Immortal Consequences(103)

“Why?”

“The Ether has always required balance,” Silas explained calmly. “It has always needed to consume Corrupted Souls in order to function. However, in the past few hundred years or so…something changed. It began to fight us. Have you not noticed it? The way it retaliates when you attempt to cross through it?”

Of course she did. The Ether was constantly fighting them. But she’d assumed it was normal. That it was just part of the way their world worked. She had never thought, not even for a moment, that something like this could be true.

He continued. “We’re not certain what changed within the Ether, but it became evident that it needed…more. That Corrupted Souls weren’t enough. And Blackwood students…well, there’s something about your souls that satiates the Ether. At least for ten years. So the Decennial offered us the opportunity to make that necessary sacrifice. To hand over a select group of students in exchange for order and balance within the afterlife.”

August cursed furiously beneath his breath, running a hand over his face. “Order and balance? Is that what you truly believe?”

“It’s what I know,” Silas replied.

“You’re a monster,” Wren choked out.

Silas’s lips twitched. “I gave you what you wanted.”

“This,” she seethed, hands clenched, “is not what I wanted.”

“Is it not? You wanted the nomination. The chance to become an Ascended. Part of the academic elite. And I gave it to you.”

“But if I had known—”

“You would have changed your mind?” The words hit her like a punch in the gut. A breathless feeling that made her knees buckle beneath her. “Don’t lie to yourself, Wren. The truth doesn’t change anything. You would still have wanted the nomination.”

“You’re wrong.” But as the words left her lips, a part of her faltered. Would she have changed her mind? Would it have changed anything at all? She’d always been ambitious, maybe even to a fault.

He must have read the doubt on her face, because he stepped closer, lips pulled into a twisted smile.

“There’s no running from what lives inside you.” His voice traveled across her skin, venomous and cold. “In fact, you remind me a lot of myself. That desire to be the best. To reach your full potential. It’s why I chose you.”

Wren let her eyes bore into his. She refused to look away.

“I’m nothing like you.”

He tilted his head and narrowed his gaze. “Then what about Maeve?”

For a split second, everything froze. It was like the world around her had completely ceased to exist, nothing but the two of them still in focus. She watched the darkness pass over Silas’s eyes, the cruelty still lingering from the words he had spoken.

He had opened that sealed box inside her and destroyed it.

With one simple word.

One name.

“How?” Wren choked out.

“Your sister shouldn’t have been in the car with you. You let her drive even though you knew she had been drinking. Not to mention that your mother had specifically told you not to take her to the party. But you’d been angry at your mother. Wanted to defy her wishes just to prove a point.”

The world tilted. The air soured.

“Stop.”

He didn’t. “But it wasn’t just that night. You lived your life focused only on yourself. On how to make others around you bend to your wishes. You thrived on being better than others. It was your addiction. And you would rather have condemned your sister to an early grave than simply conform to the rules around you.” His voice dipped lower. “I am the only one who won’t judge you, Wren. I won’t judge you because I understand. The rules of the world sometimes need to be changed. Sometimes sacrifice is necessary in order for you to reach your true potential.”

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes, burning mercilessly. She could feel August watching her. The mere thought of him standing there, listening, made her want to keel over. But now there was no more running. No more pretending. August would finally understand the ugly truth hidden inside her, the darkest parts of her stripped bare for him to see.

“You’re—you’re wrong.” Wren shook her head. “Changing the rules is one thing. You’re sacrificing innocent souls, you’re destroying—”

“Enough.”

The single word was like a hand constricting around her throat, silencing her.

“Now…” Silas approached them, the outline of his shadow stretching menacingly over the floor. “If I’m not mistaken…I believe we are needed in the garden.”

Wren’s eyes widened in shock. “How did you—”

“Best not to keep them waiting.”

Silas snapped his fingers before Wren could wrap her head around what he was about to do. One second the three of them were standing in Memorium, shrouded in darkness, and the next they were in the garden, bathed in the silver glow of night and standing among the other nominees.

Masika, who had been talking to the others, stopped midsentence. Her eyes snapped toward Wren in confusion.

“What…what is this—”

“Hello, nominees,” Silas interjected. “I apologize for the intrusion…but I believe it is time I share something with you all.”