He frowned. “A type of lightning nullification? I’ve never heard of anything like that before.”
Leave it to me to be different.
He studied the destruction, his jaw clenched, before sheathing his daggers. “This wasn't random.” Striding close, he cupped my chin and held my face while he brushed ash from my cheek. “My lightning-wielding queen. Prager has no idea what she’s dealing with.”
Of course she’d sent the witherroots.
“She’ll do anything to stop us.” Sparks still danced along my fingertips as I glared at the woods around us. “Let her try again. We'll destroy her.”
Chapter 15
Reyla
After we'd calmed the shaken zephyls, we continued on our journey. Inside our carriage, Farris settled by my feet with a tired huff. The remainder of our trip passed without incident, though pleasant felt like the wrong word after the attack. The quiet gave me too much time to think.
“I want to send Moira and Calista back with our guard,” I finally said. “I don’t want to put them in any more danger. Prager won’t stop with witherroots. She’ll keep coming after us even if we safely arrive at Irridain. We can keep Farris inside our rooms where he won’t be seen, but protecting them will be a much bigger challenge.”
“We’ll ask your ladies, but they have free will. When they agreed to come with us, they knew there could be danger.”
I grumbled, knowing he was right. “Will Prager be able to see through our disguises?”
“She shouldn’t be able to.”
I worried my lower lip. “I’m still going to tell them to return to Evergorne with our guards.”
I hated the thought of sending them away. They’d become more than a ladies-in-waiting.
They were also friends.
We reachedthe place where we’d arranged to meet up with Dorion and parked our carriages deep underneath a cluster of trees. Dorion hadn’t arrived yet, but we donned our rings and with Farris at our heels, climbed inside Calista and Moira’s vehicle to wait, sitting across from them with Farris slouched by my feet.
We didn’t dare risk them leaving their own carriage without a disguise. Someone might recognize them. While I doubted many lords or ladies noticed staff, some were savvy enough to do so.
“I want you to go back,” I told them. “It’s not safe.”
“We have to stay with you,” Moira said, Calista nodding along with her daughter. Moira frowned Lore’s way before her gaze met mine again. “Please. We need to be here in case…” Again, she looked at Lore, though I had no idea why.
“We want to remain with you,” Calista said.
Moira took my hand, squeezing it, hers chilled from the shock. “It’s not about helping you dress or doing your hair as much as moving among the staff and reporting back to you. You need this.”
“I could do this for us both.” Concern lined Calista’s face as she looked at her daughter. “One person inside Irridain will be safer than two. I understand why you want to help, but I don’t like risking you.”
“We have to go with them.” Moira's voice held steel. “We'll be more help than hindrance. I don’t want to go back. You can’t…” Her breathing caught and tears shimmered in her eyes. “Please don’t send us back.”
Movement outside caught my eye, but when I looked throughthe window, I only saw a black bird pecking at something in the shade of a broad tree.
To anyone passing, we appeared unremarkable. Nobles with their retinue pausing in the shade for a break. Easily forgotten.
The hairs on my neck refused to settle.
“I don’t want to send you back,” I said. “But I couldn’t bear it if something happened to either of you.”
Farris whined and kept sniffing the air. And while Lore sat beside me, his posture seemingly at ease, he’d already reinforced his ward. I could feel the new layer humming across my skin.
His hand never strayed far from the hilt of his dagger, and the tension in his shoulders mirrored my own. I’d felt this kind of stillness during a raid or while swooping down toward a village on dragonback. That feeling that almost anything could happen, and it would always be bad.
The forest showed no visible threat. Trees stood silent, the undergrowth undisturbed. But I couldn’t shake my worry.
