Page 79 of The War of Wings
“Somewhere around five hundred. Your mother and Solise were accounted for.” A knot I hadn’t even known was tied loosened in my chest. “Whit and Summercut were accounted for as well. They’ve consolidated everyone still in Taitha to a few square blocks. Easier to guard.”
Guilt bloomed in my chest so quickly it felt as though my ribs could crack. Five hundred people. Five hundred souls who would leave this realm and find…what? What awaited them? More pain? More suffering?
“The Occulti attacked here last night,” I murmured, closing my eyes.
“Shit,” Nell whispered under her breath. “Everyone accounted for?”
“Yes. A handful of deaths, but we’re all accounted for.”
“Where’s Miles?”
I blinked, looking at the chair he’d been sitting in throughout the entire meeting with the leaders. “Good question. Must’ve slipped out at some point.” Nell’s only answerwas a nod, her face gaunt with exhaustion. “Cal, can you find Queen Irli? Have a room arranged for Nell?”
“Of course,” he answered, extending a hand to Nell.
She took it, and the fact that she didn’t make a wise crack proved how shaken up she was. Her eyes were hollow as I wrapped my arms around her, hoping she could feel how grateful I was for her. “Thank you,” I said. “Get some rest.”
A small nod was all she could manage before she shuffled out the door.
A dozen drivas. A dozen fucking drivas. Sure, they’d all fallen, but he could make more.
Fear boiled over in my gut as my hands began to burn. I clenched my fists together, willing the burn to stop, but it only grew hotter. I walked back up the dais, trying to catch my breath, but it was no use. “Fuck!” I bellowed, beating my fist into the tabletop, hot tears flooding my eyes and spilling over the lids. The wooden table ignited, a trail of flames snaking over the tabletop. “Saints fucking damn him!”
I collapsed onto the chair in the center of the table, just close enough to the fire that it hurt. Could I burn myself out with my own flames? What if I simply sat here, let the flames take me and this entire fucking castle and put us all out of our misery?
No. I couldn’t do that. Not to Cal. Not to Miles. Not to Nell or Whit or Solise or Ma.
I reached for the storm inside of me, isolating the rain and dropping a sheet of water over the flaming table. The fire sputtered out, smoke hissing from the embers that still glowed.
“Control is coming easier to you now.”
I jolted at Tyrak’s voice in the quiet. In all honesty, I’d forgotten all about him, still sitting in a chair at the base of the dais. He rose and took a cautious step forward, and when I didn’t protest, he approached the smoking table, taking the chair next to mine.
“Gaining control of your powers must feel good,” he remarked, no emotion discernible in his voice.
Anger should’ve flared at his words, but I was numb. I stared at the smoke drifting off the table, imagining I was looking at a scorched battlefield. That would be my view sometime soon, if I even lived long enough to see it.
“I was human before I was a Saint, you know,” Tyrak said suddenly.
My eyes flicked to him. “What?”
“We all were, except your parents.”
I blinked, staring at him. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s not something any scholar would find, nothing you’d find in any book. Katia and Rhedros didn’t want something like that to be widely known. They didn’t want humans thinking they could become Saints.”
“But they can?”
“Yes, but it’s a bit more complicated than that,” he answered, a careful smile on his face.
My head dropped back to my chair. “It always is.”
Tyrak leaned forward, his eyes on the scorched grains of wood. “He’s going to kill me.”
My first instinct was to tell him that wasn’t true, but I knew Malosym’s nature. Tyrak had escaped his claws, and he wouldn’t take kindly to being outmaneuvered. So, I remained silent.
“Acceptance came to me long ago,” he continued. “But I vowed to do everything I could to protect you, and I’ve kept that vow and will continue to do so. When I brought you to the Human Realm, I knew I had one chance to keep you from Malosym. And I know this sounds harsh and a bit backwards, but I did my absolute best to find a family who wouldn’t be able to give you much in the way of an education.” His fingers were splayed out and flexed, as if he were trying to justify his decision to not only me, but himself. “But you deserved a family who loved you as much as your mother and father do.And so…” He took a deep breath, as if fortifying himself for the words he was going to say next. “Everyone was asleep in the house, and I was quick about it. And as far as I knew, your parents, yourhumanparents, were none the wiser.”
