Something stirred Rina from her sleep. Her eyes flickered open, and for a moment, the sight of the balls of light, those stars come to earth, surprised her. There was a slight chill to the night air, enough to wrap her thin blanket tighter about her. This didn't explain why she shivered.

She wasn't alone. That was what woke her.

Her ears pricked. The sound of water and the rhythmic beat of the water wheels. A crackle of leaves from night creatures and the hum of cicadas. A soft breath behind her. Mai. He'd finally slept—of course, he did. The metallic taste of blood still clung to her teeth and gums. Their child was ravenous, and Mai insisted she feed it despite the way she left him exhausted and sunken-eyed.

"Is it normal, this?" she'd asked before she slept, curled up beside him.

"No," he answered. "Only for those with the gift of consumption." The blood-drinking had been outlawed in Denea for fear of what could happen if a mage couldn't control their impulses. Blood was the fastest, most efficient way to consume another's energy. It was also intimate. Between her and Mai, who both had the gift, it was a sign of trust. A bond.

"And our child. What if he—"

"She," he said, correcting her. "If she has it, no, she will need to learn restraint. We will need to be careful. Elia." He sighed, sounding tired. Sad. "More than her sex and the sex of her child kept her below me in the succession."

Mai had told her how the husks of drained bodies began to turn up in the poorer districts of Hypat after Elia came into her powers.

Cold, ruthless and bloodthirsty, Rina's ancestor. Unable to resist her urges. Now that thirst had passed down the generations to her.

A hand wrapped around Rina's waist and slipped past the ties of her gown to the too-stretched skin and moved back and forth, warm and soothing. She wished she had her oil with her so that Mai could massage it in.

She waited for Mai to talk down the line, but the night was so still and calm. He wouldn't break it with words.

Nothing. The hand moved in a lazy circle.

She leaned her head back. Talk to me, she said down the line—a pause.

My love. His voice came strangely distant, as if from another place. Is something wrong?

Rina froze. Why was Mai's hand so warm after she drank so deeply from him? He had been cold as ice as she drifted off to sleep.

The hand stilled, curling, the nails pressing into the skin. A whisper of breath and the tickle of skin as a fingertip tucked the hair from her neck.

She wanted to be sick—even before she heard the voice.

"Do you still think of me, Rina? Because I think of you."

Rina tried to scramble away, but a hand grabbed her upper arm. It held tight.

"No!"

"Trying to leave me—after all you took." Nails began to walk across the mound of her stomach. Bile rose in her throat, and she sobbed.

"Please, Fin, don't do this."

Fin's nails pushed deeper into her skin. One nail was sharp as a claw. She muffled a cry as the tip punctured deep into her flesh.

"You didn't give me a child, Rina. Then you took one from me. I'd say that's two lives you owe me now."

She started to struggle, but Fin held her tight. His teeth were hot and sharp as he snarled in her ear, "You took everything from me, you little bitch!"

In the back of her mind, she heard Mai shouting from a distance, the crystal at her chest rattling as he tugged at the overstretched line. Drain him. Do it now!

Shaking, Rina turned in Fin's arms. Arms that had held her when the thought of sea monsters terrified her. The man who had opened his heart to her. Who laid with her in the grass beneath the stars and made her body sing. A curl of caramel hair kissed his forehead. His purple eyes met hers, and for the barest moment, they wavered.

Do it! Mai urged

And Rina did. She released her breath and inhaled.

Nothing.

Fin's eyes hardened.

Do it!

Rina tried again. Nothing. She unfocused her eyes, trying to see the lines of the Carnelian Way. The world just darkened, the corners of her vision becoming hazy. The next time she struggled, her body moved in slow motion, as if wading through some gelatinous substance.

"You thought I'd forget what you did?" said Fin.

A line of spittle fell across Rina's cheek, but her arm was too heavy to lift and wipe it away. Fin sat, cradling her limp body, all the while Mai screamed down the line. Fin turned his head looking up to the cave, eyes narrowed. He knew Mai would come soon.

"Do you know what he's doing?"

The paralysis slowly spread inwards. Soon, too soon, it would reach her heart. "No," she managed to say, the word coming slow.

"He's in the crystal cave—refuelling."

"Wha..."

A slow, cruel smile sliced up Fin's face. "Didn't he tell you how he lived so long? How he really powered this land? You didn't think it was Mai the Magnificent and the Magisterium donating their Carnelian Way, did you?"

Cold dread crawled through Rina's chest. Her mouth opened, but she couldn't find the words.

Fin cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking that sensitive skin below the corner of her eye, as something sharp trailed her jawline. She shuddered.

"Such a pretty, pretty fool. All those times you forsook yourself so he could 'pluck the Taint' from your souls." He chuckled. Something silver glinted. A ring fashioned into a silver claw sat at the tip of his left pinky finger. "I'll miss admiring you—especially those eyes of yours."

Rina swallowed as he tilted the claw. "Do you know what this is for?" he asked.

All she could manage was the barest shake of her head.

"It was tipped with mubash venom."

Rina whimpered.

"You see," Fin continued, examining the ring. "Our emperor was too preoccupied with making a point and punishing those poor magisters that he didn't bother to count how many mubash there were, or what servants were about." He laughed. "Ironic. Those magisters may have betrayed him, and they certainly wanted to keep you in your place. No—worse. They wouldn't have let you live after what you had been taught here. And yet, they weren't tainted."

"Ho—ow?"

"How did I know? Why I found Arkis's journal. Your husband's librarian, she is—" Fin licked his lips. "A charming woman and easy to persuade." As he said that, warmth flooded Rina and the revulsion drained away. Suddenly, she was content to be in his arms. She would find a way to convince Mai to forgive Fin if only he would stay with her until the end.

"Fin." It was hard to speak.

He laughed. "I forgot—the venom makes you more susceptible to the Carnelian Way while preventing you from using it."

Rina frowned. The Carnelian Way—he didn't have any in his family. Not since his grandparents. Wait—he said he persuaded the librarian. He must have the gift of persuasion. That was why she fell for him so fast, why it was bliss to be held by him again even as her blood slowed and her body grew numb.

"Oh, I didn't tell you, did I," Fin said. "We didn't lose the Carnelian Way in our family—it was just... My mother's gift came late and unrecognised, so she decided to go somewhere it could be maximised." He sneered. "The Bani islands is no place for the descendants of magisters—nor is a ship. I deserved greater things. But I digress."

He shifted his position. "Arkis planted the seeds of the mubash in those who rose against him, bringing them to life as he needed. He used a diluted form of the venom to weaken others. It's why Mai and his mother fled. His influence had grown too strong—they could no longer trust their servants to keep their food safe."

He looked up to the cave again. "Ah, here comes your lying husband." His lips returned to her ear. There is no Taint, pretty little fool."

He stood, letting her body slump to the pillows."Two deaths to repay what you took for me—and something else." He gave her a final look before he ran from the pavilion and into the night.

Rina lay there, blinking. A tear rolled down her cheek. Fin would have his two deaths, but that was not all he took. Martha died aware of how Fin betrayed her. It ate away at his soul, as it would eat at Mai's when she was gone.

All that forsaken energy.

Safiya's voice from the classroom in Amadore all those months ago rang through her mind. "I still don't understand why Mai must take the Taint. If it's so bad, and he takes it, what does that make him?"

The wrong question. Safiya had asked the wrong question. The answers had been there, all along.

I am a fool. A stupid, stupid fool.

She ignored Mai's cries as they echoed through her mind, closed her eyes as the thumps of his footsteps pounded towards her. He took her in his arms, fingers frantically searching for her pulse.

"Thank the gods!" he said. His lips blazed across her temple as he kissed her. A grunt and his wrist was over her mouth, hot wet blood filling it and burning down her throat.

Too late.

Then his other hand came to the crystal in her chest, and fire punched into her. 

★☾●☽★

A/N: Thank you again for reading. More revelations. I'd love to hear what you think of them? Too many? I hope not, as there is more to come, but I'd prefer the truth so I can fix any issues in the future.