I found the vial, the bright pink liquid practically glowing, and pressed it into Ryland’s hand. “The second she stirs, or her breathing changes, tell Varian to put a few drops into her mouth. With luck, we can ration the dose, stretch her sleeping out long enough we won’t have to lock her up. Someone will have to stay with her at all times. I suggest Varian.”
I stared down the hall, listening to the low murmur of voices as Lyrae and Varian got the girl settled.
She could not wake up.
Gravelock was, even now, trying to establish contact. He’d be giving her orders to find the Triune, to incapacitate me, to kill the others. The second consciousness returned,he would take over. Sleep bought us all some extra time. But now I had one more soul under my roof to protect.
A soul Gravelock would snuff out, the moment Ariel ceased to be useful.
I didn’t understand why she was still alive.Insurance, maybe.
The Butcher didn’t leave loose ends, but resources in the Shadowlands—especially these days—were scarce.
Perhaps he’d left her alive for just this exact scenario.
My father always claimed the Mirror could be used to see into the future. If the Butcher used the relic—if he’d attempted to access that magic—he might very well already be one step ahead of us.
“Once the draught wears off, how are you planning to restrain her? Lyra won’t go for her sister being chained up, Rooke." Ryland held the vial up to the light, squinting. “And she’ll want to stay with Ariel. She won’t listen to reason on that front.”
“That’s not an option anymore,” I snapped, louder than I meant to. “Ryland, I need you and Lyrae outside. We’re now one sword short, and when Gravelock comes—and he is coming—he’ll bring every single one of his soldiers with him. I need time to unite the Triune, which means I am sure as shit not going to be the one babysitting our new guest.”
I slanted him a look. “I told you from the beginning, I wasn’t running a fucking hotel.”
“Yet here you are, with a castle filled with guests, prince.” Then Ryland’s smile dropped off his face.
“Fine. I know we fucked up. Give me a minute. I’ll give Varian this stuff and his instructions, then Lyrae and I will meet you in the drawing room.”
40
ROOKE
Lyrae prowled in first, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword, looking like she wanted to carve my head from my shoulders, and the sight of her made my chest tighten. Her hair was a dark tangle around her face, her long braid half undone, exhaustion evident in every line of her body—and she was still the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
Ryland slipped in behind her, like a dark ghost, something that had probably served him well in his previous career. A ripple of that fury went through me again at how an already delicate situation was swiftly becoming untenable.
We’d been working on this plan to kill Gravelock for decades, and now all our careful preparations were about to be undone by a moment of sloppiness.
“Let me make this perfectly clear,prince. My sister is not a threat.” Lyrae’s jaw was tight when she stopped in front of me, pinning me beneath a frozen stare. “And I’m the one who should stay with her, not Varian.”
"Right now, your sister is an even greater threat than Gravelock, but so long as she’s sleeping, she is not my concern."
"And when she wakes up?" Lyrae demanded, shovinginto my personal space. Those pale blue eyes blazed with that fierce protectiveness I’d come to expect from her. "What then, Rooke?"
I kept my hands in my pockets.
Because I was aching to drag her closer, crush my mouth to hers, and find out what she tasted like. If her lips were as soft as I’d been dreaming about, and if I could get her to make those delicious little sounds she made when she…Fuck.
Get your godsdamned head in the game, Rooke, and stop fantasizing about a female who wants nothing more than to stab her knife into your heart.
"Then we'll have a conversation about hard choices," I said quietly, holding Lyrae's gaze. "But right now, we have more immediate concerns. There are three of us against an entire army, and I am confined to this castle."
“Then what’s our best play?” Ryland asked, right down to business. “Var and I fought three of those soldiers at the temple, and four more at Evernight, and we can’t hold our own for long without magic. I assume you’re planning to unite the Triune, then exterminate that sick fuck?”
“Uniting the Triune takes time.”
“You’re already two-thirds done,” Lyrae snapped. “Bleed all over the Crown, plunk it on your damn head and finish this.”
“As much as I enjoy your enthusiasm, commander, there is a complicated ritual to perform, and preparations to be made, and…”
