Page 34 of These Godly Lies
“What are you trying to say?”
“I have been expecting the end for over a thousand years, Cassius. The only thing I want now is to live the last of the time I have left with the person I love most.”
“You’ll spend the rest of your time running until she catches you?”
“If I don’t use my magic, she’ll have nothing to trace.”
Cassius frowns, but it’s not judgment clouding his eyes so much as bafflement. “You’ll live as a human?”
“Why not? Anna has managed to do it for centuries.” Under the table, his fingers tangle with hers. “It is a worthwhile trade, if itmeans spending our remaining time together, in peace, instead of risking everything in a war I know we cannot win.”
Cassius’ breath leaves him, long and deep. Anna can see the way his chest sinks around it. “I disagree,” he starts, carefully mapping out his next words, “but I understand. Whatever you need, to get you to that peaceful place, say the word, and it is yours.”
Khiran tips his chin. “Thank you.” He twists the stem of his spoon between his fingers, the metal flashing with every turn. “What makes you so confident that we stand a chance?”
The grin that spreads across his face is sharp, forged with spite and dripping in secrets. “Silas and I have been working together on something. You’ll forgive me for not disclosing what.”
Khiran stares, searching, before he shakes his head. “It’s not enough,” he says, the words soft enough for Anna to hear the honesty in them. “I’m sorry.”
Cassius nods, raising his glass in a solemn toast. “May our futures shine more brightly than our pasts, my brother.” He takes a long drink, a sigh escaping him as he sets it down on the table. His finger traces the rim. “You should know, before you leave, The Bladesmith is dead.”
Khiran’s hand stills, an olive halfway to his mouth and his voice breathy with disbelief.“What?”
Cassius’ pale eyes are sharp with warnings. “It happened years ago. The First believed she was conspiring against him.”
Anna looks between them, her own meal now forgotten. “The Bladesmith? Isn’t that—”
Khiran’s expression darkens, returning the olive perched between his fingers to his plate. “Ying. In her hands, with her blood, she forged weapons capable of killing gods.” A muscle in his jaw strains. “What was she accused of?”
“Attempting to forge a weapon with enough blood that it could even kill him.”
“Was she?”
Cassius scoffs. “Does it matter? She’s dead. I watched her burn, myself.” He pours himself a glass of something pale and frothy over ice. “After centuries of trying to increase our numbers,he burned her.”
Khiran weighs his answer carefully. “I’m sorry to hear it, but Ying’s death doesn’t change my priorities.”
“I didn’t tell you in hopes of changing your mind. I told you so you would understand what you’re up against.”
It’s the wrong thing to say. Khiran’s gaze turns sharp. “Between the two of us, I think I’m more than aware of the cruelty The First is capable of.”
Cassius rolls his eyes. “He’sunhinged. Whatever cruelty he dealt you before was calculated. Controlled.” Around his cup, his knuckles are so white they match the milky liquid frothing behind the glass. “I am trying to tell you to abandon any expectations you have, because he has gone beyond any semblance of reason. I am trying to tell you that, whatever the cost, do not let himcatch you.”
Setting his glass down, he sighs; the sound tight and ragged at the edges. “He burned Ying over baseless suspicion. Imagine what he will do to someone clever enough to steal the power of a peach from under him? Imagine what he will do toher.”
Anna feels her pulse quicken, loud in the silence that descends over the table. There is a message behind those words, an unspoken threat that makes the gravity of their situation turn from smothering to poisonous. It rattles in her lungs, a sick promise of what their failure could cost.
Whatever the cost, Cassius had said, but what Anna hears is,do not let him take you alive.
She looks to Khiran, seeking answers in his eyes, but he doesn’t meet her stare. He’s too busy looking at the man across the table, a terrible look of resignation softening the line of his jaw. The muscles in his throat move as he swallows, his eyes momentarily shuttering closed. “I know.”
Cassius nods, but there’s no victory in the somber edge of his gaze. “Where do you plan to go?”
Khiran glances away. “We have yet to decide.”
“Travel far from here. Once Marcia figures out that you’re purposefully withholding your magic, she’ll have to track you the old-fashioned way. The more difficult the location, the less likely she’ll think to look for you there.”
“I have a place in mind,” Khiran murmurs, his brow creased in thought.
