A Hero of Realms(27)

Arron grimaced.

Aisha nudged his head with her hand. “So, tell us what you know, Hawk,” she said, looking down at him expectantly.

Arron’s sharp eyes met mine. I still couldn’t get over how strange it was to be seeing him in the flesh. This legend of a Hawk, reduced to a weak victim. It appeared that Aisha had made his body rigid because he wasn’t even attempting to move. The only movement he made was turning his head.

“Benjamin Novak,” he said slowly. His baritone voice was nasal. “I didn’t expect that we would meet again… You look just like your father.”

Aisha unceremoniously prodded him again. “We don’t have all day,” she said.

I bent down on the ground, so that my face was level with his. “You know what would happen if the Elders were allowed to rise to power again,” I said. “You know better than anyone. So I suggest that you be as helpful as possible. Aisha has told you about the situation, and you know the Elders’ plan for resurgence. What do you have to say?”

The look in Arron’s eyes was that of deep dislike. He paused, then said, “If the greater good is really what interests you, Benjamin, then you would simply remove yourself as a risk.”

His tone bordered on patronizing.

My eyes narrowed on him. “What are you saying exactly?”

“I’m saying that you are the only hope for the Elders right now. They are bankrupt of blood and vessels, and even if they had vessels, they have become too weak to inhabit them.”

“What would be the use of calling Ben back to Cruor then, if none could actually inhabit him?” Aisha asked, looking dubious.

Arron continued to address me. “You, Benjamin, are the only exception. Because of the unique bond you have with Basilius, if you came within his proximity, he could live within you and use you to not only recover himself, but also set the ball rolling for the others. In other words, you are their only hope. Hence, you and you alone will be responsible for the Elders’ coming to power. If you didn’t exist, they would remain the dormant spirits that they are now. That’s why I say, if you really care about the greater good… then you would eliminate yourself from the equation.”

“I hope you have some better ideas,” Aisha said, her voice irritated. She knocked the Hawk’s head again, harder this time, so that it banged back against the tree trunk. “Benjamin is one of our own—he belongs to the Nasiris. Committing suicide isn’t an option.”

Suicide. I stared at the Hawk, my stomach churning.

His words made a thought that I’d driven to the back of my mind resurface. What if removing myself from the equation really is the only way to solve this?

Arron was watching me intently, clearly enjoying the effect that his words were having on me. I assumed a poker face and stared right back at him. I raised a brow and asked as calmly as I could, “Well? Is that your only suggestion?”

“That is the only foolproof suggestion that I have. There is one other thing you could try, but there is no guarantee that it would work, or that you would even survive it. It’s just a… speculation based on the vast knowledge I have of the Elders and their ways.”

“What is it?” Aisha asked, glaring down at him.

“Free my limbs first.” The Hawk scowled at Aisha. “Let me sit comfortably.”

Aisha reluctantly lifted whatever restraint she had over him and allowed him to get to his feet. Or rather talons. Hawks are the strangest things. Their bodies were just like humans’, and they even had normal arms and hands. But where their feet should have been were talons, and their otherwise humanoid face possessed a beak instead of a nose and mouth. And of course, they had giant wings sprouting from beneath their shoulders.

I took a step backward as I scanned Arron. He flexed his only wing, stretching it out to its full length, before walking a few feet over to a rock and sitting down. With only one wing, I wondered how he even traveled places. I guessed he must rely on others to help him get around. In any case, it meant that there was no danger of him trying to escape even after Aisha lifted her restraint.

Arron winced and breathed out slowly, as if he were in some kind of pain, before continuing. “When an Elder first imparts its nature into a victim, it’s the heart where the infection settles. While I won’t pretend to have come across a case quite like yours, vampire, I can say with almost complete certainty that whatever hold this Elder has over you is rooted within your heart.”

Arron’s words sent my mind into a tailspin. The hold that Elders had over vampires, or at least the hold my Elder had over me, felt like it transcended physicality. His influence was subtle and intangible, a part of my consciousness. It had never occurred to me to think about the physical side of how this worked, not to speak of pinpointing their influence to a specific organ. But now that Arron had told me, the heart made sense. It made total sense.