Page 197 of The Legacy of Ophelia
The mist thickened the closer Sapphire and I got. And in it, I saw something I recognized: Betrayal.
“It’s a punishment,” I choked out. “You were never going to give this land back to the Angels, were you?”
Echnid nodded in approval. “They failed once. They do not get a second chance.”
I’d assumed that had been the deal. The Angels help Echnid enact his revenge, they return to their strength on Gallantia. But if Echnid was to be believed, he never planned to give warrior land back to them.
That was why he needed the demigods as generals and wanted me to raise seraphs as his guardians. So, when he did away with the Angels, he would not be standing alone.
Then what were the Angels doing supporting and empowering him?
If this was only the god’s steppingstone, I feared for all the realms. He’d send this one to ruin in his wars. Like the cleansing of a Firebird, it would be no more than ash.
“Those Angels have been loyal to you,” I growled, and fucking Spirits, I couldn’t believe I was defending them. But we were the same, if on different ends of the line. They were used by Echnid as I was used by them. “They are fighting and killing for you right now.”
Sapphire was so close, Echnid’s power pressed on me. Swarmed me, like I was caught beneath a wave and being tumbled around.
My body is my own.
My mind is my own.
“They are attempting to redeem themselves,” Echnid said. “They deserve to struggle.”
I tightened my grip on the Vincienzo dagger.
“No,” I gritted out over my fury. “No one deserves what is being done tonight.” I paused, tilting my head in mock consideration. Sapphire stilled as I tapped my finger three times along her back. “Except you, I suppose.”
And my pegasus reared up, her hoof striking sharply against Echnid’s skull. I swung to the side and plunged the dagger into his neck.
Gold magic rippled off the weapon, through his flesh, and he hissed in pain. I twisted the dagger, pouring more seraph power into the blade, imbuing it with the pure ether of every Angel, so much stronger than I’d ever imagined.
I sent all seven threads into the god, attempting to shred his very heart and self.
And then, I ripped the dagger out just as viciously.
Sapphire took to the air, looping around, and I watched Echnid with bated breath, searching for the satisfaction of a god withering, dying.
But—
No.
The wound was sealing over as if my magic and the power of an imbued blade meantnothing.
Echnid gave us a malicious smile. “You thought that was all it would take?” He laughed. “You thought you could kill a god so easily?”
And I truly felt like a fool because I had. Or at the very least, I’d hoped it would be enough. That I’d been given these seraph powers for a purpose some other god or Angel or Fate was aware of, even if I was still figuring it out.
Godscoulddie. I’d seen it happen only weeks ago. Seen this vengeful Warrior God slay his own sister…but what had sealed it?
The desert flashed through my memory as I picked it apart. My magic launched a dagger through the air, and Echnid siphoned it into himself, compressing gold and silver?—
Silver.
Silver bolts had shot through that condensed magic, too. Jezebel had been trying to assist me, but her myth magic…
One to raise myths, one to hold their leashes.
I looked down at the dagger in my palm, at the blade sharpened to a lethal point, humming with life.
