Page 134 of Scourged
Zadione held herself perfectly still, but Mariah couldn’t miss the way her eyes flashed. The way dark memories seemed to fill her gaze, reminders of a love that could’ve been great but was lost to control and selfishness.
Mariah straightened. “Andrian is … many things. And I know he keeps his secrets. But Zadione, he is not evil.”
“No. He is not.” Zadione sighed. Mariah wondered if it was an instinct, much like her human impulses. Whether she needed to breathe, even on this plane, in this body. “But he could be. It is in his blood. And with the wrong influences … I fear what he could become.”
Mariah went cold. “What do you mean?—”
“That’s enough, sister,” Qhohena interjected, her voice sterner than before. The golden goddess softened her gaze on Mariah. “If you stay by his side, then you need not worry about my sister’s warnings. Any darkness that might dwell in him will always be outdueled by your light. Trust in yourself, trust in him, and trust in your strength.”
Mariah tried desperately to read for more between the planes of Qhohena’s smooth golden skin. She nodded, just once, but couldn’t deny the way her stomach still turned, her mind and magic unsettled.
“Did you come just to warn me about him? Or is there more?”
“There is more.” Zadione’s words were clipped. She ran a hand through her long silver hair, brushing through the ends. They shimmered like whispered starlight. “You realize, I trust, that something occurred on the Winter Solstice.”
Thatgot Mariah’s attention. She pushed out of bed, planting her feet on the ground as she glanced between the sister goddesses.
“I found an abandoned apartment in the market district. Destitute, uninhabitable. But there was a room coated in blood, and an altar ofaberrantat its head.” Mariah had only learned of the substance yesterday, but Zadione hissed at the mention of the cursed stone. Mariah stifled her flinch and continued, “Something evil happened in that room. Something vile.”
“You felt it in theallume, didn’t you? After the Solstice?”
Mariah nodded. She could still feel it rubbing against her skin, an unwelcome toxic sludge. “I fixedit.”
The goddesses stilled before sharing a furtive glance. “You … fixed it?” Qhohena’s question was quiet.
Mariah’s jaw worked. “It was draining theallume. The lights went out. I did what I had to.”
Qhohena straightened, pushing back her shoulders. “Good. We felt the poison, too. In our realm. When the walls betweenthe paradise of the gods and this world were down, another barrier was dropped. The barrier between this world … and Enfara. That is what theaberrantwas used for.”
Shock rattled Mariah’s mind, replacing the revolting anger at the memory of the dark magic. She blinked as her light unspooled through her gut, whispering through her veins, oblivious to its former ladies.
“Hedefiledour night,” Zadione hissed. “That monster turned our sacred gift into somethingfoul. He is using it for something. Something that will help him get to me.”
“Calm, sister. We do not yet know his intentions.” Qhohena turned back to Mariah. “But … we do know that he pulled something through that barrier. More than just planting the darkness in ourallume. He is still trapped in Enfara, but … perhaps a tether. An anchor of some kind. It is hard to tell.” Qhohena frowned. “Everything about his power is blocked from me. When I try to look, I am met only by darkness.”
“Wait. Just to clarify. This ‘he’ you refer to …” Mariah glanced at the sisters. “It isFlétrir, right? The Scourge?”
“That is what you know him as, yes,” Zadione whispered, her eyes icy and glazed.
Mariah tilted her head, turning to the Goddess of Death. “Haveyoutried? Looking for him?”
Zadione’s light snapped around her. “No. If I did, it would reveal everything. He knows me, the feel of my power, too well. And if he reaches me…” The goddess’s silver eyes drifted down. To Mariah’s chest.
Where that essence of Zadione dwelled, hiding within Mariah’s soul. The source of the silver half of her magic, that gift she’d carried all her life without even realizing it.
“You have no idea the value of what you carry, Mariah. The weight of the world, the survival of everything, depends on you.”
“Do not trouble the girl, Zadione,” Qhohena intervened sharply, snapping the tension that had slowly been filling the space between Mariah and the silver goddess. Mariah blinked and leaned back, a little dazed but her mind whirling. Qhohena’s expression was still soft, but with an urgency in her gaze.
“You must discover what happened on the Solstice, Mariah. What they did. Who did it. And, most importantly … what they brought through.”
Qhohena’s voice grew fainter as she spoke, and when Mariah blinked, the golden goddess faded to a shimmering silhouette.
But Zadione still stood there, as strong as ever, silver gaze burning with the fires of unending death.
“When was the last you heard from your family, little queen?” Zadione’s words were biting and clipped, dark and foreboding. “What makes you think they are safe away from your palace and your Armature and your magic?”
Mariah’s heart dropped to her feet. Her skin pebbled, cool sweat coating her brow. “What do you mean?” she croaked, throat tight.