Page 83 of The Stone Survival
He snorted softly. “When I first met you…When I discovered Derek, I was incensed. I believed you were exploiting his power. It helped me feel justified in wanting you dead, but that isn’t who you are. I realized soon enough that you would give your life to protect the people you love, which is why I hated that I’d have to kill you.”
Serath bristled.
“Calm down,” Yarrow said. “Killing her is no longer necessary. If you cooperate, she can live.” His gaze flicked back to me. “I want you to know that I would have brought you back from the dead. I would have reunited you with Serath once the world had been put to rights, once all the people who abuse power were made to pay for their sins.”
Who did he think he was? God?
“So you’ve found a way to open the rift, and you need me,” Serath said. “Say that you succeed in opening the rift, how will you get your relic? The air is toxic.”
“Not to me,” Yarrow said. “I told you that the weave felt different when I channeled it a century ago while the rift was open. What I felt were the threads of a different weave, one that exists beyond the rift. Those threads settled in me. Echo within me to this day. The atmosphere will have no effect on me.”
Shit, maybe he was a god.
“All right, then, say you get your relic,” Serath said. “How will you close the rift? The air might not be toxic to you, but it is to everyone else.”
His smile sent a chill down my spine. “I wasn’t the only one that the weave touched that day a century ago. Many souls were touched, creating humans and supernaturals with the ability to withstand the gray. How do you think I was able to form the faction?”
“Honestly, I thought you teamed up with the people that opened the rift in the first place.”
“I did, for a time. Enough to discover the secrets they’d harvested. But those alchemists are gone. A new generation has been born. One that is infiltrated into the highest reaches of the goyle and human government. We are everywhere. We are the future.”
Oh god. He planned to change the world. To wipe out goodness knows how many people. “Yarrow, I understand why you’d think this way. You were treated abysmally, and Flora…I can only begin to imagine the pain of losing her, but think of how many families you’ll tear apart if you do this.”
“Sacrifices needed to be made for the greater good.”
“Pretty certain the witches said the same thing when using you and your sister.”
His eyes flashed dangerously. “What they did was vile. A slow death. An imprisonment. They used us for their own gains. I am not like them. Once I have the power, I’ll make sure that no one is exploited ever again. And you’re going to help me, Serath.You’ll come willingly. You’ll let Ubron take control and shift to his graynite form. Comply and Cameron lives. Fight me and I will kill her, and I won’t bring her back.”
Serath’s shoulders drooped. “You’ve been listening to us all this time?”
“No. Not till recently. After the elite exam attack failed, I knew I had to keep a closer ear on things, and so I bugged the feline.”
Taz? He’d bugged Taz?
“It’s been frustrating only catching snippets of conversation depending on which room the feline strays into, but I heard enough.”
“You could have fake kidnapped yourself at any time and had us come save you,” Serath said. “Why wait till now?”
“There was no need to unduly distress Flora. I had time.”
“The remnant?”
His jaw ticked. “She’s more than just a remnant.”
He hadn’t wanted to hurt her. Frighten her. He’d become attached to her. There was still good in him. There had to be.
“The machine is ready now,” he continued. “The stars are aligned, and the weave is at its most powerful tonight.”
My heart sank, stomach hollowing.
Tonight…They were going to open the rift tonight.
CHAPTER 40
ORIX
An orb takes us to an outpost two miles out from the location pinpointed by Willowman’s spell, and as soon as the sun sets, we take to the air.
