“Farasee Kaelthos, I fail to understand what is going on here. This lesson is about righteous judgment. What are the Marked doing here? They’re not part of Xadari Legion.”
“Good observation, Disciple Safah.” Kaelthos’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “TheseFallenspawnabominations have been caught in the Shaele, trafficking hèlborns into the Ouanaviel island.”
“It’s not true!” the first Marked cried. “We’ve done no such thing.”
“Silence!” Kaelthos snapped.
It was dead quiet in the Sanctuary. Many of the Disciples looked on, horrified. I’d always known Kaelthos was unhinged. But this was too far.
“Disciple Safah, your job is simple. These Fallenspawn have been accused and brought tomefor sentencing. As part of the Farasee Order, I judge them guilty of treason. Their sentence is death.”
My ears were ringing. Death? Just how many lives was this stars-forsaken temple going to take?
I began slipping to a place far away in my mind. Shadows curled around my starfire silhouette and held me tight. The gesture was sweet. But it wasn’t going to be enough. I looked back at the table. At the three Dragontails.
We need the fire of the stars.
I pressed my lips together, letting my eyes fall shut as Farasee Kaelthos gave me the rest of my instructions with a sickening bounce in his voice.
“Disciple Safah, you will siphon the spirits of these ten Fallenspawn. You will use your starfire to drain them. You will then crush the spirits into nothing. When you’re done, you must set their carcasses on fire until every last one of them have completed their sentence. Death.”
Chapter 34
Isqueezed my eyes shut, shaking my head. A blazing heat crawled through my limbs as I wrestled with what I’d just been told.
I couldn’t have heard him right. Kaelthos Zamarien, a Farasee, didnotjust ask me to commit murder. In the holiest temple of the Ouanaviel Empyrean. I was not being asked to shed the blood of innocents.
“Farasee Kaelthos,” I began, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I…You can’t…You’re not…” I stuttered, trying, and failing, to get my words out. I couldn’t open my eyes as disgust began swallowing me whole. “You can’tpossiblyexpect me to… expect me tomurderinnocent angels?—”
“Judgethem, Safah Anathelle. The word you are looking for is righteouslyjudge.”
Kaelthos was a monster. Truly. I didn’t bother dignifying his point with a response.
“And furthermore,” I continued, “If I am to siphon the spirits of these Marked, why are these here?” I gestured to the Dragontail whips. My stomach churned.
A dragon had to die for this. For their scales to be used as the leather for the whips. For their spikes to be woven in intervalsmeant for sticking into flesh and ripping it apart. For their talons to be turned into the tips of the whips.
Not to mention, if they were bonded to an angel, it also meant the angel had also died. Because the loss of a bond between dragon and angel was equally devastating as a wingmate bond between angelic mates.
A tendril of shadow gingerly brushed the edges of my mind. I found myself like a starving youngling, throwing myself into the touch. Desperate for its comfort. Its strength.
“Ah yes. The Dragontails.”
Kaelthos chuckled darkly, as if something funny had been said. I shuddered at the sound. Shuddered at the gleam that lit up the eyes of all three Scourgers.
“Disciple Safah, they are here in case you’d like to be the first female of your family to break tradition. Now remember, this lesson is about sacrifice beingbetterthan obedience.”
I spun to face Kaelthos. The smile stitched on his face made all seven of my hearts shrivel.
“Either you obey and kill the Fallenspawn. Or,” he lifted a finger, “you sacrificeyourselfand take a beating in their place.”
I flinched, stumbling back. I had no words. He couldn’t be serious. I had to…I looked back at the Dragontails. The whips weren’t for the Marked.
They were forme.
“She has toWHAT?” Ellabeth screamed, her voice bouncing off the walls in the Sanctuary.
“There’s no burning way?—”
