Shock ripples through me as I stare at the same serpent mark as my own.
“It’s back.” A wide smile spreads across Praxis’ mouth. “I knew it would happen. I always said it would.”
“What’s back?” I ask.
The smile deepens on Praxis’ face. “Bloodstone magic.”
As he leans forward to kiss his wife, my veins freeze, turning to ice inside me. This cannot be. A mere child cannot bring so much evil.
It takes everything in me to not race from the room, gather my meager belongings, and flee. Instead, I take a deep breath and garner the strength to speak.
“What makes you think that?” Somehow my question comes out even, disguising the whirlwind building in my chest.
Praxis lays his hand against his child’s head, cradling the life he created with Briley. “The Seer predicted children born with serpent birthmarks, but only after magic returned to Bloodstone people.”
Ash thickens in my throat as I force myself to go through the motion of delivering the afterbirth, then cleaning and wrapping the baby.
After I finish, I move toward the door to give the couple privacy.
“Sol,” Praxis says, drawing my attention back to him. “Thank you.”
For what? Catching a child with Bloodstone magic? For ruining everything?
How those words scorch my tongue. I suppress them with a smile and nod. “Of course.”
I step from the room, shutting the door behind me. This cannot happen. I came here to right a wrong, to scourge the earth of an atrocity, to give Mother peace in the afterlife. Instead, I healed a warrior and caught a baby with Bloodstone magic.
Praxis could be lying, but nothing else makes sense. The birthmark was as vivid as the spot on my skin.
Moonlight bathes me as I step to the window and raise my wrist, displaying the hissing serpent placed there after Mother died.
Father said the gods cursed me.
Maybe they did.
I am cursed, and I have brought a plague upon this earth.
Or … Iamthe plague.
ChapterThirty-Seven
Torchlight casts a warm glow around me as I tarry in a hot bath. It took a while to heat the water and pour it into the wooden tub, but every moment was worth it.
Praxis and his family left the day before. Probably far earlier than Gabriel intended, but I couldn’t convince Praxis to stay a moment longer. Besides, I’m sure Briley would have rammed my door down if I hadn’t allowed her husband to leave.
I kept expecting their son to exhibit signs of magic and to burn the cottage with his gifts. Of course, he never did. He’s just a baby. Yet, I braced myself for the inevitable. Nothing has made sense since I healed Praxis, and I don’t hold it past the gods to give Praxis’ child incredible magic.
Have the high gods gone mad?
They gave the Bloodstone back their magic. Or at least Praxis is convinced they have regained their gifts. I searched for signs of it as I tended my garden yesterday. Nothing changed about the city. The people are precisely the same as they have always been.
Still, I wonder if my time limit here has altered. Instead of weeks, I might only have days to carry out my mission.
I curl my fingers into the herb infused water and sigh. Even a bath cannot make me forget why I’m here, as much as I wish it could.
If I were normal like Briley, I might have what she has. Praxis stares at her with such affection. The child is the fulfillment of their love for one another. I’ll never have such bonds with anyone.
I lean back, encasing myself to the shoulders, and sigh again. My destiny was written in the sands the moment Mother’s blood soaked them.
