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I took a step back, staring at Ione. In a matter of a seconds, it seemed everything about Ione had become sharper, more lethal. Since she’d entered the war room, it appeared she’d only been playing the role of diplomat. Calm, reserved—an act of sorts. I didn’t realize exactly how good that act was until she stood from the oak table, meeting my eye level, her face tightening. Ione leaned in until our chins were level, her lips sliding into an unnervingly polite smile. Ione repeated herself. “No matter if your soul lies on the very bottom my sister’s dais, you will not step one foot into Sythe.”
I began to see many visions of my death, so many jarring possibilities. Still, I pushed on. “I will go to the Shadow faction,” I said, watching as Ione’s eyes widen. “I will take back the Light for my faction, and I will give you my word that I will not harm your sister.”
Ione shook her head and turned, tracing the oak table in the center of the room lightly with her fingers. “You seem to forget that you do not know yourself. And it is true, I may not know what you have become after all of these years. But I know my sister. If you plan to take the Light back, you should also plan to pry it from her dead hands.” She stalled, looked over her shoulder at me. “And Gwynore. Raise even a finger against any Sage, and I will drown you on dry land.”
“That is not your place, Ione.” Dario said from the chaise. I was shocked to see he had not fallen asleep, what with how bored he’d looked until this very second. “Gwynore is not yours to end. Remember with whom you have pledged your loyalty.”
“Brother, my loyalty is the only reason she still breathes,”barked Ione.
“Old wounds,” sang Gabriel.
Kalen growled, bristling visibly underneath his leathers, and without a word, he began to advance on the sea goddess. I reached for him, to hold him back, or to just hold on to him, I couldn’t tell. But before he came too close, Gabriel appeared, tailed by a stiff wind that twisted around us in a low whistle. Gabriel had projected from his spot on the table, nearly nose to nose with Kalen, his hand blocking the advance, fingers pressed into The Preserver’s doublet. Gabriel’s mouth was a wicked grin, and his eyes…his eyes clouded into a milky white that glazed from corner to corner.
And then he turned to me.
“You will meet your fate within the next two moons, Gwynore,” Gabriel said, and I realized quickly that he was Seeing. Looking through time. Looking to the future that we all were barreling towards.
My chest sank. Meet my fate? That could mean anything. My fate to find my soul, my fate to die. It could mean nothing at all. For my entire life, I’d had no time, and now, two months was the only time that I would ever have.
“If you can see her destiny,” Kalen said, his voice straining, “feel free to enlighten us, saiche. That is your only purpose, is it not?”
Self-pity escaped me, replaced by instant fear. Saiche. I’d heard this word before in Leoth, sprinkled in here or there by Rebekah while she and I gossiped. A cheap deviation from Sage. An abasement of Gabriel’s true nature. I squeezed Kalen’s hand, which I’d unintentionally twined with mine as the two continued to argue. My grip urged him to stop speaking. We had already botched any effort to secure the support of a Sage, and now the entire confrontation felt mere seconds towards some sort of outburst. His insult was only a log placed on the growing firebetween the five of us.
Gabriel glanced at our woven fingers, and to my surprise, he chuckled. Unfortunately, Preserver, your raven-hairedloverknows far more than I.”
A growl rose in Kalen’s throat, and I watched in horror as violence overtook him at last. The words struck me in quite a different way, and I dropped Kalen’s hand. He coiled back, gathering the energy to pounce at Gabriel. But before the two had a chance to rip each other apart, screams erupted from the dining hall. Two loud thuds followed against the great oak doors to our room.
The Sage’s attention darted towards the sound but remained unafraid. I jumped at the scrape of metal, the clamor of Astralites drawing their weapons from the black sheaths at their hips. Kalen brandished a small dagger, the silver runes gilding in the firelight.
Another scream, then grunt, then thud. This time, the latch to the door rattled at the impact, the locking mechanism giving way to whatever force had struck it. Hardly the best security for the most valuable people in the world.The doors swung open and I watched as two limp bodies in brown-colored leather sank to Kalen’s feet.
Our doormen.
Ione opened her mouth, as if to shout. The tip of Owen’s longsword clanged against the ground, his hands falling limp at the sight of an arrow protruding from each of the Guardian’s eyes.
Two immortals. Dead.
“Speak of the she-witch and she shall appear, indeed.”
Gabriel uttered it as a joke, but nothing of his expression was humorous.
I looked up at Kalen who stood stiff as stone. He only stared at the Guards, friends of uncountable years impossibly lifelessbefore him. Eventually, his eyes found mine, speaking to me in a language I once may have understood, but could no longer hear. Nevertheless, the feeling that leaked out from them was one I knew well.
Fear.
And then it was gone. He was gone. Charging towards the ball to defend his family in arms.
I DIDN’T NEED Areason to follow Kalen head-on into danger, though I had many.
For one, whatever horror that was the impetus for the screams of hundreds within the dining hall was sure to be coming for us next. I thought I would rather face certain death than let the thought of it terrorize me slowly until it finally came. Then there was the small fact that Kalen had saved me from a cracked spine atop the rocky embankment of the Mountain, and for that alone I felt I owed him. But the reason that spurred me the most, the one that made my legs itch with the need to chase after him, was something I couldn’t make sense of at all. There was no logic left in it. It would probably cost me my life, but I needed to help him.
I watched in disbelief as he ran toward the attack, drawing another sword from the back of his armor, my heart beating so loudly it flooded my ears. the Sages each turned their back towards the door, Ione brushing past me to the back of the war room, followed closely by Dario. For safety, surely. Gabriel was next, placing a hand on my shoulder. I kept my eyes on the empty hall but felt the Time Sage lean into me.
“I say you,” he said into my ear.
Quiet, but stern.
The words broke my focus, and I whipped around to confront the god and his siblings. But they were gone. Not huddled in the corner strategizing or cowering, but vanished into thin air, along with the Astralites, their powers emptying the room as they went.
