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

bald scalp. “…fear I will not always have the will to press on. Susy is failing us, Stone. Humanity needs faith to push past an evil that invades our hearts. And I don’t know if I have the will to carry this burden any longer.”

“So, I am the chosen one. I’m your chosen one.”

“Not if you carry that attitude,” he spits back at me. “Hybreeds are a rare form. And I’ve kept them buried to protect humanity from themselves. If you choose to be my enemy as well, then I’m afraid I cannot let you walk out of here with that information. What will it be, Stone? Can you push past your selfish desire to murder me and avenge your family’s death to bare the weight this realm needs?”

He takes a few steps closer to me. As fearsome as his appearance is, his stance is a welcoming one. He has no intent to battle me.

“I will guide you so long as you need. But without you, my will alone won’t keep us from collapsing in on ourselves. Carib will see to that.”

“Carib…” I hold both blades at the ready, still uncertain where this conversation will end. “My sister mentioned that name. Who is he?”

“I am divulging a lot of information, Stone. There isn’t a chance you’ll walk freely from this chamber without offering me your servitude.”

I nod.

“Is that an agreement?”

“No. That’s an understanding only one of us will walk away from this room.”

“I see.” Harris goes back to inspecting the ruins of his table, sifting through the debris that was the result of his fist slamming down on it. “Carib is the type to swing a hammer carelessly and use the wheels of a carriage to hurdle it off a cliff just to see the damage that can be done. Carib knows not how to wield the tools he possesses, and he, unfortunately, is the creation of a moment of my own weakness. A stutter of my discipline. He has more knowledge than he knows what to do with, and he wants more. He will be our demise.”

“He murdered my parents?”

“Yes.”

“But you were there. You stormed our house. You were there on the roof with your Solites. You were there when my parents were aflame on the noose.”

“I wasn’t. Carib has discovered a potential in his talents only an Immortal can achieve. Carib can metamorphose. He’s a skin walker. A shapeshifter.”

I gape at the Taoiseach. A shapeshifter? They only exist in the darkest of legends. They belong on the silver screen, not in reality. Grafts…Hybreeds…Shapeshifters…these all belong on the silver screen. But they’re all real. And Harris has been withholding this information from the world. But why would a shapeshifter have any reason to kill my parents? “Why?” I ask. “Why would he kill my parents?”

“I cannot attest to his motives. Thirst for power is my speculation. An open seat on Parliament would offer an opportunity to plant a spy, perhaps. Or because he is the assumed culprit behind the genocide your parents were accused of, perhaps he merely wanted to kill your sister and your parents were a barricade standing in the way. I don’t know.”

“But you had no problem using it to cover the knowledge you wanted to protect. Using my family as a scapegoat to prevent the world from knowing who Carib is.”

“Indeed. It was necessary. We must all make sacrifices, Stone.”

“Is it truly a sacrifice if you care nothing for it?” I mock. His comment is almost comical if it weren’t my family taking all the sacrifice.

He stares into oblivion. “No, I suppose it isn’t.”

I lower my head and gaze upon Jay. My heart sinks. I cannot let this happen to anyone else. The knowledge he protects will be better off burning with his corpse. If there’s no knowledge to be had, there are no more sacrifices to be made. I must kill Harris.

I raise Life Bringer.

“Ahh… I’ve found it.” He raises a slab of oak from the rubble. “A key to the athenaeum.”

I have no interest in anything else he has to say. I charge him with my blades at the ready.

The Taoiseach hardly shows any sign of distress. He effortlessly grabs my wrist as I swing down on him with the first blade. Then, he immediately grabs the other as well, immobilizing me. His strength is too much, but he loosens his grip, and I tear away from his grasp.

“Stone, it’s futile.”

I strike again. One blade followed closely by the second, but he parries both and knocks me to the side. My feet tangle in the rubble on the floor and, I spill over the tipped table.

“You don’t have to fight me, Stone.”

“Yes, I do!” I hurdle over the table and slash at him again. He knocks one blade away with the back of his hand and grabs the other tightly in his palm. This time, there is no blood. Instead, it clangs as if my blade collides with stone.

He tosses my blade to the side and grabs at my throat with incredible speed. Within clicks, I’m flying across the room. I hit the wall and slump to the ground.

“No! You don’t!”

His patience is lacking compared to what he’s been displaying. He doesn’t want to fight me, yet he does so out of pure annoyance.

My talents are nothing compared to his. What am I going to do, heal his wounds? My only chance at defeating him is Life Bringer. But how do I do that when he can heal and petrify his flesh to deflect my steel?

I charge again. Harris casually preps himself for the attack, but I drop to a slide. My blade strikes the back of his ankles, slicing downward and right through the sinew on both legs. Harris collapses onto his back, and I rise to my