“The pools’ magic is stronger than any other source because it’s been isolated. It’s grown—thrived. Whatever exists in there feeds off of the dire, carnal need in warriors to make deals with them. The warrior sacrifices something to them. In exchange, they’re given a kernel of the pools’ power. Even a drop is said to be enthralling.”
My breath caught in my throat.
“Consuming,” Dax muttered, looking at the map but not truly seeing. “It ruins you. It’s why no one can go near.”
Magic that changes you. That takes a sacrifice and plants something in the one desperate enough. Rots their soul, their entirebeing. I saw my father’s black eyes and sneer rabid with vengeance. Orders to kill, maim, torture…and I wondered?—
No. I couldn’t let myself hope for that explanation. I clenched my eyes, willed the thudding of my caged heart to slow, and counted to five.
Then, I banished the thought and focused on Barrett’s drawn expression.
“Do you think your mother…”
“I once thought there was no chance she’d be so reckless.” He swallowed, his voice grim. “But now…I’m not sure.”
I recognized the clenched line of his jaw, the avoidance of his eyes. Misplaced guilt. For the first time, I stopped to consider that the Engrossian heir had taken on the burden of his mother’s decisions as I had those of my father. They left us both with an undeserved weight we felt responsible to amend.
If Kakias had made a deal using dark magic, we were outmatched in worse ways than we’d imagined.
“Do you know what it would be?” I asked.
“No…I don’t even know when it would have happened. There are no marked changes in her countenance that I can recall. She’s always been cold, driven by bloodthirsty ambition.”
Barrett and Dax had another moment of silent communication, and the heir hung his head.
“I think…” He sighed. “Bant’s cock, Ophelia is going to kill me for what I’m about to say.”
Everyone in the room perked up at her name.
“Why?” Jezebel’s voice dripped with cold threat.
Nerves sent my heart pounding against my ribs.
“Because she knows more than she’s told you all, and now I have to be the one to fucking reveal her secret.” He leaned forward, bracing himself on his fists. “The reason I came to Damenal was because of the moving troops and the discovery of Mystique lore in my mother’s possession. But there was more. My mother has an alarming interest in Ophelia.”
“We knew that, though.” My shoulders sagged. “Kakias wanted her before the war, wanted her for you. When I was imprisoned, she was originally planning to have you two take the Revered’s power. Until…”
What changed her mind? Something made her decide to kill Ophelia in that cavern instead. I wracked my brain for any mention of it.
“Until she decided Ophelia was a bigger threat alive,” Barrett finished my thought. “I don’t know what, but there is some reason she needs Ophelia dead, and I think it ties back to the lore she’s gathered on your people. She has a plan bigger than any of us can imagine.”
Distantly, I heard Jezebel and Cypherion questioning the Engrossians about the deals made with the pools and how long Ophelia had known of Kakias’s twisted interest in her, but I wasn’t listening to any of the answers. My mind spun with all the information laid before us.
It connected—all of it did. The dark power, the obsession with Ophelia, Kakias’s motivations. It was all here, poured between her sacrifices, but?—
“By the fucking Spirits.”
I tore from the room before anyone could answer and ran flat out for my father’s study. The shining palace walls blurred around me, my heartbeat pounding a desperate rhythm.
Mystlight flared to life when I threw open the doors. Shattered glass and scraps of statues crunched beneath my boots.
I didn’t stop when everyone hounded me. They gathered in the doorway, but no one commented on the state of the room. Not as I prowled among the wreckage, searching.
There. Stained brown with long-dried liquor and lying face up, as if waiting for me to find it.
Papers scribbled with my father’s hand, theories smudged in corners and drawings I didn’t understand.
But it was here.
