Season of Sacrifice (Blood of Azure Book 1) Jonathan Michael (red novels .txt) 📖

it sinks into hers more than it ought to. I feel for a struggling heartbeat with my talents, but there’s nothing there. I cannot sense a heartbeat. I cannot sense any life. I cannot bring her back. Not like Captain Crowbill. Not like Master Stormwood. She is dead. Nothing else around me matters in this moment, until death’s voice rises from the decay.

“This isn’t how I planned it, Stone.” He stands over us. “I needed you alone. My plans for you require focus. Astor fled, just as she was supposed to. Jay… Well…she has a destructive nature unlike any other. It may have been for the best.”

I carefully slip from underneath Jay’s body and lower her to the hardwood floor. The rot has foregone its incessant nature to dissolve anything it touches. I will have a body to return to Azure.

“Don’t ever say her name again.” An unknown, low, malicious voice escapes me. He dares to say it was for the best. He dares to use her name as her kin do.

With Life Bringer gripped tight, I swipe upward as I rise to my feet. The tip of my blade knicks the Taoiseach’s chin. My second blade follows, and he catches it in the palm of his hand. Blood trickles down the blade, and he shoves it to the side as if it were a wooden toy. His wounds, minor as they are, mend before my eyes. He can heal. He can rot. He’s like me. But what is he?

“I can respect that. You need time to grieve. But fighting is pointless, Stone. Try as you might, it will have no lasting effects. I suggest you grieve for your losses in other ways.”

“What are you?” I whisper.

Harris’ lips flatten. His gaze is focused on me as he ponders answering the question. Or ponders the answer itself. He turns his back to me and kneels at the edge of the halved table tipped on the floor. He searches for something.

“You may know I’m stringent with my knowledge,” he responds. “In the hands of man, it’s destructive. Humanity uses all tools to better themselves. Whether that tool be a hammer, a wheel, or knowledge, it is used selfishly to better humanity. But knowledge is the most destructive because it is a tool we use to destroy our own. A hammer presses against nature’s strength. A wheel motions against nature’s friction. Nature understands these tools. But knowledge… Knowledge is understood by us, not nature, and therefore it only works as an agent against humanity. Where one person gains, another loses. Knowledge is destructive and must be protected at the utmost cost. There is too much to unfold all at once, Stone, but…” His eyes shift from the underside of the table to me. “…I believe it is time for you to know before you inadvertently hurt someone else. You’re a Hybreed, Stone.”

Harris stops inspecting the table and rises to face me.

“A…Hybreed?” They’re not more than a legend.

“Well…I have a few tests to run, but I suspect as much based on the information Master Stormwood has given me. It is why I have chosen you, Stone.”

“What are you saying? That I’m the chosen one?” I ask mockingly. I’m torn. Harris is probably the only person that has answers to my questions. But he just murdered my sister before my eyes. The hate and anger boiling inside me are being subdued only by my self-indulgent curiosity and hunger for knowledge. I want to seek justice for my family. But just as equally, I want to know who I am and what I’m capable of.

“No!” he replies, seemingly insulted by my words. “We do not live in a godforsaken fantasy world. There are not prophecies. There is no magic, and there certainly are no chosen ones. Put your head back on. For Susy’s sake!” He takes his eyes off me and goes back to inspecting the wood table.

I contemplate attacking, but he peers over his shoulder.

“Susy is failing us. Susy, the Advocates of the Seezuhn religion, and their followers are failing us. No… That is wrong. I must not put blame on the religion. It is not their doing. Susy, however, is failing us, Stone. And there is a plague of atheism peeking.” He flips one half of the table all the way over, so the top is face down. He glides his fingers across it, still searching for something. "Established science is irrefutable, but the power of belief cannot be ignored."

I don’t know what he’s talking about. And I’m not interested. “Why my sister?” I ask. “You were interested in Jaymes to begin with. Not me. And now she’s dead. Why?”

Crouched low with his hands pressed against the table, he looks up at me. A vulnerable position to be sure. I could attack and end this.

“Her power,” he admits. “Her talent is comparable to my own. I needed to know whether she was an enemy or ally. If you had experienced all that I have, you would understand, Stone. I cannot have such talent roaming about unaccounted for. Unchecked. She chose to be an enemy.”

She did. It’s the truth, as painful as it is. She confessed to me she was after his head.

Harris continues. “If only she would have fled according to plan, we could have used her in months to come.” He lowers his eyes, not staring at anything in particular, and shakes his head. “She is not the only unchecked power in this realm. Stone…” His eyes fix back on me. “…I’m afraid I have chosen you because I need another set of shoulders to put the weight of this world on. My resolve is fading. I brought upon this world the destructive forces it wields, and I have always told myself I would see it through to the end. But the seasons are long. And I…” Harris rubs his hand across his