My focus stutters as, for the second time in as many days, I see her death.
The first one by my hand was something I knew I had to do. It was the only way to stop the beast. I saw it. I saw myself bring her back. But this…
I choke on the power of the death coursing through me. It hits me like a sledgehammer to the chest. It’s a vision so sharpand visceral it bleeds into my sight. I see her broken. Cold skin, empty eyes, and a silence that screams of finality. It’s not the realm taking her; it’s something else. Something older.
“Voren?” Dreven’s voice cuts through the haze, sharp with alarm.
I stagger back from the window. “She dies. Again.”
Dastian spins around, his amusement vanishing. “What are you talking about? She’s kicking your ghosts’ arses down there.”
“Not now, not with them,” I snarl, clutching the sill as the icy tremor in my hands refuses to settle. “It’s a thread snapping. An absolute end.”
“The Devourer,” Dreven mutters.
“It’s closer than we think,” I say, watching Nyssa slash at another wraith.
I drop the connection. “Return.”
Nyssa stumbles as the undead vanish around her.
“We need to see if the Order bought that,” Dastian says.
“We need to protect her from dying again,” I grit out.
“One thing before the other. If the Order takes her under suspicion of turning against her code, we will never find her.”
“Dastian’s right,” Dreven says. “But we wait. Let her play her part. If we interfere now, we undo the work. The Order is watching, and they need to believe the Slayer is still theirs to control.”
“Begs the question why Tabitha chose to give you the heads up,” I muse.
“She knows the Devourer is coming. She knows we are all doomed if we don’t stop this. If we don’t help Nyssa stop it.”
“Self-preservation is a powerful motivator,” I mutter, turning back to the window. My hands are still steady, but the cold inside me feels brittle, liable to snap. The vision of her broken body is burned onto the back of my eyelids, a negative image that won’t fade.
“She will return to the Order now for a report. We have provided her with time, nothing more,” Dreven says.
“Yeah, well, let’s hope she comes to us after her debrief. Let’s hope she is able to,” I mutter, hoping that despite her unclear motives, Tabitha will help the slayer out, at least for long enough for the Order to back off.
Chapter 10
Nyssa
The briefing room smells like coffee and incense. Taye stares at me, assessing me with a look that I’ve never seen on her before. It’s sharper, more interested in what she can see underneath.
“Wraiths?” Cormac asks, sipping his tea. “As in lots of them?”
“Yep,” I say, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. “I took out a few before they decided to scarper back to the graves they crawled out of.”
“Interesting,” Finnian murmurs.
“Well done,” Taye says in a rare show of praise. “The slayer strikes again to keep BlackFen Edge safe.”
The look I give her must speak volumes.What is she doing?She’s usually the one who needs all the last details.
“Where were you prior to this impromptu attack?” Finnian barks out. “We had to call in Rynna.”
“Aren’t all demon attacks impromptu?” I ask, scrunching up my nose. “But I was feeling unwell. I haven’t slept well for a while. I was out of it.”
