Rest In Pieces

33

Xadezhda

Where to begin?

With all of them speaking at once it was near impossible to tell them apart. Especially for the others, who had not their voices rattling around the whole length of their journey.

Xadezhda, Ōstara said, before we can begin, you must eat the one who brings silence.

Xadya turned, looking at Jamie. At her hungry eyes, Airo stood protectively before him. Her shoulders sunk.

"This is bigger than you, Airo," she said softly. "I am sorry for the inconvenience of those I killed, but I was not doing it to spite you."

"You think I don't know that?" he demanded. Her eyes flashed. "You think I don't know it's not your fault? Even still, Xadezhda, you will not hurt Jamie. I won't allow it."

Xadya breathed a sigh. "Take him out, then."

That is not what we asked of you, child. Destroy the one who stops you and then destroy the world.

"Gods are dark," Finley muttered.

And you, little guard. What answers do you seek?

Finley squared her shoulders and spoke aloud. "I want fairness for the Guard. I want the war to end."

Her points were moot. The gods did not care for any of this. They wanted Xadya to end the world so they could remake it anew.

A figure stepped out of the shadows. Red hair spilled down her shoulders in waves, a cloak covered her pale skin, all except a tiny strip where her eyes rested.

Xadya knew who was before her.

"Ōstara," she breathed.

The goddess reached toward Xadya and held her face between her hands. Xadya could not feel her. Perhaps the goddess before her was nothing but an apparition.

"You know what you must do," she said warmly, though the task of eating James limb by limb would not be warm at all.

Yzaos joined her. One by one, the five gods emerged from the darkness, as if appearing out of nothing.

"Look at them," Bahohr chuckled, and thunder crashed above them. Rain began to fall outside and the tip of the mountain was plunged into a storm.

"Tiny King," Yzaos snapped. "You think you can control an entire Arcane order? You are foolish. You are nothing."

Airo's eyes narrowed.

"I won't hurt Jamie," Xadya declared, finding strength for the first time.

"You'd prefer to save him for last?" Tileczna offered. "Eat him when there is nothing and no one left but the three of you? Perhaps there is something poetic in that."

Xadya blinked. Three?

She could not escape this.

Malakhai twitched beside her. They must have wanted him out.

"The boy must die," Indzha ordered. "We will return once it's done."

One by one the gods began to fade away, until only Yzaos was left. He looked at her expectantly.

Xadya recalled, then, the Vorōn. The Nørczek.

"Okay," she whispered to Yzaos. "I'll do it, if that's what you want."

She turned to James, and Airo's expression grew dark. "I did not let you kill him once, and I'm not going to let you now," he growled.

"Step out of the way, Airo," Xadya said calmly. There was intent in her eyes. She held his gaze, arching an eyebrow was Yzaos couldn't see.

Airo didn't move.

She took a step closer and laid her hand over his heart. "Perhaps I'll eat you first."

"Today, child," the god called, "or I'll begin to take out those you love. Perhaps vaticide would be a fitting way to begin."

Vaticide?

Xadya's eyes wandered to Inessa. "You knew?" she demanded.

"I..." The prophet was at a loss for words.

Xadya did not have time. She crossed her arms. "Let's see just how long I can defy a god, then."

Yzaos grinned a sickly grin, and began to solidify into a form mortals could lay eyes on. The true forms of the gods would scar their minds forever, but the figure before her was one she could easily wrap her head around.

Yzaos used magic to knock Airo out of the way and to turn Xadya toward James. He forced her closer, forced her hand to his heart. James' abilities were nothing in this temple.

"We could start with your Arcane, if you'd prefer," Yzaos purred, turning her to Malakhai.

"No," she said sharply. "Not him."

There was a hunger in Malakhai's eyes she had not seen before. She looked at him, and it began to come together.

The book he had kept from her. The way he had encouraged her to keep eating the hearts. He had been building up her strength.

"Malakhai?" she asked in a small voice. His lips twisted into a smirk.

"Don't look so surprised, milaczek."

"D—don't call me that," she said, for the first time.

And while Yzaos was holding her, Malakhai slammed his fist against her forehead.

A rush. Burning, seething, veins coursing like sandpaper, twisting, scraping. Xadya couldn't see. Stars and darkness clouded her vision; was it Bahohr? Or was it something else entirely?

Her knees cracked against the stone floor as she fell, crumpling at Malakhai's feet, scrambling for any ounce of strength she had left as she felt it all draining from her veins.

Her magic was gone.

The gods were gone.

Malakhai was gone.

"No," she gasped, clawing at the floor where he had stood.

The gods had had a backup plan. They had known she would refuse them. They needed someone stronger, and they chose Malakhai.

Xadya was enraged. At him, for fooling her, and at herself, for believing him.

"Where's Jamie?" Airo demanded, panic risen in his throat.

"Bastard took him," Inessa muttered.

Xadya could have killed her. She slammed Inessa into the concrete wall, elbow at her throat, seething.

"You," Xadya growled.

"I'm sorry," Inessa pleaded as Airo and Finley worked together to yank Xadya away from her.

She had no magic. No strength. No power. Even the Arcane inside her was gone.

Xadezhda was human again.