My thoughts flashed back to my own Marking Day ceremony in the Temple of the Eternal. I remembered spending the morning in prayer, then feeling the presence of the Eternal wash over me, and as it did, golden markings emerged from my skin painlessly.
Wehadn’tbeen strapped into a chair. And wecertainlyhadn’t been unconscious during our Marking Day ceremony. I remembered the entire event, from start to finish, as I spent the morning in Aeternus’s temple, worshipping the Eternal.
“Well, this could explain the black markings,” Axel stated, his voice tight as we stared at the angel shaking on the chair in the room where we remained hidden. The male was restrained against the hard chair, leather cuffs circling his wrists and ankles as his body shook more violently. “We should help him.”
“No,” I growled out, even as the word felt sour against my lips. “We can’t risk being detected. Not here. Not now.”
“He needs help.”
“And we will be of no use if we are discovered here,” I said tightly, my golden eyes firmly focused on the male strapped against the chair as charcoal gray wings sprouted from his back, emerging for the first time.
The slits on my back tinged slightly at the memory of my own wings first emerging—at the excruciating pain that rippled from my spine when my wings first burst forward. That may have been the only aspect of my Marking Day that I wished I had been unconscious for.
I stared at my wings in the temple’s reflection in the window, the gold feathers shining as the sun’s light hit them. My brows furrowed as I studied the three marks on my forearm. Two triangles marking the elemental affinities for fire and earth were on my lower forearm. They pointed up toward a slightly different symbol—one I recognized only from records. The symbol of a vitas.
I heard footsteps approaching, but I didn’t need to turn to know who was approaching.
“I suspected as much,” Elion’s voice rumbled as he stopped behind me, and it was only then that I turned to face my mentor.
“You suspected what?” I asked, meeting his weathered gaze.
“That you would mark with multiple affinities. That Aeternus himself had called you to be of service to him.”
My eyes narrowed, my footsteps faltering as I studied the male who’d become my father in the past decade. “W-what do you mean?” My voice wavered ever so slightly, and I hated that it did.
“It is important that you keep your strongest affinity hidden from those outside the Guild. Many may wish to take advantage of your gift.”
“How?” My eyes narrowed as I studied the diamond shape on my arm, marking me as a vitas.
“That affinity . . . it is one of great power, but it comes at a great cost. It is an affinity that can only be truthfully wielded under direct command from the Eternal by those who follow in his light.”
“And what if you use it without his instruction?” I asked as my gaze flicked back toward Elion’s.
“It will end you as well.” His voice was solemn as he held my gaze, ensuring I understood the severity of the affinity.
“His wings aren’t gold,” I heard Axel state as he began walking toward the digital display of screens beside the unconscious male, and my mind instantly snapped back to the present.
“Two points for the obvious,” I deadpanned as I studied the newly-emerged wings, wondering why they came in gray. Was it the lack of prayer and sacrilege involved in their ceremony? Was it the lack of belief in Aeternus? And could their wings ever turn to the pure gold of those who followed Aeternus? I had never thought to ask our contacts with the Remnant about their markings. At least, not until today.
“Other than the black ink, his markings seemed fine, basedon the report added to the Astra Tech System,” Axel stated as he analyzed the male’s report on the screen before us. “Nothing seems remotely out of the ordinary here.”
“You mean nothing seems out of the ordinary, other than the fact that his stars-damned markings are onyx black,” I ground out as I studied the male’s arm with curiosity. Their high priestesses had to have left once his markings had appeared on his arm, and they’d recorded them in the system.
I couldn’t understand it, though, beyond the fact that the unmarked were put into a state of unconsciousness before their markings appeared. I couldn’t figure out what was done differently.
Every citizen we’d seen in Solis Quarter had the same black markings on their forearms. In contrast, ours shimmered in a golden hue, blessed by the Eternal himself after we spent the Two Suns Solstice in prayer.
It just didn’t make sense.
The markingsshouldn’tbe coming in black.
Wehadto be missing something.
“None of this makes any sense,” Axel bit out as he tapped furiously at the screens next to the male. “Black markings. Black wings. It’s as if corruption is somehow just deeply ingrained in their very nature.”
I rubbed at the back of my neck as I stared down at the male before me once more.
They should have been gold.
