I dragged in a breath. “Yes,” I said. “I remember. But I’m still stuck on the how of it. How did that fucking bastard manage to blindside me, attack my dragons, shove a fucking sword through my heart, and send me to Morgäven, then take my girl?”
“Scabbards,” Bastian answered in one breath. Then he explained what Elariya had told them and what her grandmother had discovered.
Disbelief slid through me, cold and razor-edged. Something in the explanation didn’t sit right. Something underneath it felt… off.
Scabbard magic was vicious in the right hands. It could slip under wards and turn strength against itself. But it wasn’t enough. Not for this. Not to bind my dragons and take me down like I was some careless fledgling.
Even if their magic could be manipulated, even if someone had outsmarted me, it shouldn’t have been enough to do the damage it did.
“Does all that make sense to you?” I intensified my stare, looking from one to the next.
My Bloodsworn shook their heads.
“None of it makes sense,” Bastian agreed. “Understandably, Thayden was looking for her, but he shouldn’t have been able to come at you with that type of power.”
“He shouldn’t have been able to find us, full stop. For a start, I sent him on a wild goose chase. And one doesn’t simply findthe Southern Isles. It was protected by dragon magic, built to keep it hidden.” It wasn’t warded like Vyrenth Hollow, but it was protected enough. “He came at me like someone told him exactly what to do.”
“I was thinking the very same thing.” Alaric gave me a pensive stare. “He wouldn’t have been able to spy on you to learn all those things on his own accord. You would have sensed a human. My guess is he gathered these Scabbards, but he was already armed with the power and knowledge of how to defeat you.”
“Armed bywhom?” I gritted my teeth.
“You’re thinking the greater threat assisted him?” Garrick offered. “If would certainly make it easier to get you out of the way. Then they could get to Elariya.”
“If it’s them, why wouldn’t they have tried to take her like last time?” Bastian wondered.
“It could still be them,” I rasped, thinking past the aching fog clogging my mind. “The Seer said the dark forces would try to take Elariya again. Maybe they did, just from a different source. Anything to get her away from me.”
“That means their roots have stretched to the mortal lands.” Garrick stared back at me with narrowed eyes. “Who there could be helping them?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I’m going to fucking find out. But first, Thayden is dead.”
An uneasy look washed over Bastian’s face. “That may not be wise for several reasons.”
“You’re not serious. You expect me to let him get away with what he did?” I threw him an incredulous glare and tried to compress my rage.
“Of course not. You know that’s not what I meant. Right now, he’s a possible link. We can watch him.”
“Bastian, fuck that,” I sneered, hurting my chest when I straightened.
“Yeah, I’m with Wolfe.Fuck that.” Garrick cracked his knuckles. “We can’t allow him to live after what he did.”
“Exactly,” I smirked. “I’m already keeping my uncle alive because I want towatchhim. There gets to be a point where you just look weak ifwatchingis always the solution.”
“It doesn’t matter how you look if the solution is right.”
“The motherfucker tried to kill me. Me, an heir of Galaythia.”
“Because heknewyou stole Elariya from the mortal world,” Bastian pointed out, shutting me down. “And now… ahumanwho’s an obvious threat knows the one thing we tried to keep secret from your uncle—thatyoutook her. If Dreynthor found out, it wouldn’t take any effort to guess that had something to do with the ring.”
I seethed, bringing my hand to my face. Fuck. I hadn’t thought of that.
“At the moment, we don’t know if our uncle is part of the grand scheme,” Alaric pointed out, his expression grim. “Dreynthor is the kind of opportunist asshole to take advantage of whatever suits him. Losing the advantage, we have of secrecy now would be a shame.”
“But it still feels like all the more reason to kill him,” I seethed.
“And there’s also that other thing,” Garrick said, biting the edge of his lip.
“What other thing?” I ground my back teeth.
