AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Startled by his insight, I nodded. "We've talked about it before, but when push comes to shove, I'm not sure if he can handle me being with anybody else. Please, don't say anything. I'll tell him, but… but let me do it in my own way."
Zachary nodded. "Whatever you like. But Delilah," he said, "don't think you can manage a relationship with him. Don't even hope. It won't work in the long run. You need more than he can give you, even if you don't believe that now. I may not be the one you need, but it's not him. Trust me."
I wiped my mouth and winced as the wound on my leg opened again. "I'm hurt. I've got to go tend to my leg," was all I said.
As I closed the door behind me, I dreaded the coming days when everything was sorted out and when I'd have to tell Chase what I'd done.
* * *
CHAPTER 20
Menolly, Camille, and Trillian were sitting at the kitchen table, hot tea in hand. Iris held Maggie, her eyes wide as Camille filled her in on what had happened. I dropped down beside them.
"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.
"It's a good thing they didn't use that lash low enough to open me up there," he said, his eyes sparkling with tears.
"So that's the seal?" Zachary eased his way into the kitchen, still looking shaky. "I wondered where you got that limp," he told Venus. "I guess all of our shamans had a limp, then?"
Venus nodded. "It was always thought to be one of our traits—a trade for accepting our powers. I guess, in a way, it was."
I laughed then, suddenly feeling like a burden had lifted. "We'd better use the Whispering Mirror and call Trenyth to warn them we're on the way."
Camille and I headed upstairs to put in our call. The mirror worked like a charm, and we found ourselves facing not Trenyth, but Queen Asteria herself.
"I'll send someone to get the demons and the seal," she said. "In fact, I'll dispatch them as we speak." She turned and said something over her shoulder, and we heard Trenyth acknowledge the order. "You have to be careful coming back to Elqaneve right now," she continued. "It's not safe for you."
"We know about Lethesanar's death threat—" I started to say.
She cut me off. "It's not that. Although that alone is reason enough to take care. No, something else has happened."
Camille glanced at me. I could feel it, too; bad news rode ahead of itself on the wind, and whatever this was, it was bad. I swallowed my instinct to turn tail and run. "What is it?"
