Octavian's Undoing (Sons of Judgment) (43 page)

“That’s not enough time!” Octavian growled, turning to his father.

Liam put up his hand as he got to his feet. “I’ll talk with Arild. We were good friends during the war. I’m sure I can convince him—”

No sooner had the words left him when there was an audible
puff
and thick, coiling smoke rose from the ground only a few feet from where the group stood. Riley was thrust behind Octavian’s back as a figure emerged from its center.

The man was unnaturally thin and tall, reminding Riley of an alien, except his face was long and hound-doggish. He wore a black suit with a red tie that clashed with his gray skin. His eyes may have once had color, but were a dull, washed out gray that were heavily hooded as though at any moment, he might fall asleep where he stood. He surveyed the room with very little interest, his long, thin fingers laced just at his collarbone.

“Septimus.” Liam hurried forward, hand extended. “We’ve been expecting you.”

Septimus blinked very slowly. “Liam.” His words trailed away, thin and wispy, but hoarse like a chain smoker. “I came.” He, with the same slow motion, as though he were moving through syrup, accepted the hand Liam offered him.

“Thank you.” Liam motioned him towards the closest table. “Please.”

“Who is that?” Riley whispered as Septimus took his sweet time accepting a chair.

“Septimus,” Octavian murmured. He turned his head so he could meet her gaze. “The Gravedigger.”

He was absolutely not what Riley had pictured the Gravedigger to look like. This man, although he gave off an aura of power, seemed harmless, not at all intimidating like his namesake.

“Your wife,” the man drawled, now comfortably seated. “Insisted it was urgent.”

Yet it took you three weeks to make an appearance. Thank God Kyaerin hadn’t said it was life threatening,
Riley thought.

Liam took the seat across from him. “It is. Very.” He turned and motioned Octavian over. “We had a bit of an incident here a few months prior…”

Octavian turned to Riley, giving her his hand. “Okay?”

She nodded, setting her hand in his. “I think so.”

With a gentle squeeze, he led her to where his father and Septimus sat.

“So now the oath is binding her ascension,” Liam was saying.

Septimus’ flat, dull eyes roamed away from Liam and fixed on Riley as she got closer. “This is her?”

“Yes.” Liam gave her a comforting smile. He got to his feet and motioned for her to take his place.

Not so fond of the idea, but unwilling to be rude, Riley slipped into the warmth left behind in the chair and faced the Gravedigger.

His eyes were a washed out blue, she noted, and his face appeared doughy, which was intensified by the powder clinging to his creased skin. She wondered if she were to poke him in the cheek, would there be an indent left behind? But she refrained from doing so.

“Riley Masters,” he breathed.

Riley swallowed nervously. “Hello.”

There was a hint of a smile curving his paper thin lips, but just as quickly, it was gone. “Do you know who I am?”

Certainly not Santa Claus.

“The Gravedigger,” she murmured.

He gave a slight tip of his head in inclination. “Yes.” He hissed the single word so the
S
dragged out, reminding her of a snake. “I am the Gravedigger.”

Riley wondered if she should say hello again when he paused, but he quickly picked up his speech before she could.

“I am the keeper of records and the foreseer of all things that was, is and will be. I am the one that decides when it is time for a life to end and when it is time for a life to begin.” He bent his head to the side. “For example, I know your name is Riley Marlene Masters, named for your grandfather on your mother’s side and your great aunt from your father. You were born to Douglas Masters and Caroline Garnell. Your mother left when you were five. She has remarried since and…” he paused, his eyes narrowing as though he were looking into some realm only he could see. “Is expecting a daughter in a month’s time. The child won’t live.”

Riley gasped, leaping out of the chair. She stumbled into Liam, who caught her. “That’s a horrible thing to say,” she cried.

Septimus blinked those dispassionate eyes. “That is the truth.”

Riley didn’t know what to say, didn’t know where to start. She was going to have a half-sister, or she would have. Her mother had left them to start another, better family. She had always suspected that maybe her mother hadn’t wanted children at all, which was why she’d left, but clearly that hadn’t been the case. She just hadn’t wanted her.

It all bounced and ricocheted off the walls of her skull, spiking the nerves with a pang that made her see stars.

“That wasn’t why we asked you here,” Liam was saying when Riley pushed back the dullness pressing into her brain.

“It is not my job to cushion,” Septimus replied drawly. “I give only facts.”

Liam turned to Riley. “Are you all right?”

Nodding, Riley regained her seat. “Is there a way to save the baby?”

“No, it is her fate.”

Riley shook her head. “This is insane. There’s no way anyone can know that.”

Septimus did that annoying slow blinking thing as he spoke, “Fear not your insanity for in the darkness tis the only voice of reasoning. Instead, fear reality for it lies with a sickly sweet smile.”

“Riley.” Liam placed a tender hand on her shoulder before she could respond. “Show Septimus your mark.”

Hands shaking, Riley rolled up the sleeve on her right arm. She extended it so Septimus could see the faint design.

“Fascinating,” he said blandly.

Riley looked down at her arm. “What is?”

He sat back to observe her with a bit more interest than he’d shown since arriving. “A human baring an imprint mark. I haven’t seen one of these since before the Great War, before the Veil was divided and brother turned on brother.”

“Is that why when Octavian touches me, I see… images?”

This seemed to catch his attention even more than her mark. “Images?”

Riley nodded, going into the story of both her visions after coming into contact with Octavian.

For a long moment, Septimus merely gawked at her. She knew he was staring at her, because when he was looking into that other place that no one else could see, he got a glazed hue over his eyes like smoke twining off a boiling pot. There was none of that now. His vision was clear and discerning.

“
Caveat
,” he said at last.

Having never heard the word, Riley glanced at Liam for help.

“It means warning,” Liam said.

Riley turned back to Septimus. “Warning?”

But Septimus was studying her mark once more, tracing the pale lines with his eyes. “Forbidden are the children of Adam to lie with the seeds of darkness. Thrice shall be warned from their union, death shall prevail.”

Riley had never been very good with riddles, but she managed to grasp a bit of it. “So, I’m a child of Adam and Octavian is…”

Thankfully Septimus put her out of her misery by responding, “No Otherworlder can ever defile a daughter of Adam. In the eyes of the all-seeing, you are but children whereas those beyond the Veil have seen and done infinite sin.”

Cheeks pink, Riley frowned. “But we’ve never done any… defiling.” Man that sounded way less weird in her head.

“And you never shall so long as mortal blood runs through your veins.” Septimus sat back. “Twice already you have been warned to maintain your distance. The first in the form of fear, the second in the form of vision and the third, you will live it.”

Riley gulped. “Live it?”

“A mortal who does not heed the warnings will die a soulless death and go to where you saw, reliving you nightmare time and again.”

“So those things I saw and felt, they were premonitions of what will happen if I don’t stay away from Octavian?”

Septimus inclined his head. “Yes, the third time, you will not wake up again and will find yourself in the infernos you envisioned, watching as your love is snatched from you and taken under with no way for you to stop it.”

Riley shuddered at the memory. She jumped when a hand rested on her shoulder. Liam smiled kindly down at her and gave her shoulder a squeezed.

“But what of her ascension?” Liam said. “What will become of it? If she cannot ascend and she cannot remove the mark…”

“And she never will.” Septimus unfolded his thin frame and rose.

Octavian moved forward. “What do you mean?”

Septimus paused in the midst of adjusting his suit jacket. “As I said, she will not ascend.”

Octavian frowned. “But she has the mark. It’s nearly all showing.”

Septimus rolled his eyes downwards to fix on Riley. “Yes.”

“So what will happen if she ascends fully?”

There was a single moment of silence as Septimus peered down at Riley. He was doing that thing where he was staring off into some unknown gap in space and time. At long last, he blinked and his gaze came into focus. He faced Octavian with an absolute deadpan stare.

“She will not ascend in this life for she will die before it happens.”

Then, in the same smoky manner he’d arrived in, he vanished, leaving the room ringing with his final words.

“You’re not going to die,” Octavian repeated for the hundredth time as he walked her home.

Riley said nothing. She watched the steady rise and descent of her feet as they ate up concrete. The streets were filled with only the crunch of her heels on snow. Octavian’s treads were as silent as a jungle cat’s. But his anger roared like a rolling inferno, eating up everything around them with relish. Riley couldn’t muster the strength to be angry or even scared. She knew it would hit her in the morning, once she’d slept off the exhaustion plowing her into the ground, but at that moment, she just felt defeated.

She was going to die.

Truth be told, she had no idea where to even begin with that. She supposed she ought to be scared, terrified even, but she felt oddly disjointed from her body. The sensation was so surreal.

“Riley.” Octavian stopped her with a gentle hand on her elbow. He turned her to face him. “Don’t listen to him. I won’t let you die.”

“I don’t think either of us has much say in it,” she murmured.

His grip on her tightened. He gave her a light shake. “Listen to me. I swear it.”

She raised her eyes to his face, so much determination and sorrow stared back at her. “Promise me something?”

He nodded. “Anything.”

“If I do die… hear me out!” she said when he growled warningly. “If I do, watch over my dad. He really doesn’t have anyone else and…”

“You’re not going to die.”

She smiled at him, even though she didn’t feel it. “I’m going to really try not to.”