49
ALEXUS
I hit the ground so hard the air leaves my lungs.
Pain stabs through my shoulder, hot as a lance, as I gasp to breathe again. Raina lies a few feet away, unmoving, on her back. My sword is gone, and so is everything else, including my protective shields.
We’re no longer in the bazar. We’re outside, in broad daylight. I don’t know where exactly. I only know that the city sounds distant—it’s quieter here—and that Raina moved us around like dust in the wind, like she did the other night, in the sea.
I roll to face her and roar in agony. My short sword is run through my shoulder, the hilt buried at my back. But worse, a Dread Viper sits on his knees near Raina, gripping her head by the hair, exposing her throat, even though she’s unconscious. His dagger is pressed to the soft place beneath her lovely chin, sunlight glinting off the blade. I can see her pulse throbbing.
I reach for my magick, but he’s already subdued it. Dread Vipers have the power to paralyze other magicks, if they sense the need, and I am a need.
“Who are you?” His voice is deep and sharp, velvet over a knife’s edge.
“A friend of your queen,” I answer honestly, wincing. “We mean no harm. We just need to get to Fia Drumera. To the City of Ruin.”
“You and far too many others,” he says. “I kill people for such trespasses. You need to understand that this can only end one way.”
I meet his dark stare. “Then why are you talking?”
He narrows his gaze and points his dagger at me. “Because one of you sifted us here. I couldn’t tell which. That is not a power you should have. I want to know which one of you did it. Then we’ll get into even better questions.”
Sifting. A gift that evolved from the Summerland magi ages ago. It was eventually learned by necromancers in the East who envied the magi their ability, and coveted Loria’s children’s realm walking between Tiressia and Eridan. The necromancers never could break that ethereal plain, though. Only the one between here and the Shadow World—until Urdin sealed it to keep them out. I know because I did it myself.
It’s much like when the prince moved between the real world and the Shadow World, an ability that’s only possible because he is a thing made from the husks of souls, a man not truly living, only sustained in human form by the spirits of others.
But sifting… That isn’t what Raina has done. I don’t know what this is.
I lie there in misery. With my magick tamped down, I understand what the Dread Viper can do to me to get the answers he seeks. What he will do. Not that I have anything to hide. But I’d die before I let him interrogate Raina. Her silence will bring much cruelty, all from misunderstanding.
“It was me,” I tell him, though my attention is on Raina as her eyes flutter open for the quiver of a moment. “I’m your man.”
The Dread Viper looks at Raina’s witch’s marks, bright and beautiful, denoting her Northland heritage and skill across a handful of disciplines. But I suppose he’s already tasted my power. Already suspected it might be me. Because he drops Raina like a discarded doll, stalks over to me, and jerks me up by my jacket. With a flat glaze to his eyes, he shoves me back to the ground, pounding the hilt at my back for a little extra pain.
Just before he grabs a rock and bashes it against the side of my head.
50
RAINA
“Raina. Come on, Sunshine. Open those eyes for me.”
I blink, looking for my sister, guided by her voice and the cool feel of a damp cloth on my face. The blur over my vision clears, and she appears, leaning over me in a room I don’t recognize.
She runs her fingertips over my forehead and turns to speak to someone else. Hel. “Let everyone know she’s awake,” Nephele says, watching as my friend leaves the room. When she meets my eyes again, I can tell she’s been crying. I scrunch my brows together, but she shooshes me. “I’m fine. I’ve just been worried about you.”
Groggy, I push to sit up, and she helps me. My head hurts across the back of my skull like someone tried to open it with a blunt spoon.
I press my fingertips to my temples and examine the room. It’s small and plain, with one window and two single-person beds. There’s a chair and table, large enough for a drink and plate of food to rest, but that’s all.
“Where are we?” I sign.
“An inn on the outskirts of Itunnan. A kind person found you and brought you here since a physician lives nearby. Luckily, the guard nor the Dread Vipers were contacted, in case someone claimed you. We only found you because of Joran’s instinct.” She says the word as though she doesn’t believe in it, and with a softer form of disbelief in her voice adds, “How did you get all the way out here?”
An image flashes through my mind like a dream. Everything was awash in white light, and then I was blinded by the sun and falling.
Wait.
