Page 46 of Winds of Ruin
“I’m going to go check on Lark,” Sybilla sighed out. “I trust that the two of you can think of what to do with that.” She nodded toward the dreaded artifact that imprisoned the Death Origin. “The fewer people who know its location, the better.”
When she left the room, Krait sat down in an armchair and rested his head in the palms of his hands.
Gray peeked through the mess of black hair at the top of his head; the reminder of his aging only brought me more dread. For centuries, I’d never needed to imagine a world without him.
“The first fifty years were the hardest,” he said to the ground.
I straightened, halting my pacing when he looked up at me.
“After losing Freya. It all felt so meaningless. I blamed myself every day.”
“Yeah… I remember you then. You were insufferable,” I said. He’d somehow been even more surly.
“I built the Sahlms not for myself, but for those like you. A refuge from a land that rejected them.”
I didn’t know where he was going with the lecture, but I swallowed and nodded, meeting his gaze over the chair back.
He continued, “I can’t imagine having lost Sybilla in those years, too.”
Ah.Now I knew what he was getting at.
I shook my head and circled the sofa to sit across from him. “It is not like that,” I explained. “King Mattock became a dearfriend. We both had a great deal to work through after the amphitheater. He helped me.”
Krait scoffed and slumped back into the cushions of the chair. “You have shit taste in friends.”
I wanted to hide beneath the table between us. Instead, I crossed my arms, avoiding his stare. “That says more about you than me,” I grumbled. “But I get it. You’re pissed. You have every right to be.”
“I’m not angry with you, El. You lost your Source Match, and instead of ensuring you had your time to mourn, I let you scour the realms for relics and push yourself to a breaking point.”
Hefelt guilty? That made the heat gathering behind my eyes increase. With his newfound mortality and waning Source magic, Krait had mentioned in passing how much he hated not being able to come search with me. I’d never faulted him.
Krait’s Source magic faded by the year, transferring to Lark—a curse set upon the Shadow Origin’s lineage.
“When you were at your most broken, you found me and took me in. You were my savior, Krait. I will reach my breaking point time and time again for your family because they are mine, too. You couldn’t stop me if you tried.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know what to do,” he growled low and rubbed at his eyes. “How do I keep them safe?”
When our gazes met again, he appeared more tired than I’d ever seen him. I flipped the mirror over, happy to see its black shine and not the face of our worst nightmares. Caym lurked within it, though, waiting for his strength to grow.
“Well, we can start with this,” I said. “Where should we hide it?” A task—exactly what I needed to forget the repercussions of the night.
Krait contemplated for a minute, rubbing the dark stubble on his chin. “The volcanic shores. There’s an uncharted island off them. I can Shadow us.”
I frowned. “Can you make it that far?”
“Of course,” he snapped. “I’m notthatweak.”
“Should we tell anyone else?”
“We inform no one other than Angeline and Leo that the mirror was infiltrated. Keep it vague,” he grunted out. “The more who know, the riskier keeping this quiet becomes.”
I nodded, hating that he was right.
A hint of relief settled in my chest. Despite what a shit situation we were in, waking Emmerick was no longer contingent on finding the relics. With Caym now trapped in that mirror, he wouldn’t wake with the sleeping King.
Yet we still knew no way to break the Sethe curse.
Wind whipped through my hair as we arrived on the dreary island. No wildlife or flora graced the harsh rock. Steam rose from the shoreline, emitting a horrid smell.
