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“By giving me access to the vitaeilem in Etheriusz. With it, I will no longer be bound to myobligations.”
Clutching the baby to me, I took a step back. “Why would I want to help you? After all you’ve done? All you’ve taken?”
“Because I have the power to steal the breath from that child with a snap of my fingers.” He lifted his hand into the air, and clicked his fingers.
I locked my attention on the baby, whose eyes were closed, mouth gaping, lips the telling blue of death. Lifting him to my ear confirmed no breaths. No fluttering warmth against my cheek. His face had taken on a bluish shade, the sight of which had me rushing him toward the bed, where I lay him down. Hands trembling, I un-swaddled him and held his tiny hands, taking in the icy cold of them.
My pulse hammered as I pressed my lips to his and sent a puff of air into his body. I could scarcely remember the CPR I’d learned back in high school. Tipping his head back, I gently pinched his nose and pressed my lips to his again for another puff of air.
“Your human tricks don’t work to restore life here. But you have a secret, don’t you, Farryn? You can bring him back to life. You need only to speak the words.”
I swiped up my blade again, holding it out to him with a trembling hand. “I am not what you think I am. I don’t possess any power, or ability to translate the sigil. Now, please, save him!”
The warmth I’d seen in the older man’s eyes sharpened to something much darker. Threatening. “No.”
A piercing, high-pitched sound reached my ears, so painful I clenched my eyes and fell to my knees. A clang of the blade falling to the floor hardly registered over the piercing noise, as the agony of it rattled my skull and teeth.
“Pay me no mind, I’m just crawling through your memories.”
“Stop! Stop it!”
“I will find what I’m looking for, Farryn. You cannot hide it.”
Nausea gurgled in my stomach, and a dizziness swept over me. I opened my eyes and turned to find a glass sphere sat atop a pedestal where the cradle had stood moments before. Encased inside the sphere was what appeared to be a black, charred heart that pulsed, as if still alive. Bolts of electricity danced over the sphere, creating enough distraction until the pain slowly began to subside.
“So long as that heart beats and is fed vitaeilem, Letifer sleeps. But should he wake, all hell will break loose. Surely, you don’t wish that on those you love.”
I pushed back to my knees and scooped up the baby to find it had grown bluer than before, its skin even colder. “God, please! Save him!”
“Your precious God cannot save him. He won’t save him. But you can. All you have to do is speak the words, Farryn.”
“I don’t know! I don’t remember!”
“You do remember. Now, speak the words and save him!”
“No!”
The baby burst into a cloud of dust.
I let out a scream, my whole body shaking as I held my arms outstretched in front of me.
Claudius lurched closer, and his palm hit my throat, knocking me down so the unyielding floor smashed against my spine.
Blackness settled over me. Screams reached me in the darkness. Horrible screams.
My screams.
I opened my eyes to find Jericho’s father over me, pinning my arms down, his eyes black as night. “You think you can fight me? That you can overcome me?”
My blade stuck out of his shoulder, just like the night I’d pierced Jericho with an envelope opener. I must’ve fallen into the subspace again.
“There are ways to break you, Farryn. Ways to make you remember.”
Unbidden memories surfaced inside my head.
Lying on a cold cell floor. Red hot metal burning my flesh. Bodies moving over me, violating me. Blood. Screams. Pain.
“You … hurt me before.” They were undoubtedly Lustina’s memories, given their fogginess.
