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"Zach knows about Rhonda," I said, looking up to find Camille staring at me. She didn't say a word, but I knew we'd be having a long talk later on. I glanced at the clock. It was almost seven. The sun would be rising soon, and Menolly had made her way to bed.
"When should we contact Queen Asteria—" Camille started to say when Morio, Smoky, and Chase returned with Venus in tow. The shaman looked pretty beat up, but he definitely looked better than he had when we first found him. They helped him into a chair.
"We thought you'd want to hear this," Morio said.
Venus leaned forward, gratefully accepting the mug of tea that Iris pressed into his hands. "I'll thank you all for saving me in a bit, but first, we have more important matters to discuss." He wrapped his hands around the warm mug and shuddered, then took a long sip of the tea. "That's good, so good," he said, shuddering again. "Listen, I know what you're after. The same thing the demons are after. I can tell you where to find it."
"The second spirit seal?" I whispered.
He nodded. "Yes. It's been a symbol of our clan down through the ages since Einarr the Iron Hand found it."
"He didn't find it," I spoke up. "The seal was given to him by the Autumn Lord as a reward for destroying Kyoka the first time."
Venus looked at me and blinked, staring at my forehead.
"Oh my girl," he whispered. "You know him, then." He stretched out his fingers and barely grazed the swirling scythe on my forehead. "During my training as a shaman, I underwent a ritual of death and rebirth. During that journey, I met a man who walks in flames and frost. I never knew his name, but he touched my soul, and that's when I came into my power."
I nodded. "We'll talk more when the sun shines and the seasons turn and death isn't in the air. But for now, where's the seal? We have to take it away from this world, to hide it from the demons before they gain control of it."
"When the old shaman died and passed his staff to me, he gave me the seal." Venus pushed his chair back from the table. He held out his leg, the one with the limp. "He told me how to hide it. All these centuries it's been passed down in the same manner, and the tribe has been left unaware of its existence. The shaman has been the only one who knows about the seal, and it's from where we gather most of our power. This is the only way we could ensure its protection: When I give it to you, we will be left open and vulnerable. Perhaps it's time we stood on our own."
Before we could say anything, he pulled up his pants leg and ran his hand over his calf. An incision opened up, raw and bleeding, but clean. Inside, a small cabochon sparkled with red and gold set in bronze. He motioned to me, and I gingerly reached into the open wound and pulled out the fire opal. Venus the Moon Child ran his hand over the cut, and it sealed again, leaving a ridged scar.
I stared at the glowing gem. The pulse of energy washed through me like a cleansing wave, and my pain and anger fell away. I let out a long sigh and looked up to see the others do the same. Venus closed his eyes and turned his head. All these years he'd possessed the gem but never directly used it. He'd been its home and protector, as had his master before him, and so on back through the veils of time.
"The Degath Squad could probably sense you'd been around the jewel, but they never realized it was right inside you," I said.>Flash. I caught him across the chest, and he began to bleed as I raked, slashing through his flesh. The smell of blood set off a hunger so deep that I knew I could never quench it.
Flash. He grabbed for me, catching me around the throat as his hands formed a vise. He twisted my head, trying to break my neck.
Flash. I leaned back, then lunged, bringing my fangs down to rip at his face. The taste of blood filled my mouth, warm and sweet, and teasing me on.
Flash. He managed to reach up with one of his jointed legs. Pain lanced through my left back leg as he punctured it, and I let out a yowl. Furious, the fire of the Autumn Lord fueling my heart, I gathered my strength and bit once more. This time, my teeth went through his shoulder, into the soft flesh of his neck, and I snapped my jaws shut. The killing bite.
Kyoka shuddered as the room swirled.
I blinked and found myself in a field of mist, in my normal form. My left leg was bleeding, and I was standing in front of Kyoka's spirit, which hovered above his dead body.
As if I had done so a thousand times before, I held out my hand and touched the ghostly presence. Visions of fire and anger swirled through my thoughts. Men dying under torture, women being ravaged for use as breeders, children not true to the new form being offered to the young spiderlings as food.
All of these images passed through me like a silent movie, flickering in an abandoned theater. Kyoka's memories, they were of his life as a shaman when he had created the unnatural Weres and perfected their new form.
My stomach rolled, and I thought I was going to vomit, but a force stronger than my own will steeled me up, and I straightened my shoulders.
"Kyoka, in the name of the Autumn Lord, I charge you with the Death Maiden's curse: the final death. Go and be cleansed from this world and from all worlds. Return to oblivion. Return to the pool of fire and ice from whence we all emerge. Be no more." The words were unfamiliar to me, and yet they were mine to say. As I spoke, my core froze, and I aimed the icy line of frost directly into his spirit. Like a snowflake melting on the pavement, he vanished.
Kyoka was dead. Truly and forever dead, consigned to oblivion.
As the presence of the Autumn Lord began to fade, I heard him say, "You have done well. You will be the first of my living emissaries. My Daughter of the Grave." And then he, too, vanished, and I found myself standing in the middle of the room, and my friends were scrambling, shouting my name.
"Delilah? Where are you? Good gods, there she is!" Chase was closest to me and, as I collapsed, he caught me and lowered me to the ground. My leg burned like a son of a bitch. I blinked as they crowded around me.
"Are you all right?" Camille dropped to my side. "Delilah, say something. Where were you? What happened? Where's Kyoka?"
I glanced around. There was no sign of the shaman. His body had vanished. Smoky was awake again, guarding the door, though the rest of the spiderlings seemed to have beat a hasty retreat.
"How long have I been gone?" I managed to ask.
"A good fifteen minutes. Kyoka vanished when you did."
