Stepping up to the statue, I searched Bant’s form for any indication of what had driven him here. Of what—beyond an ancient, jealous feud with Damien—had dragged that moss along his skin. Weren’t Angels supposed to be incapable of such feelings? Of trivial, mortal emotions?
Yet here Bant was, the features of his expression worn over time, but the foliage creeping along his facade symbol enough.
I stretched onto my toes, reaching high to match the Angel’s massive form, and slipped that ring upon his finger.
And as metal slid around stone, a surge of power bolted through my veins, and the towering walls of the cave shuddered. A second tremor rolled through the land, moving like a slow, thick sludge, and sending me stumbling back into Tol. He caughtme with arms around my waist, sheltering us both as small chunks of rock rained from above.
It was like those Barrett had reported during the war—the quakes in the mountains that lined up with each time I used the emblems while hunting them.
But I hadn’t even bled on them this time.
The magnitude of that power settled a rock on my chest.
My eyes locked with Tol’s as the shaking ceased. He nodded in encouragement.
Next, I took Gaveny’s pearl from my pouch, walking along the half-moon of Angel statues.
“That one,” Tolek whispered, placing a hand on my hip. I followed his gaze to a rocky figure that was broad and halfway down on one knee, what could have been a bow and arrow aimed at the ceiling.
And right at the head of that weapon, a smooth round notch waited.
Rolling the pearl between my fingers, I relished in that Angelic heat, let it fuel this choice. And I lifted the emblem.
I was about to push the second token home when a familiar cruel voice warned, “Donotreplace any more emblems, Seraph Child!”
Immediately, my boots hit the ground, and Tolek and I had weapons in our hands. Lancaster stood with his queen, stoic. Not a blade in sight.
“Why, Ritalia?” I spat.
“Finishing this task will unleash a horrible plague upon the land.”
“A plague for the fae, perhaps,” I bit back. “Because in the millennia since the Warrior God has been locked up, he will have seen the atrocious waysyoufought his people.” Sapphire’s pained whine echoed through my mind. “How you’ve mauled his creatures!”
The fortitude of the Engrossian emblem sliding home heated my blood, the memory of the tremors racking the earth forging my strength. “I have felt the power the god promises his warriors. It is equal to the fae—perhaps more than. And why should we be forced beneath you any longer? Why should we be at the behest of your stronger magic?”
“Because there is a reason he was sealed away!”
“Jealousy!” I roared. “The known gods were afraid of what the power he was amassing meant forthem.”
“And the things he wished to do with it,” Ritalia clipped. And there was a certain desperation in her tone that stalled me. Something I’d never heard from her before. “I do not know every detail—no one does. There is a prophecy passed from fae royal to fae royal, one that threatened of a warrior who would bleed and unleash a plague, but we have never known of the warrior and have never been able to speak in depth of it. Not until your ancestor shared what he suspected, but even he could not share everything.”
The queen took one step closer, continuing, “And I have been using my unique power to search for the next and uncover why this curse is twisting our magic with it. It is why I sent my hunter here. But remember what your ancestor chose. What he turned his back on, Child Kissed by Angels.”
I looked over Ritalia—at the tendrils of her disheveled hair coming lose, at the thin scratch someone had struck on her cheek—and considered everything shewasn’tsaying.
The fae were our enemies; I’d been taught that since birth. Give them a sliver of an opening, and they’d raze the entirety of Gallantia. We couldn’t trust Ritalia, not only with the power locked inside the emblems, but with the interest of the warriors.
But…Annelliuswasa warrior. And he had seen something in this curse so horrid, he couldn’t find it in him to complete the task. He’dasked the fae for helpafter discovering whatthe emblems were for.Afterconsuming the Godsblood and unlocking the ability to command unknown power.
Gaveny’s pearl beat in my hand. I clenched my fingers around the smooth glass.
What could be so wicked that Annellius deemed it worse than death?
He was a coward.
The Angelcurse had not been resolved, it had only stopped being his problem. He’d passed the damn thing on to me, all these centuries later.
And if I didn’t do this, if I didn’t return these emblems to the statues and spill my own blood, that chain would continue. Jezebel’s tawny eyes flashed through my mind. If I followed Annellius’s footsteps, she’d bare the curse next. A girl who had already been handed untold depths of magic, who didn’t deserve this pressure on her life.
