Burning Key

Chapter 54

Chapter 54

"So, who is this Fin guy?"

Destan's straightforward question hung in the air, all eyes landing on him as he lifted his crystal glass of Arloerin Starlight to his lips. The sudden attention on him had him pausing, meeting every one of their stares.

"He apparently has a much longer history with us and our lands than we originally believed," Dessa told him in a quiet voice as she sat on the plush sofa in the library with her legs swung over Elys's lap. "I knew him as a human boy who I became friends with during university."

"I know him as being the one to attack my city," Cleo followed up, walking over to him to take his glass from his hand and take a sip.

"And not only had he made an impact on our lives now," Adeena grimaced, "but he's apparently the one who made our mother Corliss go dark. Or, that is, pointed her in the direction of it and planted everything for her to."

"Those aren't the best parts, though," Elys grimaced. "He's also a god of death who wants to bring every world he touches to darkness. And wants the dark magic that these three have possession of, whether it be taking it from them or bringing them to his side."

At that, Destan finished off his drink, then went back to the bottle to pour himself another. "And with what happened during his attack on Arloerin..." His eyes went to Dessa.

"I had to get rid of him," she whispered. "I sent him through a portal to another world but I have no idea what world it is. We've only just realized how many possible worlds there are. Ours, Laria...that's only two that we know of."

"And yet you sent a god of death into a world where he could wreak havoc on an unsuspecting people."

It wasn't meant as a reprimand, but Dessa's throat closed up at his statement. She'd thought about it dozens of times, wondering where Fin had landed and what he was capable of doing. She hoped the world she'd sent him to was an empty wasteland where no life resided, where he couldn't hurt anyone or anything ever again.

But a tiny voice in the back of her mind whispered her doubt.

He's made it to this world and Laria before...who's to say he can't escape and come back?

Elys's hand absentmindedly rubbed up and down her thigh, his thumb rubbing in comforting circles. "He took a special interest in Dessa, though," he said then. His tone was low and steady, not giving away the vitriol she could feel swelling inside him. "With her portal magic, he would be able to use her to get to worlds he hadn't found yet."

"And I did exactly what he wanted. I had to get rid of him, though. I had to use my dark magic to get rid of him and the oskurreia he'd created."

Destan took another drink at the mention of oskurreia, a dark creature he'd only just learned about in the few weeks he'd been home. "Can I never actually see one of those in person, please?"

"With how things are going, I don't know if that's possible," Adeena grimaced. "You've heard everyone's accounts and saw the drawings."

Cleo threw a halfhearted punch in his direction. "It's only fitting you're next in seeing one."

True to what they promised, he'd basically had lessons from everyone on what happened in the twenty-plus years he'd been gone by first reading through several history texts they'd provided him. They didn't see him for a solid three days, two of which he'd been so engrossed in reading and the third resting in the in between. Adeena followed him, making sure he was all right and helping him work through all of the new information.