It was mid-morning when the ferry arrived at the volcano island. A man came forward on a short dock, catching the rope he was tossed and tying it to a piling before the captain stepped off of the boat.

“No passengers, huh?” the dockhand asked.

The captain shook his head. “Expecting someone?”

“High Priest Calus was thinking that one of the sacrifices might have people coming for them.” He shrugged. “Guess Mathias was right—he said no one knew she was here, so he called off the ambush.”

“We aren’t paid to put our noses into their business,” the captain admonished. “So stop gossiping before someone hears. I don’t know about you, but I’m not wanting to end up on the altar.”

The dockhand nodded and said no more.

__________

Tess woke up to find Matt sitting on the edge of the bed, fully dressed and smoking a cigarette as he watched her. He seemed tired, but otherwise his face was unreadable. They just looked at each other for a few moments before he told her quietly, “It’s time to go.”

Her eyes widened as she sat up. “What? It can’t be time. Don’t you have to wait until the sun’s directly overhead... some light on the altar or something?”

“She’s not becoming a god today, just coming back to life,” he told her calmly, knowing she was referring to the time her parents had been in this temple.

Panic rose, making her stomach churn and her chest flutter uncomfortably. “But... why now? Can’t it wait for a just little longer?”

“No.”

Tears filled her eyes as she crawled over to him and grabbed his arm. “Please don’t do this,” she begged desperately.

“Stop the damn crying, it doesn’t help anything—just seriously gets on my nerves.” He flicked his cigarette out the window, then glanced around the room for a second and let out a heavy sigh. “Look... I can’t stop this. It’s too late for that.”

She wiped her tears away and tried to hold back new ones that threatened to fall. “Why?”

“Think about it,” he said in a low voice, as though he was worried that someone might overhear him. “Do you think the guards would just let you go?”

“But you command them.”

“Yes, because I’m Kieran’s son and that’s it. They practically worship her. You know how Daegon and Malluk are brothers that are halves—one is completely good, the other evil?”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s what happened to my mother and her sister. Malluk’s people act like my mother is the mortal version of Malluk himself.”

“So, do they see you as like the son of Malluk, then?”

“In a way, I guess” he agreed. “But if I don’t go through with this, they’ll turn on me and you’ll still die.”

“But they seem scared of you.”

“They have plenty of reason to be. But that’d change if they were all against me. And defying my mother, the Kieran, would be a sure way of making that happen.”

She nodded slowly and sighed. “I should have listened to you when tried to let me go.”

“You should have never met me,” he muttered, then took a deep breath and got up. “Come on.”

She stood. “You don’t really want to kill me, though, do you?”

“It doesn’t matter what I want now.”

“It matters to me. I’d rather think that you don’t hate me, that we were friends... sort of. And that you just have to do it.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re so strange. I’ve never met anyone like you.” He couldn’t seem to help a small smile. “I don’t hate you. I like you. That’s why I tried to let you go.” His voice became quiet again as he glanced over his shoulder. “You’re the first person I ever thought was worth saving. Well, without it being for my own benefit. You and your stupid puppy.” He said it as if he was confessing some horrible crime; but then, being a servant of Malluk, showing mercy was considered a sin.

“How much of that was you?” she asked. “Before, I mean... like when we were talking in Oraunt or... how much was real?”

“I already told you—the only thing I lied about was my mother and Iris, everything else was real. I don’t like bullshit, so I did the least amount possible.”

She nodded. “So, you really have eaten minotaur then, huh? Ew.” She laughed, but it quickly turned to tears. She wiped them away and looked up at him. His face was hard and unreadable, but she thought she could see some sadness in his eyes. She suddenly wrapped her arms around his waist, leaned her cheek against his chest, and hugged him.

He stiffened, standing there as if he didn’t know what she was doing. He put his hand on her shoulder and hesitated. She thought he might actually hug her back, but after a moment, he pushed her away. “Let’s go,” he said tightly, grabbing her arm and pulling her with him.

As soon as they walked out into the long, dark hallway, two guards joined them and followed as Matt led the way. The stone floor was warm beneath Tess' bare feet. It didn’t go with the austere appearance of the place. Cold would have been more fitting, she thought, but then, she had more than enough cold dread flowing through her as she walked to her death.

She kept looking everywhere for an escape. She wasn’t bound by anything, just Matt’s hand on her arm, but he was enough to keep her there if he wanted to. She wondered if he would give her the few seconds she needed to get away, let her have a head start. She glanced over at him—his face could have been made out of marble, it was so hard, and his eyes were devoid of all feeling. No, he wouldn’t let her get away. He wouldn’t risk it, he needed to protect himself.

She thought about asking him to deliver a message to her family, to tell them goodbye for her. But then, he was still the bad guy, he wouldn’t do that. So she tried not to think of the people she would never see again—seeing their faces in her mind just made her chest feel hollow, and the pain of it mixed with her fear made it hard to breathe.

All too soon, they walked through a doorway, into a huge room. There was a lava pit that took up the entire length of one side, and a solid stone altar stood next to it in the center—its top already stained with blood. Her uncle had once been tortured there; some of the blood might be his. She thought it was ironic that here, the site of her parents’ victory, where they killed Kieran, was where she would die and help bring the evil woman back to life.

Against the back wall, a couple of guards were holding a man whose wrists were bound. He wore the same sacrificial robes as her. Then she noticed that it was the guard, Craig, the one Matt had threatened to sacrifice if he pissed him off again—she guessed he had somehow.

At the far end of the room, there was a large throne made from the same gray stone as the walls. Four twelve-foot statues of hellhounds stood on the black marble floor, one in each corner of the room, together holding up the balcony, which ran along the walls, though not over the lava pit. Looking down from the balcony were four more guards, all with bows at the ready.

Matt paused to glance at the guards behind him. His gaze flickered to the wall, silently commanding them. The men were quick to do his bidding. They lined up against the wall and stood ready, waiting until they had further orders.

He continued forward, toward the bloodstained altar. Waiting there was Kieran’s ghost. She was beautiful, and even though she was no more than a gray, translucent figure, Tess could see that Matt looked a lot like her. They had the same full lips, the same eye shape, even the same arch in the right eyebrow. Kieran’s smiled with excitement as she watched her son come closer.

He stopped before her. “Hello, Mother.” He glanced at the red-faced high priest beside her. “Calus,” he added coldly.

“High Priest Calus,” the man corrected.

Matt shrugged nonchalantly. “Whatever,” he said, purposely not showing respect for the man’s station. The dislike between them was immediately obvious.

Calus glared, but Kieran cut in, “He’s my son. He’ll call you shit-for-brains if he wants, and you’ll like it.”

The high priest bowed his head slightly. “Yes, of course.” His voice was filled with deep admiration for her. “But I couldn’t help noticing,” he said, looking disdainfully at Matt again, “that you’ve kept this girl close. That’s strange for you.”

“Yeah? As strange as how close you keep Wade?” Matt asked with a nod to a youthful redheaded cleric nearby. When Calus’s face flushed, Matt smirked. “We have fun in our own ways.”

“But you kept her with you all night. You even kept her in your room while you had another woman elsewhere,” he pressed.

Matt looked and sounded bored. “Your point?”

“I also noticed that you had only two guards posted at the temple entrance,” he went on. “I thought you were going to have a welcoming party, knowing who her family is and what happened the last time they came here.”

Matt rolled his eyes. “I know what I’m doing, Calus. No one knows she’s here,” he told him with strained patience. “Her whole family thinks she’s off adventuring, and they don’t even know that she’s back as a ghost.” He nodded to his mother. “So setting up the ambush was unnecessary.”

“Oh. Well, I didn’t know that...” Calus looked thoughtful.

“What?” Matt asked irritably.

“It’s just that I already set it up for you, exactly as you had planned it, with the extra temple guard in Port Vallyn and everything. I did add a few more hellhounds, though—Pyra and the other two that usually stay inside.”

Matt’s jaw clenched angrily. “You have no right to put her on guard. She’s doesn’t serve anymore, and you damn well know that,” he growled.

“I do see my error now, but... well, better safe than sorry, don’t you think?” Calus asked, barely hiding his malicious smile. “And you said no one’s coming, so your pet is at no risk of being hurt... right?”

Matt glared furiously at him, and Tess thought it held promise. She had the feeling that Calus wouldn’t be living very long once this was all over.

“Oh, just get on with it!” Kieran hissed impatiently.

Matt took a deep breath and finally looked away from the high priest. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t get your ghostly panties in a twist,” he said before walking Tess to the back of the room.

“What are you doing?” his mother demanded.

He didn’t bother looking back as he took a short, piece of rope from the guard and unhurriedly tied Tess' hands. He pushed her toward one guard and grabbed Craig from the other. “I’m killing this one first.”

“Why?”

“Because I feel like it! What the hell does it matter to you?” he asked edgily as he shoved the first sacrifice toward the altar. The man looked scared, but said nothing and willingly climbed onto the altar, probably knowing how much worse it would be if he struggled.

“He’s too old to be one of the children.”

“The other one turned out to be a cleric of Aryst, we can’t touch her. But your guard here volunteered,” Matt said, taking the Spirit Dagger from Calus.

“No, I didn’t,” Craig told her.

“I seem to recall telling you that if you pissed me off again you’d end up here,” Matt said. “Remember that? Yeah, well, here you are.” Without another word, he raised the dagger and sliced the man’s throat.

Tess felt her knees grow weak. A shiver ran down her spine, and terror washed over her. He hadn’t even hesitated. It was like murdering that man, his own guard, had been nothing to him. She even got the feeling that he enjoyed it.

Kieran grinned at the sight as the high priest started chanting under his breath. Matt stood back and waited with the bloody dagger still in his hand. By the time Calus was finished, Kieran’s spirit had gained some color—she was less transparent, her long black hair showed through the gray, and her lips were tinged with red.

Matt glanced toward the entrance as he turned around and walked to Tess. Her whole body was trembling, and she couldn’t seem to breathe right. He had promised it would be quick. It looked quick. But she didn’t care about that; she just didn’t want to die.

It took all her willpower to keep walking, one foot in front of the other. She struggled to keep herself from crying out. She even did her best to hold back her tears. None of it would do any good now. He had to do this. It was too late for anything else. There was nowhere she could run and no one who could help her. She wouldn’t make it harder on either of them. She told herself that at least she could be brave in the end.

The first sacrifice had already been thrown into the lava pit by the red-faced priest and the young cleric, and now the altar was clear for her. Matt scooped her up into his arms and laid her down on the hard stone. Ironically, he was gentler now than ever before.

She looked up at him and some tears escaped, but she kept her gaze locked with his. She could feel the blade of the Spirit Dagger resting against her arm—the metal of it was warm in the sweltering heat of the room.

Matt stood there, stone still as he looked down at her, and his eyes grew sad. He was hesitating.

But then Kieran floated closer to Tess' head and yelled, “Hurry up!”

Matt was still partially leaning over Tess, so the others couldn’t see his face, couldn’t see that he really did care. He closed his eyes and sighed very softly. When they opened again, his stare was hard and resolute.

It was time.

He lifted the blade, keeping his gaze locked with hers and then sliced—one quick, fluid motion.