The severity of his low voice made Lucenna’s skin prickle. She had taken down many mages; there was no other choice when the outcome was having her Essence siphoned if she failed. She fought her opponents within a given space, separated by spells across a battlefield. Stabbing someone was up close and much more personal.
“What if I miss?” she asked quietly.
“Then go for the eyes. Your enemies can’t hurt what they can’t see. I’ll take care of the rest.” Klyde’s rumbling reply sent an inexplicable warmth through her chest.
“Hmm.” Lucenna crossed her arms and nodded at the new weapon strapped to his hip. “And what have you got there?”
“Oh, this?”
Stepping back, steel sang as he drew the sword free. The black blade shone like ink in the moonlight. It was inscribed with glowing Elvish runes she couldn’t read. Lucenna felt her Essence react with the magic imbued into the steel, and faint shimmers of white light glittered off the enchanted blade, like smoke infused with stardust.
“Lothian steel.” He wielded it expertly, the blade whirling as it sliced through the air. “Courtesy of Eldred. It’s called Shadowbane.”
She smirked. “You named it?”
“All great swords have a name, lass.” Sheathing the enchanted weapon, Klyde mounted Onyx’s saddle. “So their deeds are forever remembered.”
It was a jest, as was his way, but that last word made her think of that morning. It must have done the same for him, because his smile faded.
“Are we bad people,” Lucenna whispered, “for not noticing how far gone he was?”
Shame and guilt weighed on her for kicking Cassiel down when he was already on the ground. The way he screamed had made her cry, because she felt how much pain he bore. They all felt it.
“No.” Klyde sighed, looking out at the sea of rock and sand. “Sometimes, that sort of despair can be easily hidden away. They can drown right in front of you, and you wouldn’t know until they sank too far beneath the surface to pull them out.”
None of them had noticed anything wrong. Except for Zev. Perhaps because he, too, had lived with a voice in his head.
The wind picked up, and Lucenna shivered. “That’s why Cassiel left, didn’t he? The guilt of losing his father and fearing he would lose her too, it must have…”
“Aye, it haunted him.” Klyde looked up at the stars. “I don’t say he did the right thing, but I don’t think we realize how much we love something until we have to give it up.”
As Lucenna looked at Klyde, she realized she could easily be in Cassiel’s position, too.
Perhaps that’s why she overreacted yesterday. She had been waiting for any sign not to involve herself with him, because it would put him in danger. Which was ludicrous, really, that she would care that much about a man.Thisman, this preposterous handsome man who meandered into her life by some unexpected chance.
Because she highly doubted it was fate.
Klyde turned to go. “Come, lass. We have a long night’s ride ahead of us.”
“When we ran into each other in the witch’s den, why were you there?” Lucenna asked.
He paused, and the moon shone in his eyes as he gazed at her. “I was searching for answers.”
“Did you find them?”
A soft smile touched his lips. “I found you.”
CHAPTER 80
Cassiel
Cassiel opened his eyes to find the world was not as he left it. He sprang out of bed, and his feet caught on the sheets. It sent him stumbling to the floor. His hands shook against the cold stone as heremembered. As if he had not endured enough.
Why this?
He had spent years hating his father. Hurting him with his anger. Years of simply wasting time.
All that time lost when he could have used it to be a son.
