Page 96 of The Deathless One
Fate had always seen fit to thrust him into fickle situations.
“You cannot use me as a weapon,” Elric continued. “I have not been resurrected into this world. What magic I have is linked only to those who sacrifice for me, and that is all. You’d have better luck using Jessamine than me.”
“No, I want no one between us.” Striding closer, the other man looked up at him with so much confidence it was disturbing. “What if I told you that I can resurrect you?”
“You cannot.”
“But what if I could?”
A thousand thoughts ran through his mind in an instant.
Yes. Resurrect him. Let him be free to launch into this world with all the vengeance that he required. If there was a spell that could resurrect him without needing a gravesinger to breathe life into his vacant form, then he should take it. No man who used such a spell could control a god once he was alive.
But what if he could? What if Elric unknowingly chained himself to this foolish, venal man who had plans to use a god in unknown ways?
Underneath all those thoughts was a single, whispering desire: he wanted Jessamine to be the one to do it. He wanted to be connected to her, fully and without question. He wanted to feel their connection pulling through his body at all times. Once summoned, he would wrap himself in the grave scent of her, and together, they would rule a kingdom of bones.
He followed his heart, even knowing that the treacherous organ had only led him wrong in the past. “You cannot summon me, Callum. You are not a witch.”
“Ah, so you do not know everything after all.”
He watched as Callum made his way to the door. He leaned out, waiting for someone to hand him a threadbare bag that he drew back into the room. It was clearly something that had seen too much use. Mud drippedonto the otherwise pristine floor as Callum opened it, and dirt rained down in a sprinkle of flecks that covered Callum’s boots.
“You see, Jessamine was my daughter in every way but blood. Her father left the world all too soon, gods rest his soul, but that left me with an opportunity to take what was once a king’s. His wife, his daughter… his influence.” Callum stuck his hand into the bag, clearly searching for something. “What a shame his death was, I thought, when I first walked into the castle. And then I realized opportunity had always been my strong suit.”
“You viewed her as a daughter, and then you watched her be murdered?” Elric spat the words, hoping they landed as sharp as the glass. “What a man you are.”
“A sad side effect of saving myself. I understand you think this means I am cowardly or selfish, but there are many people here who need my guidance and help. I have built an empire in this ruined district, and I will not let anyone take that from me.” His face morphed into something that looked like pleasure. “No one will ever test me again if I have a god in my back pocket.”
“There is still the minor problem that you cannot resurrect me.”
It was the last chance he had, even though he had a sick feeling in his stomach about what Callum was about to pull out of that bag. That familiar backpack had been worn the first time he’d seen it and had gotten more ragged in the time Elric and Jessamine had traveled from the sea to here.
Callum pulled the black book out, then let the bag drop to the ground with a clunk. “Ah, and here it is. The book I’ve been searching for. Who would have thought our little Jessamine had it all this time?”
“It’s empty. Even she couldn’t read it.”
“Because it was incomplete. That’s the most interesting part of this book, and the struggle I had in the castle as well. When I first opened it, the damn thing wasn’t empty, at least until I maimed it. Then all of a sudden, it was more like a journal than a spell book.” Callum flipped through the pages until they fell open to a torn-out page Elric hadn’t noticed before. With a flourish, Callum slid a crumpled page from his pocket and placed it inside the book.
Elric could feel the magic swelling in the room, but he could also feel the tug at his navel. The book… That damned book could control him.
“Would you look at that? All the pages are back.” Callum dramatically turned pages and then tapped his finger on one. “How to summon a god without magic and bind him to your service. What luck that I’ve finally found this, while I have you already in my grasp.”
And they’d delivered it right into his hands.
He lunged. Elric would stick his claws right into Callum’s chest and pull out the man’s still-beating heart. A feral part of him wanted to devour the muscle, biting into it while this man looked at him in horror. Then he would shove it back into the empty cavity with his teeth marks in the damned organ and force it to beat. The sluggish blood would move through Callum’s body like a poison he could never get out of his veins.
But he walked right through Callum. And though the other man gasped, it wasn’t enough pain to satisfy Elric.
Callum chuckled. “I see you’re angry, and we’ll deal with that, eventually. Once you are resurrected, we can talk about some other arrangement. You want to be summoned, don’t you? There has to be some revenge you want upon the witches. I’ve read about you. I know what they did. We can make that happen together. We will destroy this kingdom and rebuild it in our image.”
“I will do nothing without her at my side,” he snapped.
He had revealed too much.
Something changed in Callum’s expression then, his face twisting with mock pity. “Oh, but haven’t you read this book? You should have seen it long ago, Deathless One. After all, the only way to summon a god and bind him is to make a great sacrifice. Both of us have to lose something, although I suppose it is unfortunate that I will have to choose for you. I have no connections in this world other than the young woman I consider my daughter. And you? You have no one but a gravesinger who made the mistake of not resurrecting you before me.”
“If you touch a hair on her head, I will curse you to an eternity of pain. I will rip you out of that flesh suit and lay your soul down upon abed of glass and tread upon it every single day. I will grind pain into the very fiber of your being. You will know nothing but torment and beg for release that I will give you none of.”
