His lips press firmly together. “As the dark priest gets closer to resurrecting Bale, his control over the Otherworld grows.” He looks around cautiously. “Once the moon goddess walks in our world, it will become like no other hell dimension you can imagine. This is why I need to get my family far away from here. Why I need to take them with us when we escape.”
My eyebrows shoot up. “What?”
“Yes, protector.” He groans. “I said escape. Now answer my question.”
“A physician,” I answer hurriedly. “Someone a nun from the Temple of Alyah knew.”
His eyes grow wide, and a hint of a smile curves his lips. This information seems to please Bax, and he says, “Tomorrow night”—he lowers his voice into a husky whisper—“you will keep the contenders from earning their three kills.”
I shake my head. “And how do I do that?”
“By going forward with your alliance,” he sneers the word. “Oh yes, protector. I know about that. We’re gifted with great hearing where our vision fails.”
Goddess.
“Don’t fear, protector. The other ring leaders are not aware, but you must make sure the moonstones are not triggered on anyone’s cuff. They can’t kill the ring leaders or their guards. It makes no difference who is killed, as long as Bale is given her attributed sacrifice.”
“Because that’s part of the ritual,” I say, leaning on my good leg as my other starts to throb.
Bax nods once. “The moonstones on the cuff are the summoner. The sacrifices have kept her alive over the years, but she’s bound to the earth in a dormant state. When the moon is eclipsed, the veil between realms will thin, and the moonstones allow Bale to enter a willing vessel.”
I scoff. “Willing? There are no willing vessels here, Bax.”
“That makes no difference. As long as the ritual is performed in order, and the moonstones lit with the sacrificial kills, a passage will be created for Bale to possess a human body.”
My mind spins. Whether from the blood loss or the overload of information, I’m not sure. “I can keep the contenders from reaching their third kill, but what about my empress’s relic?” I eye him closely. “What part does it play? I need to know everything before I even attempt this.”
He unlaces his arms and steps closer to me. “The goddess relic will make Bale corporeal.”
A coil of fear wraps my spine. “I’m afraid to ask what happens to her ‘willing vessel’ then.”
“You should be.” Bax turns his head to the side, and I study his hard features.
“The goddess relic is not whole,” I say. “Bale can’t be ma
de corporeal because the priest doesn’t have the last shard.”
Bax snaps his beady gaze back on me. “That’s only a matter of time, protector. Once Bale inhabits a being, she can use the relic to free herself of this plain anytime thereafter.”
Caben’s ring presses against my heel as I bear my weight down.
Bax widens his stance and grits his teeth, a muscle feathers across his pale jawline. “You also have to face the dark priest.”
Shaking my head, I scoff. “No. You’ll have to figure out a way to strap him down or something. I felt the evil coming off him in the temple. I can’t—”
“You’re the only one down here who has any chance of defeating him.” His eyes go to my chest again. “You haven’t used your full strength or your power in the Cage. But I know you possess both.”
My power—my power of madness. Something me and the moon goddess share. I am nothing like Alyah. My heart aches. My mother couldn’t have been more wrong about my blessed blood.
Taking in a gulp of stale, Otherworld air, I fill my lungs and accept this as the reason the goddesses placed me here. “Fine, Bax,” I say. “You got your promise from me. But I want one from you.” His eyes flash red and I curse. “Stop that!”
He shakes his head. His thick dreads sway, their beaded ends clank together. “It’s too close to the eclipse,” he says. “I only have till the end of the Reckoning. But you’re not in danger, protector. I have it under control. Now what do you demand?”
I level him with a stern glare. “Lilly, Kai, and Caben are to escape, too. And as many others as we can manage to save.” I take a measured breath before my next demand. “The relic comes with us.”
He chuckles. “That’s asking too much, protector. I offer you freedom—”
“And you ask that I basically sacrifice myself for you. I will only face the dark priest if I know that my friends are safe, and that my empress will be saved.” I raise my brows. “You will steal the relic before the final battle, and then we’ll stand against the ring leaders, the guards, and I will do what I can about the priest . . . but you have to face your father first.”