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Santiago’s eyes bulged as he watched it spread, and then he snapped, “Listen, I don’t know, okay? I don’t know.” He stumbled as if he couldn’t get the words out quickly enough. I lifted the blade from him before it spread further. “Kaden doesn’t tell any of us anything, especially after Alistair died and she left. He trusts no one but Tobias now. If you want answers, real answers, find him.”
“Why the iron? The ships?”
“All I know is he’s building something.”
My brows furrowed. “Kaden can’t build a god-killing weapon with Etherworld metals and minerals, and that’s what he would need to kill me. Only Azrael could make something from nothing, and he is long dead.”
Santiago pulled his worried gaze from the blade and looked at me like I had grown horns. “Who said Azrael was dead?”
My head reared back. “I saw it. When the Ig’Morruthens attacked, he died helping his wife escape. The light burned the sky. How can you tell me not?”
“Alistair could make you see whatever he wanted.”
“Alistair? Alistair never set foot on Rashearim. You’re trying to buy time with lies.”
“Why would I lie?” he practically stammered, as if afraid I would place Oblivion close to him again. “The Kings of Yejedin have almost as much power as your lot.”
“Kings?” It was my turn to stammer. “Alistair was no king.”
“You really don’t know who Kaden is at all, do you?” Santiago asked, genuinely confused.
The information ran too fast through my brain. If Alistair was there, did that mean Kaden and Tobias were, too? But how? I needed more answers. Were they the last three Kings of Yejedin? Had Nismera and the other traitorous gods not only called on the Ig’Morruthens but the Kings as well?
I had seen Azrael dead, seen him turn into that clear blue light. I started to tell him how idiotic his words were, but I paused as thunder slapped the sky again. Only the power behind it wasn’t mine this time.
“Winged death,” he whispered.
Santiago’s heart raced, the beat like a drum. He was terrified, and this time not of me.
* * *
“Get me out of here alive, and I’ll tell you everything I know. I promise.”
I stopped and turned, Santiago skidding to a stop as I faced him. I raised my hand, pinching my fingers closed near his face. “Stop talking.”
That’s all he had done. Her arrival had reduced him to a shriveling mess. He knew she was here for him, and he’d practically pissed his pants. I waited to hear the fire I knew she would send through the ship, but it did not come. The witches I had knocked unconscious should be awake by now, but I didn’t hear a single scream or murmur. The worst part was the quiet.
I grabbed him by the shoulder, his shirt bunching in my grip, and pushed him forward. “Keep walking.”
“Don’t you think it’s safer to head away from the main area of the ship?” he said, digging his heels in and trying to turn back.
“Make no mistake, your safety is not my concern,” I said as I summoned an ablazed sword. I placed the tip of the blade against his back. Santiago paused before sighing and moving forward again.
“What’s the point in threatening me if you are just going to kill me, anyway? You already took my hands. I can’t cast magic now.”
I remained silent and pushed him forward. He stopped at one of the oval metal doors and looked at the handle before raising his arms to display his missing hands. My jaw clenched as I stepped around him to turn the large lever and push against the heavy door. It swung open, revealing an empty room with no exits. I shifted to the side and waved my blade, gesturing for him to enter. I did not trust him at my back, no hands or not.
“You are alive for two reasons. The first is that you have information I want,” I said.
“What’s the other?” he asked, turning when he realized I hadn’t followed him in.
I grabbed the edge of the door. “Bait.”
Santiago’s eyes bulged, and his face went slack in shock as I slammed the metal door. “You can’t fucking leave me here!” he yelled, and I heard him kick at the door. “She will kill me! Aren’t you supposed to be the good guy?”
I twisted the handle, locking him in, and leaned against the door. “I never once said that I was good. That is just a fable you all tell yourselves, I suppose. You tell yourselves that I will show mercy. You believe that to be the law and govern the realms, I have to at least be neutral, but sometimes a king has to be a monster.”
With a sigh, I pushed away from the door and called on my fire. Directing it through my eyes, I melted the edges of the door. I continued speaking as I sealed him in. “I will admit that I do seem more erratic, and I am aware it is because of Dianna. It’s confusing and frustrating. I have never felt for another how I feel about her. She makes me feral and possessive, but not in the way your master is. I would never hurt her, and I cannot allow her to keep hurting herself. That’s what she’s doing, and her pain grows every time she kills. She feeds and takes others to sate the part of her born from grief. She is trying to bury herself under those kills and prove to herself that she is the monster you all believe her to be. None of you know her. She is so much more. Dianna was kind to me and helped me when I did not deserve it, so I must also be that for her. She has no one else. Kaden and all of you made sure of that.”
