“Days? Weeks? It’s possible he may not survive it. I have never seen a magesmith so effectively ground himself. What possessed him?”
His wife. His daughter.Days.Weeks. Lia Mara and Sinna don’t have that kind of time. The note demanded the king’s presence, not mine. Even if I have magic, I’m still one person—and I have no idea what kind of weapons the Truthbringers will have amassed. I have no idea what kind of force we’ll encounter.
Again, I need a plan. I don’t have one.
Or … maybe I do. I look at Nakiis again. “The magic is in theair,” I say. “You could help him.”
Without hesitation, he says, “I could.”
“So do it!” I exclaim. “Tell me what to do! Do you need to touch him? Do you need—”
“I need some assurance.”
“Anything,” I say immediately. “Tell me what you want me to swear. He won’t harm you. He won’t imprison you. He won’t—”
“You cannot make a vow for him,” Nakiis says, and ice coats the rocks at his feet. “I want a vow fromyou.”
My gaze narrows. “What kind of vow?”
“There will come a time that I will need a magesmith to fight atmyside. To obeymywill. When I call, you will answer.”
“Who are you fighting—”
“That is my offer,” he says. His eyes gleam in the darkness. “Accept or not.”
It’s too open-ended. There are too many unknowns.
Just like everything else right now.
“For one day,” I say. “I’ll fight at your side for one day.”
“A year.”
“Never.”
He regards me coolly. I regard him right back.
“Six months,” he says.
He has something at stake here. I’m not sure what it is, but he needs something, too, if he’s willing to negotiate.
“Two days,” I say. “And I’ll fight in your defense when you ask, but I’m not a mercenary. I won’t kill for you.”
“A month. And I can help you get to Syhl Shallow much faster than horseback.”
My eyebrows go up. “How?”
“Make the deal and see.”
I chew on my lip for a moment. “A week.”
“Done.” Wind, cold and sudden, blasts through the tiny clearing,bringing rocks and dirt to sting my eyes and spook my horse. I can feel the magic now, burning at my skin, tugging at my armor, simultaneously so cold and so hot that I can’t tell if my blood is freezing in my veins or boiling under my skin. I have to close my eyes from the force of it. My eyes are full of white light anyway, like a thousand suns all at once. The sound of the wind becomes so loud that I can’t hear anything else, but somehow, underneath the force of it all, I hear Nakiis’s voice, softer than before.
“I’ve brought the magic to you,” he says. “Now give it to him.”
For an instant, I don’t know how. The magic is everywhere, a million stars filling me up and tearing me apart, wonderful and terrible all at once. It’s addictive, this power. Unstoppable. A terrifying part of me wants to hang on to it, to keep this magic to myself. But my hand is still on Grey’s chest, and that one tiny point of contact is a reminder of every moment we’ve endured together, from the very first instant I discovered his magic.
I swore my life to him once. I told Jax I would do it again, without hesitation.
