if that’s true, but he consumed Vaughn and the creature that was in him because of me.”
“My wife is a smart woman,” Thorne said. “Insightful. We’d do well to listen to her.”
“The child presents a risk,” Dominicus argued. “Arguably one too great for us to let him stay here.”
“There’s a reason I said for none of you to touch him,” Quinn said. Her sharp blue gaze riveted on the weapons master.
“He could consume any of us if he perceives us as a threat to you, and if he can’t control it, he could even consume you,” Dominicus said, unwilling to yield. She respected it in a sense. “Lazarus, you must see that this is a problem—”
“He holds Vaughn’s soul,” Quinn snapped, losing some of her already waning patience. “Regardless of the risk, we need to find a way to remove it and the blood magic creature attached to it.”
“That’s easier for you to say, but the gods don’t favor all of us,” Dominicus replied. His eyes flashing.
“Enough,” Lazarus commanded. He didn’t slam his hands on the table or even move to lift his gaze from the wooden pieces spread out over a map of the Sirian continent. “There’s no way to remove Vaughn, not until the boy comes of age and enters the ascension. It might be possible in the Cisean springs with the right stone, like Quinn and the basilisk, but the odds of killing all of them increase tenfold. I will not enter the waters for a child, and neither will Quinn.”
“You do not command me—” Quinn started.
“You exist as a soul that transitions between worlds. You don’t even have a body to anchor you. If you entered the pool, you’d be consumed as you are and then both you and Vaughn would die. On the off chance you both survived, you’d be trapped.”
“He’s right,” Thorne said, sighing deeply.
Lazarus didn’t say more, but he didn’t need to. Quinn pressed her lips together and looked away. Not even for her friend would she risk being enslaved. They all had lines they wouldn’t cross, not even for each other, and that was Quinn’s.
“Is there a way to remove the malevolent force within him?” Lorraine asked in earnest.
“Possibly,” Lazarus said. “But it would be dangerous, and if the boy miscalculates, he’d damage them both. Vaughn would be in incredible pain.”
“He might already be in pain,” Quinn retorted.
“Not like this,” Lazarus said, the tone in his voice warning her to listen. “He’s bound to the child like Neiss is to you, but what do you think it would feel like if you were ripped in half but couldn’t die?”
Quinn opened and then closed her mouth. “Mazzulah let some of the raksasa torture some particularly terrible souls that way as entertainment. In the dark realm they can’t die from it, but they also can’t heal.” She trailed her fingers over her leather pants, scraping her nail over the tiny specs of dirt that stuck to them. “It was brutal, but effective.”
Draeven cursed under his breath and turned away. Dominicus’ eyes hardened, and Thorne let out a deep chuckle.
“It’s no wonder that the dark god took a liking to you,” he said, red eyes amused despite the heaviness that was dragging him down. Lazarus’ jaw clenched.
“So, there’s no way to free him? He’s stuck?” Lorraine asked.
The king shook his head. “Once a soul is consumed, there’s no giving it back. It entwines with our own and takes a piece of us for itself. That’s why soul eaters have to take care with how powerful the beasts are that we consume.”
Silence filled the room as the stark truth settled in.
There was no way to save him. He would die and be sent to the dark realm. Quinn didn’t grit her teeth or show her anger, but instead let the unnatural cold settle around her.
She lifted her head, and when she spoke, her voice was cutting and without emotion. “Then we need to question the creature in him. Learn how it came to be and how to prevent it from happening again. The boy will be raised here and taught how to control himself. Vaughn’s a slave either way, but we can shape his master.”
“You can’t be serious,” Dominicus said.
“Completely,” Quinn replied, letting her boots drop to the ground once more. She leaned forward, elbows braced on the table.
“While you might not fear what it or he can do, some of us remember what happens when Maji are allowed to roam these halls unchecked—”
Faster than he