Page 128 of The War of Wings
“We…” Liara started, her face unreadable as her eyes darted amongst Idros as he held Keeperslight, Aegrabane in my hand, and my face. “No one ever thought of that,” Liara breathed.
I inclined my head, my patience wearing even thinner. “Thought of what?”
“Imbuing a weapon with her power. How did she even think of that? How did she manage to do it?”
“Painfully.”
“So she knows the truth, then?” Liara asked carefully. “Noros told her?”
The truth? My mind scanned through everything I knew, the thousands of possibilities of what thistruthcould be. What truth could she possibly be referring to?
“What truth?” I finally asked, my jaw tight.
“That she’s the only being capable of killing Malosym.”
“That was assumed.” But Liara’s eyes flicked away again, moving to the other Blood Saints, and I grunted in frustration. “Can someone just fucking tell me what you’re referring to?”
“You don’t know?”
My free hand clenched into a fist at my side. “What don’t I know?”
I waited, every muscle taut as Liara took a deep sip of her wine, gulping until there was nothing left. Then, she reached for the bottle, refilled her goblet, and drained it again. She glanced quickly between the other Blood Saints. “Can we tell him?”
“Noros was the one who made the promise to Katia, not us. And we were cursed not to reveal his identity, but if it’s already been uncovered…” Idros trailed off.
Faldyr’s fingers moved over the imbued blade, testing to see whether it was cool enough to touch. “Petra is the only one capable of killing Malosym.” His eyes flicked to me. “Because they are of the same bloodline.”
I blinked slowly. “What are you talking about?”
“Malosym created Katia. That is no secret, though it’s not widely known. But even though Katia has renounced her connection to Malosym, as Katia’s daughter Petra is still of Malosym’s bloodline,” Faldyr said.
My hands tore through my hair. She was his descendant.
But before I could question it further, Faldyr continued, “And according to the laws of the Old World, from where Malosym originates, Holy Beings such as Malosym and the Saints can only be killed by someone in their own bloodline.”
A small part of me sighed with relief. Petra couldn’t die at the hand of an Occulti or human. Only Malosym. “But…that doesn’t make any sense. He tasked me with killing her,” I stammered, my memory pulled back to the first day I crossed paths with her on the Eserenian waterfront.
“Before her powers developed, yes?” Cyen asked.
“Well, yes, but–”
“You’ll soon learn the ins and outs of the Holy Beings of both the New and Old World,” he offered as the only explanation. “She could be killed by a human before her powers developed.”
“I…” I started, my head a hurricane of unanswered questions. “So she’s the only one who can kill him.”
“Yes,” Liara answered, and something in the tone of her voice made that small bit of relief dislodge from its place. “There is, however, a caveat. It will require so much of her power, she will burn herself out.”
That was it? That was the caveat? “She’s burned herself out plenty of times before. I’ve always been there when she loses consciousness,” I answered.
“No,” Liara said, her voice suddenly softer. “She’ll extinguish herself completely.”
My posture stiffened, my voice low when I finally spoke. “Are you saying it’ll kill her?” Liara’s quick nod was her only answer. “But… Why?”
“You must understand, Malosym’s power is ancient. And Petra… She’s neither human nor Saint,” Cyen explained, his head moving side to side as if he were searching for the easiest way to explain this. “It would make sense you wouldn’t have this knowledge yet, as humans are forbidden from such truths. She’s something else, something not yet seen in the New World. She is the product of that ancient power, rooted in a world long since burned, and the product of this New World and its laws.”
“You say she’s something else as if you have no idea what she is at all.”
“We don’t,” Idros answered. “Not really. It’s an intricate predicament.”
