mouths have nowhere to burrow. And I’m still filled with the ebiki’s power, which means…“Down,” I command, drawing on every last bit of power Queen Ayo and the ebiki sang into me just two days ago.
Etzli, who’s trapped in the fleshy cage that is her own daughter’s body, immediately plummets to the ground, along with all the hunters around her.
As I stand there savoring the return of my power, however little of it remains, Etzli writhes on the ground, wings flapping uselessly as she attempts to fight against the effects of my command. “What is this?” she shrieks. “What did you do to me?”
I smirk. “Used a little of the power you tried to steal. Now then.” I lift my hand as I slip deeper into the combat state, summoning all the power I can.
It’s surging to the surface to obey my command when a sharp twinge jolts through me. My fingers are suddenly tingling, little sparks at the tips. I don’t have to look down to know what they are. Sores, forming in response to how much power I used. They don’t hurt, not yet, but I know that’s coming soon. Pain is always the shadow that follows the sores.
I grit my teeth. “No,” I hiss. No, no, no! Not now. I thought it would take more power—way more power than this to drive my body to the brink again—but that, it seems, is not the case.
Etzli laughs. “What’s this, already reached your limit, Deka?” She flaps again, trying to pull herself from the ground, but thankfully, my power holds.
I stretch out my hand again.
“Deka?” Britta asks beside me. Then she sees my fingertips. Sees the gold stripes forming there. “Oh no. Stop, stop it now!” she commands, then she whirls to Keita. “What are ye waitin’ for, Keita? Help her! Burn them! Burn them all!”
“On it!” Keita shouts, eyes turning red as he whirls in the direction of Etzli and her hunters. He gestures and their bodies immediately burst into flames, as do all the plants Etzli has summoned, everything writhing and snapping as his power reduces the grove to dust.
But it’s not enough. Even before the flames die, Etzli and the others are already back up, their wings flapping against the heat.
“How dare you, son of man!” Etzli shrieks, her body blackened to charcoal as she barrels into him. It’s clear she has completely taken over Melanis now; the winged Firstborn’s body has taken on an eerily distinct glow, and her eyes are the same milky white I’m so familiar with from spending time in the goddess’s presence.
Keita sends another pillar of flame toward her face, but she smashes straight through it to snatch him up and toss him into the stream just in front of Queen Ayo’s library.
“Know your place!” she hisses, enraged. Then she turns to me, eyes burning with fury, the charcoal flaking off her body. She’s already healing again, the way all alaki do. “No more running, Deka. No more hiding, no more power. I’ll bury you in the obsidian grave where I buried Anok.”
I stumble. “You buried her?”
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Etzli slows, a cruel smile spreading across her face. “I imprisoned her in the obsidian pit your Fatu left behind when she turned our food supply to ash.”
The pit where all those male deathshrieks had been.
My body goes cold at the reminder.
One of the most horrific things I learned during my confrontation with the Gilded Ones was the fate of their sons. I’d always wondered why there were no male deathshrieks. Then I discovered the truth: the goddesses trapped the resurrected bodies of their sons in the cavern underneath their chamber. They fed from them, devoured their bodies to grow stronger.
For the Gilded Ones, every male deathshriek was born a sacrifice.
Etzli shrugs. “If she loved our sons so much, she can be with them. For eternity. And you can join them.”
