Imperial (Insight #8)(23)
All exaltation is short-lived, as this exaltation I was feeling surely was. “So are you avenging the kings for taking my line from me?” I asked in a disbelieving tone. That wasn’t Vade’s style. If the matter were resolved, then he would cause no further turmoil.
“No,” he said in a near whisper. “I’m avenging your mist…as well as mine.”
“What else are you avenging, Vade?” I asked nervously, not recognizing the cold look in his eyes.
“In time, I will tell you,” he murmured.
“Tell me now,” I demanded.
“I cannot and I will not right now. You have a line to claim…we have a web of misted souls to untangle.”
“A web? I did not call my mist. They were not accepted into this life—how could anyone claim my mist or yours? Tell me what I do not understand.”
His jaw tightened as a rage-filled emotion rippled across his image. “They planned your downfall for eons. Every move was precisely calculated and meticulously orchestrated and carried out.”
Wrath was swarming through my being. “How was my First’s betrayal planned?”
Slowly, his eyes appraised my image. “Tell me this: if Colton were a true First, would Xavier have executed him?”
“He did what!” I couldn’t have heard him right.
Vade cocked one eyebrow to push his point. “Xavier ripped Colton’s energy into shreds moments before you appeared at his throne.”
“Who would do that to their First?” That was foolish. Anyone with any sense would have claimed that energy, at least part of it, as their own to grow their line. And the king who did it would be so weak that he would not be able to stop it from occurring.
“No one.”
“So why did he?”
“I doubt Colton was Xavier’s First. I think Colton was a ploy.”
“Were you not there when his First was claimed?”
The reserved look in his eyes told me that he did not wish to speak of the king’s beginning, and that was fine by me. I knew the past between him and the others had been troubled for a while. I just needed to understand what the hell he was trying to tell me.
“No. That surprised none of us. He is the king of shock. Hiding his true First is not an ostentatious idea. I fear his real First will never be clearly seen by any of us.”
“So he had us all believe that Colton was his First, declared that he would be coupled with a petal—from another line, mind you—and then he felt validated to execute my First, along with me?”
“What?” Vade hissed as he rose up on his powerful arm and every part of him tensed.
“Cadence. Or whatever her name was or is now—she was from Fielder’s reign. Mazing told me that she reeks of lilies. That she taunted her. Mazing also stated that the scent of that Creator-forsaken petal was on the first level of The Realm when we returned today.”
Vade’s anger rippled through the room, and you could feel the electric charge vibrate around us. The candles responded, flaring up for an instant, but like always he found his control and the flames settled.
“You didn’t know that?” I asked in pure bewilderment.
“No, but it makes sense.”
“How does this make any sense? Why would they cross their lines? Do they not realize that an act like that will produce Escorts with a hunger for both emotions, and that hunger will send us further down this twisted path that is nothing like the charge we were given?”
“They were not trying to cross their lines. They were trying to end ours,” he stated disdainfully.
“I—what?” Who would dare to counter Vade? I doubted all of them combined had the courage to do that. That is, unless those lowlying, soulless kings were clever enough to make the assault seem self-inflected. The fact that I was the one that disbursed my line, not them, was pointing to that course of thought.
“I have no idea when this began. For all I know, it was the moment the Creator took me to your human deathbed. All I know is this: Colton was not Xavier’s First. His true First remains hidden from each of us. You released your line, set your energy free along with not only your mist, but also mine. Our lines drifted, and the kings we served with had every right to reach out to them, to pull them under their reign.”
“How would taking them from us bring you down?”
It didn’t make sense to me. If you wanted to hurt Vade or me, the most efficient way would be to take out our Firsts, Mazing and Rasp.
His eyes narrowed slightly. “The mist, from each of us, created Fated Escorts.”
“Both?” I gasped.
He nodded once. “Both. The Creator came to me. He told me under what alignment to send our energy out.”
“And you decided not to tell me this?” Fated Escorts. I had Fated Escorts. That was like having a First all over again. Unbelievable!
“I did in my own way,” he said as he lay down and stared at the glow around us.
“Exactly how did you tell me?” I bit out as I rose and wrapped the sheet around me.
“I told you that you needed to be nourished, that your energy had no choice but to be strong.”
“You told me that because we were not invoking emotions, because we were finding energy in nature or any other natural source, not because the Creator had spoken to you,” I argued.