“Yes, what a grand plan it was.” A bitter laugh slipped out of her. “Thank you, Lord Norrlen, for giving away the one thing you had no right to give. Now every sorceress in the Magos Empire is doomed.”
Chapter 29
Lucenna
Lucenna wasn’t one to be dramatic, but she had no other way of describing what would befall her people now. Gods, she needed to lie down. But her bag and all her belongings in the possession of the fairies. She cursed and paced in place. Maybe it would be better to destroy something instead. The others watched her warily, following her clipped pace.
“You don’t know what this means. I needed that scale.” Lucenna thrust out her hand and released a burst of pent-up blast with a frustrated scream. Purple scorched through the air.
“You should have thought of that before killing someone,” Cassiel said coolly. “You attack first and think second. This is the result.”
“Rawn saved us, Lucenna,” Dyna added. “They were ready to end us. It had to be done.” She asked Zev. “What happened?”
He groaned and rubbed his face. “Ill-conceived notions led by a cup of fairy wine.”
Lucenna smirked. “If that’s what you want to call it, wolf. Truth be told, this is all your doing.”
He growled. “You shouldn’t have interfered.”
“Then you would be dead right now.”
“I do not follow,” Cassiel interjected. “What led to this?”
“Zev thought kissing a nightwalker would be a splendid way to pass the evening.” Lucenna crossed her arms, glaring at him. “She early killed him too, if I hadn’t arrived. Shall I tell them what you told me?”
Fur rippled across his muscular arms as his eyes flashed yellow. “That is none of your business, Lucenna.”
She smirked. He was mad. Good. She wanted to make him mad. Wanted an excuse to unleash the power boiling inside her.
“A nightwalker?” Dyna’s expression tightened as she searched his face. “Zev.”
He turned away, and his clothes fell as he shifted. The large wolf stalked away into the clearing, heading for the nearby stream.Coward.
Lucenna dropped to the ground and buried her face in her hands. Maybe if she went back to the fjord, she could get another scale. The risk may be less now with more than half of those creatures gone.
She must have been speaking aloud because Dyna said, “Even if we get another scale, we need the Druid. I had no luck finding him. Did any of you?”
Lucenna already knew the answer. Before she had seen Zev being led away by the half-naked faerie, she had spent the revel searching for the old Druid or anyone that matched his description. Apparently, he liked to stay out of view.
“Why do you need the scale?” Cassiel asked.
Lucenna glared at him. “I have stayed out of your matters, prince. Stay out of mine.”
“I should like to know what you risked our lives for.”
“As if you have not risked mine.”
“You toss out spells carelessly,” he pressed on. “You strike and kill and destroy without thought.”
“My magic saved us. It saved you and Dyna and Zev.” She got to her feet. “It’s my power to wield, and I’ll not apologize for it. Not when there are millions of sorceresses like me who cannot.”
Electricity crackled over her arms. She had no control over it, and she didn’t care. She held Cassiel’s hard gaze because she wanted him to understand. To see.
“I fight with my power because it’s my right. A right the women of the Magos Empire are denied every day.”
The scowl faded from his face. He glanced at Dyna, and she nodded.
“You’re forbidden to use magic?” Rawn asked.
