Lore's arms remained tight around me as he flitted, but Farris’s howl echoed around us. I felt his furry body peel away mid-flit, taking a chunk of my heart along with him.
Cold slammed into me, sharp and cruel on my skin. Magic prickled across my soul, slicing like ragged glass. Were we breaching Halendor’s wards?
I didn’t want to think about what that might mean.
Black stone loomed below as we blinked into existence behind Halendor Castle, on the edge of a thick, gloomy forest. A broad lawn spread out ahead of us. Calling it a lawn might have been a stretch. The grass was too vibrant, as if it battled to bring some color to the dark monstrous structure with turrets stretching toward the sky beyond it. The towering castle swallowed the horizon, the clouds, and even the surrounding countryside.
Ash-black walls stretched upward, their harsh spires broken only by narrow windows that glinted in the blood-red dawn like borgon eyes waiting to devour prey. The deep crimson light of sunrise slithered across the courtyards and surrounding gardens, beds with flowers too bright and bushes twisted into grotesque shapes. They were beautiful and wildly unnatural at the same time.
The stinging, metallic breath I sucked in tasted of warning.
“Farris,” I croaked, looking around for my precious nyxin.
“He leaped on us as I flitted.” Stark desperation filled Lore’s eyes. “I lost him on the way.”
I didn’t know what happened if someone lost touch mid-flit, and the thought of my poor little fluffy friend suffering ripped through me like jagged wire.
“Flit us back,” I barked and with a grim nod, Lore took us to our suite.
Farris was not there.
My heart cratered with pain, and I staggered. Only Lore swiftly pulling me into his side kept me from falling.
“We’ll find him,” he said. “I promise.” When he looked down into my eyes, I found an assurance there I struggled to hold onto.
He stroked my arms. “I’m sorry. I made a mistake.”
“We didn’t try to take him; he insisted.” My poor friend, always determined to stay by my side. If only I could sense whether he was safe somewhere or…
Maybe knowing would only make things worse.
“We need to go.” Two weeks and two days was not enough time. We had two more talismans to find, and we didn’t know where they were other than that we’d find one inside each court.
Lore wrapped his arms around me again, and I clung to him, desperation in his touch. We’d lost Farris, but we would not lose each other.
We landed again in the same spot overlooking Halendor Castle. With daggers in our hands, and my shadows masking us, Lore and I skirted along the edge of the forest, creeping closer to the building. We’d have to run when we could no longer hide among the trees, and the thought of being starkly exposed as we darted across the stretch of clipped grass between the point and the ashen building chilled through me. Pray to the fates my shadows would continue to hide us both.
We stopped in the last copse of trees. He couldn’t flit us inside, because he hadn’t been there.
“We’ll have to move fast. Stay close.” His eyes, darker than the shadows pooling under the black spires, flicked to mine. That usual cut of amusement I adored was gone. This was Lore tipped into his ruthless self. Cold. Calculating. A blade honed to perfection with nothing left but intent.
My chest tightened with the pressure of the wrongness swirling all around us. “This place feels?—”
“Too quiet,” he finished, his tone grim.
No leaves rustling in the wind.
No breeze, either.
No buzz of insects or cries of birds echoed behind us in the forest.
Lore’s head tilted, his attention snapping to something behind me. More guards than I could count rushed toward us from among the trees, their black armor glinting in the red-orange light as they burst into full view. Wearing sleek, faceless visors, they appeared as smooth and polished as the ashen castle. Their weapons flashed, curved blades and staffs tipped with glowing stones. They and their weapons glistened with magic.
More guards raced toward us from our other sides.
A low zap radiated from them, and an invisible force tightened around us.
Binding magic. I’d only heard of it once, and I’d hoped to never feel it tightening its grip on my spine.
