The moment the words left my mouth, my wrist erupted in golden light. The glow pulsed for several heartbeats before sinking beneath my skin.
It seemed to fade but wasn’t gone. The magic was inside me, vibrating with a low hum I could feel.
I was going to go out on a limb and take that to mean it was working.
Mentally, I crossed my fingers and toes, then beseeched the Blessed Mother to guide me.
Now for the concealment spell. Then I’d leave.
I'd found this particular incantation in the cloaking section of the spellbook. It allowed me to weave time magic with elemental air. One would assist the other in keeping me hidden.
If it worked the way the book described, I'd be nearly impossible to follow.
"Vethys kalamar, saelon thuveris. Nythara vel'thain, morvek sil'andra. Kythara nethis, valar undai," I chanted.
In the common tongue it said:‘Let the winds carry time's whispers. Shroud my path in shifting moments. Time bends, hiding what was.’
The air around me shifted. Not dramatically—not with light or sound—but with a subtle wrongness, as if the world had inhaled and forgotten to exhale.
My skin prickled. The hairs along my arms lifted.
Time didn’t stop. Itslippedaround me.
The world tilted, and my head spun a little. For a heartbeat, I felt…unplaced. As if I existed a half-step out of sync with reality. The book had warned about this part and that I needed to breathe through it, so I did.
Soon, the sensation settled. And that meant I could leave.
Glancing around to ensure I was still alone, I retrieved the map from the seam in my journal and slipped the books back into my satchel.
I stood, readying myself to open a gateway into the Void.
"Callun dai," I breathed, and the air split open, a ripple spreading like a crack across glass, distorting the fabric of reality. "I did it."
Opening the map, I stepped into the ripple, and it swallowed me whole.
Grayness engulfed me, blotting out everything—sight, sound, sensation. Panic clawed at my chest for a heartbeat before I forced my gaze down to the map. It pulsed with light, glowing brighter with each passing second.
All I needed to do was focus on where I wanted to go, and it would take me there.
The moment I thought of the Borderlands, the path materialized across the map, a luminous thread weaving itself into existence, showing me the way.
This was it. Time to leave.
I took one step forward, and the Void did the rest, taking me away from Vyrenth Hollow.
And Wolfe Nightblade.
Chapter 26
Wolfe
“The Price of Truth”
The High Table meeting had already begun when I slipped into the hall with Bastian and Alaric.
With everything burning down around us, this was the last place we should’ve been.
This meeting was my uncle’s pissing parade—his chance to sit at the head of the table and remind every House exactly who held the leash. And he was still mad as fuck at me for refusing the marriage arrangement with the princess of Thalyrius.
