My gut squirmed in agreement. “We need to keep an eye on their movements until we can get out of here.” He nodded. At my next thought, the food in my stomach soured. I set down the bread and knife. “Have you seen Echnid?”
Malakai tensed. “I haven’t come face to face with him, but I’vefelthim.”
My skin chilled. “What do you mean?”
“The god’s power is palpable throughout the palace—probably throughout all of Damenal and Gallantia.” He ran a hand over the scar on his jaw. “I doubt his return went unnoticed.”
I supposed since I woke with so much new, raw power threading through me, I hadn’t realized, but I studied my chamber again. How the clink of the chandelier was so much higher as wind danced through the crystal; how the mystlight bouncing between the glass slats rippled and shimmered in more depth; how Malakai’s freckles seemed pronounced and my skin more sensitive.
“Warrior power truly was unlocked,” I mumbled, my heart tumbling through my chest. “One good thing came of this at least.”
“Hopefully,” Malakai said. I raised my brows, and he added, “We don’t know what’s happening out there, Phel. What else woke with Echnid. Let’s hope this newfound power is an advantage and not creating greater enemies.”
I swallowed the possibility of warring clans and vies for power, of unknown things slinking about the world, and sank against the table, looking back at my rumpled bed. “Let’s hope,” I agreed.
And as my stare locked on the crimson stains brushed across the sheets, on my cursed blood painted by feathered fallacies, I whispered, “I need to see him.”
Chapter Five
Ophelia
After I washedup as best as I could with my still sore muscles—making Malakai do the same since I learned he’d barely left my side—and searched for a clean pair of leathers in my dressing chamber, slicing a tunic up to tie it behind my neck and back to accommodate wings, we started a slow promenade through the wide halls. The sky beyond the windows was tinged gray as clouds rolled in.
On the surface, there wasn’t much disturbed in the palace, but as Malakai cautiously guided me through the halls, I understood what he meant. There was a thick hum to the air, low enough that it took me a while to pick up on, but impossible to ignore once I had.
It draped luxuriously across the walls, as decadent as velvet and threatening as a corded rope around my neck. It permeated the air like a drafty mist, tickling my skin and buzzing around my mind. It was Echnid?—
And it had the power to drive me mad.
“You haven’t seen anyone?” I asked Malakai as we walked.
“No one.”
“Not even any of the council members?” We’d left the Masters of Rites, Coin, and Trade in charge when we left to hunt for the emblems all those months ago.
“They’re safe in their homes in the city, according to Damien.”
I scoffed. “Who knows if we can trust that information, then.”
We fell into silence as we continued, and all the while, that godly essence pulled at me. There was one place I needed to see more than the rest, and my pulse thundered as we climbed the wide staircase toward it.
Every worry vacated my mind when we stepped into the Rapture Chamber and found Echnid standing before the pillared wall.
Tendrils of white mist peeled off his monstrous frame, spilling around the marbled floors and over the edge of the sharp drop. My favorite view in the palace, spoiled by the Warrior God. My hand tightened on Malakai’s arm, and tension rippled off him.
This room—where I’d claimed my title and where I’d stood firmly against chancellors; where I’d fought Kakias and she used my blood to begin her journey to immortality; where I’d reveled in the view of my mountains—Echnid had to taint this room, too.
For a moment, Kakias’s spirit stood beside Echnid, Ritalia and Lucidius with them, and all heads slowly swiveled toward me. I shivered internally, blinking away the vision until only the Warrior God remained, but I buried my fear deep beneath the power of the seraph thrumming through my blood.
“What are you doing here?” I accused.
Echnid’s milky eyes assessed me. In the light, faint gray irises shone in the center. “I sensed this would be the first place you went upon waking.”
“Sensed?”
“I know you better than you think, Chosen Child.” He scoffed what I thought was supposed to be a laugh. “Are you feeling well?”
“I’d be better if you hadn’t commandeered my home and city.”
