Page 16 of The War of Wings
Onera nodded. “Just because humans cannot pass through realms freely does not mean they haven’t tried. Bloodsingers make sacrifices to the Sanguilite, and the Sanguilite carries those sacrifices through to the Darkness Beyond.”
I blinked, shaking my head as if I could jostle the truth into its rightful place. “So Bloodsingers aren’t actually currying favors from the Blood Saints, but from the Darkness Beyond.” The Saints all nodded silently once again.
There were forces at play here so far out of the depth of my understanding that my meager brain was close to imploding. I couldn’t say I’d accepted the whole daughter-of-the-Saints aspect of my life, but the idea had reached a point where it wasn’t completely foreign to me. But this? The Sanguilite and the Old World and moving between realms…
“I think I need a minute,” I breathed, standing from my chair.
I couldn’t be certain, but for a fraction of a second, it almost looked like fear flashed over Soren’s face, mirrored on the faces of the other Benevolent Saints. “I’m not sure you have a minute,” he said, his words measured and careful. The cheery man he’d been just minutes ago was gone.
Soren rose to his feet, gesturing for everyone to do the same as he traversed the marble floor. He threw open a pair oftowering doors at the far end of the sitting room, and a massive terrace unfolded before us. My breath hitched in my throat at the view, the picturesque town, the sea, and the rolling hills like a painting come to life. I scanned the scene before me, an unexpected sense of calm settling in me at the sight. For a moment, I breathed in the sweetly scented air. What could he possibly want to show me out here under the sunshine, in the breeze?
My questions were answered when my eyes landed on a smudge of charcoal gray marring the green hills in the distance. It was a tiny dot on the horizon, something so small and seemingly inconsequential, I wasn’t sure I would’ve noticed had it not been pointed out.
And just like that, my calm dissolved like sugar in water. The momentary fragile peace I found shattered. Because even though the darkness was nothing more than a speck amid a vast world of beauty, it bore a truth so devastating, it may as well have consumed this world with fire and ash.
“Malosym is here, isn’t he?”
Chapter 6
Petra
Soren’s hand rested against his cheek, his eyes sorrowful as he stared off at the scarred piece of his otherwise pristine land. “No. He’s not here yet. But the Occulti are following his command and trying to break through.”
Larka’s face slackened, as if all the abstract concepts she’d just heard about had suddenly solidified. Da’s face, on the other hand, had tightened, and I recognized the look of worry. Anger sparked within me. They’d paid their dues in life. This wasn’t supposed to happen here. They should’ve left that worry behind.
“It’s still small,” Soren murmured, his voice somewhere far away. “But it’s grown. I worry once the decay picks up momentum, there will be no way to stop it. There’s another spot, too,” he said, his eyes falling on the opposite side of the horizon. “In the Mountain District, there’s a place where the barrier isweakened. We have wards in place at both locations, but to be frank, I don’t know how much longer they can hold.”
That seed of disquiet that had sprouted in my gut back at the cabin was no longer a sprout but a towering, gnarled tree, growing higher and higher with each passing second. Its roots were wrapped around me, its branches thorny as they shot far and wide. And the shadows it cast? They looked a lot like the Occulti.
“Do you know where Katia and Rhedros are?” I blurted. I couldn’t tell if I actually wanted his answer. “I know they’re in the Darkness Beyond, but they couldn’t tell me where exactly. I couldn’t find them when I was there.”
All at once, the air changed. Soren’s entire body straightened. Onera and Tolar shared a wide-eyed glance, and Aanh’s lips parted, her brows raised. My eyes moved back and forth between their faces, confused.
“You were in the Darkness Beyond?” Soren whispered.
“Yes,” I answered carefully, narrowing my eyes at his shocked expression. “Just before I arrived in Heaven.”
“And now you’re here?”
I patted my hands over my chest, my stomach, my thighs, feeling self-conscious. “Um… Yes?” When no one spoke, I decided to continue. “After the battle, Malosym opened a portal and I fell through into the Darkness Beyond. I was running for my life wishing I was anywhere but there. And then…I was here.”
“Larka found ‘er in the garden, aye,” Da said, nodding to Soren. “She didn’t come through the Gates.”
The Saints’ stares felt heavy, the weight seeming to press in on my chest. They knew something I didn’t. Something important.
“What does that mean?” I asked cautiously.
“I-I…” Soren stammered, his gaze searching my face as if the answer lay somewhere within my features. “I don’t know.”
“I think you need to go see the Sanguilite,” Onera said, nodding gravely.
“The Sanguilite?” I shook my head. What reason could there possibly be to see the Sanguilite? I was getting tired of the silent, knowing looks the Saints were sharing.
“She may have the answers we can’t provide you,” Aanh said, her tone unreadable.
My eyes moved back to the spot on the horizon. Instead of asking the million other questions I wanted the answers to, I decided to listen to the Benevolent Saints. I decided to trust they knew what they were talking about, that they were pushing me in the right direction. “How do I get there?”
Silence was the only response as the Benevolent Saints looked between each other, as if each of them expected another to have the answer to my question. My attention was pulled inward, to the tree that was tearing apart my insides. At the end of one of the blackened, twisted branches was a tiny bud. It unfurled itself into nothing more than a small green leaf, otherwise insignificant. But here, it was everything.
