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Chapter 50
A week passes with no word from Ransom or the hunting parties. Samuel delivers the completed map to Odessa. She transfers the details to her journal and burns his copy, but she can’t identify a clear pattern or epicenter for where Lyssa started.
Tillia and Halston’s party returns first, along with two unconscious men found wandering near Treow. Tillia also reveals she’s pregnant.
Ransom and Zavier ride in shortly after. Zavier has a dislocated shoulder and a limp. Tillia tells Odessa the one-eyed bariwolf was never found.
Walking straight to Odessa, Ransom has a brief, charged exchange with her. Then the High Priest and Brother Dime arrive. Without warning, the High Priest grabs Odessa’s hand, causing her intense pain. Ransom puts his sword to his throat and orders him to let her go. The High Priest releases her and asks who her mother is. Before anyone can respond, Luella comes running across the courtyard. Evie is gone.
Chapter 51
Evie has slipped out through a secret migration tunnel with her bow and arrows. Cathlin finds her on the road and keeps her safe until Zavier reaches them. He carries her back, furious and shaken. Cathlin tells Ransom the girl “was born to fly” and that they’ll need to find a way to let her grow without losing her entirely.
Ransom finds Odessa and tells her about the tunnel and where it leads, then tells her not to use it. She assures him she has no reason to. She asks him outright if Cathlin is his mother. He says no.
Odessa describes what happened when the High Priest grabbed her hand, a force driving into her bones far beyond anything she’d felt before. Ransom tells her he’s never heard anyone describe the priests’ magic that way. Before they can find the priests to ask, they learn the High Priest and Brother Dime have already left.
Chapter 52
That evening, Ransom comes to Odessa’s suite with a gift, a dagger he carried as a boy, telling her it will leave a mark on anyone who touches her without permission.
Ransom tells Odessa that the hunt failed and the trail vanished. He also admits he’s been wondering whether the monsters are drawn to her specifically, pointing to the grizzur, the bariwolves in Ashmore, the tarkin in Treow, and even Faze.
Odessa blames herself for the deaths and suggests she leave. Ransom refuses to let her spiral. He tells her nothing has frightened him more than watching her run for that boy and that even if they were kingdoms apart, she’s his choice. She tells him he’s hers too.
They spend the night together.
Chapter 53
Ransom finds Odessa on the balcony, and they sit together. She presses him about Allesaria and its possible connection to the origins of Lyssa. He deflects, seemingly bound by a blood oath, but pushes back on her theory. She suggests that even if Allesaria didn’t create Lyssa, it might hold the key to curing it. He insists the Voster have concluded there’s no cure. She refuses to accept that.
A knock interrupts them. Zavier reports a bariwolf pack nearby, and they head out to hunt.
Odessa goes for a walk. One of the unconscious men Tillia brought in from outside Treow bursts out of the infirmary in a fever, raving about burning and serving his king. When she reaches out to steady him, he grabs her by the throat with unnaturally strong hands. The street is empty, and she can’t scream. As her vision starts to go dark, she pulls her new dagger and slices it across his throat.
The man drops, and Odessa collapses, gasping. As he dies, his eyes go milky white, and his blood runs dark green. He had Lyssa.
Chapter 54
Odessa is recovering in bed, bruised and hoarse. When Luella comes to check on her, Odessa notices the green eyes and familiar features and tells her she’s figured out who she is. Luella confirms it and says she’ll never leave Turah because she won’t leave Ransom behind. Odessa promises to keep her secret.
Ransom arrives having ridden hard to get back. In the brief exchange between him and Luella, Odessa sees clearly how much they resemble each other.
Odessa tells Ransom she killed a man today and asks if he remembers the first person he killed. He tells her about Zavier’s abusive stepfather, who tried to push him off a cliff during a hunting trip. Ransom killed him with a dagger. He tells her she’ll never forget, but she has to keep living.
The grief breaks through, and Odessa cries until she falls asleep in his arms.
Chapter 55
Two weeks pass. Odessa and Ransom have been spending almost all their time together, with Zavier visiting each morning to maintain appearances in front of Brielle and the rest of Ellder.
Among Cathlin’s books, Odessa finds a handwritten journal about cave ginger, a plant from Ozarth that grows in alligask bogs.
When Odessa tells Ransom she wants to know why the man she killed tried to kill her, Zavier steps in. The man had no bite scar, only fresh injection marks. Someone gave him Lyssa deliberately. Odessa realizes whoever created the infection is trying to replicate what it did to Ransom, giving soldiers enhanced abilities. But it’s killing them instead.
Ransom confirms the man was from Allesaria. Odessa goes to Cathlin and asks how long she’s known what the king is doing to his soldiers. Cathlin can’t answer. Odessa realizes she took a blood oath of secrecy and has been leaving books and clues instead, guiding her to the truth without speaking it.
Then Luella walks in carrying a jar of cave ginger. Odessa looks at the jar, thinks back to the handwriting in the journal, and realizes the person with the real answers is Ransom’s mother.
Chapter 56
Luella confirms what Odessa suspected. She created an elixir from monster-derived ingredients, including cave ginger and korakin, intending to strengthen human bodies against the crux migration. She tested it on a small group and eventually used it on a dying patient who survived.
Without Ransom’s knowledge, Luella had her healers give him the elixir while he was unconscious after a serious leg wound. None of the other ten recipients developed Lyssa. Only Ransom did.
Luella’s theory is that the elixir was the foundation, and when the bariwolf bit Ransom, its saliva provided the missing piece. The two elements bonded in his body and created Lyssa. The bariwolf then spread the infection to other monsters through its bites.
Ransom realizes he was the origin of Lyssa, not the bariwolf.
Chapter 57
Luella confirms that a betrayal by one of her alchemists likely contributed to Ramsey’s attack on her. Ramsey is now trying to replicate Lyssa by injecting soldiers with infected monster blood, but it isn’t working because he hasn’t connected the elixir to the process. His soldiers are dying.
The book burnings are Ramsey’s attempt to destroy research notes his alchemists left behind, information that other kings could use to attempt their own versions of the experiment.
Odessa realizes her father’s obsession with Allesaria is tied to the Guardian’s powers. He likely suspects the secret to surviving the crux lies in understanding Lyssa and wants to steal that knowledge for himself.
Ransom snatches Luella’s research book and threatens to burn it. Luella begs him not to, saying it’s part of her work toward a cure. He throws it on the table and storms out.
As Odessa moves to follow, she notices the book has flipped over. Etched on its cover is a winged emblem, the same as the pendant she has worn around her neck since childhood.
Chapter 58
Odessa finds Ransom on the steps outside their suite, and they walk into the forest.
When Ransom tells Odessa that he has to leave for Allesaria without her, she decides to tell him everything. Her father sent her to find Allesaria’s location, send information back, and kill Ransom if she got the chance. He suspects Lyssa holds the key to surviving the crux. Ransom laughs and tells her she’s a terrible spy.
Ransom explains that he has to reach Allesaria to stop Ramsey from continuing to kill men with failed attempts to replicate Lyssa. If the crux get infected before the migration, the death toll would be unsurvivable.
When Ransom says this was only ever going to end one way, Odessa insists there has to be another. He tells her he has no army to challenge his father with. It occurs to her that he may not, but her father does.
Chapter 59
In the days before Ransom leaves, Odessa discovers a hidden migration cellar beneath Luella’s house. Inside she finds the scrolls and books moved from the dungeon, and hidden under a stair step, three books, one of which is the black leather book with the emblem matching her necklace. She decides to come back for them before she leaves Turah.
That evening, Ransom tells Odessa that he’s taking Luella to Allesaria. It was her idea. Luella wants to convince Ramsey to stop the experiments and attempt a cure. Ransom knows it’s dangerous but won’t deny his mother the chance to make things right. He asks Odessa to stay and look after Evie, and if something happens to both him and Zavier, to take her out of Turah.
Odessa agrees. Then Ransom looks past her into the trees. Torchlight is catching off armor and helmets. An army is marching through the forest toward Ellder. He shouts at the soldiers on the wall not to open the gates.
Chapter 60
Ramsey arrives with a full legion to collect Ransom on his deadline, bringing Banner, Brother Dime, and Jocelyn, who has been spying for Odessa’s father all along. Jocelyn has also brought Brielle, and it becomes clear Banner came not for Odessa but for Brielle, the woman he’s loved all along.
Jocelyn has led Ramsey’s soldiers to Luella, who’s dragged out in her nightgown.
Odessa grabs Ransom’s sword and puts it to Ramsey’s throat. He disarms her. Ransom breaks free from the soldiers holding him. Ramsey grabs Odessa by the hair, and Ransom threatens to kill his own father. Ramsey shoves Odessa at Brother Dime, and the moment the priest touches her, agonizing pain tears through her body. She screams and collapses.
Even after Brother Dime releases Odessa, the screaming doesn’t stop. Everyone in the courtyard goes still.
The crux has arrived.
Chapter 61
A crux drops into the courtyard, killing soldiers on impact. Ransom gets Odessa behind a road spike and charges the monster.
Halston loses a leg to the crux’s talon. Tillia reaches him and uses her belt as a tourniquet.
Luella, still in the courtyard helping a wounded soldier, is too slow to escape. Despite Ramsey screaming for her to run, the crux kills her. Ransom sees it happen and attacks in a rage, but the monster shakes him off and disappears into the sky.
Odessa races to find Evie hiding under the bed with Faze. She arms herself, packs her journal and the three books from the hidden cellar, and heads for the dungeons. As they slip out the back, Banner steps out of the shadows with his sword drawn. He’s learned Ransom is Ramsey’s son and wants revenge for his brother and mother. He intends to kill Odessa because she’s the person who matters most to Ransom.