“I agree,” Kallon said. “The statue was built in honor of Lakimi, and it’s the only statue that depicts her bare feet.”
I hated that particular statue. My old room overlooked it, and with my heightened senses, I could depict the exact details of the golden memorial.
Our history claimed Pylemo birthed the lesser Goddesses during the first ever Lakimi, and in honor of them, she decided to give us the gift of fertility too. It was the reason the statue was created, but I’d always felt it looked out of place amongst the simplicity of the bay. She was portrayed completely naked standing with her hands raised toward the sky while the twelve lesser Goddesses all bowed at her feet.
To me it looked like the lesser Goddesses had their noses forever stuck in the dirt and was a constant reminder they weren’t seen as Pylemo’s equal. They were supposed to be her children, that only together, with all twelve of their strengths combined, could they equate to her.
“You don’t actually believe what Dovelyn was saying, though, do you?” Rainer asked. “She was talking nonsense.”
“Not nonsense, but riddles, and yes, I do believe it,” Wells shot back. He normally remained quiet during these meetings, never uttering a word, if he even managed to leave his lab to attend them in the first place. He hated the attention they brought and hated crowds even more. But I was thankful he wason my side. I had to find out how to use my fire to defeat the King, which meant I had to go back to Lux. And I knew Wells wanted the same thing, just for more personal reasons.
“If the only way to kill the King is through whatever is at her feet, then it’s worth the risk,” Wells continued. “If Tezya can bring it back to me, I can properly examine it…”
“Worth the risk?” Savannah interjected sarcastically. “You’re talking about sending Tezya into a lion’s den where everyone will be after him. The King probably has a reward on his head so high that any friends he had in Lux would turn on him. And to make matters worse, none of you even know what you’re looking for. What if it’s nothing? What if it’s not even an object?”
“So Tez goes in strategically. He can be in and out before they even see him coming.”
“All this is going to do is get him caught,” Savannah spat at her brother.
“Dovelyn said it was the only way to defeat—”
“Killing the Lux King isn’t going to magically make Arcane come back to you.”
Silence filled the room. I knew this was the one subject Savannah and Wells never agreed on. She hated that her brother fell in love with the eldest Luxian Prince. She supported him during their short-lived relationship, but ever since things ended badly, she’s never forgiven Arcane for hurting him.
Even though there’s only a year difference between them, she took on the protective older sister role a little too seriously. Not that it wasn’t warranted. My brother could be a selfish dick at times, and I knew when they ended things, neither of them were the same afterward.
“Arcane is easier to manage than my father,” Dovelyn said. Everyone turned to look at her as she entered the tent. Dark circles were painted under her eyes, and she was thinner and paler than normal. “And what I said earlier was true. We need tokill the King. He’s too powerful.” She turned to look at me, and my heart sagged in relief. It was the first time all week she was speaking in coherent sentences. “I know you, Tez, and I know you’re going to go after this prophecy with or without my help.” She turned away to scan the rest of the room. “So if there’s a sliver of hope my brother can come out of this alive, then it’s worth the risk. We need to find whatever is at the Goddesses’ feet to see if it can save him.”
“What answers do you think it will hold?” Kallon asked, and everyone collectively held their breath, wondering if Dovelyn knew more about it.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, but I’m praying it will tell us what it means by a sacrifice of Light and blood spilled from Dark.”
“There’s no way of knowing until we go,” Wells said.
Kallon nodded. “If we’re lucky, it’ll be both—how to save Tezya and how to kill the King.”
“What are the King’s powers?” Sie asked, speaking for the first time. I looked over at him. Peter and him both had cuts and bruises scattered across every inch of them. Sie’s knuckles were scabbed over, and the blonde was sporting a busted lip, a swollen eye, and a darkening bruise over his throat. The pair honestly looked worse than when they came back from the prison.
Dovelyn glanced at him. “Everything. He possesseseverything. Any ability in Lux that exists, he has. And now he’ll wanther.” Everyone’s eyes turned to Scottie. “We’re all targets, but getting her back will be my father’s number one priority. He wants Arcane to continue his experiments on her, to see if he can create a reverse serum to make himself stronger. He wants her enhancement. It’s the only ability in Lux he doesn’t have yet. But he’ll also want her back to set an example. She was his prisoner, and he lost her. He can’t stand to look weak, so he won’t stop until she’s in chains by his side again.”
My sister didn’t admit Rumor was also his top priority because he doesn’t know the truth. The King still believes her lie that the prophecy is about Scottie and Sie, and with Sie out of prison, he will make it his mission to kill him and capture her before it can happen. I closed my fist over our bond. For the first time in my life I regretted that I kept who I was a secret because now it was puttingherat risk. If he knew I was the one the prophecy was about, he wouldn’t be going after her.
“What are you suggesting?” Kallon asked Dovelyn cautiously.
“We use her as bait.”
“No,” I cut Dovelyn off at the same time Sie did.
She huffed. “Calm down. She won’t get caught. We need Arcane distracted long enough for Tezya to go to the statue. He’ll be anxious to get back in our father’s favor after helosther on his watch. By now, the King knows she’s missing, and Arcane is suffering because of it.”
Wells’ brows furrowed before he directed his gaze toward the ground, staring at his high-top sneakers.
“You just want a chance to search for Brock again,” Rainer said, tucking a loose spiral curl behind his ear that fell out of his bun.
Dovelyn shrugged, not bothering to deny it. “And you don’t? He’s your friend too, and he’s being tortured. We need to get him out of there.”
I grimaced, my heart aching for my best friend or whatever was left of him. “I agree. We need to look for Brock when we go. But we go in with a solid plan. If it gets too risky, we leave.”
