Erador pressed his palms on the dresser and leaned over the glass jar. The lurker bug scrambled in circles as if trying to reach him. It had been two months since Cade showed him that he could control a lurker. He made zero progress. Though Erador was out here, he felt trapped, running circles trying to figure out who killed the Paradins. He was sick of Hawth lying to him. He was tried of being worried about who would end up dead next. No one was taking this as serious as him.

  He hit the dresser and the jar rattled as the bug fell onto it’s back. He hit it again, hardly noticing the pain because his insides screamed.

  Shade told him to calm down.

  “Shut up!” He smacked the jar on the floor and it shattered. “Just shut the fuck up!”

  Erador panted as he glared at Shade who zipped away. He looked down at the lurker bug clawing his boot. He reached down, pinched it between his fingers, and brought it to eye level. The lurker bug squirmed and kicked. No one cared or listened to him. He squeezed the lurker tighter and it stopped moving.

  Every bit of frustration left his body as he set the still bug in his palm. He thought he'd killed it, ended it's suffering, then the antennas twitched. He set the bug on the dresser but it didn’t move.

  Erador let out a relieving laugh. He leaned closer to the lurker and squinted his eyes to focus. A sliver of a presence trickled through his body, small unlike Shade's energy, likely due to its size. Little shocks rippled through his mind as it tried to fight him. Erador leaned into it. The lurker’s energy wound further into his soul, until it succumbed to him.

  The lurker walked onto his hand and he smiled. “I did it.”

  Shade moved out and congratulated him with a memory of Cade clapping. He would be proud, Erador thought.

  A knock erupted at the door. Erador jumped and looked at the shattered jar on the floor. As he told them to wait, he picked up the lumin crystal on the ground and set it next to the lurker. He opened his drawer, grabbed a metal box, and dumped the cards. He swept the bug and crystal inside the box and left it on the dresser. With his boot, he brushed as much as the broken shards under the dresser as he could.

  Erador double checked his room and went through Shade before he opened the door. Sescina held her fist up about to knock again.

  “Are you busy?” she said. “I can come back later.”

  “No.” Erador smoothed his shirt. “What do you need?”

  “I wanted to talk.”

  Erador sighed. Her compassionate look couldn’t break his hard demeanor. He didn’t want to see her after the deaths.

  “I know you blame me,” she said.

  “For Dethil? He shouldn’t be having visions still.”

  “Oh… I couldn’t remove all the venom. If I had, he could’ve died.”

  Erador allowed her in and sat on the bed. It was what he feared. If Slen found a way to them, it would come for Dethil.

  “Don’t be hard on yourself.” She sat with him and touched his back. “The venom saved his life. It acts like a coagulant. It’s the only reason you lived.”

  Erador looked at her. “What?”

  “I had to leave the venom to save you,” Sescina said. “I’m sorry.”

  Erador touched the round scars on his wrist. “Why does it do that?”

  “Lurkers will not give up their prey easily. It gives it another chance to find you.” Sescina frowned. “I didn’t want to scare you.”

  Erador felt doomed to die from this monster, but with Breck and Pia dead, maybe that wouldn't be his fate.

  “Do you still believe Yuni is good after their deaths?”

  Sescina cupped her hands in her lap. “I don’t think she had anything to do with that.”

  “How would you know?” Erador said, folding his arms. “Do you have proof?”

  “Yuni has only helped us.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  “She’s buying our trust, so no one will suspect her.” Erador raised his voice.

  “I know your heart is set…” Sescina sighed. “But you need to consider other options.”

  Erador scoffed. “I already have. The Raven... New Akthelia... Those are the most likely.”

  Hawth. He didn't want to give her another reason to be angry with him.

  Sescina didn’t react to his suggestions as if the Raven was never a threat, and as if New Akthelia would never touch them.

  “You’re not worried?” Erador said.

  “I am for everyone, and for you...” She looked down, nudging her heels in the rug. “But me...”

  Erador caught the choke in her voice she tried to hide. “Why not?”

  Sescina’s gloved hands gripped the mattress. “I’m dying, Erador.”

  Erador’s heart weighed. Eli said the same thing and he died soon after. Sescina had aged lines on her forehead and around her mouth, and few by her eyes when she smiled. She looked young when he was a child. She lived a long life, but might not get a full one she deserved—A better one.

  “You’re not dying?” Erador said firmly as if to make her confirm that it wasn’t true.

  “My light element strains and weakens the body. I never get time to rest, Erador. No one else has my element here.”

  When the Paradins left, the hardest job was shouldered onto one person who kept his father well, comfortable, and alive. No wonder Sescina looked older this past year and had one more gray hair every time he saw her. His father needed more healing lately.

  “Don’t do it.” Erador touched her arm. “You’re giving your life away for someone who is going to die.”

  “He’ll be well again.” She raised her lips. “I know it.”

  “No,” Erador said in irritation. “His life is over. You can go on without him.”

  Sescina gnawed her lip. “I... can’t.”

  “Yes, you can,” Erador said, grabbing her shoulder. “You can let him go. It’ll be better for all of us.”

  “I can’t get better, Erador. My days are done.”

  Sescina pulled off her long gloves and showed her hands. The bluish?-green veins were visible through her thin wrinkled skin and it ended right before her dove mark. Her skin was more youthful on her upper arm, but her hands appeared like his father’s skin.

  Erador took in a gasping breath. He didn't have to ask what caused this. This was his father's fault.

  “The light element ages… takes parts of you away to heal another,” she said, touching her hands delicately. “I never take a break from using it, so I haven’t had time to heal. It has caused my body to age faster than someone who uses it sparingly.”

  “Sescina,” Erador choked.

  “It’s not just external. Inside...” She touched her chest. “I feel it. My heart doesn’t work the same, and I can’t breathe like I used to.”

  “Why would you give your life away for him?”

  “I know he’ll help everyone more than I could.”

  “That’s not true.” Erador gripped his leg, tears in his eyes. “I... don’t want to lose you.”

  Sescina pulled him into an embrace, as his tears fell. He hugged her, remembering when she wrapped her comforting warm arms around him. Then, his head reached to her chest, but now he could rest his cheek on her head.

  She would heal his wounds from his beatings, but her hands were young then, not covered with gloves. Erador gripped her shirt, hating how his father harmed them in ways Erador didn't realize. He wouldn’t feel Sescina’s gentle back strokes or hear her warming laughter.

  Erador nuzzled his head onto her shoulder. “I love you, Sescina.”

  Sescina burst into tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to tell you because you have enough to worry about.”

  Erador pulled away. “I don’t want to say goodbye...”

  “You don’t have to now. Maybe not ever.”

  Erador averted his gaze from her hopeful eyes. He didn’t want to tell her again that he didn’t believe in Paradise and ruin her dreams of seeing everyone again. He got up and pulled out the red candy in his bedside table he had saved from the festival.

  Erador held it out to Sescina. “Here. These always cheered me up as child.”

  As tears slid down her face, she chuckled and took it. “I better eat this soon or it’ll be gone if Yuni finds it.” Smiling, she wiped a tear from his face, her bare hand feeling much colder and textured than he remembered. “I know you’ll help us, Erador.” She rested her old hand on her leg, tracing a vein. “I haven’t gotten used to seeing them.”

  Her hands did so much for his father, for all of them. But he couldn’t dismiss the rage building inside each time the small clock ticked on his bedside table. He pushed down his feelings, not wanting to ruin what might be his last moment with Sescina.

  No wonder she was so adamant about Yuni helping them. The sooner his father was well, the sooner Sescina could stop healing him. It would give her a chance to live, if only a little longer. He just wished she told him sooner.

  “Promise me you won’t bother your father about this,” she said.

  Erador bit his tongue. “I won’t.”