Page 161 of The Stolen Throne
Reven nods impatiently. “Could it have been deceiving you? The spirit?”
“Maybe.” Given who the messenger actually was.
He thinks about that a minute, but I know he’s going to reach the same conclusion I did. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Horus swings his gaze between us. “You’re okay with this?”
“It’s what she has to do.”
I bite down on a dawning smile. This is supposed to be serious business, and that was a serious answer, but Reven’s response sends courage coursing through my blood. Courage because he believes I can do this, because he’s not going to stop me even though it’s dangerous and I have to leave him behind.
“I’ve encountered the Reverie,” Reven says. “You should know some things.”
“And…?” Cain prompts.
This close, I can see the way Reven’s eyes turn haunted. I’m guessing it’s not a pleasant memory. “She looked like…Meren.”
I gasp as shock ripples through everyone around the table, joining a crawling sensation over my skin. Why would he have seen me before we met?
“I thought it was Tabra,” he reveals. Then, to me alone, “It happened after I saw you in your glass garden, so I knew what you looked like. This beautiful girl on the shore called my name, and there you were. Only when I got close enough, you fell into the Whirlpool. Or I thought you did. I almost went in after you, but the Shadows wouldn’t let me.”
“Why would you see that?” I whisper. “See me?”
Omma huffs an unamused laugh. “Did you remember nothing I taught you? The Reverie doesn’t only show people their deepest desire—it may also show their fate.”
My heart flutters as I stare across the table. He stares right back. Did he know? Are we fated to be together?
A thread of darkness twists through my mind. Fate determines a lot of things, and not all of them happy endings, including how and why we die. He knows this, and he’s still letting me go off to face the Devourer?
Or will I be the cause of Reven’s death?
“We should leave the amulets down there,” Horus says. Which doesn’t sound like him at all.
Tziah nods.
“They’re impossible for anyone to get out without dying,” he continues. “Leave them there.”
“I have to say, I agree with my eastern Wanderer brother on this one,” Cain says slowly. Which is bad, since Cain is critical to the plan. “It’s safer if those things stay where no one can get to them.”
“You forget what Eidolon—” Reven cuts himself off. “If Meren could find this out, so can he. And, given Vida’s role, I doubt Meren’s planned trip to talk to the dead will remain secret, if it ever was. All he needs is to find another water Hylorae and sand Hylorae to help him.”
And we’re not as rare as other types of Imperium.
A heaviness that is getting annoyingly familiar blankets our group. So many things are stacked against us. I’m asking my friends to risk their lives, but that’s assuming Eidolon will be worse with the goddesses released and on his side than he already has been as an Enfernae king.
One who is no longer immortal. We could wait him out.
Selfishly, that means I’ll be on the run my entire life. Tabra, too. Same for Reven.
“I won’t make this choice alone.” I’ve already done that too many times. “It has to be all of us.”
“Okay, then,” Cain finally says. “Meren and I leave in the morning.”
Given the way Reven stiffens, I know he doesn’t like it. He also doesn’t argue. At least the shadows don’t move.
“I’ll go with you,” Horus volunteers. “I can try to keep the Reverie off you.”
“Bene should come, too.” I’m not splitting him up from his goddess.
