“What?”
“Do it!”
Ethan went to my library and returned a minute later with the book of the gods.
The very first page should have a list of them, followed by parentage, attributes, abilities.
But when Cassius opened it.
No page existed.
In fact, several pages from the ancient text were missing as if torn and burned, I wouldn’t know because we never opened the old texts what use did they have when all of the gods were no longer in existence?
He snapped the book closed. “The choice is yours, demon, you must remember your past, to save your future.”
“Be serious.” I laughed. “I’m just old, it’s why I don’t remember, I was created, I was—” I frowned. “I crawled in the sand to the goddess, begged for a borrowed soul since mine had been…” A piercing headache throbbed behind my eyes. “Not taken.” I looked up into Cassius’s knowing glance. “My soul wasn’t taken!”
“No, demon. Your soul was trapped. Cursed.” He turned to Kyra, “Just like yours.”
“Related?” Ethan asked while Mason paced in front of us.
Cassius just shrugged. “How should I know? There are hundreds of paths, hundreds of possibilities, but no, this is no accident. I think she’s been searching for Timber, and he’s been dying without her. Sadly, I think we might be too late.”
That's the last thing I heard him say before black took over my line of vision.
KYRA
I couldn’t stop screaming. The black tattoo took over his entire face, it was tragically beautiful. And I hated how much I wanted to reach out and touch him, see if I could rub away the angry lines now embedding themselves in his skin.
“I don’t understand,” I croaked. “I just—I feel like I’m missing an entire piece of his life, of mine, of the reason we’re connected.” I hung my head.
After a few minutes, Cassius put his hand on my back as I cradled Timber’s limp body in my arms, careful not to touch the ancient etchings on his skin.
“How badly do you want to know what you should not know?” Cassius asked gently.
I looked down. Timber. I wanted a person I didn’t know. It was scary. It was other worldly. “Will my knowledge save him?”
“I do not know if he is beyond saving, just like I do not know if your journey would do anything except make it worse.”
“Why?”
“Because,” Cassius boomed. “It is not the place of the angels to know the destiny of anyone in this realm.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “How do I help him?”
“One path,” Cassius said simply, I could feel the uptake in tension in the room. “You must go back and choose differently.”
“Go back?” I hissed. “Go back where?”
“To where it all began.” His eyes turned white. “A word of warning… if he dies in the past if he does not listen, there is no future.”
I felt like I was going to be sick. “How do I know what to choose?”
It was Alex, the siren of all people, who came up and put his hand on my shoulder, I could tell he was trying to hold back. Even though it didn’t affect me, I still felt the heat from his touch. “Cassius will stay, Tarek and I will go with you.”
Cassius seemed stunned into silence. “You know what this would mean.”
Alex gave him a solemn nod as heat pulsed from his body. “It is time.”