“Fuck you, dog-face,” Eleanor hissed. “I'm not crazy, I'm just in love. There's a difference.”
“And where is the man you supposedly love?” Glinda asked calmly.
“He's safe,” Eleanor snapped. “As I said. If this ceiling comes down, he'll live.”
Slate wants me to tell you to leave right now,RS said.
Tell him to hang in there.
Isn't there a quick line you can sing to kill her?RS grumbled.
Possibly. I don't know how quickly it will work though. I think I should go another route.
What route?
She's going to try to blend her magic again,Kyanite explained slowly, as if to a simpleton.
Oh.
“Would you mind confirming something for me before you blow us all to smithereens?” I asked Eleanor.
“What?” She huffed irritably.
“Where you there when the Azure Army attacked Scylla?”
Eleanor smirked. “Of course, I was there.”
“Uh-huh.” I nodded. “So, we never really attacked her, did we? She was a conjure.”
Eleanor blinked. “Very impressive, Spellsinger. How did you figure that out?”
“My spellsong didn't work on her.”
“On the Scylla I conjured, you mean,” Eleanor said smugly.
“Yes, that.” I glanced at Verin.
He grunted.
“Because the real Scylla was there too,” Eleanor went on. “I hid her beneath an invisibility spell and when the conjure grabbed that soldier, Scylla extended a tentacle and snatched him as well. It was a beautiful maneuver. None of you suspected a thing.”
“A choreographed attack combined with a conjure,” I murmured. “Impressive.”
“Thank you,” she said smugly. “But I have to give Vivian some credit. Without her vision, I never would have known to send Scylla to the Azure Court and none of this would have been possible.”
I slowly turned to face Vivian; we all did.
Vivian grimaced. “I didn't know she was your enemy,” she said apologetically. “We spent a lot of time together, working on that potion. We talked. I was worried about the love spell and I confided in her.”
“Why didn't you warn me about Verin?” I asked.
“That's what I discussed with Eleanor.” Vivian grimaced again. “The vision felt comforting. As if it were shown to me to ease my worry and let me know that things would happen as they were meant to.”
I glanced at Verin; he'd said something similar once. His jaw clenched and he looked away.
“I'm so sorry,” Vivian said softly. “I decided not to tell you because it could have altered your future.”
“It's okay, Vivian,” I assured her. “You did what you thought was best.”
