“We’ve been waiting for you.” Selvina stopped to place a hand on her lover’s shoulder as she turned toward me again. “But you’re early.”
“Olienna,” I frowned.
The ancient queen of Nivis currently sat in the dungeon below where we stood, two rubelline cuffs strapped to her wrists, chained to the wall. The Aeterna Bone she stole had been recovered and remained under lock and key on theEvecta.
“The Sisters shield us from the Brother, and signal the coming of another,” Selvina recited Olienna’s prophecy.
“But the twin eclipse came two years early.” I nodded. “And I had already harnessed the Obscura power before Odessa. Here.” I flinched as Cyril’s phantom touch licked up my spine.
“Yes,” Selvina murmured, her lips drawing a thin line. “And then the twin eclipse occurred when you were in desperate need. How Olienna got her hands on the Celestyn Bone is beyond me, but she manipulated the moons enough for them to cross in front of the sun, triggering the spell to unlock its full well of power.” Selvina crossed her arms.
“Olienna saw her opportunity. Saw you with the Transcindiel Bone in Odessa and knew if she nudged those moons across the sky, there was a chance you’d harness it.”
“So, the Bellators of old somehow locked my powers? Tying them to the Sending?” I asked.
“We believe there were a number of safety measures built into separating the Bellators powers from their physical forms.” Selvina nodded. “Enya’s power was hidden and could only be triggered by someone of her bloodline.”
My mind raced through memories, spiraling until it slammed into those moments in Enya’s tomb when I’d cut my hand. And when I’d tried to pull the octahedron from that strange cage of wind between the stalactite and stalagmite, it hadn’t worked at first. Only when I had reached with both hands, with mybloodypalm… My stomach dipped. I rubbed my thumb against the small white scar at the base of my palm.
“When Dark King Daimos took control from Queen Olienna, Enya’s clan,myclan, fled to the mountains.” Ursa’s crystal blue eyes locked onto me as she poured a large goblet of winter wine.
“Olienna was always power hungry, but she united the Bellators. She spent years tracking them down, preparing the world for the return of the gods whose power they belonged to.
“But what Olienna didn’t know was that Lelyth, the Votruvian Bellator, had a plan of her own. She never trustedthe mind-commander. And in the time it took the group to win Enya’s trust,Lelythwon Enya’s loyalty. Lelyth was a Votruvian. She had the power to move planets, tobreakplanets…”
Kellan Astraeus had said as much. My mind drifted to the map I’d discovered in Enya’s tomb, the continents and seas all wrong… the massive isthmus that used to exist between Sultira and Lotrennia…
Ursa nodded, reading the understanding on my face.
“Lelyth broke the continent. She destroyed what we believe to be a door, a gateway from the world they rule, to ours. But she was also Queen of the Starlings, thePeople of the Stars.” Ursa paused, cocking her head as she surveyed me. “And I think you’ve experienced their power…hispower, several times now.”
I swallowed against the lump forming in my throat. The thought of Lord Astraeus, of what had transpired… His secret revealed… What was his connection to those eyes that followed me? The Messenger?
“What is his power?” I asked quietly.
“It will end all or bless all. It is either our salvation or our demise,” Selvina said quietly, her hand flexing as if she could feel Astraeus’s touch.
I blinked.End all or bless all…Where had I heard that before? Selvina’s next words scattered my thoughts.
“The power to give and take. It’s how the original Bellators created the bones. Enya and Lelyth knew if they could store the power in an amplifier, they’d be able to hide it.”
“From whom?” I whispered.
Selvina’s eyes darkened. “From the Embodied. And from a young commander in the west. The Hidden Hero.”
“Saros,” I murmured.
“But not all the Bellators agreed on this path,” Ursa continued, taking a sip of her winter wine as she rubbed thescarred place on her neck where her collar had sat. “Olienna, for one, as she was the last to find out. And?—”
“Kyson,” I answered, cutting her off.
Ursa nodded and cocked her head, waiting for me to continue.
“That’s why there was never a Soleia Bone, right? Kyson didn’t allow Lelyth to transfer his power to the bone.”
“He did not,” Ursa confirmed. “And it stayed hidden in his bloodline until the birth of the Ravindra twins.”
“How do you know all of this?” I asked, narrowing my gaze on her. “Who are you?”
Ursa straightened, setting her goblet down.
“I am the last of the story keepers. A descendant of two Bellators, Enya and Ordell. I’m yoursobraen.”
