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He’s looking at Gavran.
“I’ll have your Oath on it, Last Shield, or I won’t continue.”
Gav, clearly realizing how serious this is to Riven, nods solemnly “You have my word.”
Satisfied, Riven relaxes, draping an arm over the back of the chair. The bracelet is still in his hand, and he lets the delicate stones slip slowly through his fingers.
“When I was much younger,” he begins, “and decided to walk away from my House and all the pretentious ass-kissing, I had to start from nothing. I refused to use their name, so I had to build something from the bottom up.”
He smirks. “I accomplished that, eventually. But, before I began to build my empire, I was a young vampire with no money and no idea what the fuck I was doing. I had to take odd jobs. Mostly courier work, a few smuggling operations across the Barbary Coast.”
“About a year in, I picked up a grunt-work contract. Escort duty for some pompous human Alpha moving black-market relics through the Wildwood Pass in Europe. Paid half in advance, with a promise of the second half after completion. Normal for the times, and easy enough work.”
“On the way back, I got separated from the rest of the party. Got turned around. A fog rolled in, and the forest had gone completely silent. No bugs, no bird chirping, not even any wind rustling the leaves. Could barely see a fucking foot in front of my face. Fates, I must’ve looked like a real asshole. Panicking, arms flailing in front of me so I don’t accidentally run into a tree or something equally embarrassing.”
His gaze turns distant as he relives the memory.
“I did run into something eventually. A branch nearly took out my eye. Scraped right alongside my brow bone, and hurt like a bitch. Blood was pouring down my forehead, and when I looked down, trying to blink it out of my eyes, I saw this.”
He holds up the bracelet, slipping it back on his wrist with a snap. The movement is jerky, like he feels uneasy having it off.
“I put the damn thing on my wrist and didn’t think twice about it. I just felt like I should. Hell, I barely remembered doing it until after I found my way back to the rest of the party the next morning.”
Leaning forward, he places his elbows on his knees.
“A few days later, I went back to retrieve the second half of my payment. This asshole had the balls to look me right in the eyes and tell me he already paid me. Of course, he hadn’t. I knew he was lying. Hell, he knew he was lying. I think whatever he thought he had in that caravan wasn’t worth shit, and he didn’t have the money left for payment.”
“So I’m standing there arguing with the guy when I feel a warmth radiating against my skin. I look down, and there’s a distortion in the air, like a heat wave on asphalt. It was coming off the bracelet. The more the human swore he already paid me, the hotter the damn thing got.”
He huffs out a laugh, then pauses, staring at his hands in a moment of unexpected seriousness.
“That’s the first time I felt it.”
His eyes flick up to meet ours. “That same feeling all of you got tonight, like there’s something right there that you could grab a hold of if you just tried hard enough. Something bigger than yourself. Bigger than the world.”
No one speaks. Of course, we all felt it. It was awe-inspiring as well as fucking terrifying. Riven nods slowly, as though our silence is answer enough. He already knows what we felt, because he felt it, too.
Deciding to speak up, I give him a truth of my own in exchange for his. Secrets. That’s his preferred currency, after all.
“It felt like I was right next to something beautiful and terrifying, and I was about to trespass somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be.”
A slow smile spreads across his face.
“Yes, Daxen. That’s exactly right. Something beautiful and terrifying.”
“So what’s the point?” Vae’s abrupt question snaps us out of the moment. “You have a piece of jewelry that a magic-wielder enchanted, and it gives you the same feeling as the light coming from the Omega?”
He’s trying to play it off, but I see the unease in my brother just as surely as I can feel it pulsing down our Bond.
“No magic-wielder made this, Vaelenor.” Riven glances at what I’ve quickly come to realize is a relic.
Not a piece of jewelry at all.
“Whatever magic is attached to this is older than the Oldest Houses. Older than any magic-wielders. I suspect it’s even older than vampires themselves.”
Caelan frowns. “What does this mean?”
“It means, oh Merry Band of Bastards, that if whatever changed this Omega is the same magic that allows this bracelet to do what it does, then you’re dealing with something you can’t possibly understand. There are no rules for you to follow, because none of you know the game. You need to play this smart. Keep it quiet.”
