“What?” he asked, though he knew the words were not for him. It was the venom working its way through her, the venom turning her body and mind against her. She didn’t reply, her already pale skin turning white as the Miravi shores, but the emotion in those two words, the depth of their sorrow, was something he knew well.
It was a reminder that whatever he suspected her of, he did not know her. Not truly. And until he did, he couldn’t leave her. Not like this.
“Hold on, Corynth.” He slid his hands underneath her. “I’ve got you.”
He lifted her easily into his arms, her body hot and feverish against his chest. She was sweating now, muttering incoherently. He pressed his leg against the Alkatir cub’s flank and, summoning his magic, teleported them all back to the town head’s office. They appeared before the portal door, startling the man from where he’d been calmly reviewing a ledger at his desk, clearly not concerned by the events outside.
Allaster’s suspicions only deepened as the man drew a vylor knife from his belt, brandishing it at the limp cub. “Why is that abomination in my office?”
Something shifted inside of Allaster, a last fragment of restraint. The power inside him pulled taut against its chain, and he felt his fingers lengthen into claws, felt the press of fangs against his bottom lip. He turned slowly to look at the man, who paled at the sight of Allaster and dropped the blade.
It was with the utmost care that Allaster said, “If you threaten a beast in my presence again, it will be the last mistake you ever make.”
Then he thrust open the portal door and carried Eirlana through.
“Warrin!” he called the moment he crossed into the portal room. The shift of his transformation was already gone by the time Warrinappeared from the attached infirmary, another mage on his heel. “There’s an Alkatir cub on the other side,” he told the other mage. “Take him to the Eyrie and tend to his wounds.”
The mage left through the portal as Allaster faced Warrin. “She’s been infected with Zeras venom.”
Warrin’s eyes widened as he rushed Kasira into the infirmary, laying her carefully on one of the beds. “How long ago?”
Allaster hesitated before admitting, “A few minutes.”
A strange sort of calmness descended over Warrin that only ever seemed to find him when he worked. He pointed at the door. “Out.”
Allaster obeyed, emerging into the portal room, where he dropped heavily into his chair. In the stillness and the silence, the full horror of what he’d nearly done washed over him in a smothering wave. He could still feel the press of Eirlana’s body against his as he’d held her, her strength as fragile as a Relin’s wings because of him. Because he saw enemies everywhere he turned. And instead of giving her a chance, he had been determined to test her further.
Taking her on a beast mission without magic had been more than foolish, but simply watching her, spending time with her—they weren’t enough. He was running out of time, more so than even he had realized if his transformation could escape his control like that. And he had wanted to see what she would do. Because even though his gut told him she still hadn’t given him her full story, he couldn’t ignore what he’d seen.
It wasn’t just what she had done for the Alkatir cub, but also her fascination with the artifacts he saw during their studies and the way sparring with her felt like a dance he’d known all his life. It was the way everything about her unfurled like a flower at dawn’s first light in the face of magic, no matter how she tried to hide it. She didn’t think he saw, but he did, and it pulled at him, at something he’d buried so deeply he’d thought it lost to the dark.
And thatscaredhim.
Because with every day he spent researching his curse, every day he went without answers, his hope for a future had begun to wither. Not only for his own, but for the Library’s, for the naturalworld’s—because if Eirlana Corynth could not be trusted, if she wasn’t who he needed her to be, then the consequences would be so much bigger than just him. And he would not risk all their lives, the fate of the world, on a wish.
“You nearly got her killed.” May’s voice was as grave as the dark. He hadn’t even noticed her arriving, though she must have walked straight past him to enter the infirmary. He clamped his hands over his ears at her words, as if he could block her out, block everything out, down to the thoughts and emotions that wouldn’t leave him in peace. What did he expect? Peace was not a concept meant for people like him.
He’d lost the chance for that the day Mora died.
Now he had almost cost Eirlana her life too, all because he was too proud to admit he might have been wrong about her. Mages never went on beast missions without first being granted magic, no matter how harmless the creature, but he’d needed to be certain.
Ambric always had said he was too stubborn for his own good.
“Are you done with your crusade?” May’s voice burrowed between his fingers. “Are you satisfied?”
Allaster drew his fingers back through his hair, mussing the curls. They had grown looser over the past few months, his hair turning wavy in texture. It was the least of his transformation, the edges of his magic seeping into his everyday appearance as if to remind him of his dwindling time. The henolite he wore all over his body helped subdue the magic, reducing it from a roar to a whisper while still enabling him to use it, but even the metal could only do so much.
“Yes,” he said. “I’m sorry it took me as long as it did, but I had to be sure, May. The Library—it won’t give her a second chance.”
All the fight went out of May in one breath, and she collapsed back against the portal room wall. “She’s alive,” she told him. “Warrin doesn’t know if she’ll stay that way.”
Allaster spun a ring around his finger in restless circles, the black metal catching the balelight. May’s dissecting gaze tracked the spinning of his ring, and he quickly hid his hand. “Has Queen Sarren said anything of the henolite?” he asked, but May only shook her head.
She eyed his hand. “How much do you have left?”
“Only a few earrings.”
“If we can’t find more, then you don’t have half the time you thought you did.”
