Of Silver and Beasts (34 page)

His nose explodes. Blood sprays my face.

He drops me and swipes the air, his vision blurred. Sickened, I wipe at the blood. It smears over my skin—and I stop—allow it to hide the mercury rising to the surface. Jumping back into action, I kick his legs from beneath him and round his large form. Coming up behind him, I angle my arm around his thick neck and tighten until I see his eyes bulge. Their deep brown irises darken as he gasps for air.

I can knock him out. Anger the ring leaders and the dark priest. They can come out here and kill us themselves to bleed their sacrifices for their goddess. I won’t do it. Lena had no choice, I understand that. But she also tried to use her kill to prep me for my fight. I think of her face as I squeeze Cannon’s neck tighter.

The horn sounds, and I look up. Weapons descend from the top of the Cage.

Before Cannon loses consciousness, he gets a handle on my wrist and kicks off the ground. His foot connects with my face.

I try to bring him with me as I’m knocked backward, but he scrambles sideways and breaks my hold. He takes off for the closest weapon dangling from the chains.

He yanks the flail free and swings the spiked ball above his head. The crowd stomps harder and faster as he builds momentum. The
whom whom
of the spikes slicing the air cuts through my eardrums.

Behind him, illuminated by the projected full moon, is a long sword. I bound to my feet and run.

The flail swipes the air and I just dive out of Cannon’s reach as the spiked ball slams the ground. He roars and jerks his weapon free of the black dirt. I turn and leap backward as the flail flies toward me again. It snags my tunic. The bottom of my shirt tears as I struggle free and sprint.

I hear the pad of Cannon’s bare feet thumping the ground behind me. Before he launches his weapon, I spring up and grab the sword. Dropping down next to him, I arc my blade against his flail. Our weapons meet with a metallic
clang
.

Cannon’s eyes widen, his sockets enlarging to deliver a crazed glare. He laughs a deep, adrenaline-filled chuckle. “It’s over, protector,” he roars. “I’m going to smash your bones to dust, just like I’ll do to little Red over there when I get to her.”

Spinning and blocking his blow, I glance at Krewl’s chamber, to where Lilly watches my battle wide-eyed. I knock Cannon’s chin with the hilt of my sword. Lilly lost Willa. She suffered through her death. I won’t let her witness my death, too.

I won’t give Cannon the chance to touch her.

As Cannon groans and swipes the flail at my stomach, I turn and dive. I have to get that flail; use the chain to choke him unconscious. I can spare Lilly and defy the ring leaders at the same time. I just have to—

A spike drives into my thigh and I scream.

I hit the ground hard, and Cannon yanks the spiked ball from my leg. I hear the sickening
squish
as it leaves my skin. He towers over me, a deranged look on his giant features. I feel the static pull of the electrified cage bars behind me. It tugs on the fabric of my clothes, my hair.

Cannon has me closed off. He swings the flail one final time above his head as he prepares to bring it down on my head. The ball descends, the
whoosh
filling my ears as the Cage zaps behind me.

I thrust my sword toward the flail.

The chain circles my blade, and I yank back and throw the sword behind my head. The sword connects with the Cage. A current travels through the spiked ball and chain to Cannon’s flesh.

His body sparks. His eyes illuminate like the moon above, and his body convulses. He sinks to the ground, still holding the flail as the current continues to drain his life.

I drop my head to the dirt.

The cheers of the crowd surround me, and the announcer’s voice shouts over the chaos.

I’ve won.

I’ve killed.

My eyes seek Lilly. She slips her hand through the bars of her chamber and flattens her palm, her fingers crossed. Tears brim my eyes.

We’re still us—she’s still with me.

The announcer waves me to my feet, and I push off the ground. As I slink my way toward Bax’s chamber, I keep my gaze on Caben. I don’t know if he would’ve defeated Cannon in the final battle, but now I don’t have to worry. It’s over.

Goddesses, forgive me
.

“That’s enough, Kal,” Caben says, taking the canteen from my lips. “Let the adrenaline ease first, or else you’ll get sick.”

Bax didn’t speak as he led us back to the cell. Lena stayed close to Crew. I doubt she fears another attack from me, but she hasn’t made eye contact with me since we left the Cage.

This was a shaky alliance from the start. The only thing holding it together is the possibility of our escape. But we don’t stand a true chance. They know this also. I just need to make sure Caben and Lilly are freed, and that the relic is returned to Empress Iana.

“Caben,” I say, glancing down at him as he continues to bandage my thigh. He looks up. “Before tomorrow . . . I need you to make me a promise.”

His brow furrows. “What are you asking?” He rips the gauze and ties the ends together, then sits back on the cot.

I press my back to the hard wall and stretch out my legs on the mattress, avoiding his eyes. “That no matter what, you’ll get the relic to my empress.”

“Kal, we’re both—“

“Just promise me,” I cut in. I meet and hold his stare. “I need to hear this vow spoken from your lips.”

He breathes deeply, releasing a heavy exhale of air through his nose, and presses his lips together. “If that’s what you need to hear, then yes.” He nods once. “I vow to return Cavan’s relic to the empress.”

I allow his oath to wash over me, knowing that as a prince, his honor binds him to his sworn words. As the man I know him to be, regardless of his noble blood, I trust that he will keep his pledge.

I wish I could ask more of him. I wish I could request for him to make sure my mother and father are taken care of, but that’s asking too much. If he succeeds in returning the relic, then the empress and Cavan will thrive. I have to trust the goddesses to watch over my family. And Lilly. Lilly will escape with Caben, and she’ll assure my parents are looked after.

This knowledge is a sudden release to my burdened mind, and I close my eyes, feeling maybe, for the last time, at peace.

A
clank
echoes through the tunnel and I jerk upright, my senses heightened and aware. The peace was bound to end.

After a tense-filled moment, the door to our chamber grinds open. Bax stands in the frame. “I need to speak with you, protector.”

“Whatever it is you have to say can be said in front of him.” I nod toward Caben.

Bax tips his head forward, his eyes hard on me as his brow rings glint in the dark light. “Now, protector.”

Groaning, I lift my leg and scoot to the edge of the cot. Distributing my weight to my good leg, I wobble over as Bax leads me into the tunnel. I’m curious as to why he didn’t give his usual speech after we returned.

He turns around and laces his arms over his bulky chest. “I was wrong about you,” he says, and his gaze drops to my chest. Self-conscious, I wrap my arms around myself.

“About what?” I ask.

“I was wrong in thinking you couldn’t stop it.”

My mouth parts, and a small flame of hope sparks within me. Bax continues before I can question him. “Who put that cybernetic fix in you?”

Taken aback, I cock my head and study his intense eyes. They’re the same beady pools of black as when I first met him. No red. “First, you answer a question.”

He shrugs, unruffled by my demand. “Go on.”

“Your eyes . . .” I motion my hand in front of my own. “Why do they change color?”

His lips press firmly together. “As the dark priest gets closer to resurrecting Bale, his control over the Otherworld grows.” He looks around cautiously. “Once the moon goddess walks in our world, it will become like no other hell dimension you can imagine. This is why I need to get my family far away from here. Why I need to take them with us when we escape.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “What?”

“Yes, protector.” He groans. “I said escape. Now answer my question.”

“A physician,” I answer hurriedly. “Someone a nun from the Temple of Alyah knew.”

His eyes grow wide, and a hint of a smile curves his lips. This information seems to please Bax, and he says, “Tomorrow night”—he lowers his voice into a husky whisper—“you will keep the contenders from earning their three kills.”

I shake my head. “And how do I do that?”

“By going forward with your
alliance
,” he sneers the word. “Oh yes, protector. I know about that. We’re gifted with great hearing where our vision fails.”

Goddess
.

“Don’t fear, protector. The other ring leaders are not aware, but you must make sure the moonstones are not triggered on anyone’s cuff. They can’t kill the ring leaders or their guards. It makes no difference who is killed, as long as Bale is given her attributed sacrifice.”

“Because that’s part of the ritual,” I say, leaning on my good leg as my other starts to throb.

Bax nods once. “The moonstones on the cuff are the summoner. The sacrifices have kept her alive over the years, but she’s bound to the earth in a dormant state. When the moon is eclipsed, the veil between realms will thin, and the moonstones allow Bale to enter a willing vessel.”

I scoff. “Willing? There are no willing vessels here, Bax.”

“That makes no difference. As long as the ritual is performed in order, and the moonstones lit with the sacrificial kills, a passage will be created for Bale to possess a human body.”

My mind spins. Whether from the blood loss or the overload of information, I’m not sure. “I can keep the contenders from reaching their third kill, but what about my empress’s relic?” I eye him closely. “What part does it play? I need to know everything before I even attempt this.”

He unlaces his arms and steps closer to me. “The goddess relic will make Bale corporeal.”

A coil of fear wraps my spine. “I’m afraid to ask what happens to her ‘willing vessel’ then.”

“You should be.” Bax turns his head to the side, and I study his hard features.

“The goddess relic is not whole,” I say. “Bale can’t be made corporeal because the priest doesn’t have the last shard.”

Bax snaps his beady gaze back on me. “That’s only a matter of time, protector. Once Bale inhabits a being, she can use the relic to free herself of this plain anytime thereafter.”

Caben’s ring presses against my heel as I bear my weight down.

Bax widens his stance and grits his teeth, a muscle feathers across his pale jawline. “You also have to face the dark priest.”

Shaking my head, I scoff. “No. You’ll have to figure out a way to strap him down or something. I felt the evil coming off him in the temple. I can’t—”

“You’re the only one down here who has any chance of defeating him.” His eyes go to my chest again. “You haven’t used your full strength or your power in the Cage. But I know you possess both.”

My power
—my power of
madness
. Something me and the moon goddess share. I am nothing like Alyah. My heart aches. My mother couldn’t have been more wrong about my blessed blood.

Taking in a gulp of stale, Otherworld air, I fill my lungs and accept this as the reason the goddesses placed me here. “Fine, Bax,” I say. “You got your promise from me. But I want one from you.” His eyes flash red and I curse. “Stop that!”

He shakes his head. His thick dreads sway, their beaded ends clank together. “It’s too close to the eclipse,” he says. “I only have till the end of the Reckoning. But you’re not in danger, protector. I have it under control. Now what do you demand?”

I level him with a stern glare. “Lilly, Kai, and Caben are to escape, too. And as many others as we can manage to save.” I take a measured breath before my next demand. “The relic comes with us.”