“What?”
“The piece of the book. The books are anchors of the Orders belief that keep the Stygian at bay. Snarp has the last piece inside him.”
It’s the last piece.That’s what Emma had said, nothe’sthe last piece.
“So you’re saying she is going to come back?”
“I’m coming over,” I assured her. Before hanging up, I said, “Krystan, we know what she wants and I have a plan. We are going to get her back.”
Her voice was strangled and small. “Don’t make promises you can’t cash, buddy.”
“Listen to your senses. Do they tell you I’m lying?”
There was a pause. “Get your ass over here before she blows our house away like the big bad wolf.”
26
Icalled everyone from all the Orders to meet at Travis and Krystan’s home. Some of them fought me, but when I told them I had a plan to stop Emma they eventually shut up and showed. They might not trust me, they might not listen, but I was going to do whatever it took to bring Emma back and save us from the Stygian.
No place was truly safe, and the Veritas already had their guard set up on the purple house. Travis informed me that Gran Rits’ ghost hadn’t left since the attack of the dolls, which were all cleared away thankfully. Gran Rits was vigilant and ready to protect her home and her grandson. Travis said she was juiced up with power like a weightlifter on steroids. She told Travis she believed it was a reason why she hadn’t moved on from this world, she had to protect her family. Snarp was secured in his cage, surrounded by five rings of glyphs and an armed guard, which bought us precious time.
Everyone was crowded into the dining room until there was standing room only. Gregory and Diana had come, bringing the High Priestess from the Spiritus with them. I’d even managed to find Gatsby. My Chevalier brother looked ready to fly out of here based on the way he shifted back and forth from foot to foot, sending furious glances at everyone in the room as if they were all apt to jump on him with a knife at any moment. Ylang and Violetta studiously ignored his presence. Gatsby was the only other Chevalier to jump ship once he’d heard about the way they manipulated and lied to us.
The faces around me were haggard, scared, or wary.
I got straight to the point.
“Emma has all the books. She is going to collapse time and space, destroying any separation between our world and the Stygian. She wants to serve the ancient evil gods and send our world into darkness.” No one spoke, so I went on to explain how the books bar the Stygian from our world, how Snarp had ingested a piece that Emma needs to destroy before she can complete the Reckoning’s will.
“I’ve been thinking about the books.”
Ylang and Violetta shared a look, and I could see their shared belief they were wasting time listening to my theory. Without Emma at the helm, no one believed in my ability. But she had believed in me to figure this out, and that was enough for me.
“Not only is each book a text about how to fight the Stygian, each one contains a prophecy about the Propheros.” I nodded at Violetta, prompting her.
“She was the chosen one meant to sacrifice herself to protect our world with her pure soul.” Violetta said, in a seat next to Ylang on the opposite side of the table. Her normally straight, proud posture was rounded with defeat and exhaustion. Her ward, Leonidas stood behind her as usual.
“And how about that lie about Emma having to be a virgin?” Travis said pointing at them, a little too earnest. “Because we should call that patriarchy bullshit out right now.” He was met with blank looks. Travis stepped back and hooked his thumbs into his pockets. Krystan covered her eyes as he shrugged at her.
Now that Travis was done, I gestured to the High Priestess of Spiritus, who sat to my left. “But then you said her sacrifice would have healed the tear but then more would have opened.”
The High Priestess nodded, closing her eyes. “The walls between our dimensions have been thinning over time. Her sacrifice would have strengthened the wall for a time, but my seer had a vision that it would not be enough. In fact, in our text, it was written that without the Propheros, the wall would have crumbled even faster in the end as opposed to the steady decay that had been occurring.”
Phillip sat on my left while my mother stood behind him. “The book of Veritas always indicated the Propheros would go through the Reckoning. She must know the darkness to fight it.”
Astrid tapped a finger against the table, “According to the Tenebrae, the Propheros was always meant to bring hell on Earth in order to unite the world. When she helped close the dimensional rift with the aid of the Chevalier and one of your Masters”—she pointed at Ylang and Violetta—“Damien believed she could no longer be trusted to follow her path. The world hadn’t been united against the Stygian. That’s when the Tenebrae took their own measures to ensure chaos ensued for the sake for the greater good.”
“Yeah and that was a great idea,” Mika said, shooting Astrid a scathing look.
Before the two women leapt across the table at each other, I said, “Mika, do you know what the book of Terra says?”
Mika leaned back into her chair with an air of deliberate nonchalance. “The Chevalier and the Propheros would birth the solution.”
I folded my hands, setting my elbows on the table. “And that one is true as well.”
Gregory and Diana exchanged a look before interlacing fingers.
“They are all true. Every single one of the prophecies is true—all a piece of the original book of the sole Order hundreds of years ago.”
