‘It is more precious than every treasure of every empire that has ever been, or ever will be,’ Elisabetta had said.
Nicole sucked in a shaky breath; let her hands meet the cool stone of the dolmen as Kyan said, ‘You expect me to believe we have the blood of a goddess?’
‘Not just any goddess,’ the Druid said. ‘The blood of the most merciless Morrígan sister.’
The goddess that had created Empyreals.
The one her mother had told her of in her earliest memories.
Nicole closed her eyes. ‘Let’s just say I believe you … how is something like that even possible? Who would have been able to cut her? Don’t gods bleed, like, ichor, or something?’
‘That’s Greek. But the gods do have different blood. The Morrígan gave a small amount of hers and one of the vials of it has been guarded by my line of Druids since Druids existed. Our main purpose was to be the Old Gods’ point of contact here, especially when they were in their Otherworld.
‘But the Fomóiri slaughtered the Sirens and Druids so we couldn’t call back the Old Gods, or warn them of their enemy’s return. Though, I suspect it was also to steal their goddessblood vial.’
‘But you could contact the gods, before this?’
The Druid’s eyes gleamed for a moment. ‘Yes.’
The dog’s ears pricked up, and it left her side to jog back into the woods.
‘What does the blood do?’ Kyan asked.
‘It keeps an Empyreal alive. They take it to survive the otherwise deadly transformation they’d experience if triggered by a Demon God’s kill scent.’
‘You’re telling me that without the oath – the thing that stops us attacking members of the Wake – an Empyreal could kill a god?’ Kyan asked.
‘One type of god: the Fomóiri. Yes.
‘Thousands of years ago, afterCath Tánaiste Maige Tuired, when the Old Gods defeated the Fomóiri, the Morrígan created Empyreals. There are arguments over whether they existed already and she layered this power into them or not. The important thing is, after that battle – when the Old Gods had realised how dangerous the Fomóiri were – the Morrígan wanted to make sure humanity had another layer of protection against them if there was ever another uprising, or if the Old Gods were in their Otherworld. So she needed beings capable of transforming into their biological enemies; of borrowing the type of power that could kill a god.
‘The problem, though, isn’t the transformation itself, but transformingback. Which is where her blood comes in. Onlythatgives an Empyreal the power to survive thanks to its properties. Or so we believe.’
‘If this was what Empyreals were made to do, why do we need blood to reverse a god-killing transformation?’ Kyan asked.
The mythic images all of this conjured seemed so similar to the ones that had been painting themselves through Nicole’s nights for months.
‘Because there needs to be balance,’ the Druid answered. ‘The Morrígan couldn’t make Empyreals capable of killing gods without consequence; that would make them just as powerful as the gods themselves.’
‘Wait,’ Nicole said, recalibrating. ‘My mother was possibly going to sacrifice herself to kill the leader of the Wake?’
The Druid nodded. ‘That’s why she wrote you all those books, in case it didn’t work.’
A complicated snarl of emotions followed her question: on the one hand, it made so muchsense. Her mother had strived to defeat the Wake her whole life. Destroying them,killingthem, was the logical development of her plan.
Nicole understood that. And yet, hot anger replaced it. Anger that that had been the only option; that she might havedoneit and left them if she didn’t survive.
Nicole looked away and felt the hot glide of a tear down her face. Kyan’s wide, warm palm cupped her shoulder and stroked, lodging more emotion in her throat.
‘What being could kill a god?’ he asked, giving her a minute. ‘What would she have turned into? Another one?’
‘You tell me,’ the Druid girl said.
She felt him shake his head. ‘I wouldn’t know.’
Nicole glanced back over, the film of tears clearing to reveal the girl’s lips moving into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
‘Ever recall fighting a being that looked human? One of the like you’d never come across before?’
