But they were too fucking good. Too good for me, that was for damn sure.
I leaned back in my chair, clasping my hands on my lap to keep them still.
“You did the right thing,” Wolf said. “I had a bad feeling about this from the start. If Cornelius thinks we’d send our army to help him suppress the people of Pericius even further and steal the powers bestowed upon any of them, he has another think coming.”
“Where does he think you are now?” Huntyr asked. “What reason did you give him for leaving?”
Jessiah glanced at me. Then Xavier.
“He doesn’t know why we left. We didn’t exactly announce our departure. There was so much chaos there, we couldn’t risk him discovering our plan and detaining us. Especially with the kind of power he possesses.”
“He doesn’t know that we’re onto him,” I added. “Or he didn’t. The last time I spoke to him, he believed that I was interested in his help with honing my death magic. He doesn’t know about the information the Whispering Caves gave us.”
Xavier bowed his head and mumbled, “Those damn caves.”
“We have to stand up for those being oppressed,” Wolf added. “Cornelius can’t continue on this way.”
“No.” I stood from my chair, making the legs scrape roughly along the floor. “If our army showed up, who knows what he’d do. It’s too damn risky.”
“Rummy is right.” Jessiah rested his forearms on his thighs and rubbed at the scruff on his face. “He made a grand statement to the elite in Pericius, claiming that we’d send our army to aid his. If we showed up, it would look like that’s what we’d done.”
“Then how do we stop him?” Huntyr asked. “With a power like his, he could become unstoppable. He may be damn near close already. He likely has dozens of powers we don’t know about.”
“He told me the fae in his kingdom have been gifted for centuries. I’d assume he’s keeping an entire kingdom full of secrets there.”
“So what do we do?” Wolf asked.
The five of us sat in silence, each of us deep in thought. Retaliating without an army would be tricky. We’d have to be smarter than him, and I’d seen firsthand how manipulative he could be.
Cornelius was not a man who could be easily tricked. He was not a man who would tolerate being outsmarted, either.
“I could do it,” I said. The words came out before I’d thought them through.
All eyes in the room darted to me.
“You could do what?” Huntyr asked.
“I’ve been suppressing my… mygiftfor years. But he already knows about it. So what if I learned to wield it the way he claims I can, and I use it to end him?” The thought alone made me nauseous, but a strange confidence washed over me. He was likeme. I wasn’t about to let anyone else stand against him while I stood idly by.
Perhaps I was born for this. Perhaps this was my destiny all along.
“No way,” Jessiah said. “It’s too risky. We’d be delivering you directly into his hands.”
I pushed down the annoyance that bubbled in my stomach. “I can outsmart him, Jessiah. I know I can.”
“Absolutely not.”
Defiance radiated through my bones. “It’s not really up to you, is it, though?”
“Jessiah’s right,” Huntyr added.
Shocked was too tame a word for the feeling that hit me. She forced me to accompany the guys on their journey, yet suddenly she didn’t want me to help?
With a deep inhale, I leaned forward and locked eyes with her. “It’s the only way. I just need a few days to figure out exactly how my gift works.”
“Some people need years to perfect their magic,” Wolf said. “Even with subtle gifts, which yours clearly isn’t.”
“I don’t need years. I’ve had magic since I was a child. No, I haven’t used it freely, but that doesn’t mean I can’t control it.”
