The Elder Blood Chronicles Book 4 The Blessed Curse (45 page)

“Training, I suppose, though I still don’t
like the fact that I woke you up,” Zoelyn replied softly. It was
hard not to wonder what had crossed his mind while he watched her,
but she knew Seth well enough to not ask. He would answer her of
course, but it would likely be an answer that only held partial
truth. He tended to be vague on topics that he didn’t choose
himself.

“In that case, if we make progress this
morning, I have a surprise for you this afternoon,” Seth agreed
with a smile and moved to the small table beside the door. “Fresh
mage stones,” he informed her as he tossed her the bag. “A
surprise?” Zoelyn asked slowly and raised an eyebrow.

“Which will stay a surprise for now,” he
replied with a smile and waved a hand at the bag she held. “Impress
me, Zoey,” he added as he stretched once more and picked his
leather tunic up from the floor.

She watched him in silence as he pulled the
armor on. His back and sides were lined with faint white scars and
she had been silently trying to count them. The tally had reached
thirty before he picked up the armor, then thirty-five as he pulled
the shirt on, and there had been countless more that she had
missed.

All warriors had scars. She knew that well
enough, but not all of Seth’s looked to be battle wounds. He never
spoke about his past and now she knew why. His scars spoke of a
very brutal life, and by the number of marks she didn’t have to ask
why he avoided dreams. Dominic told her once that dreams were often
figments of memories or aspirations for the future. For Seth,
neither could be pleasant. His past was written in pain across his
body, and what future could he possibly have to hope for. He was
trapped in hell with no end of his penance in sight.

“Seth, if you could have one thing, what
would it be?” Zoelyn asked quietly as she untied the laces of the
leather bag he had thrown to her. The silence stretched between
them for several breaths and she glanced up to see him watching her
with an enigmatic expression on his handsome face.

A flicker of doubt crossed his face and was
quickly replaced by one of his devilish grins. “For you to do well
with your less ons today,” he answered and waved once more to the
bag.

“Then I will do my best,” Zoelyn said softly
and shook her head as she sat down cross-legged in the floor. “You
know what would be better than whatever surprise you have waiting
for me, Seth?” she asked.

“Hmm?” Seth mumbled. His attention was
focused on his countless knives as he fastened them back onto belt
carefully.

“An honest answer to my question. I know you
want me to do well with my lessons, but that can’t be the one thing
you would as k for if wishes were granted.” Zoelyn watched him as
she spoke. He paused at her words and glanced at her with a neutral
expression.

“Never wish for something, Zoey. If you want
it, work for it. From what I’ve seen in life, when you try to take
the easy road it blows up in your face.” His voice was level,
without anger or sadness, as if the words were cold hard facts in
his mind.

Zoelyn nodded wordlessly and lifted the first
gem. Closing her eyes she focused on the magic inside and felt her
curse draining the power. As always there was no hint of the flavor
that Seth spoke of so often. It felt like raw power in her veins
with no hint of what it had been intended to be. With a faint sigh
she dropped the stone and picked up the next. Within moments warmth
rose in her hand and she stared down at the gem in wonder. It was
different from what the first had been. Elation rose in her chest
as her eyes snapped up to Seth once more.

“It feels different. I have no idea what it
is, but it’s different!” she exclaimed excitedly.

Seth smiled at her and nodded faintly. “I had
an idea last night, but I wasn’t sure it would work. It seems it
has, and now we can truly make progress.”

“What?” she asked in confusion. Her smile
faltered for a moment as she tried to understand him.

“I can’t heal so the mage stones I gave you
were all arcane or offensive magic. Jala has a very difficult time
healing, so it stands to reason that she wouldn’t waste the extra
effort to craft stones with healing magic in them either. Neph
can’t heal, so his stones are all arcane. Your words, after my poor
choice of lessons with Legacy, made me think of it. Violence begets
violence…” his voice trailed off and he shrugged at her then smiled
again. “So I went to Sanctuary and attained healing stones from a
friend of mine and you just had your first breakthrough. Well done,
Zoey.”

Her smile rose once more and she clutched the
stone tighter in her hand. “Thank you Seth,” she replied and bowed
her head to him in gratitude. Rolling the stone around in her hand,
she considered his words and looked up at him once more. “You said
you would call me Undrae until you determined what my true name
was, but lately you have taken to calling me Zoey. Does that mean
you don’t think you can find out who I was?” She watched him
closely as she spoke, not really sure what reaction she wanted. Her
past was utterly lost to her, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted it
back at all. Seth seemed to think it was important, but it had
always been a gamble in her eyes.

“On the contrary, I think I’m very close to
figuring out who you are. I have most of the clues now and I have a
good suspicion. I want to be certain before we discuss it, though,”
Seth replied softly and his eyes moved away from her as he walked
to the small window. “I started calling you Zoey when I started
considering you my friend,” he added in a quieter voice.

Zoelyn stared at his back and smiled faintly.
“Fair’s, fair, I suppose. I stopped using the words Crow King or
demon when I began to think of you as a friend.” She fell silent
once more and returned to her focus on the stones. She sat the
healing stone aside reverently where it wouldn’t get confused with
the others and began lifting the remaining stones one by one to
test them.

Seth remained by the window, gazing out into
the eternal shadows of the Darklands for a very long time before
turning to look at her once more. “Vengeance would have been my
answer to that question had anyone else asked, but when you asked,
I actually put thought into what my answer would truly be, and I’m
not sure,” The sound of his voice drew her gaze and the hesitation
in his voice held it. Seth was never truly hesitant, not like this.
In his every action he radiated confidence. With his words, he
sometimes seemed unsure, but nothing like this. Seth rubbed his
face with a hand and shook his head again slowly before meeting her
eyes. “I’ve lived so long focusing on nothing but revenge, that I’m
not sure what I would focus on aside from it. I want to say it’s my
answer now, but I’m not certain it is,” he admitted quietly and
seemed almost ashamed of his answer.

“You know what I was hoping you would say?”
Zoelyn asked, once it was obvious he wasn’t going to continue
speaking. He gave her a questioning look and she held his eyes with
her own. “Redemption. You may have sinned while you lived, but I
didn’t know you then. From what I know of you now, I think you
deserve a chance at happiness. You gave me a new life and happiness
and that isn’t something a demon would do. Finn should realize that
and release you from penance,” She wasn’t sure how he would take
her words and the last thing she wanted to do was offend him, but
it was the honest truth in her eyes.

Seth smirked and shook his head at her
ruefully. “I could save a thousand lives and it still wouldn’t put
a dent in the penance I’m due, and Finn knows it,” he sighed and
turned back to the window. “Besides, Zoey, if I’m redeemed and move
onto another life, I forget everything I know now. That’s how it
works, you know. You move into the life stream and are reborn as a
new soul with a fresh start. That means I wouldn’t remember you.
It’s almost worth sinning more so I don’t forget. It’s been a while
since I’ve had a friend that I could trust. I’d hate to forget
her.”

“You might forget me, but I would never
forget you. I’d find you again in your next life and you would have
a friend again. Dominic says old souls carry an echo and even after
rebirth you can still see hints of who they once were, even if they
don’t remember it. I would see the hints and do everything I could
to make sure your next life was better than your first one,” Zoelyn
whispered as she returned to the stones once more.

* * *

Zoelyn paused at the entrance to the throne
room and stared in wonder at the colored lights and bustling crowd
inside. They were all spirits, but they were unlike any she had
seen before. All of them wore bright colored clothes and a few even
had painted faces done in whimsical designs. She had never seen the
throne room this brightly lit, and the spirits that filled the room
were usually somber creatures awaiting judgment. Half-turning, she
gazed up at Seth who had paused behind her. “What is this?” she
asked breathlessly as her eyes returned once more to the milling
spirits.

“The surprise. Death occasionally has its
benefits and this is one of them,” Seth answered with a smirk.
“This is an acting troupe and Finn is taking full advantage of the
fact that they are serving penance. In life they cheated, stole,
raped, and kidnapped. In death they have several different
punishments and one of them is entertaining the Lord of Death
whenever he decides they should,” Seth explained. He stepped past
her into the room and the spirits within shifted out of his way the
moment they saw him. He ignored them as he motioned for her to
follow and waved for her to take a place on the stairs by
Legacy.

Zoelyn smiled widely at Legacy but let her
gaze drift to where Seth had seated himself against the wall behind
the throne. With a nod to Legacy she continued past the child to
Seth’s side and sat down beside him.

“You will have a better view up there,” Seth
informed her quietly as she adjusted her coat beneath her.

Nodding she smiled at him then leaned back
against the wall beside him. “This makes more sense. If I don’t
understand what they are singing or telling stories about I can ask
you and you will know. Legacy would no doubt be just as confused as
I am,” Zoelyn replied with a faint shrug. There was no easy way to
say
I’d rather be close to you
without embarrassing herself
so she left the rest unsaid. She wasn’t sure if Seth even realized
how often she gravitated toward him.

“You would be surprised what Legacy knows.
For his age he is very well educated, but I see your point,” Seth
said with a nod then waved a hand toward a juggler that was
twirling flaming batons near the back wall. “That in itself is so
much more impressive when they are still alive. Kind of loses the
danger and excitement when you know it’s a dead man braving fire.
It’s not as if spirits are flammable.”

“I don’t even know how a spirit could juggle
so it’s impressive to me regardless if it’s dangerous,” Zoelyn
admitted with a smile.

“Powerful spirits can take on a physical form
similar to my own. These are by no means powerful spirits, but Finn
lends them power for the rare occasions he calls upon them. Today
is meant as entertainment for Legacy so it should be especially
good. By the looks of the room, he summoned every entertainer in
the Darklands for this,” Seth explained quietly.

Silence fell over the throne room as the
double doors opened and all eyes locked onto the Lord of Death as
he entered. Finn regarded the crowd with a wide grin, and then
looked to Legacy with eyes sparkling. “What will it be? A play?
Music? Maybe the acrobats?” he asked cheerfully and Zoelyn couldn’t
help but smile in response. Finn was quite possibly the last person
she could imagine being the Lord of Death. He was always kind to
her and seemed so vibrant. She didn’t know the full story of how he
had attained his status, but she knew better than to ask him. It
was obvious from her few conversations that it wasn’t a topic he
favored, and she enjoyed his company too much to intentionally make
him uncomfortable.

“A play and then the acrobats while they play
music,” Legacy replied happily as he rose to hug his father.

Seth snorted in amusement and nodded his
approval at the answer. “When Legacy is older the High Lords are
doomed. The child has wit and he will have the knowledge and skills
to support it. When he wants something, he will get it,” he
whispered to her.

“You heard my son. A play and then Acrobats
and music. It better be good entertainment too, or I’ll have you
singing to Fiona for the rest of the week,” Finn called loudly as
he dropped into his throne and lifted Legacy onto his lap. Leaning
over the side he glanced back at Zoey and Seth and grinned. “Glad
he brought you for the entertainment, Zoey. I hope you enjoy,” he
said quietly.

“Who is Fiona? I’ve heard him threaten you
with her before,” Zoelyn asked softly.

Seth snorted again and shook his head at her.
“Someone I hope you never meet, but if you do, I pray I’m there to
buffer for you. She is Finn’s advisor and she is a very bitter
creature.”

“Why would Finn choose someone like that as
an Advisor,” Zoelyn glanced up at him in confusion.

“It’s Hell, Zoey. Not even the Lord of Death
gets things exactly like he wants them. We all suffer here,” Seth
replied wryly.

The lights in the throne room flickered and
dimmed as several spirits moved forward. They bowed to Finn and the
lights above them strengthened as their costumes shifted and the
wall behind them took on the illusion of a sunlit meadow.

“A comedy, then, to lighten the heart of the
young Lord,” a woman proclaimed as she curtsied to Legacy and
smiled. “Listen, young Lord, and we will tell you the tale of how
the first Shifter came to be.”