Page 109 of Of Blooming Embers
We neared the cages, the sound of scuffling and dissent ricocheting. I pressed my body against the obsidian between Gavrel and Kaden. Gavrel’s eyes narrowed as he pointed toward his chest and then to the cell. He jabbed his finger toward Kaden and then to Endurst’s cell.
His palm faced me then, telling me to wait. I shook my head at the sound of Marah’s pleas. Mouth pinching, his face fell as he realized I wouldn’t stay put.
43
BET HIS TEETH TASTED BETTER
GAVREL
Rolling his eyes, Kaden darted across, holding his finger against his mouth as Endurst gasped. I was grateful my brother had found his way back to us. I’d heard a bit of his apology earlier, and although much of his recent behavior disappointed me, it was a step in the right direction.
Seryn stared at me, stubbornness burning within her eyes. She wouldn’t mind me, but I had to try. My jaw clenched, and I sent a swift prayer to whoever listened that no harm would come to her.
She could handle herself, of that much I was certain. It didn’t stop dread from splintering over every inch of my being. I’d tear anyone who so much as looked at her the wrong way to shreds, bit by bit. If she didn’t do so herself first.
Gritting my teeth, I lifted my dagger, fingers gripping the hilt as I barged into the chamber. Seryn was close behind. “I’d think twice about where your hands are,” I snarled, pressing the tip of my steel against Balor’s spine. Disgust and fury skittered over my neck at the sight of him.
The Akridai grimaced, his embered tentacles and arms dropping from Marah’s robes. With wide eyes, she tumbled out of reach as far as her chains allowed her. Seryn positioned herself so that she stood next to me and slightly in front of the female.
Slowly, Balor turned, the sharpened point of my blade dragging along the fabric of his pewter cape. “My, my, my, Commander. Mistress will be extremely pleased you’ve come home.”
I stepped into him, my dagger slitting a hole in the front of his tunic, pressing into his soft belly. Seryn’s mouth twisted as her halo curled around her, prism-like power snapping at the greasy coward.
Balor’s beady eyes shifted, trying to figure out if he could harm us or escape before I sliced into his middle. His buttery aura thrashed against his flesh when I held out my palm. “Keys!” I barked.
Simultaneously, he threw them at Seryn’s feet and slippery, embered tendrils shot toward me, snatching my blade and flinging it away.
Seryn lunged for him as his power wrapped around my neck, lifting me off my feet. My fingers tore at my throat, sliding through the clammy mist. I choked as his slimy ember squeezed.
Another oiled arm knocked Seryn’s weapon out of her grip as Kaden rushed in, throwing his dagger into the enforcer’s shoulder. Balor’s thin lips pulled over his teeth, and with a garbled howl, his energy unceremoniously dropped me.
I dove for my blade, and Seryn thrust out her hands, eyes glaring in concentration. Her ember ruptured from her taut frame, latching onto him. A look of shock carved into his blunted features.
As she consumed Balor’s aura, Kaden scooped up the keys, and the vague rattle of metal sounded. The Akridai’s phosphorescent ropes whipped toward Seryn, but her halo dissolved them on impact, sweeping the particles within the fractured rainbows.
Balor fell to his knees, eyelids fluttering as his pallid skin lost any semblance of color. Kaden dragged the tethers he’d removed from Marah to the male and locked them around his limp wrists. Silver rune etchings flashed brilliantly for a moment before fading into the iron cuffs. Balor crumpled in a heap on the obsidian.
Seryn summoned her ember home, and it heeded her call, iridescence rippling under the skin of her forearms in its bough design, humming and ready to be pruned.
“Holy fucking Ancients, Ser,” Kaden breathed. “You weren’t kidding when you said you’d been practicing.”
One of her shoulders lifted, and pride scorched through me. She was bloody incredible. My brother smirked and took the keys to release Elder Guust.
I offered a hand to the freed female Elder behind us. “Mistress Strom, I’m Gavrel Larkin, and this is Seryn … Nightshade.”
Marah’s eyelids fluttered. “Nightshade, you say? You have the look of her. Maya, yes?” Feebly, she rubbed at her wrists.
“You know my mother?” Seryn asked, eyebrows rising.
The Elder nodded. “Melina feared her and spoke of her often. She was convinced that Maya was her Scion. If your ancestry is Nightshade, she had good reason to believe just that. To fear you as well.”
Balor’s hands jerked at his restraints. “You’ll get your tongue cut out for your insolence,” Balor hissed weakly, the sallow skin behind his locust rune quivering.
Nostrils flaring, Marah ignored him. “Your mother … We sent her to the Murk prison.” Her head lowered, and straggly, brown strands created a curtain around her cheeks. “We sent many mortals there over the decades at Melina’s bidding. Mortals she thought might be our Scions. Innocents who riled her in one way or the other. She kept Endurst and me trapped in here”—her forefinger spun in the air, and then tapped her temple—“and here. If there had been a way to escape, it was lost to us for the better half of a century.”
Elder Guust stumbled outside the entrance. He looked like he was about to collapse, but also stubborn enough not to grant his bony frame the privilege. “Mel … Melina made an alli-alliance. She used us like puppets at her whi-whim. Wouldn’t let us break our blo-blood oath. Despite us not being in our right mi-minds—and it’ll never be enough—but I’m deeply sorry and ashamed for my p-part in your mother’s impris-imp-imprisonment.” He held a hand to his chest and bowed his head.
My heart tripped as Seryn breathed in deeply. We knew they weren’t to blame. That pleasure was all Melina’s. And Elders Craven and Ash for their willingness to go along with her atrocities.
