“To prove your loyalty,” I pointed out nonchalantly.
He brought his head up, his expression like stone. “I…?”
I patted his cheek harshly. “Lovers come and go. If you had told me five years ago that Constantine would abandon me like this, I would have called you insane; but here we are. There is no such thing as ‘faithful’, Evander. Everyone has a limit, a line they will not cross, and that is why I will finish this on my own.”
“Ok, so, Atlas may be my line, but I will do anything beyond that-…?”
“That’s not what I asked of you, is it? I didn’t ask for everything. I asked you to kill Atlas. You cannot do that, therefore you are worth nothing to me.”
“But why must Atlas die? Is he not suffering enough?” he pleaded desperately.
My eyebrows raised curiously. “Suffering?”
“The rulers of Gehenna have sentenced him to a hundred-year exile inViolentia.He will be gone for a year in our time.”
I ran my fingers through his locks gingerly. “My, some helpful information that is. I suppose this means Nicodemus cannot become a God for at least a year?”
“Give or take,” he said with a shrug.
I cupped my chin and stared off into space as my mind raced a thousand miles ahead of me. “Interesting information this is indeed. I take it Endymion and Seraphine are teaching him in Atlas’s absence?”
“One would guess.”
I snapped my fingers. “Then that is who my next target shall be. If we can eliminate Endymion and Seraphine, to a point where they cannot be brought back, might I add,” I sneered thisthrough clenched teeth, “then he would have no Gods of Death left to protect him. Considering he has probably restored their powers as well, this will prove difficult, but I’m sure we can think of a way around this.”
“You would kill your own father?” Ambermourn unsurely questioned.
I cut him a side-glare. “I killed Erasmus, didn’t I?”
He hugged himself nervously. “Yes, I suppose you did.” His eyes gravitated to my hand, which I had in a fist. “Is it true, then, that you can control more elements now?”
I thought hard about whether or not I wanted to answer him. Ambermourn was incredibly expendable to me, but at the same time, he had information from the Death Elemental world that I needed to kill the others. He could be disposed of later, but for now, keeping him on my good side was vital to the cause.
I conjured a small pool of water in my palm and blew on it, which turned it to ice. “I can control Electricity, Earth, Life, and Water. I would have had more had Nicodemus not so kindly destroyed my scepter, but I don’t think I’ll have time to build another. For now… I need to think of a new way to get more power. It won’t be easy, as I am on a time constraint, but maybe we can put our heads together and think of something.”
“I know of something!” He sprung up and darted to the kitchen table, where he began to shuffle through a duffle bag he had brought with him. He scoured through the pages wildly, flipping them faster than I could keep up, before he landed on something. “Do you know of this journal?”
“It looks to be after my time,” I admitted, though I was curious about it.
He smacked himself in the head. “Oh, of course. I didn’t think about that. Well, this is one of Seraphine’s personal journals. She had a plethora of them published to be used as academic textbooks for students at Chandler, but some of them were toopersonal. As head of the department…” he held the journal out to me proudly, “I was granted special access to these coveted items, so I could make curriculum out of them.”
“Ah heh? How does this pertain to our issue exactly?”
“Seraphine wrote of a gift Endymion bestowed upon her when she became a God; a collection of jewelry meant to be worn for a variety of reasons. First was a necklace, which Seraphine herself wears daily. It is used as protection charm, to keep her safe when she is fighting demons. It harnesses light from Caelum that she can utilize in her fight.”
“Ok…? You’re losing me here, Evander,” I boredly commented.
“Wait a moment, wait a moment, there’s more!” He flipped to the next page. “A ring was also part of the set. This was given to Nicodemus, as it was meant to stabilize those who have an extraordinary amount of Shadow Walkers, and give him more control when he spreads his element between each of them.”
“Great, another advantage he has over us,” I bitterly snapped.
He jabbed the page with his finger repeatedly. “This, my dear, is the good part.” He crouched beside me so I could read the page along with him. “The last piece is a bracelet. This bracelet fuses with the wearer and fully restores their Elemental powers!”
“It what?” I gasped out.
“It’s a one-time deal, which is why she kept it hidden for a special circumstance. If you were to get your hands on it, you could restore yourself to your full powers, including your new elements! You would be unstoppable!”
I took either side of his face and kissed his nose brightly. “Evander, you are a genius! The only thing is… where exactly is this located, and how hard is it going to be for us to get our hands on it?”
