Page 8 of Season Warriors & Wolves

“Esmeray was special, wasn’t she? Special to you.”

“A friend.”

“Hm. Is that what they call back stabbers these days? Friends?”

He studied me intently. “You think you know something I don’t?”

“Yes, though I’ve promised not to tell a soul,” I whispered to him. “But since you have no soul, you might as well know that the woman you trusted enough to run that little experiment with had another experiment of her own. Sa keeler miia horra. Loosely translating to ‘The wrath of gods’ in your old tongue. The one thing she was struggling to leave a trace of in her diaries. Gods had been everything to the land. Loving, giving, caring, shunning, encouraging. The one thing they had not done, was punish. Esmeray sought to see that—to know of gods as much as she could. And she had the perfect set up already.” I flashed him a grin. “Every night that I went to sleep with sore eyes decoding those books was worth it. Morro miia sa bolaamas.”

Son of the seas, as Esmeray had called him.

After Macaria had come to us, there had been no doubt that reading the diaries would not cost the world more than Silas would. Kil, Thora, Mal and I had spent every waking moment going through them. We’d learnt so much. Of his intentions in luring Aurora to speak of her gifts for Esmeray to document. The White Flame Guardian had been as curious about him as he’d been about her, so she had not doubted his intentions.

I knew him well. Very well.

Yet, there was one little thing I had yet to figure out.

His fear.

The one thing Esmeray had not written down. I suspected that had been their deal. He would give her what she needed, and she would write him in exalt, make him to be a human god like he’d always desired. As all gods, he also had to have no flaw. Luckily for me, in arrogance you could always find mistakes, so many in between lines to read. What made him invincible also made him fragile.

“How can I use more than one rose when there will be so many graves that will need them? At your expense, nonetheless.”

Chapter three

White Knight to F3

Snowlin

The britches fit me too loosely, so the tailor had made sure to cut all of my jackets long to hit right below my knee and as snug to my body as possible to protect me from this bizarre cold that had struck the winter kingdom right in the middle of summer.

Nissa’s mother tsked and sighed as she put my clothes on, lifting a piece of cake to my mouth from time to time and pinching my chin, reminding me to chew.

I closed my eyes in an attempt not to throw up all that I’d eaten and she slapped my cheek. “Don’t you dare, girl.”

“Did you just hit me?” I sneered, swallowing a bite of the dry cake.

“Pain seems to be the only thing to bring you back among us. Where do you go in there?” she asked, tapping a finger on my brow.

“Nowhere nice.”

“That I figured,” she said, swiping her thumbs under my eyes. She wiped the tear beads on her apron and sighed once again, holding her skirts up to kneel before me and put my boots on. “Your husband?”

This time the warm tears slid down my cheeks before she wiped them away again. “My sister.”

“I don’t know your sister,” she murmured low enough for only me to hear. “But no sister wants to see the other the way you are now. Eat, breathe, fight. For her sake if not for yours.”

“What would it matter? She can no longer nag me for it.”

“Then why are you alive at all?”

“Because she told me to show them hells. Until I do so, I will breathe, then I will hunt them beyond until their pain is stained across the whole eight heavens and seven hells.”

There was some type of horror in her face, but not one from fear. And though she didn’t speak the words, nor whisper them, I saw each letter slip silently from her lips. “Gods help us.”

There was one god who could hear her. And she stood right before her. Intending to help none.

The knock was short before he opened the door, making Nissa’s mother jump to her feet and hurry away. Demir stood at the threshold, eyes taking me from top to bottom before he nodded, almost pleased at what he saw. “It’s time.”