“Now,” she said, as she stalked toward me, her face twisted and ugly with malice. “We end this—”
Enough. The voice was male, and it came from everywhere and yet nowhere. It echoed through the shadows and reverberated through my mind. It held no threat, yet I sensed it could kill without a moment’s hesitation or thought.
And it was a voice I had heard before. It was the remnant I’d spoken to the last time I’d been here in the temple.
“You have no power over me,” Malin snarled. “Begone—”
Her eyes went wide and she froze. The vines that bound me withered away, but without their support I ended up on my ass.
You have caused enough damage to this place, Malin. For that alone, we could end you. His tone was calm, collected, but filled with a sense of regret. We had hoped, until the very end, that you would come to your senses, that the last of the Aedh priests could not possibly want the destruction of all that we hold sacred.
Malin made a muffled retort. Energy radiated off her, but whatever she was trying to do, it had little effect.
But in attempting to destroy the archive of both the temple and the portals, you have shown a malignancy that cannot be tolerated. There was a soft sound, like a sigh of wind. It is with great regret that we are therefore forced to end you.
And just like that, she was gone.
I blinked. “So she’s dead?”
No, because with death comes eventual rebirth. She is scattered, never to re-form, never to know the kiss of the stars or the bliss of being in the presence of the fates.
Wow. Although it wasn’t like the bitch didn’t deserve it. “And the others?”
Even now the reapers finish the last of them. He paused. Your reaper heads this way, but he has no need to fear. We owe you and him a great debt.
“I was just trying to save my world.”
Yet the fate of your world still hangs in the balance.
“Yeah, I know.” I sighed and rose. “Is it safe to recall my sword?”
Yes.
I held out my hand and Amaya thudded back into it. I sheathed her, then said, “What happens now?”
And now we will ask something else of you.
I blinked again. “What?”
That you take a message to she who bears the Aedh’s child.
I frowned. He could only be talking about one Aedh—Lucian, whom I’d once thought of as a friend, and who turned out to be one of the major players in the whole key-theft saga. He was also the man who’d kidnapped and impregnated my best friend—and had tried to do the same to me. Thankfully, I was already carrying Azriel’s child by that time. “What has Ilianna to do with any of this?”
The child she carries is the future of this place. Her daughter must undergo priest training. The fate of those she holds dear will depend on it. And when she dies, she will come here and guard this place.
“One person cannot possibly—”
She will not be alone. We will train the reapers as well.
You will? a familiar voice said, as the warmth of his particles wrapped around mine and gave me strength.
Yes. For too long we have watched while you fought. It is time we helped.
It would be greatly appreciated, Azriel said, his voice formal.
We cannot, however, intervene in the search for the remaining key. That task still falls to you.
“What if hell doesn’t hold the sorceress? What if she appears in the temple grounds again, or attempts to open the final gate?” I asked.