Black Blood (Series of Blood Book 4) Emma Hamm (popular novels txt) 📖

“Ah,” he nodded. “The two you had me save will obviously be part of this.”

“They’re the best choices. I haven’t seen the other two though. Do you have any suggestions?”

“Legion.”

“Who?” She lifted to search for his gaze.

“The last creature alive I created. My siblings were usually quick to destroy anything which was not dark. But this one, somehow, survived. I didn’t even know the Legion still existed.”

“Oh,” a brilliant smile stretched across her lips. “I can make that work. I’ve seen them, in the future and the past. They can split into multiple creatures or stay as one host.”

“I believe that’s how they survived this long.”

He tucked her back against him, crossing his ankles. He wanted to stay like this forever. With her tucked against his side, he felt invincible.

“Have you given the prophecy any thought?”

“Yes I think I know how I want it to be said.”

“Go ahead, bright one.”

“Lost in a crowd is the creature that binds,

It is they who have lost all of their minds.

Beneath the ground is the creature who protects,

Carved and scarred by all it detests.

Forgotten in moss is the creature that sees,

One who destroys, ruins, and decrees.

Hidden in smoke is the creature that kills,

Riddled with boxes, magic, and pills.

Flesh and blood connects them together,

It is they who stop the rising aggressor.”

Pitch felt a cold chill run down his spine. Lydia hadn’t spoken those words in her usual voice, but that of an Oracle. Magic turned the air to static, brushing against his psyche with tingling sparks.

“Lydia?”

“Yes?”

“That wasn’t a prophecy you just made up, was it?”

“I thought it was.” She shivered. “But that didn’t feel like it.”

Sil hadn’t been an Oracle. She had seen the future, but prophetic visions was an entirely different gift. Lydia wasn’t just telling the future with those words, nor was she changing it. She was committing herself, and others, to ensuring the future she wanted came true.

Prophecies were dangerous things. Considering the amount of magic Pitch felt in the air, he worried she had tied her very life to ensuring it came true.

She was just a bland human when he first picked her up. Pathetic and weak-minded in his eyes, but now he saw how wrong he was. No average woman could have suffered as she had and survived. No, thrived, he realized.

He picked her hand up, staring at the lean fingers against his. They were both far too pale, their skin inhuman and paper thin.

“We are far from human,” he said while tucking her head under his chin.

“Are you suggesting I’m a god like you?”

“The correct term is ‘goddess’, darling.”

She shook her head. “A blind, horned, goddess who sees the future but can’t decipher it enough to make a difference. The world is fucked, Pitch.”

“Not yet. Who am I telling this prophecy to? Just anyone won’t spread the word enough for it to make it to the right ears.”

“I thought of that too. The only way to really spread it, is to go right to the top.”

He sighed. “The Five?”

“The Five.”

“I don’t want to do that,” he grumbled.

She tossed a leg over his, simultaneously stopping his heart and giving him reason to breathe. “They don’t remember you.”

“Excuse me?”

“They think you’re dead. And when you show up with an Oracle who will tell them my exact words, they won’t put the pieces together. Your face, your power, has been forgotten in lieu of larger things.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. But then again, Pitch couldn’t remember when he had liked the sound of anything when Sil’s magic was involved.

“So I’m going to just waltz into the Five’s stronghold, toss an Oracle at them with a prophecy and then… what?”

“They will tell everyone who needs to know.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Their future is foggy,” Lydia said with a wrinkled brow. “I’m not sure how to explain it. It’s like they’re hiding their future. A shield, somehow, has formed over their threads.”

“I’ve never trusted them. They’re just as bad as my siblings, perhaps worse because they hide behind a veil of righteousness.”

She nodded her agreement. Together, they huddled on her bed and planned their first steps to saving the future. He did not leave until she fell into a deep sleep to ensure the changes they made would stick. The instant she did not wake, he missed her.

Lydia stumbled out of her bedroom, feeling energy and power coursing through her veins. This time was different. She wasn’t weak. She wasn’t shaking. She felt as though a live wire had been pressed against her skin, making her hands shake and her mind buzz.

This was how Sil felt all the time. Lydia wasn’t sure how she knew it, but this static energy was more powerful than ever.

She didn’t need to sleep again. She didn’t need to travel the webs of Time, she was time.

Although she was nearly blind, Lydia could see the world in a different way. Everything sparkled with life, be it inanimate object or living creature. Louis sparkled with vibrant light green, his happiness contagious and sending sparks into the air. Even the house had white veins reaching out from its heart. Perhaps it wasn’t dead after all, just wounded.

Walking still wasn’t easy. She clutched the railing, but wasn’t certain she needed it. If the light would stop moving, she could make out the stairs. But the shimmers were constantly running from the center of the house.

Magic was like blood. It had to travel around the entire building, or person, to give it life. Maybe Pitch was right, she realized. Surely only a goddess could see the world like this.

“That’s a trip,” she muttered. “Me. A goddess.”

She certainly didn’t picture a woman like herself when she thought of the divine. But at the very least, she wouldn’t let a stairwell beat her. Grumbling the entire way, Lydia took each step carefully and finally made it to the ground floor.

It was foolish to be proud of that, but she was. She hadn’t even been able to walk for over a