Page 61 of Left Hand of the Divine
Erebus tipped his head back to look at the night sky and pointed at the mirage. “Use the corner of your eye. So that you see it without actually seeing it.”
“You can see it?”
His bright red eyes met mine, a manic spark firing in their depths. “Yes, and it’s impressive magic.”
Erebus held his hands out towards me and lifted them to my face. “May I?”
I eyed his hands warily but nodded. His fingers graced my face softly, almost reverently. No one had ever touched the bones of my Reaper form before, and the touch of his skin across the carvings sent a shiver down my spine.
“Look into my eyes and focus on your peripheral.” His voice was barely above a rasp. “You’ll see the mark.”
I did as he said, looking deep into his eyes. His eyelashes were so thick and dark, and standing this close to him, I could see wisps of shadow pulse and swirl beneath his skin. It was fascinating and beautiful. Was hemadeof shadow?
“Focus,” he chided softly, a small curl pulling at his plump mouth.
Heat rushed up my skin at being caught staring, and I dragged my gaze back to his eyes. I still couldn’t see the mark.
I huffed in frustration. “I can’t see it.”
“Yes, you can. It’s just an illusion, Roux.” His thumbs whispered softly against my face. Over and over, setting a rhythm that slowed my mind down and soothed my frustration away.
Slowly, the image appeared, right there in the corner of my eye. Just like he said it would. “I see it.”
“Told you,” he replied, his tone a little smug.
But now that I’d seen it, I couldn’t unsee it.
The image of a skull with a blade through the top of its head shimmered and squirmed against the stars. Runes circled the mark, the formation of them jagged like they had been carved into something with difficulty, and where there should have been eyes, two pools of fire blazed in the sky.
A chill swept up my spine as I took in the true horror of the mark. “What is it?”
Sadness pooled in his eyes. “The mark of Nyx.”
“What?” I jerked away from him, my stomach turning sour. “Did you do this?”
“No,” he said instantly. “If I had placed the mark there, it would not be so inferior.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath. The Primordial had a point. There was something about the runes that seemed rudimentary, but I didn’t know what Erebus was capable of. “Well, if not you, then whom?”
He held his hands open wide, as if declaring he had nothing to hide. “I do not know, Roux. I am as much in the dark as you are.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, searching his for anything that seemed suspicious, but he stared straight back with a steadiness that made me want to believe him. “Okay, so where do we begin? How do we get rid of it?”
“Only the person who cast that can get rid of it. It’s ancient magic, pre-dating even the Gods.”
Shit. “Can you weaken it or anything?”
He shook his head. “Only the person who—”
“Cast it can,” I snapped. “I get it.”
“What’s going on?” Lila asked as she rushed towards us.
I pushed my Reaper form back into the shadows. At least the ghosts had managed to stay away. “There is a mark in the sky.”
“What?” she gasped, looking horrified.
“The mark of Nyx.” I needed to get back to the mansion to figure out what we should do about this. As if I needed anything else to worry about. For fuck's sake.
