“We gave Balor to Manos. There’s... a lot to discuss.”
Callum had told her about the twin brothers Dolion kept in his company. Benon and Balor were infamous for carving up their victims. Even when the poor souls cracked, their skin hanging off their own bodies, they didn’t stop.
“The ring, Helaina.” Theo was doing a poor job hiding the trembling fierceness in his voice. “I have to know.”
She instinctively held her palm to her chest, touching that brand. It felt like fresh fire, cutting as deep as the day he gave it to her.
“Tell me.” It was a plea, not a demand.
She didn’t want to, but for some reason, Theo being here made the words easier to pull from her throat. The same way it was easier to pull her own power from her body when he was near.
She finally revealed everything, telling the full story she had never shared with anyone. Of the man that had inserted himself so fully into her life, the future he had promised her. She told him of the fateful night when Krysta had come to save her. She unfolded the new details of her uncle’s betrayal and how Dolion had ruined Adriel.
Rage corrupted Theo’s entire body as she recounted the years of treachery.
She stroked the raised skin on her flesh. “‘You will always be mine.’ That’s what he said after he gave me this.”
“I’ll kill him,” he whispered to himself, forming tight fists at his sides. They both stayed silent for a beat. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something else, then thought better of it.
She took the opportunity to change the subject, to talk about anything other than this. Anything other than him.
“When you said he ‘foundit,’ what did you mean?”
He closed his eyes. “The blood crown.” He sighed the words out from his too-perfect lips.
“What is it?”
“Another godly relic, made by the same creator as the bone dagger. The two are connected, but I fear the crown is the stronger of the two.”
“What can it do?”
“It brought her here.” He pushed off the wall but did not move closer. “Lynor was made to unify the gods, in a time when all they could do was lust for power and war among themselves. Brahm proposed a common goal to bring peace through worship and prayer. He built a neutral realm where they could create instead of destroy. Things were perfect here... but it didn’t last.”
He spoke of the early ages like they were yesterday.
“Why not?”
“Drayella.” Theo said her name like it was salt on his own tongue. “She created malevolent beings with a hunger for mortal flesh. We were hunted back then; her beasts were rapidly multiplying, plaguing Lynor. The other gods beseeched Brahm to eradicate them, to protect the lives and land they had worked so hard to build. Valhoor and Drayella were quick to swear an oath of destruction if any of her creations were harmed.”
Helaina leaned in closer, taking in Theo’s version of events, a version she had never known before today.
“Some of the other Hell Gods sided with them. Brahm couldn’t risk another war in the immortal realms. So he raised these mountains, creating the barrier you’ve always known and giving the east to Drayella’s creatures, the west to the mortals. But the death toll was already too high. The other gods retaliated further, combining their power to banish Valhoor and Drayella from Lynor to spend eternity secluded in their own realms. The only way Drayella could possibly override that kind of immortal magic was if the blood crown was used to summon her.”
Helaina listened, not fully understanding. “So the dagger holds the power to bring us to their realms, and the crown can call the gods here?”
“The crown’s magic is something I don’t fully understand. I just know it’s the only item powerful enough to overrule their banishment. I also know the crown cannot be destroyed, like the dagger. I assume that’s why the gods’ brilliant plan was to hide it where no mortal would dare to go, in the eastlands, surrounded by Drayella’s creatures. Dolion must have spent years searching for it after he left here.”
Theo’s jaw tensely worked, but his eyes were full of remorse. “I should have killed him when he tried to steal the dagger. Dolion is her descendant, Drayella’s. It’s my fault he was free to roam the east, searching. My only guess is that those monsters recognized he shared blood with their immortal mother and let him wander unharmed until he found it.”
If she hadn’t been disgusted with herself before, now her gut truly ached for the closeness she had created between herself and a descendant of one of the most feared goddesses in existence.
“Any mortal can just wield an artifact like that? All Dolion had to do was find it?”
“It’s not that simple. Artifacts like these require payment, they don’t perform for free. Just as the bone dagger claims your mortal life, the blood crown also has a price. The entity who wields its power must offer blood in exchange. To use the crown to bring back the Hell Gods... the debt must have been astronomical.”
He wiped his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, fully displaying his frustration. Like he should have connected these pieces long ago. “All the disappearances... they weren’t just feeding their undead, they were feeding the crown. Giving it the blood it was due in exchange for its dark magic. He brought her back. She rewarded him. He is undead, but she also imbued him with her own divine magic.”
Helaina palmed her clammy hands over her sweat-soaked face and smoothed back her hair. “Why didn’t she come for me in the very beginning? Why wait until now? Surely fae magic is nothing to her.”
