I could barely make myself think.
Someone betrayed you.Madrood’s words slid into my mind, insidious things that they were.
Who?
51
TEMPEST
Was the betrayer in this room right now or had they slipped inside the manor earlier to harm us? I struggled to remain awake. If I drifted off, I feared that would be it.
We were all going to die.
Brodine held up his glass, squinting at it. “I’m out of wine.” His gaze drifted across all of our glasses. “We all are. Let me pour more.” He stumbled to his feet and rounded his chair. “We should lift a glass to celebrate that Vexxion and Tempest have swallowed their courts’ cores.” His words slurred, and he dragged up an almost giddy smile.
After gathering everyone’s glasses, he slowly made his way across the room to the sideboard, latching onto the big wooden structure to hold himself upright.
Something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
I looked from Vexxion staring sluggishly into the empty fireplace to Reyla focusing on her hands clasped on her lap. Airia appeared deep asleep. Aunt Vera stared at the floor, her hands twitching on her lap.
Brodine puttered at the sideboard, his back facing us.
The wine. The wine! Had someone . . .
My friend lifted the decanter and started pouring, filling each glass.
Stop!The word felt trapped, clogging my throat but unable to reach my tongue for me to spit it out. When I tried to lift my arms, they remained pinned by my sides. A sluggish, languid feeling floated through me. Maybe I should lean back against the sofa, and . . .
No. Do not.
Something horrible was happening.
If I’d learned nothing over the past weeks, it was that doubting myself did nothing and trusting I’d find a way to fix things paid off tenfold. Tugging in power, I commanded it to obey, and I traveled, leaving my body on the sofa beside my sister. I drifted across the room unseen, wrapped in magic that hid me from everyone.
I stopped beside Brodine, determined to keep him from pouring wine. Words tumbled up my throat, but I couldn’t spit them out. I’d tell him I suspected there was something toxic inside the carafe.
Drask flapped his wings, though he remained on my body’s shoulder. He watched me, cocking his head, his beady black eyes focused on where I’d traveled.
Humming under his breath, Bro finished filling glasses foreach of us, even his own. My friend glanced back at us still sitting in our various places before carefully tugging a small bottle from his pocket.
Wait.
No . . .
His lips curled up before smoothing, and he leaned forward to add clear liquid from the small bottle to each glass but one, before slipping it back into his pocket.
I swallowed the words back down, no longer determined to drag them out because . . .
The betrayer couldn’t be Brodine. He was my friend. My protector. The big brother I’d looked up to for most of my life. He was there for me right from the start, doing everything he could to make sure I not only survived each battle but that I came through the aftermath somewhat sane.
He . . .
Unease gnawed through my spine and kept going, twisting its way through my guts. Sharp and unrelenting. Doubts crowded my mind, each one more feral than the last.
The world rushed into me, then splattered back out, and it was all I could do to keep my body from collapsing to the floor in front of the sofa.
