His vision went black, then gold. Bastian went under.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ALIE
All that happens in the night eventually faces the light of day.
—Eroccan proverb
She knew when the change happened. When he turned from Bastian to Apollius, her brother drowned in the god who’d stolen him. His back straightened; His shoulders evened out. The line of His mouth went cruel. His eyes glimmered golden in the light of the Sanctuary candles.
“Well,” He said, looking around. “What an interesting place to find Myself in the dead of night.”
Alie clenched the ring in her dressing gown pocket, the prongs digging into the meat of her palm. Bastian had told her Apollius couldn’t look into what he was doing while he had control of the body—the god had cut that cord when He fully took over. But that didn’t mean He couldn’t figure it out.
“Thank You.” The woman with the sick son cared about nothing but the fact that he was healed, paying no mind to the Sainted King’s slight changes in demeanor. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she hugged the child to her chest. “Thank You somuch. We knew the world would become better, now that You’re here. Everything will be made right, the earth a reflection of Your Shining Realm.”
Something shuttered in Apollius’s eyes at that. The sight of a god taken aback was an odd one.
But He clearly enjoyed the praise. He straightened and smiled, banishing the momentary unease that had flickered over His expression. “That’s why I’m here,” He said, ruffling the little boy’s hair, the gesture stilted. “To make the world better.”
The boy, for his part, mostly just seemed confused. His eyes kept swinging from his mother to the King, his pale brows drawn low and his hand fluttering around his chest, as if something was different there but he couldn’t decide what.
“You got your miracle.” Sophie didn’t sound gruff, but she put on a stern expression as she stepped forward and waved toward the door. “The God of All Things is merciful.”
“Oh, He is, He is.” The woman bowed the whole way out the door, the endeavor taking much longer than it should as she kept turning around to do it. “I’ll tell everyone of Your love and grace, my God, of Your goodness…”
Alie’s grip on the ring tightened with every word.
When the woman and her son were finally gone, Sophie looked back at Apollius, questions that she wouldn’t dare ask written clear across her face. After a moment, she went back to her post at the front of the Sanctuary in silence.
Beyond the stained-glass windows, the first fingers of dawn stretched into the sky.
It strengthened Apollius, made Him shake off the last dregs of Bastian. He tipped up His chin, closed His golden eyes, breathed deep. Then He vised His hand around Alie’s wrist, and they marched out of the Church and onto the green.
“Now, Alienor,” He said conversationally. “Care to tell Me why you and I were in the South Sanctuary in the middle of the night?”
Once again, Alie was desperately thankful that she was able to lie to Him. “I was praying.”
Apollius scoffed. “You don’t expect Me to believethat.”
“It’s customary for brides to pray nightly for the month before they’re married.” This part wasn’t even a lie, though the tradition wasn’t strictly upheld. Embroidering your lies with truth made them more believable. She’d learned that from Lore. “I might not be pious, nor feel that there is anything worth praying to, but it wasn’t like I could sleep, anyway.”
He smirked at her.
They passed Apollius’s statue on the green, the empty plinths where the rest of the pantheon had stood now housing pots of roses. “He’s stronger than I thought,” the god mused softly.
“He wasn’t here for long.” Pointless to pretend that Bastian hadn’t taken over at all. “He was confused, like he didn’t know why he’d come to the Church. But he managed to heal the boy.”
“Surprising that he would do anything to raise Me in public estimation.”
“Bastian cares about people,” Alie said. “He’s not like You.”
“You think too highly of him, but I appreciate your candor.” Apollius grinned. “I see us having a fruitful partnership, if you finally come around to the fact that I’ve won.”
If. She didn’t want to think about what He’d do if she never came around. She doubted Jax could save her then.
Apollius headed back up the turret to the King’s apartments. Alie lingered in the foyer, not wanting to obligate herself to walk with Him, nervously watching the sun creep over the horizon in the window. Part of her wanted to pull out the ring and try to decipher whatever map was hidden within it right here, but the chances of someone seeing were too high, even this early.
