A light in the flame

“I don’t see how.”

“Probably because you can see, and you aren’t actively dying.”

“Good point.” He paused. “My apologies.”

“Gods,” I muttered. A moment passed with only the sound of our steps. “Do I smell bad to you?”

Nektas laughed.

My eyes narrowed. “There’s nothing fu

“Yes, there is,” he said. “Death does not smell bad. It carries the same scent as life but weaker. Lilacs.”

Lilacs.

I’d smelled that before. Stale lilacs. I wondered if Nyktos could smell that on me. I stopped myself from asking that. I’d rather him think I smelled like a summer storm—whatever that smelled like.

We continued on in the tu

His steps slowed. “Stay right there.”

“I don’t know where you expect me to go,” I replied as he let go of my hand.

“Who knows with you?” He hopped down. “Someone turns their back on you for a few seconds and you run off.”

“I do not.”

He turned from below, offering his hands. I took them instead of kicking him. He helped me down, the drop several feet. The air was significantly warmer here and humid. Much sweeter. I took a step and immediately saw why. Thick branches smothered with lilacs snaked along the floor, climbed the walls of the cavern, and spread across the ceiling, nearly choking out the light coming through the opening above.

“That’s a whole lot of lilacs.” I looked around. “Is that why death smells like lilacs?”

“I don’t know why death smells like that, but lilacs are special. They represent renewal, and both life and death are that—a renewal.” Nektas roamed forward. “If you ever see lilacs like this near water in the mortal realm, you can be assured that you’re near a gateway to Iliseeum—to Dalos, in particular.”

I thought of my lake. “And if there are none?”

“Then the gateway likely leads to the Shadowlands,” he said. “There it is.”

Sidestepping Nektas, I saw a rocky outcropping that rose to about the height of my waist, forming a jagged circle that was roughly the size of Nektas in his draken form. The waters of the Pools of Divanash were still and clear as we approached them.

“So, what do I do?” I pressed my hands against the basin. “Just ask where he is?”

“Sort of. It will require a drop of your blood.”

“Just a drop?” I reached down between the halves of my cloak and unsheathed the dagger from my thigh.

“Only a drop,” he advised. “But you also have to give it something not known to others.”

Gods. I’d forgotten about that part. I frowned as I stared at the Pools.

“Once you do that, the Pools should let you know it’s okay to proceed. Ask who or what you’re searching for, and the Pools will answer.” He cocked his head. “Hopefully.”

I hesitated, my hand and the dagger suspended above the water. “Hopefully?”

Nektas shrugged. “I’ve never seen them work.”

“Great,” I muttered, shaking my head. Something that wasn’t known to others. “So, I basically have to admit a secret or something?”

“That’s the gist of it. It’s an exchange of sorts. An answer for a truth, one not known to others—likely not even to oneself.”

“Not known to oneself?” I repeated quietly, my frown increasing. I started to ask what the hell that even meant, but I thought I understood what kind of truth it was looking for. One that made you uncomfortable to admit.

Gods, there were a lot of uncomfortable truths. And there wasn’t enough time in the day for me to list them, starting with how I felt about my mother and ending with what I might feel for Nyktos. There were a whole lot of itchy, suffocating truths between those two things as I went through them.

But there was one that made me the most uncomfortable. One that left me feeling exposed and raw. Vulnerable.

Feeling my skin begin to crawl, I pricked a finger with the slightest bit of pressure. The wickedly sharp dagger stung, and blood immediately welled. Stretching my arm over the Pools, I watched the blood seep from my finger as I whispered words that scalded my throat, “The day I took too much sleeping draft wasn’t an accident or a spur-of-the-moment decision.” My hand trembled. “I didn’t want to wake up.”

The cavern was quiet except for the buzzing in my ears as the drop of blood slipped from my fingertip and splashed off the surface.

A hiss hit the air of the cave as I drew my hand back. The water burst to life, bubbling and roiling. Steam poured into the space above the Pools. Gasping, I took a step back as the mist swirled wildly before collapsing back into the Pools.

“I think that means it accepted your answer, meyaah Liessa,” Nektas said quietly.

I didn’t look at him. I pretended that he hadn’t heard what I’d admitted. “Show me Delfai, a God of Divination,” I said. “Please.”

The blood sank, pulling apart as the waters rippled and swirled, swallowing the blood. Nektas moved closer as clouds formed deep under the surface, first white and then darker. It reminded me of the souls in the mist as the clouds took shape, but this was no washed-out image. Color seeped into the pool, and a pastel blue rolled over the surface. A sky. Deep green pines rose behind a large, sweeping manor made of ivory stone, each needle on the trees glistening.

I gasped as another ripple scattered the sky and pines, erasing the manor. “I really hope that wasn’t it because that told me absolutely nothing.”

Nektas peered over my head. “I don’t think so,” he said. “Look.”

The water was changing color again as shapes became visible. I tensed. A head and shoulders appeared. A body. Then another. One was taller, with skin that reminded me of amber jewels, and hair as black as night-blooming roses. It was a man, his oval-shaped face tipped to the side. He looked about the age I’d believed Holland to be, in his third or fourth decade of life. There was something in his hands. He was grinding something in a ceramic bowl as his lips moved silently. He seemed to be speaking to someone—

“That’s Delfai,” Nektas said, leaning around me to place a hand on the stone ledge of the pool. “Looking quite alive and well.”

Whomever he spoke to was begi

“I know her,” I whispered, dumbfounded as I watched her smile in response to whatever Delfai was showing her in the bowl. “That’s Kayleigh Balfour. The Princess of Irelone. Delfai is in Irelone—at Cauldra Manor.”

Chapter 28

“It has to be fate,” Nektas said as we traveled back through the Vale. “That Delfai would be with someone you know at this exact moment.”

“Maybe.” Arms and legs already tense in preparation for the sirens, I kept my eyes trained straight ahead. “Or could it have been something this Delfai knew? Gods of Divination could see the past, present, and future, right? Maybe he knew to befriend Kayleigh?”

Nektas nodded. “They don’t know all i

I thought that over. “It was Penellaphe who told Nyktos to find Delfai. I don’t know how old she is, but could it have been she who said something to Delfai?”

“Penellaphe was young when Kolis stole Eythos’s embers, but old enough to remember the Gods of Divination,” he said. “It would make sense that she would seek a God of Divination to learn more about her vision.”