A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

2. Karus

Chapter 2

Karus

Rain slipped off the tip of my nose, falling far into the dark hole below me. My eyes flicked to the lumens, both frighteningly quiet after their plunge into the damp tunnel. The woman stood, draped in black—a stark contrast to her pale skin and white hair.

The Blightress stared up at me as if she’d always known this moment would come.

I, however, had not.

Seconds ticked by.

I knew I should move.

I knew I should run.

I knew that I had come to a fork of two paths. One led me back to the man I loved—the man I never wanted to hurt again.

The other led to answers. This ancient woman held the answers to the endless questions that rose within me, stinging like needles since the last time I had heard her voice.

I’d spent the last seven years in a mist, and now? Now, I wanted to know why . I wanted to know myself again and maybe—just maybe—the woman who could speak into my thoughts could help me.

Her iridescent eyes flickered and her smirk only grew, seeming to know what warred through me like the thunder that warred through the dark sky above us.

“Will you come with me, Little Sprout?”

I wasn’t sure if she had spoken aloud or if she had once again spoken in my mind, just as she did months ago when my memories had returned.

“If I go with you, we heal the lumens first.” I exhaled slowly, my heart at an erratic pulse as I pulled the rhyzolm from my pocket.

“Little Sprout, I would not leave these marvelous creatures to suffer. Do you think me capable of such a thing?”

I didn’t know what she was capable of. I didn’t know her other than the stories I’d heard in my childhood. We’d all been told stories of doom if you angered—tales of warning that called the Blightress powerful and menacing, willing to steal you if you fell to your own wrath.

But through some of my early research, the seeds of doubt had already been planted in my mind. Her role in our history held more beneath the surface of what we had been told.

I shook my head silently, thinking carefully of what I could bargain with. She wanted me to follow her into what looked like a tunnel of blighted walls. I knew I would be gone for more than a few minutes and Revich would come looking. If I left the rhyzolm for him to find, it would be alright. Surely, he wouldn’t panic if he knew I was alive and that he could follow.

“And…” I added, sliding my legs over the hole, ripping off some of my already torn dress in the movement. “I want to be able to leave when I am ready. I will come with you of my own free will, and I will return of it as well. You will not harm me, the lumens, or anyone I love.”

Her eyes ensnared me as they darkened to shades of deep blue, green, and purple. “You would do well, Little Sprout, not to assume you know my intentions. I agree to your terms and offer one of my own.”

She lifted her long, pale finger toward the opening above her and dark vines entangled together to form a staircase that led down to where she stood. “You will listen, Karus of Felgren. I will answer the questions I can, but most of all, you will listen.”

Nodding, I squeezed the rhyzolm tightly in my hand before subtly placing it on the ripped fabric from my dress, pouring all of my hopes into its green surface. Rev must find it. The stone that shared our story must find its way back to him so that he could find his way back to me.

With one final breath, the downpour of rain soaking me through, I pursed my lips and began my descent.