“Are you sure?” Vi asked.
She nodded. “I stole it after the last battle.” Deneya roared with laughter that cracked a grin on Vhalla’s face. “So I recommend changing the leathers from military issue, at least.”
“We will.” Vi took the reins. “Thank you for this gift.”
“Take care, all of you.” Vhalla waved and headed down a side alley.
“Follow her,” Vi said with a glance at Taavin.
“Meet back at our shop?”
She nodded. The man stepped away and ducked behind a rubbish pile. She could see a ripple in the air when he emerged from his hiding place, now invisible. Vi only caught the faint distortion because she knew what to look for.
“Deneya, you still have the measurements for the axe?”
“I do.”
“I need you to make or procure one as soon as possible for me to shift.”
“On it.”
Deneya departed as well and Vi went back to their shop alone. She tied the horse in the back alley, setting out water. Then, she brought their supplies to the apartment upstairs. It was evening when her friends returned.
“She’s sleeping in an alley with one eye open,” Taavin reported.
“We can make that sleep heavier withloft not.” Vi held out a hand for the axe Deneya was holding. The woman passed it over.
Holding out the weapon, Vi encased it in a pulse of magic. It had been a long time since she had used the shift, and the magic felt rusty. On her third try, she finally got the weapon perfected into something she was convinced could fool Vhalla.
“It’s unnerving watching a non-morphi do that,” Deneya murmured.
“Don’t worry, it’s the last weapon—you won’t have to see me use the shift again.”
“I wouldn’t say I was worried…”
“Taavin, lead us to her.” Vi remained focused. Her fingers itched with yearning for the crystal weapon. She was close to it, terribly close. The axe was the final piece that would make everything fall into place.
Cloaked withdurroe, they proceeded through the Crossroads as unseen specters. Her heart raced with every twist of the back alleys and maze-like streets. Behind every turn could be Vhalla and the axe. Any moment could be the last when she felt this insatiable yearning, this intolerable incompleteness.
Taavin came to a full stop.
“She’s not here.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” He dropped hands with Vi and Deneya. The illusion vanished from around them and Taavin frantically searched the empty alleyway. “She was here. I saw her fall asleep.”
If Vi had been in Vhalla’s shoes, she’d have kept moving. She’d sleep in spurts and always look over her shoulder. She wouldn’t linger in the same place for longer than she had to, and she would change her appearance at the first opportunity.
Even after all this time, it still seemed she was her mother’s daughter. Yet Vi had failed spectacularly at using that to her advantage.
With a grunt of rage, Vi spun, punching the wall of the building next to her. A singe mark was left behind from the crackle of flame around her fist, but her skin wasn’t split. There wasn’t even a bruise.
Taavin and Deneya regarded her with expressions she didn’t recognize and didn’t bother trying to decipher.
“We’ll find her. Whatever it takes, we’ll find her,” Vi swore. The axe was in this city, and she’d be damned if she was going to let it slip through her fingers.
Chapter Thirty
