Imperial (Insight #8)(56)

“Her life is threatened by more than the Escort that loves her. I have no choice.”

“Then you are not giving me one.”

“Are you telling me that you are willing to leave these souls unguarded for the sake of protecting another line?” Silas asked in utter disbelief.

“That line is connected to mine. I’m telling you that the voices in this room are more powerful than all of the kings combined, that we will find a different way to guard them.”

“You find that way, make it make sense to me, and I’ll come without a fight; otherwise, you are down to those two choices—prison or death—that you were so quick to tell me you had to handle the likes of me.”

Dear Creator, he saw death the same way I did: just another day at the office. I offered him no quick response.

“This is evolution,” Silas stated calmly. “I have no doubt that you—or as you say, our race—is failing. It felt no love, only loyalty to its line, and if they were lucky, a rush for another soul. To fight evil in a soul, you do not need some supernatural king and their line to remove dark emotions—you need love for yourself, for life. Your failure was declared at your creation. You expect humanity to move forward while using old ways. Impossible.”

The voices around me were so numbing that I could not find the wrath that I needed to argue with him. He had scorned my race, my life, and he had no right to do so. He was too arrogant and youthful even to think that he had a clue about evolution.

“I’ll let you mull over that. I’m due for a battle. Might as well do my job while I still have it.” And with that, he vanished.

I should have stopped him, but the fact that he was able to break my energy field told me I was in a weak state. I felt hazy. My first instinct was to flash back and check on my line—their peril would be the only reason for me to feel this way—but then I realized I was weak because I felt no wrath. I couldn’t in this chapel. I could almost see the faces of the voices. Children. Precious children.

I sat down on one of the pews and listened intently for an unmeasured amount of time. Something deep inside told me that my Creator had not left the universe, but had left us, because we had failed…the creation of my race failed. He moved on and created these beings.

I could swear then I was only let out of my death sentence so I could witness the end, so I could see how clearly I had failed. That wasn’t a good feeling to have.

I had accomplished nothing each time I spoke to Silas. He was still a threat to Vade’s line, and in turn, mine. If I protected him, I would ensure all those others under my care would perish—and eventually so would he and I. It seemed so cut and dry, yet I had no idea what my next move was going to be.

Maybe I should get Vade to reach out to his Fated, get him to instill control within them, and hopefully that would buy us some time.

I stood from the pew and bowed to the voices around me, then manifested outside. There I found Mazing viciously pacing back and forth in the distance.

“What happened?” I asked Rasp as I appeared at his side.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I swear every moment she becomes more insane. Each time we’ve been out, she has a come apart. How is it possible to hold in that much wrath?”

“It’s possible,” I murmured. I’d seen her do this right before a big hunt, right when the air filled with the scent of caramel.

“Well, the second we landed here she lost her f—reaking mind.”

“I know what curse words sound like, Rasp.”

“Yeah, but I’m fond of living,” he said, cocking his brow, meaning that Vade would not be pleased with him using foul language in front of me.

I breathed in deeply. “I don’t smell it,” I said, stating that no other line was near us, not Xavier’s caramel or Fielder’s lilies.

Rasp had done the same, coming to the same conclusion.

“Is it in The Realm? Is that what she is picking up from here? Silas said he was going to a battle.”

Rasp looked down with disapproving eyes, not believing that I had let Silas go to fight. But he did not know what I had witnessed in that place of worship, what he was really fighting for.

“No, it’s here,” he said as he focused his eyes on the horizon.

Firsts and sovereigns could see across dimensions, through every level of The Realm as well. Rasp’s icy eyes were firmly focused to the north. When I followed his lead, in the distance I could see a massive blackness, I could smell death.

“There is only one way to calm her down,” I said to him. “Let her kill.”

“Of course that is the only way,” Rasp said sardonically.

We both manifested at Mazing’s side, blocking her fierce pace.

“Something stirring you up?” I asked as if I didn’t recognize the obvious.

“Set me free,” she breathed. “Say it. Tell me to fight.”

I let out a sigh as I looked her over. Her auburn eyes were near red with rage. Her long auburn dreads outlined with blonde streaks were pulled behind her head, and every muscle in her body was flexed. I really had no choice in the matter. Someone was about to die.

“So be it.”

She vanished before the ‘it’ was uttered. Rasp and I followed her essence, manifesting at random points across the north before reaching a black cloud. Mazing was crouched down, peering into it. I nodded my head to tell the wind to clear the way so I could see what that mass was hiding, and when it obeyed me my soul seized once more.